It was another scorcher Wednesday night at the Stuart International Speedway(perhaps I'm just not yet prepared for warm weather, not having to deal with it hardly at all so far this year), minus the hurricane winds of the last two nights that while miserable in their own right did also move the air around. However, it's still better than Brass Monkey freezing cold plus it's race night, so we deal with it.
Wednesday was the night that everything came together, qualifying wrapped up and it was time to crown some champions in the Dirt Duels three night extravaganza That featured the Sport Mods and Stock Cars while not slighting the Hobby Stocks and of course, Wednesday was also the Bill Davis Sr. Memorial race for the IMCA Modifieds. Lots of racing and as it turned out, lots of excitement as both of the featured finales turned out to be dandies.
One hundred and twenty five cars in the four classes signed in to race on Wednesday with virtually everyone coming back in the Stock Cars and Sport Mods while an excellent field of thirty six Modifieds from if I can recall correctly from announcer Tony Paris' declaration, ten different states. That itself is quite impressive.
The Stock Cars and Sport Mods not already qualified ran heat races lined up by points with several moving directly into the feature and the rest running a B Feature in each class to fill out the field. Mods also ran heats and B Feature and the Hobby Stock a couple of heats to set their lineups. This part of the program really rolled through quickly and before we knew it, it was time for main event action. We would see a little more track prep on this night but it was fully required with the large number of laps that were being raced plus all the weather factors too and it proved to be more than worth the brief breaks, as we saw some excellent racing in all four features.
The Hobby Stocks rolled off first and this race proved to be entertaining with a number of lead changes. Dylan Nelson shot up from the second row to quickly claim the lead position but then he slid out and pole sitter Brandon Long was right there to take over. However, soon it was Brandon Cox who took over the top spot from Long, only to lose it back to Nelson.
You get the picture here, there was lots of passing and re passing as the leaders battled it out. Cox then re passed Nelson and this time made it stick as he held off the late charge of Solomon Bennett to take the win with Nelson settling for third.
Fifty laps was the distance for the Sport Mods, probably as long a race as they will run all year but they would do a good job at this longer distance with only seven of the twenty four starters not on the track at the finish and everyone on the lead lap. Brayton Carter, looking to repeat last year's win, got the jump at the start and actually led the first forty laps but it was anything but a comfortable lead.
He was constantly pressured by Dylan Van Wyk, Cody Thompson, Josh Most and Brian Osantowski and later both Johnathon Logue and Colby Fett would become part of what would be a six car pack fighting in close quarters for position.
Carter's lead was anything but comfortable as the lead group came up on their first lapped traffic to deal with. They were weaving and bobbing through the back markers when suddenly it was clear that Carter had a damaged front suspension on his car that was making it hard for him to turn and he began to slow. I must confess that I did not see any contact but was told that Carter and one of the lapped cars had banged wheels and the suspension break was the result.
Carter finally lost control and spun the car with forty one laps complete and his night was done. Thompson inherited the lead with a low running Logue his stronger challenger. Thompson was working the high banks while Logue was walking the low line right on the tires and they took off for a battle to the finish. One yellow bunched the field once again and the two battled it out for the win.
Thompson appeared to have the race won as he left turn four on what should have been the final lap, only to see the yellow after several cars stacked up in the first turn.
Now, in my world, if all the cars have taking the white flag and the yellow then waves, it is a race and should be scored back to the white flag lap. A number of tracks and sanctioning bodies do it just that way.
However, there are also a number of tracks that state in their rules that the leader must receive the checkered flag for it to be an official race and unfortunately for Thompson, that is the rule at Stuart.
The two lap shootout saw Thompson abandon the cushion and instead try to run through the middle of the track and this played into Logue's hands as he pushed hard on the bottom and was able to roll under Thompson off the last corner. They both pushed hard to the finish and Logue was able to edge ahead and take the win in what was a race that had the crowd on their feet. Most settled for a close third.
It was then time for the Stock Cars and their fifty lapper would end up being just as exciting. Officially, Zevenbergen would be scored the leader for all fifty laps but it was hardly that easy. While Zevenbergen banged off the cushion as the leader, he was sooned joined by two generations of racing Murty's , who gave him all he could handle. It was interesting watching father and son battle it out for second as they gave little extra space to each other, family or not.
When Dallon bobbled while second, Damon quickly drove in to take over that spot but when he tried to go low and slide under Elijah, he killed his momentum and Dallon quickly regained second.
Zevenbergen and Dallon were nose to tail when a yellow with six laps to go set the state for a wild finish. Murty seemed to be really quick off the corners as he pulled to the rear bumper of Elijah and it was just a question of when he would try his late race move.
On the final lap Murty got a good run off turn two and pulled even with Zevenbergen down the back chute. Murty blasted past him for the lead while Elijah set up the cross over move which he used in turn four. Zevenbergen would get back under Murty and they raced to the line with Elijah edging out the youngster for the thrilling win. Damon would finish a close third and Jesse Sobbing, who earlier in the evening told me he was worried that he wouldn't have enough speed to even qualify for the show, drove up from thirteenth to finish a close fourth ahead of Abe Huls.
It was another big win for the Northwestern Iowa racer but one must marvel at the tremendous skill that the younger Murty put on display.
The evening wrapped up with twenty five plus one laps for the Modifieds, in honor of Davis number. And seldom do I get to a race South of I-80 that at least one of the Carters does not win a main and that pattern held again on Wednesday as even though Brayton suffered a big disappointment, big brother Cayden was up to the task as he won the Davis Memorial.
Todd Shute was the leader for the first seventeen laps of the Modified finale after starting on the pole, but he had Joel Rust and Carter to keep him honest. A yellow for a spinning Anthony Roth proved to be the downfall of Shute as Carter got a great restart, threw a slider in turn one and was able to take over the lead.
He would go on to run up front the rest of the contest while the entertainment then was watching Tim Ward and Tom Berry Jr come charging to the front as they finished second and third.
It was another excellent night of racing that was played out in front of the largest of the three nights of spectators but I have to admit that I thought the crowd would be even bigger than it turned out to be. Perhaps some of the issues going on in Des Moines and the heat may have played a part. Don't get me wrong, it was not a bad crowd but not the jam packed place I expected. A gentlemen seated in front of me told me that a bunch of his friends had stayed home with the heat and instead had rented the race to watch on their tv in the comfort of their air conditioning. And thus the eternal question reveals itself once again, is it really a good idea to broadcast all the races and turn short track racing into a tv sport. We could probably argue that question for quite some time.
Thanks as usual to MVG and his staff for a great three nights of racing and overcoming some challenging weather issues to produce main events that we highly entertaining. Malvern Bank Late Models will highlight the program next Wednesday and it is possible I might return to central Iowa once again.
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