Tyler Erb First Repeat Winner as East Bay Winter Nationals Wraps Up

 On Saturday night, the sixth and final night of the Lucas Oil Racing Series East Bay Raceway Park Winter Nationals were concluded on a lovely night for dirt track racing in January. And for Tyler Erb, the current lightning rod of public opinion in the world of dirt track Late Model racing, it was a very satisfying night indeed. Twenty four hours after he was shut down after attempting a little post race payback after he felt he had been unfairly roughed up by another driver in making a pass that left him out of the feature, Erb came back to win the final fifty lap main event here on Saturday night and take home the biggest check of the week as he earned fifteen grand for the win. 

Erb drew plenty of comment, both pro and con, after the victory but he was quite calm and non controversial as he accepted congratulations for the win and explained how he pulled off the victory. Erb was one of three different leaders in the event with Brandon Sheppard leading the early laps until a reoccurring handling problem the the team has been fighting all week saw him push up the track and leave the bottom side open for Erb, who was able to find the slick line through heavy lapped traffic to take the lead. 

Shortly after, Tim McCreadie, who had gradually worked his way into contention, made a great move on a restart and rode the turn one banking as he blasted past Erb to take over the lead. Once in front, he opened up a considerable lead over Erb and a charging Jonathan /Davenport. But that big lead was wiped out by another yellow and on the restart, Erb used the same move to drive around McCreadie on the restart and then dive back to the bottom and pull away. Strangely, while the cushion didn't seem to work for anyone but Sheppard, the top side seemed to be the best way to get a good run on a restart and it was used twice in that manner to change the driver out front. 

Once Erb was out front, he had relatively easy going until during the last ten laps Davenport began to cut significantly into Erb's healthy lead. It didn't appear that Davenport would be able to pose a challenge but he was really flying at the end and on the final lap opted to try the high side and drive around Erb. And he very nearly pulled off the stunner, as he got to within a car length of the winner and another lap or two could have produced a very different finish. 

But as it was, Erb sweated out the win over Davenport with Sheppard muscling the Rocket house car home for third using the high side as he finished ahead of McCreadie and Hudson O'Neal. All cars on the track were on the lead lap at the end and twenty one took the checkered flag. 

Seventy one cars signed in to race on the final night of the series as the impressive car counts held for the whole week, despite the normal wear and tear on the machines with eighty six different drivers racing the track at some point this week. Even the final night of the series produced one new entrant as Richie Stephens from Phenix City Alabama showed up for the finale. 

Several drivers did pull out early and head for home or repairs before they attempted more racing this month but the strangest scratch of the night involved Delaware driver Ross Robinson. After discovering a problem with their primary car, they opted to roll out their back up machine to race. However, during the unloading process, Robinson some how managed to wrench his back to the extent that he was in too much pain to get into the car and race so the team was forced to scratch out of the action. Their participation at Bubba Raceway Park next week will depend on Robinson's healing process. 

Mason Zeigler and Chase Junghans both pulled out back up cars to race on Saturday due to mechanical difficulties with their primary machines. For Junghans it was an especially frustrating wrap up to this series. After rolling his car on Friday night, he rolled out the back up, only to be involved in a tangle just laps into his heat race and he quickly called it a night and a series. 

Many veteran fans and observers were calling the crowd on Saturday the largest ever for this event as spectators were literally parked on both sides of the highway leaving the track for up to at least a mile and the line to get into the grandstands when the gates opened was biblical in nature. In fact, crowds all week have been very large and perhaps this bodes well for the rest of the Florida racing events and the start of the season in other parts of the country. 

Thanks to everyone at East Bay Raceway Park for their help along with the officials of the Lucas Series and others. It is a marathon undertaking to administer and run this six night extravaganza and everyone helped to make things go off very smoothly all week. I would also like to thank those strawberries that gave it their all to supply me with the most tasty strawberry shortcake around. 

Overton Pulls Away for East Bay Victory

 The Winter Nationals series at East Bay Raceway begins to wind down with the fifth straight night of racing held on Friday night, January 29th. It was a sunny day in the Tampa area but cool once again and a night that would eventually require the same heavy clothes that one would wear this time of year much farther North. The warm weather has apparently departed along with the rain but what the heck, we are still racing in January while much of the North is digging out from yet another snow storm. 

The hardest working people in racing, laboring for the fewest dollars, the pit crews, have done it again as after Thursday night's marathon with double feature races and plenty of wrecked cars, they have done their magic once again and the car count is at seventy seven for night five, only down one race car from the week's high count. Many of the crews do remarkable work getting their teams' cars back on the track, sometimes when it looks like there is no way the machines can be repaired and especially at the track and not at their shops. But they somehow always seem to get it done. 

Things did seem a bit more tense in the pits before the races started tonight. Nearing the end of the week, drivers not doing well are feeling the pressure to produce more and some big name teams have struggled all week. The highest money of the week is also on the line for these last couple of nights and for teams that have struggled to even make a main, the racing budgets are starting to feel a little bit tight as the frustration for many increases. And that is when drivers take chances that they normally might not. 

The motor issues for Zach Dohm were just too much to be fixed at the track so his week has come to an end while the team focuses on his father Tim's new ride which he will try to qualify again on Friday. The worst thing about this is that we never got to see both race at the same time during Winter Nationals 2021. 

The track appeared to be a bit wetter on Friday night as the prep crew is clearly trying to provide a race track the doesn't rubber up to the extent that it did on Thursday night. However, their efforts would again only be partially successful and the last twenty laps or so of tonight's feature would again be run on a rubbered up track that made passing nearly impossible. 

However, the evening started out promising with some lively action in the heat races including one big "dust up" between Tyler Erb and Mason Zeigler that we will talk about just a bit later. However, the incident did result in Erb being "sat down" for the remainder of the evening. 

The format remained the same for night five with six heat races after qualifying, the B Features and the main event, up to fifty laps on this night. Action was hard and fast in the preliminaries but the pattern of the up front starters winning held as all six heat races and two of the three B's were won right off the front row with the lone exception being the win by Jonathan Davenport from row two. However, as testament to the continued strength of this field, drivers such as Davenport, Moran, Eckert,Richards, Scott, O'Neal, Sheppard and others all had to run B Features on this night. 

The track did start to develop two grooves during the B Features and there was hope that it would widen out further for the main event. There was also the hope that we would get more clean racing in the main tonight and not be so bogged down with a series of yellow flags as we were still looking for that clean race where they could go green to checkered. 

And for the first twenty laps of the main, that's exactly what we had with Brian Shirley maintaining the top spot but Bobby Pierce was knocking down the outside wall repeatedly as he tried to get by for the lead. Boom Briggs was having a great run with Tim McCreadie and Mike Marlar close behind. 

Then we got the first of five more yellow flags during an eleven lap period which several times broke up what were some great battles as the lead was swapped between Jimmy Owens and Mike Marlar. Pierce's strong run ended when he got a flat tire on the left front and tried to run it that way and he was OK as long as he restarted on the top side but once he got stuck on the bottom lane, he was done. 

Marlar made a great run on the cushion to take over the lead, then inexplicably chose to race on the bottom following another yellow and he was passed easily for the lead by Overton who had gradually worked his way to the front. Once he took over the top spot, the track started to take on rubber and the whole character of the race changed. While several battled for second, Overton pulled away from the field and the race was over. Drivers like Marlar, Shirley and Briggs put their cars in reverse and dropped like rocks in the field. 

Overton's only challenge at the end was heavy lapped traffic but those drivers moved out of the groove a bit more easily than some earlier in the week and he drove home for an uncontested win. Tyler Bruening had a great run, showing consistency as he gradually worked his way forward and at the end, while he was considerably behind the winner, he got his first ever podium finish with Lucas Oil, no doubt pleasing all his Hawkeye state fans. What was ever better was that teammate Shane Clanton also made the top five so it was a very good showing for the team. McCreadie finished fourth and Moran gained a lot of positions to finish fourth. 

While a considerable amount of equipment was torn up earlier in the evening, the feature race itself  saw only a half dozen or so drivers not go the distance. One that didn't finish the event was Chase Junghans, who ended up on his roof in turn four after tangling with Zeigler which led to tense words between the two with the action quickly separated by series officials. 

Speaking of action, the biggest "dust up" of the week so far occurred during heat race number five when an aggressive pass by Zeigler knocked Tyler Erb out of the groove and cost him a qualifying spot. Erb responded by slamming into Zeigler's car on the cool down lap, which resulted in him getting disqualified for the rest of the night. This set the crowd into motion and they came alive unlike any other moment of the entire week. Erb is on thin ice with series officials for both major series right now and no matter his feelings, he needs to rein himself in if he plans to continue driving Late Models and touring the country, It's just that simple. And while series officials get stern looks on their faces when such a thing happens, secretly inside they must be rejoicing as every group needs a villain and Erb right now, whether he realizes  it or not, has taken on that persona. Let's face it; over the years a number of drivers have used that tactic as their "gravy train" and have made a lot of money by working off that plan. 

And if Erb is now public enemy number one, Zeigler must be close behind. He was involved in two overly aggressive actions on this night too, and has also been guilty of bending up his quarter panels at least twice earlier this week leaning on other people. There have been several other times when rough driving has been the order of the night and it seems like everyone is pushing each other around more than the normal amount. Probably at least part of that has to do with the large and competitive field and of course the character of this track, which has action as a part of its name, particularly when they can provide the racers with a wide and racy surface with which to do battle on. And candidly I would have to say that while the field of cars has been great all week, the track conditions have been a bit disappointing with the drivers really not able to show totally what they can do because the track just hasn't been real racy from beginning to end of each night. However, everyone will be back to give it one last shot on Saturday night in another fifty lap feature that will close down the Late Model portion of the racing at East Bay but they have still a solid two weeks of racing left for various divisions. 

Scott and Richards Top Rare East Bay Doubleheader

 Thursday night, January 28th, Johnny Scott topped the regularly scheduled forty lap Lucas Oil Series Late Model feature race at East Bay Raceway Park. Josh Richards also won a forty lapper too as he was victorious in the make up feature that was left over from Wednesday night's rain shortened program. This was the first doubleheader event carried out at the track since the 2016 Winter Nationals and then, as in this night's event, the reason was weather related. 

It is quickly apparent why such doing such a doubleheader event is frowned upon and attempted to be avoided at all costs and likely the reason we sat waiting so long on Wednesday before the call was made to postpone the rest of the show until the following night. Running two feature races on the same night is tough on everyone from the track workers to the drivers and race crews, the series officials and certainly not the least to be mentioned, the track itself. 

Here when a show gets rained out or partly completed before it gets rained upon, the following night the track just seems to respond in a negative way and must also make it difficult for the track prep crew to get it correctly set up. Because on Thursday night, from the first set of hot laps it appeared that the track was crumbly, rough and way too dry to take all the laps that it would soon see. And while the track seemed to smooth out as the night progressed, it quickly became a one groove, hug the bottom kind of surface that frustrates drivers, leads to wrecks and makes for poor racing that is disappointed to all on both sides of the track. And unfortunately, that was what everyone had to deal with on Thursday night. And in their efforts to try and advance themselves in the running order over the course of the evening, drivers were spun by others, bold and reckless moves were made and a whole series of multi car wrecks tore up a considerable amount of equipment and made for one of the most expensive nights of racing for the crews here in several years. Some teams even lost the services of both their primary and back up cars before the night was done. 

A visit to the pits before the racing began found everyone pretty mellow as the early rainout of the night before left many teams with not too much work to be done. By the end of the night, however, those easy moments would be just a memory. One of the few teams still thrashing was that of Freddie Carpenter, but as he promised, he did get his car fixed and would be ready to race on Thursday, having lost only one night to his big wreck earlier this week. 

New cars still arrive even now that we are past midweek. Michael Page, Tim Dohm and Ross Bailes made their first appearance of the week on Thursday. Mark Whitener, with his Moseby Motorsports #385 scheduled to start on the pole for the make up feature race, then opted to roll out his own #5 car to run the show on Friday. That seems like a bold gamble since the other car had just been quick qualifier the night before but Mark would have made it work except for one problem, he failed to make weight. He had a good heat race and would have been solidly in the show except that he came up light at the scales, had to go to the back of a B Feature and then just opted out for the rest of the night. 

His other ride, the #385 almost got him a top five finish until he rolled to a halt with just five laps left with a flat tire, ending a good run with that car and culminating a frustrating night.

Ray Cook also made his first attempt of the week when he drove the Joe Denby second car but failed to make it to the main event. Ricky Thornton Jr rolled out a back up car for tonight after struggling so far this week as did Tim McCreadie but he did so because of a wreck  that damaged his primary car. 

Six heat races and three B Features set the stage for the main event. Quickly working his way forward after starting ninth using both passes and advancing some positions when others had problems, Stormy Scott moved into second and with a bold move on a restart, drove to the second lane to take over the race lead and once in front, he led for the rest of the race. 

The track quickly became a one groove affair with everyone hugging the extreme inside and waiting for a mistake to happen to advance. Scott built up a considerable lead following a couple of multi car crashes that really took a toll as a third of the starting field failed to finish.

Stormy's only problem was when he caught the back of the pack who were lined up single file and hugging that same inside line that the leaders were using. With no second groove available to drive around the slower cars, Scott had to just wait patiently for an opening which was tough as this allowed Kyle Bronson and McCreadie to catch up but luckily for Scott, Bronson had to worry more about keeping McCreadie behind him rather than focusing on a way to pass the leader. 

Scott was finally able to slip under the slower cars and his way to victory was then clear and he drove home for his first Lucas series victory, a win that was widely celebrated by his competing drivers and certainly by all his Modified friends where he still maintains a strong presence. Bronson would finish second and McCreadie third. Illinois drivers Frankie Heckenast and Brian Shirley would complete the top five in this follow the leader race. 

After this feature, the track crew would spend about a half hour blading off the top surface of the track and removing the rubber. In the meantime, it was a mad scramble in the pits as teams raced to repair cars and roll out back ups for the two left over B Features from Thursday along with another forty lap main. 

Brandon Sheppard and Josh Richards would both roll out back up cars while Kyle Strickler, already out of cars with both not race ready in quick fashion, borrowed a car from Rob Anderzack(another #8 by the way) to start the main. 

Twenty eight cars would start the second feature race which would be perhaps even more challenging to watch than the first. Whitener would lead early but the yellow was a frequent visitor waving five times in the first eight laps for series of spins and wrecks. Bobby Pierce, who qualified well, would have an especially tough time of it, spinning twice in the first six laps and eventually calling it a night as he tried to make the outside work. 

The track quickly got one grooved again with Richards making the winning pass early as he got around Whitener for the lead and then built up quite a distance over the field. The frequent spins and yellows(nine in all) allowed some to work their way up through the field while not truly passing anyone in the normal manner as again, over a third of the field would be off the track before the checkered. 

Brandon Overton attempted to stay with Richards but Josh was fast in the rubber and made no mistakes and there was no lapped traffic to contend with as the yellows came frequent, including the last that set up a one lap dash to the finish. Richards got the win with a car fresh off the loft after his primary car got all torn up in the first feature with Overton finishing second ahead of Hudson O'Neal, Shirley and Devin Moran. The only changes at the end were when top five runners Whitener, McCreadie and Dennis Erb all had tire issues. The first two got flats and Erb had one go bad in the last two laps and he dropped all the way from third to twelfth. 

The evening turned out to be one that would leave most everyone except the winners with a bad taste in their mouths. The drivers were frustrated with all that went on, the crews were disgusted with all the torn up equipment that had to be fixed, the track officials were not happy with the less than spectacular show presented and the track prep team had to be annoyed that all their efforts didn't turn out to be successful. Hopefully the one night hiccup will just be a speed bump in the road and racing will return to normal come Friday when the ante goes up, both in race laps and cash on the line. The crowd, by the way, was huge for a Thursday night show. 

Wednesday a Short, Wet Night at East Bay

 Wednesday night, January 27th was scheduled to be night three of the annual Lucas Oil Winter Nationals at East Bay Raceway Park. However, the weather predictors had included a chance of showers and thundershowers for early Wednesday evening and they turned out to be correct, turning the racing program into a shorter than planned show that will be concluded on Thursday night. 

Seventy two cars signed in to race on Wednesday night with Bobby Pierce and Kerry King the most recent additions to the field as both showed for the first time on Wednesday, Pierce with his Wild West themed tin still on his race car from his western adventure. 

Missing on Wednesday night was Freddie Carpenter who had his car up on jack stands and was working away on it along with his crew, trying to repair the damage resulting from his wild flip on Tuesday night. He has stated that he hopes to race again on Thursday but perhaps that might be just a big optimistic but we have seen race teams do some amazing things over the years. 

Dave Hess Jr and Shane Clanton were both seen working on their cars as I toured the pits but both opted to take the night off while the rigs of Drake Troutman and Jeff Mathews were both still in the pits but neither chose to race on Wednesday night. Mathews' team mate Devin Dixon planned to race but then opted out of qualifying and did not turn any more laps on Wednesday night. With the addition of the two new drivers, we have now seen eighty different teams in racing action here so far this week. Kyle Strickler switched cars for this show in an effort to improve his performance and also repair damage to his car done in one of Tuesday night's wrecks. It did not help much as Strickler had problems during qualifying and then started and finished last in his heat race. 

With rain on the way and everyone focused on their electronic devices' radar, the program moved along quickly, just as it always does here but with perhaps even more urgency than usual. They actually started the show a few minutes early and tore through the heat races at break neck speed. 

The track was very fast on Wednesday night and an up front starting position was crucial, just as it is with all time trial shows that start the heats straight up. In fact, that point was very obvious on Wednesday as all six heat races were won right off the front row. Especially impressive was Pierce in his first laps on this track in 2021 and the Florida battle won by quick qualifier Mark Whitener over Kyle Bronson. 

Tony Jackson Jr was especially impressive when he came from the seventh hole to win the first B Feature over Rick Eckert and we were six laps into B number two when it started to rain. I had thought that with the pace being set that we might be able to get the show done before it started to rain but it seemed like the showers picked up their pace marching inland and spread out a bit quicker than expected. And once it started to rain on the surface that was by now well packed in, there would be no saving the track on this night. With the rain showing increased intensity and a few flashes of lightning, the show was then terminated for the night. 

The remainder of B Feature number two, plus the third B and the main event will now be run on Thursday night, following the entire show for that night. This will be a challenge for the teams running two forty lap mains nearly back to back and any drivers that wreck out of the first main will be in trouble unless they have a back up car to roll out. And whether they are allowed to retain their starting positions if they switch cars is another issue for Lucas Oil officials to weigh in on. Either way, it should be interesting to see how the track responds to the extra laps and the crews will really have to be "on the ball" to keep up with changing track conditions from race to race, a task that is tough here under the best of circumstances.    

Tyler Erb Drives By Overton Late For East Bay Five Grand Win

 Night number two of the annual Winter Nationals at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton Florida took place on Tuesday night, January 26th. Again it was the Lucas Oil Racing Series Late Models that were featured as the only division running this week here at East Bay. Once again, it was a wild night of racing on the always challenging East Bay bull ring and on Tuesday, a late race pass with only two laps left gave Tyler Erb the victory over Brandon Overton in what was a highly competitive event that saw at least three different leaders during its thirty lap event. 

Tuesday's weather was just a bit different than it had been on Monday with not as much sun and wind as for the Monday event and it also appeared the slightly more water had been applied to the racing surface. It ended up producing a faster surface and perhaps a bit more treacherous as what had been a relatively benign event on Monday changed on Tuesday with much more in the way of damage to racing cars and certainly a lot more work to be done on Wednesday to get them all back on the track. 

Two new entrants on Tuesday, Manny Falcon and Joel Callahan, pushed the total number of Late Models that have run up to seventy eight and with Kerry King on the grounds by the night's conclusion and Bobby Pierce reported to be on the way along with waiting for Tim Dohm to unload and race, a record going back to 2008 just waits to be broken. 

Stuart Friesen took the night off to run his big block Modified up the road in Ocala on Tuesday while Adam Elliott, Adam Boyd and Devin Dixon all opted not to race on this night. Boyd actually blew a motor during practice on Monday, didn't race last night and has reportedly headed home. Josh Putnam pulled the motor out of his car, then changed cars and while he pulled a number to race, he never made it to the track. Matt Lux also changed cars for Tuesday. 

The format for Tuesday night's show was changed somewhat with the heat races cut to eight laps for some reason, quite unknown to me. And apparently because Lucas officials wanted to upset Jeff Broeg, they made three B Features instead of two as they had done on Monday night. However, all three were still scheduled to contain around eighteen cars but again for some reason cut the laps in these events to just ten. Perhaps this is to compact the event for live tv, since it ran a bit long on Monday night but if that is the case, this is an example of the "tail wagging the dog" with the competitors and the paying live crowd knuckling under to tv once again. 

The first big wreck of the week happened in the first heat race when Jeff Mathews got into the wall on the back chute with Freddie Carpenter clipping Mathews and going for several barrel rolls. It was wicked looking crash but everyone was OK and Mathews actually pulled out a back up car to run a B Feature. Carpenter, with only one car, looking healthy enough as he helped strip the car in the pits with it down to the bare chassis by the time the show was over. I suspect Freddie's Speed Weeks is also over but the Kryptonite care held up well. 

The feature race also had its share of calamities with a first lap wreck taking out Shane Clanton, Dennis Erb, Tim McCreadie and Gregg Satterlee. Then a later crash ended the night for Jimmy Owens, Earl Pearson and Kyle Strickler. 

Thirty cars started the main event after the multitude of provisionals were added to those that raced their way into a spot. Track officials quickly hustled the main event cars out when the fog started to roll in and it got quite dense just as the race began. Perhaps even the mist in the air changed the track somewhat also and made it a bit slippery on the bottom groove. 

Tanner English drew the pole but it was Brian Shirley that used the outside line to take the early lead. He was chased by Brandon Sheppard, Kyle Bronson, Overton and a charging Tyler Erb who started ninth. Just like last night's show, the feature cars are having trouble racing clean so far this week and again on Tuesday the yellow flag got quite a workout. Six times it waved including the last one when the leaders were coming for the checkered. 

Shirley was eventually overtaken by Overton for the lead and he looked good out front but Erb continued to press and work his way to the front. Near the end of the contest, Overton lose some momentum as he fought through a few slower cars and the always aggressive Erb found an opening and took over the top spot with only three to go. 

He was stretching his lead but as he came out of the final corner expecting the checkered, instead he saw the yellow as Sheppard had blown a tire and was slow on the track. Half the spectators never saw the yellow themselves and started to beat a hasty retreat to the parking lot to beat the crowd and get out quickly as this is a tough place to get out of once the final checkered waves. 

The drivers did however, all remain on the track and the final one lap sprint to the finish didn't change the running order as Erb pulled away to take the win over Overton, Shirley, twenty third starting Josh Richards and Bronson. 

Much of the racing during the first couple of nights as not been as it might have been scripted to be and such big names as Jonathan Davenport, Billy Moyer Jr, Ricky Thornton Jr, Strickler, Pearson, Clanton, Owens, Mike Marlar and McCreadie have struggled so far. A quick tour of the pits after the show found many cars in a torn up and stripped mode and there will be plenty of work done before the next show on Wednesday night. With it being so important to come out of Speed Weeks with some good finishes and positive momentum, the pressure increases as the purses and laps run go up the rest of the week.  

 

O'Neal Drives Smart Race To Top East Bay Opener

 Hudson O'Neal kicked off the annual General Tire Winter Nationals at East Bay Raceway Park on Monday night, January 25th with a victory in the thirty lap Lucas Oil Late Model Series inaugural for the six night series here at the "clay by the bay" at East Bay is referred to. 

After spending nearly two weeks enjoying the opening races of the 2021 racing season in the desert, it was quite a reversal to head down to Florida for more top notch Late Model, early season racing. While the temperatures were much the same during the day, the amount of humidity in the air made the two venues very dissimilar. I was really not supposed to be down here in Florida quite this soon, but circumstances worked out such that an earlier than planned trip developed so just over seventy two hours from when I had made the road trip from Wisconsin to Arizona and back, I was on the road once again, this time to the east side of Florida for a week plus more of racing. 

Both trips, to this point at least, were seamless but I can say with certainty that the only drivers worse than those in Arizona are those in Florida and anyone that has driven the highways of either state I believe would agree with that statement! While it was bad for me to be making the back to back drives, imagine those eight Late Model teams on hand that were also in Arizona and had to leave almost immediately for Florida from the Wild West Shootout finale to prepare cars and get to Florida for practice. Hopefully the early season schedule will be refined just a bit next year to make this unnecessary. And the East Bay Winter Nationals is starting earlier than usual too, with racing in January not normally the case here. However, with the Super Bowl being played in Tampa, that threw racing schedules for a loop in this state for 2021, a change that will hopefully be adjusted in 2022. 

Just like in Arizona, the field of cars and numbers of spectators in the grandstands watching have been huge. A gigantic field of seventy six Late Models signed in on Monday for the opening round of racing, the highest total here for almost a decade and if at least four more drivers show up before the week is over, which does seem likely, the record will have been shattered to way back in 2008.  

I think there are probably a few reasons why the car counts and spectator turn outs have been so high. A big one is that many fans have been "locked down" for almost a year with many from the East Coast reporting that tracks they attended didn't allow spectators at all in 2020 and several also didn't open. Now, with things seemingly opening up to a point, they have much ground and time to make up. And while masks are required for entry to restaurants and hotels, the masks being worn at the track are very scarce in nature compared to Arizona. 

Lots of race teams didn't run as much as last year so they perhaps have a bit more in the budget to start their seasons earlier than normal. And also, East Bay Raceway Park is scheduled to close after the 2024 racing season, having been sold to the mining company next door and I'm sure for some crews and fans that their goal is to get to East Bay at least once before the track is shut down for good. By the way, the mining company seems to be thriving as the gigantic piles of dirt seem to be getting larger and larger by the day and now almost surround the racing facility. 

For Late Model fans, East Bay and the Lucas Series is great place to be. Only one class of cars is in competition and both Lucas and East Bay are well known for running off a speedy program, much appreciated by fans who have other things to do while on vacation rather than sitting at the race track all night. Actually, this year's addition got off to a longer than normal night, mostly due to a feature race that dragged on for over an hour because of a rare night with way too many yellows. 

However, they do specialize in getting started on time and that was not altered, even with the large field of cars. They hot lapped all cars and did qualifying and still started right at the appointed time of 7 pm. So yes, time trials can be run and races started at the scheduled time if proper planning is done, something that doesn't happen too often but the fact that live tv is involved here probably is the tipping point for that to happen. 

Six heat races, using straight up starts from qualifying and two B Features would set the field for the main event. Controversy started early when Tony Jackson Jr and Tyler Bruening got together in a hear race with Jackson sending Bruening spinning. These two may be seeing each other a lot over the course of the Summer and this was not a good way for them to begin the season. Devin Dixon made a scintillating last lap pass to get into the feature but was docked four spots for jumping the restart so there was plenty of things going on early. 

A highlight of the heats was South Dakota driver Blair Nothdurft holding off defending Lucas champion Jimmy Owens to make the feature race. Tyler Erb was the only heat race winner to not start on the front row of his heat as time trials are always very important, especially with a huge field of cars and the starting system that Lucas uses. 

The two B Features were Jeff Broeg approved size, with twenty nine cars scheduled to start each one with only twelve laps and only the top two making the feature! With that many cars not making the main, you can see why the field gradually shrinks as the week progresses. Lots of real good equipment sitting on the sidelines when the green flag for the feature race starts. 

East Bay is always a very challenging track for the drivers with even the seasoned veterans struggling to read this surface, and Monday night would prove to be an especially challenging night. While track prep before the main just involved packing the cushion slightly and skimming off a little dirt right on the tires, the track seemed to change dramatically for the main and drivers were struggling mightily to figure it out. 

It was tremendously slippery and almost gave the appearance of being a "wet slick" track but I don't think that was the case. Perhaps the humid night made things a bit trickier but even the best of drivers found it hard to make a good lap and then do it consistently. One good corner was followed by the next corner seeing the nose of the car sliding right up to the wall but that made for an interesting race. 

Drivers like Bronson, Overton, Sheppard, O'Neal, Tyler Erb and others were dicing back and forth and the first ten laps or so were frantic with drivers changing positions and lines on the track on nearly every corner. Unfortunately, the only thing that kept it from being a classis is the way too frequent yellow flags which kept there from being any rhythm to the race. Eleven yellows flew in thirty laps so there was never more than a straight stretch of seven green flag laps and drivers that had problems early but stayed with it found themselves back up toward the front by the end of the race. 

However, the driver that played it smart of O'Neal and while others tried to pound the cushion and get extra speed, he just hugged the inside line and made it work as while the rest were battling each other, he gradually just pulled away. 

A late yellow set up a two lap dash to the finish but O'Neal continued to make the low side work as he pulled away from Sheppard and Overton to earn a big win for his new team. Moran would finish a strong fourth after leading some laps and looking like the class of the field for a period of time. EArly Pearson Jr started twenty third and made the top five and probably never passed a car during the whole race. He just kept going as car after car either dropped out or went to the back for various reasons. Jackson Jr and Tyler Erb both made the top ten after going to the back early also as there was much shuffling of positions, even though the passing was negligible.  

Tuesday will be a busy day in the pits at East Bay. Many teams have much work to do and there will be some long conferences between drivers and crews over tires and strategy as after one night it can be safely said that the race track won the opening night of action and now it will be up to the drivers to figure out better this most challenging of surfaces. 

   

Davenport Banks Thirty Five Grand To Round Out WWS

 The Keyser Manufacturing fifteenth annual edition of the Wild West Shootout at the FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway wrapped up on Sunday, January 17th with the longest and richest feature races of the six event run for this event. Feature winners included Jonathan Davenport in the Late Models, Jake O'Neil in the Modifieds and Shane Sabraski in the X Mods. 

Car counts were down in all three classes for the finale as a week of hard racing took its toll but with one hundred and fifty cars still racing and car counts up substantially in all three classes throughout the week, including Sunday,  over previous years, the turnout by competitors was spectacular. The crowds all week have been tremendous also and I would guess that Sunday's crowd may have also been a record as historically the finale doesn't draw quite as many people with some on the road already and Sunday not being as favorable for local fans. Overall, the crowds have been very healthy for every night of racing and the weather may also have set some sort of record with sunny and warm days throughout the week and absolutely no threat of rain or even clouds to ruin the view. 

As far as the racing was concerned on Sunday, it may not have been the best of the week but it was still a solid event. For Davenport, he finally got that front row starting spot he desired and with a clean track in front of him from the opening green, he was able to show the speed his car had as he left the rest of the twenty four car field cringing in his wake. Even five yellow flags during the fifty lapper did nothing to help the competition catch him as after each yellow he blew away from the field once again. 

The only driver that made any kind of dent into his lead was Tyler Erb as after digging his way up from the sixth row and sliding his way into second, he was able to cut into Davenport's lead during the last twenty two lap sprint which went all green. Whether or not Davenport was just being careful as he worked through lapped traffic or Erb was truly quicker, we'll never know but at the finish Davenport was still several car lengths in front even as Erb threw caution to the wind in the final laps of the track. Ricky Thornton Jr finished a solid third as the three fastest cars of the week by far finished in the top three positions on this night. 

Davenport's win, his third of the series, earned him a ten thousand dollar bonus plus another three grand for being the point champion of the series so the Sunday show netted him a nice thirty eight thousand dollars for his fifty lap run. 

The Modified feature produced a bit of a surprise as Jake O'Neil took his first win of the week. The fact that O'Neil won was not too surprising since he had a very production 2020 racing season both in open motor and IMCA racing but the surprise was because this was the first time he had raced this week. Everyone was kind of wondering where he was this week since he was not seen at either of the big racing events going on this week in the Southwest and he is not far from home for either event but some family issues were apparently the source of his limited participation but with a new stacker for him in the pits, it would appear that he does still indeed plan to travel in 2021. 

A front row starting spot was to his benefit and he pulled away from the field from the drop of the green and was never seriously challenged. Tyler Peterson pounded the cushion long enough to get into the second spot but it was not a cushion pounding kind of track on this night and while he settled into second, he was never a threat to the Tucson driver. 

The battle for third was a good one and Clint Johnson showed that he belonged racing with the open Mods as he held, then lost and then regained on the last lap the third position when he made a strong pass on none other than Rodney Sanders to take the spot. Mississippi racer Brooks Strength had his best run of the week as he rounded out the top five. Sanders' consistent finishes netted him the points title for the class. 

The X Mods, who have been driving increasingly rough and irresponsibly as the week as progressed, completed their action with a less than memorable event that saw the race leader "dumped" twice in the final two laps without any penalty being handed out as, in my opinion, track officials were complicit in what happened as the week wrapped up by not taking any action and nipping this kind of driving "in the bud" earlier instead of just looking the other way. 

Brennan Gave was the early leader of the race as he showed good speed and found off the likes of Brock Gronwald, Cole Campbell and Lance Schill. Meanwhile, Shane Sabraski, Jason VandeKamp, Parker Hale and Preston Carr were all changing to the front and it looked like we might have an epic finish to this race. 

When Campbell slowed with mechanical issues with fifteen laps completed and Gave still leading, the timing was set to see the nonsense begin. Gave got jumped on the start and lost the lead with no action taken and while Brennan tried to race his way back to the front, he over drove the track and ended up slamming the first turn wall hard and ending his week. 

Schill inherited the lead at this point but the battling was not done for the lead by any means. As Schill dove into turn one, he was run over by Andy Bryant, over aggressively trying to take over the lead, and both cars spun. Schill was done for the event and Bryant needed some "encouragement" before he finally pulled to the back of the pack. 

Not done yet either with the contact, with Carr now in front following the elimination of the top two spots in the running order for the second time. On the green following that "dust up", Sabraski put the heat on Carr for the lead. Shane tried to get a big run to the outside and then dive across Carr to take the lead. However, he didn't give Carr enough room and chopped him off badly, giving Carr the alternative of either slamming Sabraski or swerving to avoid. Carr selected the second choice but around he spun and he was none too happy as he was sent to the back too. 

The two lap sprint to the finish saw Sabraski hold on for the win, his second of the series. Jason VandeKamp, after a most trying trip to the Desert and a tough week with his two cars, made a late charge and almost snuck under Sabraski but ended up settling for second. Gronwald would come home third. Carr was declared the point champion but was none too pleased with Sunday's results. 

A contest was held to honor the best appearing wrap on a race car in each class to represent the theme of the "Wild West" and the winners were announced as Scott Ward, Calvin Iverson and Zach Benson. 

Speaking of award winners, "The Hook" crew that run the wreckers here at Arizona Speedway should get some kind of award also as they are surely among the quickest wrecker crews anywhere in the country. They alone help speed up any program and while they are very fast, they also are careful not to further damage the race equipment. They must be the best around at doing the "double hook" on really damaged cars. I first saw them in action when they ran things at USA Raceway in Tucson where I believe they are head quartered, and hiring them to work this show is surely among the wisest hires that any track promoter could do. 

I was a bit surprised that the concession stands here at the track ran out of almost every item very early in the day with about the only cold beverage available on a hot day being beer. Just how much revenue they lost through poor planning can only be guessed at. 

Rumors about this race for next year have been flying around the pit area all week. Certainly there is no doubt that this race will be run next year, as it has become a huge it both among fans and competitors with this year probably being their best yet. The rumors have been surrounding whether or not the race will be held at this track or not. Stories of increased pressure to use this land for additional housing projects as the Phoenix area just keeps growing more and more and increased complaints about noise etc. from the neighbors at cited as possible reasons to have the show moved as well as a possible expansion of the highway running next to the track that would take away much of the parking lot. However, dates for next year were announced as being January 8,9,12,14,15 and 16. I guess we will see whether or not these dates are at this same track or perhaps somewhere like Vado or Las Vegas, the most prominently mentioned other sites. I would imagine that many people would like to see it stay right here both both those options certainly have many strong points. 

Congratulations to Chris Kearns and his staff for an outstanding job of taking on this mammoth task once again and for Ben Shelton and Dustin Jarrett, who led the show from the announcer's stand and to all the other workers, noticed or not, for the jobs they do that lead to this event being one of the outstanding ones of the entire year. Again I must say, if you are at home and are on the fence about coming out here, any race fan owes it to themselves to see this event at least once. 

Erb, Sanders and Carr All Now Double Winners at WWS

 Round five of the Wild West Shootout was contested on Saturday afternoon, January 16th at the Arizona Speedway near Queen Creek and San Tan Valley. Much like the previous races in this series, it was once again a three division program featuring Late Models, Modifieds and X Mods. 

Once again conducted under glorious Arizona blue skies and warm temperatures, once after the sun sets the temperatures drop rapidly and heavy Winter type clothing is needed. However, there has been no threat of rain throughout the week and it sounds as if the next chances of rain might throw a monkey wrench into the Sprint Car special planned next weekend, which is a new event for this area and also promoted by this event organizer Chris Kearns along with track promoter Jonah Trussel. 

It was another power house field of race cars as this event continues to have a banner week with one hundred and eighty one cars on hand to race in the three classes and even at this late date in the series there were four more new entrants into the Modified class. Over seventy Mods and sixty Late Models were battling for twenty four qualifying spots in the main events, making for some real cut throat heat races. Obviously, qualifying is huge for the Late Models to get good starting spots in heats while the Mods and X Mods continue to rely on passing points to start their mains. 

There are literally drivers, promoters and group officials from all over the country on hand for this week worth of racing as it seems this event is now rivaling Speed Weeks in Florida as an event that folks want to either participate in or see and this weather certainly is more attractive that the sometimes irregular weather that Florida can provide. Today I ran into a couple of promoters that had banner 2020 racing seasons at their tracks despite all the challenges that last year provided. Bob Timm is the owner and operator of Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin and he made much news last year for being the first track to open in his state as he pushed the limits on a number of issues, while at the same time promoting a very aggressive schedule with a number of special events, several of them races only developed in short days before they actually raced largely using social media to get the word out. I also talked to John Allen, the promoter at 81 Speedway in Wichita who oversaw a huge makeover to that facility under the new ownership that took over in 2020. Both MTS and 81 are still busy with a number of continued improvements and additions to their facility that will make them even more of leaders in their industry. 

All three feature race winners on Saturday became multiple winners here in 2021 with Tyler Erb, Rodney Sanders and Preston Carr taking the Late Model, Modified and X Mod feature races respectively. Erb's win was a razor thin one while Sanders and Carr both had much more dominant wins. 

After significant track prep, the Late Model feature was once again the first one presented and the Late Models ran off forty nonstop laps in their main. The leaders up front were dominant with only ten cars on the lead lap at the finish. Jonathan Davenport led the first four laps while pole sitter Bobby Pierce was the first one out with motor problems as his less than satisfying week continues. Tyler Erb was on the hunt quickly and took over the top spot from Davenport and then moved out to a large lead. 

However, with the race staying green, Davenport was saving his equipment and gradually began to reel back in Erb. They went at it for the top spot with Davenport repassing for the lead. However, lapped traffic was heavy and it was tough for the leaders to "call their line" as they pretty much had to go where the holes were. Erb was relentless and with only three laps to go he was able to slide past Davenport to grab the top spot once again. Davenport made one last charge, coming high out of the last corner and he had a run on the leader but Erb withstood his charge by less than a car length in another every entertaining Late Model event. 

The other dominant driver in the Late Models, Ricky Thornton Jr, got off to a slow start in this feature but he made a charge at the end and very well may have been the fastest car on the track at the conclusion of the race as he closed to within a couple of car lengths of the battling duo and if this race would have contained a few more laps, there very well might have been a different winner. Sunday's concluding event will provide that extra ten laps as well as a whopping extra twenty grand to the winner. Davenport continues to hold the series point lead which also does contain a point fund for, I believe, the top ten in final series points. 

Tyler Peterson was looking for a repeat in the Modified feature and after starting on the pole, he led a number of laps as he continued to pound the cushion as he normally does. However, Rodney Sanders got hooked up on the bottom and after a few laps came shooting up on the inside following a lap eight yellow and he drove into the lead. Once in front, Rodney was the class of the field as he pulled away to a fairly comfortable lead and was not challenged the rest of the way. Peterson continued to pound the high side and while it didn't produce a victory, he was able to hold on to second over a closing Dustin Strand who ended up third. 

The win, along with a subpar outing from point leader Shane Sabraski, allowed Sanders to take over the top spot in points with just the Sunday race left to run. 

The X Mods continued to be the problematic class with Saturday's feature race being another plagued by yellow flags as a lot of reckless driving and overly aggressive moves have continued to produce spins and wrecks and tear up a bunch of equipment. This night's main would see only eleven of twenty four finish the race after eight yellows bogged down the show. 

Tyler Mecl and Jory Berg would battle in the early going of this event until Preston Carr, who is having a breakout series this week, would go to the cushion and fly by the leaders. It was tough to build up much of a lead as the yellow would fly so often but each time the race would resume, Carr would get back up on the cushion and pull away from the field. His car does not look like and contain much of the equipment that he will be required to race when he gets back home to North Dakota but the way the rules are set up for this series, he has created a dominant car for himself as he took his second win of the week and with a bad performance by Sabraski, who came into this night leading both Mod classes in points, Carr took over the point lead with Sabraski falling all the way to third. 

Mecl, the local racer and former track champion here at Arizona Speedway, had his best run of the week and after starting on the pole and then slipping back, fought his way back up to second at the end while Lance Schill started nineteenth and raced into third. 

You kind of had a sense of what this class was going to produce on this night when, in perhaps a first anywhere, there was a wreck on the back chute as the cars pulled onto the track before the first race ever started when one car lost a driveshaft, spun sideways and was clobbered by another car before half of the first heat cars could even get out of the pits!

One had to feel for a couple of the drivers in this class who had a particularly rough go of it on Saturday. Sam Alonso, who was a late entry in this class on Wednesday, went off on the double hook after a first lap crash on that night and then followed it up by getting a flat as a part of the pre heat race crash today. And Brock Gronwald, a former winner at this event who had to do significant repairs after smashing into spinning cars on Friday night, would get his tire speared by another competitor on a false start in an X Mod B Feature while leading and would be out of the race and with no chance to run the B Feature. 

The crowd was another spectacular one on Saturday with the facility absolutely jammed to the rafters and not a seat available to socially distance so the hope was that those not wearing masks(of which there were too many) will just contaminate each other as their stubbornness and irresponsibility warrants such an outcome. Sunday the biggest checks of the week will be on the line before everyone begins the long hike home and a number of the Late Models head directly to Florida for Speed Weeks.   

Tyler Erb Dazzles, North Dakota Drivers Take Two of Three Feature Wins

 Round four of the Wild West Shootout was held on Friday night, January 15th at the Arizona Speedway located near San Tan Valley and just South of Mesa. It was another great weather night with the warmest temperatures of the meet so far here in the Phoenix area and it turned out by far to be the wildest night of racing seen so far anywhere in Arizona during this January get together. 

The car count was crazy as the numbers just continue to build and build with clearly a lot of race drivers and crews looking for an excuse to get out and throw some dirt. In fact it was reported that tonight's field of one hundred and eighty seven racers, all in just three classes of competition, was an event record for the Wild West Shootout. 

All three classes set their highest totals of the week with fifty X Mods signing in, a crazy seventy five Modifieds and sixty two Late Models. And while the numbers were very impressive, what was most shocking was the quality of the fields, particularly in the Mods and X Mods as just making the main event would be considered a major success. 

And right from the start on Friday, it was clear that the "nice guy" tactics had been left behind on Friday as the intensity level of the racing seemed to be amped up and hard racing earlier in the week had been replaced by a "knuckle dragging, take no prisoners " approach. Qualifying in all three classes was cut throat as everyone wanted to be in the main and huge B Features that saw between seventeen and twenty five cars in each left not much chance to make the mains if it wasn't accomplished in a heat race, either through passing points in the two support classes or through running up front in a Late Model heat. When all qualifying was done, there were many more cars on the sidelines than taking to the track for the three mains but somehow we all suspected that the finales were going to be wild and we were not disappointed. 

A significant "farming session" led by Johnny Stokes aka "Dr. Dirt" and Matt Curl of the Fairbury American Legion Speedway, by far the most extensive of the week so far, was later credited by Late Model winner Tyler Erb as being the most important thing in producing the wild finished product the drivers put on Friday and we were treated to three absolutely crazy feature races, of the quality that alone would merit the long drive or flight to the desert. However, along with the wild racing, there was a lot of damaged racing equipment that likely guaranteed that the car counts we saw on Friday not would not be equaled over the weekend. 

The Late Models ran first on the fresh track and their main produced a slide job filled event that had the crowd on their feet. Jason Papich, Ricky Thornton Jr and Erb were the three main combatants and they put on a show. Papich held the lead for a bit before being overtaken by the other two with slide jobs on every corner and wild, three wide racing where these skilled drivers put their cars at speed in tight spots I couldn't have parallel parked my sedan!

Papich would later tag the wall and drop back and it was left to Thornton Jr and Erb to settle the issue and while Jonathan Davenport could spectate in third, he just didn't have the speed to keep up with the other two. Lap after lap, they traded spots on the track, dive bombing each other but always being able to clear the other driver as no contact resulted between the two. Erb managed to maneuver his way to  the lead near the end and while Thornton Jr made one last attempt in turn one on the final lap, he was just a bit too far behind to reverse the positions and Erb would drive home to a very entertaining win. He celebrated after the checkered like the five grand win was much more than that but I guess that would be a reflection of how important this series has become with several drivers finding it that important as to make sure they attended this race before driving directly across the country for the Florida Speed Weeks openers. 

Bobby Pierce ran a quiet fourth in the main with Stormy Scott rounding out the top five and only four of the starters weren't around at the finish. 

The last two features of the night would showcase the racing contingent from North Dakota as both of the open wheel mains saw winners from that state. In fact, the X Mods were swept by North Dakota drivers as they took the top three finishing positions and then a South Dakota driver came home fourth so it was a great night for drivers from that region. 

However, as opposed to the Late Models, the X Mod feature was a tough contest that saw any number of damaged race cars and a lot of crews facing some major repairs if they want to race the rest of the weekend. The race took so much time that after the last yellow, the decision was made to go green, white and checkered so they actually had only sixteen laps of feature race action. 

The early battle saw Parker Hale in front but he was challenged heavily by Brian Kakela, Lance Schill, Andy Bryant and Preston Carr. The first dozen laps went by nonstop with much swapping of position but then the first yellow triggered a series of more slow downs, some of them significant in that many of the challengers for the lead were eliminated. 

Hale and Bryant found themselves battling for the lead when as they came out of turn four, Bryant got up the back of Hale's car, they got locked up together and slowed significantly. The rest of the pack came pounding out of turn four and then all Hell broke loose and cars smashed and spun and the front stretch was nearly blocked. Both of the leaders were eliminated and the grinding crash also took out contenders Brock Gronwald, Shane Sabraski and Jordy Berg and a second tire up on the inside of the track saw Jason VandeKamp and Berg shoved up over the inside wall. 

When they finally got racing once again, it was Schill who used the cushion to drive into and then hold on to the lead over the last two laps with Kakela all over him but not able to make a pass for the win. Scott Bintz kept his car clean and then took advantage at the end to become North Dakota driver number three across the line. Cole Searing, a former champion at this series, make his first start of the year as he flew in to drive the George car out of Rapid City to finish fourth ahead of Rob Mosely. 

Tyler Peterson is always fast running here in the desert but so far this week, circumstances haven't played out in his favor. However, that all changed on Friday as he drove the cushion to overtake Tyler Wolff and then hold off a late charge from Calvin Iverson to win the Modified feature and round out the evening's entertainment. This was a fast race but didn't have the crashes of the previous open wheel class but a testament to the track prep completed showed Peterson pounding the cushion while both Wolff and Iverson ran about as low on the track as possible, thus showing that there were many grooves available. 

Wolff took the lead from the pole and led early but Logan Drake, Iverson and Peterson will all still charging and trying to overtake him. Peterson would eventually work his way into second and then the major battle would take place. Peterson was getting a great run off the banking and he was able to blow past Wolff and take over the lead, but then the yellow flew and the pass was negated. 

I thought perhaps that Wolff would move up the track to try and block but he opted to continue the low line and while he was able to hold on for a couple laps once the green returned, Peterson would eventually build up momentum and drive past for the top spot. Another yellow slowed the action but it would be a problem for Wolff who seemed to break something on his suspension as he struggled to keep up and would eventually fall back into the pack. 

The late laps would see Peterson continue to push the cushion while Iverson started to pick up speed running right on the bottom and while he would close to a couple of car lengths, Peterson would drive on to the win in his event themed #1TPO. Bumper Jones had a strong run as he came from tenth to finish third with Missouri's Clint Johnson getting his best finish of the weekend at fourth ahead of Shane Sabraski. 

Overall it was one of the wildest nights of racing in memory for this series although it was also one of the latest and we hope the late hour (nearly 11 pm) doesn't lead to some repercussions from the local authorities. It will also be a long night for a number of the racing crews to get things back in order to race on Saturday. 

Dotson and Bombardo Become Multi Feature Winners at Cocopah

 Thursday night, January 14th, I returned to the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona for round five of the IMCA TV Winter Nationals. What a great series this has been for the IMCA racers, allowing them the opportunity to race seven times over the course of an eleven day period and not once having to load up and move. Of course, there have been a couple that chose to do so just so they could get even more racing in with both Brian Osantowski and Casey Skyberg making the trip over to San Tan Valley to race at Arizona Speedway on a day when Cocopah wasn't scheduled to race. Now both have made the trip back over here to Cocopah to race during the second set of events and whether they chose to make one last run back over to Arizona Speedway for the finale on Sunday remains to be seen. 

As the second set of races begins over her at Cocopah, a new set of drivers have arrived to begin this three night series with thirty drivers in attendance that were not on hand for the four night set that started last Wednesday and wrapped up Friday led by fourteen new drivers in the Modified class. A total of one hundred and thirty five drivers signed in to race on Thursday night led by the Modifieds with fifty two of them to compete. Likely more different cars will also roll in on Friday night for the weekend wrap up events. 

The format for this week was changed slightly with one less both Sport Mod and Modified heat, no doubt based both on the class numbers and also the fact that management decided that they can run more cars per heat and thus keep the show moving along just a bit quicker because I would guess that if there was any criticism to be had about the opening week, it might be that the show lasted perhaps just a bit longer than it could have and things like making the heats just a bit bigger and reducing the number of events smartly is not a bad idea at all. 

Among the notable new drivers added to the list this week were B.J. Shannon, Dylan Thornton, Matt Aukland, Kellen Chadwick, former IMCA Sport Mod national champ Cody Thompson up to Mods for 2021, racing legend Ken Schrader, Darrell Hughes II and Joey Franklin. 

Franklin, who is the Elvis impersonator from Las Vegas, must also be a Jeff Purvis fan as his Modified is done up to look just like the Hall of Fame driver's Late Model used to look. And if you're old enough to remember Jeff Purvis, then you are also likely old enough to remember Elvis!

Both the Sport Mods and Modifieds needed a pair of qualifying B Features to whittle their fields down to twenty four and as usual, a lot of good cars were left sitting in the pits come feature time. Really hit by bad luck was current point leader Tanner Black who was leading a B Feature when he got tangled up with a lapped car, resulting in a flat tire and a DNF in that event. However, management opted to give him a provisional and he started in the back of the Modified feature race. 

The Hobby Stock main was first to the track with Brandon Bombardo taking the lead from the pole position. Only one lap was completed before one of the more spectacular wrecks of the season to date took place when Zach Tate, who started in the second row was turned into the concrete wall at high speed. He slammed into the wall and turned over, coming to rest with the entire rear end assembly of his car torn right out of the car and launched over the wall. Actually, I think that this helped him as at the speed he was going I thought he was going to take a series of rolls but the car kind of dug in on its frame rails and he only went over once, landing on his wheels with everyone else able to avoid him. It's a shame when a brand new race car gets junked in January but that is the risk that drivers take every time they take to the track. 

Bombardo would lead on the restart with Mitch Mohler Sr making one of the best drives of the week in the class as he would move up after starting tenth on the grid. He was passing cars rather aggressively and was using quite a bit of his front "horn" but he was moving them out of the way as he raced his way up to second. 

I expected to see some fireworks on the last few laps as Mohler Sr caught the leader with Bombardo being very careful in the corners and protecting the low line where the Hobby Stocks also seemed to be running. However, while Mohler Sr got close to Bombardo, no out of line moves were attempted and while he finished close, it was Bombardo that drove home for his second win of this series. Point leader Eric Knutson headed home after last week's four races as apparently he wanted to get home in time for the Iowa blizzard which threw the points race in this class for a loop. Matt Olson would finish third in the feature. 

Sport Mods would run their feature next and they would start an amazing run of green flag laps. The final three features of the evening all went green to checkered with not a single yellow flat so we ended up the night with seventy five straight laps of green flag racing! How often does that happen?

Bo Partain would take the lead early and this race would turn out to be a two car battle from start to finish. Josh Most quickly moved into second and the twenty five laps were highlighted by Most racing is guts out as he tried to get past the smooth running Partain. The leaders were very equal in speed and it was up to Most to find a line that would give him that small advantage and without yellows to help, it was tough. 

Most settled on a line where he ran the cushion in one and two and tucked to the inside in three and four while Partain just hugged the bottom all the way around the track. And after the halfway mark, Most's work was starting to pay off. Gradually, a car length at a time, he would slowly creep in on Partain and as the laps ran down, it looked like it would come right down to the wire as Most was only a couple lengths behind with just a few laps to go. 

Then suddenly and with no warning, Most shut his car down exiting turn four and dived into the infield as he must have had some indication that something serious was happening and he wanted to save his car, perhaps the motor. In any event, this left Partain with a clear path to victory and he drove on for the win. Shane Paris had a nice run up to second while point leader in the series Fred Ryland had another strong run, coming from ninth to finish third. 

The groove moved up the track for the Modified feature with just about everyone running the cushion which was very fast. Ethan Dotson is having a wonderful series and after drawing the pole, he would lead all twenty five non stop laps for the win. He was flawless on the cushion and no one was able to even provide the smallest of challenges to him. 

Montana's Joey Price quickly took the second spot and he would remain there throughout the race. Near the halfway point however, he would get a stiff challenge from D.J. Shannon who pulled to his rear bumper and worked hard to try and get by. However, Price held his line well and would not yield the spot and near the end, Shannon would jump the cushion and give up third to Jerry Flippo who had his best run of the week to date. Shannon and Bone Larson would complete the top five. 

The Stock Cars would wrap up the evening and Kyle Heckman, just off of a run in the Modified feature, would try and run his Stock Car just the way the Mods had raced the track. While everyone else would drop down to the low line, Heckman was throwing his full bodies car through the cushion and while it lasted, he was fast. He took the lead from the outside pole and was walking away from the field as he twisted his car high up on the cushion and occasionally lifted his left front tire as he free wheeled through the turns with a style not often seen in the Stock Cars. 

Unfortunately, hid right rear tire was not up to the challenge and only lasted ten laps before it blew and Heckman's night was done. In a show of sportsmanship, Heckman limped off the track so the yellow wasn't needed and it an age when far too many drivers park on the track just to trigger a yellow and then scramble to the "hot pit" area for attention, his move was a refreshing change. 

Aaron Spangler, who had been making smooth laps on the inside line, thus inherited the lead on lap eleven and he led the rest of the way to take the win back to Colorado. Andy Altenberg pushed hard but had to settle for a close second place and Scott Sluka got his best finish so far this week in third. 

I was told that after last weekend, track management brought out the heavy equipment and pulled down some of the track material from up against the wall which they used to further bank the corners. And while this was the warmest and windiest night so far, while the track got as slippery as ice, it did not rubber up which was obviously a good thing with the fast groove varying from class to class. 

The track has been favored with some excellent announcers this week. Along with track announcer Bill G., they have brought in some "voices" to help them. Last week it was Chris Stepan that classed the Sport Mods and Mods and now with Stepan on his way to Florida to work Speed Weeks, Ben Detherage was brought in and he also did an excellent job with those two classes. 

Unless some last minutes surprises occur, Tonight was my final visit of the Winter season to Cocopah Speedway and I want to thank promoter Brad Whitfield and all his staff for their hard work and cooperation. This track is truly a "Diamond in the Desert" and rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to visit. I wish them good luck with the rest of their 2021 racing season and hope that the track continued to trend upward as it certainly has done the last couple of years. I truly love their Winter series and the more dates they want to race, the better I say! They expanded the series to seven nights this year and that seems to have been a smart and successful move and I can only hope that as many or more nights are planned for 2022. If you are in the Yuma area on vacation, be sure to check out the Cocopah Speedway for an entertaining night of racing at a first class facility. 

Davenport and Strand Repeat in Wild West Shootout While Carr is New Winner

 The midweek show is always the toughest for the Wild West Shootout. And so this pattern continued as the third race in this, the fifteenth edition of this special event, was held on Wednesday night, January 13th. 

The midweek show is always under the gun because of a very strict curfew and in an effort to rush things along as much as possible, sometimes some corners are cut. The poor X Mods get only six lap heats which is tough with big fields using passing points. Sometimes needed track prep is either not done or done in a modest way and sometimes it seems like they settle a little bit quicker on restart lineups when perhaps there might be some question as to their complete accuracy. All of this and more gives this program a feeling of a wild scramble without total control being exerted. 

However, the field of cars was just as strong as it was the past weekend and that is often not the case for the midweek show with one hundred and seventy drivers signing in to race in just the three classes with eight drivers turning their first laps of the week. 

The program format was exactly the same as the previous two shows as they had enough cars to warrant the four X Mod heats plus six in the other two classes. Double B Features wrapped up the preliminaries and just as they had done on Sunday, the Late Models hit the track first for their main event. Many of the spectators appreciated that on a work night plus it turned quite cool as soon as the sun set and it was just as miserable as an early Spring race in the Midwest on this night. 

The theme of the evening seemed to continue as the feature races were less than scintillating with not a great deal of passing and after the track rubbered up quite early in the Late Model main, the trick the rest of the evening was just to keep your race car in the rubber and make it hard to pass. 

For Jonathan Davenport, his great week of racing continued as he won his second feature of the series to go along with a second place finish and once again the rest was between the same two cars as he and Ricky Thornton Jr were the two dominant cars. However, while Davenport led all twenty five laps, Thornton Jr was not around at the finish after he and Brian Shirley got together while battling for second following a restart on the tricky berm in turn two and both cars would be eliminated from the contest. 

Tyler Erb made a strong run up through the field as for the first time this week he showed some speed and he was able to make his way to Davenport's rear bumper, following closely and hoping for a mistake. The action did get a bit spirited when Davenport tried to get passed a slower car to lap that vehicle and Erb made a bold move to the inside and tried to pass both cars. Davenport and Erb came together several times as they left corner four and no matter how hard Erb tried to push Davenport up the track, Jonathan would have none of it and fought off Erb's challenge. 

The rest of the way they ran in formation with Jason Papich getting a nice third place finish over Mike Marlar and Bobby Pierce who had gotten a piece of the Thornton Jr and Shirley tangle and finished with a badly torn up car that still ran good however. 

The X Mod feature saw several cars scrambling in a pack for the early lead with Scott Bintz, Cole Campbell, Brian Kakela , Preston Carr and Brock Gronwald all battling for the top spot. Carr, however, was able to find a hole and drive up into the lead but the other challengers were taking turns at the second spot as the shuffle continued. 

This race saw several different turns as a half dozen yellows slowed the action an it would seem that a different driver would move to the second spot following each restart but always it was Carr in the lead. Late in the contest Carr would get his severest challenge as Lance Schill would move into second and with a good run off turn two tried to get past Carr on the outside. However, there just wasn't quite room enough and the two made contact with Schill up into the wall and a broken front end for his efforts that ended his night. 

A six lap sprint to the finish would see Carr hold off a spirited run by Campbell with Gronwald finishing third. For Carr it was his first feature win ever in this series and his third strong performance in a row, despite that the concrete wall wiped out a good run one night. 

Speaking of a driver locked in right now, Modified racer Dustin Strand would be that person as he won his second Modified main of the series with a wire to wire finish. Strand, who is always very competitive in this series but has been plagued over the years by mechanical issues, so far has had none of that this year. He started third but with a great opening lap, drove past Fito Gallardo and Casey Skyberg to take the lead before a single lap was completed. He then led the rest of the way, always maintaining a few lengths over his challengers, no matter who they were. 

And he certainly earned the win as his most frequent challenger was none other than Rodney Sanders. Sanders tried every trip in his bag but no matter where he ran on the track, he simply couldn't cut into Strand's lead. Gallardo was also a steady presence up front until he slowed with seven laps to go with a mechanical issue. 

This set up a quick sprint to the finish and Strand was up to it as he put space between himself and Sanders and drove on to an uncontested win. Skyberg stayed right with the leaders and he now has had two solid runs with separate cars at separate tracks this week. Lucas Schott and Shane Sabraski filled out the top five. 

Of course, as most of you now know, much after the fact and long after the official results were posted, which is what I use to complete this report, Strand was disqualified for having and illegal right front brake shut off on his car. I would assume that he must have been "ratted out" by another competitor tired of getting beaten by him since this must have been overlooked by the tech people following his earlier win this week. More technical people than I would have to weigh in on whether this is enough of a competitive advantage to even make a difference but with some of the glaring issues relative to tech that seemed to have so far been overlooked this week, this decision has a bit of an "odor" surrounding it. 

All the pushing was successful as the final checkered flag waved just after 10 pm as much of the extra ceremonies etc were not held on this night, including the winners' riding of the bulls. The later starting time produced a quick track early with Thornton Jr turning the fastest time trial of the week to date at 14.535 seconds, the first of the three nights with the quick car under fifteen seconds.   

Thornton Jr Drives Past Davenport; Gillardo Wins Modified Thriller as WWS Continues

 Night number two of the Wild West Shootout took place on Sunday night, January 10th at the Arizona Speedway. The car count continues to rise for this mega event with seven new entries, several of which came over from Cocopah after their series concluded week one last night and one hundred and seventy three cars took the green flag for an event tonight, and that is with only three classes in action. 

A large crowd was in the stands for night number two and a very good one for a Sunday as quite often in previous years this race would be down some in spectators. Granted, it was not the gigantic crowd that was on hand for night number one but it was a very good one nevertheless and it would appear that this fifteenth addition of this race series will turn out to be the largest by far in event history, both in terns of racers and also in spectator participation. The weather forecast for the rest of the week is gorgeous and reports are that several more teams will show up for the next four races starting on Wednesday night. 

Among the racers we are missing this year is El Paso's Christy Barnett. While Sherm is again racing in the X Mods, Christy in just a spectator this year. The reason for that is explained by the large neck brace she is wearing as she has just completed the third operation on her neck. She is doing well and hopefully will be back behind the wheel soon. 

Quite an amazing story is Eleva Wisconsin's Calvin Iverson. Calvin is only three weeks removed from a ten hour heart operation that he recently had at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota yet here he is raced his Modified. And he is racing quite successfully too as he would finish fourth against a very stout field of Modified drivers later on this night. 

I spoke to Brian Osantowski before the program on Sunday as he was one of the drivers, along with Iowa's Logan Anderson, that headed over to this track after week one activities were completed at Cocopah Speedway for the IMCA crew. Brian raced here the last race of the series last year and feels that his car is capable of running with the X Mods. Brian was coming off a win on Saturday night at Cocopah and would later make a nice run through the field until a spin would effectively end his night. He is very happy with his new Razor chassis and has an aggressive schedule planned out that includes a race here on Wednesday before heading back to Somerton for three nights there and then zipping back here for the finale next Sunday. By the way, I spoke to him about the graphics and the inability to read the number on his race car mentioned here previously and he had already heard about it and planned to make some changes once he got back home to Nebraska. 

The race program would contain the same format as on opening night with four heats for the X Mods and six for both the Mods and Late Models. A pair of B features in each class would then set the twenty four car field for the mains. The Jeff Broeg approved B features would only continue to get bigger on this night with seventeen cars in the X Mod last chances, twenty in the Late Models and an astronomical pair of twenty six car fields for the Mods as their field grew to sixty seven on this night. At this point I think they are just too big and should be cut down into three races but that is just me saying and event promoter Chris Kearns is all about keeping the show flying and keeping it as compact as possible. 

The only change in the format would find the Late Model feature going off first followed by the X Mods and then the Mods. This was probably done for two reasons which would include allowing those fans that wanted to see the Late Models run but wanted to head home early on a Sunday night their chance plus it gave the Late Models the freshest track after it was "farmed" following the last B Feature. 

So the Late Models would come out to a fresh track and it would be the same two drivers that dominated the show on Saturday battling it out again for the win. Jason Feger would lead early but he was soon overtaken by Jonathan Davenport for the lead. Brian Shirley would challenge but quickly it was Ricky Thornton Jr who would power up to second and they would go at it once again, just like the previous night. 

Davenport was able to hold off Thornton Jr for a few laps but Ricky would slip past and unlike Saturday, Davenport would have no response as Ricky opened up some distance on the field. A late yellow gave Davenport one last chance but Ricky pulled away cleanly and won by a comfortable margin in what was a most impressive win. Mike Marlar would make a late charge that saw him get up to third and put a little heat on Davenport with Shirley and Feger completing the top five. 

One of the series most consistent racers running in two classes, Minnesota's Shane Sabraski, would dominate the X Mod feature. He would start on the pole and lead the entire twenty five laps and was never seriously challenged for the lead. A good battle for second between Parker Hale and Preston Carr was ended when Hale dropped out with mechanical difficulties and Carr, the Carrington North Dakota racer, had one of his best runs ever here in the Desert. 

Speaking of strong runs, Rob Moseley and Brennan Gave, with the benefit of only three yellow flags to bunch the field, made some of the biggest gains on anyone racing so far this weekend. Moseley came from twenty second to finish third in this main while Gave started even deeper, dead last at twenty fourth and raced up to fifth at the line behind Andy Bryant. 

For Sabraski, it was his seven hundred and fifth win of his amazing career, particularly amazing given that he is still a young man with many years of racing still left in him should he chose to continue in the sport. The reason he has so many wins is that for years he raced in two and for a number of years, in three divisions at the same time and was a big winner in all three classes. These days he limits his racing to his Mod and his WISSOTA Super Stock along with an occasional big money race in Randy Laage's Midwest Mod, the car he won with tonght. Even in a pandemic shortened year like 2020 was, Sabraski scored well over forty wins between his two cars, both of which if WISSOTA was keeping national points in last year, he would have won two more national titles. 

The Mods would wrap up the evening and produce the closest feature race so far during this series. And while Jake Gallardo would be scored the race leader for all twenty five laps, it was much more interesting that that statistic would make things sound. Jake did take the early lead but he was soon hounded by Rodney Sanders and when you have the defending USMTS National Champion putting the pressure on, you better race at your best. Sabraski would be only a few car lengths behind this duo as he searched the track trying to find a line that would give him an edge. 

Gallardo was pounding the banking while Sanders raced low and would try to beat Jake out of the corners but each lap down the chutes Gallardo would continue to edge back in front. Jake then switched lines so he ran low in turn one with Sanders on his bumper and would then race the banking in turn three while Sanders would try to sneak under him. 

Near the end of the race, the leaders would catch a lapped car and it would make the last lap a wild one. Hitting turn one, Gallardo opted to try and pass the slower car by going on the high side. Sanders looked for an opening down low and going into turn three, Rodney attempted to slide job both the slower car and Gallardo. He would accomplish this but then slipped up the banking while Gallardo made a cross over move and they tore down the front chute side by side. With the crowd on their feet, Los Cruces' Jake would edge out Sanders by less than a car length in a dandy way to end the night. Sabraski would finish a strong third and while this is billed as a Late Model special, the depth and quality of the Modified field produces some great racing every night. 

A correction must be made that my blind old eyes missed yesterday. They do indeed have a lap board as the board where they flash the time trial results for the Late Model qualifying is also used to count laps and post the top three in the running order. It is not great but much better than nothing and I flat out just missed it last night, so the correction must be made. 

Drivers now get a couple of days off before an open practice night and party is held at the track on Tuesday night followed by round three on Wednesday and typically the cooler evening temperatures and earlier setting sun produce the fastest speeds of the week. For those drivers chasing the grand posted for the quickest time trial of the series, this would be the night to shine. 

Davenport Opens 2021 With First Late Model Victory

 The fifteenth annual Wild West Shootout kicked off on Saturday afternoon, January 9th at the Arizona Speedway near San Tan Valley Arizona. This race, that started out rather humbly with the thought to give racers from all parts of the country something to do in the Winter and an excuse to get away from the cold and snow in the Midwest has grown at a huge rate, particularly when it moved here to the Phoenix area from its last home down in Tucson.  Tucson is a fun city to visit but the racing in that area has suffered over the years from some shaky track promotion which turned off the drivers and they lost much of their local fan base. It also seemed that many of the racers had more connections to the Phoenix area which also included the visiting drivers and their families and particularly the spectator participation has really taken off after the move to Arizona Speedway. 

So far this year it seems like the very early season races have all been big hits this year as it feels like both racers and fans have been waiting nearly a whole year to "bust out" and do things and that was reflected once again here this afternoon by the opening race which drew a tremendous field of cars and a packed grandstand full of fans. 

Car counts were very strong with forty six X Mods, sixty six Modifieds and fifty nine Late Models signing in for the opening night of action. The X Mods are a mixture of WISSOTA Midwest Mods, USRA B Mods and the Las Cruses rules for their X Mod class, which used to be the dominant provider for cars when the racing was held at Tucson. That is not the case any more however as that group is in the minority but their more open rules have caused things to become a mess in this class. You now see perfectly legal Mid Mods and B Mods but unfortunately a growing number are using this opportunity to "cheat" out their legal cars to X Mod rules with many now running tall spoilers and "tricked out" bodies that would never fly back home. This class is currently out of hand and needs to be reined in soon before it is perfectly crazy. I am told that next year Vado Speedway Park will be fully USRA sanctioned and then the X Mod rules will go away and perhaps some sanity will be restored as legal MidMods and B Mods seem to race perfectly well together without a lot of the other added sheet metal. It has gotten so bad that none of the local Sport Mods even show up and the entire field is made up of visitors so in that regard it is amazing that they have as many cars as they do. 

The Modified field is really a power house one this year with awesome numbers and quality perhaps unsurpassed for any previous series events. Every qualifying event is a battle ground for this class and certainly not one for the weak of heart. I do applaud that they use passing points here as opposed to the draw/redraw method which quite frankly is just not fair when dealing with large and balanced fields such as this one. At least under the passing points formula drivers have the ability to race their way into the main event, even if their draw is an unfavorable one. 

Of course, the Late Models could not be as progressive in that regard as they still are stuck in the  "old ways" with qualifying and then running the heat races straight up. But as long as we talk about this issue, it will never likely change unless someone comes along with lots of money for a series and brings along a few progressive ideas about making the racing more interesting, such as promoting passing rather than trying to discourage it. 

The Late Model field too is one of the strongest that they have had in years too. The World of Outlaw Late Model races next weekend in Florida took away four or five of the strong runners in this event but fears about the strength and numbers of the field in the aftermath of that decision were unfounded as there are plenty of the biggest names in the sport on hand plus a bunch of new and refreshing faces that have joined the field this year. All in all, there is just about everything that a race fan could want and that is whey this series just keeps getting bigger and bigger. 

Practice was held last night with I'm told blazing speeds attained and much money flushed down the drain also. At least two name Late Model teams had to change motors last night or today with problems already and folks, that's about one hundred grand spent to not earn a single dime! Late Model racing is definitely not a poor man's game anymore and that is probably why local and weekly racing in this class struggles these days. 

Qualifying events consisted of heats and B Features for all three classes. They like to move the program along here and thus the heat races and B Features are all jammed with many cars. Jeff Broeg would have been in his glory here with only two B's in each class which meant that most of the B Features had nearly twenty cars in them fighting for a very few spots. Difficult odds for most and also the formula for wrecks and such but it does help to move things along. 

X Mods came to the track first for their main event and it was two Minnesota drivers, Brock Gronwald and Parker Hale, from opposite ends of the state, battling for the lead in the early going. North Dakota's Preston Carr was challenging them on the high side until he overshot a corner, clobbered the wall and was done. 

Gronwald and Hale continued to press for the lead until they were joined by North Dakota's Jory Berg, making his first appearance at this event. He dove to the low side and was able to pass both his challengers for the top spot and then held on for the win. Several yellows slowed the action and following every one Gronwald press to repass, one time turning Berg sideways on the front stretch after contact but both raced on and Berg held on by a couple car lengths for the win with Hall followed by Shane Sabraski(running both open wheel classes) and Jake Smith. 

Here is where I get to brag just a bit as four of the top five cars and seven of the top ten were regular WISSOTA racers, the drivers that I get to see every week at home in the upper Midwest although winner Berg's car didn't look too much like it did at home with its big spoiler, engine cover and other somewhat radical looking sheet metal. I doubt that made the difference but that big spoiler probably didn't hurt. 

The Modified feature was dominated  by East Grand Forks Minnesota's Dustin Strand. Strand started on the pole and led the entire twenty five laps and he was strong from start to finish as he maintained a several car length advantage throughout, no one was truly able to press him and even restarts didn't bother him against the strong competition. 

Early on he was challenged by Tyler Wolff and Rodney Sanders and then Lucas Schott moved to the high side to take over second. It looked like he might provide the ultimate challenge but once he got to about three car lengths behind Strand, he just couldn't get any closer, no matter what he tried. Late in the race Sabraski was on the move and he drove past Sanders to get third and was coming on Schott when the checkered flag waved. Tyler Peterson rounded out the top five.

Once again I "honk my own horn" here as finishers one, three and five were WISSOTA weekly racers with five of the top ten also being from that sanction. 

"Super Man", Jonathan Davenport led all forty laps to win the Late Model main although he was under constant pressure from adopted Iowa son Ricky Thornton Jr from start to finish. Thornton Jr was all over Davenport, getting beside him several times and one time making a pass for the lead that was negated when Davenport crossed him back over before they reached the scoring line. Garrett Alberson had a good run early until he faded following a restart and Brian Shirley than make a strong push to get to third. 

Tyler Erb, Bobby Pierce and Mike Marlar were all slightly disappointing as they had strong starting spots but really didn't do a whole lot. Chris Simpson, one of those that had to change a motor, was steady in his charge and on the last corner he dove under Cody Laney to get fourth at the line. Laney was certainly the surprise of the event with a solid top five finish for the former Modified racer. 

Conditions are tough right now here in Arizona health wise and I was concerned right up to the last minute that this whole event could be cancelled due to the health concerns surrounding it. Masks are required both in the pits and in the grandstands and everyone was required to have their temperatures taken. 

They are serious indeed about the masks and I was told that security, after several warnings, told one team if they didn't mask up that they were going to escort them right off the property. The problem here is that this track is on government land thus all the rules of various governmental entities must be enforced. Someone with a "score" to settle against racing, the local track and their ongoing noise issues or any one of a hundred other reasons that makes a complaint for not following the masking rules could get this whole thing shut down. But still there are jack asses that roam the grandstands blatantly not following the rules and putting the whole show in jeopardy due to their own ignorance and selfishness. 

Opening night was a good one yet they will continue to push and try to get the show done just a bit earlier the rest of the week. It was about 11 pm last night, not bad, but with the early starting time I know that Chris Kearns and crew would like to be done just a little earlier. 

One thing that still surprises me about this speedway is that with all the big time races held here with sanctioning from USAC, ASCS and others, this track is one of the few around that doesn't have a scoreboard or at the minimum at least a lap counter. I can't believe with all the sponsor billboards at this track, some smart business hasn't yet caught on to the idea of putting their name on a scoreboard or lap counter.