The opening night of the third annual Dairyland Showdown took place on Thursday night, May 4th at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin. With nearly a third of a million dollars on the line this weekend, including fifty thousand dollars to the winner of Saturday night's finale, the opening night was of more importance than most five thousand dollar to win shows are.
Using the unique format that just a few of the bigger races have used in recent years, both Thursday and Friday night's shows would present double feature races with everyone on hand getting to run in a feature race, which WoO has dubbed "Semi Features". Points are tabulated from the first two night's finishes and those points establish the heat race starting lineups for the Saturday night finale. So what the program consists of is WoO qualifying and then two feature races with the drivers lined straight up off qualifying times. There are no heat races or last chance events and certainly no Jeff Broeg B Features, big or small. Everyone gets to race one of the two twenty five lappers and that's the show. For thirty bucks to get in tonight, race fans were treated to a six event program which included three USRA Modified heats and their twenty five lap main plus the two Late Model events. Is that enough to warrant the thirty buck ticket? I guess the fans will answer that when they either keep coming or stop coming to the preliminary nights. For me, I felt shorted but that's just me talking.
Forty three drivers signed in to race on Thursday night including sixteen of the top twenty current point leaders in the series. The rest of the field was filled in by regional drivers but since there are not many area drivers that run open motor programs, there were a few of the WISSOTA spec engine drivers also on hand with none of their tracks yet open in this late arriving Spring.
This entire program was still a bit of a question mark as recently as just a week ago as serious flooding of the Mississippi River had the roads through Fountain City blocked by high water and until they were reopened just days ago, no semi truck traffic was allowed through town which would have required all the big rigs to participate in a lengthy detour to higher ground. Fortunately the water receded and the highway was able to be reopened.
One would certainly hope that for fifty thousand dollars, more that forty three Late Models would be on hand but in the reality that is dirt track Late Model racing these days, mere dollar numbers alone doesn't ensure big car counts with other factors like scheduling and location probably just as big a consideration. However, I did hear no complaints from the spectators and that is always a positive.
Bob Timm likes to keep his track fast and he is willing to spend as much time as necessary to keep the track blazing fast. Thus, with only six races on the schedule we saw the Teragator on the track for four different track prep sessions. A lightning quick track saw Bob's son Jake almost break the track record as he recorded fast time at 13.480 seconds for his group with Cade Dillard quickest in group B.
Feature race time came early as only three Modified heats preceded the first main event. At only twenty five laps each, they really seemed just too short to me for anyone to do much of an advance through the field but their shortness may also have precipitated some extra hard driving and both races were full of drama.
Jake Timm would start on the pole for the first feature and would lead the majority of the event. In was odd that he and Dustin Sorensen, both local drivers and both graduated from the Modified class, would share the front row. Sorensen would have a good run going early on until he got squeezed into the first turn wall on a shaky slide job and then would loose several spots.
Timm, meanwhile, would be under the gun from both Brandon Sheppard and Stormy Scott who took turns battling each other and then challenging Timm. Terry Casey's return to racing was a short one as he piled into the third turn wall early on and was out of the event. Sheppard finally put away Scott for second and would close in on Timm for the lead. Things would get tense for the leader and on the last lap things went just awful for him.
Trying to fend off Sheppard while dealing with lapped traffic, Timm and a slower car got together in turn three and Jake would up sliding up to the wall. The yellow waved and a two lap sprint to the finish was the call, with Timm going to the tail. Sheppard would hold off Scott and a charging Shannon Babb to get the win and harvest the points, most important on this night.
The second Late Model main would have a brew ha also and again it involved the leader. Brent Larson, trying to win a race in front of a crowd of his people, would get the jump on Dillard and lead the early laps. Larson would do a good job of pulling away from the pack as Dillard and Bobby Pierce battled it out for second. They traded that spot back and forth with first Pierce and then Dillard challenging for the lead.
But just past the halfway point of the race, Larson was starting to lose his edge and it was apparent he was trying to use up the track and make his car wide. He ran Pierce up to the wall in turn four but on the next lap Dillard got a good run on him off turn one and creeped up beside Larson down the back chute. Depending on who you believe or what you thought you saw, either Dillard had the outside covered and Larson tried to move up and block him, or Larson had the spot and Dillard tried to ram his way through.
The bottom line is that they got together down the back chute with Larson getting spun into the wall and Dillard able to keep rolling. Larson went to the back with nose damage and Dillard retained the lead. From then on he was able to hold off Pierce and collect his first win in a brand new car. Nick Hoffman was able to race up to third. After the race, Larson pulled up beside Dillard and offered him a one finger salute, a rather unchristian like move by Larson. Only a handful of cars were unable to finish either feature so it would appear that everyone would be ready to race again on Friday night as with the points format, certainly no new cars will appear after night one.
The companion class, as it will be all weekend, was the USRA Modifieds and twenty five of them signed in to race on Thursday. Three heat races using passing points following the draw for starting positions would set the field for this event.
Hayfield Minnesota's Brandon Davis would dominate this race, leading from start to finish and never being seriously challenged. He took the lead from the outside pole and pulled away and with only a single yellow to slow the action and bunch the field, he was uncatchable.
Early on rookie Modified driver Shaun Walski would run second with J.T. Wasmund battling him but eventually Jacob Bleess, Keith Foss and Jake Timm, doing double duty, would form a bunch all battling for second. The late yellow, with just six laps to go, would be just what Bleess was looking for as he advanced a whole row and moved into second but he didn't have anything for Davis either, who pulled away once again and drove on for the victory. Bleess would settle for second and Timm drove up from eighth to finish third ahead of Foss and Lucas Schott as a strong field of drivers were on hand, perhaps not numbers wise but certainly talent wise.
It was a tough night for watching as a strong wind blew in from the North and right into the grandstand and it made for an eyeball irritating kind of night. However, given the format, it also made for a quick show with all racing done well before 10 pm and with this weekend sizing up as a large party weekend, it gave the participants an early head start on the frivolity and merry making. The same format show with the same classes will continue again on Friday night. There was a large crowd on hand, perhaps the biggest I have seen so for for the Thursday night version of these multi day shows, but in the spacious grandstands here at MTS, there was still plenty of seats available.
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