Night number two of the wrap up weekend for the USMTS Modified series would take place on Friday night, October 28th at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City Kansas. Despite rain to the South of us, it remained sunny and comfortable for racing in the Kansas City area as this would be the final night of the 2022 season for Lakeside and racing in the Kansas City area.
The program would offer the same three classes as the previous night in Pocola with the USMTS Mods backed by the USRA B Mods and Stock Cars with both still racing for national points and while there were no drivers in either class on hand battling for national titles, there were some still fighting for position on the top ten so these races would be important to them.
While this would be the last weekend for USMTS racing this year, this weekend would also wrap up the announcing career, at least for the foreseeable future, for USMTS announcer Bryce Hall. Bryce has taken a job as the General Manager of the new Arrowhead Speedway in West Siloam Springs Oklahoma. This is an old track that has been in existence for a number of years and has gone under various names as ownership and promoter teams have changed their over the years.
The new owner of the track is Willie Gammill, a Modified and B Modified driver from the area who in fact was racing just last night at Pocola. He also owns a very successful electrical business in the local area and has set to completely renovate the track. I have attended races there a couple of times over the years but it has been quite a few years since I was last there and Bryce assures me that except for the general shape of the race track being the same, everything else on the grounds is either completely new or redone. They are rushing to complete all the changes to the track by next Spring and Bryce tells me that they plan to open in mid April of next year with regular Friday night racing up to Labor Day with a couple of late season specials planned. As of now, at least tentatively, the USMTS season is scheduled to be completed at Arrowhead the second week of October, 2023.
They will run a weekly schedule featuring four USRA classes, the Modifieds, B Mods, Stock Cars and Tuners as they attempt to build up the last two classes in that area. Bryce tells me that rules for other classes that race in that area are very conflicting and limiting so they are still mulling just what other classes might be featured at the track.
Bryce has had two stints as USMTS announcer but he hopes that the Arrowhead job will be a long term thing for him and the beauty of it is that he will only be forty minutes from his home and will be able to commute daily to his new job. He is anxious and very busy as he gets set to take over a week from Monday at his new employment. No word on who his replacement with USMTS might be.
Lakeside would be the second high speed track that USMTS would be visiting this weekend and the big half mile would be smooth and fast on this Friday night as the Fall cool air helped hold moisture into the surface. Eventually the track would start to slick off during the Modiifed feature and that made for the best racing of the inght.
Thirty one Modifieds would sign in for the ten grand to win show on Friday night and again, that seemed like just a bit lower car count than I was expecting. Perhaps everyone is just raced out at this point as the local Modified support was minimal at best with only six of the top twenty five in local track points even bothering to show up. However, as we should have learned long ago, it doesn't take a pit area jammed with cars to put on a good show and we would eventually get to see a great Modified feature on this night.
The field was divided into four groups for qualifying and heat races with passing points as usual determining who made the show and who had to go B Feature racing. The track was still just a bit slimy for qualifying and Dalton Kirk would be quickest at 19.522. That quick time didn't benefit him much as he would still have to run a B just to get into the feature. Last night's winner Dan Ebert also had to run a B as did Tanner Mullins, Rodney Sanders and several others as passing in the heats was tough. The lone exception was Terry Phillips who charged from fourth to win his heat but then the redraw bit him as he would have to start eighth in the forty lap main.
Twenty five drivers would take the green for the Modified main and they would be on their "A" game for this one as this race would go nonstop for forty laps and see three different leaders and finish off with a white flag lap pass for the win.
Dereck Ramirez would take the early but his advantage on the point would only last for few laps as Tyler Wolff would come storming up from the third row and he would pass Ramirez to take over the lead. But the man on the move was Phillips who quickly advanced from that fourth row starting spot and soon was up to third.
He had a good battle with Ramirez before passing him for second and then he closed on Wolff and completed his charge, taking the lead. Wolff would slide back to third as Ramirez got past him too and those three would remain in that running order for a number of laps.
Phiillips' lead would lengthen and then wane from time to time as he worked through the heavy lapped traffic and it was spectacular to watch the top three slicing and dicing as they worked through the slower cars. Phillips would look unbeatable at times but Ramirez refused to give up and stayed within striking distance. Meanwhile, Darron Fuqua and Jacob Bleess were running strong and the top five were all fairly close together.
Phillips' lead would start to shrink with about ten laps to go as he was clearly having trouble in the corners and was fighting his car. He would later claim that contact with a lapped car, which would give him a badly crinkled right rear corner panel, made his car very tight and he would have trouble making it turn. He certainly was having that issue no doubt, but isn't it a sad commentary on the state of racing when a dinged up body panel, a staple in dirt track racing, would affect the aero so bad that a Modified wouldn't turn after that!
In any event, Ramirez would dramatically close up on T.P. in the final laps as Terry was really struggling and coming to the white flag, Dereck would power inside Phillips to take over the lead. Terry went all out on the final lap and the two racing tremendously hard into the final corner, both on the edge of control but Ramirez would be able to get a run off the top side and edge out Phillips to get a very exciting win. This was half mile racing like you seldom see. Bleess made a late charge of his own, passing a fading Fuqua and Wolff to get third ahead of Tyler and Jason Hughes who completed the top five.
Fifteen drivers would go the distance with many pulling off as they got lapped or saw their efforts not able to keep up with two drivers a lap down at the conclusion. It was a quick and entertaining forty laps for sure.
Their were twenty four B Mods on hand which calculated to three heats with all getting the start in their twenty lap main event. After a first lap tangle slowed the action, it would be Jaylen Wettengel that would take the early lead. After winning the Stock Car feature, Jaylen was going for a double win but after leading for just a couple of laps, he was overtaken by the flying Shadren Turner, who had started fifth on the grid. And once Turner took over the lead, there would be no stopping him.
Despite a couple more yellows during the second half of the race, no one had anything for him as he got up on the cushion and simply drove away from the field. It would be easy pickings for him the rest of the way as he won by a comfortable distance and earned his twenty ninth feature win of 2022, in dominating fashion.
While the win was not in doubt, a great battle for second saw Gabe Hodges and Mark Schafman battle it out right down to the wire for that spot. They threw a series of entertaining slide jobs back and forth at each other over the last couple of laps that were great and clean but at the line, Hodges was able to edge out Mark to take second. Wettengel would end a successful evening by finishing fourth ahead of Reece Solander.
Seldom do you see a Stock Car feature when the winner started right on the pole and would lead from start to finish but that is what Wettengel would do. Despite being pressured by Chad Clancy the whole race, Wettengel never made a mistake as he rode the cushion from start to finish to bring home the win. Rodney Schweizer would finish a solid third.
There were only fifteen Stock Cars on hand this night as this class is still a work in progress in this area and there were only seven of the top fifteen that raced tonight as for many I guess their seasons are done.
This show was Todd Staley's as he rented the track for this night and the crowd was an OK one, with the tiered parking group in turns one and two blazing away with their bonfires. We got going in much better order on Friday with the Modifieds not hot lapping but going straight into their qualifying which is a tough thing to do. We were racing by 7:15 p.m. and the final checkered of the night waved before 10 p.m. Again my lap estimates were just that as for the second straight night, the scoring tower was lighted but the numbers never changed and if you are like me, you miss the lap board more than anything.
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