Sunday night, August 23rd was a discovery night for me. Although the track has been up and operating for about a year now in its new make over, this night would be the first time for me to visit the new Mason City Motor Speedway in Mason City Iowa. Most everyone by this time is aware of the huge changes that have taken place there, so I won't detail all of them, but suffice to say that it definitely doesn't look anything like the old half mile, that's for sure.
From the West end of the track, I took a first walk up the old entrance to the track, crested the banking and was then amazed just how much farther I had to walk to get to the entrance to the new track. Likewise, the old turn one and two looked a long, long ways past where the current track is. The new track can't be more than a quarter mile, which is a fine length for a race track, by the way, but in this instance it looked even smaller with the old track running so far beyond it on either end. And from the grandstand, where the cars pit off the old turn four looks several miles away from the new track, which of course its not. I understand that another makeover is due for the track during the off season to come as the Staley's have had time now to run a number of races and have seen just what they want to fine tune for the track for its permanent state. The one-two corner is in for a reshaping I understand and they are going to extend the track just a bit farther on that end. I was told that they hoped to make it just about the same size as the Deer Creek Speedway as a number of drivers that race here also race there and find that track to be just about the right size.
One nice thing about the new track is that now all the grandstand space, which is considerable by the way, can be used by the spectators for seating. With the old half mile, nearly half the grandstand was rendered so that you couldn't see the West end of the track by the VIP booths, which were unbelievably engineered and placed so that they blocked one whole end of the grandstand for the crowd, as well as making the one-two corner just a rumor for the announcer and scorers in the tower! All that has changed now and for the better for sure. A couple light poles behind the main grandstand might be a nice addition though, as the grandstands themselves are quite dark to navigate in once the sun goes down.
On this night they were struggling just a bit with the track which was very heavy and while it was also very fast, it did roll up some and create some rugged racing conditions. It made for a lot of action but also a lot of strain on car parts etc and a number of the drivers, recognizing this, either chose to call it a night by pulling off early or a few didn't even enter the races. Nevertheless, the racing was very entertaining with a couple of very good battles for feature wins. They also had some very big uke tires moved out on to the track for the heats, forcing the drivers to race farther up the track. Those were then moved down for the features and that also seemed to help widen out the track which was their goal in the first place.The way the corners are shaped right now, outside passing is at a premium and that, I'm sure, is one of the prime reasons for the overhaul planned this Fall.
Apparently I picked a very good night to attend as the car counts were up considerably over what I had seen in the results in recent weeks including three heats needed for both the B Mods and Stock Cars and sixty eight cars on hand for the four USRA sanctioned divisions plus the Mini Mods that were also racing. It was incredibly steamy when the race program started but cooled to be a comfortable evening as the racing progressed and a pretty nice crowd was on hand given the miserable conditions. Both car counts and crowd size were probably helped due to the fact that they didn't race here last week as they took a night off.
As with all shows run by the Staley family, once they get going they move things along very quickly and the only breaks once the first green flag waved were to do a little packing and minor fine grooming of the racing surface after the heats which only took a few minutes.
The Hobby Stock feature was up first and in this race Scott Dobel led from start to finish in a contest that was stopped just once for a yellow flag. The drive of the race was put on by Chris Hovden who started seventh and worked his way up to second and was closing on the leader at the end. Whether he would have had enough to actually pass Dobel, we'll never know, but he did close up at the end.
The Modified feature started off with a band when a tangle on the first lap saw Terrance Prohaska get over on his side. He was fine and while he drove the car off the track after the incident, he was done for the race.
Jason Cummins got to the front early and led the majority of the Modified main. Josh Angst had to do some major digging as he started eighth but he worked his way up to second and was putting a lot of pressure on the leader as the race ended. Devon Havlik finished third.
The majority of the wild action and the best move of the night were all reserved for the Stock Car feature which had a full field of twenty cars bouncing and bucking around on the fast but choppy surface. This race also had the most yellow flags as the race was slowed four times including one big one near the end of the contest.
Point leader Andrew Borchardt got to the front early from the second row but he was soon challenged by Travis Shipman for the lead. Shipman made a nice low move and got the top spot although Borchardt came right back to fight him for the lead spot. They were in a group of about six cars that were racing up front as the action was wild and the fenders were being swapped.
A back marker spun to trigger the yellow and very nearly at the same second, Shipman also spun out of the lead. I thought that he might be saved by the yellow flag but apparently the rule here is that anyone not running when the yellow waves, whether they are a part of that yellow or not, goes to the back. So Shipman, without any hesitation or display of frustration, went directly to the back, telling me that he was OK with the call.
That gave the lead back to Borchardt but he now had a major challenger in Chanse Hollatz, who had worked his way up after starting eight on the grid. He was just thinking about trying the outside when a major pileup occurred in turn one that collected several cars and eliminated Shipman from the contest.
Then it became a two car battle for the lead. Borchardt was married to the bottom groove and wasn't going to move off it so Hollatz took a "chance" and decided to go "wreckers or checkers" as he attacked the high side of the track like no one had all night. And son of a gun, he made it work! A couple of times it looked like he was going to be eating concrete dust as he got mighty high in turn four but he just kept plugging away and gradually he made the move work, cleared Borchardt and took over the lead. It was the move of the night.
However, he still had to negotiate the last few laps where one wrong move or one bump hit wrong would send him hurtling into a wall or off the track. But he held on and scored a very "chancy" victory, one that the crowd approved up. Borchardt settled for a conservative second with Pat Graham third.
The B Mods wrapped up the night with a great two car battle for the win. It was visiting KC area driver Jake Richards and Brandon Maitland showing everyone that even with the challenging conditions, drivers could race side by side for lap after lap without nailing each other while still giving the other driver room to operate. It was a display of racing at its finest, especially under challenging conditions.
Richards felt more comfortable racing the middle of the track and that is where he ran. But that opened up the prime inside lane and lap after lap, Maitland would dive deep into the corners and try and get under the Kansas driver. But each time, Richards would beat him off the corners and just hold on, lap after lap.
They ran this way for nearly the entire race and the margin at the finish was still only a car length as Richards held on for the win. Just as credit for the win should go to Richards, just as much should also to Maitland for driving hard but not reckless. He had multiple chances to bore deep into the corners and root Richards out of the way and no one would have thought different if he did, given the track conditions. But time after time, when he saw that he was not going to be able to clear Richards, he kept he nose of his car pointed away from the leader and gave him room to race. It was a pleasure to watch two drivers race so hard but so clean. Wouldn't it be nice if we saw that more often?
All racing was complete by 9:15 pm in what was an entertaining program. I understand there are still some out there from the area that are still boycotting the track since it is no longer a half mile. To them I say, get over it! While half mile racing may have its place, my favorite kind of racing has always been the short tracks, the third mile or less ovals where the racing is always close. Not to knock anyone who previously operated the old half mile or ran shows there, but I can honestly say I saw more action on this track tonight than probably all the times put together that I saw the blazing speeds but little passing or side by side racing on the old track. I will much more interested and anxious to return to racing under its current state in Mason City than I ever would have been with the old track.
Thanks to Ryne Staley for taking care of me when I dropped in at the last minute unannounced and the rest of the staff at Mason City Motor Speedway. And seeing Lon Oelke twice in seven days work, he's going to think that I am stalking him!
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