The first annual MODster Mash wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, November 1st at the Whitworth family's Humboldt Speedway in East Central Kansas. About a two hour pull almost straight East from Wichita, the Humboldt Speedway has been the site of many epic Modified shows over the years as this quarter mile oval, sitting next to the Whitworth family residence, has long been one of the towers of power when it comes to Modified racing in the Midwest. Having lost their King of America special way back in March to the Pandemic, this would be one of the biggest races of the year at "The Hummer" with Sunday night's winner taking home five grand. Also racing on this night would be the B Mods once again while the local Midwest Mods and USRA Tuners would also be a part of this early starting special.
Along with big cash on the line to the winners, national champions in both the Mods and B Mods would be settled on this Sunday with the top two in each division on hand and ready to settle the issue. And for the third straight night, the sun would be shining and it would be a beautiful, if somewhat cool end to the USRA season. However, despite the sunny skies, a week's worth of rain, snow and ice made the track surface softer than normal and for the third straight night the racing conditions would be a bit choppier than would normally expected at this venue.
I was finally able to catch up with USMTS and USRA head Todd Staley to pick his brain on a couple of issues. Foremost on my mind was to find out the thinking behind choosing to qualify the Modifieds this weekend when this series has long be a "draw a pill, line up for your heat and then race your way into the main" instead of opening up the show with time trials.
Todd told me that he was experimenting this weekend for next year as some have suggested with the higher paying shows(more on this later) that a pill draw alone should not set the running order for the all important heat races. So he opted to try the qualifying format this weekend even though he told me that he wasn't that excited about doing time trials. So I told him that if he didn't like time trials, for goodness sakes lets not even consider them for next year! Actually his main reason for not having time trials would be because he would be afraid it would cost him cars and I fully agree with that. There are a number of teams out there that feel that if they can draw a decent starting spot, they can hang right with the "big boys" but if they have to qualify, they fell that they would likely end up starting behind them in heat races with little chance of garnering enough passing points to even make the mains so what would be the point in even showing up and trying. I already had a couple drivers tell me this weekend already exactly that same thing so I think that Todd will have plenty to "chew on" before he decides on a format for 2021.
Todd said that the schedule will be coming out in a week or two but did throw me a couple of "teasers" before that announcement. The USMTS season will consist of around forty to fifty shows next year with several multi day shows planned. The plan next year is less overall shows and more big events. All feature races in 2021 will pay five grand to the winner of one day shows and ten grand for multi day shows such as Ogilvie and Cedar Lake. The KOA at Humboldt will be the last weekend in March with the season starting earlier in March in Texas. The point champion in 2021 will earn seventy grand.
As usual the Humboldt Speedway always has something new for each racing season as they never stop improving and adding to their facility. Even with this crazy season, they were able to add to the cat walk and give the pit side folks more good viewing locations. With a cat walk already in place in turn four, they adding a new one of the back straightaway near the middle of the track and just before the back chute exit. However, we are still waiting on that promised scoreboard that would be so valuable here as apparently the one that they purchased turned out to be a dud that wouldn't work so they are still looking. Hopefully they find one for 2021.
The car counts were down just a bit for the finale as would logically be expected but there were still fifty Modifieds and twenty nine B Mods that signed in to race on Sunday along with twenty one of the Midwest Mods and a half dozen Tuners to give the four cylinder fans a thrill. The format was the same as the previous two nights except the number of heats and B Features was reduced by the numbers on hand. Late Model drivers continue to shine in time trials(which is probably logical since they get more practice doing TT, unfortunately) with Brandon Sheppard quickest under the clock at 15.778 seconds. All that honor did was give him the chance to start behind Schott, Tyler Wolff and Tanner Mullins in a heat race and when he had mechanical issues he had to make a remarkable drive from ninth to win a B Feature and qualify for the main. That drive may have been the best seen all weekend.
There was plenty to be decided on Sunday with two USRA national titles to be determined. Remember when I mentioned that it was surprising that Lucas Schott was not at Eighty One Speedway on Saturday night after racing at Lakeside on Friday. Well, it turns out that he was playing the odds as he makes every attempt to win the Modified title for the second time. With his prime challenger Jake Gallardo opting to follow the MODster tour and go to Eighty One, Schott and team instead loaded up and drove five and a half hours farther South to race at Monarch Motor Speedway in Wichita Falls TX instead, hoping to pick up a win.
This turned into a peculiar night for them as there were only eleven Mods at Monarch so they used the bold strategy of dropping out of their heat race so they could start in the back of the feature. Since USRA rewards with more points for passing cars in the main events, Schott was playing the odds and when he started tenth and then won the main, it gave him a few more point lead over Gallardo who did not have a good night at Eighty One. Schott and crew then jumped back on the freeway and headed to Humboldt so they could race head to head on Sunday with a slight edge in their pockets.
But as it turned out, that strategy wouldn't be needed as "Cool Hand Luke" then drove a masterful race to a runaway win in the forty lap finale to MODster Mash at Humboldt, pocketing the first place money plus also claiming the national title.
The setup couldn't have been better with Schott and Gallardo starting side by side in the front row but Schott quickly jumped out to a big lead while Gallardo's hopes were dashed quickly when he cut down a tire and had to pit under yellow with only four laps completed. He would come back out but eventually give up and pull into the infield, out of the race.
Schott, meanwhile, was dominating the action as he kept pulling out to big leads, only to see the yellow wave all too frequently in the first half of the race; six times in all. The second half of the race ran off nonstop and Luke was able to pull away, all the time being careful with the rugged conditions. It was interesting that most of the field was bucking and rearing around the track, soft in the corners, while Schott seemed to be on rails and wasn't providing any of the "air time" that many others were getting. He carefully handled the rest of the race and took the title just as the script would have asked for, winning the main event and driving to victory lane for two separate celebrations.
Brooks Strength showed exactly that as he fought off several tough challenges to race home for the second spot. It was a hotly contested position as Jake O'Neal, Jimmy Owens, Dereck Ramirez, Sheppard and Tanner Mullins were all at some point fighting for the spot but Strength held them off to take the second spot with the "O Show" settling for third.
Things were just as important over in the B Mod pits as the pressure was on between Jim Chisholm and Kris Jackson as they raced for a national title too. Chisholm would start fourth in the main event while Jackson would start eighth and with a slightly larger lead than the split in the Mods was, Chisholm was just looking for a good finish and to keep Jackson behind him.
The B Mods would put on a whale of a show with only one yellow flag and a three car battle that was bordering on spectacular. Patrick Royalty and Shadren Turner battled back and forth for the lead in this race, going side by side for many laps with each taking their shot to lead as they continued to jockey back and forth. Suddenly they were joined by young Dillon McCowan and it became a three car battle for the top spot.
They would go three wide off turn four in a spectacular show and McCowan was just too fast for the other two as he split them, took over the lead and then sprinted away from the field in the closing laps. Meanwhile, Chisholm was hanging just back of the lead battle, running with the top drivers and keeping Jackson behind him.
While McCowan would continue on for a very impressive win, Royalty would come home second and Chisholm drove to a smooth and smart third place finish and thus ensure himself of a national title. The youth were served in this division with race winner McCowan only sixteen and Chisholm just one year older. It will be fun to mark these two in the coming years and see where their talent leads them.
This could just as well have been a two division program that would have allowed the show to get done a bit earlier for those taking to the highways to head home and get ready for Monday work. The Tuners couldn't put on much of a show with only six cars but at least it went without a yellow flag slowdown as Cayden Vance dominated for the win. The Midwest Mods endured themselves to no one with their performance as they smashed and spun their way to a gut wrenching eight yellow flag marathon. It finally got so bad that track officials pulled the plug and they finished with a green, white and checkered conclusion laps short but surprisingly, they were able to finish the last two circuits without another spin.
Winner Casey Burnett did have a tale to tell as he was the early leader until he spun in turn one following, not surprisingly, a yellow for a spin when he himself looped in front of the full field, triggering a multi car smasharoo that eliminated a few cars and sent front bumper sales sky rocketing.
Burnett then went to the tail but with some good driving and utilizing all the yellows to his advantage, he was able to drive back up through the field and take the win over Jackson McGowan. Burnett was one of at least two leaders to spin while holding the top spot and fans began to wonder if indeed anyone could keep their car pointed the correct direction long enough to take the checkered.
Even with the two divisions trying their best to stretch out the show, track officials kept things moving and the final checkered waved somewhere before 8:30 pm. As always, thanks to the Whitworth family and their officials for a job well done along with Todd, Janet, Jeff, Brice and everyone else with the USRA for their help this weekend. Three nights of quality Modified racing this late in the season was a joy to be a part of .
No comments:
Post a Comment