The Julien Dubuque Classic was held on Wednesday night, July 27th as a part of the sixty third Dubuque County Fair. For the second straight night, the cars took to the track in front of a big fair night crowd and for the second straight night, they produced some excellent racing for the fans. In fact, I believe the Wednesday night show was even better than Tuesday night's and that was no slouch by any means.
Keith Simmons and whoever is helping him out with track prep did an excellent job getting the track in racing shape. Many times, trying to race two nights in a row is a tough chore to get the track in the proper kind of shape for good racing. Well, that was not a problem on Wednesday as the track rolled in smooth and slick from top to bottom and the race cars were all over the track, passing and running side by side. This was the Dubuque Speedway that I remember from my first times at the track many years ago! Simmons did catch a break during the afternoon as it clouded up and that canopy certainly helped him keep moisture in the track on what was a hot and stuffy day otherwise.
A word on last night's program that was not mentioned and came as a surprise to the drivers but one that is worth letting the public know about. The Hawkeye Dirt Tour has an entry fee for all of its races that drivers must pay when they sign in. However, last night the Dubuque County Fair Association picked up the entry fee so that the drivers didn't have to pay to enter their cars. Driver after driver came up to the IMCA table with checkbook in hand, only to find out, to their surprise and pleasure, that there was no cost to enter this event. And on top of that, the purse was also higher than the average HDT event too. This is something that goes above and beyond by the Fair Board and something that the race fans should know about and perhaps, if you live in Dubuque County, you might want to thank your Fair Board member for supporting auto racing. Lots of Fair Boards don't anymore, you know.
The schedule for Wednesday night's show would include the four classes of cars that race at Dubuque on the regular Sunday night shows plus the Sport Compacts that race at Simmons other tracks but not Dubuque were also added to the program. Extra money was on the line for all classes as the Fair Board also sets the purse for this event and just winning a Fair race is also an extra incentive for most drivers.
Caleb Bentley drives the MadMan chassis number #10 car in the IMCA Modified class. This is a car that he purchased from Wisconsin's Mike Machl during the season. For Wednesday night's show, he would move the seat back and have Troy Cordes drive the car for him and try to help him get the car running better. Cordes is good friends with Mashl and helped arrange the purchase. Later, against a strong field of Modifieds, Cordes would have a pretty decent run in the unfamiliar car, giving the entire team some optimism for the future.
Over one hundred cars signed in to race for the five class special with solid fields in all classes except the Stock Cars which for some reason just can't draw a respectable field of cars to Dubuque. Although they had one of their higher car counts of the years to date, it still was a small number compared to what should be on hand to make an interesting race, although the Stock Car feature was not without drama, as were most of the feature races on what was a top notch night of racing.
The Sport Mods and Mods both had very dramatic finishes and the other three classes weren't far behind on a night that saw some excellent battles for the lead in just about every class.
Droste led every lap of the Late Model feature but that doesn't mean that things didn't get close and interesting at the finish. On a night when the top side seemed just a little more dominant for most drivers, Droste had great success running right on the hub, just as he did when he won the last Late Model special here at Dubuque. He seems like he's just crawling through the corners but by running as low a line as he does, he makes the track a lot shorter.
Much of the early watching in the Late Model feature was watching Justin Kay move up from his tenth starting spot. After a few laps, he found a line up by the wall and he got very fast. He had worked his way up to third and was gaining on the top two cars at a high rate of speed when he got crowded into the front stretch wall. He smashed his spoiler and tore up the deck, which brought out the yellow flag for debris. But after that happened, in the final twelve laps he just didn't seem to have the same speed.
However, Tyler Breuning, who was just about to be passed by Kay, suddenly picked up the pace after the yellow and he was bearing down on Droste for the lead. It's funny how a yellow flag can change things up and a car can change its performance markedly.
Droste was just about to be passed for the lead and whether he realized it himself or he got a signal, he changed lanes on the track and moved to the cushion just in the nick of time as one lap later and he'd be racing as the per surer not the leader. Even though you could tell he just wasn't as comfortable pounding the cushion and riding the wall, he made it work and held off Breuning and Kay for the win. Droste must be extremely happy that Simmons rescheduled the rained out Deery race for August 16th as it gives him the chance to harvest another big check.
The Modified feature was a dandy, the best race of the night and one that people will be talking about all week, unless of course, they can top it on Sunday night. Austin Moyer led every lap but again, that is very misleading as he was being challenged through the whole race and last night's winner, Justin Kay, proved to be his stiffest challenge.
Kay raced behind Moyer with an occasional test of the low side before he dropped back in line. However, as lapped traffic began to appear, things got really dicey for Moyer as he had his hands full with both Kay and also the heavy traffic.
On the last lap, Kay was able to squeeze under a lapped car off turn two and take over the lead and it appeared he had the race won. However, Moyer came back strong down the back chute, did a cross over maneuver out of turn four and they raced to the finish line side by side. Moyer's Chrysler powered car generated just enough power that he edged Kay at the line as the normally stoic Dubuque crowd was on their feet cheering. It was a dandy finish to a race that saw only one yellow flag and only one starter in the twenty four car field failed to finish. Many of the drivers who ran the HDT on Tuesday stuck around to make the field even stronger than normal.
The Sport Mods had a tough time keeping their race going with five yellows in fifteen laps making the race quite tedious as nearly half the field failed to finish. However, a great finish made up for that with what was most a most surprising conclusion. After some initial crashing and spinning in the early going, Troy Bauer found his way into the lead and it seemed that he was going to pull off the double, having won on Tuesday night. Several more yellows kept the field bunched but each time he would open up a comfortable lead. Much of the fun was watching Tyler Soppe work his way to the front after he started fifteenth on the grid when he had a rare gaffe in his heat race that caused in to miss the redraw.
Soppe had worked his way up to second but Bauer still seemed have things in control until one more yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish. Suddenly, out of no where, Timmy Current shot to the cushion and quickly closed on the leader. Current had worked his way up from ninth using the outside and the short burst for the finish suited him just fine. He pounded the cushion while Bauer protected the bottom and on the last corner, Current went flying by for the lead and produced a stunning finish that few could have predicted.
Jerry Miles wins most of the Stock Car features and when he started on the pole, it seemed that he would win once again. However, while he was cruising around in the lead, his car suddenly just killed in turn two, a victim of some malady that saw him lose power. He was able to restart the car but he had to go to the tail and Badger Tim Schneider took advantage of this rare opportunity to take over the lead and go on for the win.
While the Sport Compacts don't race at Dubuque any more, the adding of them for this one show produced a spectacular turnout as two dozen of them showed up to race. Where they all came from, I can't say but I believe that Maquoketa and the Quad Cities were regions that had quite a few entrants.
Their feature race saw several yellows for lost wheels and other calamities but overall they didn't do a bad job of racing. Winner Brandon Bechen started eleventh and after the traffic thinned out some, he was able to go to the cushion and fly around cars as he worked his way to the front. He made the winning pass on Jake Benischek with just over a lap to go.
The Sport Compacts, no doubt after their good showing of cars Wednesday, were quickly added to this coming Sunday night's program also. Given that this class used to race here weekly, do you sense that with the big turnout that they are whispering in Keith's ear about getting back on the schedule weekly?
I have one interesting tidbit as passed on to me by an SPI employee pertaining to the upcoming schedule for the SPI tracks. While there should be a press announcement coming out soon, the three SPI tracks will be making a rather interesting step in an effort to increase their Late Model fields at their three tracks.
Feeling that some of their fields for Late Model shows haven't been as big as they would like to see, they intend to do something to make their shows more attractive to more Late Models that are apparently sitting at home on race nights.
Starting next month, each SPI track will drop one of their support classes for the night and instead, run double Late Model features on that night. In essence, in exchange for losing one of the support classes, the Late Models will have the opportunity to run double features at double the pay. Only the first feature will be for national points and there will be some sort of invert formula for the second feature each night, but essentially the Late Models will be given the chance to race for double their normal pay. The hope is that they can draw an extra half dozen cars from their other tracks that haven't been traveling and build up the fields at each of the three tracks. Dropping one class for this experiment frees them up with a little extra money to make the double payoff and also helps with time constraints added by the extra Late Model feature. It will be interesting to see how the drivers and fans respond to this rather unique idea but the feeling is that they need to take some action to help the Late Model programs and I applaud them for at least trying something rather than just sitting on their hand like far too many tracks running the Late Models and having the same issues do.
This is the first time that I have done the Dubuque County Fair doubleheader and I am certainly glad I decided to do so. I saw two good nights of racing at one of the tracks that I most like in Iowa and there's nothing that beats a good County Fair.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Kay's Liking this Modified Stuff
The normal progression of a race car driver is to move upward from division to division, if of course it is possible to do that financially. Not all can do that and many remain in a so-called "support class" for their entire career because they don't have the finances to start over at a higher level and rides become even more challenging to find, the higher on the "ladder" you go.
Not too often is it seen when a driver, after reaching the highest rung on the ladder, decides to drop back down and race in a "lower class" while still participating in the highest level divisions.
Justin Kay is the exception to the rule. He vaulted straight up to the Late Model class and Iowa fans can tell you how that has worked out. So when he started to show up with a Modified, it caught many by surprise that he would also want to compete in the open wheel class, given that I've been told that driving a Modified is a totally different "animal" than driving a Late Model as the open wheel car drives totally different. However, Kay has quickly picked up the skills needed to be successful with the Modified, and he is currently on a roll, having dominated the Knoxville round of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour last week.
Tuesday night, the 26th of July, the Hawkeye Dirt Tour steamed into the Dubuque County Fairgrounds Speedway for the first time. They were part of a three class show that also featured the Sprint Invaders and the Sport Mods.
It was county fair time in Dubuque and the sixth third edition of the Dubuque County Fair and like all good fairs in the state of Iowa that have a race track as a part of the fairgrounds, dirt track racing would be a large part of the entertainment offered during the fair. Three nights of racing will be featured during the nearly week long run of the Dubuque County Fair with Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday night racing all in action.
Yes, "the Boss", Jeff Broeg was also in attendance at this event as he was co-announcing the Sprint Invaders along with Bill Wright so I will leave it to Jeff to tell you all about how the Sprint Car portion of the program went as he is the man with the knowledge when it comes to that group of drivers. I will just say that John Schulz and Josh Schneiderman had a good time exchanging slide jobs on each other following yellow flag restarts as they raced the high side of the track and Schulz turned out to be the ultimate winner.
The Modified field was one of the best for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour races that I've seen so far this year. At forty drivers, it was one of the biggest car counts for one of their shows and most of the top racers in the series were on hand along with many of the Dubuque regulars. You can always tell when there are some new drivers participating in the series for the first time as they're required to go through tech the first race they run at, and the tech line at the IMCA trailer in the pits was constant before the action began.
Eight of the top ten in Dirt Tour points were on hand Tuesday as the point battle remains quite close and drivers are still jockeying for positions. Five heat races with only the top two in each heat moving on to the main event produced some very intense heat race action. In fact, in a couple of cases it seemed to go even beyond that with some rough driving evidenced that unfortunately, in most cases wasn't punished. Of course, all that does is lead to more ill will that generally is seen manifested on the track later in the evening or perhaps, on another occasion.
One driver fit to be tied early on in the evening was the third place driver in points, Kelly Shryock. To say his evening started off poorly would be an understatement.
If you've been to Dubuque, you know that the one downside to an otherwise outstanding facility is that the pit space is very limited. Drivers have to park where ever they can find a relatively flat space and just the open trailers, of which there are very few any more, are allowed in the middle of the track. The fact that the fair was on just exacerbated the problem for the big haulers, plus rain earlier in the week and last week left some places soft even though they didn't appear so.
What this meant to Shryock was that as he was wandered the East end of the "outfield", trying to find a spot to park his big rig, he got "highsided" with his rig and he was stuck. Valuable time was lost while they searched around for something to help pull them out of their predicament and eventually two tractors were able to extract them and Kelly found another place to pit.
But the "fun" wasn't over yet as just as the final lap of hot laps was being completed, his car let out a tell tale cloud of smoke and it was clear that he had lost a motor. Hmm, I thought crate motors never blew up. In any event, more work was ahead for Shryock and his crew. Now bear in mind that while Shryock is not traveling all over the country any more, he is still a professional race car driver by trade. While most people likely wouldn't be carrying an extra motor around with them and also wouldn't have the set up necessary to complete a motor change in the pits, Shryock and his crew went right ahead and had the motor changed in time for a B feature and while he missed the show by one spot, he received a provisional to start twenty third in the main.
Does anyone else see the irony in Shryock, who at one time wouldn't be caught dead running at an IMCA show, now getting a provisional from them to start a main event? It just goes to show that there are no certainties when it comes to short track racing and what is "gospel" one night might just not be so in the future.
In any event, Shryock then put on one of the drives of the night. With only two yellow flags to show the action and bunch the field, he drove all the way up to fifth at the finish and salvaged his place in the points with races yet to come to give him the chance to even more so up his point total. Shryock was also one of the few to make the middle and lower groove work and of course, if he was going to pass other cars, he needed to do just that as he had to run where they weren't .
Not only was Kay fast, he was also lucky as he drew the pole for the start, just as he drew the front row at Knoxville last week. And let's face it, no matter how fast you are, starting position for any special event is key.
Kay went to the cushion immediately and pulled away from the field. There was an excellent battle for position behind him, but the only time he was challenged was following the two restarts. The always fearless Chris Abelson, the Hawkeye point leader, made a couple of bold slide job attempts to get past Kay, but Justin remained cool and did the "cross over" on both to get back into the lead.
Local drivers did well and upheld the name of the track as Ryan DeShaw, Matt Gansen, Jeremiah Hurst and Mark Schulte all had top ten finishes.
Based on what I've been told and have observed, when it comes to Sport Mod racing there is a real rivalry between Tony Olson, Tyler Soppe and Troy Bauer as they battle over national points and All Iowa points. The three have been very dominant when it comes to eastern Iowa Sport Mod racing and they long for those events when all three are in attendance. Tuesday, Olson, who does not run Dubuque on a regular basis, was on hand and all three went at it with some fearsome racing action.
Of the three, only Olson struggled a bit in his heat, which set his starting position back somewhat for the main event. Soppe came to the front quickly and he established a pretty strong advantage. And then, as we say, he "stepped on it", hitting a marker tire in turn four and spinning all by himself while comfortably in the top spot.
This gave Bauer the lead and he finished in first with a strong challenge from Austin Schrage. Olson settled for fifth and Soppe bulled his way through the field in the last six laps and got all the way back up to sixth. Clearly, some spirited races lie ahead for these three competitors.
It was a good night of racing and a very good crowd, by far the biggest I had seen at Dubuque so far this year, was on hand to watch. It was a great weather night for racing, one of the best of the year. The only down side to the night was that it was uncharacteristically dirty and perhaps the big tires and wings of the Sprint Cars had something to do with that.
Surely there must be some corporation or civic minded business in the Dubuque area willing to partner with the Fairgrounds on a new scoreboard, which is desperately needed. And please, do it before announcer Jerry Mackey has apoplexy over the goofy numbers that mysteriously pop up on the board.
Thanks to Keith Simmons and everyone at SPI for their help and especially to Jamie Blum of the Dubuque County Fair Association for all her assistance. They do have the Julien Dubuque Classic scheduled for Wednesday night with big money on the line for all the regular classes that race at the fairgrounds. Perhaps I should stick around.
Not too often is it seen when a driver, after reaching the highest rung on the ladder, decides to drop back down and race in a "lower class" while still participating in the highest level divisions.
Justin Kay is the exception to the rule. He vaulted straight up to the Late Model class and Iowa fans can tell you how that has worked out. So when he started to show up with a Modified, it caught many by surprise that he would also want to compete in the open wheel class, given that I've been told that driving a Modified is a totally different "animal" than driving a Late Model as the open wheel car drives totally different. However, Kay has quickly picked up the skills needed to be successful with the Modified, and he is currently on a roll, having dominated the Knoxville round of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour last week.
Tuesday night, the 26th of July, the Hawkeye Dirt Tour steamed into the Dubuque County Fairgrounds Speedway for the first time. They were part of a three class show that also featured the Sprint Invaders and the Sport Mods.
It was county fair time in Dubuque and the sixth third edition of the Dubuque County Fair and like all good fairs in the state of Iowa that have a race track as a part of the fairgrounds, dirt track racing would be a large part of the entertainment offered during the fair. Three nights of racing will be featured during the nearly week long run of the Dubuque County Fair with Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday night racing all in action.
Yes, "the Boss", Jeff Broeg was also in attendance at this event as he was co-announcing the Sprint Invaders along with Bill Wright so I will leave it to Jeff to tell you all about how the Sprint Car portion of the program went as he is the man with the knowledge when it comes to that group of drivers. I will just say that John Schulz and Josh Schneiderman had a good time exchanging slide jobs on each other following yellow flag restarts as they raced the high side of the track and Schulz turned out to be the ultimate winner.
The Modified field was one of the best for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour races that I've seen so far this year. At forty drivers, it was one of the biggest car counts for one of their shows and most of the top racers in the series were on hand along with many of the Dubuque regulars. You can always tell when there are some new drivers participating in the series for the first time as they're required to go through tech the first race they run at, and the tech line at the IMCA trailer in the pits was constant before the action began.
Eight of the top ten in Dirt Tour points were on hand Tuesday as the point battle remains quite close and drivers are still jockeying for positions. Five heat races with only the top two in each heat moving on to the main event produced some very intense heat race action. In fact, in a couple of cases it seemed to go even beyond that with some rough driving evidenced that unfortunately, in most cases wasn't punished. Of course, all that does is lead to more ill will that generally is seen manifested on the track later in the evening or perhaps, on another occasion.
One driver fit to be tied early on in the evening was the third place driver in points, Kelly Shryock. To say his evening started off poorly would be an understatement.
If you've been to Dubuque, you know that the one downside to an otherwise outstanding facility is that the pit space is very limited. Drivers have to park where ever they can find a relatively flat space and just the open trailers, of which there are very few any more, are allowed in the middle of the track. The fact that the fair was on just exacerbated the problem for the big haulers, plus rain earlier in the week and last week left some places soft even though they didn't appear so.
What this meant to Shryock was that as he was wandered the East end of the "outfield", trying to find a spot to park his big rig, he got "highsided" with his rig and he was stuck. Valuable time was lost while they searched around for something to help pull them out of their predicament and eventually two tractors were able to extract them and Kelly found another place to pit.
But the "fun" wasn't over yet as just as the final lap of hot laps was being completed, his car let out a tell tale cloud of smoke and it was clear that he had lost a motor. Hmm, I thought crate motors never blew up. In any event, more work was ahead for Shryock and his crew. Now bear in mind that while Shryock is not traveling all over the country any more, he is still a professional race car driver by trade. While most people likely wouldn't be carrying an extra motor around with them and also wouldn't have the set up necessary to complete a motor change in the pits, Shryock and his crew went right ahead and had the motor changed in time for a B feature and while he missed the show by one spot, he received a provisional to start twenty third in the main.
Does anyone else see the irony in Shryock, who at one time wouldn't be caught dead running at an IMCA show, now getting a provisional from them to start a main event? It just goes to show that there are no certainties when it comes to short track racing and what is "gospel" one night might just not be so in the future.
In any event, Shryock then put on one of the drives of the night. With only two yellow flags to show the action and bunch the field, he drove all the way up to fifth at the finish and salvaged his place in the points with races yet to come to give him the chance to even more so up his point total. Shryock was also one of the few to make the middle and lower groove work and of course, if he was going to pass other cars, he needed to do just that as he had to run where they weren't .
Not only was Kay fast, he was also lucky as he drew the pole for the start, just as he drew the front row at Knoxville last week. And let's face it, no matter how fast you are, starting position for any special event is key.
Kay went to the cushion immediately and pulled away from the field. There was an excellent battle for position behind him, but the only time he was challenged was following the two restarts. The always fearless Chris Abelson, the Hawkeye point leader, made a couple of bold slide job attempts to get past Kay, but Justin remained cool and did the "cross over" on both to get back into the lead.
Local drivers did well and upheld the name of the track as Ryan DeShaw, Matt Gansen, Jeremiah Hurst and Mark Schulte all had top ten finishes.
Based on what I've been told and have observed, when it comes to Sport Mod racing there is a real rivalry between Tony Olson, Tyler Soppe and Troy Bauer as they battle over national points and All Iowa points. The three have been very dominant when it comes to eastern Iowa Sport Mod racing and they long for those events when all three are in attendance. Tuesday, Olson, who does not run Dubuque on a regular basis, was on hand and all three went at it with some fearsome racing action.
Of the three, only Olson struggled a bit in his heat, which set his starting position back somewhat for the main event. Soppe came to the front quickly and he established a pretty strong advantage. And then, as we say, he "stepped on it", hitting a marker tire in turn four and spinning all by himself while comfortably in the top spot.
This gave Bauer the lead and he finished in first with a strong challenge from Austin Schrage. Olson settled for fifth and Soppe bulled his way through the field in the last six laps and got all the way back up to sixth. Clearly, some spirited races lie ahead for these three competitors.
It was a good night of racing and a very good crowd, by far the biggest I had seen at Dubuque so far this year, was on hand to watch. It was a great weather night for racing, one of the best of the year. The only down side to the night was that it was uncharacteristically dirty and perhaps the big tires and wings of the Sprint Cars had something to do with that.
Surely there must be some corporation or civic minded business in the Dubuque area willing to partner with the Fairgrounds on a new scoreboard, which is desperately needed. And please, do it before announcer Jerry Mackey has apoplexy over the goofy numbers that mysteriously pop up on the board.
Thanks to Keith Simmons and everyone at SPI for their help and especially to Jamie Blum of the Dubuque County Fair Association for all her assistance. They do have the Julien Dubuque Classic scheduled for Wednesday night with big money on the line for all the regular classes that race at the fairgrounds. Perhaps I should stick around.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Maquoketa Prevails; Eckrich the Beneficiary
It's been a tough week already. Rain outs on Monday, racing not to be reported on Tuesday and finally, some real racing action on Wednesday. However, once again it was a close call as if it weren't for the stubborn determination of the Maquoketa Speedway to finally get their Deery Brothers race in the books, we might be sitting someplace watching reruns of "I Love Lucy" rather than actually being at the track and watching the mud fly.
Track Manager Scott Schurbon was a busy man on Wednesday, but he did take time to return my phone calls and keep me updated on the situation at Maquoketa. They got a lot of rain in Wednesday morning and I was told later it was in the two inch range. Yet, even so, they were somehow able to get the track in shape for racing action by evening. Granted, it was far from optimal racing conditions but everyone was faced with the same obstacles and all twenty seven Late Models that pulled to Maquoketa chose to race, knowing what the track was like.
Standing water was everywhere, and staying on the track was far better than trying to negotiate the infield or the outer track area. In my area, if we had two inches of rain in the morning, there wouldn't be many tracks able to race by that night, and our surfaces are not near as heavy as the soil here in Iowa, except perhaps for the red clay tracks of the Lake Superior region.
I was skeptical when I first saw the track and I was already envisioning a scenario where everyone got to the track and then they found that they weren't going to be able to get it into shape and would call of the program. It seemed to fit the way my week has been going so far. However, somehow they were able to pull everything together and get the track into some kind of reasonable racing shape. I didn't hear any whining while I was in the pits and can't speak to whether it came later or not, but if not, the drivers deserve a round of applause for sucking it up and dealing with the conditions as they were presented to them also. It's not always that way, for sure.
Whenever he's on hand and I get the rare chance to say hello, I always stop by and chat with Late Model driver Andy Nezworski from Buffalo, who is originally from the U.P. of Michigan and I had the chance to see race when he used to run support classes before moving up to the Late Models when he moved to Iowa.
We chatted about the horrible weather that his home region had been going through with torrential rains that had caused massive flooding and many road closures, some of the long term variety.
Andy still carries some long term ties to his home region when it comes to his racing operation. Despite the fact that there are many engines builders and chassis dealers in the state of Iowa obviously, Andy still gets his racing motors from Adams Automotive Racing Engines in Cameron Wisconsin and his chassis is a Rocket from the shops of Brady Smith. Later, Andy would make an impressive charge in the Late Model feature, moving from thirteenth to fifth at the finish. he was ninth in the Deery Brothers points and will likely move up a couple of spots after Wednesday.
Some updates at the track since the last time I was at Maquoketa included a nice new scoreboard in the infield and new Musco lighting, although wouldn't you know it, one bank of lights failed to work on Wednesday, giving us a dark spot right on the front chute but nothing serious.
As always, the Deery series gets strong support from its drivers with the top fourteen in points and sixteen of the top twenty on hand for the race. The twenty seven car field was solid and provided three big heat races plus the forty lap finale. I was almost feeling that perhaps the feature should be shortened up, given the conditions, but the drivers did a good job of navigating the track and the four yellows in the main was far short of being unreasonable.
Denny Eckrich started on the pole and after fighting off an early challenge from Dan Shelliam, he was in control for most of the race. Shelliam's bid for the win ended on lap fifteen when he spun in turn one while trying to overtake Eckrich and that ended his chances.
Luke Goedert made a determined bid for the lead too and things got dicey in lapped traffic, but each time Eckrich would maintain the upper hand and hold off Luke. The last twenty one laps of the feature went nonstop but with several of the drivers near the back exiting stage right at this point, the lapped traffic was not near as bad as it could have been.
Perhaps the biggest mover of the night and the most important in the long term for the Deery title, was the charge executed by Jeff Aikey. It wasn't "showy" but it was determined and after starting sixteenth, he chawed his way up to third at the finish after a hard battle with Matt Ryan for that spot.
Coming into the evening, Aikey had only a one point lead in the standings over Tyler Bruening and with Tyler starting in the third row, it appeared he was going to make some hay on Aikey. But it didn't turn out that way and Bruening slipped back to seventh at the finish, which left him losing points to Aikey.
Justin Kay was expected to do well after starting fifth but he faded back out of contention early and settled for eighth at the finish. Chad Holladay was spectacular in his heat, coming from sixth to score an impressive win as he was able to find a lane on the outside of the track that no one else could run. Unfortunately, the Casey's Pizza draw was not nice to him and he started twelfth in the main and after an early side trip off the end of the track, he was a non factor. Darrel DeFrance was off the track before his heat even started with a smoking issue and he was forced to accept a provisional to make the main. But with dogged determination, he came from twenty third to eleventh at the checkered.
The support classes were really weak with only a handful of cars in each of the Sport Mods and Hobby Sock classes. However, there were surprises in each come feature time.
Kyle Vohringer has been cleaning up in the Hobby Stock class at Maquoketa, winning the majority of the feature races and leading the track points. On this night however, he couldn't handle the charge of Nathan Ballard, who drove past him and then held him off for twelve green flag laps in their main.
Tony Olson is leading the national points in the Sport Mods and when he started on the pole, it seemed to be a case of "game over." However, Gage Neal wasn't buying that, and he drove past Olson and pulled away from him at the end to score an impressive win. Both divisions clearly could have used a few more cars but those on hand did a pretty good job of entertaining us.
Thanks to Scott Shurbon and the Fair Board and all the other workers at Maquoketa for making the best of a tough situation and putting on an entertaining program that was done early and allowed those brave fans who showed up the chance to either hit the pits or get home early. Maquoketa has some busy times ahead as they turn right around with a regular program on Saturday and their Fair race is next Thursday, July 28th.
Track Manager Scott Schurbon was a busy man on Wednesday, but he did take time to return my phone calls and keep me updated on the situation at Maquoketa. They got a lot of rain in Wednesday morning and I was told later it was in the two inch range. Yet, even so, they were somehow able to get the track in shape for racing action by evening. Granted, it was far from optimal racing conditions but everyone was faced with the same obstacles and all twenty seven Late Models that pulled to Maquoketa chose to race, knowing what the track was like.
Standing water was everywhere, and staying on the track was far better than trying to negotiate the infield or the outer track area. In my area, if we had two inches of rain in the morning, there wouldn't be many tracks able to race by that night, and our surfaces are not near as heavy as the soil here in Iowa, except perhaps for the red clay tracks of the Lake Superior region.
I was skeptical when I first saw the track and I was already envisioning a scenario where everyone got to the track and then they found that they weren't going to be able to get it into shape and would call of the program. It seemed to fit the way my week has been going so far. However, somehow they were able to pull everything together and get the track into some kind of reasonable racing shape. I didn't hear any whining while I was in the pits and can't speak to whether it came later or not, but if not, the drivers deserve a round of applause for sucking it up and dealing with the conditions as they were presented to them also. It's not always that way, for sure.
Whenever he's on hand and I get the rare chance to say hello, I always stop by and chat with Late Model driver Andy Nezworski from Buffalo, who is originally from the U.P. of Michigan and I had the chance to see race when he used to run support classes before moving up to the Late Models when he moved to Iowa.
We chatted about the horrible weather that his home region had been going through with torrential rains that had caused massive flooding and many road closures, some of the long term variety.
Andy still carries some long term ties to his home region when it comes to his racing operation. Despite the fact that there are many engines builders and chassis dealers in the state of Iowa obviously, Andy still gets his racing motors from Adams Automotive Racing Engines in Cameron Wisconsin and his chassis is a Rocket from the shops of Brady Smith. Later, Andy would make an impressive charge in the Late Model feature, moving from thirteenth to fifth at the finish. he was ninth in the Deery Brothers points and will likely move up a couple of spots after Wednesday.
Some updates at the track since the last time I was at Maquoketa included a nice new scoreboard in the infield and new Musco lighting, although wouldn't you know it, one bank of lights failed to work on Wednesday, giving us a dark spot right on the front chute but nothing serious.
As always, the Deery series gets strong support from its drivers with the top fourteen in points and sixteen of the top twenty on hand for the race. The twenty seven car field was solid and provided three big heat races plus the forty lap finale. I was almost feeling that perhaps the feature should be shortened up, given the conditions, but the drivers did a good job of navigating the track and the four yellows in the main was far short of being unreasonable.
Denny Eckrich started on the pole and after fighting off an early challenge from Dan Shelliam, he was in control for most of the race. Shelliam's bid for the win ended on lap fifteen when he spun in turn one while trying to overtake Eckrich and that ended his chances.
Luke Goedert made a determined bid for the lead too and things got dicey in lapped traffic, but each time Eckrich would maintain the upper hand and hold off Luke. The last twenty one laps of the feature went nonstop but with several of the drivers near the back exiting stage right at this point, the lapped traffic was not near as bad as it could have been.
Perhaps the biggest mover of the night and the most important in the long term for the Deery title, was the charge executed by Jeff Aikey. It wasn't "showy" but it was determined and after starting sixteenth, he chawed his way up to third at the finish after a hard battle with Matt Ryan for that spot.
Coming into the evening, Aikey had only a one point lead in the standings over Tyler Bruening and with Tyler starting in the third row, it appeared he was going to make some hay on Aikey. But it didn't turn out that way and Bruening slipped back to seventh at the finish, which left him losing points to Aikey.
Justin Kay was expected to do well after starting fifth but he faded back out of contention early and settled for eighth at the finish. Chad Holladay was spectacular in his heat, coming from sixth to score an impressive win as he was able to find a lane on the outside of the track that no one else could run. Unfortunately, the Casey's Pizza draw was not nice to him and he started twelfth in the main and after an early side trip off the end of the track, he was a non factor. Darrel DeFrance was off the track before his heat even started with a smoking issue and he was forced to accept a provisional to make the main. But with dogged determination, he came from twenty third to eleventh at the checkered.
The support classes were really weak with only a handful of cars in each of the Sport Mods and Hobby Sock classes. However, there were surprises in each come feature time.
Kyle Vohringer has been cleaning up in the Hobby Stock class at Maquoketa, winning the majority of the feature races and leading the track points. On this night however, he couldn't handle the charge of Nathan Ballard, who drove past him and then held him off for twelve green flag laps in their main.
Tony Olson is leading the national points in the Sport Mods and when he started on the pole, it seemed to be a case of "game over." However, Gage Neal wasn't buying that, and he drove past Olson and pulled away from him at the end to score an impressive win. Both divisions clearly could have used a few more cars but those on hand did a pretty good job of entertaining us.
Thanks to Scott Shurbon and the Fair Board and all the other workers at Maquoketa for making the best of a tough situation and putting on an entertaining program that was done early and allowed those brave fans who showed up the chance to either hit the pits or get home early. Maquoketa has some busy times ahead as they turn right around with a regular program on Saturday and their Fair race is next Thursday, July 28th.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Richards Rolls at the "Big O"
The World of Outlaws Late Models are making a swing through Minnesota this week after moving up North following some Iowa events. On Wednesday, July 12th, they made their first ever visit to the Ogilvie Raceway, affectionately known as the "Big O."
The "Big O" is now owned by the Wagamon family, they having purchased the track last Summer. This would be their biggest event to date since they have taken over the track and they were looking for a big night.
The Wagamon family is involved in a number of businesses in the Twin Cities area but they are well known to the racing community as engine builders of note for a long time through their Wagamon Brothers Racing Engines business. Nate Fischer was the promoter for the previous ownership group and he retained his job under the new management and was a very busy guy on this night. Fischer is also a board member for the WISSOTA Promoter's Organization too
.
The "Big O" was a race ready place when they bought it but they have also made some improvements to the track since they took over. A new observation deck was put up last Fall, much like the "Party Deck" that Deer Creek Speedway has. They have added more bleacher seating for the spectators as the main grandstand is a little limited in seating for big time events. Their latest addition has been a kart track that they have built in the infield of the dirt track and their first kart racing is scheduled for this coming Saturday. Trying to add more seating and camping space at the track, they are clearly maneuvering to host some bigger events in their plans. I have heard that they are planning on bidding on the WISSOTA 100 for 2017 in and effort to bring that event back to Minnesota from South Dakota where it has been held for a number of years.
I anticipated that the place would be packed and while not every seat was taken, a very good crowd was on hand. Hosting this Late Model group is a big deal for this area, where these drivers are not seldom seen, and fans from a wide area were on hand roaming the pits and seated in the grandstand.
Frankly, they were lucky to even be able to get this race in, as the horrific flooding conditions following torrential rains that hit this state along with Wisconsin are still fresh in everyone's minds. Astronomical rain totals were reported throughout the area and just a couple of miles from the race track, a detour existed that many of the teams had to take was because water was over a state highway bridge. On my way to the track, I crossed the St. Croix River, a major tributary that eventually empties into the Mississippi River near the Twin Cities. Cars were lined up on both sides of the road as people were on hand to take pictures of the high water, the highest I have ever seen at that location.
But I digress. Twenty nine Late Models signed in to race which included the top fifteen in Outlaw points along with some regional drivers plus some WISSOTA drivers attempting to make the show with their steel motors. The track raced very well on this night. Other than some wet spots in the parking lot, you would not have known that a lot of rain had fallen in this area as this country has a lot of sand, but I think the moisture helped the track surface. While many people enjoy the Modified racing here, in previous events for the Late Models, this track has had the tendency to "rubber up" and make the racing very one grooved.
However, I saw no evidence of that on Wednesday as many of the Late Model drivers were racing right up against the wall and using most of the track. It probably helped that Shane Clanton, who did not qualify particularly well, had to go to the top side to make something happen. When he had success, it was a case of "monkey see, monkey do" as others also tried to top side.
When Josh Richards drew the pole, it was apparent that it would be tough for anyone to stop him. And that proved to be the case as he led all fifty laps and was never seriously threatened. However, the race was not a bad one at all, as Clanton put on a show coming from ninth to second and a three car battle for third raged for most of the race. Steve Casebolt had his best run in quite some time for third and Eric Wells continues to show improvement as he raced home fourth ahead of Brandon Overton. There were only three yellow in the race and it was an entertaining event.
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and Hornets were the support classes and they did a perfect job of what was expected of them. The MidMods had three heats and a feature with not a lot of yellows and had their own interesting race with the Iron Range's Sketter Estey coming home for the win.
Even the Hornets did a good job with a nonstop main, and good two car battle and a winning station wagon for Paul George. The Late Models ran last because management didn't want them loading up early and leaving the grounds before the fans could get out into the pits and see them. Things worked out perfect as with a smooth show, the final checkered waved before 10 pm and the pits were crawling with fans afterward. Yours truly even went home with a souvenir as I got a Late Model spoiler that was knocked off a car during qualifying.
Thanks to Nate Fischer and the Wagamon family for their help and congratulations on a well run program.
The "Big O" is now owned by the Wagamon family, they having purchased the track last Summer. This would be their biggest event to date since they have taken over the track and they were looking for a big night.
The Wagamon family is involved in a number of businesses in the Twin Cities area but they are well known to the racing community as engine builders of note for a long time through their Wagamon Brothers Racing Engines business. Nate Fischer was the promoter for the previous ownership group and he retained his job under the new management and was a very busy guy on this night. Fischer is also a board member for the WISSOTA Promoter's Organization too
.
The "Big O" was a race ready place when they bought it but they have also made some improvements to the track since they took over. A new observation deck was put up last Fall, much like the "Party Deck" that Deer Creek Speedway has. They have added more bleacher seating for the spectators as the main grandstand is a little limited in seating for big time events. Their latest addition has been a kart track that they have built in the infield of the dirt track and their first kart racing is scheduled for this coming Saturday. Trying to add more seating and camping space at the track, they are clearly maneuvering to host some bigger events in their plans. I have heard that they are planning on bidding on the WISSOTA 100 for 2017 in and effort to bring that event back to Minnesota from South Dakota where it has been held for a number of years.
I anticipated that the place would be packed and while not every seat was taken, a very good crowd was on hand. Hosting this Late Model group is a big deal for this area, where these drivers are not seldom seen, and fans from a wide area were on hand roaming the pits and seated in the grandstand.
Frankly, they were lucky to even be able to get this race in, as the horrific flooding conditions following torrential rains that hit this state along with Wisconsin are still fresh in everyone's minds. Astronomical rain totals were reported throughout the area and just a couple of miles from the race track, a detour existed that many of the teams had to take was because water was over a state highway bridge. On my way to the track, I crossed the St. Croix River, a major tributary that eventually empties into the Mississippi River near the Twin Cities. Cars were lined up on both sides of the road as people were on hand to take pictures of the high water, the highest I have ever seen at that location.
But I digress. Twenty nine Late Models signed in to race which included the top fifteen in Outlaw points along with some regional drivers plus some WISSOTA drivers attempting to make the show with their steel motors. The track raced very well on this night. Other than some wet spots in the parking lot, you would not have known that a lot of rain had fallen in this area as this country has a lot of sand, but I think the moisture helped the track surface. While many people enjoy the Modified racing here, in previous events for the Late Models, this track has had the tendency to "rubber up" and make the racing very one grooved.
However, I saw no evidence of that on Wednesday as many of the Late Model drivers were racing right up against the wall and using most of the track. It probably helped that Shane Clanton, who did not qualify particularly well, had to go to the top side to make something happen. When he had success, it was a case of "monkey see, monkey do" as others also tried to top side.
When Josh Richards drew the pole, it was apparent that it would be tough for anyone to stop him. And that proved to be the case as he led all fifty laps and was never seriously threatened. However, the race was not a bad one at all, as Clanton put on a show coming from ninth to second and a three car battle for third raged for most of the race. Steve Casebolt had his best run in quite some time for third and Eric Wells continues to show improvement as he raced home fourth ahead of Brandon Overton. There were only three yellow in the race and it was an entertaining event.
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and Hornets were the support classes and they did a perfect job of what was expected of them. The MidMods had three heats and a feature with not a lot of yellows and had their own interesting race with the Iron Range's Sketter Estey coming home for the win.
Even the Hornets did a good job with a nonstop main, and good two car battle and a winning station wagon for Paul George. The Late Models ran last because management didn't want them loading up early and leaving the grounds before the fans could get out into the pits and see them. Things worked out perfect as with a smooth show, the final checkered waved before 10 pm and the pits were crawling with fans afterward. Yours truly even went home with a souvenir as I got a Late Model spoiler that was knocked off a car during qualifying.
Thanks to Nate Fischer and the Wagamon family for their help and congratulations on a well run program.
Friday, July 8, 2016
Shirley Impressive as the Outlaws Visit Webster City
Hot, humid and stormy continued to be the weather adjectives to describe Iowa as this week continued on. The target for racing on Thursday, July 7th was scheduled to be the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City for a visit by the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Several other options were also available to race fans in the state Thursday and the one single united factor among all of them was that rain, or the possibility of it, had all in a "scramble" mode.
At Webster City, they received a half inch of rain during the day on Wednesday and another half inch over night so when Thursday dawned, they had a wet race track and pit area to overcome. For those of you that haven't been at Webster City, you should know that the race track sits in a valley at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds and the race cars must go down a very steep hill to cross the track as they pit in the infield at Hamilton County. Over the years, some of the most entertaining moments at any race track have been those times when a sudden rain storm will hit and turn the place into a skating rink. Trying to get the big haulers back up the hill has provided comedy relief for the fans and frustration as well as a certain danger level for the race teams more than once over the years.
For this reason, the racers keep a very close eye on the weather here and are probably more skittish about entering the pits when threatening conditions exist than at any track around.
For this event, the Outlaws have partnered with Todd and Janice Staley of the USMTS to promote this race so that the burden fell on both of them. I spoke with Todd several times over the course of the day and this was a tough decision for him to make. The weather was sunny; humid but nice and it's always tough to cancel a race when the sun is shining. Shortly after noon, they dragged the pits to open them up for drying and started working on the track which didn't appear to be that wet. Complicating things was the fact that a thunderstorm watch had been issued for the local area until late in the evening and Staley was aware that this was definitely going to hurt his crowd. And the "nut" to cover this race was considerable, even with it being halved by the Outlaws.
So Todd was dragging his feet on the final decision after consulting with Tim Christman of the Outlaws. They set a time of 3 pm to make a decision and then everyone sat back to see how the track would respond and what would happen with the weather.
Well, that time came and went and still they couldn't decide what to do. The race cars were all waiting at the top of the hill, the employees were on hand and waiting to be told whether to start their jobs or not. The track was ready, just needed a last minute squirt over the top to settle the dust and the pits had dried out nicely and wouldn't be giving any hauler a problem.
The issue was, a series of thunderstorm cells had developed West of the area and seemed to be marching straight toward Hamilton County. They didn't want the haulers in the infield if it started to rain, so everyone was in a holding pattern to see what the storms would do. At this point, Staley was really starting to get nervous because now we were getting to that late afternoon time frame when people were getting ready to decide whether they should run the risk of heading to the track or not. I can tell you that at this time, the number of people on the grounds was very small indeed for such a show and it was clear that the crowd wasn't going to be what they would have hoped for. I think it was about this time when Todd started to secretly hope that it would downpour and he could send everyone home. The window to cancel due to wet grounds was long past by this time and his only hope was for the skies to let loose.
But, as I was told by a number of people, it just has had a hard time raining in Webster City this year with most rain storms splitting before they arrived in town. And such was the case again as to the amazement of many, the line of storms split and Webster City was just left with cloudy skies and no rain. By this time, they had been forced to open the pits to reduce the bottleneck in the parking lot and a few of the support class rigs were in the pits. However, zero Late Model teams had come down the hill and now it was starting to get late if they were going to start anywhere near the posted time.
Finally, at 6:08 pm, with hot laps scheduled for just over an hour away, Rick Eckert crested the hill with his burnt orange transporter and the parade down the hill to the pits began. And from then on, it was wild and crazy in the pits as they tried to park and unload the big rigs as quickly as possible with time not in their favor, as everyone still kept one eye trained on the skies.
The Outlaw field numbered twenty five cars, not very many considering they are starting a three week stretch in the Midwest where they won't be in their home districts for quite some time. The quality of the field could not be questioned but one has to wonder how the numbers are going to hold up as they swing through Minnesota over the next two weeks and then up to North Dakota. There are plenty of Late Models in those areas, but all are spec engined cars not likely to join the show just to get "whooped on" by the open motor brigade. One of these races comes Saturday in the form of the Gopher 50 at the Deer Creek Speedway. The Gopher 50 used to be one of the premier events in the Midwest when it was held in Owatonna but now it has sunk to being just another race on the Outlaw schedule and instead of a cosmopolitan field of racers from throughout the Midwest, it has turned into just another outing for the traveling Outlaws and the few locals willing to give it a shot against them. The "buzz" around this race has diminished greatly as the change from it being a midweek show to a Saturday night that was convenient to the Outlaws did much to diminish it as a special.
Staley and Christman had been in discussions earlier in the day to form a "game plan" for the night as the worst possible scenario would be a rain out part way through the program. So, even though the first race didn't hit the track, due in part to the time taken for the dreaded time trials, until 8:20 pm, they flew through the program after that. The support classes were very low in number so their part of the program didn't take long at all, and the Late Model feature would be the second main on the schedule.
The biggest surprise to me in the Late Model field was the appearance of Donny Schatz. He had an off night as the Sprint Cars of the Outlaws weren't racing until a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday at a track in western Wisconsin. He could have taken the night off but instead he chose to drive down to central Iowa and and haul his rig down there just for one night of Late Model racing. He clearly enjoys racing the Late Model and it provides him with another challenge, one that he has not fully cracked yet. Those that boo him when he races his Sprint Car, probably because he wins too often, certainly have the right to do so. But for me, I can't tell you how impressed I have been over the years to see the lengths that Schatz will go just to get the chance to race his Late Model at some far flung out of the way place. I've seen him fly back from an Outlaw show half way around the country to Fargo, and then jump into his Late Model rig and drive down the freeway to Watertown South Dakota. I've seen him fly back after winning Knoxville and then go out and race his Late Model the next night at some little bullring in Minnesota. To me, that is the definition of being a "real racer" and perhaps the Kenny Schrader of our modern times. And I think he enjoys being in the pits at a Late Model show where people aren't "fawning" all over him but give him his space and treat him like any other driver on hand. If you didn't know who he was, he wouldn't be any different than all the other drivers rushing around to get their cars ready.
The amount of rain and humidity seemed to have treated the Hamilton County Speedway well as the track was in good shape for the Late Model feature and provided a solid two lane track for racing. For the longest time it appeared that Jimmy Mars was going to win his first Outlaw show in several years. He was strong up front and fought off several challenges from Rick Eckert and Eric Wells. However, the one driver he couldn't keep behind him was Brian Shirley. Shirley worked the low side of the track while most were still pounding the cushion and eventually he made it work. Mars was still fast in turn one on the high side but the East end of the track proved his downfall as he just couldn't get through turns three and four as quick as Shirley and with only seven laps to go, Brian made the winning pass.
Two late yellows for flat tires kept the field bunched but each time Shirley was able to pull away. Wells stole second from Mars but Jimmy got back up on the wheel and retook the spot with only a couple laps left with Wells settling for third. It was an entertaining forty lap main event, especially by big track standards.
As stated earlier, the numbers in the support classes was really weak although the Stock Cars left a good taste in everyone's mouth as they finished up the night with a fine main event. Earlier, Carter VandenBerg won the B Mod feature as he made a nice move around the high side of Mike Tanner to take the lead and then held off Trevor Fecht for the win. Things got interesting on the last lap when VandenBerg nearly knocked down the turn one wall while maintaining a big lead. He reported that he lost his brakes going into turn one but he managed to keep the car off the wall and bring it home for the win, although much of his racing margin was eliminated on the final lap.
VandenBerg got a little dig in during his victory lane interview when he related that he was told that he shouldn't be at the race as his IMCA legal car would never keep up with the USRA B Mods. Perhaps more drivers should have ventured out to try such as VandenBerg as they were virtually no Webster City regulars on hand and with only nine B Mods, it was a poor turnout that resulted in just a single heat and feature.
The Stock Car field was not huge either as thirteen signed in, but as Stock Cars are often capable of doing, they still provided an excellent main event that saw the final turn settle the issue. Phil Holtz, who started on the outside pole, fended off constant challenges from a series of drivers to take the win. On the last lap, he had to fight off a severe threat from Kyle Falck and Derek Green but was able to edge them both at the line.
About the top eight cars were running in a tight pack and they swapped spots throughout the race with the exception of Holtz who always maintained the lead, tenuous that it was. It was an excellent race to wrap up the evening and most stuck around to watch it.
Despite just a few sprinkles as the Stock Cars were finishing up their second heat, the rest of the night remained dry even though some ominous clouds floated nearly and lightning lit of the sky on occasion. The crowd actually filled in quite a bit and even though it wasn't the "blockbuster" crowd that Staley had hoped for, it didn't seem like the small sized one that would send him off to the Small Business Administration either for a loan to pay the purse. As for me, I was just glad to see a race on this night.
A new scoreboard, paid for by fundraising efforts of the Hamilton County Speedway Racing Association (HCSRA) was on display and pointed out to me by Staley. However, the board was not in operation as the only thing it did was tell the current time, something probably not what the fans wanted to see on this night, although the final checkered flew by 10:30 pm. The scorers are now of the roof of the grandstand, a view I would guess as being breathtaking and and one that would take away your breath having to scale the roof to get to that location. As the highest point on the entire fairgrounds, I would, however, not like to be up there on nights such at Thursday. Now, only the announcer is exposed to the whims of nature without a roof over his head.
Thanks to the Staley's for their help on this night. Todd told me that he clearly has a soft spot in his heart for the Hamilton County Speedway as this is where it all began for him, cleaning toilets at a young age and gradually progressing up the ladder at the track. Even he probably couldn't have predicted that his life's work and living would eventually evolve around the race tracks of America.
At Webster City, they received a half inch of rain during the day on Wednesday and another half inch over night so when Thursday dawned, they had a wet race track and pit area to overcome. For those of you that haven't been at Webster City, you should know that the race track sits in a valley at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds and the race cars must go down a very steep hill to cross the track as they pit in the infield at Hamilton County. Over the years, some of the most entertaining moments at any race track have been those times when a sudden rain storm will hit and turn the place into a skating rink. Trying to get the big haulers back up the hill has provided comedy relief for the fans and frustration as well as a certain danger level for the race teams more than once over the years.
For this reason, the racers keep a very close eye on the weather here and are probably more skittish about entering the pits when threatening conditions exist than at any track around.
For this event, the Outlaws have partnered with Todd and Janice Staley of the USMTS to promote this race so that the burden fell on both of them. I spoke with Todd several times over the course of the day and this was a tough decision for him to make. The weather was sunny; humid but nice and it's always tough to cancel a race when the sun is shining. Shortly after noon, they dragged the pits to open them up for drying and started working on the track which didn't appear to be that wet. Complicating things was the fact that a thunderstorm watch had been issued for the local area until late in the evening and Staley was aware that this was definitely going to hurt his crowd. And the "nut" to cover this race was considerable, even with it being halved by the Outlaws.
So Todd was dragging his feet on the final decision after consulting with Tim Christman of the Outlaws. They set a time of 3 pm to make a decision and then everyone sat back to see how the track would respond and what would happen with the weather.
Well, that time came and went and still they couldn't decide what to do. The race cars were all waiting at the top of the hill, the employees were on hand and waiting to be told whether to start their jobs or not. The track was ready, just needed a last minute squirt over the top to settle the dust and the pits had dried out nicely and wouldn't be giving any hauler a problem.
The issue was, a series of thunderstorm cells had developed West of the area and seemed to be marching straight toward Hamilton County. They didn't want the haulers in the infield if it started to rain, so everyone was in a holding pattern to see what the storms would do. At this point, Staley was really starting to get nervous because now we were getting to that late afternoon time frame when people were getting ready to decide whether they should run the risk of heading to the track or not. I can tell you that at this time, the number of people on the grounds was very small indeed for such a show and it was clear that the crowd wasn't going to be what they would have hoped for. I think it was about this time when Todd started to secretly hope that it would downpour and he could send everyone home. The window to cancel due to wet grounds was long past by this time and his only hope was for the skies to let loose.
But, as I was told by a number of people, it just has had a hard time raining in Webster City this year with most rain storms splitting before they arrived in town. And such was the case again as to the amazement of many, the line of storms split and Webster City was just left with cloudy skies and no rain. By this time, they had been forced to open the pits to reduce the bottleneck in the parking lot and a few of the support class rigs were in the pits. However, zero Late Model teams had come down the hill and now it was starting to get late if they were going to start anywhere near the posted time.
Finally, at 6:08 pm, with hot laps scheduled for just over an hour away, Rick Eckert crested the hill with his burnt orange transporter and the parade down the hill to the pits began. And from then on, it was wild and crazy in the pits as they tried to park and unload the big rigs as quickly as possible with time not in their favor, as everyone still kept one eye trained on the skies.
The Outlaw field numbered twenty five cars, not very many considering they are starting a three week stretch in the Midwest where they won't be in their home districts for quite some time. The quality of the field could not be questioned but one has to wonder how the numbers are going to hold up as they swing through Minnesota over the next two weeks and then up to North Dakota. There are plenty of Late Models in those areas, but all are spec engined cars not likely to join the show just to get "whooped on" by the open motor brigade. One of these races comes Saturday in the form of the Gopher 50 at the Deer Creek Speedway. The Gopher 50 used to be one of the premier events in the Midwest when it was held in Owatonna but now it has sunk to being just another race on the Outlaw schedule and instead of a cosmopolitan field of racers from throughout the Midwest, it has turned into just another outing for the traveling Outlaws and the few locals willing to give it a shot against them. The "buzz" around this race has diminished greatly as the change from it being a midweek show to a Saturday night that was convenient to the Outlaws did much to diminish it as a special.
Staley and Christman had been in discussions earlier in the day to form a "game plan" for the night as the worst possible scenario would be a rain out part way through the program. So, even though the first race didn't hit the track, due in part to the time taken for the dreaded time trials, until 8:20 pm, they flew through the program after that. The support classes were very low in number so their part of the program didn't take long at all, and the Late Model feature would be the second main on the schedule.
The biggest surprise to me in the Late Model field was the appearance of Donny Schatz. He had an off night as the Sprint Cars of the Outlaws weren't racing until a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday at a track in western Wisconsin. He could have taken the night off but instead he chose to drive down to central Iowa and and haul his rig down there just for one night of Late Model racing. He clearly enjoys racing the Late Model and it provides him with another challenge, one that he has not fully cracked yet. Those that boo him when he races his Sprint Car, probably because he wins too often, certainly have the right to do so. But for me, I can't tell you how impressed I have been over the years to see the lengths that Schatz will go just to get the chance to race his Late Model at some far flung out of the way place. I've seen him fly back from an Outlaw show half way around the country to Fargo, and then jump into his Late Model rig and drive down the freeway to Watertown South Dakota. I've seen him fly back after winning Knoxville and then go out and race his Late Model the next night at some little bullring in Minnesota. To me, that is the definition of being a "real racer" and perhaps the Kenny Schrader of our modern times. And I think he enjoys being in the pits at a Late Model show where people aren't "fawning" all over him but give him his space and treat him like any other driver on hand. If you didn't know who he was, he wouldn't be any different than all the other drivers rushing around to get their cars ready.
The amount of rain and humidity seemed to have treated the Hamilton County Speedway well as the track was in good shape for the Late Model feature and provided a solid two lane track for racing. For the longest time it appeared that Jimmy Mars was going to win his first Outlaw show in several years. He was strong up front and fought off several challenges from Rick Eckert and Eric Wells. However, the one driver he couldn't keep behind him was Brian Shirley. Shirley worked the low side of the track while most were still pounding the cushion and eventually he made it work. Mars was still fast in turn one on the high side but the East end of the track proved his downfall as he just couldn't get through turns three and four as quick as Shirley and with only seven laps to go, Brian made the winning pass.
Two late yellows for flat tires kept the field bunched but each time Shirley was able to pull away. Wells stole second from Mars but Jimmy got back up on the wheel and retook the spot with only a couple laps left with Wells settling for third. It was an entertaining forty lap main event, especially by big track standards.
As stated earlier, the numbers in the support classes was really weak although the Stock Cars left a good taste in everyone's mouth as they finished up the night with a fine main event. Earlier, Carter VandenBerg won the B Mod feature as he made a nice move around the high side of Mike Tanner to take the lead and then held off Trevor Fecht for the win. Things got interesting on the last lap when VandenBerg nearly knocked down the turn one wall while maintaining a big lead. He reported that he lost his brakes going into turn one but he managed to keep the car off the wall and bring it home for the win, although much of his racing margin was eliminated on the final lap.
VandenBerg got a little dig in during his victory lane interview when he related that he was told that he shouldn't be at the race as his IMCA legal car would never keep up with the USRA B Mods. Perhaps more drivers should have ventured out to try such as VandenBerg as they were virtually no Webster City regulars on hand and with only nine B Mods, it was a poor turnout that resulted in just a single heat and feature.
The Stock Car field was not huge either as thirteen signed in, but as Stock Cars are often capable of doing, they still provided an excellent main event that saw the final turn settle the issue. Phil Holtz, who started on the outside pole, fended off constant challenges from a series of drivers to take the win. On the last lap, he had to fight off a severe threat from Kyle Falck and Derek Green but was able to edge them both at the line.
About the top eight cars were running in a tight pack and they swapped spots throughout the race with the exception of Holtz who always maintained the lead, tenuous that it was. It was an excellent race to wrap up the evening and most stuck around to watch it.
Despite just a few sprinkles as the Stock Cars were finishing up their second heat, the rest of the night remained dry even though some ominous clouds floated nearly and lightning lit of the sky on occasion. The crowd actually filled in quite a bit and even though it wasn't the "blockbuster" crowd that Staley had hoped for, it didn't seem like the small sized one that would send him off to the Small Business Administration either for a loan to pay the purse. As for me, I was just glad to see a race on this night.
A new scoreboard, paid for by fundraising efforts of the Hamilton County Speedway Racing Association (HCSRA) was on display and pointed out to me by Staley. However, the board was not in operation as the only thing it did was tell the current time, something probably not what the fans wanted to see on this night, although the final checkered flew by 10:30 pm. The scorers are now of the roof of the grandstand, a view I would guess as being breathtaking and and one that would take away your breath having to scale the roof to get to that location. As the highest point on the entire fairgrounds, I would, however, not like to be up there on nights such at Thursday. Now, only the announcer is exposed to the whims of nature without a roof over his head.
Thanks to the Staley's for their help on this night. Todd told me that he clearly has a soft spot in his heart for the Hamilton County Speedway as this is where it all began for him, cleaning toilets at a young age and gradually progressing up the ladder at the track. Even he probably couldn't have predicted that his life's work and living would eventually evolve around the race tracks of America.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Fitzpatrick, Droste Dominate Independence
The Deery Brothers Summer Series came to the Independence Motor Speedway on Wednesday, July 6th as a part of the first day of the annual county fair. Also on the card was the Dale Miller Memorial race, a special for the IMCA Modifieds and the third class in action was the Sport Mods.
A trip to Independence is always a special moment for me as it is always like a step back in time. It is dangerous to get too hung up on the past, but I always have to humor myself a little when I walk into the pits at Independence. This place is just dripping in nostalgia for me as I think of the great names from what I would consider my "glory" years of Late Model racing that raced here on a weekly basis and then took their show on the road, stealing money from the local drivers all over the Midwest and beyond, and leaving lasting memories for the fans in the stands of the "beating" they put on the locals.
I can remember when Sanger, Hansen, Crawford etc. used to show up for specials in Minnesota and Wisconsin and the Dakotas and lay a "smackin" down on the local drivers and then head off into the night back South to leave the local drivers just shaking their heads and lasting memories for the fans that saw them in action. Eventually folks like Sanger started selling their technology to others and the fields started to balance themselves out and then, once sanctioning bodies started getting territorial and made rules that made each group just enough different that it was impossible to cross over, the real fun part of racing was lost forever.
But that was then and this is now and on this extraordinarily steamy July night in Independence, a fine field of thirty five Late Models found their way to this historic oval. By the way, after checking with some of the locals, who certified that even by Iowa standards this night was more than humid enough to complain about, I also chimed in.
Besides the Late Models, the Miller Memorial had attracted a great field of Modifieds with either thirty nine or forty on hand, depending on whether you believe the last car in the lineup ever actually made it to the track. And in fact, with no disparagement meant to the Late Models, the Modified field from top to bottom might have been even stronger than the Late Models.
The Sport Mods had two dozen cars entered also and despite their smaller number, they would make their presence felt later, and unfortunately, not in a positive way.
Somewhere over an inch of rain fell overnight in Independence but the show would go on. The pits was a little muddy in spots, the infield of the track a quagmire and the track itself plenty wet. Despite all day efforts to pack and rework the track, the surface would be a factor early as it was choppy and loose in the corners. I made the mistake of sitting near a bunch of the biggest "pissers and moaners" that I have heard for a long time for as soon as the hot laps started and it was clear that the track was going to be choppy, they started their complaining campaign, almost as it they were happy that the track wasn't perfect so they would have something to complain about. Really? And you can bet that if they had canceled because of wet track conditions, they would have been complaining about that too!
So, I tried to ignore them and focus on the racing and there was plenty of that going on as in both the Mods and Late Models, just making the main event would be challenging. Four heat races in both classes plus a couple of consolations would set the field while the Sport Mods ran three heats to set their starting grid.
The Sport Mods ran the first feature, interestingly enough, even before the other two classes ran their B features. Twenty three cars started their main event and it turned into an event that tried everyone's patience with the yellow flag getting a work out as spins and crashes marked the event. The top runners tried hard to maintain control and put on a race but many behind them spent more time crashing into each other and spinning out than doing much else.
Dan Drury led the entire eighteen laps of the main for the win but it was very much hard earned as he had to endure through so many yellows that repeatedly brought the field back to him. Each time however, he continued to hit his marks and not make a mistake and he drove on for the win over Joey Schaefer and Ben Chapman.
Fortunately, after the Sport Mods got off the track, the number of yellows went down markedly. The Late Models had only two yellows in forty laps and the Mods only one in twenty five laps as both classes raced hard without slowdowns.
Scott Fitzpatrick won his second Derry Brothers main of the season and became the first to do so in 2016. A look at the Deery Brothers points shows that there is much more balance in the Late Model ranks than in some years and the points are very close. Fitzpatrick certainly must be considered as among the most improved drivers running Late Models as it wasn't that many years ago when he had a tough time even getting around the track without spinning, much less winning feature races and challenging for series points titles. The Deery Brothers series continues to get good support from the drivers as the top sixteen in points were all on hand.
Denny Eckrich looked like he might steal away the win as he moved in to challenge Fitzpatrick and Eckrich seemed to be running a slightly lower line on the track and one that was really working. Just as Eckrich was ready to make his move, it appeared that Fitzpatrick found that same line and he stabilized the distance between then and then, after a lap twenty eight yellow, he pulled away from that point on.
Curt Martin and Ray Guss Jr both looked like legitimate challengers for the win but in a strange series of events, both got too high down the back chute and got over the edge of the track, taking rides off the turn three corner that ended both their chances of challenging.
Tyler Droste dominated a feature race but unlike the class that many thought he would dominate, he instead was the winner of the Modified feature. Droste has been running very strong in his Late Model lately but on this night it was the Modified that carried him to victory. He started on the pole and led all twenty five laps and while there were some great battled behind him, he controlled the top spot from start to finish.
The lone yellow saw Troy Cordes take a hard ride off the first corner and impact the guard rail surrounding the track. His car was badly damaged both front and back end and it took him some time to regain his footing and exit his car. It was definitely a very hard hit.
The battle for second in the Mod feature was a dandy as the drivers swapped positions on numerous occasions and on the lap that counted, Brian Irvine finished second with Richie Gustin and Joel Rust next in line.
It did get to be a long night on Wednesday and in fact, I can never remember being at Independence until 11:30 pm before. However, almost all the extra time was used to either rework the track for the main events or clean up another Sport Mod mess. Once the racing started, it was nonstop from one race to the next with the only break taken for the redraw but at the same time the track was being redone so no time was wasted there either. Given the hand they drew, they did the absolute best they could under the circumstances. And after the track was graded, any choppiness it might have had was eliminated.
Thanks go out to promoter Dana Benning for his help. He was a busy guy on race day but took time to say hello as he rushed from task to task.
One thing I did notice and missed and that was a working scoreboard. The venerable old board that has been there for quite a few years is still up, but it didn't appear to be working. If it is DOA, I hope it is in the budget of the fairgrounds to replace it at some point.
A trip to Independence is always a special moment for me as it is always like a step back in time. It is dangerous to get too hung up on the past, but I always have to humor myself a little when I walk into the pits at Independence. This place is just dripping in nostalgia for me as I think of the great names from what I would consider my "glory" years of Late Model racing that raced here on a weekly basis and then took their show on the road, stealing money from the local drivers all over the Midwest and beyond, and leaving lasting memories for the fans in the stands of the "beating" they put on the locals.
I can remember when Sanger, Hansen, Crawford etc. used to show up for specials in Minnesota and Wisconsin and the Dakotas and lay a "smackin" down on the local drivers and then head off into the night back South to leave the local drivers just shaking their heads and lasting memories for the fans that saw them in action. Eventually folks like Sanger started selling their technology to others and the fields started to balance themselves out and then, once sanctioning bodies started getting territorial and made rules that made each group just enough different that it was impossible to cross over, the real fun part of racing was lost forever.
But that was then and this is now and on this extraordinarily steamy July night in Independence, a fine field of thirty five Late Models found their way to this historic oval. By the way, after checking with some of the locals, who certified that even by Iowa standards this night was more than humid enough to complain about, I also chimed in.
Besides the Late Models, the Miller Memorial had attracted a great field of Modifieds with either thirty nine or forty on hand, depending on whether you believe the last car in the lineup ever actually made it to the track. And in fact, with no disparagement meant to the Late Models, the Modified field from top to bottom might have been even stronger than the Late Models.
The Sport Mods had two dozen cars entered also and despite their smaller number, they would make their presence felt later, and unfortunately, not in a positive way.
Somewhere over an inch of rain fell overnight in Independence but the show would go on. The pits was a little muddy in spots, the infield of the track a quagmire and the track itself plenty wet. Despite all day efforts to pack and rework the track, the surface would be a factor early as it was choppy and loose in the corners. I made the mistake of sitting near a bunch of the biggest "pissers and moaners" that I have heard for a long time for as soon as the hot laps started and it was clear that the track was going to be choppy, they started their complaining campaign, almost as it they were happy that the track wasn't perfect so they would have something to complain about. Really? And you can bet that if they had canceled because of wet track conditions, they would have been complaining about that too!
So, I tried to ignore them and focus on the racing and there was plenty of that going on as in both the Mods and Late Models, just making the main event would be challenging. Four heat races in both classes plus a couple of consolations would set the field while the Sport Mods ran three heats to set their starting grid.
The Sport Mods ran the first feature, interestingly enough, even before the other two classes ran their B features. Twenty three cars started their main event and it turned into an event that tried everyone's patience with the yellow flag getting a work out as spins and crashes marked the event. The top runners tried hard to maintain control and put on a race but many behind them spent more time crashing into each other and spinning out than doing much else.
Dan Drury led the entire eighteen laps of the main for the win but it was very much hard earned as he had to endure through so many yellows that repeatedly brought the field back to him. Each time however, he continued to hit his marks and not make a mistake and he drove on for the win over Joey Schaefer and Ben Chapman.
Fortunately, after the Sport Mods got off the track, the number of yellows went down markedly. The Late Models had only two yellows in forty laps and the Mods only one in twenty five laps as both classes raced hard without slowdowns.
Scott Fitzpatrick won his second Derry Brothers main of the season and became the first to do so in 2016. A look at the Deery Brothers points shows that there is much more balance in the Late Model ranks than in some years and the points are very close. Fitzpatrick certainly must be considered as among the most improved drivers running Late Models as it wasn't that many years ago when he had a tough time even getting around the track without spinning, much less winning feature races and challenging for series points titles. The Deery Brothers series continues to get good support from the drivers as the top sixteen in points were all on hand.
Denny Eckrich looked like he might steal away the win as he moved in to challenge Fitzpatrick and Eckrich seemed to be running a slightly lower line on the track and one that was really working. Just as Eckrich was ready to make his move, it appeared that Fitzpatrick found that same line and he stabilized the distance between then and then, after a lap twenty eight yellow, he pulled away from that point on.
Curt Martin and Ray Guss Jr both looked like legitimate challengers for the win but in a strange series of events, both got too high down the back chute and got over the edge of the track, taking rides off the turn three corner that ended both their chances of challenging.
Tyler Droste dominated a feature race but unlike the class that many thought he would dominate, he instead was the winner of the Modified feature. Droste has been running very strong in his Late Model lately but on this night it was the Modified that carried him to victory. He started on the pole and led all twenty five laps and while there were some great battled behind him, he controlled the top spot from start to finish.
The lone yellow saw Troy Cordes take a hard ride off the first corner and impact the guard rail surrounding the track. His car was badly damaged both front and back end and it took him some time to regain his footing and exit his car. It was definitely a very hard hit.
The battle for second in the Mod feature was a dandy as the drivers swapped positions on numerous occasions and on the lap that counted, Brian Irvine finished second with Richie Gustin and Joel Rust next in line.
It did get to be a long night on Wednesday and in fact, I can never remember being at Independence until 11:30 pm before. However, almost all the extra time was used to either rework the track for the main events or clean up another Sport Mod mess. Once the racing started, it was nonstop from one race to the next with the only break taken for the redraw but at the same time the track was being redone so no time was wasted there either. Given the hand they drew, they did the absolute best they could under the circumstances. And after the track was graded, any choppiness it might have had was eliminated.
Thanks go out to promoter Dana Benning for his help. He was a busy guy on race day but took time to say hello as he rushed from task to task.
One thing I did notice and missed and that was a working scoreboard. The venerable old board that has been there for quite a few years is still up, but it didn't appear to be working. If it is DOA, I hope it is in the budget of the fairgrounds to replace it at some point.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Dubuque's Tri-Track to Droste
It used to be that the fourth of July was a time for some of the biggest racing events of the year to take place. Specials used to abound everywhere and the biggest problem was always trying to make a decision on where to go rather than trying to find a race to attend.
It would appear that 2016 is just the opposite of that though. In my area, the racing action on both July 3rd and 4th was very minimal with the majority of the programs at best being "watered down" versions of the weekly shows and no more. With the weather being so beautiful it would be a travesty to allow such a holiday to slip by without even seeing any racing.
So, with that being said, here I am once again in Iowa, seeking some racing action. Based on time, distance and few other factors, my choice for Sunday, July 3rd was the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway where the featured attraction was the Out Pace Racing Products IMCA Late Models participating in the Ideal Ready Mix Tri-Track Challenge which is a series of special hosted between the three Simmons Promotions Inc. tracks.
Along with the Late Models, it would be a full show in the other three classes that run on the weekly Sunday night card at Dubuque.
Attending a race in Dubuque is always a pleasure as it is almost a certainty that you will see a good show that will be run off at a crisp pace and you won't be at the track until the wee hours. It's also always fun to meet and greet again people like Jerry Mackey, Kevin Feller and Doug Haack and the rest of the SPI staff who have been friends and comrades for a long time in this journey through the racing world.
Racing in Iowa, always considered one of the hot spots for dirt track activity in this country, is starting to feel the same pinch that the rest of the country is going through. Many of the things I'm seeing at home and as I travel around to other parts of the Midwest seem to be also popping up at tracks in Iowa and throughout the Iowa racing community in general. Such things as low car counts, tracks once considered to be "sacred" now struggling and everyone fighting to put butts in the stands on a consistent basis. A person I would consider as being very "with it" in terms of knowing how things are currently playing out tells me that he has not seen things this tough for Iowa racing for perhaps many years. He's a Late Model guy and the lack of Late Models has him concerned as many weekly programs are suffering. And as always, the answers, if any, are very elusive. Far better minds than ours have not been able to hit on how to turn this whole "funk" around but wish they could. In the meantime, we muddle along and hope that things will get better.
Being a two grand to win Late Model event on a holiday weekend, I was anticipating a great field of cars and as my wife reminded me, a packed grandstand like Dubuque always used to have. However, the "new normal" is much different. Seventeen Late Models signed in to race Sunday with many of the regular point cars inexplicably absent, including for of the top ten in current track points. Enough cars in the other classes would set up three Modifieds heats, two for the Sport Mods and a lone Stock Car heat for a class that just won't catch on here in Dubuque.
As far as the crowd, I suppose that I should have taken in consideration that they just got done with the two day Aftermarket Nationals for the Modifieds just down the road in Farley that I was told was quite successful and that Dubuque hosts a huge holiday celebration down by the river that features all day activities and a ginormous fireworks display. For those reasons, track officials weren't expecting too big a crowd and they proved to be accurate in their assessment.
While the Late Model field wasn't overly big, they did have plenty of strong running cars and some drivers that don't normally frequent Dubuque like Ray Guss Jr, Andy Nezworski, Tyler Droste and Darrel DeFrance. I ran into "DD" as he was crossing the track for the driver's meeting and I congratulated him on what has been a strong season for him so far in 2016. He admitted that racing is a lot more fun when you're winning races and most importantly, being competitive.
The Late Model feature was the final event on the card with the drivers going fifty laps. Dan Shelliam, the visitor from the great state of Wisconsin(slight bias here!) was the early leader with Nezworski(a former racer in Wisconsin when Andy lived in Michigan-more bias!) trailing.
The driver on the move was Droste who experimented with both the low and high side of the track before settling for the extreme lower groove. The track had two definite lanes for racing which made it interesting and much more like the Dubuque I had remembered from previous years, rather than everyone clinging to the inside rail like had happened earlier here this year.
While Droste would eventually take over the lead and win the race, he was really the only one to make the low side work as most of the others were banging off the outside wall and knocking off their spoilers. Some spectacular slide jobs broke out as the pack battled with Nezworski and Joel Callahan exchanging some real zingers on each other. Neither driver looked happy after the checkered flag flew, by the way.
Droste has become a very accomplished Late Model racer in the last couple of years and his victory on Sunday was a smoothly driver affair. He hopes to be just as competitive next Sunday when the Deery Brothers Series comes to town. Shelliam and Jeremiah Hurst trailed him in a race that saw just three yellow flags.
All nineteen Modifieds on hand started the main event and it was rookie Austin Moyer who came from the third row for the win. Steve Johnson, in a new ride for himself, was the early leader but a yellow and ensuing restart killed him as he just didn't get off the line fast enough. Moyer, on the other hand, used the restart to secure the win. Only a couple of yellow flags and plenty of good racing marked the Modified main.
The Sport Mod feature saw the first two leaders both spin themselves out of contention before two laps could be completed. Once everyone settled down, it was Tyler Soppe, who always runs well here, who came charging up from the fifth row to take the win. Troy Bauer, who just got done winning the Aftermarket Nationals, made a late charge but he came up short.
Not much can be said about a five car Stock Car feature other than Tim Schneider won it and Jerry Mills didn't .
One of the things that SPI prides themselves on when it comes to Dubuque particularly and their Sunday shows, is running off a quick program. It should be noted that a four class program does expedite this, but I've also been to more places than I would care to relate that under the same circumstances would manage to drag things out for four hours. SPI had the heats done in forty five minutes and the whole show, including the fifty lap finale, was done by 8:45 pm.
We actually had time to visit the tower after the races and decided to get adventurous and see if we could find the fireworks ourselves. Mostly, we just followed the crowd down to the river and got there in time to see a spectacular fireworks display that lasted nearly an hour. And the crowd, huge! No wonder the track officials felt that they were being affected by the city wide celebration.
It would appear that 2016 is just the opposite of that though. In my area, the racing action on both July 3rd and 4th was very minimal with the majority of the programs at best being "watered down" versions of the weekly shows and no more. With the weather being so beautiful it would be a travesty to allow such a holiday to slip by without even seeing any racing.
So, with that being said, here I am once again in Iowa, seeking some racing action. Based on time, distance and few other factors, my choice for Sunday, July 3rd was the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway where the featured attraction was the Out Pace Racing Products IMCA Late Models participating in the Ideal Ready Mix Tri-Track Challenge which is a series of special hosted between the three Simmons Promotions Inc. tracks.
Along with the Late Models, it would be a full show in the other three classes that run on the weekly Sunday night card at Dubuque.
Attending a race in Dubuque is always a pleasure as it is almost a certainty that you will see a good show that will be run off at a crisp pace and you won't be at the track until the wee hours. It's also always fun to meet and greet again people like Jerry Mackey, Kevin Feller and Doug Haack and the rest of the SPI staff who have been friends and comrades for a long time in this journey through the racing world.
Racing in Iowa, always considered one of the hot spots for dirt track activity in this country, is starting to feel the same pinch that the rest of the country is going through. Many of the things I'm seeing at home and as I travel around to other parts of the Midwest seem to be also popping up at tracks in Iowa and throughout the Iowa racing community in general. Such things as low car counts, tracks once considered to be "sacred" now struggling and everyone fighting to put butts in the stands on a consistent basis. A person I would consider as being very "with it" in terms of knowing how things are currently playing out tells me that he has not seen things this tough for Iowa racing for perhaps many years. He's a Late Model guy and the lack of Late Models has him concerned as many weekly programs are suffering. And as always, the answers, if any, are very elusive. Far better minds than ours have not been able to hit on how to turn this whole "funk" around but wish they could. In the meantime, we muddle along and hope that things will get better.
Being a two grand to win Late Model event on a holiday weekend, I was anticipating a great field of cars and as my wife reminded me, a packed grandstand like Dubuque always used to have. However, the "new normal" is much different. Seventeen Late Models signed in to race Sunday with many of the regular point cars inexplicably absent, including for of the top ten in current track points. Enough cars in the other classes would set up three Modifieds heats, two for the Sport Mods and a lone Stock Car heat for a class that just won't catch on here in Dubuque.
As far as the crowd, I suppose that I should have taken in consideration that they just got done with the two day Aftermarket Nationals for the Modifieds just down the road in Farley that I was told was quite successful and that Dubuque hosts a huge holiday celebration down by the river that features all day activities and a ginormous fireworks display. For those reasons, track officials weren't expecting too big a crowd and they proved to be accurate in their assessment.
While the Late Model field wasn't overly big, they did have plenty of strong running cars and some drivers that don't normally frequent Dubuque like Ray Guss Jr, Andy Nezworski, Tyler Droste and Darrel DeFrance. I ran into "DD" as he was crossing the track for the driver's meeting and I congratulated him on what has been a strong season for him so far in 2016. He admitted that racing is a lot more fun when you're winning races and most importantly, being competitive.
The Late Model feature was the final event on the card with the drivers going fifty laps. Dan Shelliam, the visitor from the great state of Wisconsin(slight bias here!) was the early leader with Nezworski(a former racer in Wisconsin when Andy lived in Michigan-more bias!) trailing.
The driver on the move was Droste who experimented with both the low and high side of the track before settling for the extreme lower groove. The track had two definite lanes for racing which made it interesting and much more like the Dubuque I had remembered from previous years, rather than everyone clinging to the inside rail like had happened earlier here this year.
While Droste would eventually take over the lead and win the race, he was really the only one to make the low side work as most of the others were banging off the outside wall and knocking off their spoilers. Some spectacular slide jobs broke out as the pack battled with Nezworski and Joel Callahan exchanging some real zingers on each other. Neither driver looked happy after the checkered flag flew, by the way.
Droste has become a very accomplished Late Model racer in the last couple of years and his victory on Sunday was a smoothly driver affair. He hopes to be just as competitive next Sunday when the Deery Brothers Series comes to town. Shelliam and Jeremiah Hurst trailed him in a race that saw just three yellow flags.
All nineteen Modifieds on hand started the main event and it was rookie Austin Moyer who came from the third row for the win. Steve Johnson, in a new ride for himself, was the early leader but a yellow and ensuing restart killed him as he just didn't get off the line fast enough. Moyer, on the other hand, used the restart to secure the win. Only a couple of yellow flags and plenty of good racing marked the Modified main.
The Sport Mod feature saw the first two leaders both spin themselves out of contention before two laps could be completed. Once everyone settled down, it was Tyler Soppe, who always runs well here, who came charging up from the fifth row to take the win. Troy Bauer, who just got done winning the Aftermarket Nationals, made a late charge but he came up short.
Not much can be said about a five car Stock Car feature other than Tim Schneider won it and Jerry Mills didn't .
One of the things that SPI prides themselves on when it comes to Dubuque particularly and their Sunday shows, is running off a quick program. It should be noted that a four class program does expedite this, but I've also been to more places than I would care to relate that under the same circumstances would manage to drag things out for four hours. SPI had the heats done in forty five minutes and the whole show, including the fifty lap finale, was done by 8:45 pm.
We actually had time to visit the tower after the races and decided to get adventurous and see if we could find the fireworks ourselves. Mostly, we just followed the crowd down to the river and got there in time to see a spectacular fireworks display that lasted nearly an hour. And the crowd, huge! No wonder the track officials felt that they were being affected by the city wide celebration.
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