The twenty seventh annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree opened a three night run on Thursday September 25th at the Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley Minnesota. Always a big event on the USMTS schedule, the Modifieds were joined this year but the B Mods and USRA Hobby Stocks with the Stock Cars getting their first chance to race on Friday night.
This event is one that is circled on the calendar yearly for race teams and fans from southern Minnesota along with northern Iowa as one of the biggest races of the year. And as is always the case, a large field of competitors were on hand along with one of the largest camping delegations of any race event during the season. It is to the point now that there are so many campers that trying to find space for the spectator vehicles is becoming more and more challenging with shuttles necessary to bring a lot of the fans from their remotely parked vehicles to the grand stands and ticket windows. Expanded this year was the handicapped parking and it seems like here and 141 Speedway in Maribel Wisconsin must have the most handicapped fans attending because their handicapped parking dwarfs what other tracks offer. State highway 63 runs right next to the race track, they are land locked with little chance of expanding in any direction and they are running out of room it seems.
The Fall Jamboree is more than three nights of racing action but also involves a lot of other activities that go on during the day and are meant to provide entertainment for a wide range of fans to meet their interests. There is none stop action going on from early morning until long after the racing is completed.
For the USMTS Modifieds, the show is actually three full nights of racing with purse and points for each night with the winnings increasing as the week progresses. For the B Mods and Hobby Stocks, they are trying to work their way into the big features on Saturday night by having successful nights and earning enough points so that they are locked into the Saturday night mains.
As such, over sixty B Mods were racing for only five hundred dollars to win on Thursday and nearly thirty Hobby Stocks were racing for four hundred dollars to win, but the pot on Saturday night is what all were focused on.
Fifty Modifieds signed in to race on Thursday, a fine number but well short of the glory days of this event when nearly twice as many drivers would compete here. However, we see this now happening for a lot of events and this race is not abnormal in that regard. However, the top fourteen drivers in USMTS points were all on hand as their point season starts to wind down.
At the request of track officials, time trials, which are back as part of the qualifying format for the USMTS, were dropped this weekend. My guess was the request was for two reasons. One, it cuts down on pointless extra laps on the race track and it also makes it easier to start the program on time without having to qualify under a blazing early Fall sun. In point of fact, even with hot laps for the Hobby Stocks to help blow the track off, the first green flag of the night dropped one minute before the advertised time.
Some of the stars of the USMTS did not take kindly to not having time trials, spoiled as it were that they might be forced to pass some cars in the heats and eventual winner Joe Chisholm led the efforts in this regard, producing a fine whine in his victory interview following a heat race win. And let me tell you, if he is whining after winning a heat, what must some of the others be saying after they finished back in the pack in some stacked heats!
While the lack of time trials was not looked favorably upon, the USMTS both uses the "Choose Cone" and double file restarts with the first and second place cars side by side and both of these procedures seem to have been accepted by the congregation.
Five heats and two very large Jeff Broeg size B Features eventually set the starting field lineup for the thirty lap Modified main. Reese Solander and Trevor Hughes were added as provisional starters and twenty four drivers took the green flag for the main.
The race itself was a smooth one with only a single yellow flag to slow the action and that being with just four laps in the books. While Chisholm wasn't a fan of the heat race procedures, he must have approved the re draw of the top point cars in the heats that saw him then start on the outside pole.
He took the lead right from the green, showed much speed and was never challenged throughout the main event. He cut a swath through the lapped traffic and that made the difference in his successful drive to victory.
Rodney Sanders made some strong moves early, driving from the sixth starting spot up to second using the outside line and setting off numerous fireworks displays as his spoiler several times clipped the outside wall.
However, when he got up to second, that was the best he could do as he really had nothing for Chisholm, who kept putting several lapped cars between himself and Sanders and with no yellows to bunch the pack, Sanders had no real chance.
There was only one driver that dropped out of the feature so you can see there was plenty of traffic but at the checkers, Chisholm had put seven drivers between himself and Sanders with only eleven drivers still on the lead lap.
Brandon Davis picked up the pace near the end and was threatening Sanders for second but ran out of time and space to make a serious challenge, settling for third with Jacob Bleess and and Dustin Sorensen completing the top five. All drivers in this class will come back on Friday night, racing for purse, points and starting positions for the three wide start on Saturday night.
The B Mods had some issues during a few of the qualifying events but when it came feature time, they were on point with only two yellow flags and five drivers that didn't finish their twenty lap feature. They started out with sixty two of them and whittled it down to twenty four through heat races and a large B Feature.
Taylor Skauge started on the pole and led the first six laps of the main with heavy pressure from Hunter Kennedy who several times nearly got underneath Skauge to take over the top spot. But then Dan Hovden, nearing the two dozen mark in feature wins this year, came roaring up and in short order went by both Kennedy and then, on lap seven, Skauge to take over the lead.
The first half of the race was slowed twice by yellows, the second a grinding crash on the front chute that eliminated three cars but then everyone settled down and the last part of the event was smoothly completed.
The top five kind of settled in with no change in positions over the last half of the race with Hovden maintaining his lead over Kennedy and Skauge. Dustin Kruse and Jake Richards, up from eighteenth place at the start, rounded out the top five.
The Hobby Stocks also did themselves proud with a non stop fifteen lap main event that saw all twenty four drivers that started still around at the finish and not a single one of them was lapped. The track had just been freshened for them for their main and that helped them produce a fast and clean main event.
There were three different leaders in this race which was particularly hard fought over the first half of the race, with Dylan Fitzpatrick holding the lead for a single lap before he was passed by Luke Schluetter for the lead. Josh Monson started in the second row and moved in to take over the second spot and then he and Schluetter engaged in a prolonged battle for the top spot.
Lap after lap, Monson would try and get a nose under Schluetter for the lead but fail, as the top two ran in very tight formation. Just past the halfway point of the race though, Monson changed up his plan, moving instead to the middle land and perhaps surprising Schluetter as he drove around him on lap twelve to take over the lead.
After that, it was Schluetter who did the chasing but he never could quite line up Monson for an attempt as Josh pulled away just far enough that Schluetter had to settle for second place with Monson driving on for the win.
There was an excellent battle behind those two and four drivers battled for position with Jason Newkirk slipping into third late, ahead of Nick Schwebach and Fitzpatrick.
Track and USMTS officials did an excellent job of pushing through the program on a week night, even though there were several period of track misting to keep the surface at maximum racing strength. The program started right at seven and the final checkers waved before 11 pm and with many of the spectators staying right on the grounds, it made for an easy commute following the show plus made it easier to get out of the parking lot for those of us not staying.
I got the chance to talk to announcers Todd Narveson and Trenton Berry among others on this night and enjoyed the racing evening. for those in the area, two more full shows are planned for Friday and Saturday nights.
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