Playing weather roulette, I ended up on Wednesday night, July 14th at the Casino Speedway in Watertown South Dakota. This was actually my original plan anyway, but as I traveled West and the radar seemed to confirm that it was more and more likely that I would need to turn around and head home when the official word was given, it was like I had been given new life when word came on the track's face book page that they were fully ready to go and that the weather had cleared. In talking to promoter Todd Good as I was on the way, he indicated that at that time they were still planning on racing but that they still had to sit through "some stuff" before they would know for sure whether they could race or not. It seems that "stuff" was much more on radar than in reality as no more than a few sprinkles fell at the track and they would have to water just as normal. I would later find out that in eastern parts of town and actually no more than a couple miles as the crow would fly from the track, they had downpours but no more than sprinkles at the track. Well good, it looks like they will race after all.
On hand on Wednesday was the "Summersota" featuring the USMTS Modifieds racing a full program for five thousand dollars to the winner along with full shows for WISSOTA sanctioned Street Stocks and Midwest Modifieds.
This would be USMTS's first mid week race of the year and they booked this event as the tour heads for central Minnesota this coming weekend for a pair of big races paying five and ten grand apiece.
A powerhouse field was assembled for this race with forty five drivers signing in to race. The USMTS new formula that sees them racing much less often, mostly for weekend shows and for substantially increased amounts of money so far seems to be a winner although it is probably still too early in the game to make a definitive decision. The top fourteen in current points and eighteen of the top twenty were on hand for this race as clearly, so far, more drivers are following the entire tour. That was a sticking point that reached a head last year when a USMTS booked race would guarantee for sure no more that five or six drivers because the length of the tour had simply wore too many out either physically or in the pocket book. Thus the new plan put together during the off season by Todd Staley.
Once again I sound the bragging horn for the drivers too in my region of the country as one of these races still doesn't become a big success unless some local talent adds to the show and helps to fill the pits and the WISSOTA drivers from my region do that as good as anyone. Just like the Late Model show last night in Superior, the Modified drivers from this region added between fifteen and twenty more cars to the field and for local fans it gave them someone they knew to cheer for. And once again they more than held their own with two or three(depending on your definition of who is a traveler) finishing among the top five and local star Scott Ward among them finishing a strong third.
An interesting and unexpected addition to the field on this night was Iowa driver Kyle Brown. Brown, a stalwart of racing in that state and certainly prominent for both his racing and car building, was at a race up in North Dakota and ran into a dispute about a technical issue with his motor. He was apparently disqualified and issued a very hefty fine. I will not go into any more details as they are all unsubstantiated but he clearly left that tour and instead would up with the USMTS racing here in South Dakota. With the mud still on his car from his previous race and likely no changes to the car except tires perhaps and a bigger spoiler, he failed to make the field on Wednesday but further ramifications on this story are likely to yet be told.
USMTS still is doing time trial qualifications that they started this year and while I am never a fan of time trials, they have refined the process so that it goes smoother and doesn't take as much time. However, they put a full heat race worth of cars on the track at the same time to qualify and nine cars on this quarter mile bull ring here at Casino generally means that someone is going to get messed up by being too close to a slower car or one having troubles going the right way around the track. With a four car invert, I imagine that some of the drivers are now starting to get pretty good at "dogging" just enough that they make sure they start in the front row but not so slow that they get pushed back to row three. It is a tricky artform but there is always someone that masters the skill.
Five really intense heat races and a pair of B Features would set the starting field for the main event with series, track and emergency provisional starters making a field of twenty five for forty laps. Jayson Good, son of the track owner, was the track provisional while Brooks Strength, the quickest qualifier overall needed an emergency when he failed to qualify through either a heat or B Feature. And one of my WISSOTA buddies, Dan Ebert, would be the early leaded after starting on the outside pole and fighting off Tyler Davis.
Ebert would lead up through the first and only yellow of the race would occur on lap thirteen. O'Neill was definitely coming at this point and Ebert was torn where to run on the track and he opted to come off the top and run the lower line. And on this case , it was not the right choice as O"Neill went steaming by him and took over the lead. O'Neill would lead the rest of the race and would never be seriously challenged although Ebert was able to close some when O'Neill got into lapped traffic.
To his credit, Jake was able to get past the slower cars and then get back up to the cushion where he then again pulled away from Ebert. Two WISSOTA regulars in Scott Ward and Dustin Strand would battle for most of the race for third and that was very entertaining for the crowd. Ward just started driving a Modified just a few weeks ago after having concentrated on his Late Model and also one for his daughter Morgan, for the last few years. He is simply a hired gun for the Modified but he drove the cushion well and finished a strong third. Unfortunately, Strand was disqualified after the race, reportedly for simply not scaling and Dustin Sorensein, who started thirteenth, got fourth with Davis fifth.
Interestingly, the race had only that single yellow flag when Tanner Mullins slowed with a flat tire and all twenty five starters will still on the track after forty laps. O'Neill is on a roll and took over second in series points with the win, pole vaulting past Rodney Sanders into that spot.
With Sixteen and twenty three cars respectively, either the Street Stocks or Midwest Modifieds needed a B Feature. The Street Stock feature saw the top two in current WISSOTA national points in the class battle it out for the win. Parker Anderson, a northern Wisconsin driver who has been spending much time in Minnesota and the Dakotas racing, is leading the national points with just under thirty feature race wins already this year while "the Badger", Justin Vogel from Brooten Minnesota, has been trying to catch him.
On this night the win would go to Vogel who got to the front first and while Anderson quickly charged up from tenth to second, he simply had nothing for Vogel on this night. The last thirteen laps went off nonstop and with an open track, Anderson had his chance but he couldn't catch Vogel on this night. Only one car failed to finish the event.
Mike Nichols dominated the Midwest Modified feature leading from start to finish. He had the lead on lap one after starting fourth and with only one yellow early in the contest, he had much lapped traffic to deal with but that caused him no troubles and he had a substantial lead over Derek Rieck when the checkered flag flew. Rieck was surrounded by ten cents worth of drivers as he had Mike Nichols in front of him and younger brother Tommy Nichols chasing him at the finish. Only one yellow in this race and only one starter that didn't which made for a rather crowded race track throughout this contest. For those that don't know, Casino Speedway is a quarter mile high banked track that would qualify for "bullring status" event in a state like Illinois. Racing is close and intense here and the black dirt flies just like in Macon. And the fans here are especially passionate about the sport.
The crowd was a very big one for this night of racing, one of the highlights on the Casino Speedway schedule. And I hope that promoters note the success of this event while running on a week night as so many have gone to having their special events as weekend shows which just makes it hard to get the kind of car county noting a special event when so many other tracks are running at the same time. I've often said that a good promoter could fill his bleachers on any day of the week but they need to work at it and not just expect to open the gates and have the spectators stampede to their seats.
Thanks to to Todd Good and his staff and all the USMTS officials and their staff.
No comments:
Post a Comment