The American Racer Modified Series kicked off their 2025 racing season on Thursday night, February 27th at the Heart 'O Texas Speedway located north of Waco in Elm Mott Texas. After losing a pair of races last week also in Texas due to harsh temperatures, Trenton Berry and Eric Chesterman were more than happy to start the season for one of three Modified series that they will be undertaking this year.
An excellent field of fifty one drivers signed in to race on Thursday, many on hand because they support this series that runs primarily in the Texas and Louisiana area and others on hand for a paid hot lap practice session as they prepare for the USMTS season which kicks off on Friday night at this same track.
It was a spectacular but then heart breaking night for Anthony New Mexico's Mark Smith who after setting quick time of the night, led the first twenty laps of the main event. However, with a comfortable lead, he spun all by himself which triggered a yellow flag, sent him to the back and took away any chance he had of winning the main.
Tanner Mullens took advantage of the break he received and led the rest of the event, holding off Jim Chisholm to take the win.
Factory Stocks and a combination of Southern Sport Mods, B Mods and Midwest Mods formed the Limited Mod class and these two classes also ran a full program with numbers in each class just about right for a mid week show in February. Winners in those two classes were Cameron Cook and Coty Tupper.
The program has a new look to it this year, in that the drivers for the ARMS Modified series have a new way of qualifying for their main event. I must confess that I was surprised to find out just what the system would be, usually expecting to find some form of passing points used for these well paying Modified series.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that they would be using a system that almost mirrors that used by the UMP Late Models when they race in Florida. The field was split into two groups for qualifying and drivers would qualify against everyone else in that group. The heat races were then lined straight up based on qualifying times with six heats run for the fifty one cars on hand. The top three in each heat made the main event and everyone else started straight up in one of two B Features that would take another three, thus producing twenty four cars for the main and with this being the first race of the year, there were no provisional starters. Thus the format was almost identical to that used by UMP in Florida. And just like the Late Models, this puts a huge premium on qualifying because a poor time trial lap sets one back so far that digging out of that hole, with only three cars making the main out of eight or so in a short eight lap heat race makes for very tough sledding indeed. When Berry spoke on the microphone he indicated that this method would be used for the time being but seemed to indicate that perhaps at some point they would revisit this plan, based I'm guessing on how the drivers like it and what kind of racing was produced.
The track had been watered very generously for Thursday night and extra packing was needed to roll in the surface. It produced a screaming fast track with a big berm that many raced off of. The racing seemed to be especially intense for the opener and there was much hard driving seen all night. And even after the whole show was completed, there was not even a whisper of dust to be found as the drivers were still spraying mud clods off the corners.
When they started qualifying, which was well behind the advertised schedule, the track truly wasn't still ready to be raced on and this produced some interesting results from the qualifying sessions with several surprising entrants at or near the front of heats and some figured to be fast having to dig out of deep holes. But the bright side was that it produced some highly interesting qualifying events with half the heats seeing winners coming from back in the pack, not the sort of racing usually seen in heats whre the fast cars are starting right up front.
The quick qualifiers were Casey Fowler, who unfortunately then blew up a motor in the first heat race and Smith with laps at 15.005 and Smith quickest overall at 14.608 as the track got faster and faster, the more cars that raced on it. The groove gradually widened out and by feature time they were running side by side, two and three deep with drivers like Rodney Sanders and Reece Solander setting off a shower of sparks every time they came down the front stretch as they rubbed the concrete wall.
Twenty four drivers started the thirty lap main event which had all the ear marks of a classic race, and likely would have been so except that after some pretty smooth previous races, the Modified feature was plagued by yellow flags with the yellow bunting flying nine times with the longest green flag stretch of racing the last six laps of the contest.
But for short bursts and stretches, the race was excellent with large packs of drivers battling for position and while many used the berm to walk around the track, there were others making the low side work as well.
Smith took the lead from the pole after redrawing that spot and he led early over Mullens, Tater Hyde and Nathan Smith. The racing was intense but short lived as the yellow waved five times before the first half of the contest was done. Thankfully, virtually all the yellows were for one car spins and despite how hard they were racing, there were not a lot of serious crashes.
By the halfway point, Smith was continuing up front and every time the green would wave, he pulled away from the pack. Mullens still ran second but Sanders and Jim Chisholm were both making progress through the field. Sanders was especially impressive as he moved up from eleventh to third, with a shower of sparks down the front chute on virtually every lap as he threw caution to the wind.
Then, to everyone's surprise and shock, Smith, with a healthy lead, spun all by himself in turn one and forfeited what appeared to be two grand to add to his checking account. He went to the back of the pack and Mullens inherited the point.
The last nine laps Tanner continued to lead but Chisholm tried to pressure him as they had to withstand two more slow downs. However, Mullens was up to the task and he didn't allow Chisholm to close on him as he took the win. Sanders ended up third, with a steady Carlos Ahumada Jr and Kale Westover completing the top five. Fourteen drivers completed the contest with all on the lead lap.
The support classes both did their jobs very well and they both produced entertaining features while at the same time not taking a lot of time as both mains went off smoothly. And throw in the fact that the Factory Stock feature was a nail biter with the margin of victory being about a half car length.
They only had ten cars on this week night but the Factory Stocks put on a very good main event. After a first lap yellow that saw Michael Bowles surge into the lead and then stall before he made the first turn, the rest of the race would go without a single yellow flag.
Cameron Cook took the early lead and built up some distance on the field as the pack was batting behind him, giving him a chance to pull away. However, Westin Abbey finally cleared to second and he set off after the leader. With the race staying green, it didn't seem possible that he would catch up but he continued to press and as the laps ran down, he was able to catch Cook for the lead.
The last few laps they raced nearly side by side with the margin of the lead getting smaller on each lap. The final tour saw then side by side with Abbey on the bottom. Much respect should go to both drivers as with the circumstances as they were with a still heavy and slick track, each could have easily booted the other out of the way, but they chose to race clean and side by side with Cook holding off the charging Abbey by perhaps half a car length at the line. Frank Lackey finished third.
Sixteen Limited Mods from various disciplines took the green flag for their fifteen lap main event. Remington Budd started on the pole and he managed to hold off Coty Tupper for two laps as the two Louisiana drivers fought for the lead.
Finally, Tupper was able to make the pass for the top spot after the yellow waved twice in the first two laps but followed with thirteen straight under the green.
There was some great infighting for spots back in the pack with a great gaggle of cars all fighting for third after Tommy Williams broke free into second. Tupper continued to maintain his lead and he drove on for the win with Williams and Minnesota drivers Jake Smith and Dan Wheeler trailing. So the score was USRA B Mod first, Southern Sport Mod second and WISSOTA Midwest Mod third.
A very scary moment occurred that triggered a yellow flag on lap twenty one of the Modified feature when an errant car spun quickly into the infield in turn one and veteran Minnesota photographer Buck Monson was clipped by the spinning car. He tried to dive out of the way but was struck by the car and then thrown into a barrier designed to protect the infield light poles from the cars. Buck was beaten up pretty good but at last word had no broken bones and vowed to be back at the track on Friday in some shape or manner. It was ironic because just earlier in the evening Buck and I were giving each other grief, I because he was riding around the pits on an electric bicycle and he because I came all the way down from Wisconsin to watch this race weekend. You just never know what is around the corner.
While the racing was good and the show itself was tightly run once it got going, it was a slow night to develop with the extra track packing and seemingly some first night disorder about lineups etc. While the actual racing was accomplished in three hours, the first heat didn't hit the track until just before 9 pm, hardly what one would like to see on a week night. The time trial format takes more time and they hadn't properly budgeted for that and the whole show just needed some tightening up, something that hopefully will be accomplished by Friday. Nevertheless, thanks to Berry and Chesterman for their help and after all, we are racing and it's still just February.
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