The Rick Eshelman Tribute Tour continued on Saturday night, October 22nd as the World of Outlaw Late Model Tour dropped in for a visit to the 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas. The second leg of this three night swing through Kansas and Missouri, the competitors were again greeted with unbelievable weather conditions with temperatures soaring into the mid 80's and the only downside being the strong and steady southern winds that were carrying the heat but also making track prep a big challenge.
Along with the Late Models, the USRA Modifieds and B Mods would also be competing with full programs scheduled for both classes. This would be only the second ever visit by the Outlaws to 81, having made their first trip there back in 2017. That race was won by Brandon Sheppard who was then in the midst of his glory days aboard the Rocket house car. Times would be different this year but the outcome would later be strangely familiar. Many of the drivers now racing the Outlaw series confessed to never having raced at 81 before and much like the previous night in Humboldt, 81 Speedway is much more of a Modified and Sprint Car hang out with Late Models seldom seen here. However, we would soon learn that there is much of an appetite for Late Models as the huge grandstand at 81 would be packed with race fans by the time the National Anthem was sung.
The same ownership and management team that runs Humboldt is in charge of things here at 81 and their gamble to bring in the WoO series for this late Autumn doubleheader proved to be a very smart decision for sure. Of course, the spectacular weather didn't hurt either.
Thirty four Late Models would sign in to race on Saturday night with the only new driver on Saturday being Dustin Bolster from the Sunflower state. Almost perfectly sized fields in the other two classes would find the B Mods running a pair of heats plus their main while the Mods would have three heats. The Late Model portion of the program would be the same as on Friday night and pretty much the Outlaw standard with four heats, a pair of B mains and the forty lap feature with the first and second place finishers in the heats redrawing for their starting spots in the main.
They were really pouring on the water to the track throughout the afternoon with dust being an obvious concern. Fortunately the wind was quartering the track so that wouldn't be too much of a concern for the fans. The field started to get weeded out early and South Dakota fans were disappointed as Blair Nothdurft would have his accelerator hang up in hot laps and he hammered the first turn wall. They were soon loaded up and headed home. Andrew Kosiski smoked a motor in time trials and while they had a second car in the transporter, he made no more appearances on the track. Then Mark Brill, a Modified driver making his first appearance of the year here, blew up in hot laps also as this big three eighth was pulling hard. Mike Marlar would set a new track record with a time of 15.718. Later the track would slow down some and still provide at least two good lanes to race on as the efforts of the track prep crew bore fruit.
Unfortunately, one annoying pattern repeated itself for the second straight night as the announced starting time seemed to be more like a vapor in the wind, rather than reality. As fans filed in and then mostly patiently waited, the cars finally rolled out for hot laps but it proved to be shortly after 8 pm before the first race would start, something not necessary at all. And for the second straight night, once they got going they tore through the show quickly but for whatever reason, it does seem to take them quite a while to get things rolling and I'm not sure if this is due to management, the sanctioning group or a joint effort. The only saving grace was that it was a pleasant night to be sitting outside in late October.
The Late Models would race first and four heats went by relatively quickly with Ryan Gustin's charge from sixth to a win the highlight. A pair of B Features would qualify the rest of the field with Josh Richards, for the second straight night, having to run a B. No provisional starters were needed and twenty four starters would go forty laps as the first main on the track.
Sheppard had redrawn the pole and ironically, Sheppard would go on to win his eighty first WoO win at 81 Speedway. The first twenty laps of the main would be some of the more interesting racing seen this year. The ageless one, Billy Moyer, was very fast on this night and he was all over Sheppard for the lead. While the top two would pound the cushion, Gustin would be working the low side of the track, lap after lap trying to sneak under Moyer for second. It seemed a strange twist of fate and both of those two have made their living over the years running the exact different lines then they were running on this night. Marlar was right with them and the top four were very exciting as they started to work through traffic, which was heavy.
Sheppard would continue to lead and on lap twenty three, Gustin would get past Moyer for second. However, four laps later, Moyer would return the favor with a little tin rubbing down the front chute. Dennis Erb was gradually working his way to the front along with Gordy Gundaker after Marlar dropped out after flipping a belt.
In the second half of the race, Sheppard got stronger and gradually began to pull away. Moyer and Gustin continued to battle for second until Gustin lost a driveshaft with only three laps to go.
This set up a late yellow that Sheppard navigated smoothly to take the win. Moyer showed that he is definitely a threat once again to take a win somewhere soon while Erb fattened his points lead with another steady run. Chase Junghans and Gundaker would complete the top five. For Sheppard, it would be his first WoO win since getting back into his own equipment and his recent announcement of joining forces with Riggs MotorSports for 2023. In fact, I watched in the pits when they removed the Ramirez MotorSports sticker from their trailer and replaced it with the new Sheppard-Riggs logo. Just a guess, but I'm saying he returns to the WoO full time in 2023.
The Modified events of the last two nights have been highlighted by a battle for national points in USRA between Tyler Davis and Dillon McCowan. Going into this weekend, Davis held a thirty eight point lead over McCowan who was not driving his usual #8 car this weekend.
And for the second straight night, Davis would add to his total with a twenty lap feature win. They would start side by side on the front row but Davis would jump into an immediate lead as McCowan struggled to stay up with him. Paden Phillips and the Schniepp brothers were making life rough for McCowan while Davis pounded the cushion to pull away. As Davis continued to lead, Bryce Schniepp would finally get by McCowan for second and that's the way they would finish with the last nine laps of the race going green. I believe they said that the win was Davis' twenty second of this campaign as he drives for the owners of 81 and Humboldt, Katie and J.R. Sartain.
The B Mods would wrap up the night and as B Mods can sometimes be, the early laps were a struggle with four yellows in the first eight laps, one big collision and several cars weeded out early.
It would be a two car battle for the win with Gabe Hodges and Dustin Daniels fighting it out, sometimes a bit physically. Hodges is the track champ here at 81 this year but he would lead only the first lap before Daniels was able to get by him for the lead as Daniels pushed the cushion. Daniels would open up some distance on the field but a yellow near the halfway point would prove to be his undoing.
Hodges would challenge following the last yellow and after a series of slide jobs between the two. some clean and some questionable, it would be Hodges that would find himself back on the point. Daniels pushed very hard the last few laps, but he just couldn't pull the trigger as Hodges gave him no openings. Tyler Frye drove a strong race with his IMCA car and finished third.
Ruben Mireles and Ben Shelton continued to call the WoO action while local track announcer Eric Chesterman called the open wheel divisions .With the two night swing completed at the Sartain's tracks, thanks go out to them and General Manager John Allen as well as all the folks with the Outlaws. I would guess that with two positive nights of racing that these two tracks would return to the schedule next year. `
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