Ricky Thornton Jr pleased the local crowd no end as he outdueled Hudson O'Neal in a back and forth battle to win the opening night of the Wild West Shootout held for the first time at the Central Arizona Raceway located near Casa Grande.
Thornton Jr, originally from just up the road in Chandler, did much of his early racing at this same track and while it looks considerably different from when he raced here when he was starting his career, the folks on hand remembered him as he was a large crowd favorite here in the desert.
Other winners included Cade Dillard in the Modifieds and Blake Adams in the X Mods. Drivers were on hand from a wide region for this Winter event with Dillard from Louisiana and Adams from Wisconsin.
Most know of the significance of this year's race as the WWS moved back in 2026 to Arizona where it all started many years ago after having been held the last few years at the Vado Speedway Park in New Mexico. When Arizona again produced a first class racing facility for this show to be held, promoter Chris Kearns was more than happy to move the event to the region where it started over twenty years ago and had since moved around to several tracks in Arizona, with everyone of them now closed.
Brad Whitfield's emergence as the promoter for what had been a closed Pima County Fairgrounds track and the significant improvements made by him and the Fair Board made it a no brainer to return this race to CAR, particularly after the weather was so dreadful last year at Vado that support for the event would likely have been very tepid if they were still there trying to fight off the snow.
Even in the few years that I have been attending races at CAR the amount of improvements to both the track itself and the infrastructure have been eye opening. The latest round of improvements most eye opening were the new flag stand and its placement and the new gate in the middle of the back straightaway to the pits, thus eliminating the crossover back right under the pit stand that slowed things down as well as provided quite a safety hazard with so many people crossing right there along with all the cars. What is especially nice about the gate is that it is opened and closed when needed, thus not providing the hazard of an blunt opening that somehow, some racer always finds.
One hundred and sixty four drivers signed in for the three class program on opening night of the WWS. As usual, there were a wide range of states represented for this event with many drivers from the Midwest joining the drivers from the Southwest region, primarily Arizona and New Mexico with a few California drivers sprinkled in also.
Forty six Late Model drivers signed in for opening night, not at all different from the numbers we saw at Vado. The difference being that this year there were probably more nationally known traveling stars on hand with perhaps not so many regional drivers in the mix.
The Modified field made a big jump with sixty eight drivers signing in. Both the number, which was one of the largest in recent years, and the quality was impressive. As in all the classes, just making the main event would be considered a success.
The X Mod field would end up being just about the same, number wise, as last year. However, the make up was changed some this year. A rule change to try and even up the competition saw the Vado X Mods having to add one hundred pounds and remove their big spoilers changed things up a bit. Those changes perhaps, along with the distance from New Mexico saw the drivers from there down somewhat but this was balanced by an increase of WISSOTA drivers along with more local IMCA Sport Mod drivers in the field. Likely some of them will stay for racing the next two weeks for the IMCA Winter Nationals also.
The pit area was busy, perhaps more than would be expected for opening night as both Reece Solander and Matt Micheli were changing motors in their Modifieds after problems on practice night on Friday.
The format for the WWS would be the familiar one that they have used for years. The Late Models would qualify and then start their heats straight up with the top finishers moving on and the rest of the field added through a pair of B Features. Saturday would also be one of the days with the Pro Power dash and winner Kylan Garner would eschew the grand as the winner for the chance to race the feature. As he said, " I didn't come all the way from Missouri to watch the feature from the pits", or words to that effect.
Both the Mods and X Mods would pull a pill for their heats and then passing points would be used for both classes. With the large fields, this produced for each class a pair of gigantic, Jeff Broeg approved B Features.
Quick qualifier was a bit of a surprise as Eston Whisler turned a lap at 15.327 seconds as the third car out for qualifying with the track quickly slowing down after that. Thornton Jr was quickest in the second group but only after Ryan Gustin got penalized for a deck height violation that set him back a row for this heat race.
Twenty one qualifying events would set the grids for the three main events with there being a major track prep session after all qualifying was over. The top two finishers in the Late Model heats redrew for their starting positions and then twenty five drivers rolled off the line for the fifty lap main event.
Thornton Jr started on the pole and took the early lead with O'Neal moving into second and those two would pull away from the pack. The first fifteen laps went green until Ethan Dotson slowed with a flat tire, drawing the first slow down of the race.
This would be an indicator that there would be tire issues for a number of drivers with Jake O'Neil, Tyler Erb and Garrett Alberson, all running in strong positions, also tripped up by flat tires.
Following the first yellow, O'Neal made a strong run up against the wall and blew past Thornton Jr to take over the lead. For over the next twenty laps, O'Neal would remain as the leader with Thornton Jr following, sometimes close and sometimes fading back a bit. It was tough to tell if he was just biding his time or was struggling to keep up.
At the halfway point of the race, Erb was up to third ahead of Alberson and Drake Troutman but all three would later be out of the top five.
The fourth yellow flew for Alberson on lap forty and following that, Thornton Jr turned up the wick, passing O'Neal and then pulling away from him as he continued to show the way through two more minor yellows, a pair of six in total, that slowed the race.
At the finish, Thornton Jr was comfortably in front with O'Neal finishing second. The yellows, combined with bad luck from some of the front runners plus just good charges on their part saw Cade Dillard come from sixteenth to third, Gustin from eighteenth to fourth with Mike Marlar completing the top five.
Only twelve drivers completed the fifty laps with many pulling off to save their equipment for the week ahead and now uselessly burn up tires. There was much bonus money on the line for lap leaders thus allowing Thornton Jr to go home with thirty eight thousand dollars for the win and O'Neal cashing twenty two grand for second.
Rob Mosley, who dominated last year's WWS in the X Mod class, took the early lead in the twenty five lapper from the pole with Blake Adams quickly moving into second. Three quick yellows in the first four laps kept the field bunched but Adams, when racing resumed, began to pressure Mosley for the lead.
On lap eight he would power past Mosley and then lead the rest of the way for a dominant win. Nearly twenty green flag laps of racing would follow Adams' pass and he gradually pulled away from the field. Canadian driver Curtis Stieh showed big speed early, coming from the sixth row to move into third by the halfway point ahead of another charger in Jake Smith followed by Josh Cain.
As Adams sailed along, the long green flag stretch allowed Smith to continue to charge and he began to challenge the front runners, clicking off one after another. A late yellow bunched the field for a two lap sprint to the end, and while Adams remained in control, Smith continued his rush that saw him pass Mosley for second at the end. Cain worked his way up to fourth with Stieh completing the top five.
For Adams, the sixteen year old that won over forty feature races last year plus a WISSOTA national title, it was a strong start to the season that would also see him finish strong in the Modified feature, teasing for a top five finish. Smith came all the way from eighteenth to second and with three of the top five finishers being WISSOTA cars, the Vado boys are probably already lobbying for a rules adjustment.
Cade Dillard has been dominant at many Modified races in the past year or so and such was again the case here as night one wrapped up. He started on the pole after coming from the back to win his heat race and he led all twenty five laps to top the Modified feature. In this race, only two yellow flags slowed the progress and only three drivers failed to finish but Dillard was dominant.
He led all laps with Solander starting and finishing second. Reece was strong enough to hold off all challengers for that spot but had nothing for Dillard, who ended up having a pretty successful opening night between his two feature races.
On the change in this race was Tanner Mullens who was driving a car provided by Mark Dotson for this night's show. He started sixteenth in the feature race and gradually worked his way to the front. A late yellow with just five laps to go saw quite a scramble as both Gabe Hodges and Adams lost top five finishes to Dustin Sorensen and Gary Christian.
Expectations of a large boost in fan attendance with the move to CAR this year were justified and a large crowd was on hand for the WWS opener with long lines of ticket purchasers surging the gates at 3 pm. However, out of towners were disappointed in the weather conditions as while the sun was shining, the temperatures were not that spectacular and with a wind warning for the areas and the unfortunate direction that it was blowing, it was as cold as an race I have been to in Arizona with all the Midwestern warm wear used and my feet still got cold! I did not check the weather at Vado but I don't think it could have been much different that what we endured on Saturday.
Opening night stumbles led to a much longer race program than the usually tidy one provided by the WWS staff. The track was not ready at the advertised time and the track prep, probably needed due to the high winds, did take some time. The first race didn't hit the track until nearly 5 pm and it was almost 11 pm before the final checkers flew with much of the crowd having left the scene for the warmth of their vehicles by then. I am sure that quick measures will be taken by Chris Kearns to get things moving much better as the week progresses.
Overall, the opening night was a big hit and did not disappoint.
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