The fourteenth annual Wild West Shootout at the F K Rod Ends Arizona Speedway wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, January 19th. On the card Sunday would be the highest paying races in all three classes plus point champions would be decided also in all three classes.
It was the warmest day yet at the desert and another large crowd was on hand to see the final event in this six race series which has become one of the "must see" events currently on the racing calendar and praised by fans of all three classes that race during this six night series.
As is often the case for this series, the highest paying race is more likely than not the one contested with the fewest number of entrants of the entire week. Such was the case this year in all three classes as a beating was placed on the cars with six races in such a short span of time and all conducted with the highest level of intensity. Several cars were wadded up during the Saturday race including those of Trevor Anderson, Matt Gilbertson and Brian Kakela. Some others pulled out early to get a head start on the trip home after they didn't run as well as they might have hoped. In total, there were seventeen fewer cars in action than on Saturday.
However, there were a couple that were added to the field for the Sunday show including Alex Stanford who has been running back and forth between here and Yuma, competing in two separate series and using two different Modifieds. Cody Thompson from Iowa, who cleared up in that Yuma series, was a surprise entrant running with the X Mods. Neither driver fared very well however. Stanford ended up with what appeared to be a blown motor in the Modified feature while Thompson got a flat tire in his heat, came back to qualify out of a B, but then inexplicably missed the line up for the feature race.
Other drivers made a supreme effort to get their cars running after bad luck on Saturday including Eric Haugland who was on his lid on Saturday but came back to make the main on Sunday.
I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of real racers on Sunday. They are the Maga brothers from Swan River MB who were at the WWS for the first time. In case you don't know where Swan River is (like me), I found out that it is five hours North of Winnipeg MB or about thirty two hours from the Arizona Speedway! They race at a track in their home town and in a series with tracks in their area(which in their definition is about five hours away!) but they only get in a handful of races all year. They decided to attend this event which provides them nearly as much racing in one week as they get in a full year at home. Farmers by trade, they have a little down time at this point of the Winter so they made the decision to head to the WWS and despite a number of issues, they reported having the time of their lives.
Normally the Late Model time trials are not a time of a lot of drama but that changed on Sunday when Brian Shirley, battling for the point title with Brandon Sheppard and hoping for another win that would give him an even bigger bonus, clobbered the wall in time trials and would have to start tail back in his heat. He would eventually qualify through a B Feature but his starting position for the main made winning a real challenge.
I was disappointed that because the field was slightly smaller, track officials decided to run just three heats in the X Mods and Mods. These races don't take that long and starting over ten cars in a heat for just eight laps with passing points on the line, just doesn't make for the best of circumstances. Especially on the final night when some previous issues over the course of the week lead to bad feelings between drivers and on the final night everyone figures they have nothing to lose. Also, they never penalize anyone for rough driving at this series so as long as you can keep your car running, you just might as well dump the driver in front of you or at least blast him out of the way. This is something that they could improve on.
Up first was the X Mod feature race and through some hard racing in his heat, Sketter Estey, the point leader in this division, drew the pole for the main. Estey took the lead right from the start and would lead all twenty five laps to take the win. He was challenged by Steve Muilenburg and Josh Cain for awhile, but managed to eventually build up a big lead that was washed out by a mid race yellow flag.
However, Estey would pull away again once the race resumed and Clint Johnson, who had done a fine job racing up to second, got too high on the restart and Cain retook the spot. He attempted to catch up to Estey but there was no tracking him down as he was in a groove and pulled away for the win in a race that saw only two yellow flags. Estey really finished up the series strong with back to back wins to wrap up the points title and earn himself an extra grand. Cain and Johnson were trailed by Brock Gronwald and Cole Searing at the finish.
Estey, a two time WISSOTA National point champion in the Midwest Mods, was not driving a legal WISSOTA car for this event as he analyzed the rules and decided that the X Mod had a distinct advantage so he built his car to those rules as did a couple of other drivers from various sanctioning bodies to take advantage of a serious gap in the rules. Expect a rules change in this class next year like Humboldt Speedway in Kansas does to equalize the various sanctioning bodies and put the X Mods from Vado back in line with all the other sanctioning bodies.
The Modified feature provided a stunning moment and huge surprise after it was assumed that Rodney Sanders was going to run off with yet another win. As it turned out, some sort of justice was meted out after many thought Tyler Peterson was "jobbed" out a win on Saturday night and then when the unthinkable happened, he was right there to take a surprise win on Sunday.
The first few laps of the Modified finale saw "Big Daddy" Joe Duvall hold the lead with Sanders all over him and challenging. They fought hard for a few laps before Sanders was finally able to drive by and take over the top spot. Of course, it now seemed that everyone would be battling for second as Sanders started to move away from the field.
Dustin Strand, locked in a tie for the point lead with Lucas Schott, raced up to third and was holding that position until Peterson, the only driver to make the top side work, drove around him to take over third. Peterson continued his charge and a few laps later passed Duvall to take over second. However, Sanders was still in control of the race and no change there seemed eminent
However, that's when the entire crowd, and certainly most also in the pits, got the shock of the day when Rodney, all by himself in turn one, just turned the car around and slid into the infield. He fought to bring the car back out on to the track but by the time he got going again, he had fallen all the way back to fifth. It was a stunner that no one could have predicted.
Soon after the yellow flew and in the few remaining laps, Peterson pulled away to get his first ever Modified win at Arizona Speedway after having previously been an X Mod ace when the racing was done in Tucson. Duvall held on to second and Strand drove a conservative race to finish third and take the points title and add a grand to his winnings. Sanders was able to get past Schott as those two completing the top five. After last night's tirade in victory lane, Peterson was a much happy camper on Sunday and the Modifieds showed great balance this week with six different winners throughout the series.
A "farming session" produced a very fine track for the Late Model fifty lap finale. Brandon Sheppard started on the outside pole and led the entire race to get the win, but it wasn't quite as easy as it might sound. Early in the race, while he was in control, he was receiving considerable pressure from Johnny Scott who was close behind him. While those two battled, most eyes were on Shirley who started seventeenth and was quickly up into the top ten. By lap fifteen, he had moved into the top five and was continuing to charge.
He was very fast on the low side of the track and he blew past Ricky Weiss and Ricky Thornton Jr and set up the leaders. Another fast lap saw him pass Scott for second and he pulled right up on Sheppard. He took a shot and nearly got past but couldn't quite pull off the move and settled in behind Brandon. At this point, it appeared that Sheppard also picked up the pace and while Shirley remained close, he wasn't able to truly set up Brandon for a passing move.
A lap thirteen four yellow bunched the leaders but on the restart Shirley got too high and gave up several positions and restored Scott to second. Shirley charged back up to third but that would be about the best he could do for the rest of the event. I believe he wore his equipment out with his big charge and near the end of the race he was passed for third by Weiss.
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Meanwhile, Sheppard had his hands full with Scott and while Johnny never was able to make a move for the lead, any mistake would have cost Sheppard. However, Brandon was not about to give away the win and he remained smooth as he drove on for his third win of the week, splitting the wins equally with Shirley. Scott had an outstanding run for second with Weiss, Shirley and Bobby Pierce behind him.
For Sheppard, he earned fifteen grand for the win, the third win of the week gave him another ten and he was the point champ which was worth three more. Add in two five grand to win mains earlier in the week and it was a profitable time for the Illinois racer, particularly considering he was running his own equipment this week.
In summary, I would have to say that this was certainly one of the best ever Wild West Shootouts. It didn't hurt that the weather was a non issue after a couple straight years of battling the weather. The car counts were solid and the racing was very good, with some of the most spirited battles seen since this event moved to Arizona Speedway. The crowds were great for all six events and management had to have been pleased with that. Chris Kearns and his all star crew did an excellent job of running the event and I didn't hear a negative comment from anyone. Of course the drivers, particularly in the support classes, would like to see a little higher purse and with crowds like this year and knowing that a large number of people in the stands are associated with drivers in those classes, it just might happen for 2021. But in any event, it is absolutely a great way to kick off the 2020 racing season and certainly one event that I look forward to as much as any one all year. It is that good. .
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