Troutman Reels In A Whopper at Davenport

 Another in the seemingly endless series of big events came to the Davenport Speedway on Tuesday night, July 25th as the MARS Late Model series made a stop on their tour here. The MARS Series, purchased last off season by Matt Curl, the promoter at Fairbury Speedway and the former Race Director for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, features a mostly Illinois and Midwestern field of drivers for both the Late Model and Modified series, of which he runs both. 

Along with the Late Models on this night, the IMCA Modifieds would get another chance to race with a special and the Outlaw Stock Cars would also get a chance to show off during this prime time special. 

It was another hot and steamy Summer day in the Hawkeye State and track prep masters Ricky Kay and Dr. Al would be challenged on this night. However, just like another of the most respected track prep aces in Mike VanGenderen showed last night, it can  be done no matter what the weather is like. The two aces here produced a track that was smooth, fast, tacky and threw little to no dust. They gave the drivers a great track to race on and the drivers responded. 

It does appear that the extreme heat of the last few days does however, play a part in both the field of participants and also the crowd. I would have expected more than two dozen Late Models to be on hand, particularly this close to their home area in Illinois and I would also have expected more in both the support classes than were on hand. 

Again, however, as shown at last night's show, it doesn't take huge numbers to produce an entertaining program and we saw three feature races on Tuesday that were all interesting and highly contested. 

Garrett Alberson tuned up for his next Lucas Oil show by dropping by for a local show and he would set quick time at 13.515 seconds. The numbers would make B Features unnecessary so we had just seven preliminary qualifying events before it was feature time. Originally it was planned that the Late Models would run first but that was changed and the Late Models were stacked last after the Modifieds and Outlaw Stock Cars. 

There were only eleven Modifieds but they would still have a good feature race that would not be settled until the final two laps. Charlie Mohr would get the pole on the redraw and he would lead all but the last two laps when the roof fell in on him. 

He was chased for the better part of the race by Chris Zogg and Brad Dierks with Zogg dogging the leader through the first half of the race before Dierks took that spot on lap sixteen. It appeared that Mohr would be able to hold on for the win until the yellow flew following a spin on lap sixteen. 

Things really came unraveled for Mohr on the restart as his small lead was erased and he suddenly had three other drivers pressuring him heavily. He was unable to fight off Dierks who would pass him with two laps to go and Charlie would eventually fade to fourth at the line. After Dierks grabbed the lead, Zogg made a challenge back at him using the high side of the track and nearly pulled off the pass but he would have to settle for second behind Dierks with Matt Werner up from ninth to finish third. 

Tuesday night would be my first look at the Outlaw Stock Cars and they certainly do have an interesting look to them. I would assume that running gear wise they are not a lot different from the Stock Cars as there was one running with them , but they certainly have some different looks to them. Those sitting around me in the stands compared them to torpedoes or submarines while I thought that several looked more like DeLoreans than anything else. Many seemed prone to really hiking up the inside wheels too which gave them quite the look as they raced around the track. 

Their main saw three different leaders in the fifteen lap finale. Tony VonDresky was the early leader but at the halfway point he was passed by Nick Hixson for the top spot. However, diving under Hixson and taking over the lead just one lap later was Jeff Struck Jr, the point leader here and he would then drive on for the win. 

VonDresky, after fading back as far as third, would make a late charge to try and regain the lead and he would finish a close second. Things got tight when a last lap bogus yellow was called but Struck Jr would hold on for the win and the two lap dash to the checkers. More on that yellow later. 

Then it would be Late Model time for a fifty lapper paying ten grand to win. Most of the MARS races pay three and five thousand to win but Hoker Trucking chipped in to make this a bigger and better show. The track seemed fine to me after the Outlaws were done racing but apparently not good enough for Ricky and the Dr as they completely redid it for the last event and by completely I mean they tilled it up, watered it hard and then repacked it. When it comes to this track, my feeling is that they know best, despite what my eyes are telling me. The result of their work was a very fast track for the fifty lapper and again no dust. Most of the racing was done on the top side but there were a few drivers, primarily Bob Gardner, who made the low groove his home. 

While Troutman would start on the outside pole and officially be scored the leader for all fifty laps, it wasn't near as easy as that might make it sound. He got a lot of heavy pressure from a variety of drivers throughout the race but to his credit he never flubbed up, which most certainly would have cost him. 

Frankie Heckenast, Bone Larson and Chris Simpson put the pressure on early and through the first half of the race, until Heckenast dropped out and gave Simpson his chance. Chris very nearly got by at one point but Troutman maintained his line and was able to fight off challenges. Toward the ned of the race it was Alberson and Gardner who were the primary challengers with Alberson trying to roll the bottom on lap after lap only to see Troutman fight him off. Troutman was playing with fire as he was running a top side that was getting more narrow as the race continued and there were several times that he had the outside rear tire hanging over air but he managed to keep the car pointed the right direction and carry on. 

At the finish he managed to maintain several car lengths over Alberson who admitted that he was trying to show his nose in the hopes that Troutman would make an error. Troutman, on the other hand, gave his biggest thanks to his "stick man" for showing him where to go and the line to run. So apparently we really don't need drivers any more, just someone with a couple of yardsticks who does their job well and then anyone can win. 

For Troutman, the heavy footed throttle jockey of eighteen years of age. , it was his biggest paycheck since he moved into the Late Models last year on a full time basis. There was bad news for Gardner after a hard run earned him the third spot, his car dropped too much and he was disqualified, boosting Bone Larson to  the third place finish. It was a taxing event with Ryan Unzicker, Simpson, point leader Jason Feger, and Jonathan Brauns all running good at one point, with all to not finish. Only eight cars were on the track when the checkers flew. 

Now for the late yellow situation that we saw twice on this night and the last one that could have changed the outcome of the Stock Car feature .I have also seen this happen a number of times at tracks in other states so it's not just an Iowa thing but if all the cars racing on the track pass the white flag and take that signal, there's no way that something that occurs after that point should trigger a yellow and then redo the final lap or as they did tonight, back the finish up two whole laps. If all cars take the white, the next flag waved means the race is over, whether it's the checkered, yellow or even red. If one of the last two comes out, then the race should be called complete and scored back to the white flag or better yet, if the yellow is for something minor, just let everyone race to the checkered and then tell them on the Raceceiver to be aware after they cross the line. 

While this has absolutely nothing to do with tonight's race, it does have to do with Quad City racing and as such,  I thought it worth mentioning. When I first started coming to races in Iowa, one of the top eastern Iowa Late Model stars was the "Flying Dutchman", Mike Neffenegger from Kalona and he was always sponsored by Lujack-Schierbrock Chevrolet that had a store at that time right off Brady St. and on my way to the track. I believe Duane Steffe was also sponsored by that dealership. 

Today I heard that Football Hall of Famer Johnny Lujack had passed away. The former Notre Dame All American lived for a time in Davenport and what I didn't know was that Johnny Lujack was the owner of that Chevrolet dealership. See, it is quite a small world after all. 

Taylor Is Kuehl; Us, Not So Much

 The Clint Walrod Memorial for Suicide Prevention was held on Monday night, July 24th at the Stuart International Speedway in Stuart Iowa. On one of the hottest nights for racing that I can remember in quite some time, a cool lady, Taylor Kuehl, would top a highly contested Sport Mod feature to highlight the racing action at the Stuart quarter mile. 

As my Mother used to say, "It was a beaner" on Monday night. I'm not sure just exactly what that refers to, but every time we heard that reference, we knew that it was going to be an excessively hot day. And so it was on Monday with temps around ninety, humidity to match and not much shade to be found on the grounds. 

The hot temperatures were reflected in most of what happened on Monday. It may have been the smallest car count for a race that I have seen since I was coming to Stuart and also probably the smallest crowd too. Hopefully a lot of folks stayed home and watched the race on tv from the air conditioned comfort of their easy chair. However, Crazy Martin stuck it out and was on hand along with the toughest of the fans. 

The Walrod Memorial would feature all five classes from the IMCA sanction that routinely race here along with the along with the Outlaw Mini Mods and Mod Lites. There would be fifty cars signed in to race in the five core classes and actually three of the five classes had only enough cars to provide one heat race. However, on this night I didn't hear a single complaint about that as I think most folks were just happy to see a quick show and to be truthful, some of the feature races, though smaller than normal, provided plenty of racing action. 

I had seen him race many times over the years but Monday night was the first time that I had a chance to talk to long time racer Martin Bennett for any length of time. He proved to be a most interesting individual to talk with and I was impressed just what lengths he has to go to to even get to the races these days after Covid severely altered his life style. As a retired person, he is racing with a budget in a sport that has some that can spend whatever it takes to win. He races at Stuart because it is closest to home. 

Racing would start right after 7 pm under a blazing sun but it should not have been a surprise that while one might have expected a slick and perhaps dusty track given the conditions, instead it was tacky, fast and not a whisper of dust. MVG was at it again and to be truthful, humid nights like this, even with the heat and sun, often produce some of the tackiest tracks of the year and it would be so all night. The major work after racing started was not to add more water, but to continue to pack and widen out the cushion to improve the racing. 

It took only twenty four minutes to run off the heat races for the five core divisions. The other heats were then held, a quick break to do some packing and it was feature time. 

The sticky track would be reflected in the first feature to hit the track and that was the Sport Compacts. Early on, Owen Richards would race into turn one and grab so much bite with his right side tires that his car bicycled and he went flying off into the night sky, flipping several times and nearly clearing the wall in turn two. He ended up upside down and after a couple of anxious moments, he exited the car without help and appeared to be fine. The crazy thing was his ride was so much in the air that the car was hardly bent, despite providing a spectacular moment for us. 

On the restart, Jake Paysen would grab the lead and he would go on to win the race, fighting off challenges from Kolby Sabin, who was in a different ride than when I last saw him, for the win with Texas driver Stephen Stiteler third. 

The Stock Cars don't need a huge field of cars to provide plenty of action and such was the case on Monday. There were only nine of them, but they put on an exciting and hotly contested main event. Nick Roberts would officially be scored the leader for all twenty laps but it was far from that easy. 

For most of the race, there would be five cars snarling around the track in close formation and diving at each other on each corner. Roberts had point leader Austin Bouzek trying to get past him on each corner and with the cars mostly on three wheels and all hiked up in the corners, there was action galore. Rowdee VanGenderen had the team of Schafroth and VanEaton all over him as the top five continued to race close. 

Bouzek changed lines in turn four and nearly got by Roberts on the high side but got squeezed into the wall and had to back off. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and the final corner saw all five laying on each other but not in a severe manner, just hard racing in trying to pass. 

Roberts would hold on for the win and in victory lane thank Bouzek for not dumping him in the last corner while also apologizing for "walling him" earlier. Rowdee would hold on for third in a very interesting race. 

The Hobby Stocks would go back and forth in their main with five official lead changes among three drivers plus heart break for one also. Ethan Atcheson would take the early lead but it took only two more laps for Buddy Haidsiak to make a pass to take over the top spot. However, Atcheson would change up his line which would allow him to gain more speed and three laps later he would regain the lead. 

However, just one lap later Atcheson would slow in turn three, the victim off a mechanical failure while holding the top spot. This turned the lead back over to Haidsiak but he couldn't hold off the charging Skylar Pruitt who was fast on the low line and slid under Buddy to take over the lead with five laps to go and then drive away for the win. 

Pruitt had been involved in a first lap tangle with Solomon Bennett with both going to the back but due to the small field and a fast car, Pruitt was able to overcome that issue and still drive on for the win. Luke Ramsey would finish second ahead of Rusty Bates. 

The Sport Mod feature would see quite a gaggle of cars racing for the lead with heavy traffic indeed throughout the pack. Josh Sink would be the early leader but it took just one lap for Jackson Harpole to pass him and take over the top spot. However, in heavy traffic, Sink would fight back and on lap seven again grab the lead. 

The race took a major turn one lap later when, in that heavy traffic, Brayton Carter and David Schwartz would get their car tied together and it took quite a bit of time and work by the wrecker crew to get the separated. 

At this point Kuehl was only running fourth but she took off like a rocket when the green came back out and finding some racing room low, she shot past Sink to take over the lead at the halfway point of the race. After that, she would lead the final half of the race, maintaining enough of a lead that she wouldn't be severely challenged. Cam Reimers would drive up to second after starting eleventh and Carter was on fire the second half of the race, roaring all the way back up to third. 

The Modified feature would be completed nonstop and with Roberts looking for a double, he would lead the first five laps. However, Todd Shute was flying and he would make a pass down the back chute for the lead after climbing the banking on the East end of the track and getting an incredibly strong run down the back chute. And once in front, he was gone. 

There would be no catching him after that as he pulled away for an easy win with Roberts holding on for second ahead of Happy Gilman. 

American's number one track chaser Randy Lewis and his wife Carol came walking into the grandstand around the halfway point of the evening. I did not talk to him but announcer Tony Paris mentioned that he was on the grounds. Whether or not Lewis could add Stuart to his list is questionable as I'm assuming that he must have been here at some point as I'm guessing that he has been to every track in the state of Iowa. 

Thanks to MVG and his hard working crew for a good night of racing with tough conditions to contend with. Nights like this are really hard on the track workers who must do their jobs, no matter how hot it is. If this heat continues, I would not be surprised to hear of some tracks that end up cancelling their shows this week, particularly if the program is just a regular night of racing. 

Timm And Chisholm Top USMTS Mod Wars

 With the rain shortened program on Thursday at the Ogilvie Raceway, the Mod Wars USMTS vs. WISSOTA Modified battle would run a double header program on Friday night, July 14th. 

The USMTS cars would battle in a thirty five lap feature race left over from Thursday and then run another full program. Along with the Mods, there would be four other WISSOTA classes also racing and they too had left over feature races to run from Thursday along with another full program in each class as a part of the Friday night show. 

If you're thinking that this sounds like a lot of racing and a long night could be in the cards, you would be perfectly correct. As I type this, I am shot. Racing started on 5 pm straight up on Friday and the final checkered flag waved at 1:35 am this morning. I suppose for veterans of Super Nationals, this just sounds like another night of their long week but I was never very good at marathon race watching By the end of this night, I couldn't even remember who won the first feature that I had seen about eight hours earlier without notes to refer to. I guess this is one reason that I have never considered Super Nationals. It just sounds like too much of a good thing to me. 

The real heroes of this night however, were the track prep people as well as the other employees of Ogilvie Raceway that managed to keep things going and the whole show operating smoothly. The conditions were about as bad as they could be for racing, with the temperature approaching ninety degrees, a hazy and smoky sky and a fairly strong wind. How do  you keep moisture in the race track and keep it from rubbering up and/or turning into a dust bowl?

But they did a great job. At one point during the makeup Modified feature the track did start to take rubber but they quickly took care of that soon after. Yes, we did have to sit through one farming session that lasted nearly an hour and also occasional quick shots from the water truck but even to the end of the night, while the track was super slick and black from top to bottom, there was no dust, no more appearance of a rubbered up surface and they had drivers running all over the track. That's about as good as you could home for at any track, at any time. 

The highlight class was the USMTS Mods and in the makeup feature, it was Jake Timm who would take the lead from Eric Lamm on lap three and lead the rest of the race for the win. A late yellow would set up a sprint finish but Timm would hold off Dereck Ramirez and Tanner Mullens for the win. 

And it would almost turn out to be a double dip win for Timm, if not for a late charge by Jim Chisholm that would see him win his first USMTS feature of the season. The Modifieds would run forty laps of nonstop racing in the second event and with twenty nine cars starting, you can guess that slower traffic would be a concern. 

Timm hit on a group of a couple cars near the end of the race that were too quick for him to get past. He would try but just couldn't make the pass. Meanwhile, Chisholm had passed Dave Cain and Shane Sabraski to move into second and was closing on Timm at a rapid pace. Timm had to decide whether to stay in the low groove and hope that Chisholm wouldn't go around him or move up the track to try and pass the slower cars. 

Jake opted to move to the cushion but he couldn't make the pass there either and Chisholm was able to drive under him with just five laps to go and would then go on for the win, robbing Timm of the double. Sabraski and Cain would finish third and fourth with their spec engined cars. 

Joe Wilbur was a double winner in the Hornets, taking both feature races offered. Keith Tourville would do the same in the Street Stock class. Mod Four winners would be Tyler Larson and Tommy Bawden. The Midwest Mods had a field of fifty drivers plus with Zach Benson and Sabraski doing the winning in those two races. Sabraski was taking his first ride of the year in the MidMods, driving for the owner of Granite City Motor Park. For Sabraski, it was his eight hundred and fiftieth feature win of his career, a remarkable statistic given his age. and the possible time he has left to race. He is in his prime right now and shows no signs of fading as he routinely runs three or four nights a week in a pair of WISSOTA classes. 

Here are the eye opening statistics of the program. The first race started promptly at 5 pm and the final checkered waved at 1:35 am. The afternoon portion of the program consisted of eleven events with one hundred and sixty five laps of racing. 

The second show would start at 9 pm and would consist of twenty five more races and two hundred and eighty two laps of racing. For the day, there would be thirty six races and four hundred and forty seven laps of racing. 

Interestingly, two drivers in the Hornet class would race at other tracks in the area, both getting top five finishes in their feature races. After that, they would load up and travel to Ogilvie, with both arriving in time to run the Hornet feature here and also get top five finishes!

And they're not done either. All five classes have one more show at Ogilvie on Saturday with the biggest money on the line as the Mods will race for eleven grand and with some generous donations, the MidMods will race for five grand. Hopefully, at some point, the guy driving the water truck can get just a short nap in before he's back making laps. 

Mod Wars Interupted by Sky Wars

The third annual USMTS Mod Wars; the USMTS vs. WISSOTA, kicked off on Thursday night, July 13th at the Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie Minnesota. About an hour North of the Twin Cities, the "Big O" is a three eighth mile wide and banked track owned by the Wagamon Family with Nate Fischer in charge as promoter. 

Running WISSOTA classes, six in all on Saturday nights, the track also hosts a number of special events including WoO Late Models and for the first time this year Sprint Cars, along with a couple of special events promoted by FYE Motorsports. Just next Monday, in fact, they will be the opening round of Northern Thunder, a five straight night series of WISSOTA Late Models at tracks in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

So they know the drill when it comes to special events and always have things in order and set to go when traveling series roll into town. This event is an interesting one in that for the only time all year, Todd Staley and USMTS allow another series to run their own rules when it comes to the Modifieds. Normally, when one enters a USMTS event, they must be legal for the series to race. But on this weekend, "The Mod Wars", they allow the WISSOTA cars to run as long as they are legal for WISSOTA but no mixing and matching of rules is allowed. 

This always creates some discussion as to which group has the upper hand. The tires are different with USMTS running their American Racers while the WISSOTA crew has a contract with Hoosier. Some say that four short runs the Hoosiers are superior while long green flag stretches favor the American Racers but who can say for certainty?

For sure that that motor rules favor the USMTS crew as most would agree they are packing an extra hundred horses over the spec engined rules of WISSOTA. So the WISSOTA crew hopes for a slick track to neutralize the horsepower advantage the USMTS crew wants a lot of long, green flag racing. 

Both groups have plenty of star power and while I admit to being slightly biased, I feel the WISSOTA drivers can wheel with anyone in the country if put on an equal basis. 

The Modified field would number forty four for the opening night of three complete shows to be run here this weekend. The quickest driver in time trials overall was Will Krup, the only driver to crack the seventeen second barrier as he went 16.826 seconds. Five heats and a pair of B Features would set the field for the main event. The WISSOTA group had a good start to the evening when three of the five heats were won by WISSOTA cars with Ryan Gierke, Brandon Dolman and Eric Lamb winning heats with Jake Timm and Tyler Wolff winning the other two. Jim Chisholm, Jason Hughes and Rodney Sanders surprised as none ran particularly well in their heats on a track that was quite heavy by Ogilvie standards. 

Also on the card were four other WISSOTA sanctioned divisions including Midwest Mods, Street Stocks, Mod Fours and Hornets. I'm told that the Streets were added when a couple of big sponsors agreed to pay their entire purse so their kids could race this weekend. All had decent numbers of entrants with the MidMods topping the list with forty one of them signed in with one one hundred and thirty nine total entrants. 

The one thing that no one could control was the weather and after a beautiful day, the storm clouds came roaring in rapidly after dark. The show started right on the dot at it's advertised time and because of that and very few yellows in the heats. all the heats except the last MidMod heat and the Hornet heat were completed. 

However, at that time it started to rain and while it never rained super hard at the track, the lightning was fierce and the grandstand was evacuated. Eventually the rain passed and track officials made an attempt to reclaim the track but the surface was just too wet and it was far too humid for any drying to take place. The decision was made to pick up the program right where they had left off, start a couple of hours earlier and then when Thursday night's show is done, move right into the Friday night show. 

For the fans this would be the best choice and it would allow the drivers to collect three checks for the weekend, rather than waste Thursday night. Ticket prices have been adjusted based on the changes. Friday night will now feature a considerable amount of racing with five classes set to complete one program and then move into another . Some new cars are also expected to arrive for the Friday night show, further swelling the pit area. Race time is 5 pm. 

Davenport Wins; Track and City Are Named For Him!

 The dynamite schedule continued at the Davenport Speedway at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport Iowa on Tuesday night, July 11th. This time, it was the Lucas Oil Late Model Series that invaded the quarter mile oval with some of the biggest stars in all of short track dirt racing on hand to battle for the ten grand top prize along with season long points that many are battling for. 

Top flight drivers, top notch announcers, top notch production at a top notch racing facility, what more could a racing fan ask for. A symbiotic relationship currently exists  between the racing fans that attend here and Kay Promotions along with Sixteen Racing Promotions. The promoters provide one of the most aggressive and varied schedules for the fans to see a wide variety of the biggest names in the sport and they respond by attending these races in impressive numbers. And as long as the crowds continue, the promoters will continue to bring in more in the way of varied and attractive events. 

And again on Tuesday, despite an oppressively hot and humid day that even threatened rain at one point, another very large crowd was in attendance to watch the Lucas Oil drivers in action, along with support classes that included both IMCA Late Models and Modifieds. Some big thunderheads developed during the afternoon and a few sprinkles fell at the track but then the clouds parted, the sun came back out to bake us and racing would be certain to happen. 

Ricky and Dr. Al were challenged to provide a racy track for three classes of cars but they also came through again with a fast track and little dust to deal with for the fans. Devin Moran came within a whisker of breaking the track record and while speed alone does not a good track make, the multi groove racing that we would see later would be testament to fine track prep. 

The Lucas Oil Late Model drivers and actually Late Model drivers in general are in the midst of a grueling part of their year long schedule right now with many big races on tap plus lots of point races and travel to go along with that. And the hot Summer heat can't make their jobs much easier. Despite all the things going on right now, thirty two Late Models would sign in to race on Tuesday along with enough Mods and IMCA Late Models for a pair of heats. 

Qualifying is generally not an amusing part of any racing program but it did turn out to be so on Tuesday. For some reason, a lot of the drivers were finding it hard to keep their cars on the track during time trials with many slipping over the banking on this quarter mile that has no outside walls, setting off groans from some in the crowd and titters from others. The best was the last three drivers to qualify who one after another slid over the banking in turn one and followed each other through the outfield of the track, drawing a roar from the crowd. Bad qualifying efforts put a few drivers behind the eight ball early, most notably Tim McCreadie, Hudson O'Neal and Brian Shirley. 

The Lucas cars would be divided into four heats and just one big Jeff Broeg sized B Feature on this night of which six would qualify for the forty lap main event. 

Keeping the program moving along, the Lucas Late Models would be the second feature race of the night, following a rather extensive track prep session that saw them water and rip the track after it appeared to be too bottom side dominant for the IMCA Late Models. This would take some time but would likely be worth it in the long run to make the track the best possible for the featured event of the program. 

Twenty four drivers would take the green for the Lucas Oil Late Model feature that would see only two different leaders and a pretty dominant performance by Jonathan Davenport. He would start on the outside pole and after an exciting first lap that would see him get a good run on the top side of the track with Devin Moran trying to side up and block him and Davenport putting a pretty big wrinkle in Devin's rear quarter panel as he didn't back off and almost turned the Moran car, Davenport would lead the first five laps before Moran would fight his way past to take over the lead. 

Davenport wasn't done though as he fought back and five laps later would drive back around Moran to  take the lead. Davenport would then extend his lead with the best battle for second where Ricky Thornton Jr would move up to challenge Moran for second. By the halfway point of the race, Thornton Jr would take over second but he would not be able to cut into Davenport's lead any more than Moran had. 

The last twenty eight laps of the race would go nonstop with Davenport in control most of the way. In the last ten laps however, Moran would regain second and then start to close on Davenport. Jonathan would get a scare in the last ten laps when he would get too high in turn four and almost slip over the edge of the track. He managed to save it but then dropped a bit lower on the track which gave Moran a chance to gain even more ground. 

Eventually Davenport would get the ship righted and while Moran would continue to cut into the lead. he would run out of laps and have to settle for second with Thornton Jr third. 

The one driver to best make the low side work was Brian Shirley who to that point had a rather miserable night. However, he would make a determined charge on the bottom lane which was pretty much open after most of the field chose to run the cushion. He would start sixteenth and work all the way up to fourth and would probably have been able to move up even further if not for an O'Neal crew member who gave O'Neal the sign to pull low and he managed to block Shirley from advancing further in the last laps. 

Seventeen drivers would finish the race with state drivers having another tough night. Out early and not finishing were Ryan Gustin, Chris Simpson, Spencer Diercks and Tyler Bruening while Chad Simpson failed to even run the B Feature after earlier issues. 

I'm sure that every writer, blogger and reporter has been struggling to come up with a catchy headline to mark the fact that Davenport won at Davenport in the city of Davenport. Hopefully others turned out more clever than mine! It was, however, the first win for Davenport here at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds. 

The IMCA Late Model feature was the first one run and the lower horsepower cars found the inside lane to be too sticky to move out of and the vast majority of the cars hugged the hub for twenty five laps. 

There were three different leaders with Joe Beal leading lap one before being passed by Nick Marolf. However, Marolf couldn't hold the low side either and Andy Nezworski would drive under him and take over the lead on lap three. From then on, he pulled away and would not be challenged.

There would be only one yellow in this race also and the last fifteen laps would click off green to checkered. Nezworski would cruise for the win while two fairly recent additions to this class, Beal and Mike Goben, would both have strong runs to complete the top five. 

Normally strong racers in this class including Justin Kay, Marolf and Matt Ryan all had less than the stellar runs they were looking for. 

Jeff Aikey would start on the pole for the Modified feature and after taking the early lead, it seemed likely that he would just march off for the win. However, that proved to not be the case as Matt Werner came storming up from the third row and got under Aikey for the lead on lap four. After that, despite two yellows that packed the field, Werner would pull away to an impressive win while being unchallenged. 

Brad Dierks, who last weekend was running an open Modified at another track, broke out his IMCA car on Tuesday and would drive from the eighth starting spot to pass Aikey for second and then got on to finish in that position. Mitch Morris and Scott Lemke would also pass Aikey as his choice of running the cushion proved to not be the fast way around this track at the end. 

Only three cars in this fifteen car field failed to finish the race and all were on the lead lap at the finish. 

All racing was completed shortly after 10 pm and for those that were strictly Late Model fans, the Lucas race running second in the order gave them the opportunity to leave early and by the time the final race was over, I was able to drive right out of the fairgrounds, despite the big crowd. Sprinkled in amongst the weekly Friday night racing, the next special for the Late Models will be on Tuesday night, July 25th when the MARS Racing Series brings their program to the Fairgrounds with another top notch field of midwestern based drivers following that series. 

As always, thanks to everyone at Kay Promotions for another good experience at the races. 

Pierce Wins Wild XR Series Event at Dubuque

 The XR Super Series for Late Models made a stop at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on Monday night, July 10th and Bobby Pierce won one of the wilder Late Model races on the season to date with a late race pass on Devin Moran to secure the win. 

There would be four different leaders in this fifty lap main which would have more than its share of wild and unpredictable moments that would include two different leaders having to forfeit their running spots when flat tires would befall them. A couple even had to deal with multiple flats and unbelievably, both would still finish in the top five in the final running order.

Drama would be the name of the game on this Monday night in extreme northeastern Iowa with more twists and turns in this race during during a cheap soap opera on tv. It made for great theatre and the crowd was entertained highly by this wild event. 

A star packed field of forty Late Model drivers, featuring the best from multiple sanctioning bodies, would sign in for this event and very hot and windy Monday night. The track had entertained a regular show of racing in multiple classes on their normal Sunday night on the eve of this race and had a number of uncharacteristic difficulties, including a very dusty and rough race track. This led to concern among the fans that were returning for the Monday night show that more would be in the cards on Monday, especially given the difficult weather circumstances when it came to trying to get moisture into the racing surface. 

However, that proved to not be the case at all. The track prep crew was somehow able to get the track nice and wet and actually led to some extra needed track packing to make it raceable early. Over the course of the night, the track held up nicely and provided multi lane racing as well as a nice healthy berm for the rim runners to bank off of which led to much exciting passing and side by side racing. Any concerns about the track itself were quickly squashed and the big field of Late Models would have plenty of track to race on. 

Interestingly, the program would be a one class only program with no support classes at all. I imagine that I must have seen this at some point along the way although I don't remember running into this recently anywhere. It made for some positive points but also there were times when at least one other class would have been nice to have on the grounds. The Late Models, I'm sure, would have been more than thrilled to relinquish their track packing to some other division and later one during the evening, when some thunderstorms started to loom on the horizon and the show was moved into warp speed to beat any possible weather, the turn around time for some of the cars was brutally short, putting the pit crews under the gun. 

Also, the Late Models pitted up on the hill to the East of the main grandstand and parking lot for this show, a strategy used a few times in recent years. It is a bless for the race teams to pit on blacktop and also provides much easier access for the fans to visit the pits both before the show and after its conclusion. However, on the down side, it takes away a considerable amount of valuable spectator parking and with the crowd on hand, many found themselves a considerable distance away from the main gates with a long walk ahead of them. Much of the Fair packing to the West was available but without the gates on that end of the grounds open, it made for a long walk indeed and it would have been nice with some pre planning to have provided some shuttle transportation to the main entrance for the fans. 

The extra "juice" in the track made for a fast one and Ricky Thornton Jr set a new track record in qualifying with a time of 14.191 seconds. and while often a blinding fast track is not a racy one, this track came in nicely and provided some excellent racing, particularly by feature time. 

The program would include four heats, a pair of B Features and a fifty lap main event. Twenty two cars would qualify for the main with Brian Shirley the series provisional and Luke Merfeld winning the blind draw to become the final entrant. The heat races, while all were won from the front row, provided some hard racing and heart break for both Frankie Heckenast and Bone Larson saw late race drama in the B Features rob them of feature starting spots. 

There would be four different leaders in the Feature race, seven yellows and plenty of drama in between. Thornton Jr would start on the pole and he seemed fast to the point that perhaps no one was going to catch him. Moran, Brandon Sheppard and Hudson O'Neal would chase him in the early going with three yellows in the first eleven laps. The first big change occurred when Sheppard got a flat while battling with Pierce for third, triggering a yellow and sending Brandon in for a tire change. 

Thornton's reign up front would last only four more laps when he also got a flat, this time while still leading the pack and he also triggered a yellow as he made a tire change. This would give O'Neal the lead with Moran, Pierce and Mike Marlar chasing him. 

But it happened once again as on lap eighteen after Tyler Erb and Merfeld had a grinding crash in turn one, O'Neal had a tire go down while he was leading and he too headed to the infield pit for new rubber. 

Moran would now be the leader with Pierce all over him, trying several times with slide jobs to take over the lead but each time Moran would cross him back over and continue as the front runner. Near the halfway point of the race, both O'Neal and Thornton Jr would pit a second time with another flat for each but the rapidly diminishing field would still allow them to work their way back into contention late in the contest. 

A wild battle for position would see both Brian Shirley and Marlar disabled within the last ten laps of the race, setting up two quick sprints to the finish. The final one, with just five laps to go would give Pierce one last shot at Moran. And with just three laps to go, Pierce would hammer the cushion in turn one, get a great run down the back chute and slide under Moran for the lead with Devin just not quick enough to return the favor. Pierce would then step away just far enough that Devin couldn't get back to him and would then drive on for another twenty grand for the win. Moran would finish second and Sheppard, despite a tire change early, would work his way back into a close third and challenging at the end. Both Thornton Jr and O'Neal would overcome double flat tires to round out the top five with only half the field finishing the race. 

Most of the finishers looked like they had been in a war as the track raced fast and hard and while providing much entertainment for the fans, would prove to be a telling one for many of the teams. One can only guess that a lot of man hours will be spent putting things back together with a lot of the teams having a very quick turnaround time until the next important race as it is now that time of the year when something big is happening multiple times for most of these racers. 

For the fans, it was a highly entertaining race that was put on and it was nice to see enough "juice" put into the track that it would hold up for fifty laps and provide the same quality of racing from start to finish. Dubuque has a history of providing some excellent racing and that would hold up on this Monday. 

The crowd was gigantic for this event with long lines of fans waiting to buy their tickets as staff was close to being overwhelmed several times by all the fans wanting to get in and lines I hadn't seen too often for quite some time. I was surprised to see Summer Nationals announcer make yet another side trip in between his duties with that series as he functioned as Race Director on this night. He certainly is putting some serious miles on his new camper for sure.

Special thanks to Operations Manager Bucky Doran for his help on this night as he was enjoying a relatively short trip to carry out his functions on this occasion and getting to see many of the fellow Hawkeye state folks that he worked with for years in his variety of functions within racing. 

Next up for the XR Series is a two day show on July 24th and 25th at the Off Road Raceway in Norfolk Nebraska with a huge one hundred thousand dollar top prize awaiting the winner on July 25th.  

Pierce and Jim Chisholm Score Last Lap Thrillers at Deer Creek

 Saturday night, July 8th, found me back at the Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley Minnesota for the concluding night of the 44th annual NAPA Gopher 50, these days run at a distance of seventy five laps as opposed to the 50 that was run back when this event was held at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna Minnesota. Featured on this night would be the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series and the Modifieds of the USRA. 

For the Late Models, all the qualifying was taken care of on Thursday and Friday nights and the program on Saturday for them would consist of two, Last Chance races and the main event. The Modifieds, as they had done on the two previous nights, would be running a full program of heats and a feature race, with more money on the line on Saturday night. 

The track was jammed to the gills with race fans and it was announced that this night would feature the largest crowd in the history of the Deer Creek Speedway, a history that has included any number of very large and important events. Great weather and good promotion by the group that runs the Gopher 50 certainly helped as this remains one of the few racing events where the promoters and organizers of this race actually go out and "beat the bush", visiting other tracks to try and round up fans to attend and actually talk to the drivers ahead of the race to try and encourage them to attend. This is "old school" promoting, something painfully missing from the strategies of most promoters these days that would prefer to send out a group text and hope that works, rather than actually talking to drivers, car owners and such, which takes a lot more work but also produces results. 

The facility was tested to the max to provide both parking and seating for all those that wanted to attend and the traffic jam getting out of the track afterward was epic. One learns quickly that the best strategy is to roam around and perhaps head for the pits after the race but not be in any hurry to leave. Unfortunately, many of the race teams chose to violate their own principles, instead loading the race cars and barreling out the gate, rather than hanging around and greeting their fans and perhaps selling a few t shirts along the way. They are as guilty as their promoter brethren much of the time. 

An example of the crowd size would find the night's 50/50 Split the Pot to be at over nine thousand dollars, a nice amount for one lucky fan to take home. See, racing does pay off in the long run!

All the Lucas Late Models did return from Thursday night action except one and that was Terry Casey who's car was plagued with mechanical issues and he headed back to Wisconsin. So there would be thirty seven battling to make the main with twenty locked in as a result of points earned on Thursday and Friday and the rest split into a pair of B Features. There would also be the required provisional starters from both Lucas and MLRA as this was a co-sanctioned race, thus producing some of the fodder in the feature that the leaders would have to negotiate as quite frankly, some of the provisional cars shouldn't even be on the track except for their loyalty points. 

Leon Plank, from Mondovi Wisconsin, was the Grand Marshall for this race as he was the winner of the very first Gopher 50 back at the Chateau Speedway. It was great to see Leon on hand, looking fit as he now lives in Florida and just drops in occasionally to visit family and some of his old racer friends. I got to see Leon race a lot of times over the years as he cut his teeth in racing at tracks I attended on a weekly basis and I was witness to his growth as a driver as he started with his home built cars from down in the sloughs of Gilmanton Wisconsin to racing for national fame and honors. 

A large NAPA sticker on the side of the Late Models would add a thousand dollars to the winner purse, and all had them on but in true 2023 driver fashion, many were complaining that the stickers were too big and they found trouble finding a place for them with all their other "freebie" contingency sponsors plastered on the cars. 

The Late Model B Features clicked off smoothly and nonstop and there would be an early start to the Lucas 75 lap feature. That was a good thing because the actual main took nearly an hour to run off. The track had been totally "farmed" for the Late Model feature and the main event cars had to roll the track to the point that they requested and received a fuel stop to top off before the first green flag ever flew! That would be another first for me perhaps. 

The race itself was not a classic, despite what some will say because of the thrilling and tight finish. The race had nine yellow flags and was way too broken up to qualify for elite status, at least in my humble opinion. The longest stretch of green flag racing was the first eighteen laps before the first yellow flew when Stormy Scott stalled on the track. After that, the yellow flew routinely at anywhere from every eight to ten laps, making it a race of bursts and then delays. 

That did, however, allow a number of drivers to make surges forward but then seemingly tail off after their burst wore off. Chris Madden was a good example as he led the first thirty five laps before he was passed by Hudson O'Neal. Madden would eventually finish fourth after falling back even farther than that. 

O'Neal, Tim McCreadie and Jonathan Davenport would be early challengers to Madden with Brandon Overton and Brandon Sheppard later becoming a part of the lead pack also. Pierce would move up from a tenth starting spot, cracking the top five by lap thirty five and continuing to advance through the field. 

Yellows were plentiful sprinkled throughout the race but all were for one car spins or stalls with not a single crash to be reported. The last two laps or so would turn into a three car battle with O'Neal still leading but fighting off Pierce and Sheppard as they also battled with each other for position. 

The last ten laps would go green to checkered, following a Lucas rule that would line the cars up single file for that sprint to the finish. O'Neal seemed to be in a good place as he maintained his lead over Pierce with both hammering the wall all the way around the track. It had turned into a top side dominant track and while it was fast up there, it was also very tricky. Even with five to go, O'Neal seemed in control but on the last two laps he started to struggle getting off the corners as Pierce went for broke. 

On the final lap, Pierce got a good run off the back chute and threw a wicked slider on O'Neal, clearing him barely as they entered turn four. O'Neal tried to cross over Pierce as they raced the final few feet to the checkered and the winner was ?. I couldn't tell as 500 people jumped up in front of me and I didn't see anything of the finish except the back of some dude from Cedar Rapids. For all I could tell, James Parker was the winner. 

No, not really but I didn't see a thing of the dramatic moment, something that still peeves me greatly a  number of hours later.  Dustin Jarrett does a wonderful job of reminding folks just before the green flag is waved for any race he is announcing that if everyone remains in their seats, then everyone can see as so many folks are intent of taking video of the start of races and to hell with the people behind them. Unfortunately, people have short memories and that request wasn't followed as the last lap unfolded so my report is one with last lap holes in it. 

Lucas officials took several moments to review video of the finish(apparently no one stood in front of their camera!) and even checked to make sure the transponders on both cars racing for the line were mounted in the same place on the cars before awarding the win to Pierce by .002 seconds. Sheppard, Madden and Davenport would complete the top five. 

And while the Late Model race had a wild finish, the Modifieds may have topped their fendered cousins with a real doozy of a main. Thirty cars would start the Modified feature after lining up for the start in a three wide fashion. And they they would go thirty five laps nonstop! I repeat, thirty five laps nonstop with only four not finishing the race. That would produce some great racing and while there would be only three different leaders of the race, it would be a three car battle for the win on the final lap. 

Rodney Sanders started on the pole and would lead the first fifteen laps before Jake Timm would move up from the seventh starting spot to drive past Sanders and take over the lead. However, Timm would soon be challenged by the "young gun" that is taking this track by storm and that is Jim Chisholm. 

Working the high side of the track after falling back early Chisholm would fight his way back into the top five and then start moving even faster forward. He, Aaron Benson and Carlos Ahumada Jr would be in the top five at the midpoint of the race but Chisholm would continue to charge. 

The leaders got into lapped traffic which was very heavy and Timm was nearly passed on several occasions by Sanders as Chisholm was still hustling to try and get into that lead duo. Timm made a couple nice moves to clear himself from traffic and it appeared that would be enough to bring home the win. 

However, in the last couple of laps both Sanders and Chisholm started to close up at a rapid pace, even as the top three weaved their way through slower cars. The last lap dramatics were powerful as the leaders found themselves three wide. Chisholm would drive by on the top side while Sanders would sneak inside Timm and poor Jake, who as leading with just one lap to go, found himself crossing the line in third as both got past him in what was a remarkable finish. This race would wind up having just as much drama as the Late Model feature but without all the annoying yellow flag slowdowns. It was certainly one for the books.  Benson and Lucas Schott would complete the top five. 

With the nonstop finale, the complete racing program was done by 11 pm which wasn't bad considering but it would have been as early as the first two nights if not for all the Late Model yellows. Nevertheless, I think everyone headed home feeling that they had seen a good racing program and one that would leave them with plenty of memories and things to take about in the upcoming days and weeks. Management loves that and hopes that folks will reup their tickets for 2024 at the first possible chance. An announcement of just what the plans are for next year is supposed to be coming in the days ahead but if anything, it will likely be even bigger as this event was clearly a home run for all involved. 

The Deer Creek management always seems to go that extra mile to make a race memorable and they seemed to do so once again. Thanks to Cole Queensland and the whole staff at Deer Creek, along with the Lucas Oil folks for some excellent racing this weekend. As I was walking out of the grandstand, two gentlemen that are as responsible as anyone for the success and history of this race were in conversation, perhaps about next year. They were former track owner Randy Queensland, the man most responsible for upgrading this track and making it the facility that it is, and Jerry Ingvalson, who's idea it was to have the first Gopher 50 those many years ago and still beats the pits of other tracks. lining up drivers for the show every year. The stories they could tell would probably be enough to fill a book. 

Moran Fires Opening Volley at Gopher 50; Jim Chisholm Tops the Modifieds

 The 44th annual NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 opened up on Thursday night, July 6th at the Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley Minnesota. Under Lucas Oil sanctioning this year again, this three night event will pay the winner $50,000 for their efforts on Saturday night when this three night event wraps up. Along with the Lucas Oil Late Models, the USRA Modifieds will be running three full shows with an increased purse for the finale on Saturday night also. However, the Modified show will be lined up each night by the results of that night while the Late Model finale will lock in twenty drivers based on points earned during the first two nights of racing with the rest earning their way in during Saturday action. Trying to be one of the drivers that is guaranteed a starting spot in Saturday night's seventy five lap main, the drivers of the Late Models would engage in some rather "pithy battles" right from the start here on Thursday. Likely some friendships were strained and some new rivalries started based on what would later happen during the Thursday night show. 

The Gopher 50 is one of the longest running Late Model specials in the Midwest with a long an rich history as many of the biggest names have raced in the event over its long history. I am happy to say that I was there from the beginning, seeing the first two events in its history played out at the Chateau Speedway near Lansing Minnesota, a track that is currently not even operating. After the race grew too big for Chateau, it was moved to the Steele County Fairgrounds track in Owatonna where it had many great years of providing racing memories to fans of the Midwest at its huge half mile oval and gigantic grandstand. There were lots of special moments at that track over the years and I was lucky enough to be the official reporter for that race for many years. Eventually, with the rising of Deer Creek and increasingly hostile feelings by city officials in Owatonna, the race was moved to Deer Creek where it now is held annually. I had a record for many years of never missing a Gopher but that was broken several years ago when they went to a Saturday night show and I was unable to attend. But, such is life. There probably aren't very many people left that have attended every Gopher except for the original organizer Jerry Ingvalson , who I spoke to as he was making the rounds in the pits on Thursday. 

Thirty eight Late Models signed in to race on Thursday including the top twelve in Lucas points and eighteen of the top twenty. These days, even a race paying fifty big ones to win struggles to get cars, especially here in the upper Midwest where open Late Models are not hanging from every tree branch like they are in certain other parts of the country. I had run into Ingvalson at a couple of other races earlier this year as he was trying to drum up drivers for this race and he candidly said that if they got forty he would be happy, so his prediction was pretty darn close. Likely, with the point format in operation here, there will be no second day additions to the driver's lists. 

Thirty Modifieds were on hand which included most of the top drivers at Deer Creek along with some traveling stars running here during an off week for them with their next big race coming the following week in East Central Minnesota. Among the entrants on this night was current USMTS point leader Rodney Sanders who lists his home as in Texas but truly lives most of the year in southern Minnesota. 

The folks at Deer Creek run a very well managed program with top officials in all categories at the track. They have excellent announcers, good track workers, and management people in charge that know how to manage what is a big business here in southern Minnesota. They also know how to treat the fans correctly and politely, and seldom misstep like so many other tracks have done and continue to do so. And unlike a lot of tracks, they make you feel welcome and appreciated and that is something sadly missing at so many tracks these days, especially with all the competition for the fan's dollars. 

Even with the change of ownership here at the track in the last year, with Cole Queensland now owning the majority of the track but their family having sold just under a 50% ownership to Mike Sorensen of Rochester, things continue to operate smoothly here. Sorensen, by the way, was a great Modified racer in his day and his son Dustin is the current defending USMTS who now is focusing driving Late Models as the house driver from Jimmy and Chris Mars' MB team. 

The program on this Thursday would be the usual program as followed by Lucas, with qualifying followed by four heats, a pair of B Features with no provisional starters in the main that would see twenty four take the green flag. My only beef with these multi day programs is that the preliminary feature races are only twenty five laps and in that short of time, normally a lot isn't accomplished as the race is over before many can even get going. The race on Thursday later would be an exception to the normal rule however. And while I know that these preliminary features "only" pay five grand to win, the fans that come to watch are still paying top dollar and really deserve to see a few more laps of Late Model racing. 

An interesting twist on this night's racing would see Brandon Sheppard in the Rumley car, normally driven by Kyle Larson and I believe, the first time that Sheppard has driven for the Rumley's. All the other top Lucas drivers were on hand and they went at it with special fury it seemed on this night. The track was racy right from the get-go, and slide jobs were prominent and not always pretty. Hudson O'Neal and Ricky Thornton Jr got "into it" early on and that would continue during the main event. There were others too that had a tough time in the early going and Thornton Jr, Tim McCreadie and Max Blair were among the many that had to run a B Feature just to get into the main. 

Later, Tyler Bruening, Johnny Scott and Boom Briggs were among the many that had to watch the main from the pits. 

On this night, the Late Model program would be first to race and first to finish and the sun was barely setting on the western horizon when the Late Model feature was called to the track. And boy o boy, the twenty five lap main was full of action and drama. Daulton Wilson, seeking his first ever Lucas victory would grab the lead over fast qualifier Bobby Pierce to lead the first laps. Pierce, Jonathan Davenport and Devin Moran would all race as a pack close behind him. 

The race was stopped with eight laps complete when Shane Clanton would go OVER the wall in turn three and end up out near the parking lot outside the track. I have been to any number of races at Deer Creek over the years but that is the first time I can recall a car actually clearing the wall. Truth be told, as the dirt has built up over the years, the wall is really not very tall in a lot of spots and it would not take too much, given the proper circumstances, for such a thing to happen. Clanton was OK and the race resumed  but then wild things started to happen. 

Leader Wilson suddenly pulled up short with a flat tire and just as the yellow flew, Pierce was making a big charge in turn four and clobbered the outside wall very hard, damaging his car. Bobby tried to take the green on the restart as the new leader but his car was only pulling on one side with  a broken axle, and after nearly stacking up the field, the yellow flew again and Pierce called it a race. 

This gave the lead to Moran, who had been moving up without all the drama that was attached to some of the others. And once in the lead, he slowly and smoothly drew away from the field with the last fourteen laps going green to checkered. While Davenport and Sheppard went at it for the second spot, Moran pulled away from the field with a line that saw him low in turns three and four and riding the banking in turns one and two. 

The top three would finish in that order. McCreadie didn't need his rear wheels the last five laps as Tyler Erb kept coming up behind him, trying to pass and lifting the rear end of McCreadie's car right off the ground. That can't be a pleasant feeling at racing speed. On the last corner O'Neal and Thornton Jr got into it again with Ricky coming out on the short end of the stick and losing a couple spots. Perhaps cooler heads will prevail for tomorrow's show and this will stop, but knowing race drivers, my bet is no, it won't stop until someone gets wrecked. 

A post race situation between Thornton Jr and O'Neal where Thornton Jr. hit the other driver's car after the race was over resulted in Thornton Jr being disqualified from the event which I believe also means that he lost his points for the night and likely will now have to run a B Feature on Saturday just to get into the main event. 

Despite the fact that the race was only twenty five laps and saw only two yellows, there were some drivers that made impressive charges including McCreadie who came from seventeenth to fourth, Erb from eleventh to fifth, O'Neal from twenty first to eleventh and Dustin Sorensen from twenty third to tenth. This was especially impressive given that only Pierce, Clanton and Stormy Scott, who dropped out on the pace lap, didn't complete the race and all cars were on the lead lap. For a twenty five lap "Saturday night" special, it was quite an impressive race. 

With thirty cars, the Modifieds ran three heats and B Feature to set their twenty six car field for the main event. J. T. Wasmund would lead the first two laps after starting on the pole but it took only three laps for Jim Chisholm, the quickly rising next super star in Modified racing, to pass Wasmund and take over the lead. 

And once in front, he would just pull away from the field, leaving the pack to battle  for second and other positions behind him. The race was stopped only one when Josh Angst broke on the track and on the restart, Chisholm would again pull away from the field. 

While he was smoothly out front, there was a good battle for second with Carlos Ahumada, all the way from Texas for this show, holding off Lucas Schott to get the runner up honors. Aaron Benson and Brandon Davis would complete the top five with only three cars not on the track at the finish. Other local drivers held up well with Sanders having to settle for ninth. 

For the opening night of this three night affair, a large crowd was in attendance with the opening night 50/50 winner taking home over twenty five hundred dollars. The track provided live music after the races on both Thursday and Friday night so they make a special effort to move the show along quickly and all racing was done just after 10 pm on this night. Lucas announcer James Essex reported that according to Campground Manager Bill Nelson, the track was seeing a record number of campers registering for the three night extravaganza, a good sign that the crowds will be big as the weekend arrives. 

As usual, it is always a treat to visit Deer Creek and reengage with so many people that I have met there over the years including Cole Queensland, track announcers Todd Narveson and Tracy Passe, Bill Nelson,  Lucas announcers Ben Shelton and Dustin Jarrett and many others. Thanks go out to all of them for their help. 

Pollard Leads All The Way In Osborn Memorial at Inde

 Wednesday night, July 5th, the Denny Osborn Memorial Race was held at the Independence Motor Speedway in Independence Iowa. It was also the first night of the Buchanan County Fair which goes through Saturday night, featuring some big name entertainment as well as dirt track racing. All six classes that normally race at Independence would be a part of this program on Wednesday night. The normal Monday Night Madness purse structure would be in effect for this event with the Late Models, Stock Cars, Modifieds and Sport Mods all racing for a grand to win with the Hobby Stocks running for five hundred dollars and the Sport Compacts $250. However, there were also a number of other contributions to the purse, primarily because it was the Osborn Memorial and the winner would actually go home with over twenty three hundred dollars in his pocket.

It was interesting scheduling for this event with a Monday Night Madness race held just two days earlier on July 3rd and then to come right back two days later would be challenging I would think. However, this date was probably set in stone based on when the Fair was in session. It also seems quite odd that a County Fair would start the day after the 4th of July but that was the case. In any event, I'm not complaining as it gives me a chance to attend anther event at Inde on a week night. 

There were some storms rumbling around the state of Iowa on Wednesday but the forecast improved quite dramatically for the local area and other than one very light shower in the early afternoon, Independence remained high and dry. In fact, by race time the humidity was exiting the area and cooler weather moving in. 

I must admit that I was slightly disappointed in the car count for this event. I would have thought that with the money being offered and on a non competing night that more racers would have been on hand. Perhaps the weather can be blamed slightly but more likely the face that after an extended weekend with lots of racing in the state, a lot of people had to go back to work on this day and a lot of people simply couldn't get here for this race. Still, with one hundred and one cars signed in, it was not a poor count. But I would have expected just a few more, particularly in the Late Model field. The highest car count was in the Modifieds where twenty five of them signed in with a B Feature first needed until scratches following the heats made that unnecessary. 

Track icon Jim Roper was calling the action solo on this night and he mentioned that such personalities as Ed and Karl Sanger, Curt Martin and Jerry Mackey were all in the house on this night, none of which I happened to run into. The crowd was a very late arriving one but there was a good turnout of folks by the time the racing started which was just after 7 pm. 

Some extra work was being put in on the track surface itself which seemed just a bit loose early on. However, it rolled in very nicely and was smooth as could be. It did, however, form a huge berm all the way around the track that was quite ominous. It was the fast route to go for most of the night but was also very tricky with any number of drivers hitting it incorrectly, sending them either over the banking or perhaps spinning back across the track. An extensive track working session again was held after the heat races, with the heats only taking sixty two minutes to complete. There was some thought that perhaps the Late Models would be sent out on a fresh track to run their feature first, given the importance of their event, but the heat race running order was continued to the mains which then saw the  Hobby Stocks first out on to the track for their main event. 

The six feature races would prove eventful with several big slips and passes altering the course of the action that also included one winner being disqualified in post race inspection. 

Tyler Ball would take the Hobby Stock feature but it would prove to be a tough race. He would take the initial lead , be passed one lap later by Will Bird and then retake the lead on the following lap. Zach McNeese would start sixth and eventually move into second and put the pressure on Ball.

 Three yellow flags in the second half of the race would keep things packed and tight but Ball would never forfeit the lead. A late race scramble would see Jacob Floyd move into second with Bradly Graham  moving into third ahead of McNeese. The win was Ball's third of they year here and I have now seen two of them as he won the last time I was here. 

A late race pass and a post race disqualification were all a part of the Stock Car feature which was stopped six times by the yellow flag for a variety of spins and collisions. Kaden Reynolds would take the early lead off the pole as it took four attempts to get the first lap completed. Early developments saw two of the biggest challengers eliminated when Damon Murty first went off the track over the berm and then was involved in a wreck that saw him leave behind a wrecker. 

Tom Schmitt broke his front end early on and he wobbled his car to the pits as he was done also. All these yellows helped Cole Mather who started thirteenth work his way up to second behind Reynolds by the halfway point of the race. After that, it was a two car race with both running the risky but fast high side where one slip could prove fatal. 

And that's what happened to Reynolds on lap fifteen with only five laps to go when he jumped the cushion in turn four and by the time he fought his way back onto the track, he was in second as Mather had passed him. Attempts to catch up didn't work as he only fell farther behind as Mather drove on to the win. 

But did he? As it turns out, something bad happened to him in the post race inspection and he was disqualified from the event, giving the win back to Reynolds. Tanner Allen would be officially second with Leah Wroten third. 

It was a bad night all around for Mather. The reason he started so far back in the feature was due to a spin in his heat where he ended up spinning backwards and climbing up a big tractor tire with the rear end of the car elevated quite high into the air and requiring a wrecker to remove him and place him back on the earth. 

The berm would play a part in the Modified feature but eventually, Dylan Thornton would overcome its effects. Thornton started on the outside pole of the race and would get the jump on Jerry King for the early lead. In fact, in a race that would only be stopped once before a lap was completed, Thornton would be the primary leader for most of the race. Jeff Aikey would work his way into second after starting fifth and would chase Thornton but Jeremy had a comfortable lead, as comfortable as one could be while working that tricky berm. 

However, when he went to pass a slower car, Thornton got too high on the front chute and got over the brink, allowing Aikey to pass him. Thornton did a great job fighting his way back on to the track though, and only lost one spot. And later, he was able to get back in his groove and repass Aikey to take the lead back. And once he did that, he would prove to be unpassable as he would drive on for the win. Aikey would settle for second with Dallon Murty making a late drive into third. 

A small field of Sport Mods would take the green for their main event with Tony Olson moving from the second row to grab the lead before a single lap was completed. Brayton Carter, who had a bad heat run and would start ninth, would gradually work his way to the front as he became one of the first to test the low side of the track and he found it to work. 

With pressure from Carter, Olson would flub in turn three and jump the cushion and by the time he fought his way back on to the track, Carter had taken the lead. Brayton changed things up during the second half of the race, running both top side and also on the bottom as he experimented with the best line. 

Olson continued to struggle was while he still held second, he again jumped the cushion and lost time. Carter would cross the line with room to spare and record his nineteenth feature win of 2023. Olson would take second with Rayce Mullen third. 

Then it would be Late Model time and the move of the night was made on the opening lap when Eric Pollard managed to drive from the inside of the second row to grab the lead before the first lap was even completed. The reason that was so important was that the Late Models all went to the inside of the track and after seeing most of the cars race the berm earlier, the Late Models all went cat fishing on the bottom, where the track took rubber immediately and passing became very difficult. 

There were some problems in this race with the yellow waving on five occasions but each time Pollard would fight off any challenges, hold his inside line and then pull away. Everyone pretty much settled in and there would be little passing unless someone slipped off the rubber after that. 

Pollard maintained and then pulled away in the late going, winning without a challenge. Evan Miller, who started on the pole, would drive home for a fine second place finish and Sean Johnson would finish third. It was a bit of a surprise and disappointing to see the track take rubber like it did which certainly limited the racing after that.

Later on I would find that there were varying opinions on whether or not the track was indeed taking rubber or that it was just super slick and smooth on the inside line and that made it appear that way. Not being a track prep expert by any means, I just went by what my eyes were telling me and by the way the drivers reacted to the conditions and where they raced. Several people that know a lot more about track prep and tires later would inform that the track didn't take rubber but that it was just smooth and slick and for some reason the Late Model drivers just chose to line up and run the bottom. They claimed that the berm was fast but that no one wanted to attempt that line. It would have perhaps taken more than just one driver to make that top side work effectively and that never happened. 

I guess all I can say definitively  was that with everyone running the low groove and just lining up, it did not make for the kind of race that I and others were hoping for, not matter the reason and circumstances. I believe that to be a fair statement. 

Sport Compacts would wrap up the show and William Michel, who started on the pole, would lead all laps of what would be a nonstop main for the Sport Compacts. He was driving a borrowed car and one that I believe belongs to John Gill, but the taped on number didn't slow him down as he pulled away from the field , unchallenged for the win. 

Second place would go to Steven Schmitz with Lukas Ricks making an exciting drive for third. The rest of the field was hugging the rubber on the inside while  Ricks was bouncing off the cushion all the way around, making a speedy run on what was about twice as long of a track as everyone else was running. Still, he managed to move up from eighth to third. 

It was a busy night in the tech area as a total of four cars were disqualified for a variety of naughty offenses with the other three coming during heat race action with two of the three returning to the track later. 

All racing was completed around 10:30 pm on a most comfortable evening in north central Iowa. Thanks to MVG and Dana Benning and their whole crews, as always. The next Monday Night Madness event at Inde will be on August 7th. 

Blackberg Tops Eagle River Zdroik Memorial

 At one time, some of the season's biggest special events were held on the 4th of July. I can remember traveling to various race tracks all over the Midwest on the 4th of July for specials and other open events, often with the evening concluding with fireworks. Now, however, it's tough to even find a race on the 4th of July to attend. 

Fortunately for me, I did find such a special event and it was only about two and a half hours straight East of me in Eagle River Wisconsin. For the second time this season, I attended the races at the Eagle River Speedway with the Mark Zdroik Memorial race for Stock Cars being the featured race. 

As you might recall, Eagle River Speedway is a Tuesday night race track, certainly one of the rare tracks in the entire country that has their regular race night on Tuesday. So it was not near as much a stretch for them to race on the 4th of July since it was their regular race night anyway. However, with the help of some very generous sponsors, much extra money was attached to the purse on this night with the Stock Car feature paying two thousand dollars to win and one hundred and twenty five dollars to start, unheard of figures for this little track nestled in the woods of northern Wisconsin. 

Thunderstorms were lurking all around the state of Wisconsin on Tuesday and I actually had recorded nearly an inch of rain at my place before I left for Eagle River. However, the line of storms marching toward Eagle River split as it neared that city and they saw no more than just a few sprinkles of rain early in the evening. Another line was due later but that got postponed also so they really were fortunate on this night to get their race in. However, the belief was that the dire forecast probably hurt the car count just a little as the expected onrush of cars from the Fox River Valley for this event instead turned into just a trickle. No matter, though, as they still had plenty of cars to put on a show. 

In fact, for a track that doesn't get a lot of cars for their weekly shows, they had full fields in three of their four classes with only the Late Models, a unique class to this area, having a smaller field but one that remains constant from week to week. It seems to me that they might have turned the corner in getting more local racers with the vast majority of those running on Tuesday from the general area. There are rumblings that a couple of tracks that have been closed in this area might reopen and that would likely also help produce more local entrants. 

The Stock Car field was the largest of the night with twenty one of them entered, which is enough for track management to schedule a B Feature as twenty five is a lot for this rather tight race track. However, mechanical issues on a couple of cars ended their nights early and management opted to start all nineteen running without a B Feature as the weather continued to threaten. Interestingly, four of the track's Street Stocks opted to run both classes and try to race as Stock Cars with Ryan Brown doing the best as he actually finished fifth in the Stock Car feature. 

The race schedule was moved up on this night with an early start time due to the fact that fireworks was scheduled to conclude the evening and they wanted to get to them reasonably early while also knowing the unlike most Tuesday nights, most folks weren't working on this day and could get to the track earlier than normal. Racing would begin just after 7 pm with two heats for the B Mods and Streets while the Stock Cars ran three, the Late Models one and heats were also held for the 300 and 600 Micro Sprints which are a part of the weekly program also.

Management wisely decided to run the Stock Car feature first to make sure that it would be completed in case bad weather hit. Nineteen cars would start the main, scheduled for thirty laps but instead cut to twenty , again perhaps because of the weather. David Blackberg, second in track points here, would draw the pole and that proved to be a race killer as he would lead the entire event and never be challenged. Often special races here turn into yellow flag plagued events with some drivers over driving this tricky track and producing lots of race slowdowns. However, this night was not one of them as there was only one yellow flag during this race. 

Actually it turned into a red flag as Jonathan Miller was nudged into one of the dreaded infield tractor tires, clipped it and turned over on his roof. He was fine and the stoppage was a short one. Eric Mahlik moved moved into second early as he tried to run the higher line on the track, sometimes a successful one but always a tricky lane. 

Mahlik, by the way, is a former offensive lineman for the University of Wisconsin Badgers  who was a starter on one of the Badger teams to win a Rose Bowl game. However, the outside line was just not working on this night as the track seemed a bit drier than normal, perhaps based on the weather forecast. 

In any event, it was Blackberg who would lead from start to finish with the last fifteen laps of the race going nonstop. Jason Zdroik, one of many Zdroik family members racing on this night, would finish second with Hot Rod Snellenberger completing the top five. Zdroik generally races in just the Late Model and B Mod class but pulled triple duty on this night driving one of the other family members cars. Jared Siefert and Mahlik would complete the top five with visitors doing well at the finish but a local would take the big money. 

The B Mod feature would see Upper Peninsula driver Dave Dishaw make a bold outside move on lap nine to pass another U.P. driver, Frank "The Tank" Gasperini and take the victory. Jason Zdroik would add a third place in this class to his runner up finish in the Stock Cars. 

However, Zdroik was not done yet. He would then just into his Late Model, take the lead on lap two of that race and run away with the win, making for a very productive evening for the local driver. Jim Zdroik, another relative would finish third and yet another Zdroik, Austin, would complete the top three. 

The Street Stock feature would be a two car battle from start to finish. Emerson Manos would take the lead from the outside pole and lead much of the contest with Quentin Morrison moving in to challenge him. With just five laps remaining in the race, Manos would get hung up in lapped traffic and Morrison would slip under him and take over the lead. The last five laps would be his and he would cross under the checkered from the starter as he would win his first ever feature race on the 4th of July. The last few laps would not go well for Manos as he would get shuffled back to fourth with Blake Hartman and Jason Melton both passing him. 

Racing would conclude around 10 pm and then it was time for the last event on the program, the fireworks display. The Mark Zdroik Memorial would honor the owner of Harry's Fireworks with a whiz banger of a fireworks display as a multitude of colors reigned over the Northwoods on this night to conclude the racing program. 

As expected, a packed house was on hand this night during the height of the tourist season in northern Wisconsin. It certainly didn't hurt that the city of Eagle River decided not to have a fireworks display this year so the one close by at the track was a handy alternative. The 50/50 Split the Pot was over fourteen hundred dollars on this night as they tourists brought their cash with them to the track. 

As always, insight and extra information was provided to me by veteran publicist  and track announcer Joe Verdegan. Thanks to him and all of the Zdroik family members for an entertaining night of racing. It was also entertaining on the trip home. Lightning flashed in all directions while we had just a few sprinkles. Also, it you want to see wild life, just take this trip at night. I had to stand the car on its nose three times on the way home, one for a monster buck that was trotting right through the city of St. Germaine.