After a frustrating day on Friday when it never really rained enough to help the farmers but continued to drizzle just enough to make the track too slick to race on and miserable for fans to sit out in and eventually led to a cancellation, the sun came back out on Saturday for the big money show at the Humboldt Speedway. The finale of the scheduled three night series for USMTS Modifieds and open B Mods would pay twelve thousand dollars to the Modified winner and five grand for the B Mod top driver.
It was by far the nicest of the three days(at least early in the going) and the biggest field of drivers was on hand for Saturday's show. With each show being a totally separate event, unlike most years, it allowed drivers who had been scared off perhaps by the weather earlier in the weekend to show up Saturday and race and the biggest field of drivers of the weekend, sixty six Modifieds and sixty four B Mods, would sign in to race.
An indication of the improved weather conditions would see our head flagman start off the program wearing shorts but before the night was over, he had changed into long pants as the wind picked up.
The format for the finale would be the same as on Thursday with six heats and three B Features setting the feature fields following group qualifying for the Modifieds. The six car invert for the Modifieds following qualifying for the heats continues to draw much discussion and fire in some cases, with many believing that the six car invert is too many, given that passing points are used to determine who makes the show and with just eight lap heats, a quick qualifier must pass at least three cars in a heat to make the show and many feel that is just really hard and a penalty for being too quick. The top two qualifiers in each group do get additional points but some are saying that just isn't enough. I guess we will see as the season continues if there are any adjustments. My preference is to just draw for position and then use passing points as that old format seemed to produce some of he best heat racing ever but is you are going to time trial, you might as well reward those that are fastest by starting the heats straight up.
Time trials always take longer than planned and scheduled starting times should always be taken with a grain of salt when time trials are involved. On Saturday, the first heat race took the green at 5:50 pm, quite a bit later than advertised. And as it turned out, we could have used those extra minutes later when the weather turned threatening.
The twelve heat races clicked off pretty smoothly with a track prep session then called for. It was an extensive one with the track tickled and watered but after that, the track was not touched further. Whether this was by plan or because of the changing weather conditions I do not know, but once the B Features were started, it was non stop racing without a break It was announced that weather was moving in, and indeed it was, and the scramble was on to beat the incoming rain. It was too bad in a way that they couldn't have had a little more in the way of ceremonies but in the end, the last checkered flew only scant minutes before the skies opened up. In fact, the B Mod Non Qualifier race even got rained out following the Modifeid feature as that's how close it was.
Twenty four drivers would qualify for the B Mod main event and when Thursday night winner Kris Jackson drew the pole, there was a collective groan from both the B Mod pits and the grandstand. Suddenly it looked like the B Mod feature was going to be a runaway and quite frankly, while Jackson didn't totally dominate the race, he was never really threatened either.
Jackson would take the lead immediately with Randy Zimmerman and seventeen year old Canadian driver Garrett Paull following him. The worst crash of the weekend would take place with seven laps complete when Logan Anderson would blow a motor in turn three, Jon Sheets would slide in the liquid deposited on the track, climb up on the wall and then flip over on his roof. He was OK but the car sufferend heavy damage.
Jackson would continue to lead on the restart over Zimmerman but Paull would start to slip back in the field as both Andy Bryant and Ryan Gillmore would get past him. Jackson would move out to a considerable advantage following a third yellow for another tangle with Bryant moving into second over Zimmerman. Gillmore would then pick up the pace as he would advance pas t both Zimmerman and Bryant and at the halfway point of the race, he was up to second behind Jackson.
The final twenty laps of the race would click off nonstop and after Gillmore would come as close as a car length or two of the leader, it seemed that Jackson opened his car up just a bit more as perhaps he had been cruising to save his tires over the long forty lap distance. The distance between the top two drivers stabilized and Gillmore wasn't able to draw any closer and in fact, he gave up the low groove and tried the outside line to see if that might work, but when it didn't he dropped back low and just rode behind Jackson who was unstoppable .
Kris would drive home with a comfortable lead and take a relatively easy win, especially given the quality of the competition. Gillmore would settle for second over Bryant, a charging Kyle Slader and Shadren Turner. 5t was a very productive weekend for Jackson with seven thousand dollars in earnings over the two nights.
With a lot of provisional starters, the King of America twelve would start thirty cars for their main event at a distance this year of sixty laps with no bathroom breaks built in this year. And for the second straight race, the Thursday night feature winner would redraw the pole position and with Terry Phillips' strong run on Thursday, everyone was wondering if we were going to see both drivers repeat.
And Phillips gave it his best effort as after taking the opening lap lead, he would hold the top spot for the first thirty two laps and maintain a pretty good lead for most of that time. In the early going, he was challenged most by Zach VanderBeek, Tyler Wolff and Cayden Carter with Jake O'Neil and Jake Timm lurking close behind.
Three early yellows would slow the action with one sending top runners Dereck Ramirez and Will Krup to the back after they tangled. Phillips, meanwhile was rolling through the middle of the corners and putting distance on the field. With the last yellow flying for a slowing Alex Williamson, Phillips held the lead over a charging Wolff, VanderBeek, O'Neil and Carter.
However, when racing resumed, suddenly Dan Ebert, who started eighth and wasn't gaining much ground early, suddenly took off like a rocket ship using the very inside lane of the track. He was noticeably faster than the field and started to pick up car after car at a rapid pace. By the halfway point of the race, he was up to second with just Phillips in front of him.
And Terry couldn't withstand the charge of Ebert as just three laps after the halfway point, Dan drove under Terry and took over the lead. Phillips tried to fight back and got close but he simply couldn't match the speed that Ebert had at this point. Dan began to pull away and there was nothing that Phillips could do about it.
Ebert did get into some heavy traffic in the last twenty laps but he showed good patience as he waited for the holes to open and then quickly dispatched the slower cars. His lead grew to over four seconds as there was no one with anything to offer in terms of a challenge.
At the checkers, he had two lapped cars and plenty of distance over Phillips, who settled for second. There was quite a bit of shuffling in the top five near the end though, with Carter hustling back up to get third. The drive of the race though, was provided by Rodney Sanders. Sanders, who had to take a provisional and start dead last on the field, would charge all the way up to fourth at the finish and would run out of laps in his efforts to gain even more positions. VanderBeek would complete the top five.
No more than seconds after the checkered was waved over the Modifieds, it started to rain and hard enough that the B Mod Non Qualifier race couldn't be held. To say they cut it close would be a large understatement. My guess is that with his win, Ebert will probably take over the point lead in the USMTS series with a season that has provided quite a few surprises so far in the early part of the season.
Track and series officials deserve a round of thanks, along with the cooperating drivers, for moving along the proceedings at such a prompt pace once they got going. I'm sure it was tough to ash can much of the "pomp" of the event but they realized that the most important thing was to get the two features done, and to that end they succeeded. Thanks also to the track workers and those that prepared the track including Ryan Whitworth who heads that operation.
The USMTS is in the midst of a busy schedule right now as next week they head to Louisiana and then back to Kansas the following week. Meanwhile, both Humboldt and 81 Speedway will start their regular seasons next week.
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