On Friday night, October 21st, the Rick Eshelman Kansas Tribute Tour kicked off at the Humboldt Speedway just outside of the small town of Humboldt Kansas. Nicknamed "The Hummer", this small bullring in Southeast Kansas would be seeing Super Late Model racing for the first time in a number of years and I believe, the first time ever for the World of Outlaws Late Models. Most of the drivers on hand had never put in laps on this track before and even the Hall of Famer Billy Moyer had to admit that he had never raced here before.
Primarily a Modified hotbed and the host of many big Modified races, new track owners Katie and J.R. Sartain along with track promotor John Allen brought in this Late Model series to give the fans a variety of racing action and allow them to see a whole new set of drivers that many in the crowd had heard of but never seen before. Along with the Late Models, the USRA Modifieds and local Midwest Modifieds would both also be in action for full shows.
The weather was absolutely spectacular for this late October event, much like it was for much of the Midwest this weekend with temperatures in the 80's and lots of sunshine. When has anyone seen the flagman wearing shorts all night to a race this late in the year? Certainly not I. Of course, there seems to be a down side to everything these days and the downside to this spectacular weather was that with the very dry conditions in Kansas and the strong wind sucking the moisture right out of the ground almost from the minute it was laid on the track, the conditions for the fans got a bit dirty with the strong win blowing directly into the main grandstand. They had plenty of moisture in the track and when it changed its character later in the night, it really made things interesting as the drivers really had to be on top of their game to catch the changing track conditions.
Of course the loss of Eshelman recently was on the minds of everyone associated with the Outlaws from drivers and crewmen to the employees of the World Racing Group and a nice tribute was paid to Rick before the show started along with the missing man formation to start the main event. Various big name announcers will be brought in to round out the rest of the season schedule to cover for Rick with six nights of WoO Late Model racing left this year. This weekend it would be the top not duel of Ben Shelton and Ruben Milreles that would be calling the action.
Kansas is not a hot bed for Late Model racing with most of the weekly racing and specials in this state being of the Modified and Sprint Car variety. Also, not a lot of Late Model teams are bases in Kansas so various pundits had brokered the notion that they might be lucky to field a full field for this event and the rest of the weekend. As it turned out, that didn't happen to be the case as thirty eight Late Models signed in to race on this night. The top ten in WoO points were on hand along with a variety of drivers primarily from Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado to fill out the field. It was one of the most interesting fields of the year with a lot of different groups represented in the field. There were also fifteen Modifieds and twenty seven Midwest Modifieds to round out the program.
One of the few downsides to having such sunny weather on this October Friday night was that "The Hummer" faces West and East and the drivers have to race right into the sun down the front chute. Therefore, the program had to be pushed back because the sun would be a potential danger to the drivers. So after a lengthy hot lap session and of course, time trials, the first race never hit the track until 8"45 pm. ungodly late except for the fact that it was so nice out that people didn't complain much.
It would be the typical format for the Outlaws with four heats, a pair of B Features and a forty lap main event paying ten grand to win. The Mods would run a pair of heats and a main while the numbers led to the decision that the Midwest Mods would run a B Feature after heats before their main. We'll call this race the "Jeff Broeg Special" as fifteen cars would run this event with the top twelve making the feature! I'm sure Jeff would have paid extra money just to see this race!
They did run the Late Models first in the running order and did so all night. When qualifying was complete, there would be twenty four Lates set to run the forty lap main event. The summary of this race would be that Chase Junghans would lead all forty laps in a race that went nonstop from green to checkered. While that might be a bit misleading, I'd really have to say that this was quite an entertaining race, despite the fact that there were no lead changes.
The track finally changed from a pretty heavy surface with even a bit of a berm, especially in turns three and four just as the feature race started as the wind finally dried it out. It changed crazy fast and certainly some of the entertainment value was watching the drivers notice this and then seeing how they reacted and how they changed their line and driving style. Junghans would take the lead immediately and he was pounding the cushion on both ends of the track. Shane Clanton started next to him but he immediately had his "reversers" on as he dropped like a rock. Dennis Erb hugged the inside line as he does just about all the time to move into second with Tyler Bruening and Max Blair both moving forward.
Erb just about caught Junghans for the lead until Chase made a strategy change and went to the low side in turns one and two. While three and four would still be wall pounding corners, it was necessary to get to the bottom on the West end of the track. With over twenty cars running the whole event, lapped traffic came into play soon and it was interesting to watch how the leaders picked their times and places on the track to steal away positions and it turned into a very much strategic race as to when and where to try and pass.
Junghans did a great job in traffic and he always kept a car or two between himself and Erb and never allowed Dennis the chance to get too close. At the finish, he had three lapped cars as a cushion as he took the win by a couple of seconds over Erb with Blair driving up to third. The driver that entertained the second half of the race was Mike Marlar. After having to run a B Feature, he started seventeenth in the main event but in the last half of the race he was by far the fastest driver on the track. He picked off car after car under the green flag, storming turns three and four and then diving low on the other end of the track. He did a great job of forging his way to the front and passing so many cars without the aid of a single yellow was a significant drive for him. Now if he could just qualify better so he wouldn't bury himself in the pack. There were some new faces up front on this night too, as both Blair Northdurft and Jacob Magee started in the top ten of the feature race. Erb would pad his point lead and Blair would gain some ground on Tanner English who would finish eighth.
It was a great win for the home state driver and highly appreciated by the local fans. It was the first win for Junghans since 2019 on the circuit and he became the twenty first different winner in the series this year.
The Modified feature would also be an entertaining race with three different leaders during the twenty lap event. Andy Bryant would take the early lead off the pole but he couldn't hold off the charge of Dillon McCowan who would pass him for the point.
However, we weren't done with lead swapping yet as Tyler Davis, who started fifth. would charge to the front and race past McCowan to take over the lead. He would then pull away for the win as for the second straight feature race, this event too would go green to checkered. There was also a good battle for the third spot with the drivers racing three wide for that position before Paden Phillips would fight off Tom Karrick and Bryant for those honors.
This race also had some title implications as the top two in national USRA points, Davis and McCowan would slug it out with Davis, currently the leader, adding to his total on this night.
Midwest Mods would round out the evening and a surprising number of the fans would also ride it out, staying to watch this event too as this is a weekly class at the track and no doubt some of their fans were in attendance too. This class is much like the original Modifieds of back in the 80's with not much for frills or special equipment and I have seen them race at other tracks, often with painful results.
They tend to be yellow flag producers but on this night they did well with twenty two of them taking the green flag for their fifteen lap main and only producing two yellow flags. Pole sitter Jimmie Davis would lead the first two laps but would be overtaken by Matthew Kay who would pull away and lead the rest of the event. Only three cars wouldn't run the distance and Davis would hold on for second with Jesse Folk Jr completing the top three. All racing would be complete somewhere around 11:30 pm, meaning that once we got started, the whole show would last under 3 hours, the magic number in my book.
The 2022 racing season at the Humboldt Speedway concludes next Sunday with a four class special to wrap up their season. The local track announcer, who called the Mods and MidMods, kind of missed an opportunity there as I didn't hear him even mention that they still had another race on their schedule. Short staffed early on this evening, track promoter Allen did what a good promoter does, as he was selling arm bands at the pit gate until the scheduled workers arrived.
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