The 38th annual USA Nationals held at the Cedar Lake Speedway near New Richmond Wisconsin opened up on Thursday night, July 31st. It was a beautiful night for dirt track racing in a lovely area of west central Wisconsin, After the area was hit hard by storms earlier this week that toppled trees and did damage to many folks homes and businesses, everything was put back in order here at the speedway and the biggest yearly event in this area would go on as scheduled.
In front of perhaps the largest opening night crowd in the history of this event, feature winners would be Tim McCreadie in the World of Outlaws Late Models and Pat Doar in the Cedar Lake Late Models. Both of the feature races were very entertaining and in fact the program as a whole presented lots of good racing action with hard fought events across the board.
This year Cedar Lake has joined an elite list of race tracks with Saturday night's one hundred lap feature for the World of Outlaws cars paying one hundred thousand dollars to the winner, one of only a small handful of tracks that are paying that large of a winning purse. Of course, that amount draws a lot of attention and for many fans from the upper Midwest, where this is their "go to" chance all year to see the biggest names in the sport, it only increases the interest in the three nights of racing.
Both divisions drew strong and large fields of drivers with entries in the WoO Late Models from all over the country with the top fourteen in series points and twenty one of the top twenty five all in attendance. And with the Lucas Oil Late Model Series off this weekend, many of their strongest running teams were also on hand to try and steal away the big cash offerings presented by the Cedar Lake management.
Fifty three WoO Late Models were in the pits for opening night action on Thursday. This night's twelve grand to win event would not impact the rest of the weekend as this was a "stand alone" point night of racing for the Outlaws while qualifying for the USA Nationals begins with heat races and dashes on Friday night. Nevertheless, the drivers were driving just as hard as if they were racing for a hundred grand on Thursday and it made for some entertaining race watching.
The qualifying was divided into two groups to set the stage for the six heat races with Garrett Alberson quickest overall at 13,105 seconds as the track was blisteringly fast after a healthy amount of watering for this night. A bit of a surprise found Garrett Smith quickest of the first group at 13.211 seconds.
Just making the show on this night was a tough task as some of the biggest names in WoO would find out. Only three drivers out of each heat moved up and the two B Features were huge with sixteen or more drivers in each one and only two drivers advancing to the main.
So it was that when the feature race was lined up, among the four provisional starters that took the green, the first, third, fourth and ninth place current point drivers in WoO points all had to take a provisional just to make the show! We're talking Pierce, Gustin, Troutman and Cody Overton that all had to use a provisional just to race the main event! That does not happen often and was likely caused by a combination of a very strong field from top to bottom plus a lightning quick racing surface that helped make every one fast.
Cade Dillard and Hudson O'Neal started on the front row but things got off to an explosive start when Alberson tried to come from the second row to take the lead right off but instead ran into O'Neal in turn two and spun with his night then ruined as he had to go to the back for the second attempt to start the race.
This moved Chris Madden up a row and he took full advantage, driving past both Dillard and O'Neal to lead the opening lap. Then he and O'Neal began a heated battle that saw them slide job each other several times while exchanging the top spot twice in the first ten laps.
Sneaking up on both of them was McCreadie who had started ninth but quickly found his low groove favorite line to have plenty of bite and he moved up to make it a three car battle and as the other two waged war, he was able to pass both of them just as the race hit the halfway point.
The first twenty eight laps of the feature would go green after the first lap Alberson issue and though most of these laps, McCreadie was under constant pressure from either Madden or O'Neal and sometimes both. However, Tim was able to keep both of them behind him as he continued to work the low side of the track
But just when it looked like McCreadie might be home free, Smith slowed with a power loss and that set up a two lap sprint to the finish. And while things were wild before this point, the next lap would be the most explosive of the night. On the green, McCreadie continued to work the low side but he didn't get quite as good a run off turn two as normal. O'Neal, on the other hand, who was now second, got a great run off the banking in turn one and came roaring up beside McCreadie, trying to cut him off and beat him into turn three.
The two just brushed together briefly but it set both into slides. McCreadie's car was sideways as it slid into turn three and somehow he managed to correct it although he lost a lot of speed. O'Neal, on the other hand, seemed to have his car under control higher up on the banking as he exited turn four but after he straightened it out, it snapped back on him in the opposite direction and around he went with McCreadie and the rest of the field avoiding the spinning #71.
The yellow flew once more and O'Neal departed the track. The last green flag saw McCreadie get away much smoother and his last lap was less harrowing as he drove on for the win. The battle for second proved to be wild though, as Nick Hoffman threw a nasty slider on Madden, sawing off his nose in turn two as he passed for second and left Madden to settle for third. A quiet Ricky Thornton Jr and Brandon Sheppard completed the top five. Six of the original starters failed to complete the distance and all finishers were on the lead lap. Pierce was only able to work his way forward to seventeenth while Gustin finished just two spots ahead of him.
Also on the card were the Cedar Lake Late Models, so named because they run WISSOTA rules basically but aren't sanctioned by that body. The majority of the cars that race in this class use WISSOTA Spec engines, the same motors that many use in SLMR and PRO Late Model races held throughout the Midwest.
However, Cedar Lake also has a provision where open motored cars can also race with restrictors placed in the carburetors of the cars. I disagree with this provision since it still gives the open motored cars an advantage even though they typically are just a small minority of the entries but that is what they do to occasionally attract someone with an open motor and an open race date.
This provision is what allows someone like Bob Gardner, currently persona non grata with the World Racing Group after his stunt at Fairbury, to race on this weekend since the Cedar Lake Late Models are not sanctioned by anyone.
A very neat surprise was presented by Gavin Tarras, a local racer from New Richmond and part of a family that are very good friends with Lance Matthees. Tarras had a new body put on his car which was a replica of one of Matthees distinctive race cars from the 90's in tribute to Matthees who will be inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in Florence Kentucky new weekend. It came as a surprise to Matthees and produced quite a scene in the pits as drivers came over to congratulate Matthees including eventual feature winner Pat Doar.
A great field of the CLS Late Models was on hand with forty nine of them signing in to race including drivers from as far away as Winnipeg Manitoba and North Dakota. They would eschew time trials to instead draw numbers for their heat races and then use passing points to determine the feature line up. How pleasant it was to not have to sit through another whole set of time trials and instead watch drivers actually race their way into feature positions.
They ran five heats and a pair of Jeff Broeg sized B Features to determine the starting field for their twenty five lap, twenty five hundred to win main event. Their purse will increase each night of this event as they will be running three full shows. The only provisional doled out was to current track point leader James Giossi who had motor trouble early and failed to qualify through the normal channels.
Ryan Corbett and Lukas Koski, a pair of drivers who had never won Late Model features at Cedar Lake would share the front row and it was Corbett that took the early lead. The North Dakota driver pulled out to a nice margin up front as the battle for second was intense but allowed Corbett to sneak away as the race remained under green flag for an extended period of time.
Rick Hanestad drove into the second spot and held it for a number of laps but he was eventually challenged by Darrell Nelson and Doar, who had started in row four but worked both high and low on the track as he moved up in the field.
Doar knows this track like the back of his hand, having cut his racing teeth on this very oval in a number of classes as he advanced in his racing career. He and Nelson had a dandy battle for second before Doar prevailed and he then set off after Corbett who had built up nearly a half straight lead on the field.
Could Corbett have prevailed if a lap nineteen yellow for a slowing car, the only yellow of the race, hadn't happened? Perhaps, but both Doar and Nelson had just about caught the leader when the yellow waved.
In any event, the yellow was Corbett's "Waterloo" as when the green waved, Doar went by him on the outside and Nelson on the low side and while Darrell pushed Doar hard the last five laps, Doar would go back to the top and then pull away to take the win over Nelson while Corbett hung on for third. Sam Mars and Hanestad completed the top five.
Only five drivers failed to complete the race and all were on the lead lap at the finish. For Doar, who is still the face of the Cedar Lake Speedway, it was his sixty sixth Late Model feature win here and the three hundred and twenty first of his illustrious career with his first Late Model win coming here way back in 1994, a mere thirty one years ago.
All racing was complete at just before 11 pm and the crowd was in a sharing mood with the 50/50 drawing being at just about three grand with that likely to grow each night. The track was in excellent shape for racing despite the pleasant fact that little track prep was done to it once the first green flag flew with not a whisper of dust. In fact, on this very humid and damp night, once there was a slowdown in the action such as a yellow flag, the track actually got wet slick briefly until hot tires ran over it a few times which was noticeable on some restarts.
Thanks to all the WoO officials on board for their help, along with the staff and management of Cedar Lake. With promising weather on the schedule for the next two nights, they look to have a huge weekend upcoming.
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