Wrapping Up The 2020 Racing Season

 With no more events slated for this month, it is now time to officially wrap up the 2020 racing season for me and to get ready to move on to 2021. 

I don't think I need to mention much about what the status was for racing in 2020 as everyone is fully aware of what a difficult time it was for everyone. And certainty not just for short track racing but for life in general. In fact, while we all whaled bloody murder as events unfolded during the season, starting way back in March, truly short track racing in the Midwest did not suffer near as much as many other sports did and what we had to deal with can't compare to what many individuals and businesses had to endure during this difficult year. Losing a few races pales in comparison to serious health concerns that many had to suffer with and those people who lost their jobs, had their hours severely cut or lost their businesses had much more to worry about then those of us that had a few favorite races cancelled or postponed. 

In fact, other than that period from early March until toward the end of April when things were shut down pretty securely, the rest of the racing season pretty much ran off as business as usual. Although some of the really big events did get shut down because they weren't allowed to have the numbers of spectators that were needed to make some races financially feasible , most tracks soldiered on with their weekly races. 

We in the Midwest were much luckier than states like New York and California and our neighbors up in Canada where spectators weren't allowed all year and the vast majority of the races that were held only did so because they could generate enough revenue through pay per view to make the bottom line more palatable. Who could have guessed that the on line services that broadcast short track races live would be the salvation for many people, who never got to the tracks all year but still were able to see many of the biggest races of the year?  Or who could have imagined that special races would be concocted just for broadcast on tv with the stands at the tracks completely empty? Or who could have guessed that racing games would be broadcast on prime time tv to large audiences of people and even though I am not proud to admit it, I even watched one night in the midst of utter boredom? One thing can be said for sure and that is that while 2020 will go down as one of the worst years ever, there certainly were some interesting things that did occur and will likely shape the landscape of racing moving forward. 

As for myself, when I sat down and added things up, I was surprised to see just how many races that I had been lucky enough to attend during the 2020 season. Except for a five or six week down period in March and April when nothing happened, the rest of the season was busy for me. Granted, it was different than a normal season with tracks racing on different nights, races being moved or added  with just a day or two's notice and sometimes even less than that, and much of the schedules for most tracks being an absolute train wreck with changes, additions and deletions coming in quick order, somehow racing still took place and I was lucky enough to be there most nights to catch the action. There were a couple of races that I didn't get to simply because I didn't know that they had been added or dates changed. I could have been there but simply didn't know soon enough that they were going to be run. It was just that kind of year. 

The season started out great with perhaps my best January and February ever. I saw races in New Mexico, Arizona and Florida with stunning weather in all three states. I didn't get rained out once and in fact I don't recall the weather even being a minor factor. I was able to get to two new tracks, saw great racing in all three states and it looked like it was going to be a fantastic year. Then the spam hit the fan and the world shut down in March. Between March and April together I was only able to get to three races and two of those were only because of great help by some very nice people in the sport. 

However, by May things were pretty much back to normal in my little corner of the world(be that good or bad) and the rest of the year rolled by pretty smoothly. There were some changes that came up quickly but I always seemed to be able to replace a cancellation with another race so I wasn't sidelined much over the Summer. And overall the weather was great with few rainouts along the way. 

I was able to make up for my two bad months with some rather strong Summer months. In fact, during the months of June, July and August I was able to get to eighty three nights of racing in a possible ninety two days, missing only three nights in each of those three months. For me, even during such a busy time of the year, that doesn't happen very often. 

For the year, I attended one hundred and sixty two race events which was just out of my top five years ever, and quite remarkable given that things were shut down for about five or six weeks in early Spring. I visited sixty two tracks in fourteen different states but sadly, no Canadian tracks this year. I went to seven new tracks for me in 2020 and this year marked my fortieth straight year that I have attended over one hundred races during the year. I saw races sanctioned by the World of Outlaws, IMCA, Lucas Oil, UMP, USAC, USRA, MLRA, WISSOTA, MARS, USMTS and a couple dozen shows with no specific sanctioning so I got a taste of just about everything. 

The new tracks this year included Vado Speedway Park in New Mexico, Cocopah Speedway in Arizona, Devils Lake Speedway in North Dakota, Miller Central Speedway in South Dakota, Gravity Park Speedway in Wisconsin, The Springfield Mile in Illinois and RPM Speedway of Texas and I have nothing but good things to say about all seven. 

During my race chasing days now I have been to three hundred and twenty two different tracks in thirty states and three Canadian Provinces. 

While I always have to thank all the promoters, track managers and club officials that are so nice and welcoming to me, this year with all the special challenges presented, there are a few folks that deserve special mention due to the extra efforts they went through to help me out, especially during that difficult lock down time. They would include James Essex, Toby Kruse, Tom Berry Jr, Denny Moore, Bob Timm and Todd Good. Thanks much to all of you. 

Now it is time to turn the page and welcome 2021 and I'm sure that most people are more than ready to do just that. However, we are still far from being out of the woods and as I make my early season plans for the new racing season, lots of things are still pending based on what happens in the coming weeks. At this point I plan to be in Arizona again for racing out there and perhaps to Florida at some point, although that remains much up in the air at this time. 

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all and a happy new year and may 2021 be a year that we will all remember in a totally positive way.   

Sheppard Dominates as USMTS Completes Season

 Saturday night, November 7th, the USMTS wrapped up their 2020 racing season with the completion of the three program Southern Nationals at the RPM Speedway of Texas near Crandall. Along with this being the final race of the season for the USMTS crew, USRA sanctioned Limited Mods, Factory Stocks and Tuners would all be on the program. 

One hundred and forty six cars signed in for the four division program on another spectacular weather evening for November racing in Texas. The crowd was also by far the biggest of the weekend which I suppose should not have been a  surprise. With the first two shows of this weekend being mostly of the back gate generated revenue shows , Saturday night's show was much more of what the promoters would be looking for. 

One hundred and sixty eight different drivers participated during the three nights of racing with the featured Modified division topping the entry list all three nights. Before the show began, Brian Schoenbaum Jr was introduced to the crowd as he had clinched the USRA national Tuner championship. Again, for the third straight night, the entire program was available on Racing Dirt TV. If I misspoke in a recent report, my apologies to Racing Dirt head Trenten Berry who was on hand to direct the entire production. 

The program would be a mirror image of the previous night's program with the same number of heat races and B Features being presented that all led to the four main events. With the highest payoff of the weekend though, the Modifieds would go an extra ten laps in their main event while the other USRA classes would run a similar number of laps with the exception of the Tuners who were given a few more laps for their main. 

Despite having eight of their top ten drivers in series points on hand for the weekend, the USMTS regulars were licking their wounds just a bit after two nights of racing as they took their hits on Thursday and Friday with a local driver winning on Thursday and a Late Model invader topping the Friday night action. 

Saturday night's action would only leave the USMTS regulars more frustrated. For the second straight night, it would be two Late Model stars that would control the action for most of the Modified feature with Brandon Sheppard once again taking home the win. Terry Phillips would start up front  for the second straight night and he would take the early lead over Bo Day. Sheppard started in the second row and he wasted little time driving up to second and then starting to put the pressure on Phillips. Phillips was running a slightly higher line on the track and with the low groove seemingly the fastest, Sheppard quickly closed in on TP and began testing the waters on making a pass. 

Phillips simply couldn't get his car to hang on the bottom as he wished and it was only a matter of times before Sheppard was able to get inisde Phillips and take over the lead. Gradually Sheppard would pull away in the  first half of the race. Things started to get interesting when Sheppard caught the back of the pack and the drivers being overtaken were not nearly as gracious as they had been on Friday night and Sheppard had a tough time getting past the slower cars. Both Phillips and Tyler Davis, running a strong third, closed up on the leader.

However, just past the halfway point, a minor spin slowed the action and cleared the track for Sheppard. The last twenty four laps of the track ran off nonstop and Brandon pulled away to a comfortable lead. Phillips lost second to Davis but Tyler was unable to cut into Sheppard's sizeable lead. Brandon caught the back of the pack right at the end of the race but they didn't bother him as he moved past them and drove home for an unchallenged win. Sheppard furthered his statement to the effect that he is currently  perhaps the most talented and versatile driver around. Davis had a fine run for second with Phillips holding off a stiff challenge from Jake Gallardo for third. Both Gallardo and fifth finishing Dereck Ramirez made huge challenges with Gallardo coming from fourteenth and Ramirez from twenty sixth to fifth. Unlike his choice in the presidential race proudly plastered all over his race car, Ramirez was not a big loser on this night however Rodney Sanders and Ramirez both had to take provisional entries as the top two in national points. 

The other USRA classes were running for extra money also and several heats and multiple B Features were needed to set the main event. In the Factory Stocks, Tommy Davis Jr, after a couple of rocky nights, ended the season as national champion with a strong performance where he started in the front row and led all the way for the feature win. Only one yellow flag slowed the action and Davis Jr dominated as he quickly built up a big lead and maintained the event. For the second straight night Dalton Faulkner made a big advance as on Saturday he came from twelfth to finish as the runner up with Kyle Blanton third. 

The Limited Mod feature saw John O. Whittington overtake Cody Smith to get the win. Smith started in the front row and led much of the early going until Whittington made his move. Trying both high and then low, Whittington was finally successful in making a move past Smith and he then pulled away in the closing laps. Also making a strong drive was Shane Hebert who started fifteenth and drove all the way up to third. 

The Tuners ran a pitch perfect race with just a couple of early yellows followed by solid racing for seventeen laps. For winner Sean Leasure, this suited his interests as he took the lead from Steven Bevills by lap two and drove out to a comfortable lead on the way to a impressive win.  Steve Riojas went to a back up car for Saturday night and it proved to be a wise decision as he fought off Frank Lackey for the second place finish. 

This three night extravaganza completed the season for both the USMTS and RPM Speedway. The promoters of RPM seemed very pleased with how the weekend went and I would not be surprised  if this became an annual event and the farewell performance for USMTS every year. Thanks go out to everyone from RPM Speedway as well as everyone from the USMTS. Who ever ordered the weather did a fine job too!

 

Brandon Sheppard Dominates USMTS Run at RPM of Texas

 Night number two of the Southern Nationals for the USMTS Modifieds and USRA cars was held on Friday night, November 6th at the RPM Speedway of Texas just outside Crandall. It was a spectacular day for racing and a continuation of great racing weather here in the Lone Star state as it has been for much of the country. Who would expect that the weather would be in the seventy degree range even in Iowa and they would be adding last minute races to make up for those lost before racing could start this year? No doubt 2020 will go down in the history books as one of the craziest years ever for this country and the world at large. Here in Texas the warm weather is probably not so unseasonable but is still appreciated by everyone, especially those of us that know that the "other shoe" could drop at any moment. 

Night number two of the Southern Nationals would see more money on the line for the drivers in all classes that raced on Thursday night plus the USRA Tuners, mostly in pitch, would join the show for Friday and again on Saturday. 

Car counts were up in all classes with forty eight Mods signing in to race along with thirty nine Limited Mods and thirty eight Factory Stocks with nineteen Tuners also running. 

The most significant addition by far was in the Modified class where Illinois driver Brandon Sheppard, a driver some might recognize for his Late Model exploits, jumped into a Leon Ramirez car for the weekend shows. Sheppard just got done running his Late Model at the Charlotte Motor Speedway dirt track on Wednesday and Thursday, a place where in a normal year we probably would have been ourselves if not for the schedule and format change their due to the Pandemic. 

Sheppard clinches his second straight World Of Outlaws Late Model title on Thursday night and third in the last four years during which time he has proved himself to be the absolute best dirt track Late Model racer on the planet. At only twenty seven years of age, where his career will go and what goals he will accomplish is virtually without limit. 

What is neat about Sheppard is that with all that he had going on this week that he would even be interested in spending his time flying halfway across the country just to run a Modified for the weekend. But apparently he is enjoying racing this class also and of course is offered the best equipment by one of the most well heeled teams in the country for this type of racing. Sheppard does not have a lot of experience driving Modifieds as his career started right out in Late Models and he didn't build up to the Late Model experience like many drivers do, but he has taken to the class very quickly and well, thank you. 

That would be displayed later when he would dominate the forty lap feature race and pocket the top prize of three grand. That would be considered "chump change" to many as he just guaranteed the one hundred grand top prize in the Outlaws point fund but a real racer, as he is getting the reputation of being, just enjoys the experience and it's not all about the money. 

On a race track that was the polar opposite of what it had been on Thursday night, Sheppard trailed another Late Model star, Terry Phillips, for fourteen laps until Phillips suffered a mechanical breakdown and Sheppard inherited the lead. Phillips had been protecting the low groove with Sheppard stalking him when Phillips' car started showing heavy smoke from the rear end and when the car finally broke and spewed debris all over the track, the first yellow waved as Sheppard then took over the lead. 

Brandon's team mate this weekend, Dereck Ramirez, had made a strong run from tenth into second spot and looked to challenge but following the initial yellow and the only other one five laps later, Sheppard was able to slowly pull away both times and Ramirez simply had nothing to offer in the way of a challenge. 

Sheppard's only issue near the end of the race was heavy lapped traffic as he had to negotiate past seven slower cars to keep the gap between himself and Ramirez but he did so seamlessly and he crossed the checkered with three cars between himself and Ramirez. A race long battle for third saw Tyler Davis fight off Jake Gallardo for that spot with Chris Henigan completing the top five. 

Sheppard, who tipped that the Charlotte track was the worst ever this year with dust so bad that the Late Model teams had to redesign their cockpits to try and keep the heavy dust out of the cars as visibility became a serious issue, stated that his car was very maneuverable and he was able to move around on the track to pass slower cars, a major point on this night. For someone with very limited experience in Modifieds, Sheppard seems to know just how to drive them, of course a mark of a very gifted wheel man. 

The Limited Modifieds provided the most exciting finish of the night as they came to the checkered three wide battling for the lead. Early in the race it was Jimmy Day battling with Kale Westover for the lead with the two running look alike cars and confusing most of us with who was who. Cody Smith then moved up to challenge and he used the second groove to take over the lead. This race saw several early yellows and it would seem that on each return to  the green, the running order would get shuffled. 

Westover would then take over the lead and hold the top spot for a number of laps with Smith and then Kaden Honeycutt putting the pressure on. As the race neared its conclusion, Tommy Davis Jr, who would clinch the USRA national Limited Modified title on this night, would try the high side of the track. Not many drivers would try the high side as it didn't seem to working on the dry track but he was able to be productive on that line and he closed on Westover.

Racing down the back chute on the final lap, Davis Jr moved to the high side of Westover and Kale slid just off the bottom as he lost his groove for just a second or so. Honeycutt jumped on this and roared to the inside of Westover and they came to the line three wide. Honeycutt had an open lane on the bottom and he was able to edge into the lead and crossed the line first while Westover blocked the high side and prevented Davis Jr from passing him but at the same time giving up the lead. It was by far the closest finish of the weekend for a main event. 

Walter Hamilton, who is leading the national points in the Factory Stocks but has not clinched the title, certainly helped his own case on Friday night as he led from start to finish after starting on the pole for the Factory Stock feature. The Factory Stocks found the second groove or any higher line to simply not work for their bigger and heavier cars and everyone was battling for the inside line. 

Hamilton guarded that groove for twenty laps as he received some heavy pressure from Cody Myers who spent the entire race trying to root out the leader but being unsuccessful. Only one yellow flag slowed this race which found the field lining up on the inside line and looking for a mistake by fellow competitors to gain a spot. 

Dalton Faulkner, who showed a lot of speed, tried the higher line and very nearly pulled off a pass that would have gotten him second but he just couldn't quite pull it off and it ended up costing him third as Chris Davis ended up taking his place in line. Hamilton continued to block the low line and would go on for the win, a big one for him as he tried to hold off Tommy Davis Jr from becoming a double national champion. 

Nineteen Tuners took the green for their main event, a race that was stopped just once for race car body parts that were deposited on the track. Steven Bevills led from start to finish to take the apparent win. However, well after the fact and not announced to the crowd, Bevills ran into trouble in the tech area and his win was negated and instead he was disqualified for an unnamed violation. Perhaps he was singing out of tune. 

In any event, Bevills' DQ gave the win to Chris Lynn with Daniel Thompson and Bondy Cannon completing the top five. Brian Schoenbaum Jr clinched the national title on Friday night despite a less than stellar night that saw him start dead last in the feature after missing his heat race followed by a quick exit from the main event. 

The show moved along at a rapid pace with not a lot of yellow flags all night. The final checkered flag waved right at 10 pm, giving fans plenty of time to visit the pits afterward. As stated earlier, the track was the polar opposite of what it had been on Thursday with it being hard and very dry and a little dust to boot but for the most part, the large ridges and humps were gone. 

The three night program will wrap up on Saturday with even more money on the line for all classes with the Mods running for five grand to win, the Factory Stocks fifteen hundred and the Limited Mods seventeen hundred thanks to addition bonuses from a sponsor. The program will also be shown on Dirt Vision for those that don't feel the need to jump into their vehicles and drive to Texas for the night. 

Sartain Wins Wild USMTS Feature at RPM

 It was time to make a real old fashioned road trip so with great weather being promised, we headed out for the Lone Star state of Texas and a triple header of Modified racing at the RPM Speedway of Texas in Crandall for the last three USMTS races of 2020 for the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals. 

Along with three straight nights of Modified racing, USRA Limited Modifieds and Factory Stocks would be on the program with Tuners added for Friday and Saturday nights shows. 

This was the first time ever for us to be at RPM Speedway, a track we were told by a driver from "Up North" that we would be seeing some very competitive racing and a lot of s*** probably torn up! His prognostication proved to be right on. Later on we would see one of the wilder and most competitive Modified features of the year. 

RPM Speedway of Texas is a very wide quarter mile black dirt track. It has a large metal grandstand that runs most of the length of the front chute with a nice tower for officials behind the grandstand. A very strong p.a. system makes it easy to hear the announcers. Concession buildings and restrooms are behind the grandstand are are also very functional. Nice restrooms are also located in the pits which is something that many race tracks do not offer. The pits are huge for a quarter mile track as they start right at the entrance from turn four, wrap all the way down the back chute and extend quite a ways past the track. The pits can hold a large, large field of cars. The track lighting is a bit spotty with generally good lighting for the track but a couple of noticeable dark spots on the track. Noticeably missing at the track was a scoreboard which should be a requirement at any race track, just like it would be at any football field or baseball park. 

The track has medium banking and as one driver told me, in order to run the wall the track would need much more banking and because of the very tacky nature of the track on this night, most of the racing was done in the lower and middle grooves of the track. 

One very distinctive feature of the track that is quite unique is that the cars enter the track by passing between the grandstands and the front stretch wall with the flag stand between the driveway and the actual track. I have seen a few tracks like this, but not very many. One of the results of this set up is that cars can not return to the track if they pull off the track and on Thursday at least, pit crews were not allowed in the infield so essentially if a driver has any trouble with his car, he is done as there is no way to get a tire changed etc. and still return to the race. 

One certainty was that the track provided a warm welcome to its visitors and promoter Kevin Rogers came up to meet me in the grandstand when he was informed that we had traveled a distance to see the races and I got some free swag which I do not plan to report to the IRS. 

Even though I didn't know a lot of the drivers here, I was still able to visit with a few and get a little information about the track. One driver that I did stop to talk with was Modified veteran Terry Phillips who was working on his GRT chassis when I walked by. He reported that his last race of 2020 will be the Duel in the Desert next week where he will again drive a car for Jordan Grabouski. Then he gets ready for the Wild West Shootout in January. Phillips surprised when he said he is putting together a new Late Model for Arizona and that it will be a Capital chassis car. 

Another driver I spoke with was local racer Lee McCullough who gave me some info on the Factory Stock class. These cars look like Stock Cars but have less horsepower than the Stock Cars. They are very popular in this part of the country and have big fields of cars at many tracks. They also now have a lot of big money shows, probably because they can make these shows work due to large fields of entries. Lee, second in track points here this year, was driving a different car this weekend as his regular car owner was done for the year and he didn't have a good night, not making the main. 

I also spoke to young Modified driver Ronnie Yanacsek who lives up in the panhandle of Texas. The twenty year old is a student at Texas A & M but all his classes are virtual this year. It has been a tough year for Ronnie, having wrecked one car and blowing up one motor and now he is just trying to get as many laps in as he can. In an interesting move, he will hustle home from RPM, change over his MB car and then race at Vegas next week as an IMCA Mod. This will require a lot of work, including changing motors and as Phillips said, there would be no way he would do that which is why he drives for Nebraskan Grabouski. 

For the last USMTS weekend of 2020, eight of the top ten in series points are on hand and while neither would have a very good night later, Rodney Sanders and Dereck Ramirez would clinch the first and second place in series points later on Thursday. With forty four cars on hand, five heats and a pair of B Features would set the field for the main event. 

The Modified feature would be one of the wildest of the year and at the end, a glorious night for the local race drivers. Twenty four cars would start the main on a very fast but rough race track. Apparently they have had a lot of rain in the area lately so the corners were soft. I walked the track after the show and the corners were still very tacky with not a hint of a dry or slick track. It was "hammer down" but the problem was that there were some significant ruts in both corners, some of the biggest I've seen at a track this year. With the tight corners that the drivers really set their cars sideways for, hitting one of those ruts would send the cars wobbling in various directions and we did see that throughout the main. However, that didn't keep the drivers from running side by side and really running hard. 

Early on it was Bo Day and Bobby Malchus battling for the lead, with them trading back and forth for the top spot. Then Fito Gallardo moved in to challenge and Fito was very fast but spent nearly as much time chasing the car through the infield as he did on the track. There was hard contact between Day and Gallardo when the yellow flew for a marker tire on track. 

On the restart, perhaps due to that contact, Day spun in front of the whole field in turn one but all were able to avoid him but Day went off on the hook. Amazingly, despite all the wild action, those were the only yellow flags of the race. 

Then it was Machus receiving pressure from Gallardo and Jack Sartain who charged up from eighth on the grid. He was able to blast into the lead but just when it seemed like he would pull away, Cody Leonard, who was very fast in his heat, moved in to challenge for the lead. In fact, as the last few laps ran down, Leonard was able to dive into the lead but then Sartain crossed him over to regain the lead, protect the bottom on the last lap and take the win in a frantic feature race. Gallardo would finish third, Clyde Dunn would advance from twelfth to fourth with Marchus holding on for fifth as Texas drivers held the top six spots at the finish. 

There were thirty six Factory Stocks on hand and they ran four heats and couple of B Features to set their twenty four car field for the main event. Their main was a good race with not many yellows and some good battles up front. At the end, it was Bobby Ruffin who came up from the third row to take the win. Dalton Faulkner made a late charge from tenth to finish a close third with Jason Hood third. 

Limited Mods were also on the schedule and their were thirty three of them that signed in. They also ran four heats and a couple B Features to set their field. The Limited Mods are much like the IMCA Southern Sport Mods and I was very surprised to see that two classes sanctioned by USRA were running on Hoosier tires. 

After some early jockeying for position it was Coty Tupper who took the win after a good battle with Kale Westover who was running in both open wheel divisions. Finishing third in another competitive race was Thomas Blackwell. The Limited Mods raced well also with a few yellows for minor issues to slow the action. 

The whole show was clicked off at a rapid pace with the final checkered flag waving just after 10 pm. Both of the "support" classes were running for good money with even more on the line the rest of the weekend with the fields expected to just grow. As soon as the show was completed, the track equipment was on the track, packing the surface as they work to smooth the surface for the Friday night show. 

Schott Seals USRA Title With "Hummer" Win

 The first annual MODster Mash wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, November 1st at the Whitworth family's Humboldt Speedway in East Central Kansas. About a two hour pull almost straight East from Wichita, the Humboldt Speedway has been the site of many epic Modified shows over the years as this quarter mile oval, sitting next to the Whitworth family residence, has long been one of the towers of power when it comes to Modified racing in the Midwest. Having lost their King of America special way back in March to the Pandemic, this would be one of the biggest races of the year at "The Hummer" with Sunday night's winner taking home five grand. Also racing on this night would be the B Mods once again while the local Midwest Mods and USRA Tuners would also be a part of this early starting special. 

Along with big cash on the line to the winners, national champions in both the Mods and B Mods would be settled on this Sunday with the top two in each division on hand and ready to settle the issue. And for the third straight night, the sun would be shining and it would be a beautiful, if somewhat cool end to the USRA season. However, despite the sunny skies, a week's worth of rain, snow and ice made the track surface softer than normal and for the third straight night the racing conditions would be a bit choppier than would normally expected at this venue. 

I was finally able to catch up with USMTS and USRA head Todd Staley to pick his brain on a couple of issues. Foremost on my mind was to find out the thinking behind choosing to qualify the Modifieds this weekend when this series has long be a "draw a pill, line up for your heat and then race your way into the main" instead of opening up the show with time trials. 

Todd told me that he was experimenting this weekend for next year as some have suggested with the higher paying shows(more on this later) that a pill draw alone should not set the running order for the all important heat races. So he opted to try the qualifying format this weekend even though he told me that he wasn't that excited about doing time trials. So I told him that if he didn't like time trials, for goodness sakes lets not even consider them for next year! Actually his main reason for not having time trials would be because he would be afraid it would cost him cars and I fully agree with that. There are a number of teams out there that feel that if they can draw a decent starting spot, they can hang right with the "big boys" but if they have to qualify, they fell that they would likely end up starting behind them in heat races with little chance of garnering enough passing points to even make the mains so what would be the point in even showing up and trying. I already had a couple drivers tell me this weekend already exactly that same thing so I think that Todd will have plenty to "chew on" before he decides on a format for 2021. 

Todd said that the schedule will be coming out in a week or two but did throw me a couple of "teasers" before that announcement. The USMTS season will consist of around forty to fifty shows next year with several multi day shows planned. The plan next year is less overall shows and more big events.  All feature races in 2021 will pay five grand to the winner of one day shows and ten grand for multi day shows such as Ogilvie and Cedar Lake. The KOA at Humboldt will be the last weekend in March with the season starting earlier in March in Texas. The point champion in 2021 will earn seventy grand. 

As usual the Humboldt Speedway always has something new for each racing season as they never stop improving and adding to their facility. Even with this crazy season, they were able to add to the cat walk and give the pit side folks more good viewing locations. With a cat walk already in place in turn four, they adding a new one of the back straightaway near the middle of the track and just before the back chute exit. However, we are still waiting on that promised scoreboard that would be so valuable here as apparently the one that they purchased turned out to be a dud that wouldn't work so they are still looking. Hopefully they find one for 2021. 

The car counts were down just a bit for the finale as would logically be expected but there were still fifty Modifieds and twenty nine B Mods that signed in to race on Sunday along with twenty one of the Midwest Mods and a half dozen Tuners to give the four cylinder fans a thrill. The format was the same as the previous two nights except the number of heats and B Features was reduced by the numbers on hand. Late Model drivers continue to shine in time trials(which is probably logical since they get more practice doing TT, unfortunately) with Brandon Sheppard quickest under the clock at 15.778 seconds. All that honor did was give him the chance to start behind Schott, Tyler Wolff and Tanner Mullins in a heat race and when he had mechanical issues he had to make a remarkable drive from ninth to win a B Feature and qualify for the main. That drive may have been the best seen all weekend. 

There was plenty to be decided on Sunday with two USRA national titles to be determined. Remember when I mentioned that it was surprising that Lucas Schott was not at Eighty One Speedway on Saturday night after racing at Lakeside on Friday. Well, it turns out that he was playing the odds as he makes every attempt to win the Modified title for the second time. With his prime challenger Jake Gallardo opting to follow the MODster tour and go to Eighty One, Schott and team instead loaded up and drove five and a half hours farther South to race at Monarch Motor Speedway in Wichita Falls TX instead, hoping to pick up a win. 

This turned into a peculiar night for them as there were only eleven Mods at Monarch so they used the bold strategy of dropping out of their heat race so they could start in the back of the feature. Since USRA rewards with more points for passing cars in the main events, Schott was playing the odds and when he started tenth and then won the main, it gave him a few more point lead over Gallardo who did not have a good night at Eighty One. Schott and crew then jumped back on the freeway and headed to Humboldt so they could race head to head on Sunday with a slight edge in their pockets. 

But as it turned out, that strategy wouldn't be needed as "Cool Hand Luke" then drove a masterful race to a runaway win in the forty lap finale to MODster Mash at Humboldt, pocketing the first place money plus also claiming the national title. 

The setup couldn't have been better with Schott and Gallardo starting side by side in the front row but Schott quickly jumped out to a big lead while Gallardo's hopes were dashed quickly when he cut down a tire and had to pit under yellow with only four laps completed. He would come back out but eventually give up and pull into the infield, out of the race. 

Schott, meanwhile, was dominating the action as he kept pulling out to big leads, only to see the yellow wave all too frequently in the first half of the race; six times in all. The second half of the race ran off nonstop and Luke was able to pull away, all the time being careful with the rugged conditions. It was interesting that most of the field was bucking and rearing around the track, soft in the corners, while Schott seemed to be on rails and wasn't providing any of the "air time" that many others were getting. He carefully handled the rest of the race and took the title just as the script would have asked for, winning the main event and driving to victory lane for two separate celebrations. 

Brooks Strength showed exactly that as he fought off several tough challenges to race home for the second spot. It was a hotly contested position as Jake O'Neal, Jimmy Owens, Dereck Ramirez, Sheppard and Tanner Mullins were all at some point fighting for the spot but Strength held them off to take the second spot with the "O Show" settling for third. 

Things were just as important over in the B Mod pits as the pressure was on between Jim Chisholm and Kris Jackson as they raced for a national title too. Chisholm would start fourth in the main event while Jackson would start eighth and with a slightly larger lead than the split in the Mods was, Chisholm was just looking for a good finish and to keep Jackson behind him. 

The B Mods would put on a whale of a show with only one yellow flag and a three car battle that was bordering on spectacular. Patrick Royalty and Shadren Turner battled back and forth for the lead in this race, going side by side for many laps with each taking their shot to lead as they continued to jockey back and forth. Suddenly they were joined by young Dillon McCowan and it became a three car battle for the top spot. 

They would go three wide off turn four in a spectacular show and McCowan was just too fast for the other two as he split them, took over the lead and then sprinted away from the field in the closing laps. Meanwhile, Chisholm was hanging just back of the lead battle, running with the top drivers and keeping Jackson behind him. 

While McCowan would continue on for a very impressive win, Royalty would come home second and Chisholm drove to a smooth and smart third place finish and thus ensure himself of a national title. The youth were served in this division with race winner McCowan only sixteen and Chisholm just one year older. It will be fun to mark these two in the coming years and see where their talent leads them. 

This could just as well have been a two division program that would have allowed the show to get done a bit earlier for those taking to the highways to head home and get ready for Monday work. The Tuners couldn't put on much of a show with only six cars but at least it went without a yellow flag slowdown as Cayden Vance dominated for the win. The Midwest Mods endured themselves to no one with their performance as they smashed and spun their way to a gut wrenching eight yellow flag marathon. It finally got so bad that track officials pulled the plug and they finished with a green, white and checkered conclusion laps short but surprisingly, they were able to finish the last two circuits without another spin. 

Winner Casey Burnett did have a tale to tell as he was the early leader until he spun in turn one following, not surprisingly, a yellow for a spin when he himself looped in front of the full field, triggering a multi car smasharoo  that eliminated a few cars and sent front bumper sales sky rocketing. 

Burnett then went to the tail but with some good driving and utilizing all the yellows to his advantage, he was able to drive back up through the field and take the win over Jackson McGowan. Burnett was one of at least two leaders to spin while holding the top spot and fans began to wonder if indeed anyone could keep their car pointed the correct direction long enough to take the checkered. 

Even with the two divisions trying their best to stretch out the show, track officials kept things moving and the final checkered waved somewhere before 8:30 pm. As always, thanks to the Whitworth family and their officials for a job well done along with Todd, Janet, Jeff, Brice and everyone else with the USRA for their help this weekend. Three nights of quality Modified racing this late in the season was a joy to be a part of .  

O'Neil Steals Win With Late Race Pass at Eighty One, Chisholm Solidifies Point Lead With Win

 Saturday night October 31st was night number two of the first annual MODster Mash series. After a challenging night on Friday at Lakeside Speedway, everyone moved about three hours West to the Eighty One Speedway in Park City Kansas, just North of Wichita for another full night of racing. 

USRA sanctioned Modifieds and B Mods would be on the card and based on the number of entrants, the program would be  duplicate on what Friday night's show was, right down to the number of heats and B Features with it once again being just a two class program. 

With all the damage done to race cars on Friday night amidst the challenging track conditions, it was felt that the field of cars for the Saturday night show would be considerably lessened for round two. However, that proved to not be the case as many of the teams that had difficulties somehow got their cars put back together and for those that did not follow the tour on to Eighty One, there was a whole group of racers that run Eighty One on a regular basis just waiting to take on the travelers. 

Forty one B Mods and sixty eight Modifieds signed in to race at Eighty One, so while the number of total cars was down just a bit, it was not a significant drop by any means with just three less B Mods and six less Modifieds. And joining the field on Saturday were fifteen Modifieds that did not race on Friday along with twenty two B Mods, largely regulars at the track just North of Wichita. Among the few that did not follow the tour West and were most surprising by their absence were the Modified drivers Joe Duvall, Lucas Schott and Ricky Thornton Jr. I speculated last night that Thornton Jr might not be around for Saturday and apparently he did not have a motor to replace the one that was damaged as he hung on for the win on Friday. It was surprising that Schott was not on hand, given that he is locked in a battle for the USRA national title with Jake Gallardo and did finish the feature race on Friday night. 

This was my first visit to Eighty One Speedway since the track was sold to new ownership last Fall and John Allen took over the operation of the facility on a day to day basis. And they have made a large number of improvements to the grounds since I was there last Fall for the Junghans race. 

On the track side of things, a wall now surrounds the entire racing surface where all their used to be was walls on the straightaways. No more as big blocks of concrete now surround the track. With that change, it allowed them to extend the pit area off the number four corner and cars no longer pit in the infield of the track which is now clean with the old buildings that were in the infield gone. There is a scoreboard just inside turn one that both the racers and fans can read and new lighting makes the track more visible as well as doing a great job lighting up the grandstands too. New pit bleachers and concessions in the pits are also planned for next year. 

On the spectator side of things, the old wooden grandstand is gone and has been replaced by a great high rise metal stand that offers great sight lines and I would say that there is no longer a bad seat in the house. The sound system is awesome and they have added a lot of concrete walkways both in front of the grandstand and also behind the grandstands where the new concession buildings are with everything remodeled from last year. It is now an awesome facility and even more changes and improvements are promised to be ahead. 

Being Halloween night, a trick or treat walk through the pits for the spectators took place during the afternoon and after sunset, they even furnished a spectacular blue full moon to boot. 

The drivers and crews are to be lauded for their hard efforts already this weekend as many had lots of work to do to get ready to race on Saturday yet the vast majority of those that ran on Friday showed up to do it once again. Through two nights of competition, eighty six different Modifieds and sixty six different B Mods have taken to the track between the two shows. 

Clint Erickson, one of the drivers that flipped last night at Lakeside, did suffer a rather significant injury in that accident. According to his brother Duke who drives the #57 Modified, Clint broke his wrist in two different places in his violent B Mod flip during a B Feature with the bone actually piercing the skin. He was taken by ambulance from the track to a local hospital, was released on Saturday morning and they headed back to their home in Sioux Falls S.D. The Erickson brothers have their own body shop so it sounds like Duke is going to have to pick up the work load while his brother recovers. 

The time trial format started last night at Lakeside was continued on Saturday at Eighty One with Brandon Sheppard being the quickest at 17,755 seconds and again they inverted the top four in each heat and then once again raced for passing points. About the only thing a time trial program can guarantee is that the racing program will never start on time. With an advertised starting time of 6 pm, it was fifty minutes later than that when the first green flag waved. However, at least the temperatures were much improved over last night and it was pleasant to sit outside on this sunny but windy late Fall day. 

It is interesting how different a track races when there is a wall surrounding it where they never used to be one. Instead of rim riding on the very edge and occasionally slipping over the top, drivers now seem to use more of the lower lanes on the track and with it being relatively smooth and slick, the number of crashes and mechanical breakdowns was much less. 

Seven heats and four B Features set the field for the Modified forty lap main event and except for the last couple of laps, it was Johnny Scott who led all the way. Scott started on the pole and quickly pulled away from the field. He showed great speed and built up nearly a full straightaway on the field as only one yellow with twelve laps complete slowed the action. He appeared to be in great shape to win the race until circumstances changed right at the end. 

While Scott led, Tanner Mullins and Terry Phillips had a great battle for second as they swapped the spot back and forth several times before Mullins finally established that second was his. Phillips then locked into another good battle with Rodney Sanders for position. 

Then making a move after starting in the fourth row was Jake O'Neil. With everyone using the top side, O'Neil started working down low and he made it work as he gradually moved up and took over the third spot. Just when it looked like Scott would be home free, Jimmy Owens spun and triggered a yellow with only three laps to go. With O'Neil looking so fast on the bottom, I thought Scott might be in trouble and that proved to be exactly the case as on the green O'Neil powered under Scott in the first turn and took over the lead. He would then extend it to the finish while Mullins would throw a slider on Scott and take over second with two laps to go. Sanders and Phillips would complete the top five. I really hate to see these late race yellows as it left Scott as a sitting duck and if that yellow hadn't flown, there would have been no one to challenge Scott for the win. It was indeed bad luck for him. The overall race was much cleaner than last night with only two yellows and seven cars that didn't go the distance. the O'Neil win was accomplished driving his back up car which was the machine that Chase Junghans drove last night at Lakeside. 

The same format of five heats and two B Features set the field of twenty four for the B Mod main. Jeremy Chambers and Dustin Daniels battled for the lead in the opening two laps and they swapped the top spot back and forth. Bad luck struck Daniels when Chambers got an inadvertent piece of him and spun him out, triggering a yellow. While it was unfortunate, the officials ruled that Daniels had triggered the yellow so he went to the back while Chambers got off "scot free" for his malfeasance, inadvertent or not. 

Only three laps later, Jim Chisholm came charging up from the fourth row and after battling with Kris Jackson for second, Chisholm took over the lead of the race. He would hold the lead the rest of the way and despite a couple of late restarts that gave Jackson a clear shot at him, Chisholm would hold off Jackson and come home for the win. It was a very big one for him, as he added his seventeenth feature win of the year while at the same time topping his closest challenger for the national title. Tomorrow night will settle things at Humboldt with Chisholm now sitting in great position. Jake Richards was the hard charger in this race, coming from the eleventh starting position to get up to fourth at the finish and he was still on the move but ran out of laps. 

Once the racing did begin, the track officials did a good job of moving things along and it ended up being just over a three hour program which was right in the range of where it should be. a very substantial crowd was on hand on Halloween night and I'm told that the crowds have been good all year here. The crowd was also very vocal and enthusiastic and they were given much reason to be so as an outstanding display of heat race action was provided with several of the races featuring some thrilling side by side action and last lap battles for the lead. It was another good night of racing as all look to finish with another good show on Sunday at Humboldt. 

Thornton Jr Continues Magical Season With Grant Junghans Memorial Win

 Friday night,  October 30th, a weekend of heavy duty Modified racing began at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City Kansas as the USRA sanctioned fifth annual Grant Junghans Memorial race was held. As a part of the first annual MODster Mash, this was supposed to have been the second night of a four night swing for the Modified drivers that would involve three, ten grand to win shows plus another five grand to win show to wrap up the weekend. 

Leftovers from the recent hurricane that came screaming in off the Gulf of Mexico took care of round one of the weekend as the Tri State Speedway in Pocola Oklahoma was forced to cancel round one with their facility mired in muck and mud after days of pounding rain. 

So the series opener moved North to Lakeside which was also the highest paying of the four proposed races of the weekend. The Grant Junghans Memorial race is a very special event for many as it reminds us all of the courageous fight that Grant Junghans fought against cancer and the great spirit he showed through it all while also reminding us how far we have yet to go to conquer the awful beast that is cancer in its many forms. 

This is a race that every Modified driver wants to win for a number of reasons and the field for this event is always outstanding and such was the case again here in 2020, despite all the challenges that this racing season has produced. The field of drivers that signed in to race in the Modified class was breath taking with seventy four drivers ready to race and the quality of the field just remarkable. Leon Ramirez, the car owner for Dereck Ramirez and a regular campaigner on the USMTS circuit, was able to use his considerable resources to provide rides for both the Lucas Oil Late Model series champion Jimmy Owens as well as the World of Outlaws soon to be crowned champion Brandon Sheppard to headline the stout field of entries. I can't imagine a more intriguing scenario than to have the two most successful Late Model drivers of this year both running Modifieds along with such luminaries as Cade Dillard, Ricky Thornton Jr, Will Krup, Chase Junghans and Jordan Grabouski along with all the top drivers from the USMTS and USRA circuits all in one field to race on Friday. Junghans would race a car from the Jake O'Neil stable for this race. 

And while the hype for the race itself was plenty, this was also the final weekend of the USRA national points and close races are still taking place in both the Modified and B Mod classes, the other division that is racing this weekend all three nights. 

Only one point separates Lucas Schott and Jake Gallardo in the Modified class while young Jim Chisholm has a twelve point lead over Kris Jackson and the way the points are doled out in USRA, that is virtually no lead at all and all four were on hand to race also on Friday. So there were many things in play as the B Mods, forty four strong themselves, signed in to join the Mods in what would be a blockbuster night of racing. Nine of the top twenty in USRA points for the Mods would be on hand while only three of the top twenty in B Mod points would be on hand but again, the top two in each would be duking it out for national honors. 

Unfortunately, and not as the result of any malfeasance by anyone, the track would not be able to provide the kind of racing action that we would have hoped to see. The weekend long rains and lack of drying for Lakeside Speedway turned the half mile into a very heavy and blinding fast track that also had little "give" to it. Drivers would literally stick to the surface as they raced and we all know that these kinds of conditions provide blazing fast speeds, tremendous strain to the race cars, lots of wrecks and mechanical issues and not the best of conditions for the drivers to show their best. That would be the story of the night with cars floundering and wobbling all over the track all night with wheels coming off, motors coming apart and body panels building up into a huge pile outside the pit entrance in turn four. As soon as I saw the first hot laps I thought to myself that we were sure to see at least one flip on this night and it actually turned out to be three, with two of the spectacular variety and one very scary indeed. It was a brutal night for the racing equipment and I can't imagine that many teams won't have major repairs to do before they move on to Park City Kansas for round two on Saturday night.  

I got a surprise early in the show and not all surprises are pleasant ones. Remember, this is just me talking but after having to endure too many time trial shows all Summer that limit the amount of passing in qualifying heat races in my mind, a series that has always shown for just drawing numbers, lining up and then settling things on the track, took a step backward on this night. The Modifieds qualified by heat with time trials during their hot lap sessions. The top four were then inverted for the heats with the slower cars falling in line behind them. Passing points were then used to set the lineups for the B Features and to qualify the main event cars but I'm still trying to figure out why we would qualify and then still use passing points. Shouldn't it be one or the other? All the qualifying did was set the heat races by speed and then, especially on this fast and tacky big track, pretty much eliminate much passing in the heats and certainly eliminate those big charges up through the pack that heat races for this group are famous for. But for whatever reason, that was the format that was used on this night and presumably, also for the rest of the weekend. I didn't even know that this was going to be rule for this weekend so didn't even query beforehand anyone to find out why this was put into the program. But you can bet I'm be doing some asking before the green flag waves at Eighty One Speedway on Saturday. 

Four of the seven heat race winners came off the front row as they should with the other three heats won by the fastest cars in each heat in times from row two so we didn't get to see much charging through the pack, despite having the fastest Modifieds on the planet in the house on Friday. The Modifieds were in the mid eighteen second bracket on Friday, which is blazing fast on this half mile. The last car out for times, Grabouski, driving one of Terry Phillips cars', was fastest at 18.506. 

Seven heat races and four B Features set the field for the forty two lap feature race for the Mods that paid $10,002 to win and $1,152 just to start. Last year's winner Jacob Bleess took a provisional so the race started twenty five cars. 

Not surprisingly, it was a race of wills both to keep running and keep the race car in one piece as while there were only two yellow flags and both were for minor issues, the attrition rate was spectacularly high. Thornton Jr led forty one of the forty two laps in the main, at times comfortably in front but in the end biting his nails as his car was one that was on its last legs as the checkered flew. 

In the early going, Grabouski and Thornton Jr battled for the lead with Jordan even leading a lap until Thornton Jr slowly pulled away. Attrition hit early as Rodney Sanders broke on the first lap and was soon joined on the sidelines by Owens, Tanner Mullins, Jason Hughes and several other contenders. Sanders earlier has done a masterful job just to make the main as he was nailed in his heat race, breaking the right front of the car but somehow he three wheeled the vehicle around the track and finished with a high enough point total to make the big show.  However, while everyone else fluttered around the track, Thornton Jr used his innate ability to keep his car smooth to slowly and very unspectacularly pull away. Soon he had built up nearly a full straightaway on the field and at this point it was just a matter of keeping the car running. 

Tyler Wolff and Lance Mari battled hard for second but they were far behind and by the halfway point of the race, with everyone not in the hunt for the win bailing for the infield, there were only ten cars on the track. As Thornton Jr caught the back of the pack, his car started to make some awful noises and he was visually losing speed and having a tough time getting by the slower cars. The problem grew worse and worse and in the last ten laps Wolff and Mari started to catch up, even as they battled with the lapped cars too. 

Nearing the end, Thornton Jr got slower and slowed as he fought to keep his momentum up and Wolff was clearly catching him. Mercifully for Thornton Jr, Ryne Staley finally displayed the white flag as the 20rt car started to smoke and off the final corner it let loose but Ricky had enough of an advantage that he idled home the winner by about three car lengths as one more lap would have been his undoing with Wolff and Mari gaining big time on him. Only eight cars took the checkered with Terry Phillips and Schott rounding out the top five. 

For Thornton Jr, it continues what has been an amazing season for him with major victories in both Modifieds and Late Models coming to him as he remains one of the hottest properties in dirt track racing and it will be interesting to see just where 2021 takes him. However, unless he has access to another motor we may have seen the end of him for this weekend as I don't believe his motor issues are a quick fix.  Schott likely gained some points on Gallardo who didn't finish the main event. 

The B Mods also had quite the night with a feature race that quite frankly, scared the crap out of most of us as a horrendous wreck was a big part of it. The forty four cars that signed in were divided into five heats(no time trials, thanks) and two B Features that set their twenty four car starting field as they would go twenty two laps for the big check. 

Early race action would prove to be significant as contenders Jake Richards and Jackson would both get wrecked early in their heat races with Richards eventually failing to make the main while Jackson slipped in through a B Feature, only to drop out early. 

The leading winner at the track in 2020, Andy Bryant, started on the front row and after a blazing run in his heat, he backed it up by pulling away from the field early in the main. Eventually he would achieve a full straightaway on the pack as he was significantly faster than his competition. 

However, two yellow flags in quick order near the halfway point, would bring the field back to him and following the second restart, all hell would break loose right on the front chute in front of everyone. Bryant has again pulled into the lead but as he came off turn four, the right front suspension folded up and tucked under the right front of the car, He couldn't turn his vehicle and he slammed nearly head on into the wall right in front of me and just short of the finish line. The car went up in the air and flipped over on its roof, lying broadside on the track. 

With the cars speeding out of the corner, there was no way to slow them down quickly enough and at least three of the field slammed into his upside down car, with noises that I never want to hear again. Andy's car was destroyed and I thought we were all going to be eye witnesses to something very bad. the impact of the other cars hitting him had actually cut his car in half with the rear wheels and fuel cell sliced right off the car. 

You can imagine the sigh of relief from everyone when he climbed out of the car, shaken but upright. It was one of the most violent wrecks I have seen in a very long time, made even worse by the fact that it happened right in front of us. It was a gut wrenching few seconds for sure. Many of the drivers involved were just as moved as they scrambled from their wrecked cars and raced to see if Bryant was OK and their grim faces told all that needed to be said.  The car was removed from the track in pieces and Mike "The Outlaw" Striegel inherited the lead. However, Patrick Royalty, home town driver and track champion here in 2020, was soon a big challenger. 

Patrick has started tenth but quickly moved up to fifth and when the wreck took out some of the challengers, Royalty moved into the second row. Using the second line and finding a relatively smooth line, he was able to drive past Striegel and take over the lead and he would lead the last seven or so laps. pulling away to get the win. Jeremy Chambers also made a nice run using the outside as he came from sixteenth to finish second with Striegel completing the top five. Just half the starting field was around at the checkered, foretelling what was to happen in the Modified main. 

It was a spectacular night of racing and while it was also a tough one for many, it was just one of those things that can't be controlled and since everyone wanted to race, and to race hard by the way, there was little that could have been done to change things. They packed the track at early opportunity was it was just so rain soaked and was holding moisture so well on this cool October night that there would be no drying of the track. For sure it will be a night remembered by many for a long time for a variety of reasons. Now the task will be for everyone to put their machines back into shape and hustle West to Park City. 

R.I.P   GJ

R.I.P   ET 

Moyer Wins Main Event; Hurst New MLRA Champion in Season Closer at Tri City Speedway

 Saturday night, October 17th marked the second night of the weekend special for the MLRA Racing series Late Model cars at the Gundaker's Tri City Speedway near Pontoon Beach Illinois. UMP Modifieds would be on the program once again as they were on Friday night and the B Mods would also be racing on this night. It was a warm but extremely windy Fall day in the St. Louis region and probably not an ideal one to get moisture in a race track, but the fans appreciated the relatively moderate temperatures and a good crowd was on hand to see the last Late Model appearance of the year at Tri City.

The race gained some added importance during the afternoon as the announcement was made that due to expected cold temperatures and rain that the MLRA season finale, which was planned as the event to crown a new champion at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly Missouri slated for Sunday had been cancelled so a point champion would be crowned along with the show here on Saturday night. 

Forty five Late Models signed in to race on Saturday night with three local drivers not returning after Friday night action while Jimmy Miller from nearby Highland was the new addition. However, he had mechanical problems and never did see the track at all. 

Friday night's format continued with time trials, four heats and two B Features to set the grid for the forty lap main event paying seven grand to win. Jason Papich and Billy Moyer were the quick qualifiers for their flights of cars but there was some drama as Papich turned one fast lap before the strong smell of antifreeze slowed his second lap and he took a push to the pits. However, the problems were severe and he was able to start in the front of his heat race. 

Meanwhile, the battle for the point title was close and getting closer by the minute. Payton Looney had passed Jeremiah Hurst last night to take over the point lead with Tony Jackson Jr and Chad Simpson also still mathematically in the hunt. Of the four, Jackson Jr and Looney were the only two to make the grid through qualifying as both Simpson and  Hurst failed to qualify through either a heat or B Feature and both were forced to take provisionals to start the main so things were likely to get very interesting in the feature from several different standpoints. 

Twenty eight cars started the Late Model main event with Bobby Pierce using the high side to take the early lead. While he worked the cushion, he was challenged by Shannon Babb and Moyer for the lead. Ryan Gustin was busy knocking off the spoiler on his car as he charged to the front, using the concrete wall as a rub rail to get through the corners. The battle up front remained close as the first twenty five laps ran off nonstop until last night's winner Mason Oberkramer stalled suddenly in turn one when the front end locked up. Pierce almost clobbered him as he stopped but Bobby did clip him which did some damage to the right side said panel of the car but he was otherwise able to avoid something much more serious. 

However, the yellow seemed to breed more yellows as the race would be slowed down four more times in the next four laps. A tangle on the back chute would involve Looney who had to stop and get a fender removed which sent him to the back. Tim Manville was running toward the front until he got crowded into the first turn wall that saw him topple over on his roof. He was unhurt but out of the race as was Rick Eckert who spun on the front chute with damage to create the last yellow and sideline him from the event. 

Finally, with eleven laps to go, the race would conclude. Moyer, who was pretty quiet this whole time, suddenly began to be noticed as he was getting a great run off the bottom of the corners and with Pierce trying to hold on, Moyer shot past him down the front chute to take over the lead. Billy gained several car lengths until Bobby made one last charge in the final few circuits. Moyer was very willy though, as he used enough of the top side down the chutes to break Pierce's charge and Bobby was never able to get a big enough run through the corners to pass him and Moyer drove home by several car lengths to a warm round of applause from the crowd. Gustin finished a strong third followed by Jackson Jr who came from twelfth with Chad Simpson coming from twenty first to complete the top five as there was much shuffling of positions during the event and a number of drivers who parked partway through the forty laps. 

When the points were calculated, Hurst had come from behind and finished just high enough that he would win the title by a mere five points over Simpson, or a position difference of just one. Just imagine what would have happened if Hurst's team mate Garrett Alberson would have passed him on the final lap as he finished right behind him. Wow, that would have been something. Looney finished only ten points behind and Jackson Jr twenty so just one bad night for either of them probably made all the difference. Hurst earned fifteen grand for the point title plus another twenty five hundred as he was also the series Rookie of the Year. 

It certainly paid off nicely for Pierce to also bring his Modified to Tri City as for the second straight night he would win the Modified main event and bank another two grand. Unlike Friday night when he needed a late race miracle, on Saturday he would lead all twenty five laps after qualifying better and starting on the pole for both his heat and feature. He did receive a good challenge from both Mike Harrison and Kyle Steffens as they raced hard, not wanting a Late Model guy to best the Modified regulars. Harrison particularly did everything he could to get past Pierce but too many trips into the concrete didn't help his efforts as both he and Steffens would eventually retire with damage to their cars. 

Pierce would continue to motor on and despite a late yellow that set up a one lap sprint to the finish, Pierce would pull away to take the win. Michael Long would come from the third row and survive to finish second as Will Krug came from row six to finish third.

B Mods would be tuning up for their big doubleheader race next weekend and with no other racing this weekend in the area for the class, a big field of forty seven cars would sign in to race. Despite some dread going into their finale, the B Mod drivers did a great job with their main actually being the only one of the three to go nonstop, green to checkered. On top of that, only three cars failed to finish the race and only a single car was lapped, so they did a great job of racing. 

Treb Jacoby did a great job of moving to the cushion and he led much of the race, building up what seemed to be a comfortable advantage at one point. But there was a "ringer" in the house and that was Krup who was debuting a new car and once he got going, he was lightning fast. 

He started in row seven and once the traffic had thinned, he was noticeably faster than anyone, passing cars in bunches as he tore to the front. He raced his way into second and was half a straight away behind Jacoby but caught him in just a couple of laps and blew by the former leader so quickly, it was almost too easy. Jacoby tried to respond by driving deep into the corners but he got into the wall and that cost him even more time. 

At the end, Krup had a comfortable lead which he continued to build while Adam Birck, driving an IMCA Sport Mod, put on a determined drive as he came from the fourth row and worked the inside line to take second at the finish. Jacoby hung on for third. My suspicion is that the B Mod drivers will have to go back to the drawing board before next weekend's special if they want to catch Krup. 

There was one scary moment during the B Mod feature when a car lost its filler deck cover, it sailed high into the air like a kite and cleared the front stretch wall and landed about three rows up in the main grandstand. Fortunately, it landed in an area where no one was seated, the spectators in that area gave the flagman a "thumbs up" which he acknowledged and returned and the race stayed under the green with not even a slowdown!

It was a good night of racing and a good weekend to be at the track. Thanks to Tammy and Kevin Gundaker, their staffs and all the officials of the MLRA as they all combined to put on two well coordinated nights of racing and a great way to wrap up the sanctioning bodies' season. 

Unfortunately, later events during the night would dim the pleasure that I enjoyed at the track. When I returned to my hotel room, I found an e-mail notifying me that my friend and racing buddy  from Nebraska, Ernie Tropp, had passed away unexpectedly on Saturday morning. 

I first met Ernie in the pits at some track in the Midwest, hard to say where. But he would do the same as me, roam the pits and take pictures of the race cars and then always note the drivers name in the little ring notebook that he always carried. 

He was a familiar face at the race tracks in the Midwest and while a lot of people probably didn't know his name, he was a very recognizable character as he roamed the pits, camera in his hand and a huge unlit cigar in his mouth. From I-80 to Beatrice to Junction, to Knoxville and Humboldt, the drivers, car owners and mechanics all knew him as he loved to talk racing and knew many of the competitors. 

When I first met him, he would always sleep in the back of his pickup truck for the multi day shows but then he got tired of that and we would share a room from time to time and many pre race meals, talking about the races and other things too. He was a funny guy and always liked to give me a little crap from time to time. He always went to WalMart and got his pictures developed the morning after the races and we would go over them and check to see that he had the correct names on the back of each one. 

He never went into the spectator grandstands but always stayed in the pits, saying that he could get his best pictures when the drivers were lined up for their heats or qualifying. He must have a fantastic collection of pictures that I would like to see some day. We never got to spend as much time together as I would have liked as the prairie of Western Nebraska is a long way from Wisconsin and right now I would give everything to be able to say hello one more time. 

I weep as I type this out and he would probably laugh at me for doing so, but he was a fun guy, a genuine guy and a true racing friend. I dedicate this column and every column that I write for the rest of my racing life to my friend Ernie Tropp.  

Oberkramer Maintains, Pierce Thrills in Tri City MLRA Opener

 Friday night, October 16th, the MLRA began what they hope will be a three night racing weekend that will decide the 2020 MLRA Late Model champion. They begun this three night swing with the first half of a doubleheader show at Tammy and Kevin Gundaker's Tri City Speedway near Pontoon Beach Illinois. The plan it to run shows both on Friday and Saturday and then move to the Randolph County Raceway near Moberly Missouri to finish off the weekend and crown a champion. 

Along with the MLRA Late Models who will be racing for five grand on Friday night and upping it to seven grand on Saturday, the UMP Modifieds will also be in action, racing two full programs with two grand to the winner each night. While the racing seasons are largely over in my part of the world, there are still a couple of weekends of racing left here in the greater St. Louis area with them having scheduled a big B Mod doubleheader this coming weekend and while I got a report that snow flakes were flying at home today, down here the temps are still approaching seventy degrees although it still does get cool once the sun goes down. 

With the choices for the Late Model drivers being limited this weekend, an eclectic field of drivers was on hand for the Friday night opener. Along with the always tough field of MLRA regulars, such drivers as Larson, Gustin, Erb, Eckert, Timm, Schlenk, Moyer, Heckenast, Pierce and Babb, along with the local Tri City racers made this one tough field of drivers to compete with. 

And on the Modified side of things, add Pierce, Krup, McKinney, Rettig and Long to the local drivers and a strong field would exist for the open wheel racing also. When everyone got signed in and ready to race, the Modified field numbered twenty nine along with a strong field of forty seven Late Models. 

I got the chance to talk to Bob Timm before the show, the owner of the Late Model team raced by his son Jake and Bob is also the owner of the Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin. Timm in fact had a show scheduled for this weekend that was cancelled early in the week when the weather forecast looked dreadful and in fact, it turned out to be even worse than predicted!

Timm had quite a very at his track, hosting a considerable number of big paying shows for both the Mods and Late Models, coincidently both classes that his son races in. However, the biggest is yet to come as Timm as scored a World of Outlaws Late Model doubleheader for 2021 that will pay twenty thousand to win for the finale. and even more important to him, he managed to get a weekend where Lucas Oil is not racing either so he anticipates that the best from both series will be on hand. 

He is making a number of improvements for 2021 including the addition of two thousand more grandstand seats for the back chute which will necessitate an addition to the track wall on the back chute. He has made tiered parking in his three, four corner that will allow drive in parking for motor homes etc and he has purchased two hundred and fifty acres from a neighbor just to the South of the track that will be used for camping plus adding on to his pit area as big things are planned for this track along the Mississippi River North of LaCrosse. But on this weekend they are working on getting son Jake, a relative newcomer to the Late Model world, faster.  

Both classes would qualify under the clock with Kyle Steffens the quickest of the Mods at 16.562 while the blazing fast Ryan Gustin was the only Late Model to crack the fifteen second barrier. Using the always unimaginative straight up starts in both classes four big heats of Late Models and two B Features would set their twenty five car field when provisionals were added while three heats and a B Feature set the grid for the twenty two car Modified finale.   

Going into this weekend, a very close battle existed for the MLRA point title with Jeremiah Hurst locked in a close struggle with Payton Looney and Chris Simpson. And of the three, only Simpson would qualify out of his heat while Hurst would have to run a B Feature and Looney would scratch out of his B and take a provisional which meant he would start very deep in the feature field. 

Somewhat surprisingly, the Late Model feature would be the first on the main events with twenty five cars taking the green flag. Mason Oberkramer started on the pole and took the early lead with Tim Manville moving to the high side to challenge him while Simpson and Babb would move down low and see what developed. The top side was not working the best on this night with a few trying in earlier races without too much success and most eventually giving up and dropping back in line. 

However, Manville kept working and working and he was briefly able to edge ahead of Oberkramer for the lead but then Mason would pick up the pace and move back in front. For many laps the top three ran in close formation with Oberkramer continuing to lead, Manville pounding the wall and Simpson looking for an opening while slightly farther back Gustin was wearing out the right side of his car on the concrete too as he tried to move forward. 

The leaders got into heavy traffic just past the halfway point and with most still hugging the bottom, things started backing up dramatically. Suddenly, the top three were joined by Babb and Pierce as the lapped cars were stubborn and wouldn't move out of the way, making the logjam up front even worse. Manville got trapped to the outside and Simpson was able to grab second as everyone mostly hung to the low groove. 

Just when it looked like a wild finish might take place, Hurst got into the wall on the back chute and triggered the first yellow of the race with only five laps to go. This would hurt in his battle for the point title and unofficially following the show, it was announced that Looney had retaken the lead but I could find no specifics on numbers and with Simpson's strong finish he must be very close also. 

On the final green with only five to go, Simpson went for broke and tried to move up the track and drive around Oberkramer but there was simply nothing to get ahold of up there although Oberkramer was a "sitting duck", having been married to the bottom. Chris would luckily be able to get back in line although losing several car lengths and Oberkramer would drive on unimpeded having led all thirty laps. His strategy was to hug the inside, make no mistakes and let no one get inside of him and he made it work to the tune of five grand. Manville, Babb and Pierce would complete the top five with Pierce making the most noise, having started twelfth and making the top side work as well as anyone. 

And while the Late Model feature left something to be desired on this night, the Modified feature, for those that stuck around and didn't hightail it for the exits once the checkered waved, more than made up for a perhaps lack of passing in the first feature and it was none other than the Bobby Pierce who would put on the show. 

The Pierce team decided to bring a car for each class this weekend and fortunately for the fans, they did so as Pierce put on a great show and made the Modified feature a race that people will be discussing for awhile. 

Eearly on it was Kyle Steffens and Will Krup battling for the lead with Rick Stevenson, McKinney, Dean Hoffman, Jeff Leka and Rick Conoyer all battling in the lead group. Each lap Krup would put the pressure on Steffens who was running through the middle lane and giving Krup the inside but Will just couldn't make the pass. 

Hardly noticed with the large and good battle up front, Pierce was knocking down the wall as he began to advance from the inside of the eighth row and as the race got toward its midpoint, he was definitely on the move. After a lap eleven yellow for debris, the last fourteen laps ran off nonstop and that's when things started to get very interesting. Krup finally got past Steffens for the lead and as Pierce shouldered his way past Stevenson and McKinney, he was suddenly a real factor. 

Bobby continued to pound the wall and with four laps to go, he got past Steffens for second and took off after Krup, who had taken the lead just two laps previously. Pierce was making the high side work like no one in either class had all night and he quickly closed the gap, raced up beside Krup and coming out of turn four for the white flag, blew past to take over the lead. He continued his charge, not letting Krup get back inside of him in turn one and then extended down the back chute and took the win, which had the chill stiffened crowd up and roaring. After the featured Late Models kind of let us down a bit, the Mods showed us what two groove, bull ring racing was all about and it was a spectacular finish to the evening. Or course Pierce is a fan favorite in this area and he stirred those loyal fans that stuck in out on a cool night with a spectacular finish. 

The two division program was perfect for a Friday night this time of year and the final checkered flag waved just after 10:30 pm. The only catch in the whole program was that time trials delayed the start of the show with the first green flag not waving until 8 p.m. It's not that the Tri City crew and MLRA officials dragged their feet; nothing of the kind. In fact, they ran off a very fast program with no delays and only one very short break. In fact, I thought their administration of the show was very good. It's just that no matter how fast you run time trials, and the Mods even did group qualifying, it takes some time so if you're going to post a race schedule, unless you start time trials early, you're never going to be able to start on time, something that seemingly no one gets. 

Saturday night the show will begin and hour early and there will be drama as the possibility exists that this might be the last MLRA show of the year, given the Sunday forecast and the points title might very well be decided on Saturday. B Mods will join the field on Saturday for a three class program on what is slated to be a hot and very windy October day. 

Doar Heads Winners at Ogilvie Fall Classic

 (Full Disclosure - My Policy has always been to blog about non-WISSOTA sanctioned races on this site while sending all my WISSOTA event reports to the official WISSOTA paper, ALL THE DIRT Racing News. However, due to printing time lines and the planned issues upcoming to ATD, information on this race will never see print in that newspaper. With their permission, and actually following their suggestion, the report from this event will be on this blog. Hopefully readers of this blog will find out that there are some great events being done at some great race tracks in my WISSOTA part of the world.)

Friday and Saturday nights, October 10th and 11th, the seventeenth annual Fall Classic was held at the Wagamon family's Ogilvie Raceway in east central Minnesota. This event is one of the last races of the year in the WISSOTA region and has always been a popular race to attend for many teams looking to wrap up their season. FYE Motorsports Promotions annually leases the track from the Wagamon family to put on this event and runs it in cooperation with the regular staff from the Big O as Ogilvie Raceway in known. 

All eight of the divisions that WISSOTA sanctions are a part of this two night show and this year the USRA Late Models were also invited to hold a one night on Saturday as a part of the event. With beautiful weather gracing the Midwest all weekend, there was no question that this race would be held and both fans and racers responded. The six sanctioned classes that routinely race at this track were on hand along with the Late Models and Pure Stocks plus the USRA Late Models on Saturday. 

Car counts were very near the all time records for this event as a total of three hundred and twenty three drivers signed in to race plus a packed grandstand for this colossal event. Thirty Late Models were joined by fifty five Modifieds, fifty five Super Stocks, sixty seven Midwest Mods, twenty three Mod Fours, thirty six Street Stocks, seventeen Pure Stocks, twenty nine Hornets plus the eleven USRA Limited Lates on Saturday.  Drivers were on hand from eight states and there would surely have been drivers from two Canadian provinces if the borders would have been open. To say it was a full pit area would be an understatement. A few years ago the Wagamon family bought some additional property  bordering the track and that gets used for this event for additional pit parking plus they have also started a camping area just down the highway and offer shuttle service from the campground to the track. 

Because of the enormity of this event, heat races are run on Friday night with the B Features and main events on Saturday. While officials would love to run two full programs, it just isn't logistically possible to complete two full shows without running probably from one day right into the next. While most drivers like to have two full shows, they clearly enjoy coming to this event no matter what the format. Speaking of that, drivers draw for their heats and then passing points are used to determine the lineups for the B Mains and Mains run on Saturday night.

The Ogilvie Raceway is a three eighth mile, banked oval that sits in the middle of farm country north of the Twin Cities and is in a great location to attract fans from several different directions as well as race cars. The laps that would be run on this track would be almost unmeasurable on this weekend and for the most part, the track held up beautifully. Heat races, most being ten laps, were held on Friday night and a total of thirty four heat races were run. The track crew did a great job of moving the show along and despite all the late arriving cars, the racing started just a few minutes after the 7 pm advertised time and the final checkered flag flew just before Midnight which I thought was quite remarkable. 

The only major delay was when Forrest Foster violently flipped his Mod Four on the back chute in a wreck where he hit so hard that he bent the halo on his roll cage. Refusing medical attention, he later did visit a local hospital where he was then transported to a larger facility and reportedly did suffer a couple of broken vertebra in his back. 

One of the more impressive teams on hand is the Woodie Racing Team, newcomers to the sport. They recently moved to this area and their arsenal of cars includes seven cars split between two classes with three stack rigs to bring the cars to the track where their drivers get used to dirt track racing after having spent time racing snowmobiles out West. 

Joey Price came all the way from Great Falls Mt to race this weekend. He actually came to the area early as he purchased a Midwest Mod from a team in Michigan, picked it up and then headed back to Ogilvie to race. Late year he bought a Modified from a driver from the same area which he raced in Arizona as well as in his home area. He told me he plans to return to Cocopah again next January. Late he would win a MidMod heat on Friday night, only to come up a heat breaking five pounds light at the scale. 

Saturday would see a series of B Features before the nine main events would start. The feature races were all good events with a couple actually being exceptional with two decided by last corner passes. 

The two extremely close finishes were both in the open wheel classes. The Midwest Mod feature saw Jason VandeKamp lead for all but the last corner in the feature race. Travis Schulte worked the outside and stayed with that line and it eventually worked for him as he got a big run off the final corner and nipped VandeKamp at the line for the win. Modified driver Dave Cain was sitting in for Tony Bahr this weekend and he came from twelfth to finish third. 

The other thriller was in the Modified class where Shane Sabraski, who has been having a career year this year in two separate classes, made a last corner pass on A.J. Diemel to get the win. Diemel and Jake Hartung were battling early before Diemel took the top spot. Their battling led to a spin and Hartung went to the back, to be replaced by Sabraski to dog the leader.

Diemel moved high and low on the track, trying to anticipate Sabraski's moves in the last going. After showing his nose low, Diemel moved to the bottom to block on the last lap and instead, Sabraski raced to the cushion, got a great run off the final corner and edged past Diemel by inches in a thriller. Ogilvie is Sabraski's home track and this race was very well received by the fans, knowing that they had seen a classic. 

Despite all the laps on the track, the only race where the track gave up on the racers was the Late Model feature where it started to take rubber at the half way point. Jesse Glenz had taken the lead and was being chased by Pat Doar when they caught the back of the pack. Glenz got too impatient and tried to pass on the high side where he got out of the rubber and Doar passed him for the lead. Later Glenz and Diemel would tangle while battling and Glenz would get a flat tire and a DNF while Doar would drive on for the win over James Giassi and Dan Ebert. 

The Super Stock feature would also see a case of the tortoise and the hare as in the Modifieds where Diemel took off hot but eventually would get caught. In this race, it was Dexton Koch who took off strong but in the late going Dan Mass would pick up the pace and with a very impressive pass, drive around Koch to take the win. Mass is the all time feature winner at the Big O in this class so he knows his way around this oval. Koch would settle for third. 

The Limited Late Models would see current USRA national point leader Lucas Peterson lead from start to finish as he hopes to secure his second straight national title. Apparel vender Joe Provinzino would finish second with Miranda Carlson, who competed in both Late Model classes, third. 

The Mod Four feature would see Dustin Holtquist lead for much of the contest before he was overtaken by Tommy Bawden who would drive on for the win. Holtquist would later get tripped up in the tech shed with his father Bob then gaining the official second place with Dean Larson third. 

The Pure Stock feature would have a bit of controversy after Jared Akervik and Cory Jorgensen battled for the lead. They got together with Akervik spinning and he was tagged for the caution. Not agreeing with the call, he gave starter Brian Reidemann the "one finger salute" which drew him an immediate disqualification from the event. Jorgensen would inherit the lead but he couldn't hold it as he was passed by Kevin Baumgarner who would drive on for the win. Dusty Caspers finished third. 

Passing was the name of the game in the Street Stock feature. Early on, Andrew Hanson, Justin Vogel and Kyle Dykhoff would battle for the lead but it would eventually be Ryan Satter from Dent Minnesota would drive by everyone to take the win. Satter, who started ninth on the grid, showed great speed as he used the outside line and drove by everyone for the win. Hard charging high school student Parker Anderson started seventeenth and with only three yellow flags to assist him, came in a strong second with Dykhoff third. 

The Hornets rounded out the program and a full field of twenty five started their main event. Corey Mehrwerth came from the  third row to take the win, edging out Joe Wilbur and John Aderman for the five hundred buck top prize in the class. 

It was a huge amount of racing over two nights but the staff of FYE and the track did a great job of moving things along and providing top notch entertainment. For those who's interest in this track might be piqued, their season is not yet over. On October 23-24, they present their annual Topless Nationals. Racing will be Hornets, Street Stocks, Mod Fours, MidMods, Super Stocks and Modifieds, all racing without roofs. This race has grown in both recent years and now gets a large field of cars in all classes as drivers from a wide area look to get one more weekend of racing completed, and many travelers will be in the field to race with the area stars. Check the speedway website for more information. 

Relentless Sheppard Tops MARS Finale at LaSalle

 Sunday, October 11th I was up early and down the road to the LaSalle Speedway in LaSalle Illinois. On tap for this special Sunday show would be the final event of the inaugural year for the MARS Late Model Series under the direction of Tony Izzo along with the Pro Crate Late Models of UMP racing for a thousand dollars to win. Sunday would be the third night for the MARS series this weekend, having wrapped up their season with an Illinois tripleheader that saw races in both Peoria and Fairbury before wrapping up the weekend here on an absolutely gorgeous day in October. If the weather stayed like it was on Sunday, we could race until December and make up for all the lost events from early this year. Unfortunately, we all know that we are operating on borrowed time, as the calendar tells us that things will soon be going downhill. So instead, everyone seemed to just be soaking in the warmth and sun and appreciating what a spectacular weather weekend we had, no matter what state in the Midwest you lived in. 

It was a tough year for Izzo to have purchased the MARS series, what with the Pandemic that we all are still dealing with. So he was forced to cobble together a late schedule and add to it as tracks and dates became available and make the best of what he could. 

This was the final night of their season but the points title had already been decided and Brian Shirley, with some good work earlier this weekend was able to claim the title and at intermission the trophies and awards for that series were handed out at trackside. 

This was only the second race of the year at LaSalle in this goofy season of 2020 but both events that were held here seemed to be successful and while the crowd was not as big Sunday as the previous show had, the stands seemed to fill in nicely as race time approached. 

Some changes were still in effect due to the Pandemic with no track inside concessions available with instead a number of food trucks that were spread around the concourse area. Also, the grandstands were taped off with every other row not allowed seating so as to increase the social distancing. And I did not see anyone violating that plan such as did happen frequently at some tracks in Iowa, most particularly Davenport.

For being just the second race of the year, the track itself was in excellent shape with some great side by side racing to be held on a nice and smooth surface and these drivers, veterans of knowing how to race this track, use every inch available and help themselves by working all lanes on the track. Unfortunately, the scoreboard was not working so the time trial results were a bit of a mystery plus what was most needed, the lap board, wasn't working either. 

To help in providing a speedy program on a Sunday night, only the two classes were in action and this was a very wise decision indeed as it allowed a full racing program in those two classes yet guaranteed and early finish which of course, is a paramount thing for any Sunday show. 

Twenty nine Late Models and eleven Pro Crates signed in to race on this Sunday. While the number of Late Models could have been a bit higher, quite frankly, if you get all the top drivers in Illinois, throw in a few other top runners from out of state such as Richards, Mars and Simpson and that's all you need to provide a more than adequate field. Crates don't race anywhere around close by to LaSalle so it was no surprise that their number was small but they still managed to put on a good feature race. 

One disappointment was the poor performance of the "Silver Shark", Scott James. This was the first time I had an opportunity to see him race in 2020 but when a motor problem that they were pouring over in the pits before racing began didn't get any better and the motor skipped very badly in qualifying, they loaded up and left and I never got the chance to see him run. 

Two heats for the Crates plus four quick heats and a B Feature for the Late Models and we were ready to go feature racing at an early hour. While there was a small field of Pro Crates, they did put on a nice feature race. All eleven cars that started the race finished and they managed to turn twenty laps without a single caution. And in a preview to the upcoming Rip-it 50, the same scenario played out for the win with the second place car working the entire contest before making the late race pass for the win. 

In this event it was Chase Osterhoff who started on the pole and led most of the race until by working hard and pressing the issue, Aaron Heck was able to make a late race pass and then drive on for the win. It was an entertaining race and while low horsepower Late Models are really not my thing, they did a good job of racing hard and clean. 

Twenty two cars started the Rip-it 50 which was a really intense race, just like most of the "bull ring" shows are in Illinois. Chris Simpson got the early lead from the outside pole but he was constantly challenged by Rusty Schlenk, Brandon Sheppard and several others with Mars, Shirley and Frankie Heckenast all in the mix at one time or another. Meanwhile Bobby Pierce and Josh Richards were putting on a show as they raced up through the field. 

Bad luck struck Schlenk as he battled for the lead when a lapped car spun in front of the leaders in turn four and Schlenk clipped that car and wrecked his front end and he was done. This left it to Sheppard then to fight it out with Simpson for the win. 

Sheppard just kept trying as he pounded the high side and got close, but each time Simpson had enough to hold him off. This continued for lap after lap with Shirley not getting his nose down low and providing his own challenge. 

Sheppard simply won't give up as he kept on trying, lap after lap and finally, in the last ten laps he started to see some progress as he closed up slightly. He got to the point that he could start throwing some sliders and after the first one was repelled by Simpson, another strong blast down the front chute, with five laps to go, allowed him to beat Simpson to corner one and take over the lead. He stretched it slightly as he was clearly the fastest car at the end while Simpson barely held off Shirley for second. It was a dandy race and with only two very minor yellows, was almost nonstop intense short track action which is pretty tough to beat. Pierce managed to get up to fifth after starting in the eighth row and may have been the fastest on the track at the end but a poor qualifying effort doomed him. 

Remarkably, even with all the close racing on this tight track, there was virtually no crashing or contact even, a testament to the skill all these drivers have. No wonder this bull ring action is so popular in Illinois. For Sheppard it was the thirtieth feature win in this remarkable year for him and not a single of those wins was against a "gimme' field of cars. 

Racing was done before 9 pm, a perfect recipe for a Sunday night. Congrats to Izzo and his staff and all the working officials for a job well done and for carrying off that quick show that they promised. It will be interesting to see what kind of schedule Izzo is able to put together for 2021 with the hopes that a more normal year is in store for all of us.