Monday, January 11, 2021

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. 

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