After a two week break in the action, one for bad weather and one week that was a planned break, the Stuart International Speedway was back in action on Wednesday night with another of their special races, this one being the Bill Davis Sr Memorial event in honor of the Hall of Fame driver. The night featured many contributions to the purse with all classes racing for extra money and lots of contingencies, all designed to make the night a very special one.
It was another cool and windy evening in May as the weather in recent weeks has not been particularly forgiving and while the skies and radar seemed to indicate rain was likely, only a few sprinkles ever fell and nothing to the point of endangering the running of the show. It was , however, not a particularly pleasant night to be outside at the races and I'm guessing the pay per view sales were once again strong.
My first question to Mike VanGenderen was about the mega event for Late Models to be held over the Fourth of July weekend in 2022 that highlighting the racing news for this week. While we didn't get into specifics, he did tell me that he is just providing the facility for the event and that Barry Braun is actually promoting the show. Big plans are under way to enlarge the seating capacity of Stuart, with plans currently taking shape for the enlargement of the catwalks in some form so that they will be behind the main grandstand and run the entire length of the front straightaway as well as adding some more bleachers in turn four. All these changes will take place as soon as the current racing season is over so that everything is in place to start 2022. It is a huge undertaking but it seems like Braun is more than up for it, having added Vegas, Bristol and Texas Speedways to his portfolio all just this year. The event should certainly attract many of the biggest racing teams in Late Model racing to central Iowa and continue to grow the reputation of the Stuart Speedway.
Tonight's event would offer extra money for all classes and the Bat Wings and Mod Lites were also racing on this night so the puts was overfull with the hillside parking pretty much taken up also. Eighty six cars would be on hand to race plus another seventeen or so between the two added divisions. And if all this weren't enough, there would also be two make up feature races left to be run from the last show at the track on April 14th when a hard wreck stopped the action during the Sport Compact feature and that one along with the Hobby Stocks were saved to be run on this night.
And the makeup races would be first out of the gate. On a heavier track than normal for feature event racing, Tyler Fiebelkorn would lead from start to finish to win the makeup Sport Compact feature after Owen Richards hammered the front stretch wall hard and ended his evening of racing almost before it began. Curtis Masterson and Kolby Sabin would trail.
The Hobby Stocks would one up the Sport Compacts as their makeup feature would spin off nonstop and after a good battle, it was Matt McAtee who would find victory lane with Tom Killen Jr and Brandon Cox next in line.
Then after the two makeup feature races, it would be qualifying for all seven divisions before the feature races for all would be held. The track was a bit different on Wednesday than it has been so far this season. It was heavier to begin the evening with quite a cushion that clearly made the top side the place to be. However, that changed very quickly and dramatically as the features started with the Sport Mods, first to run, all quickly migrating to the low side of the track. It got even more pronounced during the Modified feature which was next in line with the cars trying the outside going straight backward and everyone lining up in the low groove.
MVG saw the same thing that I did and he quickly moved to "rip" the track at this point and then give it a shot of water. This moved the Stock Cars back to the top side but not as dominant as it was previously before the last two classes mostly moved back to the bottom so the drivers had to really pay attention to the track as it changed a lot over the course of the evening.
Sport Mods ran their feature first and a dominating performance by Cam Reimers on this draw, redraw night saw him start on the pole and lead all the way for the win. Johnathan Logue, from row three, and Brayton Carter, from row five, gradually worked their way toward the front but both ran out of time to catch the fleet running Reimers for the win.
Nick Roberts would put on a show in the Modified feature as he would start on the pole and run away from the field, building up nearly a full straightaway over the field except for Happy Gilman who was challenging quite strongly after he moved up from the third row. This race saw a locked down track as those few the tried the outside, namely Todd Shute, eventually gave up and in Shute's case, pulled off the track. However, Gilman was close enough to provide the only challenge but Roberts used late lapped traffic to gain an edge. This lapped traffic also proved to be Gilman's downfall as the got tangled up with the slower car, spun into the infield on the final lap and lost virtually everything he had gained during the race. Scott Bash would finish second is his best run of the year and Kyle Brown in third.
The ripped and watered track would change things up for the Stock Cars but the redraw took the air out of the balloon for us in the stands as the Murty's would start side by side in the front row and that would make it tough on everyone else. And indeed, that is the way it would play out in a race that had a surprising number of yellow flags, all for minor spins. Dallon grabbed the lead right from the start and the only drama would be to see if he could out accelerate Dad on the restarts and maintain the top spot. The answer would be to the affirmative as he led from start to finish and wasn't seriously challenged. Damon would finish second with Todd Van Eaton racing up from the fourth row to finish third. I don't know if he has been running one for some time or not, but tonight was the first time I had seen Logue racing a Stock Car and he did mange to grab a top five finish.
Even though only a dozen Sport Compacts were left for their main event, their actions led to a rare decision by track management early on in their main event. After starting off sluggish with two yellow flags in two laps, one of which saw Mitchell Bunch either hit a ute tire or be forced into one but either way he went for a vicious flip through the infield, fortunately without injury which led to promoter MVG issuing a "time out" for the class. They were all sent to the pits to settle down, and the Hobby Stocks were then brought to the track for their feature with the Sport Compacts to return when they promised to behave better. I know that I have seen this tactic used before somewhere but for the life of me, I just can't remember where.
So, instantly it became Hobby Stock main time instead and while their main did run off nonstop, to say that it was totally clean and devoid of aggressive driving would not be exactly the truth. Many of the same players were involved in the second main as they were in the first with Killen, Cox and McAtee all battling for the lead along with Seth Butler, Riley Christensen and Eric Stanton. They were slicing and dicing with the front runners changing places nearly every lap. Cox made a move for the lead but contact gave him a flat tire and ended his night and two more of the challengers locked up and lost many places in the running order. Killen Jr found the front of the pack and was able to get away from the madness behind him and go on for the win with Stanton and Christensen next in line. Only two cars failed to finish but the shuffling through the pack was entertaining and a bit on the wild side.
The "bad boy" Sport Compacts then returned from their penance to finish up the last twelve laps of their main event. Kolby Sabin made some nice moves as he found some holes and drove up from ninth to claim the win with Craig Furstenau second and Brandon Hartmann third. Not all the drivers were yet willing to play nice as Furstenau had to be restored to his spot during the race when aggressive driving saw him taken out and another driver sent to the pits for "questionable driving" as announcer Tony Paris referred to it.
Remarkably, even with seven divisions in action, two extra feature races, one break for track prep and post race interviews with all winners, the last checkered flag still flew only shortly after 10 pm as they always manage to provide a lot of racing in a short period of time here at Stuart. Thanks to MVG, Tony P, the rest of the staff and "Crazy Martin" for the windbreak which was much appreciated on this night.
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