As the calendar flips over to the month of December, one of the most touted events of the year kicks off its three night run as the Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis takes off on Thursday night, December 1st.
One of the most unique events of the racing season, the fifth mile dirt oval has once again been placed down on the concrete floor of the America's Center and this year it would be Late Models and Modifieds that would be in racing action. For the Late Models, it is "first come, first served" for entering the event with a cutoff number of cars allowed to enter and when that figure is reached, that is all that can participate. For the Modified drivers, they are invited by the track management to race and the number of entrants is limited to around sixty between the first two qualifying nights. The promoters focus on champions from various disciplines of Modified racing, winners of big events, local drivers with "name" appeal and others and it generally is pretty tough to get an invitation unless you've done something notable, carry a "big name" or are perhaps a local favorite of St. Louis area fans.
The program on Thursday would consist of qualifying for both classes, heats, B Features and two main events. The top three finishers in each main would automatically qualify for Saturday night's big finale where the big money is passed out but there is still plenty of money to be passed out on the opening two qualifying nights.
A wide variety of drivers and their back rounds enter this event and you get virtually every brand of Late Model driver running this race. Everything from the biggest names in the sport of Late Model racing to drivers making their first ever runs in the Late Model class are here and that makes for some interesting issues from time to time. The depth of the Late Model field varies quite a bit from year to year and this year it seemed like more than ever, there were quite a few drivers that virtually no one had heard of before or had seen race. Even some of the industry insiders were rolling their eyes at some of the machines on hand but eventually things would work out OK and the cluster of yellow flags that some had feared didn't turn out to be the case.
The Modified field, on the other hand, is always a strong one with virtually everyone on hand having earned their mettle either this year or over the course of their careers and the Modified racing is usually quite good with the narrow tires of the Modifieds often making it easier for them to use the whole track better than the Late Models.
Perhaps more so than any other race on the calendar for the whole year, the track itself is always a major source of conversation. Granted, building a dirt track indoors in a little over a week and then trying to make it racy, smooth and dust free can't be much of a problem, right? It seems that they have gotten the system down pat after trial and error over the years and actually putting down the track is not nearly as much of a concern as it used to be. Producing a racy track is much more of a crap shoot and certainly depends much on how wet the dirt brought in is plus a multitude of other factors. There's probably just a little bit of luck involved too.
Top priority to begin is getting the track smooth because there are plenty of videos out there that have documented the "bucking bronco" type of track that has been the final result in several years. This year they got the track smooth right from the start, developing a solid base that turned black and slick early and one that they only put just a tad bit of water on and then only right on the very top of the track and right on the jersey barricades on the inside. Qualifying was like racing on beach sand and the dust was horrendous. It was probably the worst dust situation since the race has started and while I don't think it affected the drivers, every fans was literally plastered with dust and dirt when they walked out the door at the end of the night. Quite frankly, it was miserable and it was mind boggling to think just how in the world they are gong to clean this building back up when the races are done on Saturday night.
Honestly, the racing is much better and much more exciting when the track has some "character" and when it is like that, at least there is something for the drivers to get ahold of . As it would turn out on this night, everyone would pretty much hug the inside concrete and there would be no impressive outside charges to be seen. A couple of drivers tried briefly and some like Shannon Babb would make some minor progress, but eventually all, including Brandon Sheppard, would have to migrate back to the bottom to protect their position and take what they could.
Sixty five Late Models would sign in to race on Thursday night, with a few on the entry list not showing up and several drivers switching rides for this event. Qualifying would set the running order for the heat races and as always, this would be probably the most important part of the night as starting up front in the heats was necessary for any success on the night. The field was split into two groups with Bobby Pierce and Tanner English being the quick qualifiers. Only a couple of hot laps were allowed before qualifying so it was important to be on "your game" quickly.
Six heats would move up a pair of drivers from each heat with the winners redrawing. If you didn't finish in the top seven in your heat, you were done for the night with only third through seventh allowed to run one of two B Features with three moving up out of each. Only eighteen cars would start the feature race on this small track.
The biggest excitement of the heat races would be when Kyle Hammer would fight the trend by going to the top side of the track, and with a "Hail Mary" last lap effort, edge Ryan Wilson by inches to make the show to which the crowd, starving for action, would give him a standing ovation, likely the first one he ever got.
Bobby Pierce, who has had great success at this event over the years, would again add to his totals on this night as after topping qualifying, he would win his heat, redraw the pole and then lead all twenty five laps to score an easy victory as he was not challenged at all. The feature race had only one yellow flag so he didn't have to worry about restart challenges and the only cars that he had to pass all night were the two lapped cars he had to pass late in the feature.
There was one moment when it looked like Ryan Unzicker might catch him but Pierce made a couple of good moves and when he got past the lapped car of Tanner Collins with six laps to go, that gave him the necessary margin to pull away again. Unzicker and English had a nice side by side battle for second fro several laps until English finally had to give up and settle for third. Ricky Thornton Jr and Shannon Babb would complete the top five.
The Modifieds were required to be on their game even more than the Late Models as they got absolutely no practice on the track. The first time they hit the track, it was for qualifying and they didn't even get one lap to warm up their cars, it was simply green and go!
There were twenty nine Modifieds on hand with Michael Altobelli setting quick time. The Mods were only about three tenths slower than the Late Models on this track and the preliminary action saw them able to move around more than the Late Models with their narrower tires. However, after some early scrambling in their feature race, they were forced to go into "catfish" mode and hug the bottom of the track too.
Four heats and a B Feature would set the eighteen car starting field for the Modified feature, which would be for twenty laps. Mike Harrison would start on the pole with Drake Troutman on his outside. Earlier, Harrison would draw perhaps the biggest reaction from the crowd when he "dumped" Joseph Thomas while Thomas was leading a heat race and then expressed absolutely no remorse or concern when he was interviewed after he won.
While hard to hear over the loud booing of the crowd, Harrison's sneering attitude certainly did him no favors and each position that he dropped in the main was loudly cheered by the fans.
The Mod feature got off to a rocky start when Ben Harmon got hung up in the fence and flipped on his top on the opening lap. He was OK and this turned out to be the only yellow/red of the event. The fence was torn up a bit but as an example of what the track crew has learned over the years, they had the equipment and material to fix the fence in just a few moments, something that probably wouldn't have been possible in the old days.
The Mods got wild right at the start with Harrison, Troutman and Michael Ledford going three wide for the lead with eventually Harrison falling back and Troutman would then get the better of Ledford to take the top spot.
He would then drive on untouched for the win. Defending champion of this event, Tyler Peterson again would prove to be a force as he would start fifth and with a steady drive, get up to the second spot at the conclusion of the race. Ledford would settle for third and lock himself into the main on Saturday. Only four cars didn't finish the race and there were no lapped cars.
Challenging Harrison for the biggest anti-ovation was Pierce in victory lane and that, I guess, is a given for him as he carries about an many detractors as he does fans.
This event is a corporate treasure as the promotions and sponsorship wing of the Gateway Dirt Nationals has not missed a way to sell some sponsorships and put up billboards. Even the pit area has a sponsor for this event! The Illinois Rifle Association pit area as it has been called for this event, may have scored themselves a first as I do not recall a pit area ever having been sponsored before.
The media star of the evening turned out to be none other than Iowa's "Crazy Martin" who got more screen time than anyone but the two feature winners. Quite the character, Martin would stick out in a crowd of thousands and the camera quickly spotted him as announcers Blake Anderson, Jarrett and Van Sickle cackled over some "Crazy Martin" stories.
A couple of the voices of this event, Dustin Jarrett and Jerry Van Sickle, shared with me before the race that the time schedule for this night had the final checkered flag waving before 9 pm. Of course we rolled our eyes and had a good chuckle over that, but son of a gun, they hit that mark and more in by far the most smoothly run Gateway Dirt National night to date. The first race was on the track by 6 pm and with not much time taken for track prep, the show moved along very smoothly. There was a record low for yellow flags as a half dozen races went green to checkered and only one race all night had more than two yellow flags. Certainly the very smooth track had something to do with that and perhaps we traded action for quickness on this night but it was nice indeed to complete the races at an early hour. Hopefully, now with one night completed and the track prep crew having established a solid foundation for the track that should keep it smooth the rest of the weekend, they can perhaps focus on getting more moisture up on the top side of the track so that lane can be opened up more and we can see more side by side racing the rest of the weekend and a little less "catfishing."
No comments:
Post a Comment