Friday night, December 2nd saw the second half of the entered field race in their preliminary event at the Gateway Nationals at America's Center in downtown St. Louis Missouri. While the Thursday night show was relatively timid by Dome standards, Friday night's action more than made up for the calm waters that had prevailed on the previous night. In a night filled with controversy, wild action and two roll overs that were uncharacteristically celebrated as some sort of victory performance, relative unknown Cody Bauer from Michigan would surprise the Late Model field while jack of all trades Ricky Thornton Jr would dominate the Modified field.
After a relatively staid night of racing on Thursday, largely due to a track that while smooth had no speed or second lane in it and produced some pedestrian racing, the track crew got to work early on Friday morning and "juiced" up the racing surface for Friday night. And while it did get a bit bumpy before the night was over(the fear that likely caused them to run the surface so hard on Thursday night), it also produced much more speed and offered some extra racing room which made all the difference in allowing the drivers to actually do some racing. As soon as the first heat race hit the track, the difference was obvious in what the drivers could do and they responded by producing a night that many will find memorable in several regards.
And while the wins by Bauer and Thornton Jr were big news, those stories would likely be secondary to the other drama that took place during the course of the evening including the "dust up" between Tyler Carpenter and Hudson O'Neal and the celebratory flips by Charlie Mefford and Peyton Taylor that were celebrated almost as hard as feature wins which seemed strange to me but were highly appreciated by the "foaming at the mouth" crowd that more than once reminded of the Coliseum crowds in Rome of old that were screaming for blood which some of the "Gladiators" provided to them.
Fifty four Late Models signed in for night two with quite a number of pre registered drivers not actually showing up for the event, which left the Thursday night and Friday night fields slightly unbalanced. However, the format would remain the same with qualifying, six heats and a pair of B Features to set the running order for the twenty five lap main event and again, the top three finishers in this race would avoid the final set of qualifying heats on Saturday night.
The track would me much faster on Friday night with Tyler Erb being the quickest overall with a time nearly a full second quicker than Bobby Pierce had turned on Thursday night. Carpenter would be quickest among the second flight of qualifiers. The highlight, if you want to call it that, of the heats was the skirmish between Carpenter and O'Neal in heat four(more on that later), but the six heats were all won off the front row extra four the fourth heat that ended up with only three cars running after the collisions and paybacks were done.
Carpenter would make a come back and qualify through one of the two B Features that were rough and rugged from start to finish and eighteen drivers would then take the green for the feature race. Actually, make that nineteen when Kenny Collins was added following a scoring error in one of the B Features.
The feature race saw a great battle between the unheralded Bauer, Garrett Alberson and Tyler Erb for the win. Bauer fought off numerous challenges from the pair throughout the race including a late one resulting from a yellow with only four laps to go. Alberson went for broke on the restart and nearly stole the lead away but he got squeezed up into the back stretch wall, an area on the track where it seems that all the action takes place, and his resulting trip into the concrete broke his car and he finished deep in the field. It seems like some squeeze jobs are allowed and others not so much but the result was that Bauer would hold on for the win and a trip to victory lane for the "little guys" in the field this weekend. Wil Herrington would make a late charge to take second with Erb also finding himself locked in for the Saturday night dance.
Many were watching Carpenter who would start eighteenth on the grid and he had a successful run, getting all the way up to fifth at the finish and giving himself a good starting spot for the heats on Saturday as half the crowd cheered his advance through the field while the other half shot him the "bird" every time he went by. I'm telling you, this crowd was explosive tonight, fueled in part by way too much alcohol to drink with some behaviors bordering on the tasteless. It's getting to be a shame, but I certainly wouldn't be bringing and children to this race anymore if I had to make that choice.
The Modified field was dominated by Thornton Jr . He was quick qualifier and after starting third on the grid, it took him only a few laps to get past Jordan Grabouski and then motor away to a resounding win. His main competition, it appeared, would be Minnesota's Shane Sabraski but "Sugar Shane" got squeezed into the infamous back stretch wall right at the start and a flat tire would end his evening.
With only two yellows to slow the action and the last ten laps ran off nonstop, Thornton Jr opened up nearly a full straightaway over the rest of the field. One of the yellows was actually a red when a big pileup on the back chute saw Taylor flip and appear to wreck his car along with that of Tom Berry Jr. However, Taylor was grinning like he won the feature when he emerged from the wreck as I guess the "game plan" for this weekend is either to win or look spectacular for the cameras as this race seems to have degenerated into one part dirt track racing, one part a circus and one part WWE.
However, Taylor's performance was pretty staid compared to that of Charlie Mefford as the young Modified driver went for a ride in the B Feature. After the wreck, he was dancing around like he had either won the main event or he had fire ants in his fire suit as I guess it's most important to look spectacular or act goofy, as long as the cameras or focused on you.
Thornton Jr would score an easy win over Mike McKinney who would start dead last in the field and make a steady drive to the front with "Grabo" also making the top three.
Of course, what everyone will be talking about when this race is history is the scrum between Carpenter and O'Neal in their heat that saw O'Neal squeezed into the back stretch wall as they battled for the lead in heat number four. After wrecking, O'Neal responding by crashing into Carpenter's car and giving him a flat tire so he had to run the B Feature. Carpenter was lucky enough to not suffer extreme damage and he still recovered to make it a fairly successful night, not the kind that saw O'Neal disqualified for the remainder of the night and car damage that will end his weekend.
Of course, everyone has their own opinion over who's fault it was or if indeed, it was just the result of "Dome" racing with the personalities involved just adding gasoline to the fire, so to speak. Carpenter has his loyal following but his "mouth running" and "poor old me" attitude plus "potty mouth" turn some off and O'Neal, while having driven in a relatively gentleman like way so far in his career, has the blood lines of his father Don, one who never be accused on turning the other cheek for sure. So there's plenty of blame, if you will, to be passed around in the whole incident. What bothers me more than anything is that we are getting on to the very edge of control here. I came to watch an auto race, not the WWE and I think we are bordering on letting things get out of hand here and as the old adage goes. "It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out" and with these alcohol enflamed fans, things are getting just a bit scary for my tastes while Cody Summers and the others involved just sit back, fan the flames and put more money in their wallets.
Hopefully I am just over reacting a bit here and things will run off smoothly on Saturday night but I wouldn't be surprised if something new happens to fan the flames further. Meanwhile, the folks at FLO are hoping that you watched on TV last night, will call all your buddies to tell them that they better buy the program and watch 'cause it going to get really crazy on Saturday night.
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