Another Midwestern race track has now opened for the 2021 racing season as Wednesday night, May 12th, the 300 Raceway located at exit 300 off highway 20 in Farley Iowa opened their gates for the 2021 racing season. They had made one previous attempt to start their season, only to have it canceled by cold and crummy conditions but it was a beautiful Spring evening this Wednesday and they opened up the season with their four class program.
In 2021, 300 Raceway will run a limited number of Wednesday night "Wide Open Wednesday" programs along with a few other special events and wrap up their season with the traditional Yankee Dirt Track Classic. They will run IMCA sanctioned Late Models, Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods as their four class Wednesday night staple
I always get a kick out of a few folks comments when an event is announced for 300 as there will always be some stray voice in the wilderness still longing for the old half mile, at least for special events. But I am here to tell you that the new three eighth mile track has got the old track bit in all regards and provides much better racing for all divisions. Memories of that era are still fine to hold on to, but the reality is that this current track is far superior in all regards and the old three-four corner is much better served as a part of the new pit area.
The whole facility was looking in immaculate condition for opening night. It seemed that everything on the grounds had been either painted, polished or trimmed with everything looking spotless. as this is certainly one of the finest facilities around now. When I was last here they were just in the process of moving the scale and now that resides in the pits off turn four and the old tower is also just a memory with track officials all up behind the spectators now. There is absolutely not a bad seat in the house with even those folks that don't want to hike up the steep bleachers finding great seats in the front row of the grandstand with an unimpeded view of the track with nothing in the infield to block them.
As I was walking into the pits, it was my pleasure that the first person I ran into was IMCA's Kevin Yoder, one of IMCA's best people and someone I always enjoy talking to. He announced that this was his first race of the year with other planned visits earlier this year weathered out. He has not broken out the figure 8 car yet but will come Fair season with his main focus right now being his kids and their sports' competitions. As life moves on, priorities change and while he misses running the Deery Brothers Series, he has other things on his plate these days. He would later present the bonus bucks for the night from Sunoco to Late Model winner Matt Ryan.
There were other familiar faces on board too Wednesday as Doug Haack was waving the sticks in the flag stand and running the show off in a quick and professional manner, just like always while "Big Boy" was calling the action from the tower and wearing himself out making the run back and forth from way up above us all down to the field level to do the winner's interviews. As was done last year, the feature winners pull up in front of the crowd in the level between the track and the grandstands but it is quite a hike down there so "Big Boy" was using a golf cart to speed things up and allow him to have enough wind to actually do an interview. I noticed that as he raced back up above to announce the starting lineup for the next main that he was "sucking wind" just a little and who could blame him?
A couple of notes from the pits previous to the show was that this would be my first night of seeing Late Model hotshot Justin Kay behind the wheel of a Stock Car as just about all the top Modified and Late Model drivers now have Stock Car rides too. The reason? All the big money Stock Car shows that have blown up over the last couple of years and a desire of drivers in other divisions to get a piece of the big money being doled out in these races, the first of which I believed comes up Memorial Day weekend at Stuart.
When I saw that Kay was on the pole for the Stock Car feature I figured it was game over but that proved not to be the case at all as a tight race car left him with some more work to be done on that machine.
Brandon Schmitt was a late arrival, pulling down from Beaver Dam Wisconsin. He seems to have been everywhere in the Hawkeye State that I have been so far this year plus a bunch of other events too as he is spending as much time here as in the Badger state. Those are not simple, easy pulls for him and he is apparently "all in" as he goes for national points this year.
The track was "bad fast" on Wednesday with not a whisper of dust to be found as the cars in all classes were really flying around the track at high speed. The track eventually developed a bit of a chop through the middle lane but it was certainly sit raceable and with drivers running the top and bottom lanes also, there was plenty of racing room.
While some would probably like to see more than four classes racing, truly for a Wednesday program, one that to be successful must be run off quickly and allow the fans an early start home, four classes is just about right. While the Sport Mods could have used a few more entries, the numbers in the other classes were just about right and the Modified field of twenty two was excellent including local drivers plus some from the Quad Cities.
Qualifying consisted of two heats for all classes plus one additional for the Modifieds with preliminary races going off very smoothly. In fact, there was only a single yellow flag in all the heat races although that one was a costly one. Jeff Aikey appeared to roll the nose of his Late Model under the front end leaving corner four and lost steering with Bryan Moreland and Ryan Hill slamming into each other trying to avoid him. Off the three, only Hill would be able to race the feature event. All qualifying was completed in forty nine minutes! The feature races did take a little longer as there was a few more yellows in the mains but all racing was completed before 10 pm.
The draw/redraw procedure was more favorable to us as fans on this night as the eventual feature winners would come from the second row once, the third row twice and the fourth row once as there would be no wire to wire winners on Wednesday.
Johnny Spaw was impressive in the Stock Car feature as he come from the third row, making a couple of strong passes to get up front and then stepping away from the field in the nonstop Stock Car main to get the win. Kay started on the pole but it was Kyle Merkes that led the first five laps before Spaw got past him and then pulled away. Chase Zaruba ran a solid third. If I was to conjure up a criticism of anything, it would be that I thought the Stock Car feature was just a bit short at twelve laps and would have liked to see them race just a bit longer for their main.
Another driver who has been strong so far this season and would be so again on Wednesday was Jeff "Bone" Larson who came from the second row to win the Modified feature. Tyler Madigan would lead the first seven laps of the main with Larson passing him once, only to see Madigan saved by the yellow flag. However, it was just a matter of time as one lap later, Larson would get to the bottom on Madigan and would drive by and then drive off for the win. Troy Cordes, also running good this year, would race up to second with Aikey third. Madigan would eventually break and be among the non finishers.
The Sport Mod field was a short on this night but their main would still see three different leaders during the fifteen laps of racing. T.J. Fortmann would be the early leader but by lap four Tyler Soppe would come barreling up from the fourth row to take over the top spot. However, he was soon challenged by Troy Bauer for the lead after Bauer started beside Soppe in the lineup. At the halfway point of the contest Bauer would make a strong run down the front chute and pass Soppe for the lead and while Tyler tried to fight back, Bauer was just too strong on this night with California driver Kaylin Lopez third. The wall was a big winner in this race as Fortmann, Shaine Bennett and Jared Miles all made hard contract with the concrete and have set themselves up for a couple of busy nights as they put their cars back together for the weekend.
The twenty five lap Late Model feature wrapped up the night and it was Joel Callahan squeezing off Logan Duffy to get the early lead. However, Ryan, who was doing double duty on this night also racing a Modified, came charging up from the third row and dove under Callahan to get the lead. Justin Kay was also moving up and he and Duffy had a great duel for third that lasted many laps, with Duffy thwarting all challenges from Kay.
A late yellow set up a four lap sprint to the finish and while Ryan again pulled away, Duffy was able to get past Callahan for second with Kay and Chuck Hanna completing the top five as Ryan led the last twenty laps of the race.
It was a good night of racing with some nice battles, a quickly run program and a top notch facility with the small ripples in the track soon to disappear by the next show, which by the way is a huge one as the Lucas Oil Late Model Series with their national driving stars will be at the track next Friday in a program that Late Model fans won't want to miss. Thanks to Joe Demmer and the rest of the crew at 300 Raceway for their help.
No comments:
Post a Comment