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?
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