On Saturday, October 28th, the two day Midwestern Dirt Track Championship wrapped up at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee Oklahoma with last chance and feature races being held in the five divisions that were on hand at the big half mile this weekend. Four of the classes were classes that run at the weekly programs at Thunderbird with the Late Models added on for this special event.
Likely the track management would have liked to have seen the midweek weather continue through the weekend as it was in the seventies for Thursday night practice but the cold front came charging through with lots of wind and falling temperatures and bot nights the conditions were far from ideal for the race fans and competitors alike. Fortunately the monster concrete edifice where the fans sit at Thunderbird blocked the wind somewhat and it would lay down both nights around Sunset but it was still mighty cold and only the hardiest of fans managed to make it through both nights, all night without picking up and heading to the warmth of their vehicles.
Virtually all cars that raced on Friday night returned for Saturday night's finale including a couple that would have appeared to have expired motors on Friday. Some swapped power plants and others just tried to cobble together enough pieces to get through one last night of racing, with mixed results I might add.
Last chance races were first held for all classes except the Late Models even though all cars moved up from the Last Chances to the features except in the Modifieds where they had the highest car counts. Apparently they felt that a few more races were needed to give the fans their full money's worth but on this cold late October night, I would have guessed that a spectator vote would have been to just go ahead, throw everyone in the mains anywhere and let's get to racing. Especially when, although forecast to be warmer than Friday night, it certainly seemed much colder on Saturday with the temperature in the mid thirties by the time I got to the car and a goodly layer of frost already formed on the windshield!
They were scheduled to start two hours earlier on Saturday night but after too many sets of hot laps for me, it was closer to an hour earlier than Friday night's show. Separate sessions for the qualified and non qualified cars really wasn't necessary and again I think it was part of their thinking to try and make the show feel just a little bit bigger.
For me, the top feature races were the Late Models and the Modifieds although a couple of the other classes had their moments too and there were a few interesting developments in the "support classes" along the way. The track was black and slick, much as I remember it being "back in the day" when we used to come to Oklahoma to wrap up the racing season as back then a late October race was almost unheard of. The track had two lanes at least however, and there were cars running both right up against the concrete wall and those that were hugging the low side so passing was certainly possible in all classes and surprisingly, only one of the five feature races was won off the front row, even though the mains were lined straight up off the dash and the heats. So it was clear that the race was certainly able to be passed on.
The ten grand to win Late Model headliner was the second feature race to be run, a nice touch for those fans on hand to see mostly the Late Models and then head for someplace warm. I would guess that about thirty per cent of the crowd did take advantage of this to head out after the Lates were done.
Their feature race turned out to be a three car battle between Billy Moyer Jr., Jesse Stovall and Terry Phillips and while Phillips never officially led a lap, he was always right in the hunt. Moyer led early but Stovall would challenge and then fall back and then challenge once again as momentum on this big track was key. If Stovall wasn't able to make the pass for the lead, it would kill his momentum and he would need a few laps just to catch back up again. Moyer was running mid track while Jesse was right up against the concrete, just where you would expect him to be.
A mid race caution gave him his chance and on the green he blew by Moyer on the high side, and by the time Moyer got to that piece of territory Stovall had squeezed past him to take over the lead. Moyer was in "chase mod" the rest of the event and while he got fairly close several times, Jesse held his line and came home for the win. His winning route included pushing the cushion in turns one and two and then hugging the low groove on the other end of the track. Phillips lost third with a rare engine failure late in the race and Rodney Sanders made a nice charge up to third at the line.
Sanders had a nice night as he also brought his Modified with him and made a good charge up from the third row to win that event. Tyler Wolff and Chad Wheeler battled for the lead in that race early but Sanders was working good on both the high and low side of the track and he patiently picked his way to the front, finally blasting past Wolff on the high side and then driving away for the win. So, between the two classes, he had a nice check waiting for him at the end of the night.
This race was slowed for a violent collision in turn one after Jared Russell spun after several cars tangled in front of him and then a pack of cars, at very high speed, came charging in on him with no where to go. Caden Ellis slammed into Russell and was launched like a tilt-a-whirl into the air, spinning around like a top. It was a very hard hit but fortunately, no injuries resulted.
Super Stock driver Darin Rigney certainly threw a "monkey wrench" into the theory that in order to be successful in a two day show such as the one held at Thunderbird, one must be in attendance to burn up a set of tires practicing on Thursday night, then qualify through a heat on Friday night to then put yourself in position to win the main.
Rigney did none of the above but the Gentry Arkansas driver still won the Super Stock feature going away. He wasn't on hand to practice on Thursday and also spurned the heat races on Friday. He just showed up Saturday night, started dead last in the Last Chance and then won that and then after starting eleventh in the main(he was supposed to start thirteenth but got up one row too far for the start), he then patiently worked his way up through the field showing great speed and drove past Dennis Schonefeld(he of the Schonefeld Headers family) to take the win. He wasn't helped either by a bunch of cautions as this race had only three, he was just plain very fast. Pole starter Dylan Davlin finished third.
The B Mod and Pure Stock features were both not quite so appetizing as both were plagued by yellow flags amid the falling temperatures. The B Mod feature had the potential to be interesting but every time they tried to race, someone instead decided to spin out and the caution would wave once again.
Starting on the pole, Dustin Leatherman would lead the entire race although he was challenged by several other drivers at various times. Leatherman, a name voiced by track announcers probably nearly as long as this track has been in operation, would hold on for the win. But wait a minute, the one person Leatherman failed to impress that was most important was the tech man, and for an unnamed reason, Leatherman was disqualified from the win for a technical violation.
This gave the win to Leroy Cook Jr. from Tulsa. Cook Jr certainly earned the victory the hard way in retrospect. He was fifth on the grid for a restart with only three laps to go, went to the cushion and made a huge charge, nipping Cody Jolly by inches for what we thought was second place. As it turned out, the scintillating move was what got him the feature win.
The Pure Stock feature was also a drawn out affair that probably would have produced a good battle if they could have kept the race going. Jacob Cox, David Whittle and Jack Kirby were all closely matched as they battled back and forth between yellows. However, fourth row started Allen Owen from Pocola would eventually march his way to the front and with a outside pass down the front chute, take the lead and then fight off Cox for the win.
The final checkered flag flew about 10:45 p.m, just about the same time as Friday night but it could have been much earlier if we could have condensed the program a bit and convinced a few of the drivers to keep their cars pointed in the proper direction. However, it was still an entertaining weekend and for me, a chance to see a lot of different drivers at a track that I hadn't visited in literally, decades.
One person that I failed to mention last night that has been deeply involved in the resurrection of the Thunderbird Speedway has been Stanley Slater and everyone gives him a ton of credit for breathing new life into the historic track and for his whole family that have also been very much involved. Everyone here has been most accommodating to this visitor but I did see one discouraging note upon my arrival on Saturday as I walked into the grandstand and that was the lad holding the sign announcing that there would be no "re entries" allowed into the grandstand. In such cold weather that is very poor policy and needs to be changed.
Monday, October 30, 2017
Saturday, October 28, 2017
An Honorary "Okie from Muskogee"
The racing season is coming to a close. The number of events is dwindling to a precious few and trying to find races to attend gets to be real challenging this time of year. That is particularly so especially when the weather conditions become less than favorable. It becomes time to weigh the cost and time involved to the reward harvested.
This weekend found most of the racing action called off days ahead of time, good in some ways but also very depressing in others. My choice of racing options was very limited but I really wanted to squeeze in another race or so this last weekend in October if possible plus, who wants to sit around the house and watch it snow?
One race that I happened to discover over the past couple of weeks that was being held this weekend was the Midwest Dirt Track Nationals which were being held at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee Oklahoma. Now, I used to attend the Oktoberfest special that was always held in Muskogee but that was years ago and I have not been to a race in Muskogee for quite frankly, probably decades. The idea of going back to the big half mile for a year end special piqued my interest but I needed to make sure that they wouldn't cancel the event at the last minute due to the cold as a drive to Muskogee is more than just a a drive around the block. Also, would there be enough cars to warrant such a long drive. I flip flopped on the idea for a couple of days but finally decided that you only live once so why not go for the gusto?
So, one flat tire later I rolled into the city of Muskogee set to see some racing action. The program was split over two nights with the qualifying heats and dashes on Friday and on Saturday the Last Chance races and main events will be held. Five classes will be racing with Late Models making a rare appearance along with Modifieds, B Mods, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks.
This race is an attempt to get the old Oktoberfest kind of year end special restarted and the track ownership and management worked hard to get some Late Models to commit to this race. They visited a number of other year end specials and talked to a number of drivers, trying to get them back to Muskogee for this race. With twenty two cars on hand, they were moderately successful although I must admit that I had hoped for a few more than showed up. Probably the cold weather didn't help this situation and race car drivers are like most other people. First they watch to see how things pan out and if the event is successful, then they jump on board the following year. While I know that the top paying spot is ten grand, I don't know about the rest of the purse schedule and that may also be a factor. However, there were some good cars on hand plus some drivers I never get to see so the racing should be entertaining.
The car count for all classes was remarkably similar with each class fielding between the low twenties and the high twenties and a total of one hundred and twenty seven cars signing in. As far as the other classes, the Modifieds were running under USRA rules although there were a few IMCA cars also while the B Mods were also USRA with a few Sport Mods, minus spoilers also in the mix.
The Super Stocks and Pure Stocks were a little more confusing as to look at the cars, they appear similar. They are even running on the same size tires this weekend as Muskogee, Salina and Fort Smith, the three tracks that are supplying the majority of the cars in the support classes, all have different rules. This is the point where you say hallelujah for sanctioning bodies that supply consistent rules over a broad range of territory.
The Thunderbird Speedway is a big, half mile track with not much banking, much like it was when it was first built around the turn of the century. In fact, Muskogee is known as the "Historic Track" with the first racing here in 1903 I believe. However, everything has been spit polished under the new ownership with bright retaining walls, new sponsorship signs and new wheel fences being placed around the track. The lighting for both the track and the seating areas is excellent and new sound system has just been installed also.
One thing that has been changed is that the roof of the huge grandstand has been removed. Apparently it was condemned several years ago and then taken off. However, the grandstand remains as a huge concrete edifice that dates back to the WPA days and the wide concrete slabs provide excellent places for lawn chair seating.
The track has gone through its share of rocky times over the past decade or so with several management groups trying to run the show and the track opening and closing more often than a revolving door. The opening of the ultra modern Outlaw Motor Speedway just down the road didn't help things but now that facility sits closed for an indeterminate time.
Everyone speaks very highly of the new owner, Randy Gass, who is a businessman in the area. What I didn't know was that the Fairgrounds was a city owned property and Gass bought it lock, stock and barrel and it's now his alone. However, there must be some kind of a working agreement between the city and Gass as a large building just across from the main grandstand houses many city vehicles and in fact, the cities' police vehicles were getting maintenance in this building also.
I also got to meet the track announcer, Jesse Webb, who is one of those rare breed of announcers that actually roam the pits and meet the drivers and find out what the inside scoop is, rather than waiting for a line up sheet to be handed to him so he can read it over the pa. He made it clear that enthusiasm for racing in Muskogee and been reignited by Gass and that their plan is to get the track sanctioned by NASCAR for next year, running USRA rules, so that they can form a three night circuit with Salina OK and Humboldt.
Friday night was a special night for the track as they were also inducting a number of new members for their Thunderbird Speedway Hall of Fame. Many of those on hand I was not familiar with but there were some that I had either heard of or had actually seen race such as T.J. Pauchert, Larry Phillips, Dan Leatherman and Harold Leep. In fact, Paster Paul, the chaplain of the KRA Speedway in Willmar Minnesota and pastor of a church in that city and a long time friend of the Leep family, would be pleased to know that Harold's widow was on hand to accept the award. Leep was promoted Thunderbird the first time I was ever at this track.
Passing points were used for four classes on Friday but the Late Models had to time trial for some reason, even though the vast majority of the drivers on hand are used to running under a passing points format. However, the track was set up to time multiple cars at once and after a slight malfunction of their equipment, they were able to breeze through that thrilling portion of the program quickly.
Just running heats and dashes alone doesn't make for a very thrilling program but there were some close finishes in all classes. With all the necessary special things with the Hall of Fame induction, it made the start of the program very last with the first race not taking the green until 8:42 p.m. However, I was very impressed with the speed that they ran through the rest of the program. One race was just taking the checkered when the next one would pull on to the track, take one lap and the green would wave again. the entire twenty race card was done in two hours flat which was good on a bone chillingly cold Oklahoma evening.
One car I found particularly interesting was the #32Y Modified of Ron Yates. The car is painted black and white just like a police car and is sponsored by the Muskogee Police. As an added attraction, the car has "a cherry on top" which was blinking brightly throughout his heat race. He, however, did not pull anyone over during his heat event.
Billy Moyer Jr was the quick qualifier for the evening for the Late Models and then won the dash so he will be starting on the pole position for the main event. However, I anticipate that Jesse Stovall, Terry Phillips, Kyle Beard and Robert Baker, among others, will give him plenty of competition on Saturday night.
One last comment. I can't think off hand of any other track I've run into this year where the drivers, car owners, mechanics and track officials have all been so friendly. Everyone that found out I was from "out of town" wanted to talk and their enthusiasm for the track and desire to spread the word about Thunderbird was refreshing and honest. A nicer group or racers I haven't run into in a long time.
Look for a report on the main events on Saturday but likely not until Monday as I'll be traveling home and I can't both drive and type! Also, for those interested, there should be some information on the World Finals in Charlotte next weekend as I plan to be in attendance all three nights at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And after that weekend, who knows?
This weekend found most of the racing action called off days ahead of time, good in some ways but also very depressing in others. My choice of racing options was very limited but I really wanted to squeeze in another race or so this last weekend in October if possible plus, who wants to sit around the house and watch it snow?
One race that I happened to discover over the past couple of weeks that was being held this weekend was the Midwest Dirt Track Nationals which were being held at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee Oklahoma. Now, I used to attend the Oktoberfest special that was always held in Muskogee but that was years ago and I have not been to a race in Muskogee for quite frankly, probably decades. The idea of going back to the big half mile for a year end special piqued my interest but I needed to make sure that they wouldn't cancel the event at the last minute due to the cold as a drive to Muskogee is more than just a a drive around the block. Also, would there be enough cars to warrant such a long drive. I flip flopped on the idea for a couple of days but finally decided that you only live once so why not go for the gusto?
So, one flat tire later I rolled into the city of Muskogee set to see some racing action. The program was split over two nights with the qualifying heats and dashes on Friday and on Saturday the Last Chance races and main events will be held. Five classes will be racing with Late Models making a rare appearance along with Modifieds, B Mods, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks.
This race is an attempt to get the old Oktoberfest kind of year end special restarted and the track ownership and management worked hard to get some Late Models to commit to this race. They visited a number of other year end specials and talked to a number of drivers, trying to get them back to Muskogee for this race. With twenty two cars on hand, they were moderately successful although I must admit that I had hoped for a few more than showed up. Probably the cold weather didn't help this situation and race car drivers are like most other people. First they watch to see how things pan out and if the event is successful, then they jump on board the following year. While I know that the top paying spot is ten grand, I don't know about the rest of the purse schedule and that may also be a factor. However, there were some good cars on hand plus some drivers I never get to see so the racing should be entertaining.
The car count for all classes was remarkably similar with each class fielding between the low twenties and the high twenties and a total of one hundred and twenty seven cars signing in. As far as the other classes, the Modifieds were running under USRA rules although there were a few IMCA cars also while the B Mods were also USRA with a few Sport Mods, minus spoilers also in the mix.
The Super Stocks and Pure Stocks were a little more confusing as to look at the cars, they appear similar. They are even running on the same size tires this weekend as Muskogee, Salina and Fort Smith, the three tracks that are supplying the majority of the cars in the support classes, all have different rules. This is the point where you say hallelujah for sanctioning bodies that supply consistent rules over a broad range of territory.
The Thunderbird Speedway is a big, half mile track with not much banking, much like it was when it was first built around the turn of the century. In fact, Muskogee is known as the "Historic Track" with the first racing here in 1903 I believe. However, everything has been spit polished under the new ownership with bright retaining walls, new sponsorship signs and new wheel fences being placed around the track. The lighting for both the track and the seating areas is excellent and new sound system has just been installed also.
One thing that has been changed is that the roof of the huge grandstand has been removed. Apparently it was condemned several years ago and then taken off. However, the grandstand remains as a huge concrete edifice that dates back to the WPA days and the wide concrete slabs provide excellent places for lawn chair seating.
The track has gone through its share of rocky times over the past decade or so with several management groups trying to run the show and the track opening and closing more often than a revolving door. The opening of the ultra modern Outlaw Motor Speedway just down the road didn't help things but now that facility sits closed for an indeterminate time.
Everyone speaks very highly of the new owner, Randy Gass, who is a businessman in the area. What I didn't know was that the Fairgrounds was a city owned property and Gass bought it lock, stock and barrel and it's now his alone. However, there must be some kind of a working agreement between the city and Gass as a large building just across from the main grandstand houses many city vehicles and in fact, the cities' police vehicles were getting maintenance in this building also.
I also got to meet the track announcer, Jesse Webb, who is one of those rare breed of announcers that actually roam the pits and meet the drivers and find out what the inside scoop is, rather than waiting for a line up sheet to be handed to him so he can read it over the pa. He made it clear that enthusiasm for racing in Muskogee and been reignited by Gass and that their plan is to get the track sanctioned by NASCAR for next year, running USRA rules, so that they can form a three night circuit with Salina OK and Humboldt.
Friday night was a special night for the track as they were also inducting a number of new members for their Thunderbird Speedway Hall of Fame. Many of those on hand I was not familiar with but there were some that I had either heard of or had actually seen race such as T.J. Pauchert, Larry Phillips, Dan Leatherman and Harold Leep. In fact, Paster Paul, the chaplain of the KRA Speedway in Willmar Minnesota and pastor of a church in that city and a long time friend of the Leep family, would be pleased to know that Harold's widow was on hand to accept the award. Leep was promoted Thunderbird the first time I was ever at this track.
Passing points were used for four classes on Friday but the Late Models had to time trial for some reason, even though the vast majority of the drivers on hand are used to running under a passing points format. However, the track was set up to time multiple cars at once and after a slight malfunction of their equipment, they were able to breeze through that thrilling portion of the program quickly.
Just running heats and dashes alone doesn't make for a very thrilling program but there were some close finishes in all classes. With all the necessary special things with the Hall of Fame induction, it made the start of the program very last with the first race not taking the green until 8:42 p.m. However, I was very impressed with the speed that they ran through the rest of the program. One race was just taking the checkered when the next one would pull on to the track, take one lap and the green would wave again. the entire twenty race card was done in two hours flat which was good on a bone chillingly cold Oklahoma evening.
One car I found particularly interesting was the #32Y Modified of Ron Yates. The car is painted black and white just like a police car and is sponsored by the Muskogee Police. As an added attraction, the car has "a cherry on top" which was blinking brightly throughout his heat race. He, however, did not pull anyone over during his heat event.
Billy Moyer Jr was the quick qualifier for the evening for the Late Models and then won the dash so he will be starting on the pole position for the main event. However, I anticipate that Jesse Stovall, Terry Phillips, Kyle Beard and Robert Baker, among others, will give him plenty of competition on Saturday night.
One last comment. I can't think off hand of any other track I've run into this year where the drivers, car owners, mechanics and track officials have all been so friendly. Everyone that found out I was from "out of town" wanted to talk and their enthusiasm for the track and desire to spread the word about Thunderbird was refreshing and honest. A nicer group or racers I haven't run into in a long time.
Look for a report on the main events on Saturday but likely not until Monday as I'll be traveling home and I can't both drive and type! Also, for those interested, there should be some information on the World Finals in Charlotte next weekend as I plan to be in attendance all three nights at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And after that weekend, who knows?
Monday, October 23, 2017
Richie G Tops Darkside race; Correction please, Walla's Up
After a precious few hours of sleep, it was time for my bleary eyes to provide navigational support as I followed the mighty waters of the Mississippi South and across into Iowa. My destination was the Farley Speedway for night number two of the Topless Weekend special at Farley promoted by Darkside Promotions.
After what sounded like a successful effort on Friday night, it was time for night number two of their weekend special at Farley with Modifieds racing for a big check of five grand for the winner of their fifty lap grind. Also on the card were Late Models, Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Outlaw Stock Cars(again I exclude the Micro Mods, just as last night). It was a pleasure though, to be able to count all the classes of cars and not have to use both hands and take off my shoes to do so!
Brevity is the key word I'm hoping for and in that regard I believe the officials and management at Farley are much more in accord with me on that point than the tracks I have been visiting of late have been. With bad weather looming off to the West and the clock ticking, a swift and precisely run program is what is called for on this night, and with the drivers cooperating to their fullest extend, that's what we would eventually see.
The top three classes would be running topless on this night and while I don't think I would like a steady diet of this kind of look, on a rare occasion it does make things kind of interesting as there are views of the drivers as they work their magic that you just wouldn't see if the cars all had roofs. It is surprising, though, how much different and sometimes difficult it is to pick out one car from another without the roof in place.
The Modifieds led the car count number on this night as they should with their division racing for considerably more money than the other classes. There were thirty nine of the Modifieds on hand with just the Stock Cars and Outlaw Stock Cars having smaller fields than comfortable but not much different than Farley normally has during the regular season as except for the top three classes, car counts are a continuing problem.
Hot laps were moved up an hour, presumably with the weather coming in and the first race took the green at 5:30 pm approximately. A one spin rule instituted for the heats kept things moving well and for those that couldn't or wouldn't start after they spun, woe on to you and a quick exit to the pit area.
I have seen racing now a few times at the shortened Farley Speedway and I'm really thinking that this was the best move ever for this facility. I assume that there are still those that favor the big half mile but likely those are people that grew up on half mile racing. For me, the short track is so much more interesting and on a night like Saturday, where it was slick from top to bottom but did not take on rubber, it made for some great racing. Also, the pit area off turns three and four seems to be working out very well and will likely be ever better in the future. No vehicles in the infield except service trucks also makes the place look much cleaner and provides a greater margin of safety for both the pit workers and everyone else in the pits.
The Modified feature was the headline event and it was an excellent race from start to finish. When the distance of fifty laps was announced, some in the crowd groaned as lightning could first now be seen on the western horizon. However, the drivers did a magnificent job of racing hard but clean and the race went forty laps before the yellow was displayed for the first time.
Cory Dripps was the early leader but there was no one that could stay with Richie Gustin in the early going as he charged up from the third row to take the lead and then gradually draw away from the field. The only driver able to stay with him was Tim Ward who continued to follow several car lengths behind but wouldn't go away, even as Gustin worked through lapped traffic.
With that many green flag laps, you can imagine the number of lapped cars and Gustin was constantly working through traffic but he could never shake Ward. With about fifteen laps to go, Ward started to move in on the leader and he closed to the rear bumper of the #19G. Ward tried a low side move in turn four and the two brushed together relatively mild. However, it was a hit at just the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective), place and Ward suffered a flat front tire. He slowed and the first yellow of the race flew with forty laps down.
Jason Walla, who had qualified for the main through a B feature, had gradually worked his way to the front and he inherited the second spot. He tried to track down Gustin, but Richie held on through one more minor yellow and drove home for the win. The winning interview was done, the rest of the racing continued and not a word was said about a possible disqualification. Traveling on Sunday, I did not know until Monday that Gustin was later disqualified and that Walla was awarded the win. Something to do with either deck height or spoiler height was apparently the issue and with the cars topless, an alteration to either could have provided a significant advantage. In any event, it was a tough way to lose five grand. However, for the yet to be crowned 2017 IMCA national champion, it was a nice bonus for Walla and made the long trip from North Dakota worthwhile. With so few cars left on the lead lap, Ward changed a tire, passed a few cars in the remaining laps and found himself scored second at the adjusted finish.
Joe Docekal, who normally runs Modifieds, won the Sport Mod feature after a nice drive past Justin Becker and Troy Bauer. Austin Heacock came from twelfth to finish as the runner up . Josh McBernie came from twenty second to finish third. Earlier, McBernie flattened his front bumper on another racer's rear bumper after the fact when he felt like he had been "roughed" during his heat race. Unfortunately for him, track officials frowned on the action and DQ'd his heat race effort, thus the deep in the field start for the main event.
The Stock Car field might have been tiny, but Tom Schmitt and Greg Gill put on a classic two lane battle for the win that lasted nearly the entire fifteen laps of their main. Gill was hugging the rail while Schmitt ran the high side. Early in the race, Gill tracked down Schmitt and passed him but Tom refused to give up on the high side.
As the laps ran off, Schmitt started to pick up the pace again and he gradually reeled in the leader. They were side by side with only a couple of laps left and then Schmitt gradually gained a slight edge. Gill was forced to come off his line and that gave Schmitt an interesting win. Gill would recover his edge as he led from start to finish to win the Outlaw Stock Car feature which had both Stock Cars and Quad Cities Street Stocks racing. Gill was the only driver to enter both classes.
The Late Models fielded nineteen cars for their main event. Ryan Dolan wasted little time taking the lead from the third row and it looked like he might dominate. However, yellow flags proved to not be his friend as Tyler Breuning used the slow down periods to his advantage as he took off like a rocket when the green came back out.
He was able to drive around Dolan and take over the lead and he led the rest of the way. Jeremiah Hurst came from twelfth to finish third in a race that saw a late yellow when veteran Darrel DeFrance hammered the home stretch wall hard and did significant damage to his car.
I applaud the track officials for a smooth run program and the drivers for putting on such a good effort. It was a "cracker jack" show and I didn't have to pitch a tent to get through the night. I was told that the crowd on Friday night was good but unfortunately, it was a bit light on Saturday. Perhaps the weather and all the football games played a part in that, but those that missed lost out on a good racing program. Thanks to Darkside for their help and a reminder that they still have one more program yet this year as they finish off last week's weather shortened event at Tipton on this coming Sunday afternoon.
I must say that there was certainly much discussion about the 2018 racing season in the pits before the show. Not from being right around the Hawkeye state, I was surprised how much talk was going on. While there is always some turmoil and changes from year to year, I think this off season is going to be one for the books. I have never heard so much discussion, uncertainty, and displeasure with the rules , some of the promoters and the sanctioning bodies that I have already heard this year concerning Iowa race tracks. It's going to be a real crap shoot what things will look like come 2018.
After what sounded like a successful effort on Friday night, it was time for night number two of their weekend special at Farley with Modifieds racing for a big check of five grand for the winner of their fifty lap grind. Also on the card were Late Models, Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Outlaw Stock Cars(again I exclude the Micro Mods, just as last night). It was a pleasure though, to be able to count all the classes of cars and not have to use both hands and take off my shoes to do so!
Brevity is the key word I'm hoping for and in that regard I believe the officials and management at Farley are much more in accord with me on that point than the tracks I have been visiting of late have been. With bad weather looming off to the West and the clock ticking, a swift and precisely run program is what is called for on this night, and with the drivers cooperating to their fullest extend, that's what we would eventually see.
The top three classes would be running topless on this night and while I don't think I would like a steady diet of this kind of look, on a rare occasion it does make things kind of interesting as there are views of the drivers as they work their magic that you just wouldn't see if the cars all had roofs. It is surprising, though, how much different and sometimes difficult it is to pick out one car from another without the roof in place.
The Modifieds led the car count number on this night as they should with their division racing for considerably more money than the other classes. There were thirty nine of the Modifieds on hand with just the Stock Cars and Outlaw Stock Cars having smaller fields than comfortable but not much different than Farley normally has during the regular season as except for the top three classes, car counts are a continuing problem.
Hot laps were moved up an hour, presumably with the weather coming in and the first race took the green at 5:30 pm approximately. A one spin rule instituted for the heats kept things moving well and for those that couldn't or wouldn't start after they spun, woe on to you and a quick exit to the pit area.
I have seen racing now a few times at the shortened Farley Speedway and I'm really thinking that this was the best move ever for this facility. I assume that there are still those that favor the big half mile but likely those are people that grew up on half mile racing. For me, the short track is so much more interesting and on a night like Saturday, where it was slick from top to bottom but did not take on rubber, it made for some great racing. Also, the pit area off turns three and four seems to be working out very well and will likely be ever better in the future. No vehicles in the infield except service trucks also makes the place look much cleaner and provides a greater margin of safety for both the pit workers and everyone else in the pits.
The Modified feature was the headline event and it was an excellent race from start to finish. When the distance of fifty laps was announced, some in the crowd groaned as lightning could first now be seen on the western horizon. However, the drivers did a magnificent job of racing hard but clean and the race went forty laps before the yellow was displayed for the first time.
Cory Dripps was the early leader but there was no one that could stay with Richie Gustin in the early going as he charged up from the third row to take the lead and then gradually draw away from the field. The only driver able to stay with him was Tim Ward who continued to follow several car lengths behind but wouldn't go away, even as Gustin worked through lapped traffic.
With that many green flag laps, you can imagine the number of lapped cars and Gustin was constantly working through traffic but he could never shake Ward. With about fifteen laps to go, Ward started to move in on the leader and he closed to the rear bumper of the #19G. Ward tried a low side move in turn four and the two brushed together relatively mild. However, it was a hit at just the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective), place and Ward suffered a flat front tire. He slowed and the first yellow of the race flew with forty laps down.
Jason Walla, who had qualified for the main through a B feature, had gradually worked his way to the front and he inherited the second spot. He tried to track down Gustin, but Richie held on through one more minor yellow and drove home for the win. The winning interview was done, the rest of the racing continued and not a word was said about a possible disqualification. Traveling on Sunday, I did not know until Monday that Gustin was later disqualified and that Walla was awarded the win. Something to do with either deck height or spoiler height was apparently the issue and with the cars topless, an alteration to either could have provided a significant advantage. In any event, it was a tough way to lose five grand. However, for the yet to be crowned 2017 IMCA national champion, it was a nice bonus for Walla and made the long trip from North Dakota worthwhile. With so few cars left on the lead lap, Ward changed a tire, passed a few cars in the remaining laps and found himself scored second at the adjusted finish.
Joe Docekal, who normally runs Modifieds, won the Sport Mod feature after a nice drive past Justin Becker and Troy Bauer. Austin Heacock came from twelfth to finish as the runner up . Josh McBernie came from twenty second to finish third. Earlier, McBernie flattened his front bumper on another racer's rear bumper after the fact when he felt like he had been "roughed" during his heat race. Unfortunately for him, track officials frowned on the action and DQ'd his heat race effort, thus the deep in the field start for the main event.
The Stock Car field might have been tiny, but Tom Schmitt and Greg Gill put on a classic two lane battle for the win that lasted nearly the entire fifteen laps of their main. Gill was hugging the rail while Schmitt ran the high side. Early in the race, Gill tracked down Schmitt and passed him but Tom refused to give up on the high side.
As the laps ran off, Schmitt started to pick up the pace again and he gradually reeled in the leader. They were side by side with only a couple of laps left and then Schmitt gradually gained a slight edge. Gill was forced to come off his line and that gave Schmitt an interesting win. Gill would recover his edge as he led from start to finish to win the Outlaw Stock Car feature which had both Stock Cars and Quad Cities Street Stocks racing. Gill was the only driver to enter both classes.
The Late Models fielded nineteen cars for their main event. Ryan Dolan wasted little time taking the lead from the third row and it looked like he might dominate. However, yellow flags proved to not be his friend as Tyler Breuning used the slow down periods to his advantage as he took off like a rocket when the green came back out.
He was able to drive around Dolan and take over the lead and he led the rest of the way. Jeremiah Hurst came from twelfth to finish third in a race that saw a late yellow when veteran Darrel DeFrance hammered the home stretch wall hard and did significant damage to his car.
I applaud the track officials for a smooth run program and the drivers for putting on such a good effort. It was a "cracker jack" show and I didn't have to pitch a tent to get through the night. I was told that the crowd on Friday night was good but unfortunately, it was a bit light on Saturday. Perhaps the weather and all the football games played a part in that, but those that missed lost out on a good racing program. Thanks to Darkside for their help and a reminder that they still have one more program yet this year as they finish off last week's weather shortened event at Tipton on this coming Sunday afternoon.
I must say that there was certainly much discussion about the 2018 racing season in the pits before the show. Not from being right around the Hawkeye state, I was surprised how much talk was going on. While there is always some turmoil and changes from year to year, I think this off season is going to be one for the books. I have never heard so much discussion, uncertainty, and displeasure with the rules , some of the promoters and the sanctioning bodies that I have already heard this year concerning Iowa race tracks. It's going to be a real crap shoot what things will look like come 2018.
Richards Dominates at MTS
An eventful weekend started on Friday night, October 20th with a visit to the Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin for night one of their ninth annual Fast Festival. Originally scheduled for two weeks earlier, the entire weekend had been rained out and rescheduled for this weekend.
However, the weather was still not done toying with the river town track and after a dismal forecast for Saturday night that had been carried all week leading up to the race, the track opted to fold the event into just one night of racing on Friday, paying the extra purse for the one night show that had been originally planned for Saturday night's race following a regular pay night on Friday.
At this time of the year it seems that the racers are willing to do whatever it takes to get one last race in so even though it turned out to be just a one night event, the racers flocked to MTS to get one last race in before calling it a season. Spectacular weather on Friday certainly didn't hurt the cause and the MTS pit area was swelled to over flowing.
To my way of thinking, there can to be much of a good thing though, and MTS probably caused me to reach my tipping point on this issue. Along with their five regular USRA sanctioned classes, they also race 600 Mods on their third mile track plus both Senior and Junior Slingshots and Outlaw Mini Mods on their small track in the infield. Then, for fun, they also threw in USRA Stock Cars which have raced at the track this year on a few occasions.
But that wasn't enough apparently on this weekend as also invited were the WISSOTA Street Stocks and Midwest Modifieds. The Street Stocks used to race here and just for fun apparently, they also added the MidMods. Neither class was sanctioned this weekend but that didn't keep a big group of them from showing up to race one last time also.
So, if you have a calculator to do the math, by my count there were a mind numbing TWELVE classes of cars that each raced a full program!!! This may have been the most different classes I have ever seen at one show on one night and even I had to call "Uncle" at this. Programs ranged from a couple of heats and a feature to three classes that ran four heats, one or multiple B features and then of course, main events for all twelve classes. OMG, this was just way too much.
Track management touted that well over two hundred cars were in the pits racing but I am a "snob" in what I consider a true racing car and my total, minus the four classes powered by small motors equaled one hundred and eighty one cars, still a goodly figure.
With a forty five minute late starting time due to registering all the drivers, full shows in all twelve classes plus misting after nearly every race due to the high temperatures and extremely strong winds, it was going to be a late, late night. Even though they pushed each race out right at the conclusion of the proceeding one and nixed the driver interviews(which must have killed track announcer Dan Bailey), it turned into an obscenely long race program. Specific numbers will follow.
Racing was decent in all classes with a couple of really close finishes to highlight the racing action. The star performer of the night was Mondovi's Tommy Richards who won feature races in two classes. The irony is that Richards was one of the top runners at this track for the last several years. That is, until 2017 when they kicked him out the door when track management dropped the WISSOTA Super Stocks from their program and Richards took his Friday night racing up to the Red Cedar Speedway, along with his two brothers who both had also raced at MTS until both saw the classes that they had run in also eliminated in the past couple of years as track owner Bob Timm has moved to an all USRA program, so far with mixed results.
Tommy won both the Street Stocks and MidMods in borrowed rides for the night. He was driving the second Street owned by his brother Danny who also races in that class and he won the MidMods in an entry fielded by Calvin Iverson, a rookie driver that the Richards family has been mentoring this year. In fact, brother Danny also drove a second entry for Iverson in the MidMods while Calvin raced a third car that they fielded for this night.
For some reason, MTS slipped up and didn't add the Super Stocks also since that is the class that Tommy R. does the best in, being a top five driver in that class nationally for WISSOTA. How they forgot to include the Supers, I'll never know. Doesn't a "bakers dozen" of classes sound just peachy?
Even though the WISSOTA MidMods hadn't raced at the track all year, they fielded nearly three dozen cars of their own so the two "limited" Modified classes had well over sixty cars just between the two of them.
Other highlights of the racing program saw Jake Timm(no nepotism needed) start on the pole of the Modified feature and lead all the way for that win.
The closest race of the night was the B Mod feature where Parker Hale and Casey Knutson were banging wheels on the last corner as they fought for the lead with Hale prevailing.
The win for Elijah Zievenbergen in the Stock Cars was an important one as he is in a close battle for the USRA national title in the division. He grabbed the lead early and ran away from a good sized eighteen car field for the win.
Johnny Severtson came from the third row to win the Hornet feature, a race that saw IMCA national champion Nate Coopman on his lid after contact on the back chute as he tried to fight his way to the front of the field.
Those folks on hand were witness to the first racing start of Sam Mars from Mondovi. Sam, of course, is the son of national Late Model driving star Jimmy Mars, who was on hand to also try out a few things on a Modified. Sam is the middle school aged son of Jimmy(his exact age shall remain our secret) and way last Spring Jimmy told me that when he started out Sam, who has experience racing carts and such, in a real race car, he would have him drive a Limited Late Model to start right out and not develop some bad habits from driving some other class of car.
So Sam was behind the wheel of , a not surprisingly white #28, that was actually raced this season in the WISSOTA Late Models by Jesse Glenz. Sam was clearly right from the start not afraid of the car and he was "gassing it up" plenty. However, he got a little high coming out of turn two during his heat race, climbed up on the Jersey Barricades that make up the back wall and turned the car over on its lid where it slid down the track upside down.
Sam was unhurt and quickly clambered out of the car. Paraphrasing, his first words were "it isn't damaged too bad is it?" followed by, "sorry Dad." If Sam goes on to have a racing career anything like his dad's, we will all be able to say we were there the night that it all started, and what a memorable way to begin his racing career! It turned out to be quite the weekend for the Mars family starting with Sam's debut on Friday and ending up later during the weekend with the announcement that Jimmy Mars has been named as a member of the 2018 National Late Model Hall of Fame induction class. Congratulations to him. And I can say I also was on hand the night at the Red Cedar Speedway when Jimmy made his debut too.
Check the MTS website for a complete list of winners in all classes of racing.
Oh, one last thing. The final checkered flag waved at 2:06 am.
However, the weather was still not done toying with the river town track and after a dismal forecast for Saturday night that had been carried all week leading up to the race, the track opted to fold the event into just one night of racing on Friday, paying the extra purse for the one night show that had been originally planned for Saturday night's race following a regular pay night on Friday.
At this time of the year it seems that the racers are willing to do whatever it takes to get one last race in so even though it turned out to be just a one night event, the racers flocked to MTS to get one last race in before calling it a season. Spectacular weather on Friday certainly didn't hurt the cause and the MTS pit area was swelled to over flowing.
To my way of thinking, there can to be much of a good thing though, and MTS probably caused me to reach my tipping point on this issue. Along with their five regular USRA sanctioned classes, they also race 600 Mods on their third mile track plus both Senior and Junior Slingshots and Outlaw Mini Mods on their small track in the infield. Then, for fun, they also threw in USRA Stock Cars which have raced at the track this year on a few occasions.
But that wasn't enough apparently on this weekend as also invited were the WISSOTA Street Stocks and Midwest Modifieds. The Street Stocks used to race here and just for fun apparently, they also added the MidMods. Neither class was sanctioned this weekend but that didn't keep a big group of them from showing up to race one last time also.
So, if you have a calculator to do the math, by my count there were a mind numbing TWELVE classes of cars that each raced a full program!!! This may have been the most different classes I have ever seen at one show on one night and even I had to call "Uncle" at this. Programs ranged from a couple of heats and a feature to three classes that ran four heats, one or multiple B features and then of course, main events for all twelve classes. OMG, this was just way too much.
Track management touted that well over two hundred cars were in the pits racing but I am a "snob" in what I consider a true racing car and my total, minus the four classes powered by small motors equaled one hundred and eighty one cars, still a goodly figure.
With a forty five minute late starting time due to registering all the drivers, full shows in all twelve classes plus misting after nearly every race due to the high temperatures and extremely strong winds, it was going to be a late, late night. Even though they pushed each race out right at the conclusion of the proceeding one and nixed the driver interviews(which must have killed track announcer Dan Bailey), it turned into an obscenely long race program. Specific numbers will follow.
Racing was decent in all classes with a couple of really close finishes to highlight the racing action. The star performer of the night was Mondovi's Tommy Richards who won feature races in two classes. The irony is that Richards was one of the top runners at this track for the last several years. That is, until 2017 when they kicked him out the door when track management dropped the WISSOTA Super Stocks from their program and Richards took his Friday night racing up to the Red Cedar Speedway, along with his two brothers who both had also raced at MTS until both saw the classes that they had run in also eliminated in the past couple of years as track owner Bob Timm has moved to an all USRA program, so far with mixed results.
Tommy won both the Street Stocks and MidMods in borrowed rides for the night. He was driving the second Street owned by his brother Danny who also races in that class and he won the MidMods in an entry fielded by Calvin Iverson, a rookie driver that the Richards family has been mentoring this year. In fact, brother Danny also drove a second entry for Iverson in the MidMods while Calvin raced a third car that they fielded for this night.
For some reason, MTS slipped up and didn't add the Super Stocks also since that is the class that Tommy R. does the best in, being a top five driver in that class nationally for WISSOTA. How they forgot to include the Supers, I'll never know. Doesn't a "bakers dozen" of classes sound just peachy?
Even though the WISSOTA MidMods hadn't raced at the track all year, they fielded nearly three dozen cars of their own so the two "limited" Modified classes had well over sixty cars just between the two of them.
Other highlights of the racing program saw Jake Timm(no nepotism needed) start on the pole of the Modified feature and lead all the way for that win.
The closest race of the night was the B Mod feature where Parker Hale and Casey Knutson were banging wheels on the last corner as they fought for the lead with Hale prevailing.
The win for Elijah Zievenbergen in the Stock Cars was an important one as he is in a close battle for the USRA national title in the division. He grabbed the lead early and ran away from a good sized eighteen car field for the win.
Johnny Severtson came from the third row to win the Hornet feature, a race that saw IMCA national champion Nate Coopman on his lid after contact on the back chute as he tried to fight his way to the front of the field.
Those folks on hand were witness to the first racing start of Sam Mars from Mondovi. Sam, of course, is the son of national Late Model driving star Jimmy Mars, who was on hand to also try out a few things on a Modified. Sam is the middle school aged son of Jimmy(his exact age shall remain our secret) and way last Spring Jimmy told me that when he started out Sam, who has experience racing carts and such, in a real race car, he would have him drive a Limited Late Model to start right out and not develop some bad habits from driving some other class of car.
So Sam was behind the wheel of , a not surprisingly white #28, that was actually raced this season in the WISSOTA Late Models by Jesse Glenz. Sam was clearly right from the start not afraid of the car and he was "gassing it up" plenty. However, he got a little high coming out of turn two during his heat race, climbed up on the Jersey Barricades that make up the back wall and turned the car over on its lid where it slid down the track upside down.
Sam was unhurt and quickly clambered out of the car. Paraphrasing, his first words were "it isn't damaged too bad is it?" followed by, "sorry Dad." If Sam goes on to have a racing career anything like his dad's, we will all be able to say we were there the night that it all started, and what a memorable way to begin his racing career! It turned out to be quite the weekend for the Mars family starting with Sam's debut on Friday and ending up later during the weekend with the announcement that Jimmy Mars has been named as a member of the 2018 National Late Model Hall of Fame induction class. Congratulations to him. And I can say I also was on hand the night at the Red Cedar Speedway when Jimmy made his debut too.
Check the MTS website for a complete list of winners in all classes of racing.
Oh, one last thing. The final checkered flag waved at 2:06 am.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Gilbertson on Top at Spring Lake Speedway
I should have recognized that with it being Friday the thirteenth, some kind of mischievous or bizarre happenings were going to occur before the clock struck Midnight to announce the dawning of a new day. Sure enough, my first visit of 2017 to Scott Duval's Spring Lake Speedway near Unity Wisconsin was one for the books with just about any misfortune other than pestilence and famine taking place before a long, long night of racing was completed.
Friday night was night one of the third annual Autumn Clash to be held at Spring Lake Speedway. This was scheduled to be a two night show with full programs for six classes of racing on each night. Spring Lake Speedway was brought back to life by Duval a couple of years ago after the track sat vacant for a few years. Some of you may know it better for its interesting original name; that of the Monster Hall Raceway.
Duval has done a large amount of resurrecting and refurbishing of the grounds as the facility looks nothing like it did either originally or after it started to decay under some bad management and then neglect. He put a lot of money and "sweat equity" into the place and has made it come to life in a way that most, myself included, would never have imagined possible. Scott is a "talker" but he is also a "doer" and he has gotten the local communities back involved with the track and generated much interest in the place.
I got the tour of the place during the afternoon and saw some of his most recent upgrades that included a third suite that has been completed plus some VIP boxes also. In his plans for next year are a relocating of pit road so that the racers and fans don't have to travel down the same road into the place and his hope is to purchase some more land from the farmer next door to expand his pit parking.
If you've never been to Spring Lake, what you need to know is that it borders both a lake and a campground that used to be a part of the facility. The entrance road off the county highway goes through the campground and the main grandstand butts right up against Spring Lake. The idea to keep the big haulers out of the campground road is largely both a convenience issue for the fans plus a safety issue for the campers.
He is also working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that governs all Wisconsin bodies of water. He is planning on clearing out the shoreline(with the DNR blessing) and creating a walkway along the lake for race fans and also for campers to use. It will be very fan friendly when completed. One thing Scott is not short on and that is ideas.
Spring Lake Speedway is in central Wisconsin and sits wedged in between the operating areas of three different sanctioning bodies. To the East, virtually all the tracks are sanctioned by IMCA. To the North and West the tracks are all WISSOTA sanctioned track while to his Southwest along the Mississippi River, the tracks are USRA sanctioned. This positioning has been both a blessing and a curse to him. Trying to decide which, if any, sanctioning body to go on board with is both a political and tactical "hot potato." So what he has decided is to pretty much go with open rules in some classes and to follow WISSOTA rules in other classes. The Mods and B Mods(as he calls them) use general rules that allow cars from all sanctioning bodies to race while he runs WISSOTA rules for the Streets and Super Stocks. The Pure Stocks and Hornets use local track rules. It probably hurts him a little to not have a class appropriate for the Stock Cars but then also running the open rules probably keeps a few Modifieds away because those few USRA cars on hand sport a considerable advantage over the other Mods.
For this event he throws all three sanctioning B Mod groups together on their own tires and does the same with the Modifieds, evening giving the IMCA cars a big spoiler. The Stock Cars are allowed to run with the WISSOTA Streets and the Eastern Wisconsin version of Streets which definitely gives the Stock Cars an advantage but the familiarity of the local drivers helps even up the score.
As with just about every track in the Midwest this weekend, the weather was a worrisome variable. A number of storms drifted just to the South on Friday and the evening saw some clearing and racing was on as scheduled although it was reported the the heavy rains in eastern Wisconsin kept some of those drivers home. Still, the car count was very good with one hundred and forty one drivers signing in to race, the second highest car count ever at this track since Duval took over. B Mods were by far the highest class with forty three of them signing in to race and all three sanctioning bodies represented. It was a true hodge podge with cars from all over on hand including some area blacktop cars that converted over to run dirt, which is something highly out of the ordinary. Also noted was the fact that several former blacktop racers are switching over from the "darkside" to dirt racing which is partly a reflection on the unstable condition of some of the area tar tracks that used to be much stronger, and a seeming resurgence in a few of the area dirt tracks. Duval himself would take to the track on this night with his Modified, the first time he has raced at his own track since he purchased it.
The staff was a little overwhelmed by the huge turnout of racers, many of which arrived at the last minute due to work commitments, travel time and the questionable weather. This created a big back up and for that reason racing started nearly forty minutes late. However, once they got started, things moved along well with a plethora of races scheduled.
That is, until the ambulance crisis hit. This track is located in a rural area and is staffed by a volunteer local ambulance crew but when a major highway accident occurred, they were called away and there were no back ups available due to the serious nature of the highway incident and the fact that multiple ambulances were needed. I didn't keep time but I believe that we lost at least an hour before the ambulance was able to return and racing could again proceed.
We got back to racing which went swimmingly for awhile; that is until the fog started rolling in. It was an incredibly damp night anyway but then the fog started to form and boy, did it get heavy. This was just as the feature races started and quite frankly, they did some racing under what i felt were unsafe conditions as from the grandstands it was impossible to identify the cars on the front stretch and they totally disappeared on the back chute. In fact, the Super Stock feature was cut short because track officials couldn't see the cars and I don't know how the scorers could tell the cars apart, since manual scoring is still used here. Locals reported that they could never ever remember a fog event like what we saw on Friday.
So, we waited awhile longer and then, out of the blue, the fog started to lift and we were able to return to racing. However, the air was still extremely damp and it was starting to develop a layer of moisture on the top of the hard racing surface and suddenly, we had cars spinning wildly out of control, much like water being dropped on a tar track. Several wild wrecks were the result and finally, track officials took to rolling in the track before each event, to try and keep the moisture from forming. As you can imagine, all this took an inordinate amount of time and as the crowd slowly trickled out the gates, the races continued and the last checkered flag flew at about one thirty in the morning. Much of the delay was unavoidable however.
The premier race on the schedule was the Modified feature which went to Minnesota's Matt Gilbertson. Towing all the way from West central Minnesota, his sponsorship from Seubert Calf Ranches, a local firm, was likely the reason he drove such a long distance in shaky weather. He started in the third row and passed Michael Truscott for the lead and then held off a still challenge from Dave Baxter for the win. Since getting his new MB Customs car, Gilbertson has had a strong second half of the year.
Truscott came back to lead all the way and win the B Mod feature. Truscott has been one of the big winners in western Wisconsin this year with his GRT from CRC and he finished well ahead of Tony Bahr, who has been strong since debuting his new Shaw car on Labor Day weekend. Another big winner this year, Minnesota's Jason VandeKamp, finished a strong third.
Tommy Richards scored an easy win in the Super Stocks and Jay Kesan was smart in using the race track as he won the Street Stock feature. Eastern drivers Trent Nolan and Paul Diefenthaler clearly had more speed with their Stock Cars but Kesan and Danny Richards used their knowledge of the track to keep back the invaders and finish first and second.
Danny and Tommy's brother George won the Pure Stock feature as he is one of the top point getters in WISSOTA Pure Stocks so it was nearly a three brother sweep for the Richards family from Mondovi. By the way, for those that weren't aware, these Richards are all related to the racing Richards that do very well in eastern Wisconsin racing in Grand Nationals and now in Modifieds at tracks like Oshkosh, Beaver Dam and others.
George Seliger won the Hornet feature. What is notable about that is the fact that up until a couple of weeks ago, this car was a regular on the tar tracks of central Wisconsin and in fact, still sported a windshield on this night. No matter, it was a very fast car.
It was a long night for announcers Ben Brost and Steve Parsons as they had a lot of dead air to cover but they did a good job of entertaining the crowd during the "down time." I also thank them for their help with drivers' names for those unfamiliar to me.
One last thing from Friday night. Duval was very anxious for me to see his latest thinking and that is a new class of race car that he is developing. Recognizing that getting new drivers involved in the sport is increasingly hard and that the old starter class, the Pure Stocks, have gotten out of hand price wise as well as being hard to find, he is developing a new class to eventually replace them.
Called the NPS 6 class (New Pure Stocks), the class will be for six cylinder, front wheel drive cars such as intrepids, Concords, Malibus, Luminas etc. He said they are very obtainable and with a spec roll cage that he has been building, the whole car can be built for $1,500. To keep the class affordable, he will be instituting a $1,000 claim on the whole race car plus exchange. Everything goes except the seat and battery on the exchange.
He had his first built car on display and then it was raced with the Pure Stocks later. The Corsica was competitive with the Pure Stocks and his plan is to run them with the Pure Stocks until they have a full field of them built(hopefully some time next Summer) and that in the meantime he will pay both classes and score them separately, even though they race together. I do think that they will need to find some way to make them louder as the one raced on Friday night was way too quiet to be a race car!
The second half of Duval's special was rained out on Saturday night, just like most events also planned for this bad weather weekend.
Friday night was night one of the third annual Autumn Clash to be held at Spring Lake Speedway. This was scheduled to be a two night show with full programs for six classes of racing on each night. Spring Lake Speedway was brought back to life by Duval a couple of years ago after the track sat vacant for a few years. Some of you may know it better for its interesting original name; that of the Monster Hall Raceway.
Duval has done a large amount of resurrecting and refurbishing of the grounds as the facility looks nothing like it did either originally or after it started to decay under some bad management and then neglect. He put a lot of money and "sweat equity" into the place and has made it come to life in a way that most, myself included, would never have imagined possible. Scott is a "talker" but he is also a "doer" and he has gotten the local communities back involved with the track and generated much interest in the place.
I got the tour of the place during the afternoon and saw some of his most recent upgrades that included a third suite that has been completed plus some VIP boxes also. In his plans for next year are a relocating of pit road so that the racers and fans don't have to travel down the same road into the place and his hope is to purchase some more land from the farmer next door to expand his pit parking.
If you've never been to Spring Lake, what you need to know is that it borders both a lake and a campground that used to be a part of the facility. The entrance road off the county highway goes through the campground and the main grandstand butts right up against Spring Lake. The idea to keep the big haulers out of the campground road is largely both a convenience issue for the fans plus a safety issue for the campers.
He is also working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that governs all Wisconsin bodies of water. He is planning on clearing out the shoreline(with the DNR blessing) and creating a walkway along the lake for race fans and also for campers to use. It will be very fan friendly when completed. One thing Scott is not short on and that is ideas.
Spring Lake Speedway is in central Wisconsin and sits wedged in between the operating areas of three different sanctioning bodies. To the East, virtually all the tracks are sanctioned by IMCA. To the North and West the tracks are all WISSOTA sanctioned track while to his Southwest along the Mississippi River, the tracks are USRA sanctioned. This positioning has been both a blessing and a curse to him. Trying to decide which, if any, sanctioning body to go on board with is both a political and tactical "hot potato." So what he has decided is to pretty much go with open rules in some classes and to follow WISSOTA rules in other classes. The Mods and B Mods(as he calls them) use general rules that allow cars from all sanctioning bodies to race while he runs WISSOTA rules for the Streets and Super Stocks. The Pure Stocks and Hornets use local track rules. It probably hurts him a little to not have a class appropriate for the Stock Cars but then also running the open rules probably keeps a few Modifieds away because those few USRA cars on hand sport a considerable advantage over the other Mods.
For this event he throws all three sanctioning B Mod groups together on their own tires and does the same with the Modifieds, evening giving the IMCA cars a big spoiler. The Stock Cars are allowed to run with the WISSOTA Streets and the Eastern Wisconsin version of Streets which definitely gives the Stock Cars an advantage but the familiarity of the local drivers helps even up the score.
As with just about every track in the Midwest this weekend, the weather was a worrisome variable. A number of storms drifted just to the South on Friday and the evening saw some clearing and racing was on as scheduled although it was reported the the heavy rains in eastern Wisconsin kept some of those drivers home. Still, the car count was very good with one hundred and forty one drivers signing in to race, the second highest car count ever at this track since Duval took over. B Mods were by far the highest class with forty three of them signing in to race and all three sanctioning bodies represented. It was a true hodge podge with cars from all over on hand including some area blacktop cars that converted over to run dirt, which is something highly out of the ordinary. Also noted was the fact that several former blacktop racers are switching over from the "darkside" to dirt racing which is partly a reflection on the unstable condition of some of the area tar tracks that used to be much stronger, and a seeming resurgence in a few of the area dirt tracks. Duval himself would take to the track on this night with his Modified, the first time he has raced at his own track since he purchased it.
The staff was a little overwhelmed by the huge turnout of racers, many of which arrived at the last minute due to work commitments, travel time and the questionable weather. This created a big back up and for that reason racing started nearly forty minutes late. However, once they got started, things moved along well with a plethora of races scheduled.
That is, until the ambulance crisis hit. This track is located in a rural area and is staffed by a volunteer local ambulance crew but when a major highway accident occurred, they were called away and there were no back ups available due to the serious nature of the highway incident and the fact that multiple ambulances were needed. I didn't keep time but I believe that we lost at least an hour before the ambulance was able to return and racing could again proceed.
We got back to racing which went swimmingly for awhile; that is until the fog started rolling in. It was an incredibly damp night anyway but then the fog started to form and boy, did it get heavy. This was just as the feature races started and quite frankly, they did some racing under what i felt were unsafe conditions as from the grandstands it was impossible to identify the cars on the front stretch and they totally disappeared on the back chute. In fact, the Super Stock feature was cut short because track officials couldn't see the cars and I don't know how the scorers could tell the cars apart, since manual scoring is still used here. Locals reported that they could never ever remember a fog event like what we saw on Friday.
So, we waited awhile longer and then, out of the blue, the fog started to lift and we were able to return to racing. However, the air was still extremely damp and it was starting to develop a layer of moisture on the top of the hard racing surface and suddenly, we had cars spinning wildly out of control, much like water being dropped on a tar track. Several wild wrecks were the result and finally, track officials took to rolling in the track before each event, to try and keep the moisture from forming. As you can imagine, all this took an inordinate amount of time and as the crowd slowly trickled out the gates, the races continued and the last checkered flag flew at about one thirty in the morning. Much of the delay was unavoidable however.
The premier race on the schedule was the Modified feature which went to Minnesota's Matt Gilbertson. Towing all the way from West central Minnesota, his sponsorship from Seubert Calf Ranches, a local firm, was likely the reason he drove such a long distance in shaky weather. He started in the third row and passed Michael Truscott for the lead and then held off a still challenge from Dave Baxter for the win. Since getting his new MB Customs car, Gilbertson has had a strong second half of the year.
Truscott came back to lead all the way and win the B Mod feature. Truscott has been one of the big winners in western Wisconsin this year with his GRT from CRC and he finished well ahead of Tony Bahr, who has been strong since debuting his new Shaw car on Labor Day weekend. Another big winner this year, Minnesota's Jason VandeKamp, finished a strong third.
Tommy Richards scored an easy win in the Super Stocks and Jay Kesan was smart in using the race track as he won the Street Stock feature. Eastern drivers Trent Nolan and Paul Diefenthaler clearly had more speed with their Stock Cars but Kesan and Danny Richards used their knowledge of the track to keep back the invaders and finish first and second.
Danny and Tommy's brother George won the Pure Stock feature as he is one of the top point getters in WISSOTA Pure Stocks so it was nearly a three brother sweep for the Richards family from Mondovi. By the way, for those that weren't aware, these Richards are all related to the racing Richards that do very well in eastern Wisconsin racing in Grand Nationals and now in Modifieds at tracks like Oshkosh, Beaver Dam and others.
George Seliger won the Hornet feature. What is notable about that is the fact that up until a couple of weeks ago, this car was a regular on the tar tracks of central Wisconsin and in fact, still sported a windshield on this night. No matter, it was a very fast car.
It was a long night for announcers Ben Brost and Steve Parsons as they had a lot of dead air to cover but they did a good job of entertaining the crowd during the "down time." I also thank them for their help with drivers' names for those unfamiliar to me.
One last thing from Friday night. Duval was very anxious for me to see his latest thinking and that is a new class of race car that he is developing. Recognizing that getting new drivers involved in the sport is increasingly hard and that the old starter class, the Pure Stocks, have gotten out of hand price wise as well as being hard to find, he is developing a new class to eventually replace them.
Called the NPS 6 class (New Pure Stocks), the class will be for six cylinder, front wheel drive cars such as intrepids, Concords, Malibus, Luminas etc. He said they are very obtainable and with a spec roll cage that he has been building, the whole car can be built for $1,500. To keep the class affordable, he will be instituting a $1,000 claim on the whole race car plus exchange. Everything goes except the seat and battery on the exchange.
He had his first built car on display and then it was raced with the Pure Stocks later. The Corsica was competitive with the Pure Stocks and his plan is to run them with the Pure Stocks until they have a full field of them built(hopefully some time next Summer) and that in the meantime he will pay both classes and score them separately, even though they race together. I do think that they will need to find some way to make them louder as the one raced on Friday night was way too quiet to be a race car!
The second half of Duval's special was rained out on Saturday night, just like most events also planned for this bad weather weekend.
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