The George Scheffler Memorial was held on Friday, August 26th at the Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway. A Late Model special, this race was sanctioned by the Corn Belt Clash series and was the first night of a two night visit to eastern Wisconsin , with the Plymouth Raceway hosting the Corn Belt cars on Saturday.
Along with the Late Models, it was also the final night of the three race "King of the Ring" series for the IMCA Modifieds with a local point fund involved there as well as the purse for the night with the Grand National division completing the three division show.
Very good fields of cars were on hand in all three classes for this event which was played out before a large crowd of fans, anxious to see racing action and also anxious about the future of this fine racing facility. I will get into that part of the story later.
Forty one Late Models signed in to race on this night, more than I would have expected to see. While the Corn Belt Series brought only six of its top twenty point drivers and only ten in total that had raced a previous Corn Belt Series event in 2016, the local and area racers bought into participating in this race, which made all the difference. Many of the regulars that race the Manitowoc/Plymouth circuit plus those that race Saturdays at Shawano were on hand and several of them did quite well. This despite a tire situation that required those drivers to buy tires as the compounds used by the Corn Belt Series were different than those used by the other three tracks in question. While it seems minor, a couple of extra tires on the night's budget is around two hundred a fifty bucks or more, a pretty hefty entry fee. Series director Cam Granger promised to look into the situation and see if he could come up with a plan to solve the problem for next year. However, once again it was a situation of the tire companies dictating the sport and making the whole process more difficult for everyone involved.
When is the last time you can remember the tire companies pitching in to make things easier for the drivers or for the tracks to make a buck? But think how many times that tires have been nothing but a problem for sanctioning bodies, drivers and anyone else trying to make the sport grow or prosper? Especially so now with the issue of "tire cooking" that is threatening to tear to the core of the sport, while the tire companies step back, keep their hands clean of the situation and let everyone else involved battle it out while they offer zero in the way of helping solve the problem.
Dave Fieber, who is one of several drivers that races under the Seubert Calf Ranches sponsorship in this part of the country, recently moved back to the Fox River Valley region of eastern Wisconsin. He started out in this part of the country, then moved to western Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley for work and has now moved back to his old employer in Appleton where he recently bought a home while selling his other house in Chippewa Falls Wisconsin.
Fieber will probably not do much more racing this year as he gets settled in at his (old) new job so they will park his ride and instead roll out their WISSOTA spec motor car that Robby Bunkelman will drive in Fall special events throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota.
I also talked to the Schmidt Racing Team from eastern Wisconsin who field a pair of MB Customs for Jim and Justin Schmidt to race. The Manitowoc Speedway, where they race Late Models on Friday nights, will be closing this year as a Michigan Food Chain has bought much of the Fairground property just off I-43 in Manitowoc and plan to build a storage area there. While they left enough land for the county to continue to hold the Fair, the race track and grandstand will be leveled and the track will be history.
The only other track in eastern Wisconsin that races Late Models is Shawano and they race on Saturdays, the same as Plymouth. So, members of the eastern Wisconsin Late Model scene are currently looking for another track to race at and pair up with their Saturday night racing , as many feel these cars are just too expensive to only race once a week and like any true racers, they are looking for more opportunities. Much nervousness exists in the eastern Wisconsin community over this situation.
I used to really like the format for the Corn Belt Series events with them forgoing time trials and using passing points to set their fields. However, since they aligned with DIRTCAR , that is no longer the case and instead they qualify and line the heats straight up off time trials. The interesting mix of heats and the importance of them is no longer the case as they pretty much get in line and follow each other around the track. Three of the four heats were won right off the pole. And of course, even at Oshkosh, a place that prides itself at starting right on time and does need to do so because of a curfew, they were still a half hour late throwing the first green.
Mars has a record of doing very well at this track in recent years and that might be in part due to the fact that Oshkosh is relatively flat and gets very slick and dry and races much like the track that he cut his racing teeth on at the Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie. In any event, while you rarely see someone move up very much to take the wins in these sorts of events, on Friday Mars started in the fourth row but quickly drove to the front, using both the inside and the tricky high side of the track where you could keep up your momentum but it was definitely the longer way around the third mile oval.
Dave Eckrich was the early leader after a good battle with Chris Simpson but Mars quickly made his presence felt. Seven laps into the race, there were a few sprinkles that started to fall and while they didn't affect the track at all, they got the crowd nervous.
Mars had the lead by lap thirteen and he stayed up front the rest of the way. Simpson got close a couple of times and right after Mars took over the lead, he faced his toughest challenge of the night as a group of about eight cars were running in a tight pack and he had to navigate his way through the traffic. However, he did an expert job of it and continued to keep a couple of lapped cars between himself and Simpson as most of the field matriculated to the low groove as the race concluded.
The forty lap event went nonstop and only ten cars were on the lead lap at the end. It was a disappointing night for area driver Mike Mullen who was scheduled to start on the outside pole and was thought to be a real contender. However, he was having motor problems and opted to start in the back and soon pulled off. It was also a tough night for Jason Feger who blew up a motor in his heat race and had to start the feature as a provisional. He quickly went a lap down which ended his chances. Also, Brad Mueller blew up during time trials and was done for the night.
Area racers Mitch McGrath and Nick Anvelink both did themselves proper with top five finishes. McGrath was knocking on Simpson's door at the end and perhaps even a little too aggressively so.
The Modifieds turned out an incredible forty seven car field for the evening with five heats and two B features necessary to set the grid for their feature event. Going into the final night of the "King of the Ring" series, Benji LaCrosse and Marcus Yarie were tied in the point standings and both did well early as they started the feature side by side in row two. LaCrosse went to the high side and quickly took over the lead, with Yarie chasing. LaCrosse's lead on the top side started to fade as Yarie was driving the bottom and moving in on him. Just as Yarie was ready to make a pass, LaCrosse must have gotten an e-mail as he dived to the inside down the front chute and cut off Yarie's progress and held on to the lead.
Shortly after, the lone yellow of the thirty lap race flew and on the restart, LaCrosse stayed on the bottom and to his credit, from this point on he pulled away as he clearly had the setup, no matter where he ran on the track. Yarie continued to run in second until near the end when he suddenly dived into the infield with major mechanical issues.
The feature was then LaCrosse's and so was the title. Tim Lemirande came from sixteenth to finish second and was trailed by Mullen, doing double duty, Brian Drexler and Steve Schneider.
The Grand Nationals are like a limited Late Model but carry bodies on them that almost look like ASA asphalt cars. They are very popular in eastern Wisconsin but are seldom seen anywhere else. Many tracks in the eastern part of the state race them but that's about the only place too. There were twenty one of them on hand Friday night.
Tim Doehling and Kenny Richards were battling for the lead late in their feature when they got together and Doehling spun with only three laps remaining. Richards was tagged for the offense, he headed to the pits at a high rate of speed and Doehling was restored to the point, after which he finished off the win. The Richards family builds chassis for this class and are very prominent in this part of the state as Larry Richards and Jeff Richards ended up second and third so we were very close to a top three sweep by the family, if circumstances had played out different or Kenny could have been just a bit more patient.
The wide, smooth and slick surface at Oshkosh seems to promote a lot of side by side racing, and few yellow flags. The speeds aren't blazing here but the competition more than makes up for the slow, slick surface. The feature races were a good example. Three full fields of cars for the main produced a total of five yellow flags in ninety laps of racing. There wasn't a single race all night that had more than two yellows and the one spin rule used in the two support classes made running off their heats pretty darn smooth. With one of the biggest weekly car counts in the state and an ultra fine facility, Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway is certainly one of the top tracks in the Midwest, bar none.
Here's the kicker that I was talking about earlier. Even though this place seems like manna from heaven, things are going anything but smooth here. In fact, there is at least an even chance that racing won't even take place here next year and that the entire facility might be leveled to make way for a concert stage!
Seems incredible, but that's what is happening right now. I spoke to both promoters, Jeff Lemiesz and Larry Stratton, who by the way, happen to be uncle and nephew to each other. Larry does most of the day to day physical work at the track and bowed to Jeff to tell me the politics behind the scenes that are dominating things right now.
Much of the problem currently is money and an increasingly higher demanded rent that the county wants from the promoters while, at least in the promoters viewpoint, promising very little in return.
Local politics is inter-meshed in the situation and a local non profit is whispering in the county's ear that they could use the land for much better things. Damaged egos of some of the players from the county are also a part of it, and trying to weed through the many layers of what is going on didn't allow Lemiesz the time to explain fully what is currently transpiring.
The promoters are asking all residents of the Oshkosh area to contact their local representatives and tell them how much they like the races and how much money the racing brings into the community. The process will be a difficult one and could possibly end up in court but that remains to be seen. Race fans in general should keep up to what is going on by checking the speedway facebook page because at some point, they may need support from the racing community as a whole, not just the local people.
To see how nice this place is and then to imagine that it could be leveled before the 2017 racing season even begins boggles the mind. Especially when there does seem to be room for both sides to exist and profit from a working compromise that would be beneficial to all. But when egos are in play, sometimes common sense is the first casualty.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Ryan Smooth in Dubuque "Wall Banger"
A rescheduled Deery Brothers Summer Series race at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway gave me another opportunity to sneak across the border and catch some dirt track racing in the state of Iowa before college football season starts and they start checking license plates at the border.
It was a warm, steamy night, just as it should be in August as SPI put on another almost seemingly endless races in their streak of specials they have hosted at their three tracks over the course of the last month.
On this night it was a makeup for a rained out Deery show from last month with Modifieds as the one and only support class. For me, I say bring them on as I can never get too much racing but I'm wondering if some folks are finding themselves forced to cut back a little as they consider that the big Fall specials are sneaking up rapidly particularly the Yankee which is much earlier this year) and it's also time to come up with some cash for school clothes and supplies. It probably didn't help that the Iowa State Fair is now in full swing also, even though once again no auto racing is being offered during the Fair.
In any event, both the car counts in each class plus the spectator attendance would be considered down from what one might expect for an event like this. But fortunately, later the drivers would remind us that a huge car count is not necessary to put on an exciting racing program.
Track announcer Jerry Mackey was a rare "no show" on this night, having purchased concert tickets for a State Fair attraction long before this event was rescheduled. Understandably not wanting to give them up, he arranged to have Jeff Broeg step in for him as the announcer on this night. And Jeff immediately brought the crowd up to speed by dealing with his forte, and that is to know and transmit to us in the crowd the interesting little tidbits that he always manages to dig up. Such as the fact that Jeff Aikey was driving with a damaged collar bone and that Scott Fitzpatrick had been delayed on his trip to the track by tow vehicle problems.
One thing that wasn't mentioned that I believe to be true was that Justin Kay was debuting a new race car on this night. They had told me earlier that a new car was coming and when he unloaded the car and took it to tech, that was my tip that he had a new car that he needed IMCA officials to OK. Also, sharp eyed spectators no doubt noticed that the landscape theme on the sides of his car was done in different colors than previously. Key would run well later but be knocked out of the main event by motor problems early.
While the heat races were relatively innocuous, a couple of drivers were bitten by bad luck that they were forced to "dig" to overcome the rest of the night. Joe Zrostlik had a good run going in his heat and was in a redraw position until his right front suspension collapsed on the last lap, making him a DNF. This forced him to fight his way to the front from the back in the main but despite a lap thirty two spin that would send him to the tail once again, ultimately he would advance from twentieth to sixth at the end.
Callahan was the point leader at Dubuque and was no doubt expecting to be a prime contender. However, from the moment he hit the track for his heat he had motor problems and was forced to pull off the track early. This resulted in a twenty second and last place start in the main. However, for the fans this was a great break as we were then treated to one of the most spectacular high side charges of the year. Keith Simmons may be sending Callahan a bill for damaging his wall as on several occasions Callahan nearly knocked it down as he roared to the front! He was spectacular as he got all the way up to third.
Ultimately however, he made just a few too many concrete visits and with all four corners beat to a pulp, finally on lap forty three his tired car said "no mas" and rolled to a halt on the back chute. While a seventeenth place finish doesn't look like much, those of us that saw the race know much more about how he really ran.
Tyler Breuning, the current Deery point leader, was the primary challenger to Ryan throughout the race as he tried lap after lap to dive under Ryan in turn one and while he got close several times, Ryan never faltered. Breuning hammered the wall several times himself and at the end of the race, the only driver who's car didn't look like a loser in the recent Fair demo derby was Ryan. The best words that could describe Ryan's performance was that he was extremely smooth. While there was utter confusion and calamity going on behind him at times, he remained rock solid and hit his marks lap after lap even with six restarts to deal with where on each one someone else would make a wild dive in turn one at him. Ryan had to work mighty hard to get this win and he most certainly deserved it.
Mark Schulte used the same kind of strategy to win the companion Modified feature race. He started on the pole and led all thirty laps but things got pretty hairy for him at the end. For most of the race he had a comfortable lead but things tightened up at the end in a race that saw only two yellow flags.
Kay was the story of the race. He started seventh and for the first half of the race was mired about where he started. Then he started moving around on the track and found another line missed by the rest of the field. He started to move up rapidly then, and when forced to change his line in turn one due to a lapped car, he found a line that was even faster.
In the last few laps he moved from fourth to second and closed rapidly on Schulte. He rolled through the middle of turn four on the last lap but came up just short as Schulte held on for the win. Schulte never wavered off the bottom and drove a very smooth race for the win. Kay was a winner in my book too as I absolutely loved how he searched the track and never gave up until he found a line that would allow him to move up. I admire so much those drivers that attack the race track rather than just sitting back and taking whatever is simple and easy. Those are the real racers.
Sitting in the bleachers two rows in front of me tonight was Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Ed Sanger. For people from this area that probably isn't that big of a deal as Ed is frequently seen at area tracks around here. However, where I come from, people who remember his excursions into our area back in the "glory days" of Late Model racing would be absolutely thrilled to know this. While he, like every other driver, had his good and bad days while racing in his home area, it seemed like every time he came North he was on his "A" game and he kicked so many butts in our area and took home so much "Yankee" money that he is still considered with almost "Godlike" status among those of us that remember those wonderful days.
It was a warm, steamy night, just as it should be in August as SPI put on another almost seemingly endless races in their streak of specials they have hosted at their three tracks over the course of the last month.
On this night it was a makeup for a rained out Deery show from last month with Modifieds as the one and only support class. For me, I say bring them on as I can never get too much racing but I'm wondering if some folks are finding themselves forced to cut back a little as they consider that the big Fall specials are sneaking up rapidly particularly the Yankee which is much earlier this year) and it's also time to come up with some cash for school clothes and supplies. It probably didn't help that the Iowa State Fair is now in full swing also, even though once again no auto racing is being offered during the Fair.
In any event, both the car counts in each class plus the spectator attendance would be considered down from what one might expect for an event like this. But fortunately, later the drivers would remind us that a huge car count is not necessary to put on an exciting racing program.
Track announcer Jerry Mackey was a rare "no show" on this night, having purchased concert tickets for a State Fair attraction long before this event was rescheduled. Understandably not wanting to give them up, he arranged to have Jeff Broeg step in for him as the announcer on this night. And Jeff immediately brought the crowd up to speed by dealing with his forte, and that is to know and transmit to us in the crowd the interesting little tidbits that he always manages to dig up. Such as the fact that Jeff Aikey was driving with a damaged collar bone and that Scott Fitzpatrick had been delayed on his trip to the track by tow vehicle problems.
One thing that wasn't mentioned that I believe to be true was that Justin Kay was debuting a new race car on this night. They had told me earlier that a new car was coming and when he unloaded the car and took it to tech, that was my tip that he had a new car that he needed IMCA officials to OK. Also, sharp eyed spectators no doubt noticed that the landscape theme on the sides of his car was done in different colors than previously. Key would run well later but be knocked out of the main event by motor problems early.
While the heat races were relatively innocuous, a couple of drivers were bitten by bad luck that they were forced to "dig" to overcome the rest of the night. Joe Zrostlik had a good run going in his heat and was in a redraw position until his right front suspension collapsed on the last lap, making him a DNF. This forced him to fight his way to the front from the back in the main but despite a lap thirty two spin that would send him to the tail once again, ultimately he would advance from twentieth to sixth at the end.
Callahan was the point leader at Dubuque and was no doubt expecting to be a prime contender. However, from the moment he hit the track for his heat he had motor problems and was forced to pull off the track early. This resulted in a twenty second and last place start in the main. However, for the fans this was a great break as we were then treated to one of the most spectacular high side charges of the year. Keith Simmons may be sending Callahan a bill for damaging his wall as on several occasions Callahan nearly knocked it down as he roared to the front! He was spectacular as he got all the way up to third.
Ultimately however, he made just a few too many concrete visits and with all four corners beat to a pulp, finally on lap forty three his tired car said "no mas" and rolled to a halt on the back chute. While a seventeenth place finish doesn't look like much, those of us that saw the race know much more about how he really ran.
Tyler Breuning, the current Deery point leader, was the primary challenger to Ryan throughout the race as he tried lap after lap to dive under Ryan in turn one and while he got close several times, Ryan never faltered. Breuning hammered the wall several times himself and at the end of the race, the only driver who's car didn't look like a loser in the recent Fair demo derby was Ryan. The best words that could describe Ryan's performance was that he was extremely smooth. While there was utter confusion and calamity going on behind him at times, he remained rock solid and hit his marks lap after lap even with six restarts to deal with where on each one someone else would make a wild dive in turn one at him. Ryan had to work mighty hard to get this win and he most certainly deserved it.
Mark Schulte used the same kind of strategy to win the companion Modified feature race. He started on the pole and led all thirty laps but things got pretty hairy for him at the end. For most of the race he had a comfortable lead but things tightened up at the end in a race that saw only two yellow flags.
Kay was the story of the race. He started seventh and for the first half of the race was mired about where he started. Then he started moving around on the track and found another line missed by the rest of the field. He started to move up rapidly then, and when forced to change his line in turn one due to a lapped car, he found a line that was even faster.
In the last few laps he moved from fourth to second and closed rapidly on Schulte. He rolled through the middle of turn four on the last lap but came up just short as Schulte held on for the win. Schulte never wavered off the bottom and drove a very smooth race for the win. Kay was a winner in my book too as I absolutely loved how he searched the track and never gave up until he found a line that would allow him to move up. I admire so much those drivers that attack the race track rather than just sitting back and taking whatever is simple and easy. Those are the real racers.
Sitting in the bleachers two rows in front of me tonight was Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Ed Sanger. For people from this area that probably isn't that big of a deal as Ed is frequently seen at area tracks around here. However, where I come from, people who remember his excursions into our area back in the "glory days" of Late Model racing would be absolutely thrilled to know this. While he, like every other driver, had his good and bad days while racing in his home area, it seemed like every time he came North he was on his "A" game and he kicked so many butts in our area and took home so much "Yankee" money that he is still considered with almost "Godlike" status among those of us that remember those wonderful days.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Stovall Back In The Swing at Deer Creek
The Deer Creek Speedway was not my original plan of attack for Wednesday, August 10th but I consider myself fortunate that when my planned race for that night was rained out, I had such a solid event to fall back on to.
Having seen the MLRA Late Models race two straight nights in Iowa, the plan was to do something just a little bit different on Wednesday but the weather had other ideas for me. Fortunately, the rains missed the Deer Creek track and southern Minnesota and not having been to Deer Creek yet this year, things worked out swimmingly without having to do just that.
So, along with a fifty lap, five thousand to win MLRA event, I would also get to see USRA sanctioned B Mods and for the first time in 2016, the Stock Cars would make an appearance at Deer Creek.
The car count in the Late Models continues to dwindle as the week moves on but fortunately for the MLRA, their foray into Nebraska this weekend will be met by a bunch of Husker Late Models that will pump the field back up.
That's not to say that things were all bad at Deer Creek as a number of interesting visitors helped make the field, although somewhat smaller, just as strong as it had been earlier in the week before some started to evacuate.
Young charger Jordan Yaggy was added to the field Wednesday along with his mentor Lance Matthees, both sporting new XR-1 Rockets with only a handful of shows on each. Local driver Nick Herrick had his car on hand while Tommy Weder from Oklahoma took advantage of the opportunity to race at Deer Creek before heading to Nebraska. A powerful two car team of Jimmy Mars and Rodney Sanders was also added to the grid. Sanders was a late addition when his USMTS race got rained out for Wednesday(that's where I was headed too) and he took advantage to jump in one of Mars' extra cars. All told, forty different Late Models participated in the three day run through Iowa and southern Minnesota with eleven drivers making all three nights.
Winner Stovall went to a second car for Deer Creek with two tough nights on his other car, he opted to give it the night off. Dalton Maassen, who tagged along with J.C. Wyman and ran the IMCA co-features in Iowa, originally wasn't going to race at Deer Creek. However, he had some second thoughts, and perhaps because it wasn't a full field, he changed his mind and entered the event. He stayed out of the way with his unde rpowered car and ultimately finished nineteenth which, if nothing else, helped pay the fuel bill back to Nebraska.
Things were about the polar opposite in terms of track conditions for Wednesday night's show and I guarantee you that there was probably not a driver that wasn't happy to see the smooth and slick surface presented to them at Deer Creek. While they didn't come right out and say so, because they probably would like to return to Iowa racing at some point, most were darn tired of the "hammer down" tracks presented to them the last couple of nights and were looking for something that would be easier on their equipment.
And the feature turned out to be a good one. Instead of multiple stoppages, the forty lap main went nonstop and it featured a good three car battle for most of the main event. Cars were able to move around the track and motors had the opportunity to breathe instead of being buried to the firewall at all times.
Mars and Stovall had a good battle for the top spot until Stovall prevailed and later in the race, Ryan Gustin picked up the pace and he was breathing down Stovall's neck at the end. I think if it would have been a fifty lapper, the finish would have been different as Gustin was just searching for a road past when he ran out of laps.
Yaggy had one of his finest runs as he fought off a challenge from the last two night's winner Chris Simpson and was then challenging Mars for third as the race ended. With all the laps and success he's had at this track, I was disappointed in the poor performance by Terry Phillips who hung out near the back of the pack and finished fifteenth.
It was the perfect storm for the Deer Creek Speedway as the drivers were tired of "hammer down"conditions and DCS served them up just what they were looking for in a race track and because of that, praised was literally heaped on the track for the conditions they provided.
The B Mods and Stock Cars also added to the show in their own way. While the B Mods had a little trouble getting laps in early, they settled down and then put on a good show of racing. There was a lot of side by side action and I was amazed by the performance of thirteen year old Mike Chisholm who started on the pole and battled wheel to wheel for many laps with Ben Moudry for the lead. Later, Dustin Kruse, who tows weekly to Deer Creek all the way from Brandon South Dakota, got past and earned his first career win at DCS.
I'm definitely not a strong fan of the young drivers we are seeing these days, but Chisholm showed me something as he fought his way to a second place finish and announcer Todd Narveson pointed out that Chisholm has had several top fives this year. Perhaps it's just that I'm envious as I think back on my youth and know like hell that I couldn't have done what he did when I was thirteen! Also in the field was Jayden Larson who Narveson said was twelve. Now I know that Larson has been racing for at least three years and possibly longer so just how old was he when he started?
The Stock Cars did what they do best and that is run two and three wide while not bringing out a bunch of yellow flags. They had only one slow down in their main while Mitch Hovden came from the fourth row to pass Kevin Donlin for the win. Thirteen of the sixteen starters were still racing at the end.
Seen in the pits Wednesday was Jerry Ingvalson from Blooming Prairie Minnesota who was one half of the original group that got the Gopher 50 started back at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna. That race has now migrated to Deer Creek and while I didn't see it this year, I'm told that tonight's race was a much more entertaining event. Jerry has helped out a lot of Modified drivers over the years but when there is a Late Model race around, he'll be there as that is where his heart truly is.
Because the fields of cars in any of the three classes weren't huge and because they didn't take too long a break and because they didn't need and B features and because the drivers for the most part avoided the yellow flags in the feature, the whole show was done shortly after 9 pm which was great. A large portion of the crowd took advantage of that to head for the pits afterward.
The only "downer" of the night was the crowd size. While the crowds were pretty good in Iowa both nights, the crowd was much on the small side at Deer Creek. If they were running Modifieds, it would probably have been a different story as the fans from southern Minnesota are really very heavy into the Mods and trying to sell a Late Model show , especially a mid week one, is a tough nut to crack. And that's too bad, as this was a very good all around show with the support classes doing their part to add, not take away, from the show.
In an odd set up circumstances, there were as many big rigs parked in the camping area as there were in the pits Wednesday. With the USMTS show rained out early, many of those drivers steered their rigs over to Deer Creek where they hung out Wednesday.
Thanks to Cole and Randy Queensland and the rest of the family for taking care of me when I showed up unannounced. It was also good to hear Todd Narveson back on the mic as he is definitely one of the best around.
Having seen the MLRA Late Models race two straight nights in Iowa, the plan was to do something just a little bit different on Wednesday but the weather had other ideas for me. Fortunately, the rains missed the Deer Creek track and southern Minnesota and not having been to Deer Creek yet this year, things worked out swimmingly without having to do just that.
So, along with a fifty lap, five thousand to win MLRA event, I would also get to see USRA sanctioned B Mods and for the first time in 2016, the Stock Cars would make an appearance at Deer Creek.
The car count in the Late Models continues to dwindle as the week moves on but fortunately for the MLRA, their foray into Nebraska this weekend will be met by a bunch of Husker Late Models that will pump the field back up.
That's not to say that things were all bad at Deer Creek as a number of interesting visitors helped make the field, although somewhat smaller, just as strong as it had been earlier in the week before some started to evacuate.
Young charger Jordan Yaggy was added to the field Wednesday along with his mentor Lance Matthees, both sporting new XR-1 Rockets with only a handful of shows on each. Local driver Nick Herrick had his car on hand while Tommy Weder from Oklahoma took advantage of the opportunity to race at Deer Creek before heading to Nebraska. A powerful two car team of Jimmy Mars and Rodney Sanders was also added to the grid. Sanders was a late addition when his USMTS race got rained out for Wednesday(that's where I was headed too) and he took advantage to jump in one of Mars' extra cars. All told, forty different Late Models participated in the three day run through Iowa and southern Minnesota with eleven drivers making all three nights.
Winner Stovall went to a second car for Deer Creek with two tough nights on his other car, he opted to give it the night off. Dalton Maassen, who tagged along with J.C. Wyman and ran the IMCA co-features in Iowa, originally wasn't going to race at Deer Creek. However, he had some second thoughts, and perhaps because it wasn't a full field, he changed his mind and entered the event. He stayed out of the way with his unde rpowered car and ultimately finished nineteenth which, if nothing else, helped pay the fuel bill back to Nebraska.
Things were about the polar opposite in terms of track conditions for Wednesday night's show and I guarantee you that there was probably not a driver that wasn't happy to see the smooth and slick surface presented to them at Deer Creek. While they didn't come right out and say so, because they probably would like to return to Iowa racing at some point, most were darn tired of the "hammer down" tracks presented to them the last couple of nights and were looking for something that would be easier on their equipment.
And the feature turned out to be a good one. Instead of multiple stoppages, the forty lap main went nonstop and it featured a good three car battle for most of the main event. Cars were able to move around the track and motors had the opportunity to breathe instead of being buried to the firewall at all times.
Mars and Stovall had a good battle for the top spot until Stovall prevailed and later in the race, Ryan Gustin picked up the pace and he was breathing down Stovall's neck at the end. I think if it would have been a fifty lapper, the finish would have been different as Gustin was just searching for a road past when he ran out of laps.
Yaggy had one of his finest runs as he fought off a challenge from the last two night's winner Chris Simpson and was then challenging Mars for third as the race ended. With all the laps and success he's had at this track, I was disappointed in the poor performance by Terry Phillips who hung out near the back of the pack and finished fifteenth.
It was the perfect storm for the Deer Creek Speedway as the drivers were tired of "hammer down"conditions and DCS served them up just what they were looking for in a race track and because of that, praised was literally heaped on the track for the conditions they provided.
The B Mods and Stock Cars also added to the show in their own way. While the B Mods had a little trouble getting laps in early, they settled down and then put on a good show of racing. There was a lot of side by side action and I was amazed by the performance of thirteen year old Mike Chisholm who started on the pole and battled wheel to wheel for many laps with Ben Moudry for the lead. Later, Dustin Kruse, who tows weekly to Deer Creek all the way from Brandon South Dakota, got past and earned his first career win at DCS.
I'm definitely not a strong fan of the young drivers we are seeing these days, but Chisholm showed me something as he fought his way to a second place finish and announcer Todd Narveson pointed out that Chisholm has had several top fives this year. Perhaps it's just that I'm envious as I think back on my youth and know like hell that I couldn't have done what he did when I was thirteen! Also in the field was Jayden Larson who Narveson said was twelve. Now I know that Larson has been racing for at least three years and possibly longer so just how old was he when he started?
The Stock Cars did what they do best and that is run two and three wide while not bringing out a bunch of yellow flags. They had only one slow down in their main while Mitch Hovden came from the fourth row to pass Kevin Donlin for the win. Thirteen of the sixteen starters were still racing at the end.
Seen in the pits Wednesday was Jerry Ingvalson from Blooming Prairie Minnesota who was one half of the original group that got the Gopher 50 started back at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna. That race has now migrated to Deer Creek and while I didn't see it this year, I'm told that tonight's race was a much more entertaining event. Jerry has helped out a lot of Modified drivers over the years but when there is a Late Model race around, he'll be there as that is where his heart truly is.
Because the fields of cars in any of the three classes weren't huge and because they didn't take too long a break and because they didn't need and B features and because the drivers for the most part avoided the yellow flags in the feature, the whole show was done shortly after 9 pm which was great. A large portion of the crowd took advantage of that to head for the pits afterward.
The only "downer" of the night was the crowd size. While the crowds were pretty good in Iowa both nights, the crowd was much on the small side at Deer Creek. If they were running Modifieds, it would probably have been a different story as the fans from southern Minnesota are really very heavy into the Mods and trying to sell a Late Model show , especially a mid week one, is a tough nut to crack. And that's too bad, as this was a very good all around show with the support classes doing their part to add, not take away, from the show.
In an odd set up circumstances, there were as many big rigs parked in the camping area as there were in the pits Wednesday. With the USMTS show rained out early, many of those drivers steered their rigs over to Deer Creek where they hung out Wednesday.
Thanks to Cole and Randy Queensland and the rest of the family for taking care of me when I showed up unannounced. It was also good to hear Todd Narveson back on the mic as he is definitely one of the best around.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Another 10 K for Chris Simpson at West Liberty
The MLRA tour of Iowa with their open motored Late Model brigade continued as they moved down to the West Liberty Raceway in West Liberty for "Tornado Tuesday", another fifty lap event paying ten grand to win.
I'm not sure if the MLRA guys are going to survive this week as their equipment is already huffing and puffing and they still have another race up in Minnesota before they head to Nebraska this weekend for another doubleheader. Point leader Jesse Stovall is on his second motor of the week, having to swap after problems last night in Farley during the feature race. Jason Papich's rig was on hand but the race car was never unloaded. He had troubles last night on the first lap of the main but I would assume that with all the racing he does that he would have a second car in the trailer. Perhaps he got called back to the West Coast for some reason and wasn't able to get back in time. He has been running all the MLRA races but does commute back and forth from his business in California.
Terry Phillips rolled out a different car for Tuesday's show, going to TPII rather than TPI which he raced on Monday night. Both cars are Black Diamond chassis. Interestingly, while Phillips and Stovall go at it tooth and nail on the race track, they always pit right next to each other. Perhaps that is so that if they have an issue with each other on the track, they know where to find each other!
There was one driver running both classes again on Tuesday but it was a different driver on this night as Joel Callahan just brought his open motored car while Nick Marolf was the one racing in both classes Tuesday. Marolf actually loaned out his IMCA car for an open motor heat as again the mortality rate for the open motor cars was high.
Matt Furman was late with his car after they had much work to do on it after multiple motor issues bugged him on Monday night. With the car not at the track yet, Furman borrowed Marolf's spec motor car just to start his open motor heat so that he could qualify for the feature when his own Late Model finally did arrive.
And one more swapping saw J.C. Wyman borrow Dalton Maassen's IMCA car to start the open motor feature after he wrecked in his heat race so that he could gain some points and earn a check. This was helpful for both as Maassen has been sharing a trailer with Wyman all week and a check for Wyman will help with the gas money to get down the road to the next event!
The MLRA cars were down from twenty eight last night to twenty four Tuesday so no B feature was necessary for them. The only new cars besides Marolf were Jason Utter, Wayne Brau and Denny Eckrich while several of the local cars from Monday night opted to stay home.
Just like Monday night, the attrition rate was high for the MLRA feature, in fact it was even worse than Monday as only nine of a starting field of twenty four were around fifty laps later. Many just pulled off when they weren't gaining any ground so they decided to save laps on their motors and tires.
For the second straight night the track was watered heavily and with the humid conditions it just didn't dry out much at all. While I enjoyed not having to deal with any dust at all, I'm just not sure that these cars are designed to go "hammer down" for fifty laps on a big track like West Liberty. They were screaming around the track and even Phillips would admit in his post race interview that fifty laps on a track that was pulling so hard is pretty tough on the motors when they no more than crack the throttle for a second before getting right back on it. if they had the track that heavy every week I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be long before they had no cars left to race.
Chris Simpson was fast from the moment he unloaded and that didn't change. Truly, there was no one in the field that had anything for him this night. Stovall ran pretty good until he spun and he spent the rest of the race working his way back to the front and Phillips ran OK too, but neither was going to be a serious challenger unless Simpson had trouble. Marolf made a nice splash with his open motored car, winning a heat and looking strong at the start of the feature until he tried to make a pass for the lead while they were among lapped traffic and he ended up plunking the turn one wall hard, ending his night. However, for any upcoming open motor races in the state, he should be considered a threat.
I feel kind of sorry for Simmons Promotions Inc. as they are one of the few tracks or promoters in Iowa trying to keep open motored racing alive. They continue to have events and have tried so many different formulas to draw more cars but in the end, they always seem to end up with about the same twenty or so, many of them Iowa natives themselves. They must feel like they are butting their heads against a wall, but year after year , they keep trying. Perhaps one of the reasons they continue to try is that the crowds continue to turn out for these races, even though there is always much uncertainty on who or how many will actually be on hand.
The support class once again was the IMCA Late Models and by "support", I mean that they could use some support! Once again announcer Jerry Mackey had to apologize for the IMCA Late Models but for a different reason Tuesday. Monday night it was because their main event was more like Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour than drivers who acted like they knew what they were doing. Tuesday it was because of their small number of cars as only ten showed for a grand to win.
Based on the numbers recently at SPI tracks, I guess the number shouldn't have been surprising as last Saturday they had eight Late Models, Dubuque had ten on Sunday and there were only fourteen last night. And this is a problem at more than just the SPI tracks. Perhaps instead of continuing their crusade to sign every track in the U.S. to an IMCA contract, the folks in Vinton should instead step back and focus on some of the issues within their organization that need addressing. Near the top of the list should be what to do with their Late Model class to inject some new enthusiasm, build up the numbers and get some new drivers into the class.
Based on the heat race results, I expected Chad Holladay and Marolf to be the chief contenders in their thirty five lap finale but Marolf drew terribly which hurt his efforts. Instead, Kyle Hinrichs was strong right from the pole and drove out to a comfortable lead which he maintained for thirty five nonstop laps. Only five of the ten starters were on the track at the finish as, again, some just pulled off rather than wear out their equipment.
After only taking the time they needed to pound down the berm and widen out the track for the main events, SPI kept the show moving along at a crisp pace and resisted the temptation to drag things out to make up for the lack of races on the card. So, when the final checkered waved just after 9 pm, it did make for an early evening. And truly, those racers that were present ran hard and made the program a decent night of racing.
I'm not sure if the MLRA guys are going to survive this week as their equipment is already huffing and puffing and they still have another race up in Minnesota before they head to Nebraska this weekend for another doubleheader. Point leader Jesse Stovall is on his second motor of the week, having to swap after problems last night in Farley during the feature race. Jason Papich's rig was on hand but the race car was never unloaded. He had troubles last night on the first lap of the main but I would assume that with all the racing he does that he would have a second car in the trailer. Perhaps he got called back to the West Coast for some reason and wasn't able to get back in time. He has been running all the MLRA races but does commute back and forth from his business in California.
Terry Phillips rolled out a different car for Tuesday's show, going to TPII rather than TPI which he raced on Monday night. Both cars are Black Diamond chassis. Interestingly, while Phillips and Stovall go at it tooth and nail on the race track, they always pit right next to each other. Perhaps that is so that if they have an issue with each other on the track, they know where to find each other!
There was one driver running both classes again on Tuesday but it was a different driver on this night as Joel Callahan just brought his open motored car while Nick Marolf was the one racing in both classes Tuesday. Marolf actually loaned out his IMCA car for an open motor heat as again the mortality rate for the open motor cars was high.
Matt Furman was late with his car after they had much work to do on it after multiple motor issues bugged him on Monday night. With the car not at the track yet, Furman borrowed Marolf's spec motor car just to start his open motor heat so that he could qualify for the feature when his own Late Model finally did arrive.
And one more swapping saw J.C. Wyman borrow Dalton Maassen's IMCA car to start the open motor feature after he wrecked in his heat race so that he could gain some points and earn a check. This was helpful for both as Maassen has been sharing a trailer with Wyman all week and a check for Wyman will help with the gas money to get down the road to the next event!
The MLRA cars were down from twenty eight last night to twenty four Tuesday so no B feature was necessary for them. The only new cars besides Marolf were Jason Utter, Wayne Brau and Denny Eckrich while several of the local cars from Monday night opted to stay home.
Just like Monday night, the attrition rate was high for the MLRA feature, in fact it was even worse than Monday as only nine of a starting field of twenty four were around fifty laps later. Many just pulled off when they weren't gaining any ground so they decided to save laps on their motors and tires.
For the second straight night the track was watered heavily and with the humid conditions it just didn't dry out much at all. While I enjoyed not having to deal with any dust at all, I'm just not sure that these cars are designed to go "hammer down" for fifty laps on a big track like West Liberty. They were screaming around the track and even Phillips would admit in his post race interview that fifty laps on a track that was pulling so hard is pretty tough on the motors when they no more than crack the throttle for a second before getting right back on it. if they had the track that heavy every week I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be long before they had no cars left to race.
Chris Simpson was fast from the moment he unloaded and that didn't change. Truly, there was no one in the field that had anything for him this night. Stovall ran pretty good until he spun and he spent the rest of the race working his way back to the front and Phillips ran OK too, but neither was going to be a serious challenger unless Simpson had trouble. Marolf made a nice splash with his open motored car, winning a heat and looking strong at the start of the feature until he tried to make a pass for the lead while they were among lapped traffic and he ended up plunking the turn one wall hard, ending his night. However, for any upcoming open motor races in the state, he should be considered a threat.
I feel kind of sorry for Simmons Promotions Inc. as they are one of the few tracks or promoters in Iowa trying to keep open motored racing alive. They continue to have events and have tried so many different formulas to draw more cars but in the end, they always seem to end up with about the same twenty or so, many of them Iowa natives themselves. They must feel like they are butting their heads against a wall, but year after year , they keep trying. Perhaps one of the reasons they continue to try is that the crowds continue to turn out for these races, even though there is always much uncertainty on who or how many will actually be on hand.
The support class once again was the IMCA Late Models and by "support", I mean that they could use some support! Once again announcer Jerry Mackey had to apologize for the IMCA Late Models but for a different reason Tuesday. Monday night it was because their main event was more like Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour than drivers who acted like they knew what they were doing. Tuesday it was because of their small number of cars as only ten showed for a grand to win.
Based on the numbers recently at SPI tracks, I guess the number shouldn't have been surprising as last Saturday they had eight Late Models, Dubuque had ten on Sunday and there were only fourteen last night. And this is a problem at more than just the SPI tracks. Perhaps instead of continuing their crusade to sign every track in the U.S. to an IMCA contract, the folks in Vinton should instead step back and focus on some of the issues within their organization that need addressing. Near the top of the list should be what to do with their Late Model class to inject some new enthusiasm, build up the numbers and get some new drivers into the class.
Based on the heat race results, I expected Chad Holladay and Marolf to be the chief contenders in their thirty five lap finale but Marolf drew terribly which hurt his efforts. Instead, Kyle Hinrichs was strong right from the pole and drove out to a comfortable lead which he maintained for thirty five nonstop laps. Only five of the ten starters were on the track at the finish as, again, some just pulled off rather than wear out their equipment.
After only taking the time they needed to pound down the berm and widen out the track for the main events, SPI kept the show moving along at a crisp pace and resisted the temptation to drag things out to make up for the lack of races on the card. So, when the final checkered waved just after 9 pm, it did make for an early evening. And truly, those racers that were present ran hard and made the program a decent night of racing.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Chris Simpson Survives at Farley
Simmons Promotions Inc. brought in the open motor Late Models for a two night stand this week in Iowa and the mini tour started on Monday, August 8th at the Farley Speedway.
Sanctioned by the MLRA out of Missouri, the support class was the local IMCA Late Models so if you were a Late Model fan, this was the night for you to be on hand at the race track.
The open motor Late Models signed in with twenty eight cars while the IMCA Late Models brought a rather tepid fourteen cars to the grid. While there were several other drivers on hand that had cars they could have raced in both classes, only Dubuque's Joel Callahan chose to race in both classes with several others like Johnson, Rauen, Guss and Breuning choosing to focus on their open motor cars on this night.
One of the big positives in my mind about the MLRA is that they use passing points, rather than subjecting the fans and the track to time trials. It makes for much more interesting heat races with the field mixed up, rather than starting the fast cars right up front where they can just line up and cruise in order right into the feature. Of course, some of the "big shots" would never show for a race like this, no matter what it paid, because they have been spoiled over the years and believe that they have some inherent "right" to start up front because of who they are.
Well, they weren't missed on this night as the cars on hand put on quite a show as they really mixed up it on Monday. If anything, the track got a bit over watered on Monday as while there was not a whisper of dust all night, which is obviously good, the track built up a rather substantial berm which affected the racing early, making the track a little narrow and certainly affected those that instead of racing off the berm, jumped it.
Things got off to a wild start with slide jobs between Billy Moyer and Chad Simpson putting Simpson on edge before even a couple of laps could be completed. In the first heat alone, issues put those two plus Ray Guss on the trailer for the night. Attrition would be the theme of the night for the MLRA cars as they ended up with only seven to race for six spots in the B feature and some of the cars already qualified for the main not making the grid as only twenty one of the scheduled twenty four took the green.
It was kind of a shame that Paul Parker, the only one not to qualify for the feature out of the B, wasn't offered a spot in the main since they ended up taking the green with three open spots. I does cost money to drive down from Wisconsin too and since there were open spots, why not fill them?
The wild theme of the night continued in the MLRA feature as as outside pole sitter Jason Papich spun in turn one on the opening lap right into the field with a big wreck the result. Along with much torn up sheet metal, Papich and Tad Pospicil were eliminated before they could complete a lap.
There was plenty of good battling in the first half of the feature race with Mason Zeigler, Jesse Stovall, Chris Simpson, Terry Phillips and Tyler Erb the main players. A flat tire would set back Phillips and eventually the race boiled down to a two car battle between Stovall and Simpson.
Simpson would nose in front just as a yellow flew for a stalled car on lap twenty three and lined up in front for the Delaware restart, the race for all intents and purposes was now over. Simpson had been clearly superior prior to the yellow but Stovall was doing a good job holding him back. Once Simpson got an open track, he was gone. Later Stovall would be gone also as a cloud of smoke indicated that he perhaps lost a motor, one of many mechanical failures on what was an expensive night for many.
Ryan Gustin made a late charge and did get relatively close to Simpson as Chris fought with lapped traffic and was forced out of the rubber strip which had built up late in the race. However, he extricated himself from the difficulty just in the nick of time and drove home for the ten grand win. Erb prevailed for a good third place finish while persistence on the part of Rauen and Zeigler allowed them to claim top five finishes in a race that saw nearly half the field not finish.
The thirty five lap IMCA Late Model feature was probably one of the worst races seen anywhere all year. And yet, the potential was there for a good race to break out, and indeed, it came so close to being a dandy instead of a stinker.
There were actually four different leaders of the race and how often can you say that about any Late Model race? But with all the yellow flags, it instead became a battle of attrition and a test to everyone's patience, non the least of which was announcer Jerry Mackey who nearly had a case of apoplexy trying to figure out just what the heck was going on out there!
At one point the tally was eight yellow flags in the first ten laps and in total, the yellow flew a mind busting ten times. And you knew that there would be a late yellow that would set up a two lap sprint to the finish.
Once he got the lead, Nick Marolf was the class of the field and he survived the late yellow to take the win over Callahan. Only six cars completed the distance in a starting field of fourteen. It was also a little hard to explain why there were so few of the local Late Models on hand to race.
What a terrible night for veteran driver Darrel DeFrance. He probably made the longest tow of the IMCA drivers and was the last car in the pits, which is not abnormal for him. However, with the congested parking situation as all race cars were pitted outside the track in aid the viewing pleasure of the fans who had dropped thirty bucks to see all the action, it took DeFrance quite some time to find a "nesting place."
Then he had some sort of issues and he failed to take to the track for his heat race. Come feature time and the track officials dragged their feet as long as they could with DeFrance finally throwing on the hood of his car and making in on to the track just in the nick of time. He started in the back and had passed several cars before one of the many early race yellows slowed the field, at which time Darrel drove into the infield and then disappeared back into the pits, making his frustrating night complete.
While it was a frustrating night for DeFrance, it probably wasn't any worse than that suffered by motor builder Bill Schlieper. He pulled into the pits as he always does with his big transporter but he picked a bad route as he tried to navigate through the pits to find a parking spot. He hit a soft spot and buried the rig with it sitting at a nervously dangerous angle, very close to actually toppling over. and with all the heavy vehicles busy prepping the track, there he sat. Eventually Tegeler Wrecker and Crane, one of Rauen's sponsors, came with some heavy equipment and freed him from his awkward situation.
The MLRA will move on to West Liberty for Tuesday night racing. I'm guessing that with them having a very busy week including a trip to Minnesota before they head directly to Nebraska for another two day show, they really didn't need a night like Monday where most of the field will be working all day on Tuesday putting their cars back together, not just rolling them out of the trailer to wash the following day. Hopefully more IMCA cars will be summoned for West Liberty also as a small field would look even smaller on the big half mile at West Liberty.
Sanctioned by the MLRA out of Missouri, the support class was the local IMCA Late Models so if you were a Late Model fan, this was the night for you to be on hand at the race track.
The open motor Late Models signed in with twenty eight cars while the IMCA Late Models brought a rather tepid fourteen cars to the grid. While there were several other drivers on hand that had cars they could have raced in both classes, only Dubuque's Joel Callahan chose to race in both classes with several others like Johnson, Rauen, Guss and Breuning choosing to focus on their open motor cars on this night.
One of the big positives in my mind about the MLRA is that they use passing points, rather than subjecting the fans and the track to time trials. It makes for much more interesting heat races with the field mixed up, rather than starting the fast cars right up front where they can just line up and cruise in order right into the feature. Of course, some of the "big shots" would never show for a race like this, no matter what it paid, because they have been spoiled over the years and believe that they have some inherent "right" to start up front because of who they are.
Well, they weren't missed on this night as the cars on hand put on quite a show as they really mixed up it on Monday. If anything, the track got a bit over watered on Monday as while there was not a whisper of dust all night, which is obviously good, the track built up a rather substantial berm which affected the racing early, making the track a little narrow and certainly affected those that instead of racing off the berm, jumped it.
Things got off to a wild start with slide jobs between Billy Moyer and Chad Simpson putting Simpson on edge before even a couple of laps could be completed. In the first heat alone, issues put those two plus Ray Guss on the trailer for the night. Attrition would be the theme of the night for the MLRA cars as they ended up with only seven to race for six spots in the B feature and some of the cars already qualified for the main not making the grid as only twenty one of the scheduled twenty four took the green.
It was kind of a shame that Paul Parker, the only one not to qualify for the feature out of the B, wasn't offered a spot in the main since they ended up taking the green with three open spots. I does cost money to drive down from Wisconsin too and since there were open spots, why not fill them?
The wild theme of the night continued in the MLRA feature as as outside pole sitter Jason Papich spun in turn one on the opening lap right into the field with a big wreck the result. Along with much torn up sheet metal, Papich and Tad Pospicil were eliminated before they could complete a lap.
There was plenty of good battling in the first half of the feature race with Mason Zeigler, Jesse Stovall, Chris Simpson, Terry Phillips and Tyler Erb the main players. A flat tire would set back Phillips and eventually the race boiled down to a two car battle between Stovall and Simpson.
Simpson would nose in front just as a yellow flew for a stalled car on lap twenty three and lined up in front for the Delaware restart, the race for all intents and purposes was now over. Simpson had been clearly superior prior to the yellow but Stovall was doing a good job holding him back. Once Simpson got an open track, he was gone. Later Stovall would be gone also as a cloud of smoke indicated that he perhaps lost a motor, one of many mechanical failures on what was an expensive night for many.
Ryan Gustin made a late charge and did get relatively close to Simpson as Chris fought with lapped traffic and was forced out of the rubber strip which had built up late in the race. However, he extricated himself from the difficulty just in the nick of time and drove home for the ten grand win. Erb prevailed for a good third place finish while persistence on the part of Rauen and Zeigler allowed them to claim top five finishes in a race that saw nearly half the field not finish.
The thirty five lap IMCA Late Model feature was probably one of the worst races seen anywhere all year. And yet, the potential was there for a good race to break out, and indeed, it came so close to being a dandy instead of a stinker.
There were actually four different leaders of the race and how often can you say that about any Late Model race? But with all the yellow flags, it instead became a battle of attrition and a test to everyone's patience, non the least of which was announcer Jerry Mackey who nearly had a case of apoplexy trying to figure out just what the heck was going on out there!
At one point the tally was eight yellow flags in the first ten laps and in total, the yellow flew a mind busting ten times. And you knew that there would be a late yellow that would set up a two lap sprint to the finish.
Once he got the lead, Nick Marolf was the class of the field and he survived the late yellow to take the win over Callahan. Only six cars completed the distance in a starting field of fourteen. It was also a little hard to explain why there were so few of the local Late Models on hand to race.
What a terrible night for veteran driver Darrel DeFrance. He probably made the longest tow of the IMCA drivers and was the last car in the pits, which is not abnormal for him. However, with the congested parking situation as all race cars were pitted outside the track in aid the viewing pleasure of the fans who had dropped thirty bucks to see all the action, it took DeFrance quite some time to find a "nesting place."
Then he had some sort of issues and he failed to take to the track for his heat race. Come feature time and the track officials dragged their feet as long as they could with DeFrance finally throwing on the hood of his car and making in on to the track just in the nick of time. He started in the back and had passed several cars before one of the many early race yellows slowed the field, at which time Darrel drove into the infield and then disappeared back into the pits, making his frustrating night complete.
While it was a frustrating night for DeFrance, it probably wasn't any worse than that suffered by motor builder Bill Schlieper. He pulled into the pits as he always does with his big transporter but he picked a bad route as he tried to navigate through the pits to find a parking spot. He hit a soft spot and buried the rig with it sitting at a nervously dangerous angle, very close to actually toppling over. and with all the heavy vehicles busy prepping the track, there he sat. Eventually Tegeler Wrecker and Crane, one of Rauen's sponsors, came with some heavy equipment and freed him from his awkward situation.
The MLRA will move on to West Liberty for Tuesday night racing. I'm guessing that with them having a very busy week including a trip to Minnesota before they head directly to Nebraska for another two day show, they really didn't need a night like Monday where most of the field will be working all day on Tuesday putting their cars back together, not just rolling them out of the trailer to wash the following day. Hopefully more IMCA cars will be summoned for West Liberty also as a small field would look even smaller on the big half mile at West Liberty.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Kesan Outdrives the Field at Spring Lake Speedway
I was no more than a couple of miles down the road from my house, on my way to the new Spring Lake Speedway for my first time, when I had to hit the brakes and slow down quickly as a black bear went lumbering across the road in front of me, followed a couple of seconds later by the little one obviously following Mom. Now seeing a bear or even more than one is not an unusual occurrence in the north woods where I live, still, the sudden surprises and awesome creatures that nature can spring on you are still breathtaking, no matter how many times you have seen them.
Perhaps not quite so much so when they are hanging out in your yard on a daily basis as one black bear has been doing all Summer with us, and the sight of a large black bear sitting under your bay window, lounging in the grass eating sunflower seeds is just a little more thought provoking. Or the times recently when he's been on our back deck and we've looked eyeball to eyeball through the screen door at each other. Still, Bruno(we've even given him a name) is a lot more handsome than most of the people that show up on our back deck!
But I digress.
New owner Scott Duval of the Spring Lake Speedway near Unity Wisconsin has been after me all Summer to make a visit to his new track and circumstances finally worked out so that a trip was in the cards on Friday, August 5th. Spring Lake is about a two hour drive for me and is located in central Wisconsin with the nearest close by bigger cities being Wausau and Marshfield. Unity itself is a wide spot in the road and the track is actually several miles out in the country with the trip to it past some of the finest dairy farms in the state breathtaking as harvest nears.
Spring Lake Speedway was formally known as Monster Hall Raceway and has been around for a number of years. The track is bordered by a campgrounds and Spring Lake comes almost right up to the back of the bleachers on the front straightaway, hence the new name for the track.
Duval is a long time racer in the area, being from Bloomer Wisconsin and he has made the climb through the ranks, starting out in Street Stocks and for a number of years now having raced Modifieds quite successfully with even some short stints driving Late Models and in other classes. I've known Scott for a long time and seen him move up through the ranks. Scott is a great talker and he could "sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo", thus, he has the personality that is perfect for this line of work. He told me he bought the track, not to make money but to try and give something back to the sport and if he makes a go of this place, he will certainly have done that.
The central Wisconsin area has always had a lot of loyal dirt track fans, even though they're right on the border area with a lot of asphalt tracks not very far to the East of them. After a strong early first few years as Monster Hall Raceway, disputes between the ownership group saw things gradually fall apart and the track has been owned by an absentee owner in recent years and was shut down early two years ago due to failing car counts and crowds. In fact, Scott pointed out that this week is the one year anniversary since he bought the track.
The changes Duval has made to the track and grounds in just one year are quite remarkable and the track certainly looks different than it did just a year or so ago. The changes are almost too numerous to mention but such things as new aluminum bleachers, lawn chair sections to replace the old wooden planks and wood bleachers, remodeling of the tower for the announcer and scorers, a newly redesigned sign in area for the drivers and reorganized concession areas, new track lighting, a whole new surface for the track, a couple of VIP booths for sponsors and about a hundred other changes both large and small.
Among his plans for next year are building a two tier deck with rentals for the year, more new aluminum bleachers and a scoreboard. He's even in the process of building some new quarters for him to live in part time as he spends so much time at the track and his home is quite a distance away from the track.
The track itself is somewhere between a third mile and a three eighth mile oval with medium banking. The track retains its unusual layout that sees the front straightaway go uphill all the way to corner number one and the back chute goes downhill into turn three. The area where the track is located has good dirt for farming but it is notoriously rocky and can't be used for the racing surface. Historically, this track has suffered in that area as good dirt for racing has been hard to come by. Scott admitted that they suffered in that area and still now don't have as much good dirt on the track as they would like. Some of the new dirt added last Fall had to be taken off, an expensive proposition, because it was too sandy and rocky. Some of his major plans are to increase by a hundred loads the amount of dirt on the track this Fall after racing ends. An even surface from week to week has probably been his most challenging issue so far since he took over and he is doing most of the track prep himself, which is something that he has never done before. Plus, he admitted that all the time he has spent on projects has taken time away from his marketing efforts and that is where he excels. I would not be surprised if he hires someone to take care of track prep and maintenance issues so he can focus more of what he does best. He did say that he has over forty billboard sponsors in the first year which he considered good.
After investigating the different sanctioning bodies that were available to him, Scott opted to sign on with NASCAR, making him only the second dirt track in the state to use that sanctioning. Some time I will have to have a conversation with him on why he selected them to sanction him, because I was disappointed when he went that route, although I'm sure he had his reasons. In reality, he is running WISSOTA rules for most of his classes because that's what body most of his cars normally run under. His Modified rules are open however, as he has both WISSOTA and USRA cars running with him along with an occasional IMCA car also. It remains to be seen whether his choice of sanction helps, hinders or has no effect on the track with the main selling point of NASCAR being the track point fund at year's end.
Scott's plan for his track is not to run a weekly show which he has not done this year either. Instead, he wants to run about ten shows a year, make them all specials of some sort and also offer a variety of different types of entertainment, not just races every week. And frankly, I think that more and more tracks are thinking about some sort of this plan as the weekly racing certainly starts to suffer at most tracks as we get into the "dog days" of Summer. I think more and more tracks will start to focus on specials and plan to take weeks off during the season, just to give their fans, employees and drivers a break.
The one area that he is struggling in and knew that he would, is car counts for his shows thus far. Frankly, Spring Lake Speedway lies in a rather rural setting and there aren't a lot of people that live close by. That's not to say he can't draw a crowd and in fact, so far this year his crowds have been excellent. But most of the drivers from this area, due to many years of inactivity for the dirt tracks in this area, have either retired or sold their equipment and it's going to take a while to build their numbers back up. Right now he pulls a lot of his cars from the Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls area and that's between forty and fifty miles away along with some hit or miss drivers left in the local area. Getting the crowds won't be his problem; his problem will be in trying to keep the people patient until the car counts increase. Friday night he had sixty four cars in six classes with four of the classes having enough cars for two heats. He's getting some good quality cars, it just will take a while to increase those numbers. And some of the early season issues with track conditions slowed those efforts.
In touring the pits before the races, I found that many of the drivers on hand were unfamiliar to me as this is largely a different group of racers than those I see more often. One driver I just had to stop and say hello to though was Eric Olson from Ladysmith Wisconsin. And Eric was still having difficulty wiping the "shit eating" grin off his face after events of this week.
One week ago Eric didn't have a ride for the Street Stock Little Dream race at the Rice Lake Speedway. However, a veteran car owner lost his driver recently and offered Eric the opportunity to drive his car. On Tuesday night, Olson won the thirty lap Little Dream race and due to the generosity of the fans and businesses that contribute to the purse, Eric went home with a first place payoff of $15,000! Folks, this is for the equivalent of an IMCA Stock Car in WISSOTA country. Can you imagine that? Fifty five cars from five states were on hand for WISSOTA's biggest Street Stock race of the year in front of a record crowd and Olson took the big money. he said he didn't get to work until about 10 am the next day and only worked a few hours, he was so tired after having been up most of the night celebrating and rest assured, when the Ladysmith crowd parties, they don't mess around!
Olson was on hand with his Super Stock on Friday which is the class he has raced in for many years now, after having started his career in the Street Stocks. And he is having a good year , leading in the points here at Spring Lake as well as at Rice Lake also. On this night he would end up second to Phillips' Randy Spacek.
As far as the racing at Duval's track, on this night they were recovering from a multi inch rain over night and the track surface was a little loose in the corners and the high groove just didn't come in much as it was so tacky on the low side. The track was very fast but it was hard to pass. The program was smoothly run and there were few yellow flags.
The drive of the night was made by Weyerhaeuser Wisconsin's Jay Kesan in the Street Stocks. With all the cars blocking the low groove, Kesan moved up the track, made the only two significant passes of the night on the high side and won the feature race.
In the Modifieds, Steve Lavasseur from River Falls Wisconsin hung on and held off a charging Chris Oertel for the win. Oertel is one of the few running a USRA car on American Racer tires while most are using Hoosiers. Cole Varsho won the Pure Stock feature. Cole is a "comer" at the age of fourteen and looks to be a star for the future in the making.
Duval has made a huge turnaround in the track in just one year and I'm sure that with the plans that he has that things will continue to improve as this year winds up and he gets that first full year under his belt. Next week his first real special will be held as he has booked a $2,000 to win Late Model show using WDLMA rules which should allow cars from both eastern and western Wisconsin the ability to race without an major handicaps. His sponsor next week will be Seubert Calf Ranches(yes, that's the same Seubert that is on the door of Josh Richards' Late Model). Seubert's main headquarters is just down the road from the race track.
Scott, who is known as "Duvy" to his friends, was kind enough to take time away from his pre race duties to give me the tour of the grounds and I'm sure that I'll always be welcome here. The only thing I wish he would have done different is simply to name the track "Duvy's Track." Then I could have remembered the name easier!
Perhaps not quite so much so when they are hanging out in your yard on a daily basis as one black bear has been doing all Summer with us, and the sight of a large black bear sitting under your bay window, lounging in the grass eating sunflower seeds is just a little more thought provoking. Or the times recently when he's been on our back deck and we've looked eyeball to eyeball through the screen door at each other. Still, Bruno(we've even given him a name) is a lot more handsome than most of the people that show up on our back deck!
But I digress.
New owner Scott Duval of the Spring Lake Speedway near Unity Wisconsin has been after me all Summer to make a visit to his new track and circumstances finally worked out so that a trip was in the cards on Friday, August 5th. Spring Lake is about a two hour drive for me and is located in central Wisconsin with the nearest close by bigger cities being Wausau and Marshfield. Unity itself is a wide spot in the road and the track is actually several miles out in the country with the trip to it past some of the finest dairy farms in the state breathtaking as harvest nears.
Spring Lake Speedway was formally known as Monster Hall Raceway and has been around for a number of years. The track is bordered by a campgrounds and Spring Lake comes almost right up to the back of the bleachers on the front straightaway, hence the new name for the track.
Duval is a long time racer in the area, being from Bloomer Wisconsin and he has made the climb through the ranks, starting out in Street Stocks and for a number of years now having raced Modifieds quite successfully with even some short stints driving Late Models and in other classes. I've known Scott for a long time and seen him move up through the ranks. Scott is a great talker and he could "sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo", thus, he has the personality that is perfect for this line of work. He told me he bought the track, not to make money but to try and give something back to the sport and if he makes a go of this place, he will certainly have done that.
The central Wisconsin area has always had a lot of loyal dirt track fans, even though they're right on the border area with a lot of asphalt tracks not very far to the East of them. After a strong early first few years as Monster Hall Raceway, disputes between the ownership group saw things gradually fall apart and the track has been owned by an absentee owner in recent years and was shut down early two years ago due to failing car counts and crowds. In fact, Scott pointed out that this week is the one year anniversary since he bought the track.
The changes Duval has made to the track and grounds in just one year are quite remarkable and the track certainly looks different than it did just a year or so ago. The changes are almost too numerous to mention but such things as new aluminum bleachers, lawn chair sections to replace the old wooden planks and wood bleachers, remodeling of the tower for the announcer and scorers, a newly redesigned sign in area for the drivers and reorganized concession areas, new track lighting, a whole new surface for the track, a couple of VIP booths for sponsors and about a hundred other changes both large and small.
Among his plans for next year are building a two tier deck with rentals for the year, more new aluminum bleachers and a scoreboard. He's even in the process of building some new quarters for him to live in part time as he spends so much time at the track and his home is quite a distance away from the track.
The track itself is somewhere between a third mile and a three eighth mile oval with medium banking. The track retains its unusual layout that sees the front straightaway go uphill all the way to corner number one and the back chute goes downhill into turn three. The area where the track is located has good dirt for farming but it is notoriously rocky and can't be used for the racing surface. Historically, this track has suffered in that area as good dirt for racing has been hard to come by. Scott admitted that they suffered in that area and still now don't have as much good dirt on the track as they would like. Some of the new dirt added last Fall had to be taken off, an expensive proposition, because it was too sandy and rocky. Some of his major plans are to increase by a hundred loads the amount of dirt on the track this Fall after racing ends. An even surface from week to week has probably been his most challenging issue so far since he took over and he is doing most of the track prep himself, which is something that he has never done before. Plus, he admitted that all the time he has spent on projects has taken time away from his marketing efforts and that is where he excels. I would not be surprised if he hires someone to take care of track prep and maintenance issues so he can focus more of what he does best. He did say that he has over forty billboard sponsors in the first year which he considered good.
After investigating the different sanctioning bodies that were available to him, Scott opted to sign on with NASCAR, making him only the second dirt track in the state to use that sanctioning. Some time I will have to have a conversation with him on why he selected them to sanction him, because I was disappointed when he went that route, although I'm sure he had his reasons. In reality, he is running WISSOTA rules for most of his classes because that's what body most of his cars normally run under. His Modified rules are open however, as he has both WISSOTA and USRA cars running with him along with an occasional IMCA car also. It remains to be seen whether his choice of sanction helps, hinders or has no effect on the track with the main selling point of NASCAR being the track point fund at year's end.
Scott's plan for his track is not to run a weekly show which he has not done this year either. Instead, he wants to run about ten shows a year, make them all specials of some sort and also offer a variety of different types of entertainment, not just races every week. And frankly, I think that more and more tracks are thinking about some sort of this plan as the weekly racing certainly starts to suffer at most tracks as we get into the "dog days" of Summer. I think more and more tracks will start to focus on specials and plan to take weeks off during the season, just to give their fans, employees and drivers a break.
The one area that he is struggling in and knew that he would, is car counts for his shows thus far. Frankly, Spring Lake Speedway lies in a rather rural setting and there aren't a lot of people that live close by. That's not to say he can't draw a crowd and in fact, so far this year his crowds have been excellent. But most of the drivers from this area, due to many years of inactivity for the dirt tracks in this area, have either retired or sold their equipment and it's going to take a while to build their numbers back up. Right now he pulls a lot of his cars from the Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls area and that's between forty and fifty miles away along with some hit or miss drivers left in the local area. Getting the crowds won't be his problem; his problem will be in trying to keep the people patient until the car counts increase. Friday night he had sixty four cars in six classes with four of the classes having enough cars for two heats. He's getting some good quality cars, it just will take a while to increase those numbers. And some of the early season issues with track conditions slowed those efforts.
In touring the pits before the races, I found that many of the drivers on hand were unfamiliar to me as this is largely a different group of racers than those I see more often. One driver I just had to stop and say hello to though was Eric Olson from Ladysmith Wisconsin. And Eric was still having difficulty wiping the "shit eating" grin off his face after events of this week.
One week ago Eric didn't have a ride for the Street Stock Little Dream race at the Rice Lake Speedway. However, a veteran car owner lost his driver recently and offered Eric the opportunity to drive his car. On Tuesday night, Olson won the thirty lap Little Dream race and due to the generosity of the fans and businesses that contribute to the purse, Eric went home with a first place payoff of $15,000! Folks, this is for the equivalent of an IMCA Stock Car in WISSOTA country. Can you imagine that? Fifty five cars from five states were on hand for WISSOTA's biggest Street Stock race of the year in front of a record crowd and Olson took the big money. he said he didn't get to work until about 10 am the next day and only worked a few hours, he was so tired after having been up most of the night celebrating and rest assured, when the Ladysmith crowd parties, they don't mess around!
Olson was on hand with his Super Stock on Friday which is the class he has raced in for many years now, after having started his career in the Street Stocks. And he is having a good year , leading in the points here at Spring Lake as well as at Rice Lake also. On this night he would end up second to Phillips' Randy Spacek.
As far as the racing at Duval's track, on this night they were recovering from a multi inch rain over night and the track surface was a little loose in the corners and the high groove just didn't come in much as it was so tacky on the low side. The track was very fast but it was hard to pass. The program was smoothly run and there were few yellow flags.
The drive of the night was made by Weyerhaeuser Wisconsin's Jay Kesan in the Street Stocks. With all the cars blocking the low groove, Kesan moved up the track, made the only two significant passes of the night on the high side and won the feature race.
In the Modifieds, Steve Lavasseur from River Falls Wisconsin hung on and held off a charging Chris Oertel for the win. Oertel is one of the few running a USRA car on American Racer tires while most are using Hoosiers. Cole Varsho won the Pure Stock feature. Cole is a "comer" at the age of fourteen and looks to be a star for the future in the making.
Duval has made a huge turnaround in the track in just one year and I'm sure that with the plans that he has that things will continue to improve as this year winds up and he gets that first full year under his belt. Next week his first real special will be held as he has booked a $2,000 to win Late Model show using WDLMA rules which should allow cars from both eastern and western Wisconsin the ability to race without an major handicaps. His sponsor next week will be Seubert Calf Ranches(yes, that's the same Seubert that is on the door of Josh Richards' Late Model). Seubert's main headquarters is just down the road from the race track.
Scott, who is known as "Duvy" to his friends, was kind enough to take time away from his pre race duties to give me the tour of the grounds and I'm sure that I'll always be welcome here. The only thing I wish he would have done different is simply to name the track "Duvy's Track." Then I could have remembered the name easier!
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Summerfest Wins to Halstead and Richie Gustin; Big Cash Winner is Hughes
A rare Monday and Tuesday doubleheader was scheduled for the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Iowa on the first two day of August. Participating were the IMCA classes that race at Donnellson which would be the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Sport Compacts along with the Lee County Late Models.
It is hard to believe that we are already turning the calendar over to the month of August which means that we have just one more full month of racing before the special events and end of the year classics besiege us.
With the unique format of this event supported by many sponsors, all of the four major classes were all racing for a grand to win with only the Sport Compacts running for somewhat less.
I believe that this event was also designed to showcase the new Lee County Late Model class started this year which features some combined runs which are supposed to allow drivers from several different sanctioning bodies and rules packages all be able to run competitively. However, after a strong middle part of the season, the numbers have started to drop in the class locally, perhaps due to the same syndrome that seems to strike most of racing during the "dog days" of Summer.
There was a mix of rules packages though as one IMCA car was on hand with the rules for this week not requiring them to make any changes while there were also two Grand Nationals from Nebraska and one UMP Pro Late Model from Illinois.
The Pro Late Model was driven by Brad Denney from Canton Illinois who was on hand along with his frther Morrey. They also co-own the Spoon River Speedway in Illinois, a track that rules UMP rules for most of their classes although their B Mod class is unsanctioned because of rear suspension rules.
In talking with the Denney's, it was interesting to get their perspective on how racing was going in Illinois this year. Most of the same issues facing tracks and promoters elsewhere are being seen by them including spotty car counts and uneven attendance, along with tracks trying to "pirate" drivers. They came to Donnellson just to have a few days of fun with the hopes that they could be competitive. All the Pro Late Models run crate motors and they had a 604 crate motor in their car.
The pits was slow to fill on Monday night, as I suppose it should be since most of the drivers on hand are working guys trying to put in a full day of work before heading to the track. However, by race time the last minute rush had produced a good field of almost one hundred cars in the five classes that raced.
The big winner of the night was Stock Car driver Mike Hughes. Not only did he win the Stock Car feature, he also won the Shootout event left over from a previous combined special at Oskaloosa and Donnellson that saw more rain than racing.
Jeremy Pundt led most of the Stock Car feature until Hughes was able to get under him in turn four and take over the lead with just a few laps let. He then came back to dominate the Shootout, leading all laps in front of a small field for this event as many who had qualified for it failed to avoid problems in the Stock Car feature or were just plain absent on this night. The Stock Car feature was a smooth affair that went green to checkered.
The Late Model feature proved to be another smooth event with another green to checkered race that Sam Halstead dominated from start to finish while a good three car battle for second saw Jay Johnson get the $200 bonus for the highest finishing IMCA car. Earlier in one of the heats, one of the hardest hits of the year took place when a couple of cars banged wheels exiting turn two and Colby Springsteen flew into the guard rail before he could even begin to get his foot to the brake pedal. The hit was almost head on and the damage was substantial as it looked like the whole car got shortened but he was able to exit under his own power.
The biggest field of the night was in the Sport Mods who needed a B feature to settle the last qualifiers. It was also the "clunk" event of the night as it was plagued by multiple yellow flags with the number nearly hitting double figures. Jim Gillenwater drove from the fifth row, helped by the numerous shuffling of positions caused by the yellow flag fever, but he earned the win, if for no other reason, than to be able to keep his cool and continue to be consistent with so many slow downs. Brett Lowry gave him a strong challenge in the late going too.
The Sport Compacts ran a smooth and what appeared to be uneventful race as Michael Grossman led from start to finish and happily took the victory lane honors. However, this race was settled in the tech shed where Grossman was disqualified for an illegal motor(that's a pretty broad category, by the way) and Josh Barnes became the winner by default.
The Modifieds may have presented the best main event of the night, although they had their issues too with five yellows in twenty five laps. Veteran Bruce Hanford led for most of the race with Scott Dickey and the Gustin brothers challenging him. Eventually it was up to Richie Gustin, who was working the outside, to try and get Hanford.
Bruce had a handsome lead until a late yellow cost him nearly a straightaway lead and the restart killed him as Gustin got a great run on the start and the three lap sprint to the finish went to Richie over the obviously disappointed Hanford.
The track was in good shape for the program despite the heat and humidity and early threat of rain and there was much passing, lots of two groove racing and very little dust. It would have been nice to see the grandstand a little more packed but it was a Monday night after all and the hard core fans all found a way to get there.
Ken Schrader was on hand to race his Modified and he had one of his better runs in his IMCA car as he came from thirteenth to fifth at the finish. As is the case for his shorter trips, he brought the race car on an open ramp truck, retro style.
It is hard to believe that we are already turning the calendar over to the month of August which means that we have just one more full month of racing before the special events and end of the year classics besiege us.
With the unique format of this event supported by many sponsors, all of the four major classes were all racing for a grand to win with only the Sport Compacts running for somewhat less.
I believe that this event was also designed to showcase the new Lee County Late Model class started this year which features some combined runs which are supposed to allow drivers from several different sanctioning bodies and rules packages all be able to run competitively. However, after a strong middle part of the season, the numbers have started to drop in the class locally, perhaps due to the same syndrome that seems to strike most of racing during the "dog days" of Summer.
There was a mix of rules packages though as one IMCA car was on hand with the rules for this week not requiring them to make any changes while there were also two Grand Nationals from Nebraska and one UMP Pro Late Model from Illinois.
The Pro Late Model was driven by Brad Denney from Canton Illinois who was on hand along with his frther Morrey. They also co-own the Spoon River Speedway in Illinois, a track that rules UMP rules for most of their classes although their B Mod class is unsanctioned because of rear suspension rules.
In talking with the Denney's, it was interesting to get their perspective on how racing was going in Illinois this year. Most of the same issues facing tracks and promoters elsewhere are being seen by them including spotty car counts and uneven attendance, along with tracks trying to "pirate" drivers. They came to Donnellson just to have a few days of fun with the hopes that they could be competitive. All the Pro Late Models run crate motors and they had a 604 crate motor in their car.
The pits was slow to fill on Monday night, as I suppose it should be since most of the drivers on hand are working guys trying to put in a full day of work before heading to the track. However, by race time the last minute rush had produced a good field of almost one hundred cars in the five classes that raced.
The big winner of the night was Stock Car driver Mike Hughes. Not only did he win the Stock Car feature, he also won the Shootout event left over from a previous combined special at Oskaloosa and Donnellson that saw more rain than racing.
Jeremy Pundt led most of the Stock Car feature until Hughes was able to get under him in turn four and take over the lead with just a few laps let. He then came back to dominate the Shootout, leading all laps in front of a small field for this event as many who had qualified for it failed to avoid problems in the Stock Car feature or were just plain absent on this night. The Stock Car feature was a smooth affair that went green to checkered.
The Late Model feature proved to be another smooth event with another green to checkered race that Sam Halstead dominated from start to finish while a good three car battle for second saw Jay Johnson get the $200 bonus for the highest finishing IMCA car. Earlier in one of the heats, one of the hardest hits of the year took place when a couple of cars banged wheels exiting turn two and Colby Springsteen flew into the guard rail before he could even begin to get his foot to the brake pedal. The hit was almost head on and the damage was substantial as it looked like the whole car got shortened but he was able to exit under his own power.
The biggest field of the night was in the Sport Mods who needed a B feature to settle the last qualifiers. It was also the "clunk" event of the night as it was plagued by multiple yellow flags with the number nearly hitting double figures. Jim Gillenwater drove from the fifth row, helped by the numerous shuffling of positions caused by the yellow flag fever, but he earned the win, if for no other reason, than to be able to keep his cool and continue to be consistent with so many slow downs. Brett Lowry gave him a strong challenge in the late going too.
The Sport Compacts ran a smooth and what appeared to be uneventful race as Michael Grossman led from start to finish and happily took the victory lane honors. However, this race was settled in the tech shed where Grossman was disqualified for an illegal motor(that's a pretty broad category, by the way) and Josh Barnes became the winner by default.
The Modifieds may have presented the best main event of the night, although they had their issues too with five yellows in twenty five laps. Veteran Bruce Hanford led for most of the race with Scott Dickey and the Gustin brothers challenging him. Eventually it was up to Richie Gustin, who was working the outside, to try and get Hanford.
Bruce had a handsome lead until a late yellow cost him nearly a straightaway lead and the restart killed him as Gustin got a great run on the start and the three lap sprint to the finish went to Richie over the obviously disappointed Hanford.
The track was in good shape for the program despite the heat and humidity and early threat of rain and there was much passing, lots of two groove racing and very little dust. It would have been nice to see the grandstand a little more packed but it was a Monday night after all and the hard core fans all found a way to get there.
Ken Schrader was on hand to race his Modified and he had one of his better runs in his IMCA car as he came from thirteenth to fifth at the finish. As is the case for his shorter trips, he brought the race car on an open ramp truck, retro style.
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