Jake Timm would earn an easy victory in the Rumble By The River 40 on Friday night, August 18th at his father's Mississippi Thunder Speedway located North of Fountain City Wisconsin. Things worked out just perfectly for the family as not only did Timm win the feature at the family track, Jake's sponsor Hurco was the title sponsor of the event. This race was sanctioned by the Wisconsin based Dirt Kings Late Model series and a part of a two night swing that will see them head West to the Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley Minnesota to wrap up the their weekend.
Four other USRA classes would race in a regular point night for those divisions in a program that would, unfortunately, run until the wee hours of the morning, making it a long night for all concerned. Stock Cars, B Mods, Limited Late Models and Hobby Stocks would all be racing full shows on this night with only the Modifieds given the night off, likely so they would be available to race at the big event in Mason City that is also being held this weekend.
One thing you can always say about the Dirt Kings drivers that can't always be said about other regional traveling series is that they support their series by going to whatever track they are being asked to race at. No matter, it seems, where ever the race and no matter how hard it is to get there, the Dirt Kings regulars always seem to show up, no matter if they are feature race winner material or not. Their support is commendable but given the fact that eastern based Wisconsin Late Model opportunities to race are so limited, it is also many times the only show in town, so if they don't race the Dirt Kings and that series would happen to go away because of small numbers, they would have no racing at all on the whole eastern side . of the state.
The field of drivers on Friday night numbered forty, a spectacular turnout for this event. The top ten in points were all on hand and seventeen of the top twenty were in the pits. Along with the Dirt Kings drivers, quite a large number of the western Wisconsin based WISSOTA drivers were also on hand too. Some were driving their spec engined cars while others were in open motors for this show which is a series that mixes the rules between the open and spec engined cars. Always the open motored cars seem to have an advantage but the spec engines have enough success that they continue to try, week after week.
New in an open motor car on this night was Sam Mars, who has always drove his spec engine car against the open motored cars in the events he has run with various series over the past couple of years but tonight, for the first time, he would be in one of the yellow #28 cars with an open motor. This would be the same car that Tyler Erb raced in the XR event at Red Cedar recently.
This race is also close enough to their home territories that a couple of Iowa based teams were on hand in Spencer Diercks and Tyler Bruening along with Illinois driver Justin Reed. I really thought also, that with it being a slow week for specials in the mid parts of the country and tracks like MTS and Deer Creek racing these cars this weekend that there would be some Illinois UMP cars on hand. That proved to be incorrect but as it was, there were more than enough cars for a show. It should also be pointed out that Bruening debuted a brand new Longhorn chassis for this event as the rumblings about him doing so for the last few weeks were finally fulfilled.
The Dirt Kings Series qualifies the cars a pair at a time which made the time trial session last quite awhile, putting the whole program behind right to start with. Timm would be the quick qualifier at 14.206 seconds, starting off his perfect night that would also see him win the first heat. The Dirt Kings does redraw all the heat winners against each other and the second place finishers in the heats against each other to set the top four rows on this night.
Local favorite Jordan Yaggy would draw the pole with A.J. Diemel outside of him. Before the Late Model feature, Bob Timm would completely farm the track, tickling it and then watering it and thus it would be bad fast for the entire forty laps of the feature race with most drivers finding the top side to carry the most speed.
With track and series provisional starters established, twenty six drivers would take the green flag for the forty lap main. Yaggy would get the jump and lead the opening laps while Diemel would go way too hard into turn one, smash the wall hard and drop back and then out of the race very early. Timm would start third and was soon on Yaggy's tail as they caught the back of the pack before ten laps could be completed.
Racing down the back chute in heavy traffic, Yaggy got hung up behind a slower car and Timm was quick to jump outside of him, drive into the lead and thus then lead the rest of the race. Shortly after, on lap sixteen, the first yellow flew for a spinning car.
After this point, it would be Timm out front and except for two more yellows, both in the first half of the race, he would simply drive away from the field and establish a huge lead that no one could cut into. Yaggy would soon receive a challenge from series point leader Nick Anvelink who would work under Yaggy several times but not quite be able to take over second. Brett Swedberg and Iowa's Gunnar Frank were also having good runs in the first half of the event.
Bruening started deep in the field after having to run a B Feature as he sorted out his new car but he would eventually move up steadily through the pack, cracking the top five after the third and final yellow on lap thirty three when a stalled car on the back chute would slow the action.
Anvelink took his only shot at Timm following that yellow as he nearly got under Timm off turn four on the restart but couldn't close the deal and Timm would then drive off and leave the field in his wake, driving blinding fast laps right up against the concrete wall all the way around the track, the way he races best when conditions permit. The last few laps would see Bruening try and steal away second and he very nearly pulled it off but Anvelink would hold off his last lap charge to finish second with Bruening coming from nineteenth to finish third. Yaggy and Jake Redetzke would complete the top five with eighteen cars still on the track at the finish.
The USRA Limited Late Models would also be a part of the program with thirteen of them taking the green for their main event. This would be the only feature race to go green to checkers and after starting on the pole, Brad Waits would win the event with a considerable distance over the rest of the field, say about a half mile! Not quite true since the track is shorter than that but the second place finisher, Kory Reissie, could only guess the whereabouts of Waits, he was so far ahead. Triton Krause would complete the top three.
USRA Stock Cars are new at MTS this year as a first year class. Likely because of this, the class is both weak in numbers and quality at this point with both likely to grow down the line. Brayden Gjerle would start on the pole and drive to an easy win, never being challenged in the twenty lap affair that saw only nine cars take the green. Gjerle would win for the seventh time this year at MTS, thus highlighting the down side of the weekly draw/redraw method of lining up the cars. When a six time winner can still draw the pole position, these kinds of sleepy feature races can be the result as opposed to handicapping the most successful cars farther back in the field so they at least put some spark in the race as they drive to the front. But then others would argue that it unfair to always put the strongest cars to the back, week after week. So there you go.
The final two features of the night for the B Mods and Hobby Stocks would both be marked by a large amount of rough driving and many yellow flags, largely as a result of way over aggressive driving, even by the divisions' most successful drivers.
The B Mod feature would see four different leaders over the twenty lap distance with two of the leaders breaking down and not making the finish. Brandon Hare would lead the opening five laps before he was passed by Dylan Goettl for the lead. Hare would soon break down and pull into the infield as his night was over
Goettl, Taylor Skauge and Ryan Olson, the track point leader, would then engage in a wild three way battle for the lead that was marked by nasty slide jobs, must side by side banging and some bent sheet metal. In the meantime, several yellows for spins and crashes would keep the field bunched and each time the green would be displayed again, the war would continue.
Skauge would manage to slip into the lead for a single lap but then Goettl would retake the lead. However, on lap sixteen of twenty, Goettl would suddenly slow with a cloud of smoke trailing his car and he would be done. Erik Kanz, who started ninth, had steadily moved to the front, running the low line and slipping past car after car while the leaders pushed and shoved against each other.
Kanz would inherit the lead at this point and survive to take the win. He would have to endure a one lap sprint to the finish after another grinding crash just as the checkers was ready to be waved. On the last lap, Olson tried to bang him out of the way in turn one but then Olson got too low and clobbered one of the dreaded infield tractor tires, taking care of his front end as Kanz drove on for the win over Harley Dais and Tyler Werner, survivors all.
The Hobby Stock feature was slowed by six yellows, often for the same cars that just couldn't get around the track without spinning. Casey Colsch would be the early leader with several cars putting the heat on him. Finally, Chris Hovden would get by on lap five and he would lead the rest of the way for the win with the final seven laps of the race going green, the longest stretch of real racing in the entire event.
Hovden would win for the fifth time here this year but would start in fourth spot in the main on the redraw. Gavin Bartel would chase Hovden from lap seven on but just couldn't catch the strong running Iowa driver with Nick Schwebach third.
There would be plenty of racing for even the hard core fan on this night with most of the crowd having vacated the facility long before Waits took the final checkered flag of the night. They got behind early as time trials didn't go as smoothly as planned or they just started them too late but it was after 8 pm before the first race hit the track. After that, with plenty of racing, lots of yellow flags and quite a few farming sessions, the evening just got longer and longer. It was about 12:30 pm when the final checkered waved but especially for the Late Model fans in the crowd, they were plenty happy to see such a great turnout of cars. The Late Models will be highlighted again soon as over the Labor Day weekend, the World of Outlaws Late Models will be back at MTS with a date the following night at Deer Creek.
Thanks to promoter Tyrone Lingenfelter for his quick response this week and as always, the entire staff at MTS, especially the pleasant lady at the pit gate.
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