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.
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