It has been a wet week in Wisconsin, along with much of the Midwest with event after event falling to the weather this week. Even on Friday night, many of the area races were still canceled due to wet grounds and submerged race tracks.
However, after losing their Thursday night show, the first of three scheduled for the World of Outlaws Late Models this week at Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin, track and series officials were able to get night two completed on Friday night, May 2nd and Tyler Erb fought off all challenges to lead all fifty laps and take home the top prize.
The original schedule had the Outlaws racing in full shows on both Thursday night and Friday night, show events with just twenty five lap features and paying ten grand to the winners with the best point night of the two lining up the heats for Saturday night's big seventy five grand to win main event.
However, with Thursday night lost, the program was restructured into two nights of independent racing, each carrying a fifty lap main and paying twenty five and thirty grand to win respectively.
The weather was still miserable on Friday, with the temperature in the mid 40's, cloudy with a damp North wind blowing and spectators were dressed just as if they were watching a snowmobile race in January. Still, while not a block buster crowd, a very good one was in attendance for the race, evidence that the Outlaws still pack a punch with the Late Model crowd.
Forty four drivers signed in to race with the Outlaws, a number I thought very good considering that there is not much open Late Model racing in this area. Fortified by some regional talent and a few drivers like Collin Winebarger, Rob Sanders and Hayden Ross that never would be expected to be on hand, the pits were full for the Late Model side of things.
The field was split into two groups with Nick Hoffman and Ryan Gustin topping the charts in those two groups. Hoffman, with a lap of 13.042, set a new track record. The track was full of moisture and would stay blinding fast all night but the track crew had put in their time and despite being super soaked with moisture, the track remained smooth all night. Four heats would take the top four out of each and then three out of the pair of B Features. With B Features starting over a dozen cars in each, some pretty stout drivers were left on the sidelines watching after the four provisional starters were added and on this night it was Billy Moyer and Michael Leach that had to load up early.
Twenty six drivers started the fifty lap main with Tyler Erb, who had redrawn the pole, taking the early lead. The first start was called back when contender Cade Dillard hammered the turn three wall and had to make a pit stop to reassemble the body on his car.
Erb continued to lead after another quick yellow when Drake Troutman got a flat tire but then they were able to do some racing. Gustin moved into second but he battled with Brian Shirley, Nick Hoffman and Bobby Pierce. Pierce was on the move, working past two of these drivers and then ending up second following a third yellow when Shirley went up in smoke.
Pierce and Hoffman were all over Erb on the green but Tyler continued to fend them off. Dustin Sorensen thrilled the local fans on hand by working into the top five and it looked like he might have more to offer but he got into the turn one wall, flattened a tire and triggered another yellow.
That was it, however, for the yellow flags and the last thirty three laps of the race went green. Pierce got a poor restart and Hoffman moved into second and for a few laps it looked like it was a matter of time before Nick made the pass for the lead. However, Erb would have something to say about this as he stemmed the tide and then started to gradually pull away from both Hoffman and Pierce.
Erb was sharp in the lapped traffic, of which there was considerable with so many green flag laps strung together and each time they hit a cluster of cars, Erb seemed to gain ground. Hoffman started to slip back and Pierce simply couldn't keep up on this night, having to fight off Time McCreadie for the third spot.
Erb continued his charge, putting several lapped cars between himself and Hoffman and driving on to what seemingly was a relatively easy win. Hoffman, Pierce and McCreadie would follow. Ashton Winger rounded out the top five in what was a challenging night for him. Having to go to a back up car for his heat, he had to run a B Feature and came from eighteenth to complete the top five. Only four drivers failed to complete the distance and there were eight a lap down at the finish.
The back up racing for the Outlaws was the first ever event for the Northern Lights Modified Series. One of three series that have been formed to run as companion series to the USMTS, the Northern Lights Series will run a calendar of events in the upper Midwest this year with their own point fund and championship. This is their first year of operation and is over seen by the duo of Trenton Berry and Erick Chesterman, who also run the Heartland and ARMS Series too.
Being a stronghold area for USRA Racing, a solid field of drivers was expected for the first event and when thirty five drivers signed in to race, it was not unexpected. Their format does not offer much more imagination than the Outlaws however, as they qualify and run their heats straight up off time trial results. I thought I was at a weekly UMP show in Illinois on Friday, there were so many drivers that took time trial laps.
They split their field in half also with Brandon Davis and Jacob Bleess being the quickest of their groups and Bleess overall fastest at 14.860. Four heat races would take five drivers and then four out of the B Feature to set a twenty four car field for their thirty lap main, paying two grand tonight and three on Saturday to win.
The biggest development of the night, certainly for the Mods, was as a result of the heats, defending USMTS champion Jim Chisholm and Dylan Goettl were both disqualified and had to start in the back of the B Feature with neither than making the show. While this seemed like big news, regular track announcers Dan Bailey and Guy Hammernik completed "fanned" on this news, nothing was ever reported to the fans and Bailey especially seemed perplexed why Chisholm was in the back of the B.
The four heat winners redrew for their starting positions in the main while everyone else started straight up and twenty four drivers took the green. For twenty eight and a half laps, Keith Foss controlled this race and seemingly looked to be unstoppable. He got the jump on Davis to take the early lead and maintained the top spot even after an early yellow for a slowing Gary Christian slowed the pace.
Foss built up his lead as Davis couldn't stay with him but Brandon was being pressured by Bleess and A.J Hoff for position. A spin one lap short of halfway packed the field and Joe Chisholm showed in the top four for the first time in the race. However, he was picking up speed and after the race went back to green, Chisholm was able to get past both Bleess and Davis and move into secondl
The track changed at this point with the fast lane seemingly right on the bottom and Chisholm was wired to that low groove. Foss was drifting a bit higher in the corners and Chisholm started to reel him in quickly. With just a few laps to go, Chisholm was on the rear bumper and looking for a hole to get past. As they came past the flag stand with two laps to go, Chisholm got a nose inside the leader. I thought Foss was way too nice and I believe he could have chopped down into turn one and maintained the lead. Instead, he gave Chisholm way too much running room and Joe drove past him in turn one for the lead. He then pulled away as Foss had nothing to offer on the last lap.
Chisholm expanded his lead over the final lap, with Foss, Bleess, Davis and Hoff completing the top five. Only three drivers failed to go the distance.
Probably the most noteworthy thing of the night was certainly the new track record set. And that record would be the fact that the water truck was not seen on the track once all night and except for a little cushion packing when needed, no track maintenance was done! Normally Bob Timm and his crew have to put miles and miles on the track every night, misting and packing but because of the wet weather, none was needed on Friday. And that helped make it a short evening of racing. The Outlaws and other track officials did a very good job of moving the show along with event after event following each other on to the track in short order. It was certainly nice to get the whole program completed well before 10 pm, even as mist again fell during the Modified feature.
Congratulations and thanks to all the Outlaws group as well as MTS ownership and workers for a job well down.
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