The Dirt Kings Late Model tour would make their last western Wisconsin visit of 2021 with a Friday night trip to Bob Timm's Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin for the Rumble by the River 40, with an enhanced purse including $5,000 to the winner on Hurco night at the speedway. Along with the Late Models, USRA sanctioned Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and B Mods would all be racing on another Wisconsin "cooker" of a night. Everyone, including track officials, were keeping an eye peeled toward the western horizon on this night, as predicted storms for late in the evening would keep everyone moving at top speed and monitoring the situation on phone radar.
The Dirt Kings Late Model tour is the only all Wisconsin based traveling Late Model series in the Badger state and while the majority of their races are held on the eastern side of the state, occasionally they do get to the western side of the state and this would be one of those fairly rare visits to the left coast of Wisconsin.
The Dirt Kings are a loyal group to their series, recognizing the this tour is one of the very few things going that keeps Late Model racing operational in eastern Wisconsin since only two tracks run Late Models in eastern Wisconsin on a weekly basis and of course, both race on Saturday nights! If not for the Dirt Kings, which visit a lot of eastern Wisconsin tracks that would otherwise not have a single Late Model show, their offerings would be far and few between. This is one of the biggest reasons why they get such strong support, even though many of their races are not for what you would call top dollars with this being one of their bigger races of the year. On this night, nine of the top ten in points and fifteen of the top twenty would be in attendance, even though for many the trip would be four or more hours to this western Wisconsin track. Helping to supplement the races on this side of the state are the WISSOTA regulars from the area and a few drivers that run open motors. Of course, Red Cedar in Menomonie was running on this night only an hour away so that helped to split the WISSOTA cars but there was still a solid field of twenty five Late Models in attendance with it not being totally surprising that Rodney Sanders was also on hand with both his Late Model and Modified.
My only problem with this series, which mixes open motors, spec motors and crate motors, is that only on the half mile tracks do they require a restrictor on the open motors so on a very fast , high banked third mile like MTS, the spec engine cars, which they need to make things fly especially on this side of the state, go into battle giving up one hundred or more horsepower to the open motor cars with their also being a surprisingly high number of eastern Wisconsin cars that also are running a spec engine too, partly a throwback to the days when eastern Wisconsin tracks were also WISSOTA sanctioned and partly due to the cost factor. However, due to the high quality of the spec engine cars in this area and a group of top notch drivers, they still manage to be very competitive, thank you, and later on this night, we would see that take place when a spec engine car would win the five grand top prize. One thing that the Dirt Kings do that gives everyone a better chance is not run time trials but instead draw for starting positions and then use passing points to line up the main events. This is so much better in my mind, allows the track to start their show right on time and also doesn't wear out the fast groove with all those pointless laps on the same part of the track in this heat that kills the surface and makes the heat races most often very boring. Instead we saw four heats where Gunner Frank, Troy Springborn and Jimmy Mars, among others, made some real progress passing cars and thus improving their starting position for the main event.
With their major improvements this Spring including the addition of several thousand high rise bleachers behind the old slabs where most people sat in lawn chairs, MTS has really upped their game and certainly would be in the conversation as one of top tracks in the Midwest for sure. And they continue to improve things with more plans for 2022 that include tiered parking for spectators, a new campground adjacent to the track and enlarging the pit area. They have also really upped their marketing and even the hot laps had a sponsor on this night!
Twenty four of the twenty five Late Models would start the forty lap main event which would turn out to be a very entertaining race. While the statistics will show that Chad Mahder led all forty laps, it was not near as easy as that sounds and would not factor in the great battles for positions that we saw, the wild negotiating through lapped traffic and the nasty slide jobs that eliminated a couple cars and certainly have opened the door for some follow up, repayments planned for the future.
Mahder would take the lead from the outside pole and running right up against the wall, set a blistering pace. Dustin Sorensen would move into second and strong early runs were also shown by Gunner Frank, Taylor Schleffler and James Giossi. Lapped traffic would become a factor early and the leaders were challenged to get through the traffic smoothly but quickly. Sorensen was pushing Mahder hard for the lead and made a couple of attempts to get past but was repelled.
Suddenly the character of the race changed when Sorensen slowed when his motor went up in a cloud of smoke and triggered the yellow on lap twenty eight, which would be the only yellow of the whole race.
The restart was frantic with everyone of the opinion that they must get to the top of the track quickly with Scheffler throwing a wicked slider on Frank which saw them tangle and Scheffler get a flat tire and be done. With their being a huge clot of drivers racing together during this scramble , a couple found great openings to advance. Mars went from sixth to second on the restart and Nick Anvelink went from seventh to third.
Meanwhile, the war continued among a few of the drivers. Jake Timm was throwing nasty sliders like there was no tomorrow as first he tangled with Frank which would eventually cause Frank to slow and pull off after he had put on perhaps the finest drive I had ever seen him accomplish and then Timm would throw another slider at A.J. Diemel, ugly to the point that Diemel would try to retaliate and mess up the front end on his own car. And all this was going on while the green stayed out, which made it even wilder.
Meanwhile, up front Mahder continued to lead but Mars was sizing him up. He tried to get under Chad several times but Mahder used the high side to keep his momentum up. On the final lap, the two leaders came upon a lapped car that was meandering down the back chute and Mahder had to do a wild slide low in turn three, but he was able to keep his momentum up and Mars' run off the high side came up short with Chad driving on for the win while Anvelink settled for third.
Mahder, who was drivingt he tribute car to his late father Duane, which they debuted last week at the Mahder 55 at Red Cedar Speedway, plans to run that look on the car the rest of the year according to Chad's brother Shawn who I spoke to before the races. Chad, who jumps back and forth between open and spec engines, was running his spec engine on this night as he prepares for the many specials which come after Labor Day in our region. Mars, who also jumps back and forth between motor types along with Anvelink, was uncertain to me on this night which kind they had.
The Late Model feature was run second on this night, both likely to help the track and also just in case the weather soured. But before and after, three more feature races were held by the weekly classes.
A full field of twenty cars would start the Hobby Stock feature with Gavin Bartel coming off the outside pole to take the early lead. He would be chased by Scott Spilde with fellow Iowa drivers Steve Larson and point leader Austin Hoeft also on the move.
Larson would continue his charge as he got by Spilde for second and then, following a lap eight yellow, drive under Bartel to take the lead. In the last few laps he would pull away and would win comfortably over the field. In the last corner of the race, Bartel got used up by Spilde who would go on to finish second while Bartel would manage to salvage third.
The B Mods would be dominated by another Iowa driver as a strong contingent of USRA drivers from Northeast Iowa quite often do well at MTS. In this case, it was the hard charging Jim Chisholm winning another main event. Chisholm, who was racing with a $200 bounty on his head, would start ninth in the main event that would see four different leaders before the checkered flag would wave.
Nate Butterfield would lead lap one, only to be passed two laps later by Taylor Skouge. Skouge would hold the top spot for five more laps before Shawn Walski would drive past him and take over the top spot.
The first yellow would wave on lap twelve and by that time, Chisholm was up to second as he showed great speed up on the cushion. On the green, Walski failed to cover the top side of the track and Chisholm blew right past him to take over the lead and once in front, he was gone. He built up a nice lead in the remaining laps and would cruise home for the win. So, while no one would collect the bounty, in a fair manner since he had won, collections from businesses and individuals saw his winnings raised by $300. It was his sixth straight win at MTS and the twenty fourth of his season to date.
The character of the Modified feature was changed early when Lucas Schott blew a motor while leading his heat race and he was on his way home before the Modified feature took the green. Cory Crapser would be the early leader from the pole with Josh Angst, Rodney Sanders and Timm chasing him. Crapser would lead the first seven laps before he started to push in the corners and before he knew what had hit him, he was back to fourth. Soon he would stop with a flat tire with nine laps complete which would be the only yellow of the race.
Angst would continue as the leader as he hammered the cushion with Sanders trying to get under him by running down a lane on the track. Initially it didn't work and Angst opened up some space but gradually as the race continued, Sanders would start to close the gap. In the last five laps he would get close and the last lap was very close. Sanders would drive hard up beside Angst on the last turn and get inside him but unlike some of the driving seen earlier in the evening, Sanders, being the professional that he is, would leave Angst one lane on the top of the track and that was just enough for Josh to maintain his momentum and come home the winner by a car length. Dustin Sorensen would make a nice run up to third ahead of Timm.
Even with the extra distance Late Model race, all action was done before 10:30 pm to beat the rain in what I thought was one of the better programs I had seen at MTS. Personally, it makes such a difference to me with their new grandstands as for me, sitting in the lawn chairs right beside the track was far too close and much too dirty for me and things are far more pleasurable at this track now in my opinion. They also have far more seating now and I suspect, while things have been pretty quick so far in terms of what the plans are for 2022, with their two day World of Outlaws Late Model show a success, I would look for more big things for next year.
Thanks to Bob Timm and all the folks at MTS for a good night of racing.
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