Welcome from Wheatland Missouri(population 371) and the Lucas Oil Speedway for the conclusion of the 6th annual MLRA Fall Nationals and B Mod Clash of Champions II on Sunday night, October 13th.
The Sunday portion of the show would feature another full show of MLRA/COMP Cam Late Models with heats, a couple B Features and a forty lap main event while the B Mods would run their ladder, starting with the E Feature race and working their way down the steps to the forty lap finale for the B Mods which was worth a cool three grand to the winner.
It was another sunny day in Mid Missouri and almost a full ten degrees warmer than it was on Saturday night and this was just the type of weather made for day time dirt track racing. While starting in the afternoon is very often a challenge for track prep, that was not the case here on Sunday as the track stayed nice and racy and there was not a bit of dust to contend with, the bane of most day time racing.
Thirty one Late Models signed in to race for the second night of their weekend events. New at the track on Sunday were Mark Burgtorf and Terry Henson while a few others did not return for various reasons. Qualifying for Sunday's events was through passing points after using the time trial method on Saturday. Half of Sunday's heat races were won off the front row but half were won from positions farther back, which thus produced more heat race passing than was seen on Saturday. And there were only a total of two yellow flags in the heats, thus debunking that old idea that unless all the fast cars start up front, there will be a lot of wrecking as everyone tries to get to the front. Tain't so McGee.
Twenty four cars started the main event which got off to a shaky start when outside front row starter Tyler Bruening got too high on the tricky number one corner and spun, thus taking away what was a very promising starting position for him. After that, it was the Tony Jackson Jr show as he led all forty laps in a dominating drive to the feature win. He quickly put distance on the field and there was no one that would challenge him in this race. Two Reid Millard spins slowed the action but the last twenty seven laps would run off nonstop and Jackson Jr's biggest challenge was the large number of lapped cars he needed to navigate through.
Making a nice move toward the front was Payton Looney with a great recovery after having been on his lid on Saturday night. He drove up to second and looking following one of the restarts that he might perhaps challenge Jackson Jr but Tony soon stepped away and Looney was left behind.
Soon to be crowned MLRA champion(right following the race), Will Vaught made the hardest charge of the night as he came from thirteenth to wind up third. He was actually up to second in the closing laps but the heavy traffic played against him and Looney was able to recapture the second spot. At the checkered, , Jackson Jr had six lapped cars and space between himself and Looney. Ryan Gustin had a steady run for fourth and Timothy Culp came from fourteenth to finish as he tries to hold on to his COMP Cam point lead. A dozen cars were on the lead lap at the finish and only one car didn't complete the race which in part led to the heavy traffic that Jackson Jr and the other leaders had to deal with early and often.
The B Mod portion of the program started out on a rocky note but eventually smoothed out as we worked our way down to the "meat" of the field. Because of a smaller than planned for field of cars, most everyone in the early "ladder" of races moved on, so there didn't seem to be much point in some of the early events. For the brevity of the race program, it wouldn't have been a bad thing to eliminate some of the early qualifying events and put more cars in just a few qualifying races.
However, the big problem was during the D, C and B features, where the sense of urgency was much higher and of course, everyone wanted to make the main. This resulted in a combined eighteen yellow flags between the three races, a multitude of wrecked cars and so many that were eliminated that there was only one car from the D and C that didn't move up and only four even in the B even that didn't make the feature and were still running at the end. It had to have been tedious even for the drivers and for the fans, yikes is about all I can say.
But then, just when we were expecting the worst, with twenty four cars starting the main and lots of money on the line, the drivers assembled surprised us yet once again. While we were all expecting a wreck fest, instead what we saw was a highly competitive race with only two yellow flags in forty laps and only five cars that didn't go the distance with not a single car running a lap down. Wow!
Ryan Gilmore was the early leader with pressure from Andy Bryant and Eric Turner. But the driver that everyone in USRA has been chasing this year, Kris Jackson, came through to prove that all his credentials were befitting him.
He came from the fifth starting spot and took the lead on lap nine and held the top spot the rest of the way. He didn't run away with things however, as Bryant particularly stayed right on his heels. Jackson got a scare too when his motor started to make some awful sounds at about the twenty five lap mark and he was in trouble for several laps after that as Bryant and Gilmore were all over him. However, just as quickly as the bad sounds started, they seemed to lessen and by driving hard and hugging the inside lane where the "tack" was, Jackson was able to hold off the competition.
Bryant took a last ditch effort in the final laps, going to the extreme high side and looking for more bite and for a second it looked like it might work. However, it was just too far around that way and Jackson was strong enough off the bottom to hold off all challenges as the cousin of Late Model winner Tony Jr made it a double for the family on a remarkable night for them.
Gunner Martin and J.C. Morton made late race charges and were able to get past Gilmore for positions three and four at the finish with Morton coming from twelfth to get his finish .
All racing was completed by 8:30 pm and except for an unexplained thirty minute late start and one track "farming session" , the program was moved along as well as could be expected. The late starts may seem like a trivial thing, but when an established schedule is prepared, and everyone is sitting around all afternoon just killing time, it's a bit hard to understand why, in what is such a first class facility, that the program can't be started on time.
Speaking of time, the timing of this report is running about twenty four hours later than it should have been. However, I do have an excuse for that. On my way home on Sunday night, about one mile South of Osceola Iowa, I managed to harvest some unwanted venison with my car. Sadly, my noble Camry will likely be totaled and I had to spend an extra night, get a rental car and deal with insurance issues on Monday, instead of writing this report.
One gets attached to their automobile when so much time is spent behind the wheel. That Camry and myself put on 622,272 miles, much of that chasing racing all over the place, and it was still running like a Swiss watch right up until the time I went "deer hunting" on I-35. So now it's time to start shopping for a replacement car. I'm bummed.
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