The only new track on the 2025 World of Outlaws Late Model schedule was the Wilmot Raceway in extreme southeastern Wisconsin and only a couple miles from the Illinois border. Following a big weekend of racing at Fairbury, the WoO contingent rolled into the Wilmot Raceway on Monday night, July 28th for a one night show. It must have felt like a "hangover" night after the big doings at Fairbury, and quite frankly, the way every one raced and the way the management crew operated, that seemed to exactly be the case. I won't say that everyone didn't try, but everyone seemed to just be in a bit of a stupor following the long weekend in Illinois.
The Late Model troupe rolled into town with a meager group of drivers to race on Monday night. They did present their top fourteen in series points but not much else and with the area contingent of open motor Late Models being small and most of them opting not to race, the field of twenty was about as small as anyone seem at a WoO race in quite some time. It didn't help that it was another sweltering day and night in Wilmot with the humidity being high and the "feels like" temperature at race time being 88 degrees.
The local drivers filled out the rest of the show with two other classes in action also. The IMCA Modifieds were joined by the local Street Stocks but neither one of those classes had many cars either with only a single heat of Streets and two for the Mods. This should have been a nice quick show on a Monday night which would have been ideal for everyone, including the drivers that wanted to head North to Cedar Lake. Unfortunately, that turned out to not be the case.
Efficient time management took the night off Monday as quite frankly, they did a lot of "dicking around" on this night and made the show last much longer than it needed to. It appeared that the track prep crew misfired on how much water they applied or just didn't get on it quick enough as multiple hot lap and packing sessions were needed by all classes and the first race didn't take the green flag until 8:04 pm, much later than it should or needed to. I was longing for the crew that ran the Summer Nationals to show up and run the show as they ran off a much more efficient program when they appeared at the track last month.
The Wilmot Raceway is not designed for Late Models. The track is narrow and hard to pass on and the local mentality is that of a Sprint Car person which is what races at this track most often. While the facility is very nice with excellent seating, lights, sound, concessions etc, they never have done much to improve the race track itself and it boggles my mind that over the years with plenty of room available to do so, they never have put any more banking on this track which is really quite flat. It becomes two drag race straightaways with a tight flat corner on each end.
To the credit of the Late Model drivers, they did a nice job on putting on a good feature race with what they were given. Dennis Erb was quick qualifier at 14.625 seconds and three heats were run with no B Feature needed. Gustin must have had his lucky horse shoe in the car on Monday night, as not only did he redraw the pole for the feature race, he got the best call of the night when his heat race was called back and Cody Overton docked a row for jumping the start and taking the lead over Gustin, a call that I questioned and one that Overton avoided in his post heat race interview but you could tell he wanted to say plenty about.
Gustin led all forty laps of the WoO feature, hugging the low side from the start and then gradually moving up the track as needed. There was plenty of good battling going on behind him and the race was far from boring. Tanner English held second for the longest time, never challenging Gustin but holding off the rest of the field. As the track started to dry off, a few drivers ventured a little higher in the corners but passing was hard because the track narrows down so badly in places. The Sprint Cars must do plenty of flipping here when they run over each other's tires.
Bobby Pierce was one of the hardest workers and he must be given credit for going where ever he needed to on the track to make passes. He just kept plugging away and by the halfway point of the race, he was up to fourth as Boom Briggs was having a great run.
Piece continued to push forward, moving into third and close behind English. Following a lap thirty nine yellow for a slowing Nick Hoffman, who had himself a terrible night with much of that bein self inflicted, Gustin made perhaps his only bobble of the night, getting just a bit high on the restart and allowing English to make his only serious run at the lead. However, when he couldn't complete the pass, he left himself out of line and Pierce went zinging past to take over second.
One more yellow gave Pierce his only shot at victory but Gustin held his line, made no mistakes and drove home for the win. Piece settled for second while English had a terrible final five laps, dropping back to fifth. The "catfish" Dennis Erb just kept working the inside line as he always does and on this night it paid off as he drove up to third in the late laps with Dustin Sorensen in fourth. Only three of the starting field failed to finish the contest. With the time getting away, a change was made and the Late Model feature was run off first which allowed the Late Model fans to leave early if they desired.
I would like to report some positive comments on the other two classes but I'm afraid that I might be struck by lightning for lying if I did so. They had ten Street Stocks, mercifully all put into one heat, and sixteen Modifieds that ran a pair of heats but mostly what both classes did is crash a lot. They drove as if no one had brakes and the only way they could slow was by running into each other.
Back in the day, the Modified class here was unsanctioned and when local cars ran at other tracks, they presented some of the most rough and crude cars seen with their driving style much the same. When they became IMCA sanctioned a few years ago, I had hopes that they would step into the same generation with the rest of the racing world, but that doesn't seem to have happened. Most of their equipment is hulks and that's the way they drive too. Clean, up to date and nice appearing race cars are hard to find here, but it was pointed out to me, why have nice equipment when all they do is crash and smash each other and wreck stuff?
Somehow the Street Stock teams cobbled back together nine of the cars for the main event after a smash fest in their heat race. Brandon Mertes started dead last in the feature but won by a full straightaway as only half the field was running at the finish. Mertes was driving an un painted back up car as the point leader on this night, likely because his primary car was wrecked previously here. Just guessing on that point, but most likely.
Joe Huenefeld from Freeport, driving one of the few sanitary looking Modifieds in the field, and by the way, not a regular here, took the lead from Scott Barnharst on lap five and ran away with the feature race. He had a full straightaway for most of the event with Dan Jung finishing second.
It was an interesting night for Noel Seegert Sr who got driven into and rolled over on his top in a heat race tangle. Somehow his team got the car back together and even more remarkable, he moved up from the fifth row to finish third in the feature. The Modified feature was actually decent as they seemed to rid themselves of their aggression during the heat race demo derbies.
All racing was completed just before 11 pm, about an hour later that it should have been, given the number of cars and races run. However, the crowd was a big one and they seemed happy and entertained so I'm guessing that the WoO will be back again in 2026.
One last note, Wilmot Raceway has taken over the dubious honor of having the most blatant thieves of any track around! During the intermission, fans were coming down out of the grandstands and trying to steal the Great American Beer signs that were hung on the fence facing the crowd. These advertising signs are always reused by the WoO or whatever organization hangs them and they are their property.
However, the fans here didn't think so and were just walking up to them, trying to cut them loose and then take off with them. Fortunately, the security force here was both large and efficient and it was quite entertaining watching them track down or chase down the bandits, get the signs back and then watch as these thieves tried to explain why they felt they were so privileged that they could just steal property. One bozo got escorted out of the facility for his efforts. What morons! Go back across the state line where you belong.
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