Carter's Dazzle as 2021 Iowa Frostbuster Begins at Stuart

 Racing has returned to the state of Iowa for the 2021 season. Tuesday night, March 30th, the highly successful Frostbuster Series kicked off at Mike VanGenderen's Stuart International Speedway. Five IMCA classes would be racing on Tuesday night from the Modified class on down through the Sport Compacts with drivers on hand from several states. 

And despite the visiting talent, it would be two Oskaloosa natives, Brayden and Cayden Carter who would headline the winners in this night. Brayden is a regular at Stuart and while Cayden doesn't race too often at Stuart, he clearly knows his way around this tiny bullring too as he scored the most thrilling win of the night with a last lap, last corner pass of Kansas driver Clay Money to take home the top prize of a grand in the Modified feature. Dallon Murty, Brandon Cox and 2020 track champion Bryan Vannausdle would also visit victory lane. 

What a whirlwind the past few days and weeks have been for promoter VanGenderen. Doing track prep for one of the most colossal events of the century with the return to dirt at the Bristol Motor Speedway and working with some of the biggest names in all of motorsports, MVG finds himself less than twenty four hours after finishing up in Bristol, battling the wind and sun here in central Iowa, trying to make the racing surface at Stuart as good as possible for the opening night of racing. His personal tank of energy was starting to run low but with the help of friends and good employees here at Stuart, they made it through the night, made further plans to prep the track and prepare for opening night next week. 

It was a brutal night for racing weather wise, and that was reflected in the small crowd of absolute diehards that refused to miss opening night, no matter how nasty the conditions were. And trust me, they were very nasty. The sun was misleading with its brightness as it provided scarce real heat but the wind was the story, screaming down over the hills and blasting head on into the face of the poor paying spectators. And this wind helped dry the track out considerably and despite the fact that with a few quick track prep sessions MVG and his crew made the track very racy  for the main events, before that time the folks also had to eat a little dust to get to that point. Hopefully some excellent feature races helped take a way the mild unpleasantness of a little Iowa dirt to the kisser. 

While not all the work for 2021 has been completed for the track here including some of the signage, one thing they have got working strong is some new speakers and the "Ragin Cajun", Tony Paris, never came through stronger to the crowd than he did on Tuesday. By the way, Paris proved to be a plenty tough guy tonight also as the way things are set up at Stuart, he is right out in the weather with the fans and high up in the tower he was receiving the full blast of the wind directly at him. He was, however, smart about it as he was dressed like he was ready to announce snowmobile races, not cars!

Full disclosure here, but for perhaps only the second or third time in my racing career, I wimped out. Normally I would not think of not being out in the heat, cold, wind whatever at the races but on this night I was afraid that my old knurled up hands would get so cold that I couldn't write so MVG was nice enough to allow me to sit in the press box with the relative warmth up there and it was a most pleasant break for me. It's also very interesting to watch and hear how the program develops from a whole different official perspective. Plus I got the chance to visit with super scorer Kevin Feller who was brought in to help administer this program. 

One hundred and nine cars signed in to race for Tuesday night's opener, a number that MVG found slightly disappointing as did I. However, it is worth noting that there probably weren't as many travelers for this year's race series partly because there will be a gap in the schedule on Wednesday with Vinton's decision to move their race back to Sunday plus the fact that this series also falls on Easter weekend. And with the less than ideal weather, there were a number of local racers that opted to wait until next week to start racing for track points. 

One of the travelers I spoke to before the races in the pits was Wisconsin visitor Lucas Lamberies. While he lives in the same state as I, he lives on the other side of the state so I don't get to see him race very often but he informs that he and his father has decided to go "all in" with racing this year, making it their top priority and taking their one big shot to visit lots of different tracks and do big races. Dad has saved his vacation and Lucas is taking a year off from the family business and this year they are racing for fun and adventure and may pop up just about anywhere that the mood strikes them.  

It may be a new year and some of the principals might have been tired on Tuesday, but the same old tremendously paced program was presented at Stuart. Even with the race cars scattered all over the grounds, the program started right at the advertised time and the heats screamed through in just over and hour. Only one B Feature was required and before we knew what was happening, it was time for the mains to begin. 

Sport Mods were up first and twenty two of them took the green flag for the main. North Dakota traveler Brook Beeter would start on the pole and lead the opening lap but it only took that one circuit for Carter to get up on the outside of the track, where the groove was getting faster and faster by the lap, to blast past Beeter and take over the lead. He would then build up a comfortable margin over the field while there was a good battle behind him as Tim Bergerson, Trevor Noonan and Cole Fenske all started to work their way forward. Ironically later, two of the three would end up spinning out of the running. 

As Carter continued to lead, it was Jake Sachau that started to move to the front. After starting eighth, he was able to race his way into contention and the later part of the race saw him all over Carter as he challenged for the lead. A late yellow set a four lap sprint to the finish and Carter was forced to make his car very wide as Sachau was all over him for the lead. Jake made one last shot on the final lap but came up short as Carter drove on for the win. Making a huge charge to the front and using high line to his advantage, Izac Mallicoat came from the eleventh row to finish third, ahead of Wisconsin driver Skyler Woods who himself came from the ninth row as the track was clearly at this point wide, slick and racy. 

Dallon Murty would continue his hot start to the racing season as he would take the lead on the fifth lap and then run up front the rest of the way to win the Stock Car feature. Eighteen Stock Cars would take the green with veteran John Watson leading the first four laps after starting on the outside pole and through the first yellow flag. 

Following that slowdown, Murty took to the low side and drove under Watson to take over the lead and he smoothly then led the rest of the way for the win. There was only one more slowdown and the last twelve laps of the race ran nonstop. The two car team of Todd Van Eaton and Buck Schafroth forged their way to the front after having started sixth and twelfth respectively. Van Eaton would close up on Murty at the end but the win was never in doubt. 

A very exciting Modified feature was the highlight event of the night with a near photo finish outcome the end result. Tony Hilgenberg and Jake McBirnie shared the front row but with a tremendous charge on the opening circuit, Clay Money edged past on the outside to lead lap one by inches. The Mod has taken to the favored high side and Money was riding the banking as he extended his lead. Making a strong charge into second was Derrick Stewart and he put the pressure on Money. 

Others on the move included Tim Ward and Cayden Carter who started tenth. A three car pileup on the front chute with nine laps complete would slow the field with Money leading Stewart, McBirnie, Marcus Tomlinson and Ethan Braaksma. The restart would really shuffle things though, as both Carter and Todd Shute would use the restart to gain valuable ground. 

As the laps ran off, Stewart proved to be all over Money as he tried several sliders to move past for the lead but couldn't quite pull them off. Suddenly there was Carter and he drove into second in lapped traffic and then gained on Money. In the final laps Carter would get closer and as the white flag waved, Carter made his move. Slide jobs were trading on the final go round and Carter would come up strong out of turn four and while Money tried to cross him over one last time, it was Carter by half a car length for the thrilling win. Stewart, McBirnie and Ward would follow. It was a dandy race. 

The Sport Compact feature would start fifteen cars after several didn't survive heat race action. Last year's point champion Bryan Vannausdle would get a great start, moving from the second row to edge Dustin Grout for the early lead. However, Grout refused to yield easily and for several laps they raced side by side in a dandy battle. Vannausdle would continue to be scored the leader but Grout was right with him and in fact, edged past to lead lap seven. 

Vannausdle would then forge back into the lead while Grout started to slip back slightly. Charging to the front were Kolby Sabin and Mitchell Bunch and while both gained quite a bit of ground at the end, they would come up short as Vannausdle would hold on for the win. 

Randy LaMar would lead the opening two lap of the Hobby Stock feature, the final event of the night. He was then overtaken by Dillon Richards would himself would hold the top spot for several laps. Two early yellows kept the field bunched until green flag racing for a number of laps would allow Brandon Cox and Solomon Bennett to work their way to the front. After Cox was able to move from the eleventh starting spot and take over the lead, he would run in that position unchallenged until Bennett would finally pass Richards for second on eleven. 

The last five laps would be a battle at Bennett was nailed to the rear bumper of Cox, who kept the low side covered while Bennett looked for an opening. The final lap saw Bennett kiss the rear bumper of Cox but not in a manner to dislodge him from the lead and that is how they crossed the line. George Reeh would gain a position following the last yellow and finish third. 

The final checkered flag would wave and the time was 10 pm, straight up. Perfect for any night of racing and even more so on this cold March night. It was a solid start to the Iowa racing season and also for Stuart with the track showing the same penchant for side by side racing that has been seen here recently. Thanks again to MVG, all his employees and congrats to those hardy race fans that turned out and saw a worthy program. 

Strength and Morton Take the Big Money at Humboldt as "KIng" and "Battle" Decided

 Saturday night, March 27, it was time to settle who were going to be crowned the champions of the tenth annual "King of America" for the Modifieds and the sixth annual "Battle at the Bullring" for the B Mods. With both classes running their big show Saturday, a considerable chunk of money will be on the line for both classes in what may be likely the biggest race to date for "The Hummer", the Humboldt Speedway. 

A huge crowd was in line when the spectator gates were opened and it also may have been the biggest crowd in track history, or certainly close to being so. With race cars pitted in the spectator parking lots and campers camped in the same area, a lot of spectators found themselves "hoofing it" quite a distance to the actual track itself and it was quite a hodgepodge but everyone worked together to make it as smooth as possible. 

Under the new format used by the USMTS this year, every night is a new and distinct show so unlike other years when just the rungs of the ladder are used to move up the non qualifiers, everyone started the night on equal ground on Saturday evening with time trials again used to determine the heat race lineups which are then raced for passing points that will then determine who is in and who must quality out of a B Feature. 

The B Mods, on the other hand, had already determined their top twelve starters and then had to just use that ladder to qualify the rest of the field. 

The Stock Cars were again running a full show for their third straight program of the weekend with heats to qualify the cars for the mains. 

Time trials are a key part of the Modified program just now and it is clear that some drivers that routinely race fast are not quite as adapt at qualifying which puts them behind the eight ball before the first green flag drops. It will be interesting to see over the course of the year if this format continues to be used how a shake up in just who is doing the winning plays out. 

The same format for the Mods saw seven heats and four B Features set a twenty four car starting field with four provisional starters then added, all ready to go the sixty laps of the main event. The redraw saw Casey Skyberg and Brady Gerdes start in the front row but with a first lap blast, it was Brooks Strength that took the early lead. Showing much speed on the straightaways, he led the opening laps as the field started to sort out behind him. 

Showing the improvement that he has displayed every time he took to the track this weekend, Strength continued to show the way through the midpoint of the race. At halfway, Lucas Schott had moved into second and had Rodney Sanders, Jake O'Neil and Terry Phillips behind him. 

They raced the first thirty five laps before the yellow was waved but the slow down didn't bother Strength who continued to lead but Sanders was making the strongest charge at this time. He moved up the track and found immediate dividends and he moved into second and it appeared that he might challenge the leaders. However, Strength continued to maintain his edge until the yellow flew for the second time with only ten laps left.

With just a sprint to the finish, it was time for Sanders to make or break but Strength had just exactly that as he actually pulled away from Rodney and was clearly the fastest car on the track. He continued to stretch his advantage and drove home unchallenged for the twenty grand win, thanks in large part to the contributions lined up by fellow driver Joe Duvall. This race paid a grand just to take the green. 

How surprising that this weekend, when all the stars showed up and brought their "A" game that two of the three nights' mains would be won by drivers taking their first ever wins under the sanctioning body. Not only is that surprising, it certainly bodes well for the future as it would appear a whole new set of stars for this series are starting to emerge. Sanders would settle for second with Jake O'Neil third with only four of the original starters not racing at the end and everyone on the lead lap. This may have been the quickest run sixty lapper in quite some time. 

The B Mods did not take a back seat to anyone with their main being a thriller. What a remarkable drive by J.C. Morton who started twentieth and won this race without a lot of yellow flags to aid his cause. He simply found a line that no one else was using and drove it to the front. He rode the rim like no one else and while a risky groove it was, he made it work to the utmost and rode it to a ten grand win. 

Marcus Dunbar led the first lap before he was passed by local favorite Tyler Kidwell who would then lead for a considerable number of laps. However, Kidwell was pressured hard by Dunbar, Tony Bahr and Kris Jackson who had moved up from the sixth row. Kidwell managed to maintain a slight lead but the race for second was tight and wild. 

Once Morton got into a striking position, he continued to drive the high side and coming down the front chute was able to drive past Kidwell and take over the lead. The battle behind him remained hot and on lap thirty four things came to a head when Dunbar and Jackson came together hard going into turn three. Dunbar's car was wrecked and the "Youper" from the upper peninsula of  Michigan was clearly an irate driver. 

The rest of the race saw Morton pull away as he had a line that was unbeatable and no one was able to stay with him as he drove home for the gigantic win and the ten grand top prize. Kidwell got shuffled back at the end with Jackson finishing second and Bahr third. Fifteen of the starting field were still on the track at the end. 

The Stock Cars showed their balance this weekend as Saturday night produced the third different winner in three races. This time it was Derek Green, who has been close this weekend but until Saturday night wasn't able to seal the deal. He started on the pole for this race, led early but was then overtaken by the afternoon winner, Derek Brown. Brown would lead for a few laps but Green adjusted his line and once he did that, he was able to strong back around Brown and then pull away. 

The Stock Cars ran off a nonstop main event and it was Green that took the top prize with Brown second and Kyle Falck finishing third. Only four of the starters were not racing at the end in what was a smooth race. 

Again, it was a long night and Sunday had already dawned before the final checkered flag waved. This is why, in a perfect world, these two events are run on different dates when there isn't quite so many cars at once and races to be run. However, great flexibility was shown by everyone involved to make this year's event happen with the cards that they had been given. The biggest thanks should go out to the track workers, whatever their position, for their efforts that allowed three smooth programs despite the horrendously long hours they had to put in. I also need to thank the folks from Humboldt Speedway and the USMTS along with my friend Chris from Humboldt that always provides me with a place to park myself. 

As much fun and enjoyment as this weekend provides, it is also tinged with some sadness. This event, along with races at Beatrice and I-80 is the place that I would most likely run into my late friend Ernie from Western Nebraska. All weekend I kept imaging that when I rounded a corner in the pits that I would come across him, cigar clenched in teeth, taking pictures and writing down driver's names. Sadly, that won't happen again in this world and for that it makes me sad. 

Brown and Schott Top Humboldt Afternoon Makeup Events

 Saturday, March 27th, would prove to be a long, hard day for all involved with the Humboldt Speedway. While it would climax with some very important feature races before the evening was over, before that it was a long grind to get to that point. Saturday morning the make up show that was rained out on Thursday would be held. Specifically, for the B Mods it was very important as they would participate in their double heat races with the totals from these two heats today added to the heat they ran last night and that would determine the twelve cars automatically moving to the fifty lap main on Saturday night along with setting up the rest of the Last Chance races. And with their being a very quick turn around from heat to heat, any wrecks or mechanical problems could be very problematic. 

The Stock Cars would be participating in their second of three full shows here this weekend with a full show for them during the afternoon. 

The Modifieds would be running a full show also but under USRA rules which meant they would draw for starting positions in their heats rather than qualify and then use passing points to line up the rest of their events. Since it was the lowest paying of the three programs and had no relevance to the night show that would be paying twenty grand to the winner, a number of drivers chose to sit this afternoon show out and watch with only sixty one of the ninety one on hand racing. This actually was a benefit as with the lower car count there weren't quite as many races which would allow this show to be completed sooner, thus giving the beleaguered track prep crew a little more time to prepare the track for the big finale later. We also got the chance to see some different faces in the main. 

For an afternoon show on dirt, it was actually quite a very good pm of racing. The track stayed in good shape and there was no dust at all. They were able to race the track well and when it did start to rubber up, they quickly came out and ripped the surface. There were no more yellows than a typical race program would provide and with it being a warm and comfortable day to be out side, it made for a rather pleasant afternoon of racing. The program moved along quickly  and when completed, there was almost three hours for the track crew to get things ready for the big evening show. 

The folks in charge of teching the rules were busy on this day with about a half dozen cars disqualified for various infractions. But at least there was no one that got DQ'd for not wearing their racing gloves, at least that I am aware of. 

Seven Modified heats and three B Features would set the grid for the thirty lap main event, paying two grand to the winner. A quick pace was set in this race with first Tyler Davis and then Lucas Schott holding the top spot. Davis led briefly and then it was Schott that ran up front the rest of the main. Lucas continues to use a car provided by the Sorensen Racing Team for him while he waits for his new car to be completed. Things got tight for him when he had to work through considerable lapped traffic but he made all the right moves to take the win. Davis would finish second with Rodney Sanders finishing third. It was a good start to the season for the defending National Champ in the USRA Modifieds. 

The Stock Car feature would see a rare runaway win in a division that is usually close from start to finish. Derek Brown, the driver to beat at Lucas Oil Speedway, started on the outside of the front row, took the lead immediately and ran away from the pack. He finished comfortably out front with Shawn Ritter taking the second spot ahead of Derek Green. 

Everyone looked a little bleary eyed at the start of the morning but things gradually picked up as the afternoon progressed and after starting out with just a handful of early risers in the stands, a good sized crowd was on hand by feature time. Once the final checkered of the afternoon waved, most of the spectators turned right around and got in the already developing line to grab a seat for the evening show. 

Ahumada Jr. Picks Great Time for First USMTS Victory During KOA at Humboldt

 It was a very busy weekend at the Humboldt Speedway located in Southeastern Kansas. With the sixth annual Battle of the Bullring for B Mods having been weathered out several weeks ago, the decision was made to attach that event to the tenth annual King of America Modified race for the warriors of the USMTS. What this would eventually mean that on the final night of racing, these two classes would be battling for first place checks that would add up to thirty thousand dollars between the two classes. That, folks, is a lot of money to be fought over at this small little quarter mile bullring located near a town of about a thousand people modestly placed in the center of no where. But if you have a racy track, put on a good show, pay the drivers well then the fans will follow, and that is the formula for a successful event. 

Of course, the weather had to make things even more challenging than was already planned, as a steady all afternoon rain on Thursday, March 25th backed up the opening night of racing by twenty four hours. And to the credit of the promoters, rather than just dropping that show which had no implications for "The King" but would affect the line up procedure for the "Battle of the Bullring", a doubleheader program was scheduled for Saturday which would prove to tax the resources of the workers, drivers and crews but everyone stood to the challenge and three full shows were accomplished. 

Preliminary action would open up on Friday night, March 26th, with Modifieds, B Mods and Stock Cars all in action. All three would run full shows with this being a change from previous years for "The King" Modifieds as in previous years one night would be just double heats preceding the last night feature races while this year it was three full shows with three full qualifying events. As expected, a huge field of cars was on hand even with the twenty four hour delay and many drivers were making their first appearances at "The Hummer." Opening night action would see an even two hundred race cars on hand and when three more trickled in on Saturday, the final totals were ninety one Modifieds, eighty four B Mods and twenty eight Stock Cars. All three classes had some of the strongest racers from across the Midwest and beyond and this would surely be one of the top events of the year.. 

The Modifieds time trialed as they have done for all their USMTS shows so far this year with seven big heat races and four B Features setting the twenty eight car starting field for the USMTS finale, with five grand to go to the winner of the Friday night finale. 

The fifty lap Modified main would produce a first time winner in USMTS action and provide one of the "feel good" moments of the weekend. Carlos Ahumada Jr has been racing the USMTS circuit for several years and from where he lives in El Paso Texas, many of the races are extremely long tows for him but he has made the majority of the races since joining the series. He already had a strong finish to an earlier event this Spring in Texas so it was clear that his program has improved measurably but on Friday night he showed just how far he has come as he would lead the first lap and more importantly, the fiftieth lap as he took his first ever USMTS feature race. 

Doing well in his heat race and by benefit of the redraw, he would start on the pole of the main event and would be out front for the opening lap. However, he was quickly then overtaken for the lead by Brooks Strength, also looking for his first ever USMTS feature. Strength would show good speed as he maintained the lead but Ahumada Jr stayed with him as they were joined in the lead pack by Terry Phillips, Ricky Thornton Jr and eventually, Rodney Sanders. 

Lap twenty eight saw Ahumada Jr, working the low line, get back inside Strength to take the lead back and he would be in front for another four laps before the first yellow would wave when Jake O'Neil would blow his motor and slow the action. 

Things got exciting then as Strength and Phillips would wade into the deep end of the pool with each other. T,P would run Strength up the track in turn one as he wanted the top side but Strength would respond, perhaps not in a smart way, by then dumping Phillips in turn three and triggering a yellow. Strength would go to the tail while Phillips would retain his spot. But then Phillips, Sanders and Thornton Jr would get into a tough battle and Ahumada Jr would take advantage of this to drive away from them. One more yellow would set up a four lap dash to the finish but Carlos was up to the task as he again drew away from those battling so hard behind him and he drove home unchallenged for the significant win. Phillips would finish second and Tanner Mullins would make a late charge to grab third. 

The B Mods would also run seven qualifying heats with the top twenty in passing points moving to the feature. The next twenty in points would run a B Feature and then top four would move on to the main also, setting up a twenty four car starting field going twenty five laps for two grand but none of this having anything to do with the "Battle of  the Bullring."

Reece Solander and J.C. Morton would share the front row with Morton taking the early lead. Solander would hang with Morton but the driver on the move was Tony Bahr who started fifth but working the low line well, gaining ground on every lap. As other drivers slipped up the track, Bahr would drive under them and gain positions. 

He caught Morton and J. C. couldn't hold his car down either, and Bahr drove past him to take over the lead and once in front, he gradually pulled away, despite Morton's best efforts to catch him. Bahr clipped one of the infield tractor tires with his left front, making his car's handling more suspect but he was still able to hold off the pack and take the win. Solander would finish a strong third in a race stopped only three times and only once for a collision. 

Stock Cars would have some fireworks to conclude their main event after three heats set the grid for their twenty five lap finale. Chance Hillman would lead the opening lap before he was passed by Kyle Falck for the lead. Falck would then lead the rest of the contest until the fateful last lap. A number of yellows would slow this event, most for one car spins as the Stock Cars, new to this facility and event, struggled to keep the wheels underselves. 

All this time, Falck would continue to hold the top spot but Derek Green, who started on the pole, would move back up to challenge. Lap after lap, he would stick a nose under Falck in the corners but always come up just short down the chutes and then back off. However, when the white flag waved, the gloves came off. Depending on who you believed, either Falck didn't give Green room on the back chute on the final lap or Green moved up into the leader. Either way, contact was made, both cars when spinning out of control, and both were knocked out of the race. 

Defending USRA National Champ Mitch Hovden inherited the lead and he would not falter on the one lap race to the finish and would take the win. Hillman would finish second with Kevin Donlan trailing. For the Stock Car class, these kind of last lap fireworks are more the norm than the unusual. 

It was a long night of racing with twenty five races ending up being on the card including one hundred laps of feature racing. With all that racing, several sessions of track "farming" were required which took time also and the final checkered flag waved just after 1 a.m. With the Saturday afternoon session of racing scheduled to open gates at 8 am, for many there was just time to change clothes and get back to the track, much less the poor track  workers and other employees, who it was reported later did not in many cases get any sleep at all. Especially with the bank playing until four a.m. But this is not just a race; it is an event. 

Beard Pleases Local Race Fans With Comp Cams Victory at Old No. 1 Speedway

 Friday night, March 19th I made my first visit ever to the Old No. 1 Speedway between Harrisburg and Jonesboro Arkansas. They were running the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series Late Models in race number three of their 2021 point season and since I had been to both their previous races, I figured why not break a perfect string, even if it meant quite a road trip for me. The weather looked good and with the race at Bristol not really piquing my interest, this seemed like a logical time to finally catch a race at this Northeastern Arkansas oval. 

And what better time than for one of their biggest races of the year, the revival of the Cow Patty 40 which was marked by advertisement that featured the South end of a North bound cow as their theme. And with a whole herd of cattle grazing right next to the pit area, this logo was more than appropriate for this race. 

Old No. 1 Speedway, to put it kindly, is flat out in the middle of no where! A winding road takes one from Jonesboro near the track but the last mile or so is on an even more winding lane and half wide dirt road that seems to be heading no where. Suddenly one bursts through a clearing in the woods and there is Old No. 1, tucked into the side of some rolling hills. 

The track itself is a D shaped quarter mile with a couple of really tight corners entering and leaving the front stretch with the bow of the D shape down the back chute. They have some very adequate bleachers and a nice lap counter board approaching turn one that can be seen by both the fans and drivers as they race. The Tribble family owns and operates the track and they have made a series of nice improvements to the facility over the past few years. By the way, the name of the track refers not to some special blend of local "shine" but instead that the track is off Old No. 1 highway although somehow I came on a different route that didn't even include that road. 

The track is covered in brown dirt and not the red clay that most tracks in Arkansas are and it slicks off quickly but produces better Late Model racing than I would have thought at first glance. I thought that the track might be a little too tight for the wide Late Models but that proved not to be the case, especially after the track crew cleaned off some of the loose material lying in the top groove.  There is a recently added wall in turns one and two but none on the other end of the track and a creek runs parallel to the back chute, thus splitting the pits into one part off the three and four corner and the upper pits on the back chute on the hill overlooking the entire grounds. 

The featured item on the track concession menu on Friday was the Cow Patty Burger but I must confess that I didn't have the adventurous nature to try one and perhaps that was my loss. 

Twenty six Comp Cams Late Models signed in to race with Brian Rickman being the overall fast qualifier at 13,754 seconds. Three heats started straight up and a B Feature plus two provisional starters would set the twenty two car feature grid. B.J. Robinson would lead the first lap of the feature before he was passed on the high side by Kyle Beard. Beard would then go on to lead the rest of the way and take a very popular win since his home town of Trumann is just a stone's throw down the road from this track and the very facility where Beard started out his racing career. It was quite plain to see that he knew the track well as he drove harder into turns three and four than anyone, seemingly defying the laws of gravity lap after lap  but always smoothly missing the walls and completing another successful circuit. 

And he really turned up the wick when Hunter Rasdon raced up to second. From just up the road in Jonesboro, he would probably be another driver that could race the track blindfolded. He began to close slightly on Beard until Kyle picked up the pace and after that the two ran away from the field to produced a top two sweep for the local drivers. Scott Crigler would finish an impressive third. 

As for Hall of Famer Terry Phillips, it was another crazy night for him. After finally qualifying well, he got up on the wall on the front chute at the start of his heat and did significant damage. The crew did get the car fixed so he could qualify out of the B Feature but that forced him to start nineteenth. He did put on a show though, as virtually every lap he scraped the wall down the front chute, sending the sparks flying as he raced all the way up to eighth. 

Also racing on Friday were two other divisions, the Factory Stocks and Modifieds. Both classes had enough cars for two heats and a main event with the Modifieds saved to be the last race of the night. This had a side benefit as it spread out the traffic flow out of the facility which was single file with everyone having to leave, toters and racers alike up and down the dirt road. 

The Factory Stock feature saw eight cars take the green for the main with Taylor Huffman taking the early lead and going on for the win, start to finish. Only two yellow flags slowed the contest with Devon Andrews finishing second ahead of Greg Meilke

The Modifieds, which were running IMCA rules but not sanctioned, started a dozen cars in their main which produced the closest finish of the night. Veteran driver Mark Norris led the first lap until he lost power and was passed by his son Clay as both were sporting new Lethal chassis. Clay led until lap eleven when he was overtaken by Andrew Moreno. 

Moreno would continue to hold the top spot but Landon Meilke was closing on him and as Moreno blocked the low line, Meilke gave it a go on the top side. He got a great run on the final lap, shot past Moreno down the back chute and drove home for a very exciting win. Clay Norris would settle for third. 

It was a good night of racing and well organized with the show being run off at a good clip. Once again though, the time trials that were run off put the show about forty five minutes late taking the green flag based on the advertised time, but that is old news for virtually every place that using this method. About the only tracks that can budget time correctly with qualifying appear to be the Speed Week tracks in Florida and that is because they deliberately start the show early with the track packing and qualifying. 

Thanks to the folks from the Comp Cams series and all the helpful track personal too.  

Dillard Pleased, Culp Pissed as Hall of Famer Falls From Grace at Boothill Speedway

 I hate it that the "clock Gods" who control the time changes mess me up every year at this time. It never seems to fail that on the weekend when they steal an hour from me, it is always while I'm at a late race a zillion miles from home so I have to bite the bullet and pass on delivering my report in a timely manner, which is the whole point of doing this blog as soon as possible after the races are completed before it turns into old, stale news. However, with a short night and more than a thousand mile drive home, self preservation forced me to pass on a late night or early morning report, so here is my somewhat after the fact report on the second night of the Comp Cams race at Boothill.

Saturday night, March 13th brought the second half of the Comp Cams season opening weekend of Late Model racing at the historic Boothill Speedway just east of Shreveport Louisiana in the town of Greenwood. The Comp Cams cars would be going an extra ten laps in their feature race on Saturday and would be paid an extra four thousand dollars for their efforts. The Factory Stocks would also be doing Last Chance races and their main event worth fifteen hundred dollars to the winner plus it would be the season opener for the CRUSA Crate Late Models which apparently have really taken off in the last couple of years in this area. 

The format for the Late Model part of the program would mirror Friday night's with four heat races after qualifying, two Last Chance races and the main event. The only significant difference was that four cars would come out of each heat race, thus creating a twenty four car field for the main event. 

And the feature race would be a memorable one and  an event that would stir the crowd into a frenzy before it was completed. Timothy Culp, a winner in this race last year would start on the pole and lead the first eighteen laps. He was pursued vigorously by Billy Moyer Jr who made several runs at the lead but just couldn't quite make the pass. Culp was using a lot of race track and Moyer, with a big run off the high side of the corners, couldn't find the room to squeeze by against the wall to make the pass. 

He tried to cross Culp over off turn two and perhaps they made contact, but the result was Moyer got severely crossed up and fell back to fourth while sporting some body damage. So with Junior dropping back, it was time for father to make the move for the lead as Billy pulled into second and continued to challenge.

Several times he tried moves similar to what Billy Jr had done, and in fact was using the same line, but each time he ran out of room coming down the straightaways and had to back off. He tried this several times as Culp was using the "windshield wiper" move of coming right up to the wall after dropping low in the corners. While Moyer was clearly quicker, he continued to be thwarted by Culp's moves.

Whether Moyer was trying to strike back against some perceived injustice against his son or just got tired of having to hit the brakes, Moyer showed a rare lack of patience and on lap nineteen, when Culp came up the track on him, Moyer just hammered the throttle, packed the rear end of Culp's car and then revved the motor as he shoved Timothy down the front stretch until they both ended up spinning to the top of the track. If Moyer's plan was to dump Culp and then drive on, that didn't work out well as both came to a halt. At this point the crowd went wild, with some cheering on Moyer but most feeling that he went a little over the edge in his move. 

Moyer pulled off the track after the two engaged in a staring contest with each other through their windscreens and didn't return while Culp, with a flat tire, quickly pitted and then returned to the track. However, Timothy lost his sympathy vote at this point as he putted around the track at low speed, refusing to line up in the back as he and everyone else knew that he must and instead stopped to talk to anyone that would lend an ear, all the while holding up the show. No matter how he was aggreged, once he went to the pits he had to go to the back. Finally, after holding up the show for several minutes, he left with a huff off the back chute and the race resumed.

Cade Dillard, witness to all of the activity from the best seat in the house, directly behind the pair, inherited the lead. I really thought that the car to beat at this point would be Ashton Winger who was really moving up and looked very fast right before the yellow. However, Dillard made a strategic move as he got off the bottom following the long yellow and moved up the track to the fastest groove, one that really wasn't there the night before. Once he got up to the top, he got much faster and indeed pulled away from Winger, led the last twenty two laps and scored a popular victory for the home state fans as he was one of the few state racers on hand. Winger settled for second and Brian Rickman drove a strong race to finish third. 

It was a tough night for a few of the Comp Cams regulars. Both Spencer Hughes and Hunter Rasdon wrecked in their heats and Hughes borrowed a Crate Late Model to take the green as a series feature provisional while Rasdon limped around for a couple laps as the other provisional minus most of his front end parts. Even worse was the luck of Terry Phillips. TP had a weekend to forget as he got a flat tire on Friday night and didn't make the main and after qualifying terribly on Saturday, finally got in the show, only to blow a motor during the feature race. It is amazing how his Late Model program has been struggling so badly of late while he is like "Jake the Bear" with his Modified!

It was announced that the CRUSA Crate Late Models would be headlining the weekly events here at Boothill in 2021. For whatever reason, the Modifieds are on the wane in this part of the country and the Crate Late Models have really come on strong here in the MidSouth region. There were eighteen of them on hand on Saturday and I was told that many others were racing at another track that was holding an event on this same night as this rescheduled race had led to a conflict of sorts with top local runner Rob Litton one of those not on hand due to the other event but expected to be a regular here. 

And if they were trying to impress the fans on hand Saturday, they did a solid job of it. Their feature race was an exciting one with Donnie Gieber, work worked the outside line relentlessly, finally able to make a last corner pass on Jamie Burford, who had led the first nineteen laps before Gieber edged him at the line. There was only one yellow flag in the Crate feature and all but one of the starters were still racing at the end and not a single car got lapped. In summation, they did a fine job of racing throughout the field. 

Two Last Chance races set the twenty car field for the Factory Stock main event. On Friday afternoon upon my arrival at the track, I was quickly engaged by a track regular who knew it all and had seen it all in the many years he had attended races at Boothill. You know the type. He gets to the track at Noon, puts down his lawn chair and then guards his spot throughout the rest of the event. He quickly told me that the #36J Factory Stock was the one to beat in that class; I could "book it." 

Well, I didn't swallow all the "cool aid" that he gave me, but on that point he was very correct. Justin Whitehead, whom I'm told builds a lot of the Factory Stocks for other racers, took over the lead before the halfway point of the main event and led comfortably the rest of the way. After pole site Shawn Graham lost power on the opening lap, it was Ben Leedy who had the top spot for several laps. 

However, it was just a matter of time until Whitehead drove around Leedy and once in front, he was not challenged the rest of the way. The Factory Stocks did a nice job also in their main with just two yellow flags and again, not a lapped car in the field. On the last lap, Leedy lost power and set up a wild scramble for position behind Whitehead, with Cody Myers taking second ahead of Josh Greenwalt. 

Promoter Brian Frazier got on the pa system Saturday(after they got it fixed following the Friday night meltdown) and thanks the very large crowd in attendance for showing up as he seeks to bring more big shows to the MidSouth area. 

Random thoughts: I don't think I've ever seen so many officers of the law on hand relative to the crowd size as what I saw here all weekend. Multiple squads including the Caddo Parish Sheriff and deputies were patrolling the grounds from the opening of the pits until the last car was out of the spectator parking lot. Either the folks here can get very enthusiastic or there are a lot of "uniforms" that like to watch the races. 

"Little" John Tuggle drew plenty of attention with a gator fastened to the roof of his Factory Stock for the racing program. 

The concession area still needs a little more redesigning as with only one serving window and one customer at a time, the line for food and drink was astronomically long all night on Saturday. 

One southern tradition that has not changed is that when the cars are called to the track for wheel packing, there are men, women and children riding the back of the race cars and hanging out the windows on all sides, a potentially dangerous situation but seemingly, just part of the show in these parts. 

Thanks to all the employees of the Boothill Speedway this weekend and special thanks to the crew from the Comp Cams series for their help. It was a very long drive but also very interesting. 

     

Logan Martin Boothill Master

 This was a week of much uncertainty regarding the weather and just exactly what races on the calendar would actually be able to be presented. I changed my mind several times over the course of the week as I tried to decide just which events would have the best chance to actually roll off the line and see a green flag as our rising fuel prices to kind of make it imperative that if I am to head down the road on some adventure that I be rewarded by at least seeing some racing action. 

After going back and forth, I finally decided that my move would be to head South and bypass all the storms, snow and rain if I could and the best event with the most promising forecast proved to be a double header weekend of Late Model racing with the Comp Cams series at the Boothill Speedway just West of Shreveport Louisiana. Now this isn't exactly right in my back yard and it took me a day and a half of hard driving to get all the way down to Louisiana and was far from my most logical adventure of all time, but I seen to be struck with a bad case of wanderlust lately, already having seen races in Arizona, Florida, last week in Texas and now here I am again off to the far reaches of the states for more racing. Interestingly, some of the cars that I saw racing at RPM Speedway in Texas last week and never thought I might see again were racing right here at Boothill so you just never know what the future might bring. 

I was at Boothill once before and am told by someone who would know that it was over thirty years ago when I made a three night swing of Late Model racing through Louisiana but it doesn't seem like it was that long ago although I have to admit that some of the details about Boothill I didn't remember clearly from that trip. 

But enough about the past and on to the present. This two night stand at Boothill would be the Comp Cam Racing Series opener for 2021 for this rising series and a part of the Ronny Adams Memorial race which was originally scheduled here a couple of weeks ago but weathered out due to wet grounds. The Late Models would be participating in two full shows this weekend along with Limited Modifieds on Friday night, Factory Stocks that would qualify on Friday night and then run their feature race on Saturday with the Crate Late Models joining the show on Saturday with a full program. 

My memories of Boothill were a bit foggy but when I saw it in person again, one thing was reinforced and that this is the kind of short little bull ring that I enjoy the heck out of. It is only a quarter mile long but it is wide and high banked and once the surface was blown off and cleaned off, it produced some very exciting and close racing and my next door neighbor in the stands, Dustin Jarrett, agreed with me that they really get around this small oval. This was also opening night for the track and for the opener the track stayed in fine shape all night; smooth and with it not being necessary to do any "grooming" as the evening wore on. 

The grandstands are cement slabs much like Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Wisconsin but the stands are much larger than those in the Badger state and really pitched at a steep angle so the view of the track is a good one. This is definitely a lawn chair facility and woe to those that don't have one with them. I was happy to loan Jarrett one for the evening so he didn't head off to his next track with a bad case of "sore butt" from sitting on the concrete slab all night. 

The track was touting many improvements they had made in the off season for 2021 including a press tower renovation, remodeling of the concession stands, Lighting upgrade with twenty new lights in place as phase one of this upgrade. The track has been upgraded so that it is a uniform sixty five feet wide all the way around, the walls have been painted and a new pit ticket booth in place. Front stretch speakers have been moved around to increase their effect and bathroom updates have been made. 

But just to show how demanding running a race track is, with all those improvements there was still work to be done. The phase one upgrades no doubt helped the lighting situation but there were still a couple of dark spots on the track that need attention and while the speakers were great in the grandstands, a vigorous rendition of the National Anthem blew out all the speakers in the grandstands and while the pit speakers were loud and clear, all of the spectators in the main grandstands did not a hear a single word of the program all night, including the winner's interviews that were a "Marcel Marceau."  The track could also use a scoreboard or at least just a plain old lap counter. 

The Comp Cams series has been a great series for tracks in this part of the world to bring top notch quality Late Model racing to some tracks that normally don't have the kinds of fields such as they had here on this night. The spectator on my right in the stands told me that he has been attending races here for quite some time and couldn't recall a stronger field of Late Models previous to what was on hand Friday night with thirty four drivers in action. 

It was the perfect night for defending series point champion Logan Martin out of Missouri as he was quick qualifier for the night, won his heat race and then led all thirty laps to win the main event. My only criticism of the Comp Cams series is that they follow the old tired format of qualifying, starting the heat winners right up front and thus, except for extreme circumstances or wonderous performances, seeing the outcomes be pretty predictable. Martin started right on the pole and "cat fished" around the track for thirty laps but that was good enough to hold off B.J. Robinson to get the win. After a first lap yellow for a collision, the race went nonstop the rest of the way but surprisingly, lapped traffic was not a factor as the leaders failed to catch the back of the pack, which might have made things more interesting. 

The night was saved by the performance of the Hall of Famer, Billy Moyer, who refused to hug the bottom like most of the field and instead worked the banking of the track. It took a long time for the top side to clean off ,but when it did he started to move up and regain positions that he had surrendered early on in the feature. He raced for the longest time side by side with Earl Pearson Jr before finally getting past him and really closed on Robinson at the end. In fact, if Robinson hadn't made his car very wide at the end, Moyer would have had second as he was nipped by .002 seconds for the spot. Kyle Beard also worked the high side and his late rush saw him get second. 

Saturday night I would hope that the top side would clean off a little earlier in the program and if it does, we will be in for some action that could be memorable. 

Morgan Bagley recorded a strong qualifying effort but his motor started making bad sounds as he completed his time trials and he passed on his heat and B Feature and I assumed he was done for the night. However, he received a provisional and unlike what I thought that he would just take the green, he raced the entire thirty laps, finishing sixteenth despite a motor that was sounding more like a John Deere than anything else. 

Limited Modifieds ran a full program also with twenty eight of them producing three heats, two B Features and a twenty lap main. Robert Metz would lead the first laps of the feature but when he got crossed up, he took out both himself and second place Mark Underwood Jr which gave the lead to Barron Prince. 

Prince would lead until the halfway point of the feature when he was overtaken by Colby Mewborn who would open up a comfortable lead and go on for the win. Underwood Jr would drive back up to second with Adam Roy completing the top three. 

Trinity Kenward would find the tricky spot on the track during one of the B Features when he jumped to cushion in turn two, got up on the wall and went for a couple of violent flips down the back chute. Fortunately he was OK but his new racing equipment for 2021 was in sad shape. 

Thirty seven Factory Stocks, a class popular in this part of the country, would do qualifying heats for their fifteen hundred to win program which will have its feature race on Saturday night. Four heat races were run with the top three making the Saturday show with the rest coming back tomorrow to try again and get in the main. 

All racing was done by 11 pm so the show, which was moved along at a very nice pace, took less than three hours to complete. Strangely, the show wasn't scheduled to begin until 8 pm which seems to me to be one of the latest starting times scheduled for any track that I can think off and with time trials for the Late Models, it was a near certain that part of the program would last just a bit longer than planned. But that is always a certainty, isn't it?

Ramirez Navigates Path to USMTS Victory at RPM

 Round two of the 2021 USMTS season and the second half of the weekend doubleheader was run on Saturday night, March 6th at the RPM Speedway of Texas just out side of Crandall and for the second straight night it was another USMTS regular that fought off a stellar field of drivers to take home the ten thousand dollar top prize. 

Dereck Ramirez has long been a strong supporter of the USMTS as both a driver and as a financial supporter of the series and in fact if you want to see him race you have to go to a USMTS event. He is one of the leading feature winners in USMTS history and he added to that total with a stirring victory after fighting off both Terry Phillips and Rodney Sanders for the fifty lap win. 

Round two saw another full show of Modifieds along with Factory Stocks, Limited Modifieds, Eco Modifieds and Tuners in another full program of racing with one hundred and thirty six cars signing in to race on Saturday night. A few less Modifieds were in the house on Saturday but they still had sixty three to race with the biggest losses being in the support classes from Friday night. However the program for the featured class, the USMTS cars, was exactly the same as on Friday with qualifying, six heats and three B Features setting up the twenty seven car field for the main event. Interestingly, there was only one new entrant on Saturday night with that being Oklahoma's William Gould. 

Qualifying went just a bit smoother than it did on Friday night but it still took extra time over just hot lapping with the show starting forty minutes late past the advertised time, and strictly because group qualifying of five or six cars at a time just takes longer than three or four sets of hot laps and going forward, promoters and officials are going to have to take that into consideration meaning that if they must start by a certain time, than all pre race activities will have to be started earlier. 

As I listened to people talking around me in the grandstand before the races and reviewing last night's show, many commented that they were surprised to see time trials and were not highly appreciative of that addition to the show. For the record, Lucas Lee was quick qualifier at 15.799 seconds which earned him the fourth starting spot in the third heat race. Not able to garner enough passing points out of the heat, he was forced to win a B Feature to make the main. With five of the six heats won right off the front row, drivers are going to have to learn how to "sandbag" just enough to make the invert but not so fast that they have to start in the second row. 

A new addition for 2021 is the national point leader carrying the brightly colored spoiler indicating that he is the national point leader. Phillips carried it into Saturday's show but Ramirez would go home with it at the end of the night. Something I noticed this weekend procedurally wise that USMTS seems to have changed this year is how they call fault for yellow flag slowdowns. In the past, if you were stopped when the yellow waved, you went to the back whether the fault was yours or someone else's that might have turned you. The only exception was on a blatant "take out" where both would go to the back. 

Now, however, they rule on yellows the way that they do it in my territory and that is that whoever triggered the yellow must go to the back and innocent victims, stopped or not, will be allowed to retain their position. This is a much more fair way of doing things but it also requires an official to make a judgement call, something that most tracks don't want to take on, fairer or not. I applaud USMTS to making this change while also understanding that no official in any sport is always correct and there will inevitably be a few missed calls where the wrong person goes to the back. Overall though, this is still a much more fair way of doing things. 

Kale Westover would start on the pole and take the early lead in the Modified fifty lap main. Phillips was on the move early as he drove up from the third row to take second and then tried to pass Westover. T.P. tried the high side but couldn't quite get the run he needed to get past the strong running Westover so he ducked back to the lower groove. However, Ramirez wasn't afraid to try the higher line and when he pulled up on Phillips to take second, a fortuitous yellow saved him and allowed him to hold on to second. He knew he had to get past Westover so he took the high side for the double file restart and after a couple of hard fought laps, he was able to take over the lead. 

Westover proved to be strong though, and while Ramirez got by for second, Westover hung right with the leaders. Also on the move were Rodney Sanders and Tyler Wolff as quickly the top four swarmed together and provided the best Modified racing of the weekend with the track coming around for them. 

Ramirez was all over Phillips as they swapped lanes fighting with each other as Phillips countered each move until finally he just couldn't get off the corners fast enough to hold off Ramirez with Dereck taking over the lead. Phillips then began a progressive drop back into the field, ending up eighth in the final order. 

It was then left for Ramirez to fight off the advances of Sanders who provided a stiff challenge. In fact, he very nearly made the winning move with about a half dozen laps left as he dove hard and low into turn three where the leaders banged wheels. Ramirez recovered first and maintained the lead while Sanders lost significant momentum and Wolff got by for second. 

The last few laps saw Ramirez strengthen his lead while Wolff held off Sanders for second. Johnny Scott also made a strong late charge as he grabbed fourth while Westover's strong run allowed him to complete the top five. 

Support class winners included Cody King of Fanshawe Ok in the Limited Mods, Dustin Choate of Forney in the Eco Mods, Chris Davis of Wills Point in the Factory Stocks and David Thompson of Mesquite in the Tuners. 

Racing was much improved on Saturday as the track prep crew made some nice adjustments over the evening. As much as I hate mid program track prep, it was done twice on this night with the results being overwhelmingly positive. After the heats they ripped and watered the high side which then progressively turned the track from a low groove to a high groove dominant track but a complete watering before the feature, top to bottom, made all the difference as drivers were able to use both a strong top and low groove for the main. Give them a track to race on, and most times they will put on a show. And that goes for every track on the schedule. 

Another good crowd was on hand for Saturday's show although perhaps not quite as big as the Friday crowd. Speaking of the crowd, we worry in our area about the crowd being such an old one, and it is a legitimate concern. But you talk about old crowds, the crowd here in Texas looked like a ten year reunion from the "old folks" home!

The USMTS will next be in action the end of this month with the famed "King of America" at the famed "Hummer", Humboldt Speedway in Kansas.  

 

Terry Phillips Dominates USMTS Opener

 The United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) began a widely anticipated season on March 5th at the RPM Speedway in Texas near Crandall on Friday night. 

The USMTS has gone to a new business plan for the 2021 racing season as they have cut considerably the number of shows that they will be running this year but have increased their purses for the shows that they run by a large measure as well as increasing their year end point fund. Their thought was to cut down the number of shows, thus reducing travel expenses for the racers while at the same time making each show a much more profitable venture. All their races this year will pay five and ten thousand dollars to win and when you start to talk purses that rival what the best Late Model traveling series put on the line, you quickly gain the attention of the Modified stars, many of whom have nearly as much invested in their Modified programs as do the Late Models. 

There has been much talk all Winter about the new plan of the USMTS and many people excited to see what the 2021 racing season would bring for them. 

However, Mother Nature had much to say about the start of this season and this event nearly never happened. It was originally scheduled to take place one weekend earlier with the RPM Speedway hosting one night and Big O Speedway to host the other. Of course, one hundred year ice and snow storms saw the first attempt postponed by one week. The second attempt would see RPM scheduled for one night and Super Bowl Speedway to host the second night. However, remaining moisture from the recent snows made Super Bowl unusable so RPM took on the monstrous and financially challenging task of hosting both nights. With two shows each paying ten grand to win and with only a couple days of announcing that they would be running both shows, it was a bold move by RPM to do both nights. And that doesn't even take in to account the amount of work necessary to prepare their race track and grounds and make it manageable for racing to happen. 

The amount of time and work the folks at RPM put in to make this show happen was gigantic and they relied on helpful sources within their community to help them out with man power, heavy equipment and other help. They even had to cancel practice on Thursday so they would have more time to get the track and grounds ready. On race day they were still working frantically on the pit area especially and had to hold race cars out of the pits until early afternoon when they finally could get the first adventurers into the pits. They did get a couple of rigs stuck but nothing serious and the racers worked well together to make it happen. The staff and all the volunteers that helped them out deserve a huge thanks as well as the owners of the track who took on a considerable risk to even host this show. Fortunately, they were rewarded with the largest Friday night crowd that I have seen at this track. 

Everyone was interested to see just what USMTS's new program would draw in terms of race cars with lots of rumors about just who might follow the series this year. There were several new drivers who announced that they would be following the entire series and it would be interesting to see just who showed up. As it turned out, they had a very fine field of seventy one Modifieds on hand and while there were a few different drivers who raced, the vast majority of those on hand would be expected to be on hand anyway. The largest difference may be in how many drivers follow the series to all their races which would help bolster the car counts at some of those tracks where fields have been sketchy in the past. Some of those far flung tracks however, are no longer on the schedule due to the higher purses required to be paid and some places just not able to do that. 

The format for the USMTS has changed for 2021 also. No longer will they be drawing numbers and racing for passing points through the heats as they used to. Now they will be qualifying just like all the other traveling series. However, at least they won't be starting the heats straight up off qualifying but will instead invert the first four cars in each heat and then run passing points. I registered my disapproval with the change to USMTS head Todd Staley (duly noted), but he said they went to the change because he thought it would be the fairest way of doing the program but he did admit that some of the "big names" frankly didn't want to show up if they thought they might have to start in the back of a heat if they drew poorly. This is the same kind of pressure that has been placed on the Late Model sanctioning bodies over the years that has seen all those series go to qualifying. They never bother to poll the paying customers when they do this though. Four of the six Modified heats were won right off the front row, much like we saw in Florida.  However, this is a new year and we will see how this all plays out. Tyler Wolff would turn out to be quick qualifier at 16.282 seconds. 

Six big heats and three B Features would set the field for the feature race with fifty laps being the race distance for the main. Twenty six cars would start the main with the last two in the show being provisional starters from 2020 in Zach VanderBeek and Tanner Mullins. 

Veteran Terry Phillips would be the class of the field quickly grabbing the lead from Fito Gallardo and then leading the rest of the distance. The race was slowed five times in the first half of the contest but the final twenty nine laps of the event would go off nonstop. 

Phillips would build up a big lead while Gallardo, Tyler Davis and Joe Duvall would battle for second. On the move was Dereck Ramirez and Carlos Ahumada Jr as they came from the fourth and fifth rows respectively to move into contention. As the race wore on, Phillips started to get into lapped traffic and his lead was gradually shortened up. At first it looked like Ramirez would be the main challenger but then he seemed to lose his edge and Ahumada Jr became the big player. 

He sliced past both Ramirez and Davis to take over second and began to close on Phillips. However, Phillips, who may have been taking it careful in traffic, had built up too much of a lead and he crossed the finish line a corner ahead of Ahumada Jr, Davis, Ramirez and Jake O'Neal. Nineteen of the starters will still on the track at the finish and only three had been lapped. 

Defending USRA national champion Lucas Schott finished in the top ten but he was not driving his usual car on this weekend. His car had been sold and his new car was not yet completed so he drove one of Dustin Sorensen's cars as the fellow Minnesota racer has a pair of MB Customs, one of which he loaned out. Both Gallardo's showed much speed but neither finished and Fito hammered the third turn wall after battling for second early in the contest. 

It was a long night of racing as along with the Modifieds, Limited Modifieds, Eco Modifieds, Factory Stocks, Tuners and Dwarf cars also raced and with it being the first race of the year, there were lots of cars in all classes too. One hundred and eighty one cars signed in to race plus the Dwarfs so there were many races and B Features indeed. Winners included Larry Osborne of Bonham Tx in the Eco Mods, Reece Solander from Iola Ks in the Limited Mods, Walter Hamilton from Dallas in the Factory Stocks and Bondy Cannon from Mineral Wells in the Tuners plus the Dwarf winner which I missed. It was a very long night of racing with the final checkered waving well after Midnight. However, it was not a fault of poor management or execution but largely because there were just so many races to be run. Saturday night the little cars race elsewhere so there will be one less division in action. 

It should be noted that with all the extreme weather of the past couple of weeks, a rough race track was certainly a possibility but the track crew must have done a wonderful job as the track was not at all rough for most of the show with the last couple of support features bouncing a little but nothing of an extreme nature, which certainly could have been the case.

As I move into my seventh decade of chasing races, I managed to do something different for the first time this weekend. For the first time ever I rode with a racing team to as event and stayed for a couple of nights in the toter with the crew. It has been different and enlightening and gave me a chance to see what some of the teams expenses are that I perhaps would not have even considered for a "road trip." I type this in the toter with the drone of the generators filling the air here on pit road while the rest of the crew works on making their car faster for night two and I manage to keep my hands clean!