It was a tough weekend of battling the weather to try and find some racing action and that included Sunday night, August 27th. To find three nights of racing, it required visiting three different states(I could have headed to Canada on Saturday but opted instead of southern Minnesota) with eastern Wisconsin and Iowa also in the mix.
On Sunday all the local tracks were still getting rained on, but some searching around found the sun shining in northern Iowa so I took off for Mason City Motor Speedway for their Season Championship night. Now, I knew that the feature races would be started straight up but what I didn't know was that it was a "features only" night of racing with no qualifying heats in any of the classes. I guess this must be an "Iowa Thing." as I have never heard of this before. One time before I accidentally ran into this same format at Vinton Iowa but that was the only other time.
Some tracks at home on championship night start the heat races straight up but still make the drivers qualify for the feature based on their heat race finishes. That's as close as I have come to the "features only" format. Now that I think about it, I might have also experienced this once before at Osky also, but again in Iowa.
Sixty seven cars signed in to race in the five USRA classes that race on a weekly basis at Mason City. Among those was Blooming Prairie Minnesota's Doug Hillson. Here it is the last week in August and this is the first time that I have seen Hillson racing this year. However, he told me that he just hasn't been racing much this year as he has had lots of other things going on to fill his weekends and he lacks sponsors and pit crew help compared to years past. Noteworthy however is the fact that this is the fortieth year of racing for Hillson. And on Sunday I wouldn't get to see him race many laps either for a couple of reasons.
Hot laps proved costly as both Dave Kuykendall and Alex Yohn blew motors and were sidelined for the main events. With extra time on their hands, track officials made a special "deal" out of each of the five features with driver introductions, season trophies and pictures and interviews following each main event.
I should have known that weather would still be a factor on Sunday even though earlier in the day the sun shown and it was a nice afternoon. However, thunderstorms brewed to the North and just missed the track before things seemingly cleared up once again.
We weren't done yet though, as a second line quickly cooked up and seemed to be heading directly toward the track. Perhaps a little too much "raz ma taz" earlier ate up too much time and when the order was given to skip the Modified introductions and quickly start the race, it was a battle against time.
Jason Cummings is locked in a tight battle for the USRA National points title and every race is important for him. J.D. Auringer was the early leader of the Modified feature with Cummins quickly moving into second. Several times, as the sprinkles fell and the lightning cracked around the track, Cummins would dive to the inside of J.D. but he couldn't make the pass. Finally, Cummins pulled up beside Auringer down the back chute and Jason made a deep drive into turn three. However, he seemed to catch a rut which threw him up the track and forced Auringer over the cushion with Cummins taking over the lead.
One lap later a car slowed on the front chute and the yellow flew and with the race half over and the sprinkles continuing to fall, the race was quickly called complete. Auringer was not at all pleased and "dive bombed" Cummins a couple times as the field scrambled to the pits to load up. It was an unsatisfying way to end up the night and I'm sure that even Cummins wasn't pleased with the way things finished up. However, once it started raining there was no way that the track could be restored to racing form.
Of the five point champions who started on the pole, only two went on to win the final feature races. They were Brandon Hare in the B Mods and Luke Sathoff in the Stock Cars. Other winners included Kyle Balik in the Tuners and Andrew Borchardt in the Hobby Stocks.
To my surprise, the crowd was a very good one for the final race of 2017 at MCMS. Obviously most of them knew what they were going to see and it didn't seem to bother them and there seemed to be a high percentage of fans that were directly associated with one or more of the racers, again a good thing.
Co-promoter Al Hejna spoke to the crowd briefly and declared that 2017 was more successful than 2016 was and hinted that there would be some changes for next year but he didn't elaborate. It would seem that racing in Mason City finished up strong this year.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Saturday, August 26, 2017
James Dominates Oshkosh Corn Belt Clash
The Corn Belt Clash Late Model series traveled to the Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway on Friday night August 25th as they wrapped up their very abbreviated season. The Speedzone specializes in Modified racing but they also have a couple of races each year for the Late Models and do also run the Sprint Cars a few times each year.
Tonight, along with the Late Models, they would be running IMCA sanctioned Modifieds plus the local Street Stocks and the Grand National class. The Modifieds would also be wrapping up their mini series, "The King of the Ring", a series of one grand to win races that have been tied in with other special events held at "The Zone" this year.
Even though Cam Granger's Corn Belt Series comes out of Iowa, the majority of the cars that would be on hand Friday are from Wisconsin, spiced up with a few Iowa cars that travel the series along with a few random open motored cars from Minnesota. In total they had a nice field of thirty five cars sign in to race. This was particularly impressive given that it was a "stand alone" event with many of the participants towing a long ways for just the one show.
I guess they feel that since its an open motor series, they are required to bore us with time trials which they held with the cars timing in two at a time. Since the transponders are hooked up to the scoreboard here, at least we could hear what the times were and since they did then two at a time, it only delayed the start of the show by fifteen minutes from the advertised time. Pretty good by comparison to most of the time trial events I see. They then roll a dice or something like that to establish the invert and on this night it turned out to be four. The feature race was then lined up straight up from the heat finishes.
Four heats and two B features set the starting field plus two provisional starters and the twenty six car starting field was set. The very first time I came here to a Late Model race, the action was good with lots of passing and side by side racing. Since then, virtually every Late Model race has seen a "rubbered up" track with everyone hugging the bottom and passing at a premium. But, being an eternal optimist, lots of other people along with myself continue to show up for these races hoping against hope that something will change. Unfortunately, Friday night was not the night that change occurred. While the other three classes were able to race all over the track and race side by side, in the Late Models they dropped the green, everyone dove to the rail, and they lined up and ran nose to tail for fifty laps essentially. Occasionally some one might try and move out a lane but they were usually met by frustration when they got "fright trained" back several spots.
I don't know what the answer is to this problem. Whether the track needs more banking or more water or whatever, but it certainly does make for disappointing racing. They do run this track extremely dry and it may be the slickest track that I see on a regular basis. Even some of the veteran Late Model drivers have a terrible time trying to make their cars turn on this track which is very much like racing on ice. The track is smooth and the speeds are very slow but for the support classes, it seems to make their racing interesting but it does nothing for the Late Models, unless you're a fan of train racing.
The heats are extremely important as track position is everything. Scott James, the veteran driver from Indiana who has been driving the Wisconsin based Dolhun XR1 Rocket started on the outside pole and got the jump on Paul Parker and he led all fifty laps. His only real issue was with the lapped cars and there were many as the leaders caught traffic before ten laps had been completed. The starter here does not use the move over flag and it is every man for themselves which is fine. James had to be very careful to not commit himself to trying to move out to pass and get caught on the outside so it was a race of "cat and mouse", raced at the speed of the back markers, not the leaders. When someone would slide out, James would jump on the opportunity and ease by the slower cars but he was very careful not to get himself caught while none of the other front running cars made the move to try and pass on the outside either.
The first thirty nine laps ran nonstop and a couple of times things got a little "dicey" for James but each time he made the right moves. The few restarts they had were done single file, in recognition of the racing conditions which was only fair. Each time James would move away slightly and put a little distance on the second place car. At the end he got very conservative so as not to slip off the bottom and runner up Billy Drake closed up on him but never provided a serious challenge.
It was a great run for the Illinois veteran and his best finish in a big race for quite some time. Also getting a nice finish was Paul Parker who after earning a good starting spot, just hung in there and maintained. Chris and Chad Simpson followed for fifty laps but couldn't do a thing about moving up. Chris would become the point champ of the Corn Belt Series following the completion of the main. Seventeen of the twenty six starters were still on the track at the finish with several dropping out once they got lapped. The race had three minor slow downs for spins and not a wrecked car in the event.
A couple on interesting notes on Friday night's Late Model field. Dan Schlieper, the former national traveling star from the Milwaukee area, returned to racing Friday night driving a back up car for Jimmy Mars. I believe this deal might have been "brokered" by Dan's brother Bill, who's engines Mars uses along with many others in the field. Dan showed little rust as he made the main but his free wheeling style and this super slippery surface did not mesh and he eventually pulled off and called it a night. A.J. Diemel, a former winner at this track, was debuting a brand new MB Customs car Friday night. However, they struggled to get it tuned to the surface and he was forced to qualify through a B feature. He did run the whole distance, probably if for no other reason than to get laps on the car and he was unofficially twelfth in the final standings.
Jim Schmidt, a local competitor, was a surprise entrant on Friday, only because he flipped his car on Thursday night during a practice session and they indicated that they likely wouldn't get it fixed by Friday. However, they were there, made the show and finished the fifty lap grind.
In terms of true racing, the three support classes provided much more in the way of racing, although two of the three proved to be big runaways for the winner. They probably had perhaps one too many support classes as the final checkered flag didn't fly until almost 11 pm when I thought they had a curfew that struck well before that time, but perhaps that no longer exists. But with great fields in the other three classes on hand (27 Grand Nationals, 21 Street Stocks and 33 Modifieds) they weren't about to not let one of these classes race as based on the size of the crowd Friday, this was a back gate financed event.
The "Speedzone" has one of the best weekly car counts of any track probably in the Midwest with one hundred twenty to thirty cars in the pits every week and their Modified fields are probably only challenged by perhaps Dacotah Speedway in Mandan North Dakota in terms of weekly numbers. Their thirty three car field Friday is just an example of the numbers they have on a weekly basis. Usually their mains are close affairs but on this night, Wausau's Marcus Yarie totally dominated the race. He came from the second row quickly to take the lead and then he ran off and hid.
Eventually Johnny "Hitman" Whitman did start to close up on him as did Benji LaCrosse but following a lap eighteen yellow, Yarie again pulled away from Whitman and LaCrosse struggled on the outside where he had been running so well previously. Yarie won easily and was crowned the "King of the Ring" for the mini series. Justin Ritchie had from eleventh to third with Mike Mashl and LaCrosse rounding out the top five. Nineteen of the twenty starters finished the race.
The Grand National class would equate to WISSOTA Super Stocks or perhaps Pro Stocks in Iowa. They run at many of the tracks in eastern Wisconsin but not really any place else. There are a ton of them around however, as Friday's show would indicate. On this night they had the option of removing the roofs and some took advantage of that while the majority didn't want to go through the "monkey work" involved for just one night .Brian Vinney led for the first part of the race but in this country the Richards name is known as the "kings of the hill" in this class and Kenny Richards came up from the fourth row to pass Vinney and then drive away for the win. Again, it was another smoothly run feature with only one yellow and all twenty starters were on the track at the finish.
The Street Stock feature saw heartbreak for leader Chase Solomon who had a healthy sized lead until his car suddenly just stopped and he pulled into the infield, done for the night. This left it up to the Crapser brothers, Adam and Alex to battle it out for the win. Adam liked the high side of the track and that worked for most of the race but Alex dropped low and was able to drive under his brother for the win. If the name sounds familiar, their Uncle Cory is one of the USMTS drivers racing their "Hunt" series right now with special logos on his car.
Once again, it was a very smooth race with only one yellow and three non finishers. Overall, the support classes were quite remarkable in both their lack of yellow flags in their mains and the small number of drivers that dropped out of their features. These classes, along with the Four cylinders and Sport Mods make up their weekly show and I could see where these classes would be highly entertaining on a weekly basis.
At least the "Speedzone" isn't under the gun like it has been for much of the Summer. Governmental agencies have been "hot" to close the race track down and turn it into a stage for concerts but after much fighting and anguish, the track promoters have fought off the county and city, at least for the short term. The county has decided it issue bids for promoters again for next year so for 2018 at least, it sounds like the track will still be there to race on. However, there is much hostility between the current promoters and the person that oversees the bid process and running the facility so it would not be surprising if another promoter gets the nod next year, that is assuming there would be others interested in promoting the facility and given the way things have been around here, that is certainly not a "given." But there can be no doubts that with the track properly prepared, this is one of the finest facilities in the state of Wisconsin and certainly beyond.
Tonight, along with the Late Models, they would be running IMCA sanctioned Modifieds plus the local Street Stocks and the Grand National class. The Modifieds would also be wrapping up their mini series, "The King of the Ring", a series of one grand to win races that have been tied in with other special events held at "The Zone" this year.
Even though Cam Granger's Corn Belt Series comes out of Iowa, the majority of the cars that would be on hand Friday are from Wisconsin, spiced up with a few Iowa cars that travel the series along with a few random open motored cars from Minnesota. In total they had a nice field of thirty five cars sign in to race. This was particularly impressive given that it was a "stand alone" event with many of the participants towing a long ways for just the one show.
I guess they feel that since its an open motor series, they are required to bore us with time trials which they held with the cars timing in two at a time. Since the transponders are hooked up to the scoreboard here, at least we could hear what the times were and since they did then two at a time, it only delayed the start of the show by fifteen minutes from the advertised time. Pretty good by comparison to most of the time trial events I see. They then roll a dice or something like that to establish the invert and on this night it turned out to be four. The feature race was then lined up straight up from the heat finishes.
Four heats and two B features set the starting field plus two provisional starters and the twenty six car starting field was set. The very first time I came here to a Late Model race, the action was good with lots of passing and side by side racing. Since then, virtually every Late Model race has seen a "rubbered up" track with everyone hugging the bottom and passing at a premium. But, being an eternal optimist, lots of other people along with myself continue to show up for these races hoping against hope that something will change. Unfortunately, Friday night was not the night that change occurred. While the other three classes were able to race all over the track and race side by side, in the Late Models they dropped the green, everyone dove to the rail, and they lined up and ran nose to tail for fifty laps essentially. Occasionally some one might try and move out a lane but they were usually met by frustration when they got "fright trained" back several spots.
I don't know what the answer is to this problem. Whether the track needs more banking or more water or whatever, but it certainly does make for disappointing racing. They do run this track extremely dry and it may be the slickest track that I see on a regular basis. Even some of the veteran Late Model drivers have a terrible time trying to make their cars turn on this track which is very much like racing on ice. The track is smooth and the speeds are very slow but for the support classes, it seems to make their racing interesting but it does nothing for the Late Models, unless you're a fan of train racing.
The heats are extremely important as track position is everything. Scott James, the veteran driver from Indiana who has been driving the Wisconsin based Dolhun XR1 Rocket started on the outside pole and got the jump on Paul Parker and he led all fifty laps. His only real issue was with the lapped cars and there were many as the leaders caught traffic before ten laps had been completed. The starter here does not use the move over flag and it is every man for themselves which is fine. James had to be very careful to not commit himself to trying to move out to pass and get caught on the outside so it was a race of "cat and mouse", raced at the speed of the back markers, not the leaders. When someone would slide out, James would jump on the opportunity and ease by the slower cars but he was very careful not to get himself caught while none of the other front running cars made the move to try and pass on the outside either.
The first thirty nine laps ran nonstop and a couple of times things got a little "dicey" for James but each time he made the right moves. The few restarts they had were done single file, in recognition of the racing conditions which was only fair. Each time James would move away slightly and put a little distance on the second place car. At the end he got very conservative so as not to slip off the bottom and runner up Billy Drake closed up on him but never provided a serious challenge.
It was a great run for the Illinois veteran and his best finish in a big race for quite some time. Also getting a nice finish was Paul Parker who after earning a good starting spot, just hung in there and maintained. Chris and Chad Simpson followed for fifty laps but couldn't do a thing about moving up. Chris would become the point champ of the Corn Belt Series following the completion of the main. Seventeen of the twenty six starters were still on the track at the finish with several dropping out once they got lapped. The race had three minor slow downs for spins and not a wrecked car in the event.
A couple on interesting notes on Friday night's Late Model field. Dan Schlieper, the former national traveling star from the Milwaukee area, returned to racing Friday night driving a back up car for Jimmy Mars. I believe this deal might have been "brokered" by Dan's brother Bill, who's engines Mars uses along with many others in the field. Dan showed little rust as he made the main but his free wheeling style and this super slippery surface did not mesh and he eventually pulled off and called it a night. A.J. Diemel, a former winner at this track, was debuting a brand new MB Customs car Friday night. However, they struggled to get it tuned to the surface and he was forced to qualify through a B feature. He did run the whole distance, probably if for no other reason than to get laps on the car and he was unofficially twelfth in the final standings.
Jim Schmidt, a local competitor, was a surprise entrant on Friday, only because he flipped his car on Thursday night during a practice session and they indicated that they likely wouldn't get it fixed by Friday. However, they were there, made the show and finished the fifty lap grind.
In terms of true racing, the three support classes provided much more in the way of racing, although two of the three proved to be big runaways for the winner. They probably had perhaps one too many support classes as the final checkered flag didn't fly until almost 11 pm when I thought they had a curfew that struck well before that time, but perhaps that no longer exists. But with great fields in the other three classes on hand (27 Grand Nationals, 21 Street Stocks and 33 Modifieds) they weren't about to not let one of these classes race as based on the size of the crowd Friday, this was a back gate financed event.
The "Speedzone" has one of the best weekly car counts of any track probably in the Midwest with one hundred twenty to thirty cars in the pits every week and their Modified fields are probably only challenged by perhaps Dacotah Speedway in Mandan North Dakota in terms of weekly numbers. Their thirty three car field Friday is just an example of the numbers they have on a weekly basis. Usually their mains are close affairs but on this night, Wausau's Marcus Yarie totally dominated the race. He came from the second row quickly to take the lead and then he ran off and hid.
Eventually Johnny "Hitman" Whitman did start to close up on him as did Benji LaCrosse but following a lap eighteen yellow, Yarie again pulled away from Whitman and LaCrosse struggled on the outside where he had been running so well previously. Yarie won easily and was crowned the "King of the Ring" for the mini series. Justin Ritchie had from eleventh to third with Mike Mashl and LaCrosse rounding out the top five. Nineteen of the twenty starters finished the race.
The Grand National class would equate to WISSOTA Super Stocks or perhaps Pro Stocks in Iowa. They run at many of the tracks in eastern Wisconsin but not really any place else. There are a ton of them around however, as Friday's show would indicate. On this night they had the option of removing the roofs and some took advantage of that while the majority didn't want to go through the "monkey work" involved for just one night .Brian Vinney led for the first part of the race but in this country the Richards name is known as the "kings of the hill" in this class and Kenny Richards came up from the fourth row to pass Vinney and then drive away for the win. Again, it was another smoothly run feature with only one yellow and all twenty starters were on the track at the finish.
The Street Stock feature saw heartbreak for leader Chase Solomon who had a healthy sized lead until his car suddenly just stopped and he pulled into the infield, done for the night. This left it up to the Crapser brothers, Adam and Alex to battle it out for the win. Adam liked the high side of the track and that worked for most of the race but Alex dropped low and was able to drive under his brother for the win. If the name sounds familiar, their Uncle Cory is one of the USMTS drivers racing their "Hunt" series right now with special logos on his car.
Once again, it was a very smooth race with only one yellow and three non finishers. Overall, the support classes were quite remarkable in both their lack of yellow flags in their mains and the small number of drivers that dropped out of their features. These classes, along with the Four cylinders and Sport Mods make up their weekly show and I could see where these classes would be highly entertaining on a weekly basis.
At least the "Speedzone" isn't under the gun like it has been for much of the Summer. Governmental agencies have been "hot" to close the race track down and turn it into a stage for concerts but after much fighting and anguish, the track promoters have fought off the county and city, at least for the short term. The county has decided it issue bids for promoters again for next year so for 2018 at least, it sounds like the track will still be there to race on. However, there is much hostility between the current promoters and the person that oversees the bid process and running the facility so it would not be surprising if another promoter gets the nod next year, that is assuming there would be others interested in promoting the facility and given the way things have been around here, that is certainly not a "given." But there can be no doubts that with the track properly prepared, this is one of the finest facilities in the state of Wisconsin and certainly beyond.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Schatz Changes Up; Now He's Beating Up the Late Models Too
Wednesday night, August 23rd found me at the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo North Dakota for a rare midweek race for this track that now pretty much is a Friday night track only. The NLRA(Northern Late Model Racing Association) had been scheduled to race here a few weeks ago on a Wednesday as the first night of a four night swing through eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota but that show got rained out.
Promoter Jake Bitker however, clearly wanted to get this show in so it was rescheduled to this Wednesday, even though it now became a stand alone event. Also racing on this night were three of his regular divisions, the IMCA Modifieds, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. The Legend Cars were also racing as they do on many occasions here but I have never recognized them as a true racing class and there fore have never included them in any of my reports or kept track of their driver rosters, finishes etc just a I also don't for dwarf cars, figure eights, buses and the list goes on and on.
This was my first visit to RRVS in a couple of years and certainly the first time since Bitker took over the operations last year and got the track started again on a schedule that led to a full season of racing in 2017.
RRVS looks much different that it did many years ago when I first laid eye balls on the track. Back then it was an intimidating high banked half mile oval that would provide some spectacular speeds and only the bravest of the brave were willing to take on its challenge. However, it was also a motor eater and a track that would often see the field get pretty spread out and provide not necessarily to best of weekly racing.
There were problems between the group that ran the track and the Fair Board and there was a real possibility that racing would not continue. Danny Schatz agreed to take over promotion of the track and he really changed things, cutting the track down to a third mile oval and changing the race night to Wednesdays. He only lasted a couple of years though as more problems between the Fair Board Manager and him led to Schatz terminating his contract and with no one in the wings to take over, the track sat vacant. Bitker, who was running the show at Norman County Speedway in Ada, about forty miles northeast of Fargo, was contacted by the Fair Board but due to some issues, he declined at that point. So the track sat, a shame since the overall facility is one of the nicest around.
However, after a period of time, Bitker again reappeared in the picture. This time he was able to negotiate a few changes and a different Fair Board Manager made things much smoother too. So last year Jake restarted the track, with a little reshaping of the corners and a move back to the original race night of Friday.
IMCA Modifieds became the top class with Late Models and Sprints brought in on occasion. Things have progressively gotten better and they returned to a full schedule of races this year. The World of Outlaw Sprints got back on the schedule and while no big Late Model series has yet visited the track, most assume that is just a matter of time. The third mile is generally prepared so as to be black and slick and the smaller track and slower speeds are much easier on the race cars.
The NLRA is one of the great success stories of the upper Midwest. This is a club where the Late Model drivers actually join and have their say in how things are operated. Brad Seng from Grand Forks has long been one of the driving forces within the club and they have found a way for Late Models to not only survive but to prosper. In an area that has very few Late Model tracks running weekly, they take their traveling show on the road to a number of tracks in the Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba area as a special event. This way, they can guarantee a promoter a minimum number of cars so the promoter knows what he is getting and the Late Models in return are guaranteed many more shows than they would get otherwise and for a guaranteed purse, that while not huge, is far better than they would get for a weekly show and enough to keep them racing from week to week. In an area that has only one weekly Late Model track, that being River Cities Raceway in Grand Forks, there are well over forty Late Models in the area because the interest has always been there and the NLRA provides them the opportunity.
For this Wednesday night, stand alone race, there were twenty three Late Models in attendance. Donny Schatz has really taken a liking to Late Model racing and he often flies back to the Fargo area just to sneak in a night or two of Late Model racing, even at some smaller venues that you wouldn't expect a driver of such high magnitude to be interesting in competing at. But Late Model racing has developed into his "stress reliever" as he can run the Late Models with no pressure and no big expectations and return to the old days of just having fun. The Late Model drivers treat him as an equal and he can just roam the pits and be just another driver unlike the Outlaw shows where a camera or microphone is being thrust into his face every second.
However, this Late Model "gig" might turn into something more than just a relaxing sideline. I have been told by some people close to the "know" that are saying that within a couple of years Tony Stewart will be starting a Late Model team and that Schatz will be their driver and that he will at that time step away from Sprint Cars. Who knows for sure if there is anything to this but there are certainly some parts of it that make sense.
But back to Wednesday. Schatz has been lightning fast with his spec engine Late Model, having won two feature races with it last week and he showed that those weren't flukes on Wednesday. The NLRA had some top notch drivers on hand on Wednesday including Ricky Weiss, Seng, Pat Doar, Dustin Strand, Mike Balcaen and others but he put them all to shame.
After Weiss got the jump and led the first few laps, Schatz worked the track and found a passing lane and dove under Ricky in turn one to take the top spot and once he took the lead, he was gone. The feature race went nonstop with twenty three cars taking the green and all twenty three still around at the finish. However, only seven were still on the lead lap as Schatz lapped all the others and had both sixth place Adam Fischer and fifth place Cole Schill in his sites when he pulled up on the final tour and didn't push the issue. He was incredibly fast on the icy slick track and was able to put his XR1 Rocket anywhere he wanted on the track, lapping cars both high and low. It was a dominating performance to say the least. While the Late Model drivers seem to welcome his appearance, they'll probably also be happy to see him hit the road with the Outlaws anytime! Myself, I feel his presence gives the other drivers and the tracks some very good publicity and is a good thing for the sport. Plus, I just enjoy watching him race and "mix it up" with the other drivers in the pits.
Weiss finished second but had six lapped cars between himself and Schatz with Balcaen, Seng and Strand completing the top five.
The Modified feature saw point leader Dave Shipley on the outside pole and he seemed to be the logical favorite, that is until they dropped the green flag and he nearly went off turn one, losing a number of spots because of that. Mike Greseth, one of the few non crate cars in the class, then took the lead and led the rest of the way for the win. Shipley did some nifty driving as he fought his way back up to second, with late race passes of Dale Kraling and Tyler Peterson to get second.
Jesse Skalicky, who shocked the troops in central Iowa earlier this year when he rolled into town and took the big money back to North Dakota, started on the outside pole and led all the way for an easy win in the Sport Mods. Jeff Talley and Kelly Jacobson trailed.
The Hobby Stock class is a new one this year for this area, transitioning over from a former Bomber class. Therefore, they don't have very many of them at any of the tracks running them as of yet, but like the Stock Cars who are also new to this area but weren't on the card Wednesday, patience is needed to see if the class will take off or not. Eight were on hand Wednesday with veteran Tim Church the winner.
The crowd was not particularly good on Wednesday but to be fair, they are in the midst of a four race in two week period, having raced regular shows last Friday and a Season Championship race upcoming in two days. On top of that they raced the Late Models tonight and last Saturday held a rain dated event for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and I'm told that six thousand people were on hand for that. On top of all that, Bitker held his regular Thursday night show at Ada last Thursday and has his Season Championships at that track scheduled tomorrow.
Fargo has always been a stronghold place for dirt track racing with plenty of fans and many race cars in all classes coming from the Fargo area. That's why the shutting down of the fairgrounds was such a shocking thing when it happened but hopefully they are back on "high ground" and gaining. The RRVS is one of the finest facilities around with seating for many thousands of people, excellent lighting and parking and now, with the pits moved behind the back straightaway, there truly isn't a bad seat in the house. If you're ever traveling out West on I-94, when you get to West Fargo just look off to the North and you can see the track right from the freeway.
Promoter Jake Bitker however, clearly wanted to get this show in so it was rescheduled to this Wednesday, even though it now became a stand alone event. Also racing on this night were three of his regular divisions, the IMCA Modifieds, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. The Legend Cars were also racing as they do on many occasions here but I have never recognized them as a true racing class and there fore have never included them in any of my reports or kept track of their driver rosters, finishes etc just a I also don't for dwarf cars, figure eights, buses and the list goes on and on.
This was my first visit to RRVS in a couple of years and certainly the first time since Bitker took over the operations last year and got the track started again on a schedule that led to a full season of racing in 2017.
RRVS looks much different that it did many years ago when I first laid eye balls on the track. Back then it was an intimidating high banked half mile oval that would provide some spectacular speeds and only the bravest of the brave were willing to take on its challenge. However, it was also a motor eater and a track that would often see the field get pretty spread out and provide not necessarily to best of weekly racing.
There were problems between the group that ran the track and the Fair Board and there was a real possibility that racing would not continue. Danny Schatz agreed to take over promotion of the track and he really changed things, cutting the track down to a third mile oval and changing the race night to Wednesdays. He only lasted a couple of years though as more problems between the Fair Board Manager and him led to Schatz terminating his contract and with no one in the wings to take over, the track sat vacant. Bitker, who was running the show at Norman County Speedway in Ada, about forty miles northeast of Fargo, was contacted by the Fair Board but due to some issues, he declined at that point. So the track sat, a shame since the overall facility is one of the nicest around.
However, after a period of time, Bitker again reappeared in the picture. This time he was able to negotiate a few changes and a different Fair Board Manager made things much smoother too. So last year Jake restarted the track, with a little reshaping of the corners and a move back to the original race night of Friday.
IMCA Modifieds became the top class with Late Models and Sprints brought in on occasion. Things have progressively gotten better and they returned to a full schedule of races this year. The World of Outlaw Sprints got back on the schedule and while no big Late Model series has yet visited the track, most assume that is just a matter of time. The third mile is generally prepared so as to be black and slick and the smaller track and slower speeds are much easier on the race cars.
The NLRA is one of the great success stories of the upper Midwest. This is a club where the Late Model drivers actually join and have their say in how things are operated. Brad Seng from Grand Forks has long been one of the driving forces within the club and they have found a way for Late Models to not only survive but to prosper. In an area that has very few Late Model tracks running weekly, they take their traveling show on the road to a number of tracks in the Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba area as a special event. This way, they can guarantee a promoter a minimum number of cars so the promoter knows what he is getting and the Late Models in return are guaranteed many more shows than they would get otherwise and for a guaranteed purse, that while not huge, is far better than they would get for a weekly show and enough to keep them racing from week to week. In an area that has only one weekly Late Model track, that being River Cities Raceway in Grand Forks, there are well over forty Late Models in the area because the interest has always been there and the NLRA provides them the opportunity.
For this Wednesday night, stand alone race, there were twenty three Late Models in attendance. Donny Schatz has really taken a liking to Late Model racing and he often flies back to the Fargo area just to sneak in a night or two of Late Model racing, even at some smaller venues that you wouldn't expect a driver of such high magnitude to be interesting in competing at. But Late Model racing has developed into his "stress reliever" as he can run the Late Models with no pressure and no big expectations and return to the old days of just having fun. The Late Model drivers treat him as an equal and he can just roam the pits and be just another driver unlike the Outlaw shows where a camera or microphone is being thrust into his face every second.
However, this Late Model "gig" might turn into something more than just a relaxing sideline. I have been told by some people close to the "know" that are saying that within a couple of years Tony Stewart will be starting a Late Model team and that Schatz will be their driver and that he will at that time step away from Sprint Cars. Who knows for sure if there is anything to this but there are certainly some parts of it that make sense.
But back to Wednesday. Schatz has been lightning fast with his spec engine Late Model, having won two feature races with it last week and he showed that those weren't flukes on Wednesday. The NLRA had some top notch drivers on hand on Wednesday including Ricky Weiss, Seng, Pat Doar, Dustin Strand, Mike Balcaen and others but he put them all to shame.
After Weiss got the jump and led the first few laps, Schatz worked the track and found a passing lane and dove under Ricky in turn one to take the top spot and once he took the lead, he was gone. The feature race went nonstop with twenty three cars taking the green and all twenty three still around at the finish. However, only seven were still on the lead lap as Schatz lapped all the others and had both sixth place Adam Fischer and fifth place Cole Schill in his sites when he pulled up on the final tour and didn't push the issue. He was incredibly fast on the icy slick track and was able to put his XR1 Rocket anywhere he wanted on the track, lapping cars both high and low. It was a dominating performance to say the least. While the Late Model drivers seem to welcome his appearance, they'll probably also be happy to see him hit the road with the Outlaws anytime! Myself, I feel his presence gives the other drivers and the tracks some very good publicity and is a good thing for the sport. Plus, I just enjoy watching him race and "mix it up" with the other drivers in the pits.
Weiss finished second but had six lapped cars between himself and Schatz with Balcaen, Seng and Strand completing the top five.
The Modified feature saw point leader Dave Shipley on the outside pole and he seemed to be the logical favorite, that is until they dropped the green flag and he nearly went off turn one, losing a number of spots because of that. Mike Greseth, one of the few non crate cars in the class, then took the lead and led the rest of the way for the win. Shipley did some nifty driving as he fought his way back up to second, with late race passes of Dale Kraling and Tyler Peterson to get second.
Jesse Skalicky, who shocked the troops in central Iowa earlier this year when he rolled into town and took the big money back to North Dakota, started on the outside pole and led all the way for an easy win in the Sport Mods. Jeff Talley and Kelly Jacobson trailed.
The Hobby Stock class is a new one this year for this area, transitioning over from a former Bomber class. Therefore, they don't have very many of them at any of the tracks running them as of yet, but like the Stock Cars who are also new to this area but weren't on the card Wednesday, patience is needed to see if the class will take off or not. Eight were on hand Wednesday with veteran Tim Church the winner.
The crowd was not particularly good on Wednesday but to be fair, they are in the midst of a four race in two week period, having raced regular shows last Friday and a Season Championship race upcoming in two days. On top of that they raced the Late Models tonight and last Saturday held a rain dated event for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and I'm told that six thousand people were on hand for that. On top of all that, Bitker held his regular Thursday night show at Ada last Thursday and has his Season Championships at that track scheduled tomorrow.
Fargo has always been a stronghold place for dirt track racing with plenty of fans and many race cars in all classes coming from the Fargo area. That's why the shutting down of the fairgrounds was such a shocking thing when it happened but hopefully they are back on "high ground" and gaining. The RRVS is one of the finest facilities around with seating for many thousands of people, excellent lighting and parking and now, with the pits moved behind the back straightaway, there truly isn't a bad seat in the house. If you're ever traveling out West on I-94, when you get to West Fargo just look off to the North and you can see the track right from the freeway.
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Pavlicek Tops Sanders Challenge Modified Event at NCR
The second annual Sanders Metal Products Challenge Tour started the first of its four night swing on Thursday, August 17th at the Norman County Raceway in Ada Minnesota. Along with the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA sanctioned Stock Cars and Sport Mods were also on the card along with WISSOTA sanctioned Midwest Modifieds.
This was the second year of the Sanders Challenge which is compromised of four straight nights of racing with each show worth a grand to win and a seven thousand dollar point fund for the top twenty cars in combined points with their three of four best shows used to total the points.
Besides Norman County, the other tracks on the tour are the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo North Dakota, promoter Jake Bitker's other track that he runs, the Jamestown Speedway in North Dakota and the Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon Minnesota where the series would wrap up on Sunday night. Once you got to the area, the four tracks are all within a fairly short drive between them, but oh my, all four are a long way from most places. When you start getting North of Fargo, you know that you're a long way from the rest of the world.
The tours opening night was able by one to top the opening night field of last year's show as the featured division of IMCA Modifieds drew forty seven cars for their opening night show. I'm not certain but I believe that this years tour drew more local and regional entries as there were no drivers on hand from too far away such as there were last year. Most of the entrants were from the eastern side of North Dakota and across the border in Minnesota with a few western North Dakota drivers on hand along with one Wisconsin driver, Luke Schilling, who brought his car West to race with his brother who lives in Park Rapids Minnesota and races in this area.
NCR is about a three eighth mile oval with long chutes, tight turns and black dirt as the racing surface. It is located at the Norman County Fairgrounds with Ada having about seventeen hundred residents in a largely rural farm country. However, both Fargo and Grand Forks are within reasonable driving distance and Fargo particularly, provides both racers and fans. Because it is a Thursday night venue, everyone is very late arriving and on this night, when hot laps were offered a half hour before race time, something that normally isn't done, only about half the Modifieds were on the grounds yet and about twenty fans in the stands.
It's always a mad last minute scramble here, but it always seems to work out as they started the show right on time and as the first events unfolded, the grandstand filled up nicely. The track announcer pointed out that the grandstand is ninety nine years old and it looks every day of it! The grandstand has a West Liberty or West Union feel to it as the aisles are very narrow, posts that block your view seem to also be everywhere and the seating is very uncomfortable. Very much like the KRA Speedway in Willmar Minnesota that is in the same boat, they have been waiting for a tornado to come through for years and wipe out the grandstand so they can start over with something a whole lot better, but so far, no luck.
Five heats and two B features set the field for the twenty four car starting field for the Modified main event. In a main event that saw only two yellow flags, it was the two #17 cars of Rich Pavlicek and Mike Greseth that battled it out for the win. First Pavlicek took the lead and then Greseth drove around him to take over the top spot.
A yellow on lap nine bunched the field and Pavilcek was able to drive under Greseth to retake the lead as the bottom side of the track started to quicken up. Despite over an inch of rain the day before, the track crew had whipped the track into good racing shape and it raced very much like it normally does, with it being hard and slick. It started out top side dominant and as the night progressed, everyone started moving down the track and Pavlicek beat Greseth back to the low side and after that, they ran pretty much equal but Greseth was never able to make a challenging move.
Tyler Peterson, Johnny Correll and Austin Arneson rounded out the top five as area drivers dominated the action.
NCR added the Sport Mods a couple of years ago and so far, they have been able to get around a dozen that race most weeks at Norman County. They have also added the class at Fargo where they have a few more cars but many of them do not travel to Ada on Thursday. A couple cars are quite superior to the rest of the field with Andy "spud" Wagner and Jesse Skalicky, who central Iowa folks know all about after he came into their home territory this Summer and whipped them, usually battle it out for the win. Such was the case again with Skalicky getting to the front first and scoring a fairly easy win.
The Stock Cars are new to this area in 2017 and so far, they have not been able to generate more than just a few entrants. Again, Fargo gets a few more and occasionally gets a traveler from western North Dakota where they are firmly established. In the meantime, patience is needed until more drivers decide to get into the class, and that won't happen until they are sure the class will last. Aaron Olson, a former Modified driver won a very easy victory on this night.
Of the support classes, the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds by far offer the best racing. This is an established class in the area with lots of drivers and many to draw from who come from throughout the area. They were not scheduled to race on this night but were added and that turned out to be a good idea as without them, the undercard for the night would have been pretty weak. The MidMods ran two qualifying heat races and a non stop main event with their part of the program going just as a good support class should, with an entertaining main event, and not a lot of slowdowns to drag down the show.
In their main, point leader Dylan Goplen drove past early leader Brock Gronwald for the win with Jamestown's Jason Grimes, racing in two classes, coming home a strong third.
It was a good night of racing and for me, a chance to see a number of Modified drivers that I read about but seldom get the chance to see in person. The show got done just a bit late at 11 pm for a week night show but for most on hand it was just the start of a four day racing holiday so they weren't too worried. Also, most of them weren't as crazy as to drive five and a half hours just to watch one race and then head home.
This was the second year of the Sanders Challenge which is compromised of four straight nights of racing with each show worth a grand to win and a seven thousand dollar point fund for the top twenty cars in combined points with their three of four best shows used to total the points.
Besides Norman County, the other tracks on the tour are the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo North Dakota, promoter Jake Bitker's other track that he runs, the Jamestown Speedway in North Dakota and the Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon Minnesota where the series would wrap up on Sunday night. Once you got to the area, the four tracks are all within a fairly short drive between them, but oh my, all four are a long way from most places. When you start getting North of Fargo, you know that you're a long way from the rest of the world.
The tours opening night was able by one to top the opening night field of last year's show as the featured division of IMCA Modifieds drew forty seven cars for their opening night show. I'm not certain but I believe that this years tour drew more local and regional entries as there were no drivers on hand from too far away such as there were last year. Most of the entrants were from the eastern side of North Dakota and across the border in Minnesota with a few western North Dakota drivers on hand along with one Wisconsin driver, Luke Schilling, who brought his car West to race with his brother who lives in Park Rapids Minnesota and races in this area.
NCR is about a three eighth mile oval with long chutes, tight turns and black dirt as the racing surface. It is located at the Norman County Fairgrounds with Ada having about seventeen hundred residents in a largely rural farm country. However, both Fargo and Grand Forks are within reasonable driving distance and Fargo particularly, provides both racers and fans. Because it is a Thursday night venue, everyone is very late arriving and on this night, when hot laps were offered a half hour before race time, something that normally isn't done, only about half the Modifieds were on the grounds yet and about twenty fans in the stands.
It's always a mad last minute scramble here, but it always seems to work out as they started the show right on time and as the first events unfolded, the grandstand filled up nicely. The track announcer pointed out that the grandstand is ninety nine years old and it looks every day of it! The grandstand has a West Liberty or West Union feel to it as the aisles are very narrow, posts that block your view seem to also be everywhere and the seating is very uncomfortable. Very much like the KRA Speedway in Willmar Minnesota that is in the same boat, they have been waiting for a tornado to come through for years and wipe out the grandstand so they can start over with something a whole lot better, but so far, no luck.
Five heats and two B features set the field for the twenty four car starting field for the Modified main event. In a main event that saw only two yellow flags, it was the two #17 cars of Rich Pavlicek and Mike Greseth that battled it out for the win. First Pavlicek took the lead and then Greseth drove around him to take over the top spot.
A yellow on lap nine bunched the field and Pavilcek was able to drive under Greseth to retake the lead as the bottom side of the track started to quicken up. Despite over an inch of rain the day before, the track crew had whipped the track into good racing shape and it raced very much like it normally does, with it being hard and slick. It started out top side dominant and as the night progressed, everyone started moving down the track and Pavlicek beat Greseth back to the low side and after that, they ran pretty much equal but Greseth was never able to make a challenging move.
Tyler Peterson, Johnny Correll and Austin Arneson rounded out the top five as area drivers dominated the action.
NCR added the Sport Mods a couple of years ago and so far, they have been able to get around a dozen that race most weeks at Norman County. They have also added the class at Fargo where they have a few more cars but many of them do not travel to Ada on Thursday. A couple cars are quite superior to the rest of the field with Andy "spud" Wagner and Jesse Skalicky, who central Iowa folks know all about after he came into their home territory this Summer and whipped them, usually battle it out for the win. Such was the case again with Skalicky getting to the front first and scoring a fairly easy win.
The Stock Cars are new to this area in 2017 and so far, they have not been able to generate more than just a few entrants. Again, Fargo gets a few more and occasionally gets a traveler from western North Dakota where they are firmly established. In the meantime, patience is needed until more drivers decide to get into the class, and that won't happen until they are sure the class will last. Aaron Olson, a former Modified driver won a very easy victory on this night.
Of the support classes, the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds by far offer the best racing. This is an established class in the area with lots of drivers and many to draw from who come from throughout the area. They were not scheduled to race on this night but were added and that turned out to be a good idea as without them, the undercard for the night would have been pretty weak. The MidMods ran two qualifying heat races and a non stop main event with their part of the program going just as a good support class should, with an entertaining main event, and not a lot of slowdowns to drag down the show.
In their main, point leader Dylan Goplen drove past early leader Brock Gronwald for the win with Jamestown's Jason Grimes, racing in two classes, coming home a strong third.
It was a good night of racing and for me, a chance to see a number of Modified drivers that I read about but seldom get the chance to see in person. The show got done just a bit late at 11 pm for a week night show but for most on hand it was just the start of a four day racing holiday so they weren't too worried. Also, most of them weren't as crazy as to drive five and a half hours just to watch one race and then head home.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Scott Storms the Field in South Dakota
Have you ever had the feeling when it was kind of a slow day to just jump in the car and drive out to South Dakota? Me too!
So that's what I did. Specifically, Aberdeen South Dakota in the Northeast part of the state where the USMTS true road warriors were making up a rain out from earlier this Summer. The part that made this trip more significant was that with the rescheduling, this event became a part of their "Hunt" for the national championship so it put more weight on the trip.
Overnight rains made things a bit "sketchy" but the sun came out and the thunderstorms stayed away the rest of the day and racing was on as scheduled. In fact, with the high winds blowing you couldn't have even guessed that they had any rain at all as South Dakota is starting to look like the Sahara with rain badly needed.
The troops shuffled into Aberdeen to race and I must say that this year's crew making the pull from place to place for "The Hunt" appears to be a little thin compared to some other years. Quite frankly some guys that are finishing up in the money in some races couldn't have done so in some years past, particularly at tracks where there was a strong local presence.
This six hour drive out of the way for just the one night of racing before doubling back to Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota before ending up in northern Iowa on Sunday was, if not the "trip from Hell", it was pretty darn close. The promoters really wanted the USMTS to come out to Aberdeen and they threw in several thousand extra dollars in the purse as an incentive but many of the regional drivers decided to wait and let the "Road Warriors" come back to them on Thursday and so the car count was only twenty three in Aberdeen. This also included about seven locals to thankfully, flesh out the field. Otherwise, things would have looked more than a little lean for the racing. Local veteran Terry Haven showed up with his car but didn't expect to unload or race but he did the math and rolled out his car in time to race both his heat and the feature and take home a check.
Missing also on Wednesday also were two of the "billboard" names that the USMTS has with them right now. Ryan Gustin was on hand but was too ill to compete and so he just collected "show up" points for the night. One must assume he was really under the weather to come all the way out to South Dakota and then not race.
Also missing was Tyler Wolff, the latest of the drivers to surprise with a feature win. He missed a plane transfer but is expected to compete in Wisconsin on Thursday so the second and fourth place drivers in the current "Hunt" points were AWOL.
All this was good news to current point leader Stormy Scott. He started on the pole for the forty lap main event and led all the way for what was less than a scintillation victory. But Scott could care less, as he was more than willing to collect the big check at the end of the night. Zach VanderBeek started on the outside pole and it looked like the only two VanderBuilt chassis in the field would slug it out for the win.
However, Zach made the mistake to try and run the high side of the track and by the time he had "shoe horned" his way back into line, he was all the way back to seventh. It was not a good night for the Brown County racing surface as it was bone dry, dusty and dirty and just wouldn't clean off which caused everyone to dive to the inside and bang their way into line. The support classes had no more success than the Modifieds did in widening out the track and it was a frustrating night for many.
However, rookie USMTS driver Travis Saurer was not complaining as he finished a career best second behind Scott and ahead of Jason Hughes. I guarantee his first win will be coming in short order also.
The track's best hope of a local doing well was the entry of "Showtime" Kent Arment with his Modified. However, it was a bad night for "Showtime." He no more than got the green in his heat when he banged together with another car and got a flat tire. This mired him in the back for the main and Arment, who is known for his high side charges to the front of races that can be spectacular, tried to do the same on this night. He was able to pass a few cars and then the top side gave up and while he stayed up there, he started to drop back like a rock. Finally he said the heck with it and pulled off the track, being scored eighteenth at the finish.
Being fairly close to the North Dakota border, there is much in the way of rivalry between the two states and on this night, North Dakota drivers went home gloating as both the support classes were won by drivers from North Dakota. Bo Gregor took the Street Stock win while Zach LaQua won the Midwest Modified main, both of which were WISSOTA sanctioned point races for the track.
I got the opportunity to visit with Modified driver Mike Stearns who was on hand for the event. He suffered a serious injury during the off season and has not as yet been able to race in 2017 and has but Denver Nickeson behind the wheel of his car.
How many of you thought that Curling was a dangerous sport? How many of you even know what the heck Curling is! I do know that it is contested on a sheet of ice and ice is slippery. Stearns fell while competing in Fargo in a tournament last Winter and hit his head and has been out since. He told me that he was in no hurry to get back behind the wheel of his MasterSbilt/Tim's Modified and might not race at all this year. And he was only half kidding when he said that his next race car just might be a Late Model.
I also got to visit with Chris Clark from Jackson Wyoming who was racing at Aberdeen. This guy might be even crazier than me. He was racing in Webster City Iowa on Tuesday night where I was also, then jumped in his truck, drove six hours to Aberdeen, bolted on a spoiler and raced with the USMTS guys. And instead of turning West and heading home from South Dakota, he is instead going to follow the USMTS the rest of this week to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Wow. As I type this, he is likely on the road driving from South Dakota to Wisconsin by way of the Twin Cities. Good luck with that.
Even though the field of cars was sub standard and the Modified racing not spectacular, the crowd on hand which appeared to be of a decent size, seemed OK with what they saw and this likely will not be the last time the "Road Warriors" see South Dakota.
So that's what I did. Specifically, Aberdeen South Dakota in the Northeast part of the state where the USMTS true road warriors were making up a rain out from earlier this Summer. The part that made this trip more significant was that with the rescheduling, this event became a part of their "Hunt" for the national championship so it put more weight on the trip.
Overnight rains made things a bit "sketchy" but the sun came out and the thunderstorms stayed away the rest of the day and racing was on as scheduled. In fact, with the high winds blowing you couldn't have even guessed that they had any rain at all as South Dakota is starting to look like the Sahara with rain badly needed.
The troops shuffled into Aberdeen to race and I must say that this year's crew making the pull from place to place for "The Hunt" appears to be a little thin compared to some other years. Quite frankly some guys that are finishing up in the money in some races couldn't have done so in some years past, particularly at tracks where there was a strong local presence.
This six hour drive out of the way for just the one night of racing before doubling back to Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota before ending up in northern Iowa on Sunday was, if not the "trip from Hell", it was pretty darn close. The promoters really wanted the USMTS to come out to Aberdeen and they threw in several thousand extra dollars in the purse as an incentive but many of the regional drivers decided to wait and let the "Road Warriors" come back to them on Thursday and so the car count was only twenty three in Aberdeen. This also included about seven locals to thankfully, flesh out the field. Otherwise, things would have looked more than a little lean for the racing. Local veteran Terry Haven showed up with his car but didn't expect to unload or race but he did the math and rolled out his car in time to race both his heat and the feature and take home a check.
Missing also on Wednesday also were two of the "billboard" names that the USMTS has with them right now. Ryan Gustin was on hand but was too ill to compete and so he just collected "show up" points for the night. One must assume he was really under the weather to come all the way out to South Dakota and then not race.
Also missing was Tyler Wolff, the latest of the drivers to surprise with a feature win. He missed a plane transfer but is expected to compete in Wisconsin on Thursday so the second and fourth place drivers in the current "Hunt" points were AWOL.
All this was good news to current point leader Stormy Scott. He started on the pole for the forty lap main event and led all the way for what was less than a scintillation victory. But Scott could care less, as he was more than willing to collect the big check at the end of the night. Zach VanderBeek started on the outside pole and it looked like the only two VanderBuilt chassis in the field would slug it out for the win.
However, Zach made the mistake to try and run the high side of the track and by the time he had "shoe horned" his way back into line, he was all the way back to seventh. It was not a good night for the Brown County racing surface as it was bone dry, dusty and dirty and just wouldn't clean off which caused everyone to dive to the inside and bang their way into line. The support classes had no more success than the Modifieds did in widening out the track and it was a frustrating night for many.
However, rookie USMTS driver Travis Saurer was not complaining as he finished a career best second behind Scott and ahead of Jason Hughes. I guarantee his first win will be coming in short order also.
The track's best hope of a local doing well was the entry of "Showtime" Kent Arment with his Modified. However, it was a bad night for "Showtime." He no more than got the green in his heat when he banged together with another car and got a flat tire. This mired him in the back for the main and Arment, who is known for his high side charges to the front of races that can be spectacular, tried to do the same on this night. He was able to pass a few cars and then the top side gave up and while he stayed up there, he started to drop back like a rock. Finally he said the heck with it and pulled off the track, being scored eighteenth at the finish.
Being fairly close to the North Dakota border, there is much in the way of rivalry between the two states and on this night, North Dakota drivers went home gloating as both the support classes were won by drivers from North Dakota. Bo Gregor took the Street Stock win while Zach LaQua won the Midwest Modified main, both of which were WISSOTA sanctioned point races for the track.
I got the opportunity to visit with Modified driver Mike Stearns who was on hand for the event. He suffered a serious injury during the off season and has not as yet been able to race in 2017 and has but Denver Nickeson behind the wheel of his car.
How many of you thought that Curling was a dangerous sport? How many of you even know what the heck Curling is! I do know that it is contested on a sheet of ice and ice is slippery. Stearns fell while competing in Fargo in a tournament last Winter and hit his head and has been out since. He told me that he was in no hurry to get back behind the wheel of his MasterSbilt/Tim's Modified and might not race at all this year. And he was only half kidding when he said that his next race car just might be a Late Model.
I also got to visit with Chris Clark from Jackson Wyoming who was racing at Aberdeen. This guy might be even crazier than me. He was racing in Webster City Iowa on Tuesday night where I was also, then jumped in his truck, drove six hours to Aberdeen, bolted on a spoiler and raced with the USMTS guys. And instead of turning West and heading home from South Dakota, he is instead going to follow the USMTS the rest of this week to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Wow. As I type this, he is likely on the road driving from South Dakota to Wisconsin by way of the Twin Cities. Good luck with that.
Even though the field of cars was sub standard and the Modified racing not spectacular, the crowd on hand which appeared to be of a decent size, seemed OK with what they saw and this likely will not be the last time the "Road Warriors" see South Dakota.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Marlar MIscalculates, Spencer Diercks Celebrates
On Monday night, August 5th I attended the Arnie Ranta sponsored, first half of the Open Late Model doubleheader that was held at the Farley Speedway in Farley Iowa. This was a ten grand to win show for the open motored cars of the Midwest with IMCA sanctioned Modifieds and Sport Mods also participating.
This show was a bit confusing to identify as it had more sanctioning bodies involved with it before the first green flag flew than flies at the county fair. It started out being a MARS race but when MARS couldn't produce a field of cars that justified what they were charging, the Farley Speedway folks and MARS split. Farley stated that MARS was too expensive for what they were offering while MARS take was that the race was cancelled. This, of course, wasn't the case and much "mud" was tossed back and forth between the two parties over this bit of subterfuge.
The Corn Belt Clash was also a sanctioning partner for this race and while Corn Belt head Cam Granger and his trailer were on hand to help administer the event, about the only true Corn Belt Late Model on hand was that of Mike Fryer.
UMP was a late addition to the sanctioning party but I saw no presence of them on hand other than Jerry Mackey stating it was a UMP sanctioned race and the only true Late Model on hand with UMP ties was Rusty Schlenk.
Therefore, most of the Late Models on hand were drivers with Iowa ties or "big names" that had been contacted by the Farley Speedway Promotions group. Just like Keith Simmons before them, they went to Cedar Lake and begged, cajoled, pleaded with and in some cases, bought off some of the Late Model drivers to pull down to the northeast corner of Iowa and race on their off night. And just like most years, a half dozen or so of those that promised to attend backed out in the last twenty four hours and left the promoters holding the proverbial bag. Nineteen Late Models answered the call to race which was very similar to the numbers that had been marshaled in recent years. And it should be noted that also, like most years, a very good crowd was on hand and I heard not a single discouraging word about the car count.
The truth is that there is a huge interest in Late Model racing in this part of this state and they have a hunger to see these kinds of cars race. It seems to me that the simplest way to solve this problem is to just go ahead and book a series event, whether it be Lucas Oil or the Outlaws, which ever or perhaps both if they can be obtained. That way, you are at least guaranteed that the top ten or twelve in series points will have to be on hand and it would certainly save a lot of guesswork for the promoters. But there must be some reason that this hasn't been done years ago because it seems like such a simple solution to the problem.
Of the non Iowa drivers, I would assume that Scott Bloomquist, Shane Clanton, Mike Marlar and Rodney Sanders would be the professionals that most of the fans would want to see. However, along with Bloomquist, the driver that for sure turned out the crowd was the appearance of Brian Birkhofer.
Birky still maintains an almost "God Like" quality among the Iowa race fans and for the promotion group to offer him a car to drive and get him to both shows was a brilliant stroke of promoting genius. And it worked as the fans turned out in droves and the driver most wanted to see, even above the controversial Bloomquist, was Birky.
Driving a car owned by Jason Rauen with a recent wrap for Birky, Brian turned the fast lap of the night and it looked like the script was falling in place. Unfortunately, after that things went down hill fast as he drew a "three" on the invert and after not being able to move up in his heat, he started ninth in the main and was the first car out with mechanical issues. However, I'm sure they'll get the car fixed for West Liberty where Birky will be even closer to his home base and with more nice weather promised, I would guess a huge crowd will be on hand to see him run.
Bloomquist, despite being one of the advertised drivers on hand for the performance, maintained a very low profile on this night. Except for a few words for Rick Eschelman as the drivers were introduced for the feature, he had nothing else to say as I'm surprised that a special interview with him was not arranged. Seems to me that they didn't truly get their "money's worth" out of him but then again, who knows how many people showed up just to see him race. That is a tough figure to calculate.
Bloomquist started on the pole for the main event and normally, that would be "lights out" for the rest of the field but that wasn't the case on this night as Bloomquist has been having a tough time of it lately. In fact, I'm told that much of the day following the U.S.A. Nationals in Cedar Lake was spent in testing after a disappointing performance there.
He did take the lead and led through the first fifteen laps but Marlar quickly cut into his lead and was "dogging" him for several laps. Following a restart, he slid high in turn four and Marlar drove under him to take over the lead, a lead he would maintain the rest of the way. Diercks also got by "Bloomer" and drove a steady race in second. Late in the contest Bloomquist was able to get back in second but as he tried to make a late race charge, he got a flat tire which triggered the last yellow with only three laps to go.
There were a plethora of flat tires as apparently rocks and the sandy racing surface just eat up the Hoosiers that they use for open motor racing. Marlar pulled away in the last few laps for an apparent win, but wait a minute. In this wild and crazy world of dirt track racing, you never just know what might happen.
Marlar's crew quickly pushed him over the scale and toward victory lane but officials quickly flagged down the car and redirected it back to the scales. This time the process didn't go so smoothly as the car sat and sat on the scales as officials and crew members swarmed the car. Marlar had a stern look on his face that didn't bode well and finally it was announced that he had weighed in light and Diercks had taken his first big victory. I was probably not the way that Spencer envisioned getting his first big open motor win, but a win is a win nevertheless.
Later, published reports indicated that the car weighed in thirty pounds light and that Marlar's pit crew, figuring a "burn off" weight amount would be allowed and calculated that in their strategy. They were late in arriving and missed the driver's meeting, at which time it was announced that there would be no "burn off" amount for this event! I guess it does pay to attend those driver's meeting even though most seem meaningless.
The Modifieds had a very solid field of cars on hand and they performed in an entertaining twenty five lap main event that went nonstop. Even though Mark Schulte led all the way, it was anything but a boring race as he was constantly challenged for the lead while there was much advancing of positions behind him and drivers racing all over the track, something that the Late Models did not show later.
Most interesting was the charge of Matt Ganson who was running the top side of the track. He closed on Schulte near the end of the race and it looked like he might be able to make the winning pass, but just then they hit lapped traffic which proved to be a "bear" for him and he ended up falling all the way back to fifth at the finish as J.D. Auringer marched through the pack from ninth for second and Wisconsin driver Mike Mashl finished third.
As good as the Modified feature was, that's how bad the Sport Mod feature was. Even though he started fifth in the small field, Tyler Soppe raced into the lead within a couple laps and then he rapidly disappeared from the field. The last nineteen laps ran off nonstop and at the end there were only three cars on the lead lap as the race bore more of the appearance of a hot lap session rather than a main event.
Most of you have already been to Farley this year so I won't bore you with all the details of the renovation but needless to say, the place looks entirely different than the last time I was there. From the new wall to the new pit area, from the extensive renovations seen almost everywhere on the grounds to the new scoreboard, it indeed is a new Farley Speedway from what I remember. Now it would appear the next thing that needs examination, at least for these long distance Late Model races, is the track surface itself.
The lines for the concessions were horribly long and indeed, just buying a ticket Monday required quite a considerable wait so those are all things that might need to be reexamined and perhaps modified for their next big event but overall they had to be very happy with their first effort. A speedily run program overcame a late start, precipitated somewhat by a delay caused by a highway accident nearly but truly more due to the result of the dreaded time trials, an unpleasant by product of open motor racing.
This show was a bit confusing to identify as it had more sanctioning bodies involved with it before the first green flag flew than flies at the county fair. It started out being a MARS race but when MARS couldn't produce a field of cars that justified what they were charging, the Farley Speedway folks and MARS split. Farley stated that MARS was too expensive for what they were offering while MARS take was that the race was cancelled. This, of course, wasn't the case and much "mud" was tossed back and forth between the two parties over this bit of subterfuge.
The Corn Belt Clash was also a sanctioning partner for this race and while Corn Belt head Cam Granger and his trailer were on hand to help administer the event, about the only true Corn Belt Late Model on hand was that of Mike Fryer.
UMP was a late addition to the sanctioning party but I saw no presence of them on hand other than Jerry Mackey stating it was a UMP sanctioned race and the only true Late Model on hand with UMP ties was Rusty Schlenk.
Therefore, most of the Late Models on hand were drivers with Iowa ties or "big names" that had been contacted by the Farley Speedway Promotions group. Just like Keith Simmons before them, they went to Cedar Lake and begged, cajoled, pleaded with and in some cases, bought off some of the Late Model drivers to pull down to the northeast corner of Iowa and race on their off night. And just like most years, a half dozen or so of those that promised to attend backed out in the last twenty four hours and left the promoters holding the proverbial bag. Nineteen Late Models answered the call to race which was very similar to the numbers that had been marshaled in recent years. And it should be noted that also, like most years, a very good crowd was on hand and I heard not a single discouraging word about the car count.
The truth is that there is a huge interest in Late Model racing in this part of this state and they have a hunger to see these kinds of cars race. It seems to me that the simplest way to solve this problem is to just go ahead and book a series event, whether it be Lucas Oil or the Outlaws, which ever or perhaps both if they can be obtained. That way, you are at least guaranteed that the top ten or twelve in series points will have to be on hand and it would certainly save a lot of guesswork for the promoters. But there must be some reason that this hasn't been done years ago because it seems like such a simple solution to the problem.
Of the non Iowa drivers, I would assume that Scott Bloomquist, Shane Clanton, Mike Marlar and Rodney Sanders would be the professionals that most of the fans would want to see. However, along with Bloomquist, the driver that for sure turned out the crowd was the appearance of Brian Birkhofer.
Birky still maintains an almost "God Like" quality among the Iowa race fans and for the promotion group to offer him a car to drive and get him to both shows was a brilliant stroke of promoting genius. And it worked as the fans turned out in droves and the driver most wanted to see, even above the controversial Bloomquist, was Birky.
Driving a car owned by Jason Rauen with a recent wrap for Birky, Brian turned the fast lap of the night and it looked like the script was falling in place. Unfortunately, after that things went down hill fast as he drew a "three" on the invert and after not being able to move up in his heat, he started ninth in the main and was the first car out with mechanical issues. However, I'm sure they'll get the car fixed for West Liberty where Birky will be even closer to his home base and with more nice weather promised, I would guess a huge crowd will be on hand to see him run.
Bloomquist, despite being one of the advertised drivers on hand for the performance, maintained a very low profile on this night. Except for a few words for Rick Eschelman as the drivers were introduced for the feature, he had nothing else to say as I'm surprised that a special interview with him was not arranged. Seems to me that they didn't truly get their "money's worth" out of him but then again, who knows how many people showed up just to see him race. That is a tough figure to calculate.
Bloomquist started on the pole for the main event and normally, that would be "lights out" for the rest of the field but that wasn't the case on this night as Bloomquist has been having a tough time of it lately. In fact, I'm told that much of the day following the U.S.A. Nationals in Cedar Lake was spent in testing after a disappointing performance there.
He did take the lead and led through the first fifteen laps but Marlar quickly cut into his lead and was "dogging" him for several laps. Following a restart, he slid high in turn four and Marlar drove under him to take over the lead, a lead he would maintain the rest of the way. Diercks also got by "Bloomer" and drove a steady race in second. Late in the contest Bloomquist was able to get back in second but as he tried to make a late race charge, he got a flat tire which triggered the last yellow with only three laps to go.
There were a plethora of flat tires as apparently rocks and the sandy racing surface just eat up the Hoosiers that they use for open motor racing. Marlar pulled away in the last few laps for an apparent win, but wait a minute. In this wild and crazy world of dirt track racing, you never just know what might happen.
Marlar's crew quickly pushed him over the scale and toward victory lane but officials quickly flagged down the car and redirected it back to the scales. This time the process didn't go so smoothly as the car sat and sat on the scales as officials and crew members swarmed the car. Marlar had a stern look on his face that didn't bode well and finally it was announced that he had weighed in light and Diercks had taken his first big victory. I was probably not the way that Spencer envisioned getting his first big open motor win, but a win is a win nevertheless.
Later, published reports indicated that the car weighed in thirty pounds light and that Marlar's pit crew, figuring a "burn off" weight amount would be allowed and calculated that in their strategy. They were late in arriving and missed the driver's meeting, at which time it was announced that there would be no "burn off" amount for this event! I guess it does pay to attend those driver's meeting even though most seem meaningless.
The Modifieds had a very solid field of cars on hand and they performed in an entertaining twenty five lap main event that went nonstop. Even though Mark Schulte led all the way, it was anything but a boring race as he was constantly challenged for the lead while there was much advancing of positions behind him and drivers racing all over the track, something that the Late Models did not show later.
Most interesting was the charge of Matt Ganson who was running the top side of the track. He closed on Schulte near the end of the race and it looked like he might be able to make the winning pass, but just then they hit lapped traffic which proved to be a "bear" for him and he ended up falling all the way back to fifth at the finish as J.D. Auringer marched through the pack from ninth for second and Wisconsin driver Mike Mashl finished third.
As good as the Modified feature was, that's how bad the Sport Mod feature was. Even though he started fifth in the small field, Tyler Soppe raced into the lead within a couple laps and then he rapidly disappeared from the field. The last nineteen laps ran off nonstop and at the end there were only three cars on the lead lap as the race bore more of the appearance of a hot lap session rather than a main event.
Most of you have already been to Farley this year so I won't bore you with all the details of the renovation but needless to say, the place looks entirely different than the last time I was there. From the new wall to the new pit area, from the extensive renovations seen almost everywhere on the grounds to the new scoreboard, it indeed is a new Farley Speedway from what I remember. Now it would appear the next thing that needs examination, at least for these long distance Late Model races, is the track surface itself.
The lines for the concessions were horribly long and indeed, just buying a ticket Monday required quite a considerable wait so those are all things that might need to be reexamined and perhaps modified for their next big event but overall they had to be very happy with their first effort. A speedily run program overcame a late start, precipitated somewhat by a delay caused by a highway accident nearly but truly more due to the result of the dreaded time trials, an unpleasant by product of open motor racing.
Friday, August 4, 2017
They Do More Than Just Raise Spuds in the Red River Valley
It was a miserable day on Thursday, August 3rd. Rain was coming down by the bucket full with heavy rain predicted to fall all day and into the evening. The temperature was about twenty degrees below normal(if indeed there truly ever is a normal) and it seemed like a day best spent siting around the fireplace and trying to keep warm.
However, Summer is a finite thing and it is starting to come to a screeching conclusion before too darn long, so a wasted day is a lost day forever and I refused to lose the day without at least a fight.
It took some doing and some help from my friends, but I was able to actually find a race to attend and to top things off, it turned out to be a race featuring a Late Model special with thirty cars on hand representing four states and two Canadian Provinces! Not bad, I would conclude. Especially given the circumstances.
The race I ended up attending was at the Norman County Raceway in Ada Minnesota. Most of you reading this probably haven't been to NCR and probably will need a map to even find Ada! Ada is a small farm town of just under two thousand residents that is located about forty miles Northeast of Fargo North Dakota and about the same distance Southeast of Grand Forks North Dakota. In other words, it's way up there. Lying right in the heart of the agricultural rich Red River Valley of the North, farming is king here and everything revolves around agriculture. Potatoes, corn and sugar beets are the crops of choice here and by the looks of things, the harvest is going to be a big one. But don't let me kind you, I know little about farming but one thing I do know is that the farming areas around here also produce some of the finest dirt track racers in the Midwest. In fact, one of the people I spotted at the races watching Thursday was all time Late Model driver Mitch Johnson who was on hand to see some of his old friends in action.
While they had six tenth of an inch of rain overnight in Ada, by morning the sun had broken out and with a plethora of heavy equipment available to them, getting the track in racing shape was not an issue. The issue was getting there. When I left home it was still raining "pitchforks and hammer handles" and not looking to let up any time soon. However, despite running through a few spotty showers on the way, by the time we reached the Fargo area the sun was shinning and the temperatures had gone up a good fifteen degrees.
I had been chasing racing the last few days with some very short nights thrown in as a result, so even though I probably would have attempted the five and a half hour drive along if necessary, it wasn't a very wise thing to do. Fortunately my friend Jon Birdsell was willing to wait a bit for me and I drove about halfway, parked my car at a "park and ride" on Interstate 94 and rode the rest of the way with him. This was the "game changer" for me and made the trip much more manageable.
The Norman County Raceway in located at the county fairgrounds on Ada's West side and is an old fairgrounds. The grandstand is of a design that must be several decades old as it is mostly made out of wood with narrow aisles and a low roof and lots of posts to get in the way. A well placed tornado could certainly help to improve things. The track is about a three eighth mile oval, fairly wide with some banking and of course, covered by native black dirt. It usually races very hard and slick with just enough water put on it to keep it from being dusty.
Jake Bitker is the promoter here and has been for several years now. He kind of took over operations when the former promoter decided he didn't have the time to run things and no one else stepped forward. Bitker is a former racers who gave up driving when he started to promote. He is also a big time farmer in the area and has expanded his interests in racing. He also owns Performance Auto which now has locations in Fargo, Grand Forks and Winnipeg and is tied in closely with Karl Performance in that he sells Victory chassis. When the track in Fargo looked to reopen after having sat vacant for a couple years after the Schatz' got out of the promoting business, Bitker also took over as the promoter there and is now in his second year running that track.
NCR runs an interesting assortment of race classes. While they rotate in the IMCA Hobby Stocks and Stock Cars, their primary classes are the IMCA Modifieds and Sport Mods along with the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds. They also have a couple of specials for the NLRA Late Models and NOSA Sprints too.
So, on this night, three classes of Modifieds that all look very similar in appearance were racing along with the Late Models and the Legend cars, of which Bitker has the franchise for this entire area and the Legends cars race weekly at several tracks and have good numbers of participants also.
I would have never guessed that the Late Model count would be what it turned out to be and that such an interesting and diverse field of drivers would be assembled. The NLRA does a great job of keeping Late Model racing going in the northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota area along with the southern regions of Manitoba. Some darn tough drivers like Brad Seng, Dustin Strand, Ricky Weiss and Mike Balcaen among the drivers that support this series and race weekly at their home track in Grand Forks.
Weiss has been home for awhile now after racing in the Southeast region of the country earlier this year and he is tied for the NLRA point lead with Strand. Thursday's feature race had some controversy after Weiss and Don Shaw, who has been one of the hottest drivers in the Midwest, dropped in to race this week. Weiss threw a slider on Shaw for the lead on the first lap of the main and depending on your point of view, either completed the move and then got spun by Shaw or failed to clear Shaw who couldn't check up in time and punted Weiss into the infield.
Track officials liked option one better and Weiss kept his spot while a furious Shaw nearly dislocated both elbows as he waved his arms at the flagman in frustration. Weiss would then go on to take the feature race, however he was closely chased at the end by none other than Donny Schatz, who was on a "bus man's holiday" and running Late Models as he likes to do whenever possible.
How refreshing is it for one of the sports biggest names to have a complete Late Model operation with both spec and open Late Models and then go have a "night out" by towing to tiny Ada Minnesota to race. Schatz continues to get better and better in the Late Model and was right on Weiss' tail by the end with a few more laps likely seeing a leader change perhaps. After a relaxing night in the pits at Ada, Schatz jumps back in the "hot box" with big shows this week in Missouri and of course the Knoxville Nationals pressure cooker that starts next week.
Shaw, by the way, drove the wheels off his car after being relegated to the tail and showed why he is one of the quickest Late Models around right now. He went back to twenty fourth and drove all the way up to fifth at the finish without the benefit of a single yellow flag to help him bunch up the field! And then, heaven help the flagman who had to explain to him after the race whey the call went against him.
Special mention should go out to Travis Robertson. He flew off the track at Grand Forks on Friday night and totaled his Late Model. With rumors that he was done for the year, instead he showed up at Ada with a brand new MasterSbilt from JMR and using the drivetrain and motor out of his junked car. Painted flat black and with a number taped on it, he raced his way to a fine seventh place finish against a quality field of cars with not even a practice lap as NCR allows no hot laps.
The Modified feature saw Michael Johnson get to the front early and then fight off a late race challenge from Tyler Peterson for the win. Johnson runs the shop at Performance Auto in Fargo for Bitker and drives a Victory chassis.
Coming out for the first time all year in a Midwest Mod, Peterson drove to an impressive win in that class as he passed Dylan Goplen for the win. Peterson has been focusing on his Modified this year but Thursday broke out his old J Car which still proved to be plenty of machine. Peterson had grown quite a name racing the MidMod with big victories in Arizona over the last couple of years.
The Sport Mod feature saw former Hobby Stock racer Jesse Skalicky drive up from the third row to pass Kelly Jacobson and then hold off Andy "Spud" Wagner(you knew there would have to be at least one potato reference in this blog) and "Spud" really is his nickname, for the win.
I didn't catch the name of the winner of the Legends feature race as quite frankly, I don't pay much attention to that class, in fact none at all. It is, however, a class that does have lots of competitors in eastern North Dakota and is very popular among some fans.
Thanks to Bitker and Scott Sailer for their help on this night although I didn't get the chance to catch up with either one. There was no time for small talk after the checkered flew as it was a long ride home as I hit the driveway at 4:15 am. Yikes.
However, Summer is a finite thing and it is starting to come to a screeching conclusion before too darn long, so a wasted day is a lost day forever and I refused to lose the day without at least a fight.
It took some doing and some help from my friends, but I was able to actually find a race to attend and to top things off, it turned out to be a race featuring a Late Model special with thirty cars on hand representing four states and two Canadian Provinces! Not bad, I would conclude. Especially given the circumstances.
The race I ended up attending was at the Norman County Raceway in Ada Minnesota. Most of you reading this probably haven't been to NCR and probably will need a map to even find Ada! Ada is a small farm town of just under two thousand residents that is located about forty miles Northeast of Fargo North Dakota and about the same distance Southeast of Grand Forks North Dakota. In other words, it's way up there. Lying right in the heart of the agricultural rich Red River Valley of the North, farming is king here and everything revolves around agriculture. Potatoes, corn and sugar beets are the crops of choice here and by the looks of things, the harvest is going to be a big one. But don't let me kind you, I know little about farming but one thing I do know is that the farming areas around here also produce some of the finest dirt track racers in the Midwest. In fact, one of the people I spotted at the races watching Thursday was all time Late Model driver Mitch Johnson who was on hand to see some of his old friends in action.
While they had six tenth of an inch of rain overnight in Ada, by morning the sun had broken out and with a plethora of heavy equipment available to them, getting the track in racing shape was not an issue. The issue was getting there. When I left home it was still raining "pitchforks and hammer handles" and not looking to let up any time soon. However, despite running through a few spotty showers on the way, by the time we reached the Fargo area the sun was shinning and the temperatures had gone up a good fifteen degrees.
I had been chasing racing the last few days with some very short nights thrown in as a result, so even though I probably would have attempted the five and a half hour drive along if necessary, it wasn't a very wise thing to do. Fortunately my friend Jon Birdsell was willing to wait a bit for me and I drove about halfway, parked my car at a "park and ride" on Interstate 94 and rode the rest of the way with him. This was the "game changer" for me and made the trip much more manageable.
The Norman County Raceway in located at the county fairgrounds on Ada's West side and is an old fairgrounds. The grandstand is of a design that must be several decades old as it is mostly made out of wood with narrow aisles and a low roof and lots of posts to get in the way. A well placed tornado could certainly help to improve things. The track is about a three eighth mile oval, fairly wide with some banking and of course, covered by native black dirt. It usually races very hard and slick with just enough water put on it to keep it from being dusty.
Jake Bitker is the promoter here and has been for several years now. He kind of took over operations when the former promoter decided he didn't have the time to run things and no one else stepped forward. Bitker is a former racers who gave up driving when he started to promote. He is also a big time farmer in the area and has expanded his interests in racing. He also owns Performance Auto which now has locations in Fargo, Grand Forks and Winnipeg and is tied in closely with Karl Performance in that he sells Victory chassis. When the track in Fargo looked to reopen after having sat vacant for a couple years after the Schatz' got out of the promoting business, Bitker also took over as the promoter there and is now in his second year running that track.
NCR runs an interesting assortment of race classes. While they rotate in the IMCA Hobby Stocks and Stock Cars, their primary classes are the IMCA Modifieds and Sport Mods along with the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds. They also have a couple of specials for the NLRA Late Models and NOSA Sprints too.
So, on this night, three classes of Modifieds that all look very similar in appearance were racing along with the Late Models and the Legend cars, of which Bitker has the franchise for this entire area and the Legends cars race weekly at several tracks and have good numbers of participants also.
I would have never guessed that the Late Model count would be what it turned out to be and that such an interesting and diverse field of drivers would be assembled. The NLRA does a great job of keeping Late Model racing going in the northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota area along with the southern regions of Manitoba. Some darn tough drivers like Brad Seng, Dustin Strand, Ricky Weiss and Mike Balcaen among the drivers that support this series and race weekly at their home track in Grand Forks.
Weiss has been home for awhile now after racing in the Southeast region of the country earlier this year and he is tied for the NLRA point lead with Strand. Thursday's feature race had some controversy after Weiss and Don Shaw, who has been one of the hottest drivers in the Midwest, dropped in to race this week. Weiss threw a slider on Shaw for the lead on the first lap of the main and depending on your point of view, either completed the move and then got spun by Shaw or failed to clear Shaw who couldn't check up in time and punted Weiss into the infield.
Track officials liked option one better and Weiss kept his spot while a furious Shaw nearly dislocated both elbows as he waved his arms at the flagman in frustration. Weiss would then go on to take the feature race, however he was closely chased at the end by none other than Donny Schatz, who was on a "bus man's holiday" and running Late Models as he likes to do whenever possible.
How refreshing is it for one of the sports biggest names to have a complete Late Model operation with both spec and open Late Models and then go have a "night out" by towing to tiny Ada Minnesota to race. Schatz continues to get better and better in the Late Model and was right on Weiss' tail by the end with a few more laps likely seeing a leader change perhaps. After a relaxing night in the pits at Ada, Schatz jumps back in the "hot box" with big shows this week in Missouri and of course the Knoxville Nationals pressure cooker that starts next week.
Shaw, by the way, drove the wheels off his car after being relegated to the tail and showed why he is one of the quickest Late Models around right now. He went back to twenty fourth and drove all the way up to fifth at the finish without the benefit of a single yellow flag to help him bunch up the field! And then, heaven help the flagman who had to explain to him after the race whey the call went against him.
Special mention should go out to Travis Robertson. He flew off the track at Grand Forks on Friday night and totaled his Late Model. With rumors that he was done for the year, instead he showed up at Ada with a brand new MasterSbilt from JMR and using the drivetrain and motor out of his junked car. Painted flat black and with a number taped on it, he raced his way to a fine seventh place finish against a quality field of cars with not even a practice lap as NCR allows no hot laps.
The Modified feature saw Michael Johnson get to the front early and then fight off a late race challenge from Tyler Peterson for the win. Johnson runs the shop at Performance Auto in Fargo for Bitker and drives a Victory chassis.
Coming out for the first time all year in a Midwest Mod, Peterson drove to an impressive win in that class as he passed Dylan Goplen for the win. Peterson has been focusing on his Modified this year but Thursday broke out his old J Car which still proved to be plenty of machine. Peterson had grown quite a name racing the MidMod with big victories in Arizona over the last couple of years.
The Sport Mod feature saw former Hobby Stock racer Jesse Skalicky drive up from the third row to pass Kelly Jacobson and then hold off Andy "Spud" Wagner(you knew there would have to be at least one potato reference in this blog) and "Spud" really is his nickname, for the win.
I didn't catch the name of the winner of the Legends feature race as quite frankly, I don't pay much attention to that class, in fact none at all. It is, however, a class that does have lots of competitors in eastern North Dakota and is very popular among some fans.
Thanks to Bitker and Scott Sailer for their help on this night although I didn't get the chance to catch up with either one. There was no time for small talk after the checkered flew as it was a long ride home as I hit the driveway at 4:15 am. Yikes.
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