Another of the classic Fall events would begin on Friday night, September 30th with the running of the forty seventh annual Red Clay Classic at the ABC Raceway on Butterworth Road South of Ashland Wisconsin. This is another of the Fall events when I can say that, yes, I have been to all forty seven of the Red Clay Classics which have provided some memorable moments both with thrilling finishes, strange and bizarre weather incidences and lots of other interesting moments.
As usual, this event would be a four class WISSOTA sanctioned program featuring Late Models, Modifieds, MidMods and Super Stocks. Heat races and a Late Model special event would be held on Friday night with the B Features and Feature events on Saturday. I'm always not a big fan of special events that in essence run one show over two days but this is one of those races where it would be almost impossible to run two full programs, given the amount of cars that they get for this weekend's show.
Speaking of the car count, it took a very significant turn for the better this year with the car count up in all four classes. From a modest increase in the MidMods to a very large jump in the Super Stocks, there were thirty two more cars in the pits this year than in 2021 and a total of two hundred and eight cars and that's lots of race cars folks, especially when it involves only four classes in action.
There are a number of reasons why this race has always been a popular one. Being one of the longest running events, it has historical presedence in that for years it was the last hurrah for a lot of racers in the Fall and while now there are still weeks of racing ahead, weather permitting, that last hurrah status still surrounds this race for many folks.
Lots of people like to come North and combine a weekend of racing with some sight seeing along Lake Superior and we can't also forget that this is one of the best paying events of the Fall season with over $110,000 on the line for racers this weekend. Much of this is provided by some very nice contributions by businesses in the local area and because this is still a club run track, they don't have to try and make their yearly income off this race, with the club just needed enough to pay their bills and have some capital to get them through the off season and prepare for 2023 with new projects, upkeep etc.
And speaking of the weather, it couldn't have been much nicer on Friday for a day in Autumn and for anyone on the fence as far as going or not, the great weather would be just an added bonus.
The numbers were there in all four classes to provide some extremely stiff heat races with ABC still using the draw/redraw format for this event so to say that the draw would be important would be a vast understatement. With sixty Supers on hand, this would be one of the best showings in this class anywhere this year with some people telling me they didn't think there were this many Super Stocks still racing anywhere!
It was quite the task just making a lap in the pits to check out the entries as they were lined up all the way from North of the track, down the back chute several lanes deep and the South field, normally just a place to park the track equipment, was plumb full of race cars, several rows deep. They had it well organized however, and with a trend here of the racers arriving early, there was no last minute rush or long lines to get into the pits and I spotted no drama during the parking procedure that happens from time to time at big events.
Noting a few changes in the MidMod pits, Ryan Savoy would be driving the #0 Beaver car this weekend and later would put on one of the better drives of the night, getting that car into Saturday night's show. George Dalbeck would be making one of his rare ABC appearances of the year but drving a different car than the one he loaned to Kevin Adams to drive at Red Cedar last weekend. Mitch Kesan would catch the ride in the #7p car this weekend, a car that has seen several different drivers race it this year. Jason Schill was in a different car this weekend also and one I couldn't identify but it was fast as he would win a heat race. With lots of hours of work, Tommy Richards would have his MidMod back to race after last weekend's grinding crash at Red Cedar, as did Cody Carlson who was in the same wreck. Michael Truscott would just miss making the show driving Jerry Weigel's car but would also have appeared to blow the motor just as he took the checkered flag. We'll have to see on that one on Saturday. Kevin Eder would be driving the #1m car driven at various times by Matt Brandemuhl and Simon Wahlstrom this year and rebranded to Eder's #22e for this weekend. Things didn't go well at the tech area after his heat race however.
The Super Stocks came out of the woodwork for this race with several cars that I hadn't seen all year in action. Les Duellman was driving the #0 car for son Brandon this weekend as well as the Runkle #23kr MidMod. Cole Chernosky made what I think was his second visit South of the border with his Super Stock this weekend, giving Shane Sabraski a stiff challenge in his heat. Joey Jensen would again be guesting behind the wheel of Rick Kob's #1 car and Terry Kroening would return to Super Stock action. Matthew Larson would race both a Super and a MidMod and on hand to assist him was his father Brent, home from the World of Outlaws Late Model wars this weekend due to rainouts caused by the hurricane in the South. Andy Mackey would make a nice comeback from early problems. He was involved in the only accident of hot laps and left the track on the wrecker but he got his car repaired and would finish a strong second in a heat race later.
Lance Schilling would make his first visit back to the Badger state to race in quite some time, wheeling a Modified that he has had good success with and on hand to help was his brother Luke, a well known Modified racer in his own right. Paul Niznik would have both his Mod and Late Model on hand to race, perhaps the first time I had seen him attempt to run both cars the same night. You know it was a tough field of drivers when Sketter Estey, Dale Ames, Mike Anderson, Brandon Copp, Cowboy Howell and Al Uotinen were among some of the drivers that would later miss the show and be forced to run B Features.
There were no great surprises or driver changes in the Late Models, just a solid field of cars, some of which would unfortunately not make the main event on Saturday. The lone main event, of sorts, was a special race for the Late Models, as voted on by the fans and sixteen drivers would take the green for this race after Travis Budisalovich scratched after wrecking in his heat. Jimmy Mars would come from twelfth to take the win after yellows for spins by both A.J. Diemel and Chad Mahder allowed him to move up to second and take the lead right at the end. Rick Niemi drove a great race but came up just short and if not for the yellows, the top prize would have been his. His impressive showings in the Late Model in the last two years have been one of the item news stories from racing on The Range.
So many things going well as a prelude to this event, and then I walked up to the edge of the track and saw what must have been the mud bog event in preparation. Apparently the spigot for the water truck stuck open as they had douced the track way overboard and were dealing with the effects of that. The mud was deep and they had two graders plus their large assortment of WW2 surplus equipment doing damage control. It truly looked really bad and it appeared that they had shot themselves in both feet with this situation.
However, they made the best of the error and managed to make chicken pie out of chicken ****. Hot laps did get started quite a bit after the scheduled time but they proved that ninety minutes to hot lap and do final track prep wasn't needed as was budgeted for and they got started only about thirty minutes late.
I feared the track would be rough but it was not, the groove eventually widened out and the racing was quite fine. The biggest issue was the two foot high mud bank on the inside of the track which made it tough to get off the track if needed and managed to catch a few cars that tried to cut the corners just a little bit too low.
Ironically, after they got going the show turned into one of the smoother opening night events that this track has seen in recent years and the twenty two race card was done by 10:30 pm, lasting under three hours. So they didn't after all shoot off their feet with the over watering incident, just nipping a toe or two.
It was good to see Jerry O'Brien back at the track after his recent health issues. Also visiting this weekend was the “Gentle Giant”, Joel Cryderman who wasn't racing because his Modified has been sold but he was there visiting all his Late Model buddies. Actually Joel is “a giant” anymore as he has lost a lot of weight and looks the picture of health. I also ran into a long time fan, Mark Massoglia, who was back to his roots to catch the Red Clay at the track where he started watching racing a long time ago. Hard to believe but Mark said he has been living in Oshkosh over twenty years now.
The camper village at the Red Clay has expanded into a city. The whole of the camper area is full and has expanded into neighboring fields of the track. It is quite impressive to drive down Butterworth Road from the East and see all the campers. As usual, with such nice weather, there appeared to be a huge throng of fans on hand for the opening night of action.
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