Tuesday night, August 19th, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars made their first ever appearance at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway North of Fountain City Wisconsin. This was not only the first ever appearance for the WoO at the track, but the first time that most of the drivers had ever seen the track that lies close to the Mississippi River in Wisconsin's Coulee country North of LaCrosse.
I was not prepared for the weather conditions as it was cool and cloudy at home but by the time I arrived at MTS, it was pushing ninety degrees and the humidity was oppressive.
They were very lucky to get the show in and the unstable weather conditions were producing a number of pop up T storms and one passed very close to the track but they dodged that bullet and the rest of the evening proved to be a good one.
Twenty seven Sprint drivers signed in to race with the top thirteen in WoO points on hand and a smattering of drivers from Huset's, the Twin Cities and a couple of Knoxville regulars also on hand. For the longest time it appeared that a B Feature was not even going to be necessary but a couple of late arrivals pushed the number up to the point that not all drivers would get the chance to start the feature.
A new track record was set in qualifying but that was almost a given with the humid weather conditions and the fact that track co-owner and track prep person for the speedway Bob Timm loves to "juice up" a track whenever he can. He's a big fan of blinding speeed and while that might look good to break the track record, the big speeds also make it harder to pass I believe.
David Gravel turned a lap at 11.324 seconds, one of nineteen drivers to break the existing 410 track record set during an IRA show previously.
Three heats wer, e held with the top six in each moving on and they were all speed contests with only one driver that didn't start in a qualified spot moving up and that was Austin McCarl. Another six drivers were added through the B Feature with all four events going green to checkers. I guess the WoO Sprints don't automatically add provisional starters as only twenty four drivers would take the green for the feature. Actually it was only twenty three as Sheldon Haudenschild pulled off before the green flag dropped with steering issues that were not resolved.
Bill Balog had a solid cheering section for him and for the third straight night of WoO racing, he managed to redraw the pole but unfortunately for him, for the third straight night he failed to convert that good starting spot into a win.
He did manage to lead the first three laps before Logan Schuchart drove under him to take over the lead. Gravel started fourth but was on the move quickly, taking Balog for second and then, on lap nine, passing Schuchart for the lead. One lap later the first yellow for the Sprints all night flew and on the green, Gravel pulled away from the pack.
But the halfway point of the race, he had a comfortable lead over Schuchart but Buddy Kofoid, who started eighth, was up to second and shortly after, passed Schuchart for the second spot. Gravel still had a nice margin until the yellow waved once again with just seven laps remaining.
One would not think that the leaders could catch traffic with just such a few laps remaining, but they did and they did give Gravel a bit of trouble as his pace was slowed the last couple of laps by slower cars. It doesn't take long for the pack to catch up when the leader must slow and on the final lap Kofoid showed his nose inside Gravel in turn three to make the finish just a bit closer that it might have been otherwise, but Gravel still took the checkers as the leader. Kofoid settled for second with Schuchart third. Nineteen drivers were still on the track at the finish.
The support class on this night was the USRA Stock Cars with just enough of them signing in for two heats and a main event which is probably just what the event organizers were hoping for.
Timm redid the track for the main events and with the Stock Cars going first, they got a really "juiced up" track that was very heavy and seemingly impossible to pass on. What ended up happening was twenty laps of high speed hot laps it seemed with virtually no passing as everyone was very fast and as long as they hung in the groove, it was tough to gain positions.
Colby Mann started on the pole and led all twenty laps to get the win which was his first ever Stock Car victory at MTS. He was challenged by Scott Guthrie early but by the halfway point, it was Kyle Falck that had moved into second.
Overheating issues were prominent in this class as with the heavy track and heavy air, the motors didn't get much chance to breath and several drivers dropped out with steam billowing from their cars. This struck Falck while he was running second and he pulled into the infield in a cloud of steam.
Meanwhile, Mann was just building on his lead with ballooned to nearly a full straightaway over the pack. Jake James ran a consistent race to finish second with Guthrie third with some of the strong runners that started farther back in the pack not making much progress. Yellows in the first two laps slowed the action for debris but then the last eighteen laps ran off green to checkers.
It was a very fast paced program once they got started with the actual race time being just over two hours. MTS is not a Sprint Car track nor is it in Sprint Car country but it appeared that a good sized crowd was on hand for the event so it will be up to race organizers to determine whether they return again next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment