It was championship night on Wednesday night, September 1st at the 300 Raceway very near Farley Iowa. On the eve of their historic and famous Yankee Dirt Track Classic, the folks at 300 had reset championship night to this night after having had their planned regular season opener a couple of weeks ago weathered out.
Point titles would be decided in all four classes that race on a regular basis at 300 and that would be the IMCA sanctioned Sport Mods and Mods, Stock Cars and the Late Models. All four point races were close with only the Modifieds showing a double digit lead going into the finale. However, that statistic is slightly skewed due to the smaller car counts that generally race here which makes it tougher for one driver to separate himself enough from another competitor to gain a significant number of points.
Again on this night, as it has been the two other times I have been here this year for Wednesday night racing, the field of race cars was quite small with only two small heats in each class except for the Stock Cars who could only muster a single heat.
However, I could think right off hand of a couple of reasons why the count might be smaller for this event. Number one, it is a rain dated event and often there are just some drivers that have conflicts for rescheduled races. Also, and perhaps more telling, with the Yankee coming up this weekend and all four classes that are racing on Wednesday a part of that event, unless you are right in the midst of a point fight, many would opt to save their equipment for the weekend when the stakes are much higher that they were on Wednesday.
A reoccurring theme that I heard in the pits on this night and hadn't considered before was that some drivers are staying away from this track because it is too high speed and they never lift which puts a strain on the motors and in order to save their equipment, they aren't racing here. I guess I can't speak to that other than to say that it indeed is a fast track for its size and they really do fly around it and on the other two times I have been here it has been rather heavy and "hammer down" but I guess you would have to poll the drivers to get a feeling whether that sentiment trends strongly or not.
Seven qualifying heats would set the running order for the four main events to follow and to the credit of management, they took just a very short break before moving into the main events after the heats were completed. Some would fell compelled to stretch things out a bit to make up for the lack of races but the 300 staff moved quickly into their features.
With Kevin Miller scratching from the pole after slamming the wall in his heat race and Ron Klein never finding the track after reported truck trouble on the highway, only eight cars would take the green for the main in the Late Models but their feature would be the most entertaining and closely fought of all four.
Bryan Moreland would be the early leader but he had Eric Pollard all over him trying to get by and take over the lead. Behind them, Matt Ryan and Justin Kay were moving into third and fourth and closed to make it a four car race. Pollard would attempt lap after lap to get by Moreland on the inside but he just couldn't quite get it done with Moreland leading past the halfway point.
Then Pollard tried the outside and that helped him pick up speed. He was just ready to pass Moreland down the front chute on lap fourteen when his motor went up in a cloud of smoke and steam. This provided the only yellow of the race and on the green, Ryan would drive past Moreland and take over the lead.
Kay would quickly follow and it became a two car race with Kay looking lap after lap to the inside of Ryan who appeared to be struggling just a bit as the low side of the track began to dry out and blacken up. Kay nearly got by with five to go but Ryan fought him off.
Kay then backed up a bit and made one more late run, getting close as the white flag waved. He stuck his nose under Ryan in turn three as they approached a lapped car and Kay was able to squeeze past coming off turn four in what was a tight but clean move. At the line, Kay won by just under a car length in what was a thrilling finish to the evening. However, because Ryan finished only one position behind Kay, Ryan would take the point title by the narrow margin of two points.
Jeff Aikey would just into Joel Callahan's car for the feature race, start in the back and come home third. This is interesting because in my area, drivers are not allowed to be switched once the racing is started but apparently it is perfectly fine in IMCA as Aikey was left without a car after motor problems with his Modified in the heat race.
Earlier, Tom Schmitt won a tight battle with Johnny Spaw to take the Stock Car feature. They went three wide for the lead on the opening lap with Chase Zaruba getting the lead but the three wide battle saw him get turned sideways and by lap two, Schmitt had moved into the lead.
Spaw was on the move as he squeezed into second with Zaruba catching a piece of the wall and eventually dropping out. The battle was then on between Schmitt and Spaw and the last half of the race saw Spaw try a multitude of moves to get past Schmitt but Tom hung tough on each one and continued to hold a very small lead.
Spaw would try one last time on the final lap but Schmitt held his ground and Spaw, to his credit, raced him clean and did not try a nasty slider or try to move him up the track and Schmitt would cross the line for the win with Phil Holtz third. Spaw would be point champion by nine points.
The Sport Mod feature was another two car battle that boiled down to a battle between Justin Becker and "King Kong" Bauer. Becker had a great opening lap as he moved to the tall side of the track and swept from the outside of row two into the lead before one lap could be completed. Bauer had to come from the fourth row but would eventually move to second in the nonstop main and then zero in on Becker.
Justin was running the higher side of the track and Bauer would have to drive under him for the lead and it took him several laps as he gained inch after inch with each lap completed as he worked to Becker's inside and gradually would move under him, finally clearing him on lap ten for the lead.
Becker tried to move even higher on the track to get a run on Bauer and it almost worked as he caught back up but it was too tricky up there and Bauer was just a bit too strong as he would drive on for the win and also take the track title by thirteen points. Becker would settle for second with Jason Roth third.
With Aikey out after heat race problems, there would be twelve to start the Modified feature race and Tyler Madigan would lead the first twelve laps of this event. He started on the pole and set a fast pace with Eric Pollard staying with him and setting up a very interesting battle as they raced side by side for a number of laps. Pollard tried his best to get by but Madigan was just quick enough to hold him off.
Meanwhile, on the move from farther back in the pack were Timmy Current and Bone Larson . Current was really flying and on lap ten he was able to drive under Madigan and take over the lead. Just after that, the only yellow of the race would fly from Doug Haack when Jamie Pfeiffer slowed on the track.
The last seven laps saw a shootout with Larson trying his best to get under Current but Timmy was too strong and would drive home for the win with Larson a close second. Bone would also earn the point title by thirteen with Mark Schulte coming home third in the feature.
Of course it would have been better to have a few more cars on hand and make the feature races just a bit bigger. However, all four feature races were good, close contests with passes for the win coming late in most and they were entertaining and not plagued by a bunch of yellow flags. Management did a good job of moving things along and the final checkered waved just around 9 pm with quite frankly, is not a bad thing on a week night with a long holiday weekend ahead.
I enjoyed the show and the crowd seemed satisfied in the racing that they saw. No doubt both the crowd and the car count will be substantially bigger for this weekend's Yankee events at this long standing racing tradition.
Thanks to the folks at 300 for allowing me to be on hand on this beautiful Wednesday night.
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