Thursday night April 27th was night number one of the 13th annual Spring Classic for the USMTS Modifieds at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Iowa. For traveling drivers of this series, they are right in the middle of a very busy time having visited Kansas and then three days later being here in Iowa for three more nights of racing before wrapping things up with three nights next week back in Kansas at Lakeside Speedway before they get a break. And it is always a special event when the USMTS returns to its home base in Webster City where not only is this the series home, USMTS head Todd Staley is also the weekly promoter here.
Thursday night would see the drivers running thirty laps on the half mile for $3.000 to win with the ante going up each of the following two nights. Along with the Modifieds, USRA Hobby Stocks, Stock Cars and B Mods would also be racing in full programs on Thursday.
A solid field of forty eight Modified drivers would sign in for Thursday night racing, a good field where strangely, in the heart of Iowa, there are very few local drivers that support the series with most of the competitors having to tow in from some distance. But the top twenty one in current series points and twenty six of the top thirty helped to provide a field that would require five heats and a pair of Jeff Broeg sized B Features to set the running order for the main event.
A procedure change was announced for this race that would change the number of drivers qualifying for the main event. Likely in response to the new procedure this year that sees the top six in each qualifying group inverted for the heats and many drivers that are quick qualifiers in their groups having to run B Features because they can't garner enough passing points, any driver that is quick qualifier in his group but fails to make the main would start either thirteenth or fourteenth in the main, thus effectively guaranteeing that all quick qualifiers will make the main.
This might have been my first time to visit Webster City since the outside walls were removed from both ends, effectively returning to those days where there were no barriers to keep cars from flying off the banks. Obviously there was a reason why this was done but from a safety sand point it seems to me to be a giant step backward. I can't imagine it to be safer to go flying off the steep banking into the holes on both ends of the track. Just what can happen was quickly shown when Darwin Karau slipped over the edge of the banking, tried to fight his way back on to the track and instead dug in, sending him into a series of barrel rolls. Fortunately the Minnesota driver was OK.
On the other hand, the new catwalk on the inside of the front chute pit area is a great addition. No more will the pit folkd have to guess what is happening on the track and with their driver as they can actually see the action.
Jim Chisholm was the quickest of forty seven drivers to take time trials and remarkably was the last car out to qualify. He turned a lap at 19.478 seconds. The heat race action produced a stunning development when current point leader Jake O"Neil blew a motor in his heat. He rolled out a back up car, made the show as a provisional but struggled to a nineteenth place feature finish, thus throwing the points chase into turmoil.
On this night, several of the top drivers would need to access the provisional portal and thirty drivers would take the green for what would prove to be a wild and unpredictable main event. Outside front row starter Dan Ebert would take the early lead over Zach VanderBeek with the field only making two laps before a Brandon Givens and Jason Hughes collision would slow the action. Rodney Sanders was quickly up to third with Jim Chisholm and Tom Berry Jr in their tire tracks.
The drivers would then string together a twenty four laps stretch of green flag racing that would produce a lot of action. Berry Jr was on the move as he would work his way up to second and begin to put some heavy pressure on Ebert for the lead. Several times he pulled up along side the Minnesota driver but couldn't quite pull off the pass for the lead. At the halfway point of the race, Herry Jr was all over Ebert with Chisholm and Sanders in a battle for third with Alex Williamson moving up to fifth where he continued to fight with VanderBeek for that spot.
Two laps past the halfway point, Berry Jr would make a hard drive down the back chute and dive inside Ebert for the lead. It was far from a clean pass as there was contact between the two and Ebert was run all the way up to the turn four wall. In fact, by the time he squared himself away, Sanders had taken second place away form him. Berry Jr would then have his hands full with Sanders, who was looking for his first win of the season.
At this point, the top four drivers were running in close order as they weaved through lapped traffic while trying to maintain their positions. Just when it looked like the race would finish nonstop, three quick yellows for calamities on the track would set up a two lap sprint to the finish with Berry Jr sitting in front of Sanders and Ebert. Sanders would get a good run on Berry Jr the first restart but that would be waved off by the final spin for a yellow.
Then, things got even wilder. Ebert got a great run this time on the two lao sprint to the finish, getting past Sanders and getting a great run on the bottom down the front chute as they saw the white flag. You could tell that as Ebert dove to the inside of Berry Jr in turn one he wasn't going to let up for anything. His momentum caused him to wash up the track, all the way to the wall exiting turn two with Berry Jr hung to his outside and no where to go. Ebert didn't back off and eventually Berry Jr was forced into the wall where he stopped but as it was the final lap, they raced to the checkered with Ebert crossing the line first and Berry Jr not finishing.
My take. Both passes were suspect and both drivers had a right to be annoyed at the other. I've seen Dan Ebert race right from when he first started racing cars after he gave up snowmobiles and if anything, he generally races too nice and far from a rough driver. But I believe he felt wronged by the earlier move and with a chance to reciprocate,, he wasn't going to cut Berry Jr, a very hard racer indeed, any slack. Hopefully both can move on and we won't be seeing any further paybacks in the future.
Sanders would come on to finish second with Chisholm third. Williamson got a very fine fourth place run with Dereck Ramirez coming from deep in the field t o complete the top five. VanderBeek was running in the top five until be blew up spectacularly with Tanner Mullens and Cayden Carter among others who blew up over the course of the night. I would hope that we don't see any more paybacks over the course of the weekend although the slick, top to bottom track was prime for some meaty slide jobs and they can cause tensions to rise.
The three support classes were all light on cars on Thursday but they managed to produce one close exciting feature race while also producing dominant runs in the other two classes.
The Hobby Stocks put on and excellent main event that saw the lead exchanged three times between two drivers. Jeremy Crimmins would lead the first couple of laps as most of the drivers were riding the low line. However, Daniel Ayers moved up to the top side and while it was a risky and narrow line, he made it work as he pulled up beside Crimmins and would take over the lead. Those two would then battle side by side for most of the race, with Ayers the leader at the halfway point with Crimmins still beside him and Chris Hovden close behind.
However, the outside line got trickier and trickier and as Ayers warmed up his right rear tire, Crimmins would ease by him with just two laps to go and take over the lead following the only yellow of the race.
But Ayers would not give up and he pushed even harder on the top side and they crossed the line side by side as the white flag waved. Going through turn two, Crimmins got momentarily sideways and that was all that Ayers needed as he pulled away by a couple of car lengths, held on through the final corner and drove home for the win. Hovden would settle for third. \
Dominating performances would be put on by Ty Griffith in the B Mods and Derek Green in the Stock Cars. Griffith would take over the lead in the B Mod feature on lap three from Hunter Longnecker and after that he was gone, opening up a big lead over the field. Even a late race yellow caused him no problems as he would pull away again for the win. The last lap would be a disaster for Ben Moudry though, as the second place runner would fly off turn one and not get finish which would elevate Joe Chisholm to second over Brandon Hare.
Green's win in the Stock Car feature would be even more dominant. Miles Michehl could only hold off Green for one lap before Green would blow past for the lead and once in front he was gone. Bill Crimmins, would try to play catch up but he simply couldn't make up the necessary ground and would have to settle for second, nearly a full straightaway behind with Andrew Borchardt third.
I would have to say that the track was the best for racing that I can remember in quite some time. It was neither hammer down or locked down rubbered up but instead seemed to be super slick from top to bottom and while most of the drivers were preferring the top side. those running lower on the track could pass if they were quick enough.
The program was tightly run for the Thursday night racing fans and everything was done by 10:30 pm. It as a good effort all around and promises to provide more good racing the rest of the weekend.
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