It was night number two of the fourteenth annual Wild West Shootout contested on Sunday at the FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway and the big winner was "Joe." While a relatively unknown figure in the world of dirt track racing, he made the move of the night to ensure the Late Model feature race would go home to his team. Other winners on the night would include Rodney Sanders and Josh Cain and we will talk a little more about "Joe" in just a bit.
It is only the second night now of the WWS but already the carnage is starting to add up and the parts and engine bills to the teams are starting to go through the ceiling. While it feels like the first couple of programs have been pretty smooth and clean, there have also been a couple of major crashes and a lot of engines that have gone up in smoke. At the current rate, there won't be a lot of cars left to finish off next weekend's events.
Let's take a look at a list of some of the damages before we move on to the races themselves on Sunday. David Vennard, who pulled all the way down here from Canada to race his Late Model, was the driver to get on his lid during Saturday's show. He told me that he was just down here to get laps and had no allusions that he would be a serious contender. However, he also said that he didn't expect to get planted on his roof on opening night! They were stripping down the car on Sunday and with a new clip needed, they were planning on a trip to Tennessee to get the car fixed.
The other car involved in that wreck, the car of Iowa's Nick Deal, was having furious work done on it in the pits. The biggest damage was caused by the fire that started after the collision and the crew told me that all the wiring and hoses would need to be repaired. They had already made much progress on the car and they hoped to have it ready for the practice night on Tuesday.
The other driver who was involved in a wild Late Model wreck on Saturday was Jay Morris. They were also working feverishly on that car and would actually get it ready to race on Saturday, something I would not have thought possible based on the way it looked when I first arrived in the pits. In fact, Morris would late make the Late Model main.
Motors seemed to be a big problem so far with many going through the ceiling on this high speed track. Don Shaw, who was absent for the Saturday program, returned to racing on Sunday with a new power plant under his hood. Shaw actually missed the show on Saturday due to the fact that he flew back to Minnesota to attend the wedding of his dear friend John Seitz' son in Bemidji. But he probably couldn't have raced anyway as he blew a motor during the Friday night practice session.
It has been a tough early season for Shaw as he has lost two motors already so he has spent about a hundred grand to race for five to win! Sounds like federal government math. Anyway, he found a motor that he acquired from Ricky Weiss that had about nine hundred laps on it and was due for re freshening so he dropped it in his Victory chassis as he has temporarily parked his Rocket. The evening actually went well for awhile as he led laps in the feature race before he started to lose traction and he eventually dinged up the front end and pulled off.
His best buddy on the track, Matt Sparby, also had to replace a motor after blowing one on Friday night too. He missed the Saturday show to get that accomplished. He is a Late Model newbie and as such is taking baby steps in the sport so he uses a 525 crate motor in his car, which he replaced with one from Shaw's stock pile.
Other moves saw Duke Erickson replace a motor after blowing on on Friday and Kyle Beard also replaced a power plant. Beard later ended up getting stuffed hard into the wall in turn three. Bobby Pierce switched cars to another of his Platinum series.
Matt Gilbertson's Modified looked like a lost cause when I passed by his pit but they were able to somehow get the car running in time to race and in fact, Gilbertson would later run strong and take a top five finish out of the evening. The carnage would continue as Fito Gallardo blew a motor at the checkered of his B Feature and would miss the main event while defending WISSOTA national champion Cole Searing would explode a motor in his X Mod. Scott Greer, who had a bunch of problems with his car on opening night managed to get rolling, only to get involved in an accident and tear his car all up once again. Cade Dillard had an eventful evening also as he broke in his heat, managed to scramble his way back through a B Feature even though he spun out once, but then dropped out of the main early with more problems.
After racing their Mods at another series earlier this weekend, both Jake O'Neil and R.C. Whitwell showed up on Sunday to race. O'Neil had his own open car while Whitwell caught a ride in one of Justin Rexwinkle's cars. O'Neil would have an outstanding feature drive, going from twenty second to sixth while Whitwell would be out early.
Now on to "Joe" and the move of the night. The Late Model feature would start twenty five cars after Jason Papich won the Dash and like his team mate Tony Toste did the previous night, Papich eschewed the grand for the win to start in the back of the main event.
The track seemed to have a groove that was moving around on this night as I think that most would say it was better for the racing on Sunday than the previous day. Shaw would take the early lead using the high side and would lead the first ten laps over Brandon Sheppard who was uncharacteristically working the low side. However, that line started to come in and when Shaw started to lose grip in the corners on the top side, Sheppard moved past him to take over second.
Chase Junghans was on the move and he raced up to second and was running close behind the leader. Ricky Weiss, after pacing himself early, started to make a move to the front and cracked the top three. Suddenly, Bobby Pierce started to pick up the pace rapidly as he was up pounding the wall where few others were racing at this time as most had migrated to the low side.
Pierce was coming up very fast as he got by Weiss, then Junghans and was closing rapidly on Sheppard as he all out, wall banging style, for which he is known, was working for him even though he was abusing his car to get to the front.
And here is where the race hero, "Joe", stepped up and changed the whole race. "Joe" is actually the pit crew member of Sheppard who wields the "sticks" in the infield and signals his driver where the competition is coming from and where Sheppard needs to be on the track. Just as Pierce was ready to make the high side move and blow past Sheppard for the lead, B-Shepp got the signal from "Joe" to move up the track and he did so just in time to block Pierce's run.
Now Sheppard was plenty fast in his own right, and with him now in the correct groove, he moved back away from the field and then drove on for the win. Pierce had used up his tires and Weiss was able to get past him and close on Brandon, but the groove wasn't quite wide enough in the upper lane that was now taking rubber and he settled for second. Junghans and Brian Birkhofer rounded out the top five. The discussion about whether or not drivers should be allowed to have crew members telling them where to race on the track is one for another day, but I think you already know how I feel about that. On the bright side, the thousands of dollars that used to be spent on a two way radio system so that the drivers could block each other has been replaced by a pair of yard sticks at great savings to the teams!
After a bad Saturday night, Rodney Sanders was back on point with another win in the Modified feature. He had a task early, as Travis Saurer was driving the wheels off his car early and fought off every challenge from Sanders in the opening laps. Eventually though, the dominance of Sanders came through and when he found the fast lane which was low in turn one and high against the wall in turn three, he began to drive away from the field. Lucas Schott and Dustin Strand bot showed again that they are tough this week with Schott smoothly moving up from eleventh to finish a strong second and Strand got fourth. Sandwiched between them was Tyler Wolff with Gilbertson completing the top five.
There was quite a bit of scrambling in the X Mod event that saw defending USRA national champion Kris Jackson the early leader. However, Jackson was receiving plenty of pressure from Lance Schill while Josh Cain was charging up after starting eighth. Jackson couldn't hold the bottom and Cain was able to slide under him and take over the lead.
Things got further jumbled when Jackson got sideways and Zach Benson, who had started sixteenth and raced all the way up into the top five, spun to avoid the sideways Jackson and was penalized to the rear while Jackson was able to keep going and hold his spot, not a popular ruling by the Minnesota delegation. Later Brock Gronwald would have to pit with a flat tire and Skeeter Estey would also spin but got bailed out by a ruling that called for debris on the track even though it seemed that debris was caused by Estey's spin that tore tin off another competitor.
In any event, Cain was not bothered by all the other goings on, and he finished off the win following a green, white and checkered finish. Clint Johnson very quietly moved up from seventh to take the second spot with Schill, Mark Smith(minus door) and Grant Hall completing the top five.
A new term was added to the lexicon of the announcing team on this night as several yellows were called for cars that were "over rotating" in the corners. I guess drivers no longer spin out in the corners, their cars just "over rotate."
In any event, the opening night pa system problems were solved and we could clearly hear the announcers and the race driver interviews and it is always a pleasure to listen to Ben Shelton on the mic. Drivers now have one day off from the action before another practice session is planned for Tuesday night (yikes, more blown motors?) and racing resumes on Wednesday night.
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