Friday, April 21, 2023

Mullens Tops Gressel Opener at 81

 It was fitting that Tanner Mullens would top the opening night of the first annual Ed Gressel Memorial weekend of USMTS racing on Thursday night at J.R. Sartain's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas. After all, both Gressel and Mullens come from the local area of Wichita and Mullens made a name for himself early as one of the driver's for the Gressel Modifieds and while Mullens had come up short early this season in a couple of races, this race would be controlled by him from green to checkered. This win would also be highly approved one by the local crowd in attendance on Thursday for the opening of three straight nights of USMTS racing. 

A strong field of fifty three Modifieds would sign in for night one of USMTS racing, with Thursday night's thirty lap main paying three grand to win. One thing that you must say about the drivers that follow the USMTS circuit, when they sign on to be point chasers in this series, they go all out. While the various Late Model series generally boast about a dozen or less drivers that chase every race, such is not the case with the USMTS Modifieds and something that series owner Todd Staley must relish. As an example, this weekend the top twenty four drivers in current series points and twenty seven of the top thirty are all here in Kansas and many made long drives to get here. Other series would kill to get that kind of support and it must be a comfort to Staley to know that when he opens the pit gate that he is guaranteed three of four heats of strong running cars no matter where or when he races. Staley, by the way, was sporting a rather awkward looking harness that he was wearing due to recent rotator cuff surgery. 

As an example of drivers pulling long distances, Jake Timm was racing his Late Model on Tuesday and Wednesday night in Ohio and Indiana respectively with the FLO Castrol series. However, they also had the Modified in the upper bay and as soon as they were done on Wednesday, they headed out for the 10-11  hour drive to Kansas. I know this since I made that same drive just a few hours behind them. While they were rewarded for their effort with a runner up finish in the Modified main later on Thursday, we as fans weren't quite so lucky as disappointing track conditions haunted us, following from Indiana here to the Sunflower state. 

Time trials for the fifty three Mods in attendance would see the first car out to qualify, Jim Chisholm, set fast time with a lap of 18.255 seconds. However, all this did was guarantee that he would start third row outside in a heat race with passing points used to set the remaining lineups for the B Features and Feature races. Drivers are still trying to figure out how to qualify just fast enough to make the heat race invert since a quick time doesn't at all guarantee a path into the feature as only two of the five groups' fastest qualifiers moved directly into the main with the rest having to run B Feature. The switch in the invert from four to six this year is still a hot topic of debate. In fact, the first heat race pulled out onto the track in a straight up formation this night and I thought they might have changed but it turns out that someone forgot to press the "invert" button on MyRacePass and they then made the correction on the track. 

There was one change in the qualifying order on this night as the top eight in passing points would run a dash as opposed to just redrawing for the top eight spots in the main. I have to say that I like this as I would rather see someone work to get the pole, rather than get it on a lucky redraw. There was also one other change for this weekend, as the dash winner was offered a nice cash reward to go back to sixth for the feature but neither the dash winner or runner up opted for it which based on track conditions was a good call. The amount of the bonus goes up the next two nights and perhaps for over two grand on Saturday, someone may take the bonus and go off sixth. Based on existing track conditions, the plan would then be to take the green, pull off and save a set of tires and take the dash money and run. 

Five big heats and two gigantic Jeff Broeg sized B Features of twenty one and twenty cars respectively would set the lineup for the thirty lap main event. And with so many cars and with such tough competition, it was no surprise that a number of provisional entries had to be doled out and the final starting field sat at twenty nine drivers. 

Sad to say, the Modified feature was not the top notch event we were all hoping for. The previous feature, for the 305 Sprints showed that the track was rubbering up bad and that no passing was taking place. Track Manager John Allen scrambled down from the press box midrace and hustled to the grader when they tried to scrap off the rubber and throw a little water on it. 

Sad to say, it didn't work and the Modified main quickly turned into a one lane high speed chase with the only drama being whether the drivers could keep right rear tires under their cars for thirty laps. For several, the answer was no. The key part of the race was the opening lap and when Mullens beat Will Krup to the groove, in essence the race was over except if Mullens screwed up, which he did not. 

There was a small battle for second though, as Krup lost second to Jeremy Nelson, later took it back on a restart but then Nelson would repass Will and secure the position. Kyle Brown pounded the wall hard in turn four with four laps complete but then the race would go nonstop for twenty four laps and probably would have stayed green to the checkered with drivers completely circling the oval in single file order. 

Except that this is when the tires started to give up. Nelson lost a great finish when he got a  flat while running second and pulled off the track. Cayden Carter got one too but he elected to park on the track, triggering the yellow under which Joe Duvall also got a flat. 

Mullens, who had done a great job earlier keeping distance between himself and the slower back of the pack cars while also keeping Nelson behind him. pulled away on the green and his right rear held up and he drove home for the win. In the last corner Krup got a flat too and Timm nipped him at the line for second. Tom Berry Jr and Zach VanderBeek would complete the top five with seven drivers not finishing and all on the lead lap. 

The companion division for racing on Thursday and thank God there was only one other class, was the United Rebel Series Sprint cars, which is apparently a 305 RaceSaver series. I had never heard of them before but apparently they race in Kansas and Oklahoma. I don't ever remember the USMTS having a Sprint Car companion class but perhaps in the long history of the series, they may have done this at least once before. 

There were thirteen drivers that signed in for this class with them running a quick pair of heats and a twenty lap main event. With the track rubbing up quickly, there was virtually no passing in their twenty lap feature. Jordan Knight would start on the pole and lead all twenty laps with Zach Blurton second and Ty Williams third, spots that they would hold for the whole race which did have three quick yellows for spins and a slowing car. Ten would finish. The Sprints main function on this night was to help rubber up the track but I think it would have happened either with or without them racing as it was just one of those nights. 

A mention should be made of the continuing upgrades that Sartain has made here at 81 which would include the spectacular new lighting system that they have in place. When here last Fall, they were working on the new lights which replaced some lost in a storm last year and they are great. What was especially impressive come feature time is that they can run then on and off rapidly, blinking then around the track during the four wide salute and having them change colors. I imagine these are similiar to what they have at Knoxville, as I haven't seen them but have been told about them. In any event, they are great and wouldn't it be fine if more race tracks had decent lighting for the drivers and also the fans so we wouldn't have to stumble around in the dark in the grandstands. 

On the down side, the nice scoreboard that they have wasn't working for some reason on this night after spitting out a few non decipherable numbers early and there was no lap board which is paramount for any track. 

A nice sized crowd given a Thursday night was on hand on a cool and typically windy Kansas April night. The ante goes up on Friday with the winner taking home five thousand dollars in the Modifieds while we welcome two different support classes and hope that track conditions take a decided turn for the better. It should also be noted too that this show was run off much quicker than the last two nights of Late Model racing with the final checkered waving tonight just after 10 pm. Tomorrow will likely be a quick show too as music is planned after the final checkered. Shake your booty!

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