While things weren't working out quite so well for the Iowa Football faithful, it was a glorious day for the Iowa dirt track Late Model fans when drivers from the Hawkeye state took the top three positions in the Late Model fifty lap main Saturday afternoon at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri.
Originally scheduled to be a two night, Friday and Saturday night event, the MLRA Fall Nationals and B Mod Clash of the Champions II turned into a two day, late afternoon program with racing on Saturday and Sunday after rain and cold temperatures caused track management to back up the opening racing program by twenty four hours.
Along with this being the final weekend of series points for both the MLRA and the COMP Cams Super Dirt Car Series, the B Mod feature, now to be contested on Sunday, will be paying a cool three grand to the winner of the event.
Thirty eight Late Models from the broad range of twelve different states were on hand for this late season special, which will be the closing dirt track racing event of the season at Lucas Oil Speedway. Eight of the top ten in Lucas Oil points were on hand, missing only Jesse Stovall and Dave Eckrich while the COMP Cams series had nine of the top ten, missing only Kyle Beard who suffered a very damaging race shop fire this week that destroyed much of his racing equipment.
Of the field assembled, I guess the biggest surprise would be the return of Ryan Gustin to Late Model racing after having been away from that segment of the dirt track world for a few years now. It was very much of a surprise when pictures of Gustin's new car surfaced mid-week and even more so when it actually showed up in person for racing this weekend. Ryan is driving a brand new Rocket chassis with the only visible sponsor on the car being Tri Star Engines out of Wisconsin, a sponsor he added to the car last year. I don't think he is actually running a Tri Star engine in the car though, as Tri Stars' main focus in on OEM replacement engines for trucks and cars, not open Late Model motors. However, that detail still needs to be determined. And not only was Gustin sporting a brand new Late Model, but he had a nice new transporter to go with it as everything involved in his racing program has taken a new burst in the upward direction.
Also sporting a brand new car for this weekend's racing was Payton Looney who debuted a brand new Capital race car for this show. What divergent paths these two new cars would later take in the evening!
It was an interesting format set up for the Late Models here this weekend. On Saturday, the Late Models would qualify with two on the clock at a time and then run heat races straight up off the time trial results. On Sunday, however, they will use passing points after drawing for the heat races. No one could explain to me why they use one format one day and then completely change for the second day. It will be interesting to compare the two sets of heats for racing value and entertainment once the weekend is over, but you know where I think the best show will be had. By the way, all four heat races were won from the front row here on Saturday(hint, hint).
The drivers fought some interesting track conditions throughout the race day here on Saturday. Perhaps it was all the rain or the early start time with the wind and sun, but the racing conditions were very odd compared to what I have seen here in other visits and even the best of the Late Model drivers, not to say anything about the B Mods, struggled from time to time with some very unexplained spins by some top notch drivers recorded.
The track was super slick in some spots yet tacky in other spots and the transition from one to the other seemed to play havoc with many of the drivers. Turns one and two had a lot of bite, with the low groove being just a bit choppy. The high side was fast but the line was very narrow and just to miss it by a foot or two caused one to slide right off the end and up into the run off area. Turns three and four were super slick and the fast way seemed to be right on the tires or right up against the wall, but the margin of error there was very narrow and there was plenty of action all day.
Twenty four cars started the Late Model feature, with the higher paying show having been kept to the Saturday portion of the show with the lower paying purse going from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. This meant that the Lates would be going fifty laps on Saturday also.
After having recorded quick time and winning the first heat, Tyler Bruening started on the pole and he took the early lead. They had a devil of a time getting laps in early with five yellows in the first ten laps. Most would be for minor issues except for the second attempt to get the race going when Looney and Will Vaught got together on the back chute. Looney got turned right in front of the majority of the field and a nine car pileup ensued with Looney getting clobbered by Terry Phillips to the point that Looney's car went airborne and upside down. Several others slammed into the wreckage and it looked to be a mess.
Surprisingly, all drove away except for Looney and the damage on his car didn't seem too bad either so we hope that he will be able to return on Sunday. Gustin was wedged up against the wall and had to be lifted off the front end of Jason Papich's car and it looked like he might be out of the race. Surprisingly, even though his car had some sheet metal damage and the spoiler was knocked ajar on the right side, he also continued.
And he did far more than just continue. After starting tenth, he moved up as each restart occurred and the double file restarts allowed him to gain generally a row of cars with each yellow. On lap eleven, after Tony Jackson Jr went off the end to trigger the fifth yellow, Gustin found himself on the outside of row two and when he passed Brian Rickman on the green, he was now on in second and the race was on.
The final forty laps went nonstop and slowly but surely, Gustin started to close in on Bruening. Gustin was one of the few running the higher line around the track and it was working for him while others were bogging themselves down by guarding the tires. When Bruening caught lapped traffic, his momentum was really killed and on lap twenty nine, Gustin squeezed by up against the wall on the front chute to take over the lead.
After that, he slowly pulled away from the field and despite a little problem of his own with the slower cars, he had a comfortable lead at the checkered. Chad Simpson gradually worked his way up into third and a couple of times he made a serious challenge to Bruening before settling for third. Right at the end, Vaught passed Rickman for fourth.
It was a remarkable run for Gustin, having been away from the Late Model ranks for such a time and then to break out a brand new car and top a quality field of cars was much more than just impressive. There are rumors that he intends to take on a major tour next year but we will all just have to see what happens over the Winter in that regard. Either way, he certainly brings new excitement to the Late Model division in the Midwest because if nothing else, Gustin is always exciting and fun to watch because he generally takes the path less walked, when it comes to his racing line on the track.
In the two series' point battles, Vaught extended his MLRA lead when Mitch McGrath spun out on the opening lap and had to fight his way back up to seventh with a hard drive. The COMP Cams series saw Timothy Culp add to his point total with a steady eighth place finish while Jackson Jr finished well back after his early spin.
The B Mod portion of the show saw fifty three B Mods sign in to race on Saturday, considerably down from last year's seventy one that were on hand. My suspicion is that the rescheduled program, which saw all the money racing in this class take place on Sunday just didn't work out for a number of the competitors, thus the fall in entries.
Still, there were drivers on hand from Minnesota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois and Kansas as well as Missouri. The drivers participated in a double heat race format, with their starting positions flip, flopped for the two heats. Total passing points would set the field for Sunday's finales, with the top twelve in passing points locked into the main event on Sunday for forty laps and three grand.
Ten different winners won the twelve heat races with only Dillon McCowen and Ryan Gilmore winning two heats. By coincidence, those will be the two drivers that will start on the front row on Sunday with Eric Turner and Andy Bryant right behind them. National point leader Kris Jackson will start in the third row.
Their heat races were highlighted by two intense battles between Bryant and Turner that they split and the nastiest slider of the entire day when Gilmore ran Greg Scheffler right up to the wall in the fourth corner on the final lap. The announcer called it "doing what he had to do" , while the crowd and Scheffler didn't see the move as being quite so noble.
A one spin rule could have been used for this class as some of the heats got bogged down badly by the same cars that just couldn't seem to keep their bearings and head North and South down the track, instead of East and West through uncharted waters.
The only other un positive thing that happened was the starting time for the show. Obviously set for an early start due to the cold temperatures that would arrive later, the first race was set to roll at 4:05 p.m. Needless to say, when the first race actually started at 5:35 pm, they were more than a little bit tardy. They did hustle after that to make up time but the final checkered didn't fly until just around 9 pm and with the strong winds, it was darn cold by that time and with the number of races they had, they truly should have been done much before that. Of course, much of that lost time could be hung on the two car, time trials for the Late Models, which is an almost guaranteed way to make a program start late.
Overall, however, it was a good show and provided plenty of racing entertainment as the season is in a rapid decent to its 2019 conclusion. Heck, back in Wisconsin, we saw snow this weekend! Fortunately, I wasn't there for that atrocity!
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