On Saturday afternoon, January 11th, the fourteenth annual Wild West Shootout kicked off at the FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway under bright sunny skies and cool but tolerable conditions. Once again this desert bonanza for the racing fan would feature three classes of cars in competition with full shows scheduled for six nights over the next ten days with a racing format ideal for both the competitor, fan and for those looking for something in between where they can get their racing fix while also having a little "me or family"time folded in.
Racing would be the Late Models under no sanctioning rules but using pretty standardized rules including the harder tires, USRA sanctioned Modifieds and X Mods with each of the different sanctioning bodies running under their own set of rules with each competitor in this class declaring just which rules they are running under and then being 100% compliant to those rules.
Race Director Kelly Carlton made that very clear at the Driver's Meeting held before the first program today and I must note that Carlton runs a very good meeting. He keeps the meeting brief, only talking about those issues that must be addressed, explains things clearly and as opposed to all those thousands of Driver's Meetings over the years where everyone strained to hear what was being said over the noise of the pits, he was using a microphone and everyone could hear clearly. What a concept! Carlton also made it clear that one of the things that track officials would not do was pull fenders etc. during yellow flags and for that statement I almost ran up and gave him a kiss on the cheek! In my world there is nothing more frustrating than the delays when everyone decides to stop on the track to have a quarter panel or fender tweaked. Body damage is a part of racing and if a driver determines that it is bad enough to require attention, that is what the work area is for and that's exactly the way Kelly put it.
I was wondering what the previous weekend's events at Vado would do for the car counts at Arizona Speedway. and it appears that they really had no dramatic effect either for the good or the bad. About a dozen drivers that I would call true travelers are here in Arizona while the rest apparently headed back home to prepare for Arizona. A couple others may have been here except for circumstances such as Bloomquist's surgery, Moyer's crash etc. However, there were also a large number of Late Models on hand here that didn't race at Vado with an especially big group of Oregon racers on hand. In total, there were forty six Late Models on hand for the opening night, exactly the same number as there was for last year's show.
Remarkably, the car counts in the other two classes continue to remain strong despite a number of potential reasons why they should be dropping precipitously. For example, the Modified rules they run under here at not used at any track anywhere near this area with the closest tracks that run the so called "open rules" being in New Mexico and California and a look at the Arizona Speedway point standings from 2019 show that out of sixty one drivers listed in track points from last year, point champion Anthony Madrid is the only driver competing here this weekend! Yet the car count for the opening night 2020 actually exceeded last year's number with forty three Modified signing in to race.
The X Mods are much the same story. Only three of the nearly sixty cars shown in the Sport Mod point standings from this track are racing here this weekend, yet over forty of the X Mods, which race closest at Vado, are in the pits for opening night. A handful of local Sport Mod drivers are racing over at Cocopah in their six night series this weekend and that might explain why the X Mod numbers are down three from opening night last year. Truly, it might be time to examine why the X Mod rules haven't been addressed as even WISSOTA star Sketter Estey looked at the rules and feeling that the X Mods have a distinct advantage over the other rules packages, converted his car over from a WISSOTA Midwest Mod to an X Mod although it didn't work out for the best for him as he got passed by two WISSOTA MidMods near the end of their feature on opening night. And the pay for both the Mods and X Mods is not that great over the entire event and as Estey said, "you have to look at this event as a vacation with some racing including, not as just a race series." In total, one hundred and thirty cars signed in to race in the three class program which is just about the correct number of classes for an event like this.
Track prep guru Johnny Stokes from Mississippi was brought in to help with track prep for this race series for the first time. Although the red clay tracks in the South are much different than the dirt spread over the Arizona desert, management seemed to feel that Stokes could help with the racing surface, which I have to say wasn't in need of improvement from previous years in my mind.
In any event, the track was quite heavy for the practice night I'm told and did get a bit choppy in the corners but it was considerably different for Saturday's opening event. It was drier and the lower two classes seemed to be able to race all over the track. However, it was quite top side dominant for the Late Models and despite moving a lot of dirt away from the outside wall following the heats, the Late Models still were "married" to the top side, making passing a bit tough but also making "slide jobs" available and at the very end of the Late Model feature the track started to take rubber. While the track may be work in progress, that doesn't mean that the racing wasn't exciting. In fact, the events of this night were about as wild as it gets with many thrilling moments and unfortunately a couple of grinding crashes that may have shortened up the field before some of the drivers barely got started. And for a third mile track, this facility really carries a lot of speed and is definitely a "elbows up" track which is always exciting for the fans but perhaps not so much so for the drivers. Perhaps it was just me, but it looked like the corners had been redone with the track just a bit wider and the banking on the corners slightly reshaped from previous years.
The format remained the same for this year's events with both the X Mods and Mods using the passing points formula while the Late Models remain stuck in the 60's as they qualified in groups of three and then raced straight up in the heats. They do start early enough here with qualifying so that the advertised start time of the event is not compromised but an examination of the heat races would show that while there is much passing and exciting moments aplenty in the lower two class heat races, the Late Models get in line quickly and a stirring battle for position is the rarity, not the rule.
Heat races and a couple of B Features set the race lineups for the three main events and on this night, it was one of three over the course of the series where the Pro Power dash was held for the Late Models that failed to make the main. Tony Toste pleased the crowd no end when he opted to turn down the grand for the win and instead would tail the Late Model feature, stating that "he came here to race, not to watch."
The X Mod feature was up first and it might have been the best of the three mains. Twenty four cars raced twenty laps and the main went nonstop, green to checkered. Sketter Estey jumped into the lead over Mecl and led most of the event, but he was receiving much heat from Brock Gronwald, who had dazzled in last week's Vado events too. The two Minnesota drivers battled back and forth with Estey using a lot of race track to keep Gronwald behind him.
There were also a lot of good battles farther back in the pack as drivers like Lucas Rodin, Cole Searing and Cole Haugland moved toward the front. Estey was starting to get loose in the corners as the race wore on and Gronwald was all over him. Finally, Brock got a good run down the back chute and slid up in front of Estey to take over the lead. In the last few laps he proved that he was the fastest car as he put some distance on the rest of the pack in his Lethal chassis. Near the end Lance Schill got past Estey to steal the second spot with the final rundown showing two Minnesota and three North Dakota drivers in the top five, all from the WISSOTA sanctioning group minus Estey who was not running their rules for this week. USRA drivers Kris Jackson and Clint Johnson filled out the top ten. And quite frankly, if is wasn't for the WISSOTA drivers and fans in the lower two classes, primarily from Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Manitoba, they wouldn't have much of a show here.
It was another Minnesota driver that won the Modified feature as Lucas Schott led all twenty five laps to win that event. While he led the entire contest, he was pressured most of the distance and an excellent three car battle that featured Jake Gallardo, Dustin Strand and Tyler Peterson kept the event interesting. There were four early slow downs of the action but the last twenty laps ran under the green and the four up front separated themselves from the pack and provided plenty of excitement. A lapped car at the end saw Gallardo make the right move as he was able to edge past Strand for second with Peterson and Mitch Keeter completing the top five.
The Late Models ran forty laps for their opener and it was Ricky Thornton Jr that led most of the event. He got the jump on Brian Birkhofer at the start as everyone fought to get to the top groove which was still racing faster for the Late Models. Mike Spatola made some bold moves to slide into second with Brian Shirley moving from sixth to third. Later, Shirley would take over the second spot and become the primary challenger to Thornton Jr.
A late race yellow flag would bunch the field after Birkhofer stopped with a flat tire and when Spatola bobbled on the green, it set off a wild scramble that saw several of the drivers loose some spots and some, including Frankie Heckenast , benefit.
Still, Thornton Jr was in control and minus a mistake, he seemed to be in control. Unfortunately for him, that mistake did take place when he got just a bit high in turn three, the berm sucked him in toward the wall and Shirley was right there to motor past him and take over the lead. Brian led the rest of the way and Heckenast made a strong late race move of his own to take second from Thornton Jr who was a very disappointed driver following the event. Brandon Sheppard made up much ground during the race to finish fourth after being the quick qualifier earlier, with Chris Simpson completing the top five. ''
With this high speed track, there were a couple of grinding collisions and several motors that seemed to blow apart during the course of the evening. Two separate incidents during a Late Model heat saw Illinois driver Jay Morris nearly leave the grounds as he vaulted over the wall in turn three but did return to the track. Later in that same event, David Vennard ended up on his roof after a collision with the car of Nick Deal bursting in flames as a result of the accident also.
Modified motors of Logan Drake and Tony Martin both blew spectacularly and Canadian Scott Greer was battling issues all night.
The show was crisply run off with the final checkered flag waving before 9 pm in front of one of the largest opening night crowds yet so it appeared that the previous weekend of racing at Vado had no effect on this event. One thing that this speedway has a crying need for is a scoreboard and it's hard to imagine that with all the major races held here including many USAC and other Sprint events that some business hasn't stepped up and sponsored a scoreboard so we could at least know how many laps are left in a race and who is leading for those that have trouble following the action! Also, the pa system was miserable on Saturday with Ben Shelton having been better off if he would have used a megaphone or perhaps put everyone in the audience on a speaker phone call!
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