Kaplan and Hotze Highlight Winners at Walrod Stuart Special

 Wednesday night, July 27th, the Stuart International Speedway was back in action for their Wednesday night show and while it may have been their regular Wednesday night date, not many races at Stuart anymore are "regular race nights" any more as it seems that virtually every race is some kind of special with extra bucks on the line for the drivers and lots of things going on for the race fans too. 

This night the feature attraction would be the eleventh annual Clint Walrod Memorial race, highlighting suicide awareness and championed by Clint's father, the esteemed Reverend Wambat. Over ten thousand dollars was added to the weekly purse with that money being spread out over the field with many drivers benefitting on this night. Many fantastic supporters of this race helped out to make it a special night as all six classes that normally race here would benefit. For this event, Mike Van Genderen used what has been a popular trend this year, first started by his buddy Trent Chinn at Spencer, and that is to pay all the classes the same amount of money which has been a huge hit among the so called, support classes. Spencer made it work great and more and more tracks are going to that same format. Here it was a grand to win in all classes, minus the Trucks with extra money then being contributed. 

On this night there would be a large number of cars on hand and lots of racing as along with the five IMCA classes that regularly race here, the Karl Chevrolet Trucks would also be on hand along with the Outlaw Mini "spinout" Mods. Just shy of one hundred and thirty drivers signed in to race on Wednesday on what was another warm and sultry July night in central Iowa. A busy night would see twenty five races run off in just over three hours as everyone was in high gear on this night. 

In my opinion the Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks presented the strongest fields of cars but there were good entries in all classes. Drivers here are expected to "toe the line" and that means that if you spin or get in some kind of entanglement, you better move or you'll be in the pits, pronto. And that leads to some smooth running qualifying events, even though an occasional driver might get the short end of the stick, depending on the circumstances. Just two yellow flags flew during the heat races and what that meant was that even though Mike VanGenderen took a little time for track prep, we were already feature racing at a time when many tracks would still be trying to get their heats done. 

On this night, I thought the Stock Car feature stood out as the best race of the night. All twenty five that signed in to race started the main event and it was like rush hour on the freeway, the traffic was so heavy. Austin Kaplan took the early lead and despite heavy pressure from Austin Meiners, Buck Schafroth, Brandon Pruitt, Tom Berry Jr and Damon Murty, he continued to hold the top spot. 

Berry Jr would make the strongest move as he worked his way into second and tried to get under Kaplan for many a lap without success. Finally, following a lap sixteen yellow, Berry Jr would get up some momentum and slide under Kaplan to take over the lead as the pack was racing to receive the white flag.  Things got very wild then as Kaplan refused to yield, fighting his way back up to a challenging position as he slid Berry Jr in turn one and retook the lead, with Berry Jr fighting his way off the dirt berm down the back chute. Tom still had the chance to throw one more slider as they raced into the final corner. Berry Jr could have thrown a dirty one if he chose and run Kaplan right out of the groove but he played it clean, which Kaplan acknowledged in his victory lane speech and pulled up short, allowing Kaplan to have his outside line. This likely cost him the race though, as Kaplan was able to power down the final chute and win by less than a car length in another Stock Car thriller. Schafroth would finish third and Murty, after hammering the turn one wall in his race to the front, would slump back to fourth at the finish. 

My advise to promoter MVG for 2023. Drop a couple of his classes that don't produce the amount of cars that they should, pay the Stock Cars a grand every week with  a solid payback for the other positions so that he had twenty five or thirty a week, run a couple of other classes with the Stock Cars and he'd have a hell of a show every week. The Stock Cars here just can't be beat!

Another big moment on this night was seeing Sport Compact driver Michael Hotze win his first ever feature race. And he picked a good night to do so, as the grand he won must have been like winning the lottery, compared to his previous winnings racing. He started on the pole, got off to a nice lead and took advantage of the fact that the race ran off nonstop. 

His early lead was just enough to allow him to hold off a fast closing Kolby Sabin, once Sabin rid himself of traffic and moved into second. Tyler Fiebelkorn would finish third as Hotze almost seemed stunned in his interview that he had actually won. 

Whitewalls and all, Dylan Nelson would win a competitive Hobby Stock feature race. With twenty three starters, this race took up much of the track space also but after Nelson passed early leader Skylar Pruitt, he would be scored the leader the rest of the way. 

However, Pruitt, after giving up the lead early, would come fighting back and he nearly retook the top spot in the late going, providing a strong challenge before settling for second ahead of the hard charging "Mayor", John Watson. Brandon Cox looked for all the world that he would take the top spot early, but then his charge seemed to slump and he had to settle for fourth. 

Cody Laney would lead from start to finish to win the Modified feature over a surprisingly small group of cars, given the money on the line. Laney would run away from Chase Rudolf early and then have to weather the storm provided by Tim Ward who moved up from the third row. However, Laney had a good line and he would win without too much drama. the hard charger was Happy Gilman who started tenth and moved up to third and would probably have loved to see a late yellow but it was not forthcoming. 

The Sport Mod feature would see three different leaders with Cam Reimers leading the last thirteen laps to take the win. Bryan Morris would lead lap one, only to be displaced by Tyler Inman for the top spot. Inman would hold off Reimers for five laps before Cam would drive past to take over the top spot. 

Brayton Carter would move up from the fourth row and try to work the low line in an effort to pass the top two. He got past Inman briefly but the top line was dominant on this night at this point and he simply couldn't match their speed on the low side. By the time he got back to the cushion, Inman had retaken him and that's the way the rest of the event would go with the top three in a high speed chase around the cushion and no one making a mistake that would cost them as they finished in that order. 

The Karl Trucks had twelve entrants on this night which I was told was a season high. After Bill Davis Jr led for one lap, it was Jeff Johnson that would take the lead. However, he couldn't hold off the hard charge of Late Model driver turned Truck racer on this night, Todd Cooney, who was driving the Dennis Plain entry. With only four laps to go, Cooney swept past Johnson and would go on to win the event with Johnson and Rick Clark trailing. 

The final checkered waved just before 10:30 pm and while that is later than Stuart usually runs, they also had more racing and more classes than normal also. The track held up well and there was very little dust, especially considering that that wind was blowing from the Northwest which can often be problematic here. All was fine on the trip home and I opened the garage door at 4:18 am, happy that I made the trip.   

O'Neal Remains Perfect at Davenport

 The MARS Racing Series arrived at the Davenport Speedway on Tuesday night, July 26th for a special midweek show that paid ten thousand dollars to the winner of the fifty lap main event. Normally a mostly regional series, this race, positioned as it was between the Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 and Boone  and then with most of the heavy hitters planning to run at Fairbury this coming weekend, it proved to be a perfect stopping ground for a number of the finest traveling stars in the country to attend. Keep in mind also that Davenport will be hosting a three night show for the World of Outlaw Late Model tour is around a month and some may also have had a plan to get some laps on the track in preparation for that big event although point leader Dennis Erb was not in attendance on Tuesday, even though his Illinois base is not that far away. 

Positively Racing had bloggers coming out of the woodwork for this event so I will not beat a dead horse with another lap by lap breakdown and instead leave that to Danny and Jeff who do a better job than I anyway. Instead, I'll hit the highlights of the night.

It was a good night of racing but it didn't hit the "home run" that last year's event did or even what the Lucas Oil race earlier this Summer produced. But even the finest hitters in baseball don't drive in runs with every at bat and on this night they probably hit a two bagger but left the runner stranded on base. 

Actually, the two support classes, the IMCA Modifieds and the Street Stocks did a great job with their parts of the program, producing two good feature events while the Late Models had a tough time keeping under the green with the first half of the race producing five yellow flags before everyone settled down and ran off the last twenty eight nonstop. 

The Late Model field was a good one with twenty eight drivers entered with some of the biggest names in the sport entered and certainly more than one would expect to see for a typical ten grand to win MARS race. It was a perfect night to set some records early and that is just what they did. The track was heavy but not too heavy, there was plenty of humidity in the air and cloud cover, all of which set up nicely to produce some blazing speeds. I believe the old track record was broken four times and Devin Moran set a new record with a scalding fast lap of 13.333 seconds as the eighteen car of twenty eight to qualify. 

All four heat races were won right off the pole and there was not much passing in them, a trend that is very prevalent in these time trial shows and acerbated by the fast nature of the track. They ran a B Feature to all four more to the main event and then, at the last minute, announced that everyone would make the main so they started all twenty eight. The Late Model feature was scheduled to go second in the running order for the features but then again at the last second that got changed and the other two features would precede the Late Models, a move that annoyed some in the crowd and likely those that had to go to work on Wednesday morning. 

O'Neal would be scored the leader of all fifty laps and he seriously wasn't challenged at all until late in the race when O'Neal got into lapped traffic. O'Neal was running mostly the bottom line in turns three and four and then using the banking on the other end of the track. Bobby Pierce quickly moved up from fifth in the starting lineup to move into second and he was the primary chaser of O'Neal for most of the race. 

The first half of the race had many stops and starts and it took until just before halfway for a pattern to emerge. Pierce would manage to hang with O'Neal but never seem to gain any ground on him. Moran, Mike Marlar and Jonathan Davenport all slipped back a bit to make it a two car race. The inside line seemed to get faster for awhile as Max Blair really started to make ground up but then Pierce, as seemingly the only driver still on the top started to get faster again.

O'Neal stated later that he moved up the track to pass a couple of lapped cars and then found that the top groove was taking on rubber. It would be interesting to know whether that was the case or if he got "the signal" from his crew to get up the track or lose the lead. In any event, he moved up just in time to keep Pierce behind him and then had to play the jockeying game with the slower cars as to whether or not to try and pass them. 

Pierce threw a couple of sliders at O'Neal in the late laps and it was a close one that kept in in front as Bobby was very close to edging in front off turn two a couple of times. Pierce surprised me at the end as I figured he would back up and then throw one big one on the final lap or two at O'Neal but he didn't. I don't know if the slower cars in front of O'Neal, which would have been the Gundaker brothers, picked up speed or perhaps Bobby just misjudged but O'Neal would drive on for the win by a couple of car lengths with Pierce just riding it out behind him in the same groove. 

After the great race put on by the Lucas Oil set earlier this year, it came as quite a surprise and a bit of a disappointment that  the track took on rubber at the end because, quite frankly, when a track rubbers up the racing is done and in most cases it becomes a high speed, follow the leader event with the potential lapped cars just as fast as the leaders. And that certainly was the case with the Gundakers on this night. Ricky Kay must have been disappointed with the outcome tonight to some degree because they actually did a little additional track prep right before the Late Model feature. 

The Modified feature was a very good race with Matt Werner holding off Travis Denning for the win. Ryan Duhme led the first lap before Denning took over the lead. Meanwhile, Werner, who started eighth, was on the move and just at the halfway point of the race he made a bold move and completed the pass to take over the lead. 

After that, it was an entertaining last ten laps as the two leaders exchanged slide jobs, sometimes more than one per lap and while Werner was scored the leader of each lap, Denning had his moments when he also was the leader. They battled right up to the end with Werner holding on by a slim margin to take the win with Duhme third. 

The Street Stock class is an interesting one. The local Street Stocks that run here and at East Moline have some different rules than the Stock Cars but here they race together and seemingly, pretty even. Certainly the Stock Cars look a lot nicer as the Street Stocks are slab sided things that resemble nothing while the Stock Cars look like, yes, Stock Cars. I have to wonder why they just don't run Stock Cars because then those drivers would have almost unlimited choices where they could race but as the Street Stocks they are limited to just a very small number of tracks here in the Quad Cities area. But that is a question to be answered at another time. 

Track point leader Jeff Struck Jr would start on the pole thanks to the redraw and he would lead every lap but it was not a cinch by any means as Rob Henry pressured him from start to finish and came very close to making a pass. This race had only one yellow flag and no lapped cars as it was very smoothly run. Stock Cars driven by David Brandies and Justin Kay would both finish in the top five. 

All racing would be complete before 10 pm, even with a Late Model finale that kind of dragged out with the several yellow flags. They took very little down time and really kept the show moving which is something that must be done for a midweek show. 

And of course, as seems to be the case here just about every time I come here, the fans of this area love their Late Models and they support any special that is held here as another large crowd filled the cavernous grandstand here at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds. Ricky Kay has done an outstanding job of reviving racing here in Davenport with both his specials and weekly shows, all producing big car counts while bringing in the national driving names that people want to see while at the same time maintaining a low profile himself. It's about time that he start receiving the credit he deserves and more national attention for the turn around he had done here. Racing was in a bad state here at what once used to be a hotbed area for racing until he came along and "juiced " things back up for the Quad Cities racing fans. 

Davenport Pads The Sofa With Another Twenty K From Boone

 Twice rained out earlier this year, the Hawkeye 50 was finally held on Monday night, July 25th at the Boone Speedway in Boone Iowa. In one of their rare appearances at the Modified stronghold, the Late Models sanctioned by the World of Outlaws would be racing for twenty thousand dollars to win on this rare, Monday night show. 

The Monday night date for this show was picked in the hopes that it would help the car count as the national Late Model touring drivers would be moving from I-80 Speedway in Nebraska where they just wrapped up their big show on Sunday, over to Illinois and the Prairie Dirt Classic that will be racing this coming weekend. In the meantime, they also have a nice race planned for Davenport on Tuesday night so this seemed to be a perfect place to add this twice rained out event. 

And World of Outlaws Late Model officials plans worked out well, as a very strong field of thirty three Late Models signed in to race on this night, representing much of the finest talent in the sport and certainly  most of the hot drivers racing right now. 

Insiders in the sport were hopeful that a full field of cars would be on hand here on Monday so with both the number and quality of the field, everyone was ecstatic at the turnout even though a couple of the most familiar names in Iowa Late Model open motor racing failed to attend. The Outlaws themselves continue to bring about ten of what could be called "their" own cars with their top eight in points on hand along with three more in the top fifteen. This was then supplemented with a number of national touring stars that dropped in on their way to Illinois from Nebraska to produce an excellent Monday night field of drivers.

Only one support class would be racing on Monday night and that was the IMCA Sport Mods where thirty four of them signed in to race with their top prize being upped to a grand to the winner. 

There was a threat of rain all day with dark and ominous clouds overhead from time to time but nothing more than a few mid afternoon drops, not even enough to be called sprinkles, ever fell as the storms dissipated as they traveled East across the state. This however, might have held the crowd down some as while it was a good crowd, there was plenty of room to be had in the grandstands and of course, with live broadcast available, it's much too easy to just watch the race on tv, rather than run the risk of getting rained on in person. 

Of course, you knew that with the resources and capability on hand that the track would be excellent for the racing program, although at its conclusion some of the drivers expressed their wish that there would have been one more track prep right before their feature as they claimed that would have made the racing a bit better for their fifty lapper. Myself, I thought drivers were racing all over the track but perhaps the high side could have used a little help as not as many drivers as I thought would did ever pound the cushion. 

It was the usual Outlaw format, with time trials split into two groups and then four heats and a  pair of B Features setting what would be a twenty three car starting field for the main here at the "King of the Catwalks", as Jerry Van Sickel referred to Boone as. 

The feature itself was not the kind of cliffhanger one would hope for, but it was a solid race with several good battles going on through the pack. Tyler Bruening, who earlier was quick qualifier and would start on the pole, would lead the first three laps until he bobbled in turn one and nearly spun out. That would open the door to Jonathan Davenport who blew past into the lead and would hold sway for the last forty seven laps, basically unchallenged. 

There was, however, an excellent battle for second with Bruening and Mike Marlar going at it for position. I think Marlar tried more different lines than any driver on the track as he experimented with the top, middle and inside lines and according to him, was never comfortable in any of them. With twenty seven straight green flag laps, some drivers farther back in the field began to work their way to the front. The most prominent was WoO point leader Dennis Erb as the perennial bottom feeder was slowly and then later more quickly, picking off driver after driver as he moved up after starting eighth. 

He was able to drive up to second and was actually closing in on Davenport who was stuck behind three slower cars that were often racing three wide in their battle for position. Just when things started looking interesting, Boom Briggs decided to take an excursion trip off turn one, the yellow flew and that was that as back on green, Davenport would then pull away again over the last twenty laps as he was definitely the quickest car in open air. 

Davenport would cruise over the last portion of the race to take the win easily over Erb with Marlar working like the devil and finding a line to hold off Bruening for another podium finish. Bobby Pierce really picked up the pace at the end and made the top five, after he disappointed by not pounding the cushion earlier as I expected as most drivers just couldn't make the top work. Only four drivers failed to go the fifty lap distance and not a single driver was lapped 

The Sport Mods ran a program that mirrored the Late Models, minus the qualifying of course. Four heats and a B Feature would set their running order for their twenty lap main. After the usual amount of bumping and grinding in the qualifiers, the main event for the Sport Mods ran off smoothly, but the only yellows of the race, coming late in the event, made all the difference in the world to its outcome. 

Logan Anderson would start on the pole and would eventually lead the first eighteen laps of the feature. He was under the gun though, primarily from  Cory Pestotnik and Braden Richards as the top three raced in a close formation with Anderson using the low side to hold off the challenges. Meanwhile, track point leader Jake Sachau, who started tenth, was gradually working his way to the front but it was a tough process with so many even cars and lots of green flag racing. 

    When the first yellow finally waved with only three laps to go, Sachau had raced his way up to fifth. Only one lap was made before another spin slowed the action but Sachau got by both Cam Reimers and Richards to move up to third. 

The last two laps saw a wild scramble as Sachau went to the cushion to pass Pestotnik, then moved up on Anderson. And there would be no stopping Jake as he continued to work the cushion and blew by Anderson who was hugging the tires in turn two. And once in front, Sachau took the white flag and the accelerated away from the field to take the win. Anderson, Richards, Reimers and Pestotnik would complete the top five in a race that saw only four drivers not go the distance. It was a smooth main event but for Anderson, unfortunately not quite smooth enough as the yellows made all the difference to Sachau. 

My expectation going into this race was that it would be a smoothly run program and a quick one and I was not disappointed as the last checkered flew well before 10 pm. I think everyone was satisfied with the program and perhaps the Late Models gained a few fans that liked what they saw here in this Modified stronghold. 

Thanks to everyone here at Boone for their help and also to the World Racing Group World of Outlaws folks for their continued help. 

Marlar Takes "Cheesehead" Money at WoO Red Cedar Speedway Run

 The World of Outlaws Late Model Series wrapped up their three night swing through the Upper Midwest on Sunday night, July 17th. After an exciting event at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks North Dakota on Friday night and a disappointing rainout at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls Minnesnowta on Saturday night, the troops crossed the Mississippi River and headed to Wisconsin where they wrapped up the weekend at the Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie Wisconsin for another ten thousand dollar top prize program. 

Along with the Late Models, the open Modifieds and WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds would also be competing. It was another blazing hot day for everyone and a few pop up thundershowers threatened in the early afternoon but they quickly dissipated after depositing just a few sprinkles, the sun came back out, the humidity shot up and it was a real "cooker." 

The Red Cedar Speedway is located at the Dunn County Fairgrounds which lies right in the city of Menomonie. When the fairgrounds was built, it was on the edge of the city but now the city has grown up around it with residential housing on two sides, businesses, a hospital and even an elementary school now close by. This track is under some of the strictest curfew ordinances of any track I know and to even be allowed to run a race on a Sunday night almost requires a waver from the Governor. The Red Cedar Speedway runs on Friday nights and a Sunday night show is very much a rarity here but now the third time that has happened with the WoO being at this track now for the third time. 

Twenty six Late Models would sign in to race on this night. The numbers were down from Grand Forks as while the WoO again supplied ten drivers and cars(Tyler Bruening apparently headed back to Iowa) the number of local drivers running didn't match what Grand Forks brought to the table. Just like River Cities, Red Cedar is a WISSOTA stronghold for Late Models but for whatever reason, not nearly as many of the local and area cars that frequent this track decided to try and run with the WoO. Part of that may be due to the fact the WISSOTA has a huge, five night tour in cooperation with XR that starts on Monday night and the WISSOTA cars may just be getting ready for that tour. 

It would be a challenge under these tough conditions to produce a worthy race track but the local crew at the speedway did a fine job, although two full "farming sessions" were necessary to make that happen. But if you are keeping score, that's still just half as many at River Cities did. Tanner English set a new track record in time trials with a lap of 16.093 as the first driver out for qualifying but by feature time the track was slick from top to bottom but had a healthy berm and there would the place that most would run, producing some wild action and daring slide jobs. 

Three heats and a B Feature would set the running order for the main event with twenty three cars taking the green for the forty lap event on the fairly flat third mile oval. For some reason, the local track provisional remained unfilled even though there were a couple of candidates that didn't make the show out of the B Feature. Perhaps they just didn't want it, but that seems strange also. In any event, only twenty three would take the green. 

Local driver Jesse Glenz would have terrible luck before the race would even start. Scheduled to start third, his car rolled on to the track with a  wrecker pushing it with hood and front fenders removed as they apparently were thrashing on the car trying to solve and issue. Jesse had his helmet off and he was pushed across the track and back to the pits to not even see the green. The inside row moved up for the start and the green was dropped. 

Ricky Weiss, with plenty of fans in the stands, would shot up from third and take the lead on the opening lap. However, Mike Marlar, who started on the pole, would quickly pick up the pace as he quickly determined the top side was the place to be and while Ricky was "catfishing" around in the low groove, Marlar blew past him for the lead. 

While Marlar continued to lead, Shane Clanton moved up into the top three but the driver on the move was Ryan Gustin. This was his kind of track on this night. It was not a technical track, but a "balls to the wall", slam the cushion and hustle it down the chutes kind of track, one that he excels on. He started eleventh but by lap ten he had roared up to second and was pushing Marlar for the lead. Several times he nearly snuck by but each time Mike would fight him off. 

Terrible luck struck local racer James Giossi who was running in the top five when his car quit, triggering a yellow. By the halfway point Jimmy Mars had cracked the top five after starting way back in sixteenth and shortly after that Jimmy's son Sam would crack the top five too, running his WISSOTA spec engined car. Sam would later get hung out to dry on a restart and lose several positions but he showed on this night that he will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come. 

Jimmy would later try to gain more spots but a dirty slider by Clanton almost stuffed Mars into the wall. Jimmy was coming back for a piece of Clanton when he jumped the cushion and slowed his efforts or we might have had even more to discuss. 

After being all over Marlar, Gustin suddenly slowed with driveline issues, ending a strong effort but unfortunately making Gustin a DNF as he seems to be way too often. Weiss inherited second but after this point, there would be no one to challenge Marlar and following a lap thirty one yellow for a spin, he would pull away to nearly a full straightaway lead. The action then focused on the battle for third where Dennis Erb was making time on the inside, about the only driver to do so. He succeeded by stealing third away from Clanton on the final  corner but Mars couldn't catch him to inflict some justice too. Only six cars failed to go the distance and with well timed yellows, not a single car was lapped in the race. It was a cushion pounding kind of track and certainly made for an entertaining race. 

A very nice field of Modifieds was on hand with twenty three signing in for the show. Most were of the WISSOTA variety but there were also a few USRA more open motored cars on hand too. It seems strange to penalize the drivers that support the track all year by racing there weekly to penalize them when a special is run by allowing more open motored cars to compete and on their own tire even. However, when you look a little closer, you realize that the event sponsor has an open motored car he owns and in order to allow his driver to compete, they need open rules.  So there you go, question answered. 

The Modified feature event was rimmed with controversy that started right at the drop of the green flag. A.J. Diemel and Jake Hartung shared the front row and they got after it just seconds after the green flag waved. It appeared the Diemel "body slammed" Hartung right after the green dropped, moving him up the track. Then it seemed that Hartung responded by gassing up his car, hooking Diemel and shoving him right up to the wall. It seemed a crazy thing to do with a full field of cars right behind, but that's what happened, at least in my view. Several other cars slammed into the hooked together pair and the red flag waved. 

Surprisingly, all the cars but Diemel, who exited with front end damage, were able to restart and even more surprising, the track officals saw things much different than I, along with a large number of fans, did. Hartung was restored to his position in the front of the field and as irony would have it, he would then go on for the win. 

He was challenged quite strongly by Calvin Iverson, making a rare start this season and Calvin was right there to challenge for the lead. In fact, just past the halfway point, Calvin made a very strong push to take over the top spot. He came charging through corner one and tried to dive under Hartung for the lead. Unfortunately, Calvin got a bit too low in the corner, went flying through part of the infield with debris flying, tore off his front bumper which was hurtled onto the track and caused a yellow to fly 

I'm not sure whether Calvin exited during that yellow due to damage or if the officials asked him to leave since he had no front bumper which I believe to be a rule but before he left the track, he made sure to "buzz bomb" the leader. However, in this instance, Hartung seemed to be innocent of all charges. 

The last six laps would see him pull away for the win with Adam Hensel charging up from thirteen to finish second as he really started to pick off drivers the second half of the race. Ashley Anderson would finish third and while he has dominated the racing here this season, he didn't seem to quite have it tonight. However, he was one that got involved in the first lap wreck with plenty of body damage and that may also have cause issues that weren't as readily known by us in the crowd. 

What I do know is that the majority of the vocal crowd gave Hartung the "Brooklyn Cheer" in victory lane as they appeared to agree more with me than with the call of the track officials. 

The Midwest Modified would wrap up the evening with Bloomer's Nick Koehler making a strong run to get the win. He would trail Tommy Richards for the opening lap before driving around him on the tall side of the track and once in front, he was never challenged. 

A late yellow allowed Brady Larson to move past Richards on the restart but he also couldn't provide a challenge to Koehler, who rode right through the middle of the track, getting good traction on now what was a black slick from top to bottom racing surface. However, it didn't take rubber so it provided a fair surface for all. Richards would settle for third ahead of Mike Widmann and Cody Borgeson. 

All racing was completed before 10 pm which was the magic hour for this show so that was good. A large crowd was on hand for this event, despite the steamy conditions with much liquid beverages consumed, a Wisconsin skill set in action. However, it was just a little hot for cheese. 

It was an entertaining night of racing so thanks to the World Racing Group and their officials plus all the folks from the Red Cedar Racing Ass'n, the non profit club that runs the Red Cedar Speedway. 

Clanton Returns To Victory Lane with WoO Win at River Cties

The World of Outlaw Late Model Series made their annual swing through the Upper Midwest again this year with this year's tour involving three stops. The tour started  on Friday night, July 15th with a visit to the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks North Dakota. Along with the Late Models, there would also be a shootout between the Sprint Car drivers of the NOSA Series and the IRA Sprint Series, which was making its first visit to River Cities since the early 2000's. Lightning Sprints would complete the card. The three class program would carry a hefty ticket price as it was $43 to get in unless you had purchased advance tickets yet interestingly it was $40 to get into the pits. This led a number of people to buy pit passes and make a swing through the pits for the same price that it was to get into the grandstand. 

The WoO always makes Grand Forks a part of their tout but the local promoters, knowing that there are just as many Sprint Car fans in town as there are Late Model fans, always make the Sprints a part of this show so as to make sure that everyone is happy and shows up. No Sprint Cars and that stubborn portion of the fan base won't show up, simply put. 

This year they upped the ante by bringing in the IRA to race with the NOSA group and they are actually going to run a doubleheader with the Sprints also racing a full show again on Saturday along with some IMCA support classes. 

Thirty eight Late Models signed in to race on this night, a highly satisfactory number considering the number of open motor Late Models is pretty small in this area. Fortunately for the WoO, the local WISSOTA drivers are very supportive of this race and show up in big numbers, otherwise the WoO would be very hard pressed to put on a show of any kind. The WoO Late Model travelers are now at ten with Kyle Hammer off the tour apparently permanently, and Shane Clanton returning. While Tyler Bruening is now hit and miss, he was along on this swing. 

Along with a few scattered open motor drivers like Jimmy Mars and Blair Nothdurft joining in, the rest of the field was the area WISSOTA drivers. Brad Seng, who is one of the top WISSOTA drivers here and a part of the management team at River Cities, has very much to do with getting so many of the local Late Models to participate. He is widely respected by the rest of the Late Model drivers and also very much involved with the NLRA, which is the traveling arm of the local Late Models as they schedule and visit a number of area tracks throughout the year that don't normally run the Late Model class. Thirteen of the top twenty in River Cities Late Model points would be on hand Friday and eight would make the main event. 

Among the Late Model entrants, a couple were of special note. Billy Moyer was on hand to drive a car for Minnesota's Don Shaw. Shaw and Moyer have connections through their common interest of spending much time in Arizona and Shaw has purchased several Late Models from Moyer over the years. With Shaw putting himself on temporary hiatus from driving, he brought in Billy to drive one of his Longhorn cars. 

Also making his return to River Cities was Ricky Weiss. Weiss claimed River Cities as his home track for a number of years as he developed his Late Model career and is a multi time track champion at "The Bullring." He was a big favorite among the fans as the Canadian population is gradually returning to the race track here and while it still isn't to the level it once was when he seemed like half the fans here were from Manitoba, there were a significant number of Manitoba plates spotted in the parking lot. There were also five Canadian drivers in the field, not counting Weiss who now calls Tennessee home. 

On the Sprint side of things, the turnout was also strong with thirty five Sprint Cars on hand to race. The NOSA(Northern Outlaw Sprint Ass'n) is headquartered in Grand Forks and while racing at River Cities weekly, they also travel to a number of tracks in North and South Dakota and northern Minnesota, much the same as the NLRA functions, bringing Sprint Car racing to tracks that normally don't run them and can't afford to run them weekly. Even local Late Model fans at a track that averages between twenty and thirty Late Models for their weekly shows will grudgingly tell you that Grand Forks is a Sprint Car town. 

However, the biggest tip of the hat should go to the IRA(Interstates Racing Ass'n) who came to run against  the NOSA crew. Operated by Steve Sinclair, the IRA is a traveling series that races at a number of tracks in Wisconsin, Illinois with occasional visits to other states. It is a long pull to Grand Forks from southern Wisconsin or Illinois yet seven of their top ten and eleven of the top fifteen in IRA points made the trip to North Dakota which is very impressive as this group is really supportive of the IRA. 

So, there were solid fields of cars in both of the main classes that would be racing on Friday. The down side of the night was that with  these two groups, both had to qualify and the time trials seemed to take forever. In fact the first race didn't hit the track until 8:28 pm which was totally unacceptable. Part of this was the time that it took to run the time trials and part was that they simply didn't show any urgency to get the program going with a late start for warm up and hot laps that made the whole start at a later hour than it should have been. We were also treated to four complete farming sessions over the course of the night as track management seemed intent or providing a "hammer down" track constantly. In truth while the Sprints could function OK on such a heavy surface, it really hurt the Late Model show until late in their main event when the track started to slow down and the groove widen out. Quite frankly, I was very disappointed in how they presented the program overall with the final checkered waving right at Midnight which I also found to be unacceptable, especially at a place I would expect more out of . 

Time trials, four heats and two B Features would set the twenty four car field for the Late Model part of the program. Clanton would be the only driver under twelve seconds, running a 11.978 second lap. Ryan Gustin put himself behind the eight ball early, clobbering the wall in hot laps and then missing time trials. He would not qualify through either a heat or B and would have to take a provisional as he ended up chasing it all night. 

Clanton would redraw the pole for the forty lapper and would lead all laps to get the win, his first since returning to the WoO Series. Early on he received pressure from Dennis Erb who had started third. Tyler Bruening and Tanner English were also in the lead pack which saw the race go the first twenty laps without a yellow Things were started heating up shortly after as the track started to dry out just a bit and some of the drivers got out of the ditch were the speed had been the best. 

The second yellow, with only eleven laps left when Mike Greseth got shoved into the front stretch wall, triggered by far the best racing of the night. Mike Marlar, pretty quiet until this time, moved to the cushion and he really started to pick up the pace, knocking off car after car as he tore toward the front. Meanwhile, Erb was digging to the low side and nearly getting under Clanton on each turn. 

The last few laps would see Marlar continue to charge as he got by English and Bruening and would charge after the top two. For a second it looked like he might get both on the final lap but he came up just short and with things just getting interesting, we were wishing for fifty laps , rather than forty which seemed just a bit short giveOn n that this is a small quarter mile oval. 

The Sprint Car was a race of fits and spurts, with some good racing but far too many yellow flags to maintain any kind of rhythm or continuity. Jade Hastings would start on the outside pole and would lead the first twenty eight laps before he was passed with only two laps to go. Hastings was chased most of the race by Mark Dobmeier who had started seventh but quickly moved into a challenging position. He and Thomas Kennedy were the early movers but when they got up behind Hastings, they found that while they could challenge, neither could get by him for the lead. 

The driver that snuck up on everyone and used the five yellows to his advantage was Austin Pierce. After starting eighth, he didn't appear in the top five until past the halfway point of the race but then he really started to move. 

Following each yellow, he would pick off at least one car as he slowly but steadily moved up in the field. He got past Wade Nygaard on lap eighteen, then got Kennedy one lap later following another yellow. He then got past Dobmeier for second with eight laps to go and with another late yellow with only three laps to go, he found himself squarely behind Hastings. 

On that final restart he made a strong low move in turn four, drove under Hastings and took over the lead. He pulled away over the last two laps to score the win with a combination of strong driving and fortunate circumstances. 

Tonight's program had both high and low points. The Late Model feature got good at the end but before that most of the racing was hammer down and tough for passing. The Sprint feature had its moments such as right at the end but the feature was also a tedious race with so many yellows. 

Track management seemed overly in the mode of providing a rocket fast track that proved tough to pass on but provided plenty of speed. I could only give the night tepid reviews as I always expect more than average at best when I come here. I should mention too that there was a very large crowd on hand, despite the forty or more bucks to get in. They do like their racing up here but they are also a knowledgeable crowd and many felt that four farming sessions was overkill. I agree. 

However, thanks go out to the Outlaws for their help and also to Brad Seng who is the kind of guy you want having a say in how a race track should be run.  

Cain Fires First Volley In Mods Wars at the "Big O"

 Thursday night, July 14th, the 2nd Annual Mod Wars featuring  WISSOTA vs. USMTS Mods started at the Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie Minnesota. This three night show, which is also part of the regular USMTS championship schedule, is run under some rules unique to this weekend. The WISSOTA cars, which are running under the regular rules of the WISSOTA Promoter's organization, utilize many rules that are close and similar to USRA rules. However, the WISSOTA cars have a different motor package than USRA and while they also utilize a "spec" engine, their version of the spec engine is not quite as open as USRA's version with the end result being that the WISSOTRA cars are somewhere between 75-100 horsepower less than the USRA cars, depending on who you talk to. The other big difference is tires where WISSOTA uses Hoosier tires while the USRA cars are on American Racers. 

Normally, when a WISSOTA car wants to enter a USMTS or USRA event, they must utilize the series tire among other changes but for this special three night program, the WISSOTA are allowed to run this USMTS event without changes, as long as they are WISSOTA legal. Understandably, this helps increase the car count for the this event because if local cars don't have to buy tires, they are much more likely to enter the contest and for the promoters, the more cars the better. And from some people that I talked with, they didn't feel that the difference in tires was significant. 

However, the WISSOTA drivers that I talked with mostly felt that they would need a slick track to be competitive on this night as the horsepower difference was significant. The Ogilvie Raceway is genarally known as providing a slick track though and the local driver's knowledge of the track would also likely be a factor in their favor. So with USMTS providing their top eighteen drivers in points and nineteen of the top  twenty in points on hand plus some of the top WISSOTA talent along with locals that likely wouldn't be racing except for the optional tire rules, a strong field of forty six Modified drivers would sign in to race. 

Some of the top WISSOTA talent on hand to take on the USMTS regulars would include Shane Sabraski, Dave Cain, Ryan Gierke, Clayton Wagamon and Jody Bellefeuille while it was interesting to note that Dan Ebert, who has raced the entire USMTS schedule but also has a WISSOTA car, opted for the Hoosier tire car on this night, giving up the horsepower advantage. 

Along with the Modifieds, WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Mod Fours and Hornets would all be in action. The MidMods provided a strong field of thirty three drives and the unique Mod Fours, a class that utilizes cars that look like Modifieds but are just smaller in scale and run four cylinder engines, pulled a nice field of nineteen drivers to race. I'm sure this class is one that fans from south of WISSOTA country have never seen before , but in certain parts of fWISSOTA,  they are very popular.. 

With rain on the radar and possibly headed at some point toward the track, the track and USMTS officials did a great job of running off a speedy program. Promptly at 6:30 pm the USMTS field rolled on to the track and without any warmup laps of any kind, they went right into group qualifying. Possibly because they had a practice night on Wednesday they skipped warm ups but in any event, how different dirt racing is from tar racing where they would have to practice for hours before they would even consider qualifying. 

In any event, the qualifying would go quickly and right at 7 pm the first green flag dropped on the MidMod heats. All classes would use passing points on this night to line up the mains and determine which Mods and MidMods had to run B Features. There were two Mod B's and one big one for the MidMods. All this proceeded quickly and by around 9 pm it was feature time. 

MidMods would be first and their twenty four car, twenty lap event could prove problematic for those watching the radar and hoping for a quick event, but the MidMods did a great job, running their race with only one yellow flag and with only three drivers not going the distance. 

With current WISSOTA national point leader Jake Smith on the pole, and multi time national champion Shane Sabraski guest driving a car on the outside pole, it would seem that one or the other would likely be the winner. However, that proved to not be the case as David Swearingen drove by both of them and raced on to a dominant win as no one could touch him. The "Cobra", Cody Lee would use the outside line to drive up to second with Sabraski setting for third. 

The Modifieds were moved up in the running order from the heat race order to run their feature second and make sure that they got that race in. With several provisional racers added to the field, Thursday night's three grand to win race would start thirty cars. 

Tyler Wolff would start on the pole and he would quickly drive away from the field, pulling out to a considerable lead early in the contest until the twelve lap mark was hit, at which time things got bogged down with three straight yellows without completing a lap. 

After that we would probably have raced to the checkered except for an unfortunate incident involving the leader. Wolff was totally dominating and once they got back to racing, he was way far out in front of anyone. He built up nearly a full straightaway lead over the field while a great race for second saw Cain, Lucas Schott, Dustin Sorensen and Sabraski battling for position. But they were far behind the leader. 

However, Wolff caught the back of the pack with about a half dozen laps left. Despite the fact that he had a big lead, he got impatient with the slower cars, and by this time in the race the track had started to take rubber and was pretty one lane on the bottom. Going into turn three, Wolff tried to stick his nose under the slower car, they made contact and both spun. The second pack came up on the wreck and second place driver Cain couldn't get stopped and banged hard into the front end of Wolff's car. 

What a crazy moment! The big question was to what extent were they going to protect the leader and would Wolff get his lead back. However, that proved to be a moot point when the damage from the contact with Cain was enough to send Wolff to the pits and out of the race. Ironically, Cain didn't suffer much damage and was able to restart the race, now as the leader. 

There were four laps left and Cain was able to hold on for the win. He would almost give it away on the last corner as he slipped high but Sorensen was pushing so hard he followed Cain right up the track and couldn't make a passing attempt. 

So the opening volley in the Mod Wars went to the WISSOTA driver Cain over USMTS point leader Sorensen. Lucas Schott would finish third over another WISSOTA driver in Sabraski, who was debuting a brand new Jay McDonald race car while Dereck Ramirez would complete the top five. The stakes continue to rise the next two nights with five and eleven grand on the line for the winners the next two nights. 

Chisholm's Trail Leads To first USMTS Victory

 After being off for several weeks, the United States Modified Touring Series rolled back into action on Tuesday night, July 12th with a visit to one of Todd Staley's tracks, this being the Mason City Motor Speedway in Mason City Iowa. This would be a busy week for the Modified drivers of the USMTS with five events this week as they travel to Ogilvie Minnesota on Thursday through Saturday for Mod Wars against the Modifieds of WISSOTA and then wrap up their busy week with an overnight pull to Watertown South Dakota and the Casino Speedway for a guaranteed action packed night of racing in "The Jungle." 

Along with the Modifieds at MCMS, the usual group of USRA sanctioned classes would race which would include B Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Tuners. 

MCMS remains a work in progress as each time I attend the races there, I find more things that have been changed and improved on with more still in the works. On Sunday I noted that they have both a new asphalted victory lane as well as an asphalt drive up up the hill from the pits to enter the track which is a really nice touch. A number of huge billboards now surround turn three, much like they have at I-94 Sure Step Speedway in Minnesota which might be where Todd saw them to give him the idea. I am however, still waiting for a scoreboard to appear that would be both a nice touch and a valuable asset to the track and helpful for the drivers if it was positioned properly. A new viewing platform for the pit people is also being built just next to the grandstands along the front chute. 

Before the races, one driver I talked to in the pits was Modified driver Mike Hansen who originally was from North Dakota, moved to Iowa for awhile and now splits time between homes in Dickinson North Dakota and Arkansas. He doesn't get to race too much any more but does like to hit a few races each year with his Hughes chassis and plans to make this trip on his way back to the Peace Freedom state. However, his talk with me must have been a jinx to him as he went up in a ball of smoke during his heat. He did try to return for a B Feature but only lasted a few laps before pulling in. So his visit to Ogilive would have to be considered up in the air right now. 

Thirty Modifieds signed in to race on Tuesday night although Brandon Givens never made an appearance on the track and I suspect he never really made it to Mason City. Even so, the top eleven in USMTS points were on hand and seventeen of the top twenty so they are following their tour as well as any of the major series are at this point of the racing season. Car counts in the other four support classes were quite small with a couple now making two heats. However, it should be noted that one of the other USRA tracks in the area that could supply quite a few cars was also having a Fair race on this night, thus likely splitting the field to a point. 

Racing got started about forty minutes late on this night but for once I couldn't blame that on the time trials that USMTS runs. It was for a much more rare occurrence these days and that was for an over watered race track which is something that seldom happens any more. 

While the MCMS remains a work in progress, so to does the track prep with an all new surface and truly, a totally new track. They packed quite a bit and after the heats spent more time packing and I even saw Todd Staley on the grader, trying to remove the huge berm that developed in turns three and four. It was odd that even with all the wet dirt, there were still areas that dust was flying, indicating that the wind and sun and warm temperatures had given them some fits with track prep. Truly, the groove didn't widen out much until the last race of the night which was the Modified forty two lap feature and then we saw some exciting sliders being thrown to round out the evening. 

I must admit that I don't know a whole lot about Jim Chisholm as I don't see the USRA B Mods race too much and he is a Deer Creek stalwart, having won the B Mod title there the last two years before making the decision to move up to Modifieds this year. Obviously he knows what he's doing as he is the point leader now at Deer Creek in the Mods and had three solid runs as the Mods raced with the Lucas Oil Late Models last weekend. 

On this night he would further show his mettle as he would win his first USMTS feature race, quite an accomplishment for a first year driver in the series driving a family owned operation. The redraw would be nice to him but he used the pole to his advantage as he led early with Dan Ebert chasing him hard. Ebert actually appeared to have the faster car early but he just couldn't time it right to make a pass for the top spot. 

However, as the race continued and Chisholm continued to lead, it looked like the upset might occur. A yellow when Aaron Benson blew up with twenty nine laps completed proved to be just what Ebert needed. He got a big run on the restart and as we see more and more these days in both Mods and Late Models, if passed are going to occur, they generally happen on restarts. 

However, a couple slide jobs later, they had traded the lead back and forth but Ebert found turn two a difficult one for him as his car kept pushing up the hill and Chisholm was able to get past him and retake the lead. A few more slide jobs broke out but Chisholm coolly handled the pressure and remained the leader. 

Just when it looked like the checkered would wave, Dereck Ramirez would slow with a flat tire and the last two laps would have to be run.  Chisholm got a good restart and would not be challenged on the final two laps. Things went South for Ebert as he got a terrible restart and fell all the way back to seventh at the finish after plunking the wall. Terry Phillips was the big winner as he moved up to second at the line with Darron Fuqua next in line. It was a popular win for the north Iowa driver with the crowd and likely put him on a lot of people's radar that didn't know too much about him, just like me. He is only nineteen years old so I'm sure it won't be too long before some people will be wanting to take him on the road. 

As for the support classes, the Hobby Stock feature was the biggest and Zac Smith would lead from start to finish to take the win. There was quite a bit of position jockeying going on behind him with everyone wanting to be on the top side at the correct time and Adam Speicher won that battle, taking second ahead of Zack Smidt. 

The Stock Car feature saw Chanse Hollatz also lead from start to finish for the win. Josh Zieman did everything in his power to pass Hollatz but he kept jumping the wicked berm and never was able to make a pass. 

Dozen time winner Oliver Monson would add to his total as his car was in perfect pitch for the Tuner feature. He caught a break when leader Devin Jones dropped an octave and pulled off and as fast as Monson was, I think he would have had a tough time passing on the narrow track, but we'll never know as Jones hit a sour cord and was out of the race. 

The B Mods surprised us all when they ran off sixteen laps of nonstop racing to proceed the Modified feature and help widen out the track. Ben Moudry would lead all laps and never really be challenged but there was a good battle for second with Jeremy Grantham finished in the runner up position. We got a fore taste of Chisholm success in the B Mod event as Joe Chisholm would make the most passes of the event, working his way up to fourth at the finish. 

All racing would be complete sometime just after 10:30 pm. Despite the fact that they had to spend quite a bit of time packing and grading and that the groove made passing tough for most of the night, I still think that MCMS is a work in progress and I can see some really good things for this track in the not too distant future. The changes they have made to the race track I think will do nothing but bode well for them and make the racing so much more interesting and exciting than it used to be. Both here and Shelby County in Harlan have in my opinion done some great things that will make the racing so much better in the coming days and weeks. 

Davenport dominates fever heat 100 opener

 On Monday night, July 11th the opening night of the much anticipated fever heat 100 was held at the Stuart international speedway in Stuart Iowa. This would be the first xr super series event to be held in the state of Iowa and also at the track owned by Mike vangenderen who has done much of the previous track prep at other xr events such as bristol, Charlotte,Texas and Las Vegas.

The xr super series events have assembled much of the finest talent in the world of dirt track late model racing for a series of big money races and a large point fund for those drivers that follow the series. 

Most of their events have been at high visibility tracks in major metropolitan areas and associated with prominent racing groups and their has been much anticipation due to this race which is being held at little quarter mile bullring in a small town in central Iowa with limited seating.

To have two nights of racing with the winner each night to receive twenty thousand dollars and two thousand dollars just to start the main is rather mind blowing, and it just adds to the unique flavor of this race held at such a small facility. 

Along with the late models stock cars would also be racing as the entrants in this class gather points toward a huge blow out event at Vegas in November. Hobby stocks would round out the show.

Xr certainly held up their end as they supplied a power house field of forty two drivers and most of the top rated drivers in the country. Mvg mentioned that while this might not be the largest fielg of late models assembled in the state of Iowa this year, it would be the strongest and that would be hard to argue with.

I must admit that with all the build up for this race I was expecting an event of gigantic proportions and I almost didn't attend as I was afraid that I wouldn't even be able to find a seat. I decided to try and when I arrived I was surprised to find that there were all kinds of top row seats available. And while there was a very good crowd on hand there were plenty of seats available in what is not that big a grandstand.

Whether it was the fact it was a Monday night, the race could be seen on tv or it was the pretty healthy ticket price of forty bucks to get in or perhaps a combination of the above, it didn't turn into the mass of humanity jammed together that I anticipated. 

Mvg really had things organized wonderfully from the parking for racers and fans and venders as he used every inch of his eighteen acres to it's max. There were even folks to direct traffic both before and after the show.

This was a time trial show for the late models and as such, because of that things didn't get started on time with the first heat not starting until after 8pm, but after that things really rolled with xr officials, in combination with the local track workers, moving things along nicely.

Perhaps it was because of the smaller track, but they chose to divide the late models into six heats with three moving on and then two b features that took two. Add two provisionals ang the twenty four car field was set. Significant were the large numbers of truly talented racers that didn't even make the main.

I could lie and say what a fantastic race the feature was but in truth it was pretty humdrum. On this night, putting Jonathan Davenport on the pole was bad news for the field. He never got off the bottom in fifty laps and he didn't have to as marched away from the field for an easy win. There were just enough yellows to make lapped traffic a non issue and he had to only lap one car in the fifty laps.

Most of the contenders just lined up single file and ran the bottom, not trying upstairs at all.

It was only in the late laps that tim McCreadie rolled to the second lane and with a lot of hard work was able to get to second.

Ryan Gustin put on the show as he came in the late laps from outside the top five to nearly nip McCreadie for second. It was not that Ryan got faster but that those running nose to tail got even slower. 

McCreadie tried to hint in his heat race interview that they needed to leave the track alone and let the cars widen it out but the message was missed.  His post feature comments were more pointed as he said they spent most of the feature race just getting it so they could race on it. I'm afraid that in their efforts to provide the perfect track, they over did things and out engineered themselves. They got a fast track but not one good to race on. But there is always Tuesday night and hopefully lessons learned to be applied.

The stock cars saw a murty sweep with dallon coming from fifteenth for the win as  he out raced father Damon for the thousand dollar top prize. Jesse sobbing would finish a strong third. This race had the potential to be so much more but a crazy nine bad yellow flags took the zing out of this event.

Skylar Pruitt showed lots of speed as he came from fifth on the grid to overtake Adam Hensel and win the hobby stocks main. Interestingly, one of the entrants in this race was really a two man cruiser with the passenger seat vacant on this night.

Thanks to Barry Braun and everyone at the xr super series along with Mike vg and his staff for a memorable night of racing.

Madden and Timm Head Up Preliminary Night Winners at Deer Creek Speedway

 Thursday night, July7th was the opening night for the forty second annual Gopher State 50, once again held at the Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley Minnesota. This race has a long and rich history in the scheme of Minnesota Late Model racing and has long been the biggest event on the Late Model calendar for racers and fans in the Gopher State. 

With this being the forty second year for this race, its history dates back to the Chateau Speedway in Lansing Minnesota where it was held for the first few years until it outgrew that facility and was moved to the big half mile at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna where he ran for many years. 

Originally conceived as a fund raiser for the Blooming Prairie Minnesota Jaycees, this race took on a life of its own once it was started and many of the biggest names have raced in this event. It was a Summer Nationals event for many years and also ran as an open competition race for years. Jerry Ingvalson was the main driver for the event and it was good to see Jerry still busy this year with the race as he roared from driver to driver on his golf cart. Eventually the city of Owatonna and the Gopher State 50 started to buck heads and when it was clear that the city no longer wanted the event, a new site for it was found at Deer Creek and they have hosted it ever since. 

This year the Gopher State 50 was expanded to a three night event, the first time in its history that the event has run for more than one night. The first two nights will be preliminary nights for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series, the first time that Lucas has sanctioned this event. This year would also see by far the highest purse for this event as Deer Creek Speedway joins the list of tracks paying fifty thousand dollars to the winner of the Saturday night finale. Deer Creek has hosted many high profile races over its history, most involving the Modifieds, but this race would be the highest paying in their history. 

James Essex, announcer for Lucas, reported that this night's car count of forty one Late Models was the highest for the event since 2009 and for Deer Creek since they started hosting this event in 2005. MLRA has been designated as the co-sanctioned series for this event, primarily I would say just to make sure that the car count was where they wanted it to be. Forty one cars is not a huge field but the quality of equipment is first class and Essex reported that the top three drivers in the ratings right now were all on hand. 

Along with the Late Models, the USRA Modifieds would be competing in three full programs also, a strong supported class for sure. Deer Creek has long been a Modified strong hold so they always have a strong field of Modifieds here whenever they race. 

The format for this night would be the standard one for Lucas with qualifying proceeding heats races, B Features and the main event. The Modifieds, on the other hand, would draw for position and use passing points to set the running order for their B Features and main event. 

As a preliminary event to Saturday, the Late Model drivers were more worried about harvesting points on this night that would determine starting positions in the qualifying events for Saturday night than the cash that was being offered. Thursday night's feature would pay five grand to win but would also only be twenty five laps in length. This felt more like a trophy dash than a feature race and for the fans who paid thirty five bucks to get in, I feel like they should have gotten just a bit more for their dollar. 

The race itself was pretty pedestrian for most of the race with pole sitter Brandon Sheppard leading Jonathan Davenport. However, the last six laps saw all Hell break lose and the fans got their monies' worth in those final few laps. Davenport and Sheppard engaged in a series of wild slide jobs on a track that was prepped to encourage just that kind of move. While they were going at each other, Chris Madden snuck up on them using the low side of the track  and before you knew it, he had driven by both of them. Sheppard made one last attempt to regain the lead but Madden moved up the track for the only time on the race and effectively blocked Sheppard's run. All this late action had the fans going wild and that is what they will remember going into Friday night's show. 

The Modified feature saw Jake Timm dominate as he moved from third to the lead before one lap was completed and he would then lead the rest of the way. This race was a slow one with seven yellow flags for assorted spins and collisions in the first five laps, after which they ran off twenty nonstop. 

Early challengers Brandon Davis and Brad Dierks both dropped out with mechanical issues and it was left to Rodney Sanders to challenge Timm. Rodney would close up late in the contest  but Timm gave up the cushion and dropped to the low groove just in time and this effectively took away any chance Rodney had as Timm negotiated lapped traffic near the end and drove on for the win. 

A large crowd, although not a full house, was on hand for the opening night. However, there were a large number of marked off as sold reserved seats that were not being used on Thursday and as long as they had been sold, management was not worried whether or not they were actually being used. That just means that more folks will be on hand for the Friday and Saturday rounds. 

O'Neal Tops Highly Competitive Lucas Oil Event at Davenport

 On Wednesday night, July 6th, the Lucas Oil Late Model Series made their first appearance at the Davenport Speedway in seventeen years and they did not disappoint as Hudson O'Neal topped a great three car battle that raged throughout the main event to earn the win and the top prize of ten thousand dollars. 

Support class racing would see the IMCA Late Models also put on an excellent show with Justin Kay winning their twenty five lap feature and young Logan Veloz top the Sport Mod feature that concluded an excellent night of racing.

It was a hot, sticky and murky night in eastern Iowa and all day there was a threat of rain but even though the clouds looked quite stern from time to time, the rains all remained to the South and it turned out to be a great night for racing at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds Speedway. The humid conditions certainly made it easier to keep moisture in the track and promotor and track prep wizard Ricky Kay does something that far too few track prep folks are willing to do today and that is to put plenty of water down and early. This track is heavy but not the kind of heavy that prevents good racing and he has plenty of equipment to work the track as needed. The result is a fast racing surface but one that is also wide and smooth and provided a cushion for those that like to ride the high side but also a low line that allows the "catfish" racers a place to run. On the wide quarter mile at Davenport, this allows consistent three wide racing in all classes and allows the drivers to put on the kind of show that wows the fans and keeps them coming back for more. 

As usual, the Lucas Oil Series supplies many of the biggest names and fastest drivers in all of Late Model racing and that is their calling card, they have the drivers. Supported by a few MLRA regulars on their way North for racing this weekend and some of the open motor Late Model racers from the state of Iowa, a strong field of thirty seven drivers signed in to race. With everything working out on this night, a rain out in the state of another track allowed a few more drivers to hustle down to Davenport and even further strengthened the field. 

The Sport Mods were racing for a grand on this night and twenty four of them signed in to race, a perfect number that allowed three full heats but no B Feature was necessary. It was a bit strange that with extra money on the line that the Sport Mods would field a group that was smaller than what they get for a normal Friday night show but I must assume the weekend made it difficult for some to get to the track. I had visions of forty or more of them on hand when I saw what they were racing for and I was very pleased they only had as many as they did. 

The IMCA Late Models also generated a nice field of cars with nineteen signing in, again just about the perfect number of this night. Someone must have felt bad that the IMCA drivers were racing for less than the Sport Mods were getting and threw in three hundred bucks so the Late Models at least raced for the same money as the Sport Mods. 

As you all well know, I'm not a fan of qualifying but with the Lucas way of timing three cars at a time on this quarter mile, it doesn't take long to get that event out of the way. And to show just how consistent and well prepped the track was, the last car out in the first flight of nineteen, Brandon Overton, had the quickest time of that whole group. And then right after that, the second flight saw the first driver out, Mike Marlar, set quick time for that group. All night the track would dazzle with a nice berm, but also speed in the middle and lower lines and the quickest line changing up quite often which sent these good drivers hunting the speed and moving all over the track, which made it even more enjoyable. 

Qualifying would consist of four  intense Lucas Late Model heats and three for the Sport Mods and IMCA Late Models. Two very good B Features for the Lucas cars would finish off the qualifying and then Kay and his crew did some work on the track again in preparation for the main events. 

The IMCA Late Model feature would start things off and what a warmup to the Lucas cars they provided, with a dynamic feature race of their own. They would go twenty five laps nonstop for their main and there would be three different leaders during this event. 

Hall of Famer Gary Webb would take the early lead and he would be out front for the first ten laps. He would be challenged hard by Matt Ryan and Ryan would eventually get past with an outside move down the back chute. Once in front, Ryan pulled away some but the force on the move was Justin Kay. 

Kay had won a heat race but with the IMCA redraw of twelve, he was the unlucky driver to pull the twelve and he would start outside of row six. Now to work your way forward against a solid field from the sixth row and be a factor is hard enough, but to do it under all green flag conditions with no yellows to bunch the field and make it easier to catch up is much harder, but Kay somehow found a way to get it done. 

In the second half of the feature, he was markedly faster than anyone on the track and he was getting a great run off the corners and you could visibly see him close up on other competitors. It was a good thing that the feature was twenty five laps as it took him until lap twenty three to catch and then pass Ryan for the lead. In the last two laps he would lengthen his advantage and pull off a remarkable drive to get the win. Ryan would finish second and Webb would hold off a challenge from Joel Callahan and Jacob Waterman late to get third. 

I know I'm not supposed to root for drivers but I must admit that I was one of many in the crowd that was kind of hoping that Webb could hold on for the win. Still, he had to be pleased with his very competitive run as he told me before the race that he was making just his second start on a new motor. I was under the assumption that all IMCA Late Models had to run a crate motor but that was wrong as Webb is now running an IMCA spec engine. He told me that he was getting beat bad by some supposedly legal crates and had some questions about those motors so he went a different route with the spec engine. The early results would seem to be favorable. 

The IMCA Lates set the bar high for the Lucas cars which would come next but they hurdled that bar and then some as they produced a great feature event that left the crowd salivating and even the Lucas officials were in awe. Way too much happened for me to adequately convey all the action but suffice it to say that O'Neal, Overton and Marlar went at it for forty laps, nearly three wide for much of the time and both swapping positions and lines on the track throughout this race. O'Neal would lead the first two laps, Overton the next ten, Marlar the next twenty and then O'Neal came back to make the winning pass on lap thirty three and hold off the other two to take the win. 

Only two quick yellows at mid race slowed the action and twenty two of the twenty four starters were still on the track at the finish. Yet all were running so competitively that there were only three lapped cars at the finish. It was just an excellent race and would be a highlight probably of the season for many. It allowed the drivers to show their best while also highlighting what a great place the Davenport Speedway is to watch great racing action. 

The Sport Mods would wrap up the racing action for the evening and while their main event would provide as many yellow flags as the rest of the entire program put together, they still managed to have a very competitive and close feature race. 

Most impressive was young Logan Veloz who would lead all twenty laps and stave off all challenges from a variety of drivers to get the win. All those yellows put pressure on him on the restarts but he never wavered once, maintained his line and ran a great race to get the win. 

I must highlight some of the other great charges put on drivers in the field, which also does highlight that the track was very much passable on, even after many laps of pounding. 

Tony Olson would finish second but he would start twenty first on the grid after breaking and pulling off in his heat race! What a charge he put on. However, he wasn't the only one. Third place finisher Brayton Carter started eleventh and raced his way forward and not to be forgotten was Ben Chapman. 

Yes, he started and finished fourth but in between, he made an early pit stop and went to the back of the pack, so he raced his way from twenty something back up to fourth. So there was plenty of passing going on. And only three of the starters in this twenty four car field failed to see the checkered flag also. 

This great night of racing concluded about 10:15 pm but could have been done before 10 pm easily if not for the Sport Mod struggles with five yellows in their event. K Promotions scored another home run with this event with another large crowd in the stands and they had to have gone home pleased and satisfied. Ricky and Brenda really seem to be doing everything right here with their specials and also their strong weekly program. The turnabout at this venerable facility has been dramatic, from a day not so long ago when the half mile was still being used but weeds were growing out of it and the weekly program was about dead to now with its strong weekly program plus K Promotions is bringing in the biggest names in the sport on a regular basis. Certainly, they should be at the head of the line for some promoter awards as they seem most deserving. With all the struggles that tracks are going through right now, it does the heart good to see a program on the rise.   

Verardi Tops "Invaders" at Benton County

 Sunday night, July 3rd saw me head back into the state of Iowa for a first time visit this year to the Benton County Speedway in Vinton and the first time to see the 2022 version of the Sprint Invaders series, making a visit to the "Bullring" on this holiday weekend. 

On tap would be all classes that race on a Sunday night at Vinton including the Legend Cars and with the Sprints also on hand, there would be a pit busting seven divisions in action. The overflow pit area would be used for the Sprint Cars along with those visitors that didn't have reserved pit spots in the regular pit area. 

Satisfactory fields of cars would be on hand in six of the seven divisions with only the Stock Cars being a bit short on racers on this night while the Sprints had twenty two cars on hand, enough for three full heat races. 

The hot laps were in progress when they were put to a suddenly halt by a nasty flip off the North end of the track by young Aiden Zoutte, apparently caused by a dip in the track entering turn three. Apparently a culvert under the track deteriorated and while they thought they had the problem fixed, it caused a dip to develop in that corner, giving the drivers grief with several of the Sprints flying off the end and in Zoute's case, he hit some Jersey barricades off the end of the track and then flipped, ending his night. The break was used to work on that end of the track and haul the barriers out of harm's way. This put them a  bit behind schedule but the masters of the p.a., Ryan Clark and Sprint Invader guest announcer Jeff Broeg, waxed eloquent during this time, bringing folks of to date on racing information etc. Somehow I even got mentioned during this time, but it was mostly positive. 

Once rolling though, the program moved right along as is the norm at Benton County and it was soon time for the main events. The Stock Cars would lead the way and even though there were only eight of them, there were three different leaders in the first three laps. However, once Kaden Reynolds took over the lead on lap three, he was gone in this nonstop race and he pulled out to a big lead before it was over. 

He had a full straightaway lead at the end over Steve Meyer who took the second spot late with Shaun Bistline coming home third. 

The Sport Mods put on a good show with a nice battle for the lead that saw three different drivers heading the way. Justin Wacha led lap one before he was passed by Sam Wieben for the top spot. Wieben was soon challenged by Dylan VanWyk, Ben Chapman and Kyle Olson. On lap seven VanWyk took over the lead but Wieben would fight back four laps later to retake the top spot as the leaders were sliding and dicing up front. 

A grinding crash on the front chute eliminated four cars and triggered the last yellow of the race and back on green, it was VanWyk that would once more take over the lead. This time there would be no catching him and he would drive on for the win with Chapman nipping Wieben for second. 

The Sprint feature would be next to race and twenty cars would take the green for their twenty five lap main event. It was a good race early with Luke Verardi taking the lead from the pole before he was overtaken by Devin Wignall for the point. However, following the lone yellow on lap nine, Verardi would repass for the top spot and then hold off all challengers the rest of the way. Even the heavy dirt of the "Bullring", which did seem drier than normal on this night right from the start, was no match for the wide soft tires of the Sprint Cars and the track started to take rubber quickly, leading most of the drivers to get in line and wait for any possible mistakes by their fellow drivers. 

Verardi would smoothly handle the changing conditions and would not be seriously challenged as he drove on for the win. Paul Nienhiser would move past Wignall to finish second. 

With three more features still to be run, the track was pretty much limited in where the racers could run due to that generous rubber strip on the track. Veteran Mark Schulte has seen this condition on a track or two over his long career and he knew exactly where to run on the track, especially after he started on the pole. He would lead the entire twenty laps including three early yellow flags, although he was challenged late by Ryan Maitland and Dylan Thornton who started ninth. 

Start to finish, Bradly Graham would lead the Hobby Stock feature. Ryan Havel would run second from start to finish but just couldn't put together a strong challenge to the winner with Brett Vanous coming from the third row to finish third. 

The Sport Compact feature would see Lukas Rick lead from start to finish. The first lap was a mad scramble and somehow Rick would come from seventh to first on the initial lap but after that he would be in control the rest of the way. Nolan Tuttle would come home second. There was some drama as there often seems to be in this class with one driver being black flagged for rough driving after turning another racer who was battling up front. Neither driver was happy after the race as I suppose one would expect. 

The folks at Benton County were apparently anxiously awaiting the appearance of the Sprint Cars as there was a very large crowd on hand, despite it being a holiday weekend. 

Thanks go out to Rick and Cory Dripps and the staff at Benton County for a job well done, especially working on a holiday weekend under rather extreme weather conditions.