Babb Surges Late for LaSalle Win

One of the few tracks that stuck it out against all odds this weekend was the LaSalle Speedway in Illinois as they were determined to present their seventh annual Thaw Brawl, an event that has fought the weather before during its history.

Despite a rather dire forecast, for at least the second half of the weekend and cool temperatures predicted, the Izzo family forged on with the show, featuring MLRA Late Models for the first time in a double header that featured five and fifteen grand top prizes for the Late Models. It was a program that paid very well indeed.

Along with the Late Models, Modifieds and Sport Mods were also on the program, sanctioned by IMCA for this event after LaSalle and World Racing Group clashed over some policies previously. While there will be a Summer Nationals event at LaSalle in 2018, the majority of the special events at the Izzo family track will be sanctioned  by MLRA, Lucas and IMCA.

One of the major concerns expressed by many was what kind of shape the track would be in, given that lots of rain and cool weather had kept them from getting on the track and doing as much track prep as they might have wanted. They continued to roll, pack and sheep foot the track right up to the time that hot laps started, and while it was a little bumpy early, it proved to be a non factor for the evening. The grader came out once to smooth the track and roll in the cushion and after that, they didn't touch the racing surface and while it had a few bumps, it was a very race worthy track as I'm sure the drivers will testify to. They were running all over the track with plenty of three wide racing so their early season experiment was very successful.

One thing that did disappoint but not surprise some of us was the fact that at the last minute, the planned passing point format was junked in favor of time trials for the Late Models. Apparently some of the more powerful voices in the Late Model pits expressed their opinion that because the track was so heavy, they felt that passing would be tough on the fast surface, and my goodness, we certainly didn't want the "big shots" to have to work too hard, did we?

So, on a cool night where a prompt program would have been much appreciated, we instead received the guarantee that because we were qualifying the cars, we wouldn't start on time for sure. So, despite the fact that the driver's meeting and warm up started right on time, the first green flag for racing didn't wave until 8:15 pm, somewhere around an hour late. And while we never will know how the heats would have raced under the passing points format, we do know that with time trials, five of the six heats were won right off the front row with Ricky Weiss being the only exception.

The Late Model field was outstanding with forty seven or forty eight, depending on your interpretation, on hand to race. Kolby Vandenbergh was announced as the forty eighth driver but he never appeared on the track and his rig was never seen in the pits. The field of drivers was a very interesting one with a mix of drivers from different areas and representing different sanctioning bodies. There were the MLRA regulars, UMP cars and some others that float around to a variety of events. Surprisingly, Terry Phillips, Jesse Stovall and Randy Timms were missing so three of the top five in last year's MLRA points were not on hand. The word was that Phillips didn't want to get into a point race and that the other two were afraid of the weather.

Mike Spatola was the surprising quick qualifier but he shot himself in the foot when he spun on the last corner of his heat while going for the lead. He did manage to salvage the night by coming from deep in the field in a B feature and with a lot of attrition in the main, he did get a top ten finish, but not what he was looking for following his qualifying effort.

Only two cars were taken out of each of the six heat races, thus assuring two B Features that were feature length size. More and more sanctioning groups are going to this kind of format that assures bigger heats which might be more appealing to the fans but force the vast majority of the drivers to race three times to get a check and I'm just not sure that is fair to them.

Certainly the highlight of the evening was the Late Model feature which saw some great racing action. The only thing that kept it from being a classic was the fact that the yellow flag waved far too many times, with a total of ten yellows in fifty laps. Several times, things were just heating up and a big battle looked to be in play when the yellow would break up the action. However, that's not to say there wasn't some intense racing going on and much three wide action was occurring

Rusty Schlenk, Weiss and Brian Shirley all took turns holding the lead before Babb made a late charge following a lap forty two yellow. He used the outside to blast into the lead but then Weiss made a strong move off the last corner and the finish was a photo with Babb nipping the Canadian by inches for the win.

It was very interesting the way drivers would surge and then fade throughout the race with Dennis Erb, Shirley and Schlenk among those that moved back and forth threw the field. Schlenk and Chris Simpson were among those that ran the best but didn't have the finishes to attest to that. It was a heartbreaking loss for Shirley, as he was the leader going into the final few laps until he jumped the cushion in turn one and ended up dropping all the way to sixth. I'm sure he would have loved to grab that first win, back in Bob Cullen's equipment after his very short run with G.R. Smith.

Both the Sport Mod and Modified features were won right off the front row. Dustin Schram totally dominated the Sport Mod feature, winning easily. Austen Becerra drove a hard race to work his way up to second with his team mate Austin Howes finishing third. Interestingly, neither of those drivers would probably have been on hand if Memphis Missouri would have gotten their race in this weekend.

And Memphis promoter Mike VanGenderen was also a surprise entrant in the Modified class Friday night. He reported that the Memphis area is nearly under water as they have gotten so much rain and he is already worried that the weather is not going to straighten out fast enough for his next promotion at either Memphis or Donnellson.

Justin Kay lead from start to finish to win the Modified feature. This was a closer race than the Sport Mod main as Kay was challenged by Allen Weisser and Hunter Marriott. Both Weisser and Ray Bollinger, UMP Modified drivers well known to the local fans, produced IMCA legal cars to race and Weisser was able to finish a strong second. It was an appropriate win for Kay since his sponsor, Hoker Trucking, was the event sponsor for this weekend. No Late Model, however, came out of the Kay transporter on this night.

An interesting addition to the Modified class on this night was former Late Model driver Chad Holladay. No doubt his switching of classes certainly has a lot to do with West Liberty, his home track, not racing in 2018 and racing much more readily available in southeastern Iowa for Modifieds than Late Models. It will be interesting to track and see if others in that region follow his lead.

While the Sport Mod and Modified fields were solid, most of the drivers were from points farther away as most of the local cars don't fit the rules being run on this night, and you could tell that a large number of the spectators were unfamiliar with most of the drivers in those two classes.

Speaking of being unfamiliar with the drivers, the announcer on this night, Chris Stepan, told me that he had never seen the vast majority of the drivers before in the two support classes. Yet you would never have known it as he never missed a beat all night long and may have done as good a job bringing the race to those on hand plus those watching on tv as at any event in his career.

The evening got a little late with all the yellow flags and it started to get mighty nippy by the time the last checkered flag waved. However, people dressed for the weather and most were just happy to finally be at the track, the first in Illinois to host a race in 2018.

Schott Dominates King of America for Ten Grand

Saturday night, March 17th, the eighth annual King of America Modified special was completed at the Humboldt Speedway with Lucas Schott providing a spectacular performance as he controlled the seventy five lap main event, leading from start to finish and earning ten grand for himself and car owner Mike Wedelstadt. Schott's performance was so dominating that only in the last few laps, when yellow flags allowed runner up Ricky Thornton Jr to square up behind him did Schott ever have to deal with any serious challenge. and while Thornton Jr got fairly close on a couple of restarts, once some green flag laps were completed, Schott would gradually pull away once again and while the last yellow, of eleven, provided a two lap sprint to the finish, Schott took off strongly to make sure that there would be no photo finishes in 2018.

The USRA B Mods would also get a chance to run another complete program and J. C. Morton, who had been a challenger for the previous two nights, used the pole position to lead all twenty laps and score a solid win for himself and tote a grand back to Joplin Missouri.

Saturday was a night of last chance qualifying races as drivers ran the ladder in an effort to get into the top twenty eight positions to start the Modified main event.  But first, in somewhat of an unusual move, the top twelve drivers, already locked into position from Friday night's point gathering races, were ordered to the tech shed before racing started for an extensive look see at the cars. The crews were told to bring plenty of tools with them as the cars were going to be disassembled and front ends and suspensions looked at. Apparently teching of the race cars is going to be a point of emphasis this year for the USMTS as more cars have been DQ'd this week and the preceding week than for quite some time.

In fact, one of the top twelve in points did have an issue as Darren Fuqua had some sort of fixable issue but one that the inspectors did not like when they first saw it. In what I would say was an unusual result of this, Fuqua was moved to the back of the feature lineup and Alex Stanford, thirteenth in Friday night points, was awarded a guaranteed spot instead. I have heard of cars that failed pretech not being allowed to race until their problem was corrected, but I never heard of an instance before where a car was ordered to the back of the pack for failed pretech. But there is always a first time for everything.

Twin Last Chance races were followed by a C feature and a B feature to set the grid for the Modified main event. The only driver to be able to climb every rung of the ladder and get to the main event was Kyle Strickler. And he was able to work his way up into the top ten in the main before he was collected in one of many wrecks that slowed the action. Between wrecks and mechanical failures, a considerable number of drivers failed to go the distance and at the end, there were only eleven cars running out of the twenty eight starters. Among the drivers that had strong runs going but failed to last the distance along with Strickler were Jason Krohn, Cade Dillard, Jake O'Neil and Jason Hughes.

Schott took the lead from the outside on the green and quickly stepped away from the field. O'Neill raced second for awhile R.C. Whitwell, Krohn, Johnny Scott and then Thorton Jr challenged. It took Thorton Jr a number of laps before he moved into second as he slowly and gradually worked his way forward. When he took second, it looked like there might possibly be a change of leadership but Schott seemed to pick up the pace when he needed to and following each of the many late yellows, after a lap or so he would gather his momentum and then gradually pull away from Thornton Jr.

There were two instances during the race when they actually were able to string together some green flag laps and that was when Schott was at his best as he patiently worked his way through traffic, being aggressive to take advantage of the holes but never putting himself at risk. The track was "farmed" right before the Modified feature and while it did help the track pick up speed, it wasn't the "banzai" type of track that often is the case after tiling of the surface takes place. It was mostly slick from top to bottom after they raced a few laps and I didn't observe that one groove was that dominant over the other. In other words, a good track to race on and not one that took rubber.

Behind Thornton Jr, it was the Scott brothers battling it out for third with Johnny prevailing. Stormy actually got lapped during the race but was saved by the yellow and with the attrition plus I think he was able to pick up the pace, he was able to patiently work his way back into the top five. Rodney Sanders also made up a lot of ground, starting seventeenth and grabbing a top five finish at the end.

Interestingly, both drivers that had the decision to either take the grand for finishing first or second in the Non Qualifier race or give up the money and tail the field chose to race as both stated their goal when they came was to make the main, so they raced. That was Bobby Malchus and Lance Town.

Both feature winners were a cut above the field on this night as while Morton started on the pole for the B Mod main, he had plenty of tough competitors behind him in Cody Jolly, Andy Bryant and Kris Jackson. However, even with a late yellow to set up a three lap dash, Morton pulled away and was able to keep the very fast Jolly behind him.

Lap eighteen of the B Mod feature saw by far the most violent wreck of the early season here. Tyler Kidwell got into the wall on the back chute and got hammered at full speed, folding up the rear end of his car like an accordion. Much of the pack came bearing down on the duo at high speed and the crashing was significant as cars were flying all over the track and through the infield. Kidwell took a significant hit and it took him awhile to get out of his car. Later a second ambulance showed at the track so I believe that he was transported just for a checkup. Around eight cars, or possibly more, were involved in the wreck and out of the race and besides Kidwell, the cars of Steve Muilenburg and Ryan Phillips appeared to have suffered the worst damage and that was significant. Barely half the field was left running for the last three laps.

A good crowd was on hand despite the fact that  the weather took a significant turn for the worse as it was quite a cool night after two, by Kansas March standards, warm evenings. If face, due to the combination of a somewhat late start due to some extra track packing, the B Mod crash that took considerable time to clean up and the fact that the evening was getting mighty brisk, much of the pageantry of the event was forgone and after a four wide salute, the drivers in the Modified main simply lined up and they dropped the  green flag. As it was, it was still after Midnight before the final checkered waved and a possible suggestion to both shorten up the evening and still allow for the desired pageantry would be to start a little earlier since all the competitors are already on hand and on Saturday folks should be able to get to the track earlier also. And if an earlier start is a little tougher on the track, "farming" has already been planned for anyway.  Once again, the King of America seemed to be a very successful event and will likely be one of the premier events on the USMTS schedule again in 2019.

It was a tough weekend for the Staley family however, as Janet Staley's father, eighty eight year old Don Williams, passed away on Saturday morning and the entire Staley family would be heading back to Iowa as soon as they could following the last checkered flag.

Zimmerman Tops USRA B Mods at Humboldt, Starting Positions Determined for Mods

Night number two for the King of America VIII saw the Modifieds run two rounds of qualifying heats with their total passing points for those two events setting the lineups for Saturday night's ladder of final events. The B Mods, on the other hand, ran their biggest paying event of the weekend on Friday night and it was veteran Randy Zimmerman that rode the high side around "The Hummer" to take the big win.

Not to rub it in to all you folks suffering through a crummy March weekend weather wise, but as I pulled into the parking lot here at Humboldt in the early afternoon, the temperature is seventy three degrees, the sun is shining and the wind is howling out of the South. The USMTS and the Whitworth family have certainly lucked out on the weather to this point this weekend as within a relatively short distance of less than a hundred miles from here, the temperatures are more than thirty degrees cooler and the precipitation has been falling all day. We remain high and dry in our little "bubble" of good weather and while the strong winds remain challenging to the track prep crew, at least we are racing.

Only Austin Bonner and Rick Beebe failed to return in the Modified field and with the addition of drivers Steve Wetzstein, Arne Anderson, Ryan Gustin, Bob Timm, Chase Sigg and Gene Nicholas to the field on Friday, eighty two Modifieds will go through qualifying rounds to try and make the main. This represents a significant increase over the field from 2017 but I have no explanation as to why the numbers have picked up this year as I know of no significant changes that would have positively produced such change.

Two of the late entries in the Modified field, in fact it was the two Minnesota drivers, had stories attached to their entries. Steve Wetzstein announced that he is retiring from the sport and has three race cars and motors, his transporter and trailer all for sale. He started racing in 1990 and has decided that it just is time. Always one to tell it like he sees it, he is not happy with the direction the motor rules are going and feels that recent changes have rendered his engines obsolete and tough for him to even sell. The fact that the Chateau Speedway in southern Minnesota, the track that he has always considered his home track, is closing likely forever, made the decision that much easier. There are mountains of stories about the exploits of Wetzstein during his racing career and he has always been one of the most colorful characters at the track during his time, and his presence at the track will be missed. However, his son will continue his racing career running WISSOTA Midwest Mods again in 2018.

On the other end of the spectrum, Bob Timm returned to the wheel for the first time in two years in the families' second MB car that is used for a back up for son Jake. Bob said that he had always wanted to drive one of those cars and never had the chance so this weekend, with plenty of crew on hand to help prepare things, Bob took the opportunity to get out and race once again. With no practice laps, he took it pretty easy during the first set of heats but by the second go round, he was wading right in their with the field, running door to door. The plan is that on occasion, when the USMTS is at some of the their far flung locations and the fields are smaller that Bob may again jump behind the wheel. However, he won't be able to do the whole tour with son Jake as Bob's business is very busy and with an increasing number of employees to oversee and much responsibility on his shoulders, he must limit his vacations and missed days at work. And his plate is very busy as he is also the "go to" guy for all phases of the operation at his Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin that he runs that will be opening again the end of April.

There was some missed communications in the chain of command as all press releases indicated that the Modifieds would run three sets of qualifying heats on Friday night but all along, USMTS President Todd Staley had planned for just two sets of heats. However, everyone took the change in stride and with the hard edged attitude that most took toward their qualifying heats, I don't think a lot of the cars would have lasted for one more round of heats!

There was plenty of banging and bumping in the fourteen heats contested and with a dozen cars and twelve laps in each, they were very much like mini feature events and just as important to the drivers.  The field seems very well balanced this year and with the level playing field that seems to exist, where drivers started was where they finished, baring miscues or mechanical issues. There weren't very many examples of huge charges through the pack except for a couple of rare instances. There did seem to be about four drivers that were a cut above the field and they included Jake O'Neil, Lucas Schott, Darren Fuqua and R.C. Whitwell and those four drivers will start in the first four positions for the main event Saturday. Others that made the top twelve and are locked in include Josh Angst, Jason Krohn, Johnny and Stormy Scott, Kent Arment, Ricky Thornton Jr, Cody Skytland and Travis Saurer. Minnesota drivers lead the way with four of them in the "big dance" along with three from Arizona while there are only one from Kansas and none from Iowa. I think we might be store for one of the more interesting KoA events in the history of this race on Saturday.

The two best races of the night included two of those cars now qualified as Schott battled with Jake Hartung for one heat race win and then Schott battled with Angst for another in the second round. Schott couldn't pass Hartung but a last corner pass of Angst might have guaranteed him the pole.

The most shocking events of the night on Friday were the disqualifications of Kyle Strickler and Mitch Keeter following heat race action. Strickler was disqualified following a heat race win for some sort of frame issue while the deck height on Keeter's car was too tall following a third place finish in his first round of heats. The deck height issue was the one that tripped up a number of drivers last week in Mississippi where a number of them were also disqualified.

Certainly the two disqualifications sent shock waves through the pits and shook up the possible outcome of this weekend's racing. Strickler appeared to be the fastest car on the grounds following his Thursday night feature win and he will now have to climb through a whole series of preliminaries to even make the main, no small feat in and of itself. I just have to wonder how a car can pass through tech one night and be declared the winner and then not pass just one night later. Of course, some will say that they can't look for all things possibly wrong each night and that is probably true, but it just seems to defy logic how things can change so terribly on a car in just twenty four hours. But of course, teching is and always will be a "black science", even at the highest levels of racing and some things that occur in the tech shed can just leave one scratching your head from time to time.

The DQ for Keeter was just as significant as he has "owned" this race track for the last year or so and is always among the strong favorites to win any race here, as last year's performance in this event clearly indicates. He didn't even bother to race the second round of qualifying and his weekend must be done.

We will see if the tech shed, which has been busy this week with several DQ's on the opening night of action in the B Mods, will have more to say about the outcome of this weekend's racing action or if things now settle down. Stay tuned.

The B Mods had their biggest money of the weekend on the line Friday night and they participated in an interesting twenty five lap main event that saw about a half dozen cars racing in a big group and battling for the lead. Steve Muilenburg was the early leader and he made his car incredibly wide for several laps until J.C. Morton was finally able to squeeze by. Muilenburg would eventually break and drop out of the race.

Morton was under the gun after he took over the lead though as Kris Jackson came storming up from the fifth row to challenge on the low side. In fact, he did make a pass for the lead, only to see it called back by a yellow. On the restart, Morton had trouble on all sides as Jackson was nipping at his heels while Randy Zimmerman went to the outside to challenge. Andy Bryant also moved in while Cody Jolly was flying up from the seventh row to join them and pretty soon we had about six cars battling for the lead.

The race had the makings of a classic except the darn yellow flag kept waving and breaking up the flow of things as it seemed like just when some hard racing would break out, someone would go for a spin and slow things down again. It was frustrating as the yellow waved four times in the course of only three laps.

Finally, some green flag racing broke out and Zimmerman made the outside work as he squeezed past Morton to take over the lead. The pack stayed right with them though and Morton continued to try and drop low and take the lead back. The final yellow set up a three lap sprint to the finish and Zimmerman was able to keep his car straight and true through the corners as he held off the late rush by Morton to take the win. Jackson had to settle for third ahead of a charging Mike Striegel and Jolly.

Zimmerman is a long time veteran of the sport, having raced Late Models for many years before he got into Modified racing and I had to share with the folks I was sitting with that I remembered a race many, many years ago up in Minot North Dakota that paid some huge bucks for the time and Zimmerman showed up with one of the experimental six cylinder Modifieds. Honestly, I don't remember if he won that weekend but he did win a number of those big buck traveling shows that occurred back in "the day." 

Many of you know that Modified driver Jason Pursley just races for fun and that his real job is that of an elementary school Principal in Missouri. Jason related to me that he has been working with a devise that he invented that can easily be put on the door of classrooms to safely and quickly bolt the door shut to keep anyone from intruding. It's sad to say that we have to worry about such things but that is the way of the world right now and we have to adapt to it.

Jason's invention is simple, efficient and cost effective too and schools and other public entities all over the country have been calling him to find out about his product. He is looking into getting a patent for the product and may have produced a "cottage industry" for himself that might turn out bigger than he ever could have imagined.

Strickler Stuns USMTS Regulars; Posts First Ever Sanctioned Win

The Prelude to the "King of America VIII Modified Nationals " kicked off Thursday night, March 15th at the Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt Kansas. Thursday night was a full point night for the traveling warriors of the USMTS and also served as a cash paying practice night for all those drivers on hand not chasing USMTS points but looking for some big cash at the conclusion of Saturday night's racing action. Also on hand were the USRA B Mods with a full program of racing, one of three for this group with drivers from as far away as South Dakota and Minnesota on hand to race and pick up both some early season laps and for some, some early season national points.

Normally, while there might be a few extra arrivals on Friday for the qualifying night for the KoA, most of the field typically is on hand to race on Thursday so the drivers in the pits would give us a good handle on how many drivers we might be expected to see compete in 2018 for this prestigious award. When the entries seemed to lag all week, there was some question about how strongly the drivers would be supporting this event in 2018. Fortunately, in the last couple of days the phones lit up at USMTS headquarters in Webster City Iowa and by the time the first green flag dropped on Thursday, seventy eight USMTS Modifieds were in the pits. This number was up well over a dozen from last year's count and just goes to show that you never know just exactly what you're going to get when you head for the track.

Along with the Modifieds, a typically solid field of forty one B Mods was on hand too as that field will fluctuate each night as new drivers arrive for each full show while some drag their broken equipment home early.

The weather was incredible for the opening night of this three night run with unseasonably warm temperatures that had even the "locals" swooning. And for those of us that had been locked in the cold and snowy North for the last few months, we were in nirvana. Temperatures cracked the seventy degree mark along with a blazing sunshine and yours truly got a bit of a sunburn as I kept peeling off layers and layers of clothing as it continued to warm as the afternoon progressed. Shorts were not out of the question on this glorious Spring/late Winter day and the only down side was a powerful wind that blew straight out of the South, warming our bodies and souls but raising heck with the racing surface.

Kansas was already under a "red flag" warning for fires as it has been very dry in this part of the country and the strong wind literally sucked the moisture right out of the track, making it almost impossible to provide the kind of racing surface that we are used to at "The Hummer." This would play out later as main events took place.

Nearly every driver that was on the pre-entered list was on hand on Thursday with the major exception being that Ryan Gustin was not in the house. An example of the still strong popularity of Gustin was the number of people that asked me where Gustin was pitted and the expressions on their faces when I said he was AWOL. However, I still expect him to arrive and race on Friday and would be shocked if he wasn't on hand. Also expected on Friday would be the senior half of the Gallardo Racing Team from New Mexico with a car on hand for him on Thursday but no driver as of yet arrived.

The track looked very much like a normal Humboldt track, black and slick top to bottom shortly after the first B Mod heats started, but for whatever reason it did not seem to race as well as some nights. Perhaps it was due to the fact that there wasn't a not of moisture underlying the surface. Not that the racing was bad but there just didn't seem to be the amount of passing as on some occasions. Some of that could also be laid on how the line ups played out which certainly limits passing on some nights.

Not that they are bad racers by any means but it was somewhat surprising that the list of Modified heat race winners would include Jason Strand, Ryan Mikkelson, Bryce Bjerken, R.C. Whitwell and Jake Hartung who are all fine racers but not well known to the USMTS set. I might also point out that three of the five were running crate motors.

Justin making the features was a brutal adventure and the four B features were sixteen car, feature like contests. And drivers like Lucas Schott, Rodney Sanders, Mitch Keeter, Johnny Scott, Bumper Jones, Ricky Thornton Jr and Cade Dillard all had to qualify out of B mains. The list of those left on the sidelines at feature time was impressive and did include defending national champion Jason Hughes, among others.

The forty lap main had an interesting mix of drivers in it but things turned disappointing early. Jason Krohn had the early lead but Kyle Strickler, who was very impressive in his heat race, quickly moved in to challenge Krohn for the lead. After a good side by side battle for a couple of laps, Strickler was able to drive inside Krohn and take over the top spot. Darren Fuqua had also looked fast in his heat and he battled his way into second and past Krohn and closed some on Strickler.

Two early yellows in the first twelve laps slowed the action but then the final twenty eight laps went nonstop. It looked like a battle was going to ensue for the lead but then the track started to take rubber and the drivers quickly lined up and began to tailgate each other. Fuqua would look low in the corners on Strickler but as long as Kyle didn't make a mistake and get out of the rubber, there would be no passing of him.

His only potential problem was lapped traffic which was just ahead but most of the tail end cars dove to the infield when they saw they were about to be lapped and not making any progress and the only one Strickler had to fight past was Bumper Jones but once he cleared him, he was home free. Krohn held on for third with Dereck Ramirez next in line. Whitwell did a fine job taking a top five in and unfamiliar ride. The only significant issue of a non finisher in the main was that of Stormy Scott who appeared to lose an engine and dump a lot of fluid on the track, which triggered the second and final yellow of the event.

The B Mods got the best track to race their main event as after all the qualifying events were completed, the call was made to "farm" the track for the main events. When the B Mods started their twenty lap main, the track was significantly faster than it had been previously and the B Mods were flying around the oval until it started to slow up as the race progressed.

Dan Hovden was the early leader and was pressured and then passed by J. C. Morton. However, Morton was soon under the gun himself as Cody Jolly, and Andy Bryant were all pushing for the lead and they were a strong group battling for the top spot.

Jolly is the defending track champion here and he showed his mettle as he worked past Bryant and then after a good battle, eased past Morton to take over the top spot. On the charge was Kris Jackson who started fourteenth and raced into the top five and then continued to press for the top spot.

He was also able to pass Bryant and Morton and he challenged Jolly for the lead. A couple of late yellows gave him opportunities but the only driver he wasn't able to get by was Jolly, who was just too strong for the field on this night. Bryant settled for third as Morton slipped back with Riley Whitworth having his best run of the early season for a fifth place.

As usual, the show moved along at a quick pace, starting very near the advertised time and with no down time at all, except for the one session of "farming." I'm sure that track prep will be changed up for Friday, with weather similar to Thursday's expected.

Friday's program will feature the Modifieds in three rounds of qualifying heats as they earn points to set the lineups for Saturday night's ladder of events while the B Mods will slug it out with their biggest paying event of the weekend as the winner will go home with fifteen hundred bucks on Friday night.

The evening started on a somber note as Janet Staley, co-founder and operator of the USMTS along with husband Todd, had to rush back to Iowa this afternoon due to a critical family emergency in her family and thoughts go out to her at this difficult time.

Grabo Pleases the Locals at Beatrice

Saturday night, March 10th was night number two for the annual Spring Nationals at the Beatrice Speedway with another complete show scheduled. Despite a rather gray day with breezy conditions and a few spritzes of rain from time to time, the show would go on as scheduled and along with the four classes that raced on Friday night, the Sport Compacts would be added to the program as they also competed in a full program of heats and features.

Not that we needed any more race cars but with thirty five of the Sport Compacts signing in to race and with the other classes producing just as many or in at least one case even more cars than raced on Friday night, the total in the jammed pits on Saturday was two hundred and thirty two race cars. Folks, that's a lot of race cars, especially when all five classes are running full shows. But once again, the wizards that run the Beatrice Speedway again pulled off the seemingly near impossible task of running off the five class program and not even having to charge us for two admissions if the show would extend over on to Sunday morning because they were done before 11:30 pm. Granted, that is a little late for normal conditions but with this many races and cars, I was more than happy with the way things went.

But even more amazing was the condition of the race track itself. They did start out with it just a bit wetter on Saturday than it had been on Friday which required a little more packing and led them to starting about twenty minutes late but from then on the track turned out beautifully. They ran off forty three races and the track was still racy right to the end of the night with drivers running all over the track. It was black and smooth with no dust but drivers were able to pass all night. And all this was accomplished even though not a water truck, or digger or anything else was put on the track once the first green flag dropped. That is so refreshing to see, particularly when I compare it to my home area tracks where the water trucks, graders and other farm implements get far too much of a workout once the racing starts.

The local race fans had a little more to cheer for on Saturday night too. They were pretty disappointed when Jordan Grabouski was the first driver out of the Modified feature on Friday night and his second place success in the Stock Cars just wasn't the same. But on Saturday, Grabo has things figured out and he came from the third row to win the Modified main. Just like on Friday, Hunter Marriott was the "brides maid" as he fought the good fight but just couldn't get the win. Like Thornton Jr had done the night before, Grabo just worked and worked on the high side until he started to get some momentum and once he did, he was able to drive around Hunter and take the lead. Once in front, he was in control as he took the win but an increasing margin on every lap. Two seconds weren' t bad, but Marriott had to have been a mite frustrated having led both nights but not being able to complete the deal. For the second straight night, Cayden Carter finished third, but unlike Friday, he had to drive from the  fifth row to get the third spot. He is looking very good in his new Vanderbilt Modified. Jeremy Payne and Kelly Shryock completed the top five.

While Thornton Jr didn't fare quite as well in the Modified on Saturday, he made up for it to a point by winning the Stock Car feature. On Friday night, he blew the transmission all over the track early in the main but with a lot of hard work by his crew, the car was ready to go on Saturday and he showed dominating speed in winning the main. Once in front in pulled away while there was a tremendous battle for second with drivers exchanging spots multiple times. Kyle Vanover back up Friday's performance with a charge from fifteenth to second ahead of Derek Green.

Northern Iowa's Josh Appel took the Sport Mod feature with a mid race pass. After that, it was a matter of fighting off the challengers on the late restarts. While Appel was confortable up front, there was another tremendous battle for the second spot with Colby Langenberg pounding the cushion to get the position while Jake McBernie rounded out the top three.

The Hobby Stock feature saw a big group battling for the win and at the end it was local driver Taylor Huss who took the top spot with Austin Jahnz a close third and making a late charge for third was Brady Bencken.

The Sport Compacts also had a good run with Ramsey Meyer coming from the eleventh starting spot to take the win. He showed tremendous speed and once in front, opened up a big lead to the finish. The Sport Compacts had only two yellow flags in the finale with the Bohlmeyer's, Drake and Zach, finishing second and third.

All the main events on Saturday featured some tremendous battles back in the pack for position and while the mains were extremely hard fought, the number of yellows was very minimal.

With so many quality drivers on hand, and particularly using the draw/redraw format which weighs so heavily on drawing a good number, it was surprising that there were so many drivers that were able to fashion two solid back to back finishes. In the Hobby Stocks, Taylor Huss had a first and a second place finish while Roy Armstrong finished fourth both nights.

The only Stock Car driver to get strong back to backs was Vanover with a first and a second on Saturday. Meanwhile, in the Sport Mods, Jarred Hackler to a second and a fifth while Brayton Carter placed fourth both nights in the mains. And in the Modifieds, Marriott was second both nights and C. Carter third so it was a good opening weekend for the Oskaloosa brothers.

The outside wall seems to have a magnetic like attraction for the racers at Beatrice although part of the issue is the fact that so many drivers run so close to the wall there. But there were several spectacular incidents that involved racers getting up into and in a couple of cases, over the outside wall.

Chris Bates drove right over the wall with his Hobby Stock in turn one and kept right on going; no small feat in itself. And Modified driver Justin Zeitner broke in his new GRT car not like he'd like by going over the wall in the third turn in his heat race. Defending national champion Tyler Soppe also became very familiar with the Beatrice concrete as he clobbered the wall on Friday and ended his night while on Saturday he managed to make the main but still hit the wall on a couple of occasions and finally retired from the feature event in the Sport Mods.

Part of the problem would appear to be that the wall is just Jersey barricades stacked together which aren't very tall and when the dirt gets built up on them, as it has in many locations on the track, it isn't much of a vault to get up on and over the wall. This might be an issue that , long term, needs to be addressed.

The crowds were good but not spectacular on each night but when you have the advantage of having so many people in the pits, that provides a nice cushion for management. For the fans, even the most hard core among them get enough racing over the two days for sure and with intense racing across the board in all classes, this is one of the best early season specials anywhere. It never seems to be too warm in Nebraska this time of year but just bulk up on the clothes and then enjoy the hot racing action.

RTJ Tops Opening Night at Beatrice

Ricky Thornton Jr topped the IMCA Modified feature race on opening night of the annual Spring Nationals at the Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice Nebraska. As usual, it was a huge opening night for this event with other winners including Kyle Vanover in the Stock Cars, Joe Docekal in the Sport Mods and Chanse Hollatz in the Hobby Stocks.

The city of Beatrice may be one of the few cities around that "get it" when it comes to showing community support for a racing event in their town. It was tough to miss the huge blinking signs at the city limits welcoming race fans and teams to their fair city in southeastern Nebraska. Clearly, they realize the economic impact that the drivers, crews and fans bring into the town for this weekend's activities. Some many towns turn a blind eye toward such things so as a visiting fan, it feels nice to see when your economic support is appreciated.

Being one of the first races of the year in the Midwest, driver support for this race is always strong and from a widely varied area. Besides Nebraska, drivers were on hand from Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Texas, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Missouri, Canada and even Alaska among others.

There is always a huge field of cars on hand for this race and the opening night total was one hundred and ninety four race cars. As always, the support divisions provide just as many entrants as the top billed classes but I did think the Modified field, while strong, was considerably smaller than some years. I believe the last time I was at the Spring race in Beatrice the Modified field was pushing one hundred drivers but it wasn't half that this year. The recent rugged weather in the upper Midwest, specifically North Dakota, was mentioned as a possible reason why the car count was down. However, there was still plenty of cars on hand to provide a full night of racing.

I am always tremendously impressed with the high level of organization for this event and how smoothly the race program is administered. I can think of many tracks, that if they had this many cars entered and the pits spread all over the county as they are here at the sprawling fairgrounds, would have a tough time even getting the show started at some point during the evening! Compare that with Beatrice who managed to sign in nearly two hundred cars, run off some brief hot laps, have a driver's meeting and still start within a few scant minutes of the advertised time. And once they got started, it was nonstop racing until the final feature race was completed. They ran off thirty four races and had the whole show done by 11 p.m. Remarkable! Of course, the one spin rule does help keep things moving but the coordinated effort by the track officials and the cooperation of the drivers all help to keep the show moving. It is such a pleasure to see a program run off in such a top notch manner.

As you can imagine, with such big fields of cars, the qualifying events were very intense with several instances of drivers rapping each other in the bumpers following their races as they objected to some of the "slide jobs" and other attempted passing maneuvers. However, all was "fair in love and war" as the twenty four car fields were assembled.

There is always quite a competition here between the local drivers and the visitors to see who comes home with the wins and the weekly racers here jealously work to protect their home turf. However, on this night three of the four feature wins would go to visiting drivers with only track champion Kyle Vanover "holding serve" as he came from the third row to win the Stock Car feature.

I felt the Modified feature was the best main event of the night. After a full evening of racing on the track and no track prep done to the surface, the track was very black and smooth by Modified feature time. Most of the racers in the three previous mains had run the low line and it didn't seem that there would be much top side racing in the Modified main.

However, Thornton Jr is one of those rare drivers with the talent to be able to work the track until he finds a line that will allow him to make passes and he is relentless at doing so. Hunter Marriott took the early lead in the Modified feature and it appeared that he might run away with the event. However, Thornton Jr came from the sixth row to move into second and once he got behind Marriott, he worked all over the track looking for the edge that would get him by. Finally, he was able to adjust his line and get a good run off the banking and driver into the lead. And he had only two yellows to help him get to the front.

But once he made the pass, he pulled away from Marriott for the win. Cayden Carter, who led briefly, held on for third ahead of Jesse Dennis and Jordy Nelson.

Vanover came from the third row to win the Stock Car feature as he was able to get his car handling well on the bottom and he was able to drive under the field to get the win. Jordan Grabouski, who was the first car out of the Modified feature, surprised by also driving in the Stock Cars and he gave it everything he had in an effort to pass Vanover. Grabouski was one of the few trying the top side in the Stock Cars and he pushed it with everything he had but had to settle for second. Cayden Carter also racing in both of the top classes and he made a strong march through the field, coming from nineteenth to third.

Joe Docekal, who moved from the Modifieds back to the Sport Mods a couple of years ago, made his first appearance at Beatrice a winning one as he started on the pole and fought off several challengers throughout the main to win the feature race. He held the low line and while both Jarred Hackler and Johnathon Logue at times appeared faster and were nearly running up the back end of Docekal, they could never figure out quite how to pass Joe.

The second feature to be won right off the pole was executed by Chanse Hollatz as the North Iowa star maintained the low line and didn't give anyone a chance to pass him. There was only a first lap yellow in the Hobby Stocks and then they ran wire to wire and Hallatz displayed a lot of speed as he pulled away from the pack. Taylor Huss finished a strong second with Jesse Vanlaningham in third.

The first night of the weekend doubleheader displayed some good racing but the real stars of the night for me were the track crew, all the workers and promoter Toby Kruse who put on once of the smoothest special events I have seen in quite some time.

Sketter Estey Takes the Big Money in Humboldt

Saturday night, March 3rd, the fourth annual Battle at the Bullring B Mod Nationals was completed at the Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt Kansas. Along with a fifty lap main event for the B Mods, the NASCAR sanctioned Modifieds also had another full program and the winners of the big money were Sketter Estey from Kelly Lake Minnesota while Tanner Mullins topped the Modified main event.

One hundred and two B Mods were left standing after two nights of qualifying events and this group of drivers ran through the gauntlet  that started with four Last Chance events and gradually worked down through the alphabet until the last ten were advanced out of the B Feature to join the twelve that earned their way in by earning the highest point totals in two nights of racing. Three provisional drivers, one from each of the sanctioning bodies represented, filled out the twenty five car starting field for the main event for one of the longest races the B Mod drivers will be asked to run for the entire season.

Saturday was the first night in three that the B Mod drivers had actually gotten to race a longer race with more than ten cars in it and the first couple of Last Chance races got off to a shaky start as lots of restarts slowed the action. However, the drivers soon acclimated themselves and the vast majority of the other qualifying races went off rather smoothly with few yellows.

In the B Mod main, they actually got the first thirty six laps completed before the first yellow flag flew. High point earned Dustin Daniels sat on the pole and after a scrappy first lap, he edged ahead of Estey to take the early lead. Estey was pushing hard however, and within a few laps made a strong outside move in turn four to take over the top spot. Estey continued to show the way as some of the other drivers began to pick up the pace. The biggest movers were Michael Truscott and Kris Jackson who both started in row seven but were making large advances toward the front. Estey stretched his lead at this point while Kale Westover started to apply pressure to Daniels for second. Kale was eventually able to gain second and he began to close on Estey as Sketter started to work through traffic.

Westover got right up behind Estey as they continued to battle the traffic and Kale nearly made a move to take over the lead. However, Estey found a hole between a couple of back markers and was able to then put just a bit of distance on Westover. Meanwhile, Truscott was continuing his march to the front as he cracked the top five with Jackson right in his tire tracks.

Thirty six laps had been completed when the first yellow flew for a two car tangle in turn four. On the green, Andy Bryant, who was running in the top five appeared to break something and he piled hard into the third turn wall, triggering another yellow. Truscott was able to get past Daniels to take over third and when then went back to racing, Truscott continued his charge as he passed Westover for second and set off after Estey. Jackson ran into troubles though, as he had a left front tire go flat and while he remained on the track and running competitively, he had a group of several cars that was pressuring him as Kris just wasn't able to run as good a laps with the tire down.

It looked like Truscott might be able to challenge Estey but on the final green Sketter got away got from the pack and opened up some distance again and Truscott just wasn't able to muster a serious challenge. Estey was locked into his groove and there would be no catching him as the 2017 WISSOTA National Midwest Modified champion would become the first repeat winner of the B Mod Nationals. Westover held on for third ahead of Daniels and a late rush saw Ryan Schroeder get past Jackson to complete the top five finishers. The second five featured Jackson, Chad Wheeler, Jamie Davis, Sketter's father Kelly Estey and Cole Searing. Interestingly, Estey won the race with the same car he drove to the national title last year as his new TRC chassis is still under construction but once completed, the winning car will turn into a back up machine. It was also a good night for the WISSOTA drivers overall as positions 1,2,5, 8,9 and 10 were all drivers from that sanctioning body.

B Mods(or whatever the "handle" is that the particular sanctioning body chooses to call them). have a reputation, and sometimes a deserved one, of being a class that does nothing but spin and crash and create yellow flags. However, that was not the case here this weekend. Certainly there were some wrecks and some torn up equipment, but there were also plenty of hard fought, close side by side racing too. And the quality of the racing machines themselves had advanced by astronomical measures in the last few years. Just one look at the feature field of cars speaks to that. These are not B Mods anymore. They are expensive, good looking and sanitary racing machines that, in the right hands of quality drivers, can put on a great racing program.

Forty one Modifieds signed in to race on Saturday also and they ran five heats and two B features to set their field for their twenty lap finale. Having hovered among the front runners for the last two nights, it was finally time to Tanner Mullins to take his first win of 2018. Although he started on the pole, the win was anything but easy as after taking the early lead, he was overtaken by Tyler Davis and spent much of the race trying to track down the fellow Wichita area driver.

They put on quite a show as they race hard side by side without getting into each other as slowly but surely, Mullins got to the inside of Davis and edged ahead of him to take the lead well past the halfway point of the race. A tricky berm off turn two proved to be Davis' downfall as he caught it and clipped the wall and messed up the front end on his car. Darren Fuqua, trying to go back to back, was also a challenger until he caught the same piece of real estate and finished off his car also.

At the end, Dan Ebert, who had been putting in strong runs all weekend, made another nice charge as he drove up into second but had nothing for the winnner. Cody Skytland, sorting out his new car, had his best run of the weekend as he took third late in the contest. Zach VanderBeek did another one of his patented charges to the front as he came from fourteenth to finish fourth. This race was another rewarding one for the WISSOTA contingent as along with Ebert and Skytland, North Dakota's Ryan Mikkelson made it three WISSOTA drivers in the top five.

The track was a little bit different on Saturday than it had been for the first two nights. It seemed to hold a bit more moisture than previous nights and actually rolled up into a berm in the corners to the point that Ryan Whitworth came out with the grader and knocked it down before the fifty lap finale. It was a bit of an unexpected change and caught many by surprise although the racing wasn't a bit compromised by the change.

While the crowds had been, not surprisingly, a little bit light the first two nights of this weekend, a big crowd was on hand to catch the feature race action on Saturday and along with a jam packed pit area, seemed to indicate the long term health of this event.

Once again track officials did a fine job of running off and moving the show along. For the third straight night the program rolled off within a scant few minutes of the announced starting time and Saturday's whole program was completed before 10:30 pm. lots of people took advantage of the early conclusion to head to the pits and meet some of the drivers.

The entire weekend ran off smoothly and provided three solid nights of racing action. Not surprisingly at all, the folks at Humboldt were on their "A" game and provided a well organized meet. Announcers Sam and Brice did an excellent job calling the action and keeping everyone informed. There is a reason that Humboldt is well known for their outstanding special events and they just continue to build on their reputation.

Fuqua Dominates Modifieds as B Mods Continue to Qualify at "The Hummer"

Friday night, March 2nd brought second round qualifying for the B Mods at the Humboldt Speedway for the Battle at the Bullring IV along with another full show of NASCAR sanctioned Modifieds. For the B Mods, it was their final opportunities to improve their point standings through two more rounds of heat races as everyone tries to advance as high on the ladder as possible before the big money gets distributed on Saturday night. The Modifieds are trying to get more laps as they tune up for the King of the Dirt coming in two weeks to "The Hummer" while the local and weekly racers try to get a head start in the point standings as they look to become NASCAR champions both here and at the Salina Highbanks Speedway which is also a NASCAR track.
The attrition rate was apparently quite low during night one of qualifying on Thursday night as only four B Mods failed to return which meant that one hundred and thirteen of them would take a green flag Friday night in one of twelve heat races. Then they would reshuffle the deck and another dozen heats would be held with the total points of the four sets of heats determining the positioning of Saturday night's races.
Several Modifieds did not return but there were other new ones on hand to replace them and the number actually increased by one to forty two Modifieds, split into five heats, a couple of B Features and a twenty lap main event as they raced for a grand top prize.
Most notable additions in the Modified field were the entries of Zach VanderBeek and Late Model standout Jesse Stovall. Zach opted for Kansas when the weather cut deeply into the planned weekend of USMTS racing down there while Stovall was looking to get laps on a Modified as he preps for some upcoming big shows.
Slow and steady marked the path of VanderBeek as he had to qualify for the main through a B Feature but then he drove all the way up to fourth at the finish of the main event.
Stovall was much more spectacular but his evening was short lived. Driving an aggressive line on the track, as he has often done, he was very fast in his Modified heat, that is however, until he drove straight into the turn one wall when the car failed to turn. Hitting the wall with severe force, he rolled to a halt in turn one. The contact was indeed heavy enough to badly damage his car and Stovall, his "bell rung", took a few minutes before easing out of the cockpit. Needless to say, his evening was done very early.
An update on the two B Mods that were DQ'd Thursday night and lost high finishes because of that. Both Austin Ellis and Tony Bahr, two drivers by the way that I see race weekly back in Wisconsin, had been doing work on their cars before the race program on Thursday and somehow, both cars had the chips on their "rev box" set wrong and when they were checked, both were about two hundred revs high for the rules. Neither disputed the findings and both agreed that it was just a "mess up" in the pits before they started racing. Both later did well on both Thursday and Friday night in the following heat races as they proved that their cars were fast even when legal. However, both were crushed by their mistakes and despite each having three solid finishes in other heats, the lost points from their one bad heat will bury they in the qualifying order for Saturday's finale and both will have to pass a bunch of cars to make the main.
Everyone in the B Mod class was doing a lot of point watching and trying to calculate how things might break down by the end of the night on Friday. Many were analyzing their heat races and others to see where the competition was starting and who each were racing against in their respective heats. Of the top twelve in points, by the end of the night many of them had solid runs again on Friday and were likely locked into the top twelve and guaranteed feature starting positions. Some near the bottom of the top group didn't do so well such as Cole Campbell, Roy Long, Randy Zimmerman and Matt Dotson who crashed out of a heat. The reason I'm speculating and not giving hard facts at this point as to this moment, when I'm typing this, the final points have not been posted to my knowledge so I really don't know which drivers will be sitting in the top twelve.
Three that likely will include Dustin Daniels, Cody Jolly and Kale Westover. All three won their opening round heats on Friday night and sat in the position of breaking the record for this event if they could sweep the fourth heat race win and take all four that they entered. However, the competition proved tough and none was able to get that fourth heat win so the record will stand as it is.
Whoever does make the big show, it will be a war of attrition as fifty laps is a very long distance for the drivers in this class, using to racing twenty lap events and seldom running races longer than that distance. Those that show patience and save their cars will likely be there at the end after everyone settles in a few drivers get "weeded out."
As far as the Modifieds in their main event on Friday night, only two minor yellows slowed the event and Fuqua, who came right off the pole, drove away from the field to score an easy win. He was never challenged during the race and following the two yellows, pulled away both times. He was debuting a brand new MB Customs car and it obviously was strong for him right out of the box.
For the second straight night, the show was put on by Mitch Keeter who once again didn't race that well in his heat and had to run a B Feature.
However, from that point he was a rocket ship as he started thirteenth in the main event and raced up through the field, passing on both the high and low side of the track. His car showed amazing speed in the corners and he was able to gain several car lengths on the rest of the pack in each turn. When the high side was blocked, he was able to dive low and slide up past cars to gain more positions. He edged past Tanner Mullins right at the line to steal second spot and if the race had been a thirty lap main, Fuqua would have had his hands full.
Showing good speed for the second straight was Mullins with another solid run while last night's winner Terry Schultz also grabbed a top five with Dan Ebert right behind him.
Once again the track was in prime shape with it being black and slick from top to bottom, smooth and the drivers were able to use the whole track. And all this was done once again without seeing any track prep work done. The schedule for Saturday shows the possibility of a break for "farming" but with the lesser amount of races on Saturday night, I think every driver in the pits would just as soon see them leave the track alone. rather than dig it up and turn it into a "speedfest" , rather than a driver's track which is what it has been the last two nights.
The evening concluded with a Race of States event for the B Mods and it was a very nice touch to see the drivers carrying the flag of their home states and they formed up for the race. Kris Jackson represented Missouri well as he started on the pole and ran away with the race but Michael Truscott represented the "Cheeseheads" well, coming from tenth to finish second and getting the "Hard Charger" award.
Every year it seems like the Whitworth family makes improvements to "The Hummer." This Spring the addition was another set of bleachers added on to the grandstand coming out of turn four. The nice thing is that the grandstand is fully enclosed from the back and I'm told the plan is to eventually enclose the backs of the entire grandstand. Since it's nothing if not windy constantly in Kansas in the Spring, that will be a very nice addition to cut down the winds the do on occasion howl through the stands. And the hot rumor circulating through the stands is that in 2019 "The Hummer" will host both a World of Outlaws Late Model and Sprint race, one reason that the Whitworths are working to increase their attendance capacity.

Schultz Tops Opening Night at Humboldt

It has been too long since I was last in the pits and at the race track; smelling the smells and hearing the sounds of dirt track racing. Considerations kept me away from Florida this year, so February was a long and tedious month, as it is for most people unless you're a fan of snow and cold. Neither do much for me.

But that is all over now as dirt track racing has returned to the Midwest; albeit still a ten hour drive from my front porch. Thursday night, March 1, was opening night for the fourth annual B Mod Nationals presented by Troy Giralamo's G-Style Transport located in Williston North Dakota. Along with opening night qualifying for the B Mods, a full show of NASCAR sanctioned Modifieds was also on the card.
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One hundred and twenty B Mods were on the lineup for night one of racing although there were three pre entered cars that I did not see in the pits nor on the track and one I know for sure that was racing in Las Vegas instead. Therefore, my count was one hundred and seventeen B Mods along with forty one Modifieds.

The B Mods run under an umbrella of rules where each sanctioning body represented runs their own rules package with no mixing and matching. USRA Sport Mods, WISSOTA Midwest Mods, and both IMCA Northern and Southern Sport Mods are on hand this weekend and everyone is running their own rules including tires and spoiler height. It makes for an interesting combination and so far, in the four years that this race has been run, no determinable overwhelming advantage has been seen for any of the particular sanctioning bodies. And if there were, you can bet that there would be some hard "lobbying" to see some changes and so far, none have been necessary.

Each B Mod driver draws four pills upon entering the gate, which is their line up position for the four heat races that they run over two nights; two on Thursday and two more on Friday night. Total passing points for the four heats will determine the top twelve who automatically move into the main event, paying $8,500 to win on Saturday night and set the "ladder" for the rest as they try to qualify for the main with "alphabet soup" races on Saturday.

As you might expect, there was plenty of pent up Adrenalin as the racing program began, and a couple of the early heat races saw some wild driving and a rash of yellow flags. However, once everyone settled down, things went much smoother. This also seemed to coincide with the track widening out also. It was a little narrow in the groove early but as soon as a few drivers moved up the track, the outside cleaned off and then things opened up as drivers were running all over the track and both the racing action picked up and the number of yellows went down.   

Once the first green flag flew, and actually it did wave two minutes ahead of the scheduled start time, there was absolutely no track prep work done. The track was smooth from the "get go" and stayed that way all night and as mentioned earlier, once they "blew off" the outside groove, the track remained racy all night. And we're talking a total of thirty three races here. Modified drivers reported that it did start to take some rubber in their feature race but a lot of racing had happened before that so the track prep crew deserves big congratulations. They did get some rain late on Wednesday and they let that precipitation soak in so that also may have helped.

Things did get off to a bit of a rocky start in the first hot lap session when a pile up in the third turn on the first lap of the first session of practice wrecked the cars of North Dakota's Tim Thomas and Missouri's Chris Hawkins to the point that they were done for the weekend.

Somewhat surprisingly, with so many strong drivers on hand, there were three drivers that managed to win both their heat races. They included Cody Jolly, Kale Westover and Dustin Daniels. For my money, Westover in his Southern Sport Mod looks like the driver to beat on Saturday night.

Young Austin Ellis from Wisconsin also won two heats but he was DQ'd from his first heat race win for an unknown(at this time), violation. Tony Bahr, another Wisconsin driver, won a heat race and finished second in another but his runner up place was also nixed due to a DQ. Justin Comer as also the recipient of a black flag when he refused to leave the racing surface after he pitted and returned with a new tire, something also against the rules.

The tech shed was a busy place as a Modified heat winner Jerad Fuller and runner up Dev Malmlov were also both DQ'd. Fuller did not return the rest of the night.

With consistency being important, solid finishes in all four of the B Mod heats would likely send that driver on to the feature race on Saturday. With that being said, many of the top runners ran into troubles in one of their heats that will cause them to scramble the rest of the weekend. Some of those included Josh Cain, Jared Timmerman, Shawn Strong, Curt Drake, J.C. Morton, Steve Muilenburg, Kanyan Methvin, Kris Jackson and John Allen who all had one bad heat race finish while Ryan Gillmore never even saw the track with his car. So you can expect that there will be some very hard driving on Friday night as drivers try to make up for that one bad outing.

The Modifieds ran a full program on Thursday night, as they will do all three nights this week. Although the Mods were sanctioned by NASCAR, the drivers were, just as the B Mod drivers were, running under their own rules package. Both Hoosier and American Racer tires were seen on cars and both USRA, WISSOTA and IMCA cars were on hand. One change, however, saw the IMCA cars running big spoilers on their crate motors and one of these cars nearly won the show as Mike Hansen, running a crate, led most of the Modified feature race before slipping back into the pack.

Five heats and two B features, run with passing points, set the twenty car field for the main event and Hansen took the lead with pressure from Jesse Willard and Paden Phillips. Charging to the front were Tanner Mullins, Terry Schultz and Dan Ebert. A couple of minor yellows kept the field bunched but the big break came following a lap thirteen yellow for a spin.

Mullins, who had been challenging Hansen hard, slipped up the track and Schultz got by him and then, in turn three on the same lap, Hansen pushed up the track and Schultz drove into the lead. From there he pulled away and won the feature with a comfortable edge.

Although driving a "plain Jane" car as usual, one would not have known that the flat tin housed a new MB chassis for Schultz. Mullins finished a strong third while Ebert, who runs both WISSOTA and open shows, was using his WISSOTA spec engine package on Thursday. Despite giving up horsepower, Ebert was clearly one of the fastest cars on the track. A strong fourth was Tyler Davis who was running his NCRA package(giving us our fourth sanctioning body) and it appears that Mitch Keeter has lost none of the magic he displayed at Humboldt last year as he charged from twelfth to fifth and had the low groove covered but simply ran out of laps.

One of the surprises in the Modifieds was the considerable number of crate motored cars that were competing and the other saw Tony Jackson Jr, the Late Model driver of renown, behind the wheel of a new MB Modified this week. I was not aware that Jackson Jr had ever driven a Mod before but he had all the standard sponsors of his Late Model on the car including Raymond Merrill's businesses so he must plan on doing some open wheel driving.

Track officials ran off a very tight and fast moving program on Thursday. Racing started just at the advertised time and the final checkered waved just at Midnight. While that might sound late, the racing was nearly nonstop as there were lots of races to be run. And it was a cold night. I jumped into my car and it said that the temperature was thirty degrees. However, my feet told me that the temp must be considerably colder than that! It is supposed to moderate as the weekend approaches.