Berry Earns the Biggest "Turkey" at Springfield

 Turkey Bowl XVII wrapped up on Saturday night, November 18th at the Springfield Raceway. On tap for Saturday night's show would be B Features and features for the B Mods and Mods along with the Midwest Modz A's. The Legend Cars would also run a main event and joining the action on Saturday to run a full show were the Late Models. Quite a field of them pulled in for this one night show with nearly fifty of them signing in to race with drivers as far away as central Illinois and Nebraska all seeking one last race in 2023. 

It would be quite a night with crazy trophies for the feature winners, fireworks for the fans and some good racing action in all classes. The weather has been excellent all weekend with plenty of sun and while it has gotten cool the last couple of nights, it was not extraordinarily so but just what you might expect this time of year. The lack of a threat of rain probably helped greatly in making this what seemed to be the biggest Turkey Bowl ever in terms of fans in attendance and race cars on hand also. 

Three or four B Features would be needed in each class as Springfield only runs twenty cars in their feature races, somewhat surprising with the wide quarter mile that would seem to easily handle more cars than that. However, perhaps that smaller field of cars would allow the qualified drivers to run hard without triggering the rash of yellow flags that often plaque these kinds of races. And all the mains went off quite smoothly on this night so perhaps their thinking is the way to go on this as the smaller fields definitely cut the starting grid to just the best of the best in each class. 

The biggest race of the night would be the Modified main event. Scheduled for fifty laps, this race would pay $7575 to the winner, in honor of Larry Phillips who this memorial race was named for. When you think about it, it strikes me as a bit odd that the Modifieds would be the focused class, especially considering that Larry Phillips raced Late Models on both dirt and asphalt and as far as I know, never raced a Modified. and with Late Models on the card, it would seem to be a natural.

However, the Modifieds would be running for the biggest bucks and they would put on a fine show. With only three yellow flags in their main event, it was a quick and competitive race for the open wheel cars. Illinois' Mark Burgtorf  would take the early lead and the first six laps he would call his own. He was challenged quickly though by Sawyer Crigler and on lap seven, Crigler would drive past Burgtorf to take over the lead. 

Crigler was pounding the cushion as Terry Phillips moved in to challenge while at the same time, Tom Berry Jr. started to hook up right on the bottom as he "catfished" around the inside line and was making time on the field. Berry Jr. drove past Phillips and then moved in on Crigler and on lap twenty two, he took over the lead. 

However, Crigler stayed right with Berry Jr and when Tom got into heavy traffic and got hung up, Crigler was right there to drive past him and regain the lead just at the halfway point when Dakota Sproul spun and triggered the yellow. 

Berry Jr. was the class of the field, however, and it took him only one more lap to regain the lead and from then on, the field was chasing him to no avail.. He would extend his lead to nearly a full straightaway and even a debris yellow with twelve laps to go didn't bother him as he pulled away once again. A late rush was made by Dylan Thornton who was fifth at the last yellow and he drove past Ken Schrader and Phillips to finish third, or at least that's what it seemed. 

And while Berry Jr. had no problems with tech and collected his big check and trophy, second place Crigler did not pass the sharp eyes of the tech folks. Tires, I was told by the announcer of the weekend Jerry VanSickel, was his problem and his disqualification elevated Thornton to second ahead of Phillips, Schrader and Shawn Knuckles. 

Speaking of J Van, he was at his unfiltered best this weekend. He doesn't get to talk at his home track of Marshalltown anymore since he's busy running things there, so when he gets out on the road to announce other special events, he can throw out all his best comments that he's been saving for a year. He had a great time with the parking lot "cluster" on Friday night and was at his PG rated best all weekend, although he did not move to the level of my old announcing buddy and R rated specialist, Lonn Oelke. 

Berry Jr. has had a wonderful year of Modified racing with big wins in both crate and open motor events and has been one of the hottest and most consistent drivers in the class all year. 

The other top feature event of the evening was the Late Model main, with twenty drivers going thirty laps for a top prize of $5075. Starting on the pole, it would be Arkansas driver Tyler Stevens that would lead this race from green to checkered and the Late Model drivers did a great job, going green to checkered without a single yellow. 

This would make lapped traffic a bit of a challenge and it almost bit Stevens as Dillon McCowan reeled him in in heavy traffic and nearly got by, but Stevens made the moves he needed to and cleared the slower cars and then pulled away again. Also making steady progress throughout the course of the race were Logan Martin and Ryan Gustin. They started side by side in row five and they would march their way to the front, all the while hoping for a yellow flag that might have made things very interesting. 

However, that did not occur and they would have to settle for third and fourth, having made late race passes on Justin Zeitner to put him back to fifth at the finish. Stevens is one of the up and comers in the "Natural State" and mentioned that he would be next heading to the Wild West Shootout in Vado in January. 

Kris Jackson is one of the top b Mod drivers in the Midwest and he took yet another big win as he would top the twenty car field to earn the Turkey Bowl win. Damian Kiefer would start on the pole and lead the first lap of this race but the ageless one, Ken Schrader, would get up on the cushion and drive past Kiefer to take over the lead. 

However, Kiefer would fire back and two laps later would regain the lead from Schrader who settled in to the second spot. Jackson would start fifth in this race and by the first yellow, which occurred with eleven laps in the book, he has passed Schrader for second. That yellow would prove to be Kiefer's undoing as just one lap later, Jackson would drive under him and take over the top spot. 

The last half of the race would belong to Jackson as he was very fast on the bottom lane and despite Schrader continuing to pound the cushion, he just couldn't make up any distance on Jackson. At the line, Jackson had a comfortable lead on Schrader to take the win. Another hard charger, Ryan Gillmore would make a late run that would boost him up to third ahead of Kiefer and Dalton Keith. A tip of the hat to Schrader, though, for top five runs in both Modified classes as the veteran can still get it done. 

The Midwest Modz A would round out the evening with their twenty lap main event. The early leader was Sundance Keepper, a great name for either a race car driver or bull rider. He would lead the first two laps with his even greater numbered race car, #6 7/8. On lap three however, J.C. Newell would pass him for the lead and Keepper would later spin out of the top five.

Three laps later, former major league baseball pitcher Anthony Ferrara would drive past Newell to take over the top spot. For most of the rest of the race and through three yellow flags, these two would continue to battle for the lead with Ferrara continuing to set the pace. Late in the race, Ferrara would stretch his advantage while Peter Richardson and Jerry Lankton would work their way up to second and third at the wire. Newell would settle for fourth ahead of Matthew Kay. 

Midwest area racing is now wrapped up for the 2023 racing season and it was quite the spectacular way to wrap it up. I'm sure Jerry Hoffman would call this his most successful Turkey Bowl ever from just about every standpoint. Hopefully the "blow back" from the fire situations on Friday night will prompt some new equipment and perhaps some more training for members of the staff, but the plain truth is while the issue flared here, it could have happened at many tracks in the Midwest with the response being no better as fire safety is definitely the weakest link at many tracks. 

Thanks to Hoffman and his entire crew who put in some very long hours this week and surely must be looking forward to a few days of rest before they start planning their banquet and the 2024 racing schedule. 

Thompson and Pearish Initial Winners at Springfield

 The Turkey Bowl continued on Friday night, November 17th at the Springfield Raceway. The first feature winners of the weekend would be crowned on Friday night as both the Pure Stocks and the Midwest Modz B would have their main events on this night after qualifying on Thursday night. Along with multiple B Features in those two classes to set the final running order for their two main events, heat races would be held for the Midwest Modz A along with the B Mods and Modifieds. 

To say the least, this would be an open wheel fan's night to revel in as along with the fifty two Midwest Modz B's already on hand, there would be an additional forty six Midwest Modz A along with sixty four B Mods and fifty eight Mods added to the show. One hundred sixty eight Modifieds in various classes but all looking identical would be either an open wheel fan's dream or perhaps a nightmare, depending on how things went. There were virtually as many Modifieds on hand as there were letters in the alphabet to describe them!

Throw in another fifty two Pure Stocks and there were over two hundred and twenty cars jammed into the Springfield Speedway pits and parking lots. Yikes, that is a lot of race cars.

Granted, the show was much more compact on Thursday night with not nearly as much racing but as smoothly as things went on Thursday, quite the opposite would be the case on Friday. Twenty nine races would fill the dance card on Friday but along with that and to complicate the situation, there would be two flips, four disqualifications,  two serious race car fires and a parking lot so jammed and disorganized that no one could drive into the pits and the fire department temporarily shut down the racing due to the safety issues presented by the clogged parking lot. It was quite the night! Racing would begin just before 7 pm and despite nearly nonstop racing except for the mandated shut down that was quite brief, racing would wrap up just around the witching hour of Midnight. And did I mention that after a very comfortable night on Thursday, a cold front plowed through southern Missouri during the day today, and temperatures fell off the table with it falling into the thirties before the final checkered flag flew. 

Both the flips were of the violent nature right in front of the crowd but both drivers were just fine. You could probably attend races for many years and not see a race car fire as serious as the one witnessed on Friday but then to see nearly back to back ones, both of the very serious nature, right in front of the grandstand, was both remarkable and plenty scary. Fortunately both cars were upright when the fires broke out and both drivers were able to get out quickly but I shiver to think what might have happened if they were upside down, given the slow and inept response of track officials. The first fire saw just one person respond to the situation with an extinguisher and after he emptied that with absolutely to impact, he flung it to the ground and walked away. 

It took forever for more officials to respond it seemed, and in the meantime the race car just burned away while the driver rushed around trying to gather some help before finally giving up and flinging his arms to the sky. Spectators in the crowd got rather upset and it turned into an ugly situation. Having nearly exhausting their limited resources on the first fire, when the second one broke out in nearly the same place on the track, this was even worse, taking longer to put out and watching the car burn down. 

The odds of something like this happening back to back were almost nil, but unfortunately, that is exactly what happened and the response was a scary thing moving forward. I don't want to point fingers but I'm guessing other people have already "toasted" the track on social media so I don't need to go any farther on this. However, this should set a lot of tracks and promoters thinking because my guess is that a lot of race tracks are no better prepared to handle this kind of situation than they were here tonight. Fire and fire prevention at the race track is one of those "elephants in the closet" that no one wants to think about. 

Twenty cars would start the Pure Stock feature which turned into one of the smoothest races of the night. Mark Simon would start on the pole and lead the opening lap but he was soon passed by the station wagon of Allen Thompson. Thompson was quick and he began to pull away from the field as the race remained under the green flag. Thompson found a fast line on the bottom of the track and he would continue to stretch his lead. 

Thompson was way out in front but there was a  great battle for second and back as a group of around a half dozen cars jockeyed for position, swapping lines and positions on nearly every lap. Jody Tillman moved into second by the halfway point with Robbie Jones third but that was just temporary as they continued to swap spots. 

Thompson would continue to dominate with no one providing any kind of challenge to him. He would build up nearly a full straightaway lead over the field and cruise home for the win. Trenton Houston would make a great drive up from the fifth row as he found the top side to work for him. In the last few laps he passed Tillman for second with Jones settling for fourth and Chris Tonoli rounding out the top five. 

The Midwest Modz B feature would round out the night with only the tough fans sticking it out for this one. Cody Arnett would lead the opening lap after starting on the pole. However, just as he got passed for the lead by Zackary Martin on lap two, a grinding three car crash occurred right in front of the grandstand with Nathan Bresee flipping while Jake Carter rode up on the overturned car. Fortunately, all drivers were fine. 

However, the red would negate the pass by Martin and Arnett would retain the lead. This time, though, it was Tyler Pearish that would move into second and he began to put much pressure on the leader. At the halfway point, he threw a slider on Arnett in turn one and made it stick as he took over the top spot. 

While Arnett would never let him get away, Pearish would control the rest of the race and go on for the win by several car lengths. Arnett would settle for second and Austin Harrell would round out the top three. 

The Turkey Bowl will wrap up on Saturday night with B Features and main events for the Midwest Modz A, the B Mods and Mods while the Late Models will be added for a full show also. And the Legend Cars will also run their main. 

Larry Phillips Memorial Turkey Bowl Kicks Off in Springfield

 The Larry Phillips Memorial Turkey Bowl XVII kicked off on Thursday night, November 16th at Jerry Hoffman's Springfield Raceway in Springfield Missouri. 

Under the format established for the 2023 version of this race, the event would be a three night show featuring seven different divisions of racing with all getting their chance to run a full show during that three night run with only the Late Model portion of the event being a one night, complete show. The rest of the six divisions would run their event over two nights, those nights depending on the class.

On Thursday night the Pure Stocks and Midwest Modz B would run their heat races while the other classes would be running multiple hot lap sessions staggered over the course of the evening. The Legend Cars would also run their heat races on Thursday night also. So there would be cars also on hand from the Midwest Modz A, B Mods. Modifieds and Late Models on hand practicing. To say the least, there were plenty of open wheel cars on hand and one has to have a pretty sharp eye to tell one from the other since just about all of them now use quick change rear ends and all spoilers are off the cars this weekend, open Mod or not. 

Hoffman, among other improvements he has made over the last few years, is an expansion of the pit area and he now has a considerable amount of space available to park race cars. Just about all that space was being used already on Thursday night and certainly not all the cars for the weekend were on the grounds by Thursday, including some of the bigger rigs used by the Late Model teams. 

Forty Four Pure Stocks and fifty one Midwest Modz B signed in to race on Thursday night which would require five heat races in each class. There were also twenty some Legend Cars to race. And somewhere  around another hundred cars in the other four classes also hot lapped which meant that somewhere North of two hundred race cars were on the grounds on Thursday night. 

The evening would start off with hot laps for all divisions around 6:30 pm, including the three divisions racing on this night. After all classes got one set of hot laps in, the Midwest Modz B, Legends and Pure Stocks would then run their heat races. Then it would be more hot laps for all classes, rotating the order. 

The three classes racing on this night would qualify using passing points but there was not provision to protect heat race winners as one driver in the Pure Stocks would win a heat and ultimately still be scheduled to race a B Feature on Friday night. Only the top eight in passing points would move into the mains on Friday, thus assuring some large, Jeff Broeg sized  B Features on Friday night for those three classes. 

Heat race winners in the Pure Stocks would include Karla Lampe, Robbie Jones, Josh Marshall, Justin Pike and Michael McKnight. Other highlights would include the second and third place finishers in the first heat being disqualified for technical issues, a certain heat race win by Dale Senters ended by a mechanical breakdown within sight of the checkered and a return to racing by Rex McCroskey. Some fans will no doubt remember Rex who was a top notch Late Model driver for years and has returned to racing this year running in the Pure Stock class. There were only three yellows in the five heats total as the racing was tough but nonstop in most cases. 

Heat race winners in the Midwest Modz B were Zackary Martin, Tyler Pearish, Nathan Bresee, Keith Nutter and Cody Arnett. The Midwest Modz B did almost as well as the Pure Stocks as there were a total of only six yellows in their five heats. 

Seventeen Late Models were among those that practiced on Thursday with many on the pre entered list not among those on hand. Some of the noteworthy drivers that took practice included Shane DeMey, Tony Jackson Jr and Logan Martin. Ryan Gustin made his first laps in his new Longhorn ride from Todd Cooney but shut down early and took a push off the track. Gustin also had a Modified to drive also.

Other noted Modified drivers on hand for practice included Ken Schrader, Tanner Mullens, Tom Berry Jr, Anthony Roth and Peyton Taylor. Terry Phillips showed his loyalty to the KC Chiefs with a special eye catching wrap, even if one doesn't care much for the Chiefs. 

The track was in excellent shape for the opening night. With the unusually warm temperatures and moist conditions, they actually had to stop a couple of times to roll in the track both on the top and inside lanes as the water was actually seeping up and making the surface slippery. Gradually through the night it did dry out and black slick started to show but the drivers were racing all over what was a fast track. 

The thirteen heats were completed sometime after 8:30 pm after starting about an hour earlier,  after which more practice time was given, as it seems like some drivers just can't get enough laps, even if they have been racing all Summer and it is now Mid November. The pit area was packed, as you might imagine, with crew members and families making this night a profitable one for management while there were a surprisingly large number of folks just spectating on this rather balmy November night. 

Heat races for all other classes are scheduled for Friday night along with B Features and main events for the three classes that kicked things off on Thursday. 

 

Horn Dominates For Shiverfest Win at Lee County

 The wrap up of the nice, two night weekend of racing for the Midwest dirt finale would see the drivers, crews and fans trek across the southern Iowa border to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. The three eighth mile oval would host the once postponed Shiverfest, an annual event that typically wraps up the racing action in the Hawkeye State. 

For the second straight night, Brian and Marcie Gaylord would be the hosts for the event which was a somewhat bittersweet night for them in that they would be stepping away from promoting at Lee County after being the promoters here for the last eight years. Fortunately for the track, they were able to announce the new promoters who are taking over while a number of tracks throughout the Midwest are currently struggling to find promoters to run their shows. 

Neil Kohlmorgan and Patrick Profeta will take over the promoting for the 2024 season. Both have experience as racers, owners of race cars and both have also sponsored race cars. They are expected to announce their plans on classes they race along with other information soon. The persistent rumor that continues to circulate is that racing will be switched to Saturday nights in 2024 so we shall see. 

One hundred and twenty eight race cars signed in to race on Saturday in the six divisions that were offered. The Mini Haulers would replace the Hobby Stocks from Friday night's Scotland County show with otherwise the same classes running which did a allow a number of out of town teams to travel and race at both tracks. Nearly seventy drivers that didn't race on Friday night would be added to the field with the Sport Mods needing a B Feature on Saturday while everyone got to race in the other five classes. 

A different looking division was the Mini Haulers which are rear wheel drive pick up trucks. This is a class that used to race at my home track nearly thirty years ago when the NASCAR trucks were just coming into vogue. The class had a flaming period, being very popular for a couple years and then quickly crashing into oblivion. 

Before the races I was able to take a few minutes to have a nice conversation with Iowa's "Iron Man", Darrel DeFrance. With forty some shows having been completed this year, it was kind of a different year for DeFrance. With not too much Late Model racing for him in central Iowa, he has taken to going on tour with the SLMR, traveling to races in both the Western and Eastern region of that series. He has enjoyed running this series but has been making a number of trips to western Iowa this year for series races. 

He tells me that he plans to run the same car with updates while also updating his motor program for next year. He is still running his IMCA crate engine and with the SLMR so time trial orientated with the points that are awarded for good qualifying runs, his little motor makes it tougher to qualify well on big and heavy tracks. He says it races well but qualifying is tough and he might upgrade to a motor with more power. 

The SLMR has lost its title sponsor for 2024 and is looking with Darrel saying that a prominent driver and business owner from southeast Iowa is the prime candidate as the replacement so we shall see. Darrel is also considering making an Arizona run in January to race that series out there as he can make it a duel purpose, both racing and visiting family that live out there. 

Racing would begin shortly after six on a track that was quite heavy but would gradually dry out as the night progressed, causing the fast racing lane to move around and shift around as drivers searched for the fastest groove for their particular taste. 

There were plenty of things going on for the fans too as Shiverfest always provides with hayrides through the pits for fans and trick or treat on the front chute before the races started. There were plenty of folks on hand, both young and old in costume. 

The Stock Car feature would be first to roll out for action, with nineteen drivers taking the green. Abe Huls would lead the opening lap but just one lap later John Oliver Jr. would take over the lead. Oliver Jr., busy all weekend running in two classes, would then establish dominance and would lead the rest of  the race. There was plenty of action going on behind him though, as Huls, Miciah Hildebaugh, Todd Reitzler, Tom Cannon and Dustin Griffiths all fought for position and jockeyed back and forth through three yellow and one red flag. 

When Cannon spun with just two laps to go and Hildebaugh dropped out, the running order got jumbled as Oliver Jr. drove on for the win over Griffiths and Reitzler. 

While Tim Ward would lead from start to finish in the Modified feature, it was not an easy win by any means. Austin Becerra was closely following Ward from start to finish and several times got plenty close enough to provide a challenge. Ward was forced to adjust his line on the track several times with Becerra several times diving to his inside in the turns and nearly making the pass. 

After the last yellow though, Ward found a line that worked best for him and he was able to put some distance on Becerra who would settle for second. Charlie Mohr would move up from ninth to finish third. 

The most dominating run of the night was completed by C.J. Horn who would lead from start to finish in the Late Model feature. He would again show great speed but without the drama of Friday night at Memphis where his last lap challenge went badly South. 

This night he would lead without any challenge at all, having built up nearly a full straightaway before a lone yellow with six laps to go bunched the field. Horn, who's car didn't seem to be handling all that well, made up for that with exception speed that would see him pull away on the chutes. In fact, even his motor sounded different than everyone else's as he pulled away once again. 

There was a good battle for second though, with Darrel DeFrance making his car work well on the inside as he ducked into second and then held off a strong rush from Jeff Tharp who was driving Andy Nezworski's car on this night. I slipped up on spotting this and thus can't say whether this was a one night arrangement or if Tharp had purchased the car for 2024. 

A three car grinder on the second lap slowed the Sport Mod feature as Chris Spaulding took the early lead. Tanner Kingele and John Oliver Jr. tried to keep up with Spaulding who was setting a very fast pace. 

Gradually moving forward were Brayton Carter and Tony Olson who were moving up after starting in the fifth and eighth rows respectively. As Spaulding continued to lead, Carter searched around on the track and finally found the openings he needed to move into second. A spin then would pack the field and set the race to the checkered in motion. 

Spaulding was very fast and while Carter chose to push the cushion, he could stay with but never seriously challenge Spaulding for the lead. Spaulding was one of the very few USRA cars in the  field and his speed showed. Carter pushed to the limit but just couldn't cut the margin that Spaulding had. Thus Carter, looking for feature win thirty two on the year, would instead settle for family honors in a tie with brother Cayden who also earned thirty one wins in his last year running Sport Mods. 

Not noticed by many was the fact that Spaulding clipped one of the dreaded infield ute tires on the last restart which broke his left front suspension and while he remained just as fast dragging the left front, if a yellow had flown he would have been in big trouble. Fortunately for the Missouri driver, that never occurred. 

Travis Demint would lead from start to finish to win the Sport Compact main event. He was not able to break away from Chevy Barnes and Dyllan Bonk who followed him closely through the early going. On the move was Wisconsin driver Brody Rivest who had broke in his heat and would start eighteenth Rivest showed great speed as he tore through the field and when David Prim slowed with just two laps to go, Rivest was up to second and all over the leader.

However, Demint drove a smart last couple of laps, not giving the inside line up and while Rivest had much speed, he couldn't make the outside work to the point that he could make a pass on the line. Demint would withstand one more challenge and drive on for the win. Rivest, who travels to big races all over on both dirt and asphalt tracks, would finish a strong second with Barnes holding on over a three car scrum at the finish line. 

The Mini Haulers would provide a wild conclusion to the night as those tough enough to hold on for the last checkers on a rapidly cooling night would be entertained. Brian Tipps would take the early lead and hold the point for the first three laps. Fireball Brockett would then make the pass for the point and lead for the majority of the race. 

Tipps would fall back a few car lengths but then make a nice charge back up into contention and would challenge Brockett for the lead in the last couple laps. Tipps would try the outside and after a few tense moments, manage to squeeze past up against the wall to take a mini lead as the white flag waved. Brockett would fight back and take the lead through turn one but Tipps would then again charge up on the outside to challenge. 

Coming off the last corner, Tipps had a run and looked to be making the winning pass until Brockett moved up the track and pinned Tipps to the wall, where Brian would bang off the concrete and Brockett would hold on for the win. Score the win for Brockett but without any style points.  Eric Detlefsen would finish third. 

All racing would be complete just after 10 pm and with the ability to spin the clock back one hour, that was an added bonus. Thanks to Gaylord's for a fine weekend of racing and a great way to wrap up the Midwest racing season. Best of luck to them in the future and all are now looking forward to seeing the plans of the new promoters to keep racing alive and healthy at Lee County. 

Reitzler Tops List of Winners at Exciting Race-Tacular at Scotland County

 Who would have guessed that we would be racing in northern Missouri and southeastern Iowa the first weekend of November? With last weekend's complete washout of racing in the entire Midwest, the folks at Scotland County and Lee County made the bold move to reschedule both of their races to this weekend and those of us, frustrated with the wet weather the last few weekends of October, would be the beneficiaries with another chance to get out and see some racing before the snow flies. 

And oh, by the way, the snow has already flown where I live as we had about three inches of the white stuff this week and the ground was still white as I pulled out yesterday, although we may have warm enough temperatures this weekend to remove most of it, at least temporarily. 

The Race-Tacular at Scotland County on Friday night would be the first of the two weekend treats. This weekend event would also find new promoters running this show as Brian and Marcie Gaylord were running things here this weekend with Mike VanGenderen away doing track prep for a race in Arkansas that he had been hired to do and this race being a late addition to the Scotland County schedule. The Gaylord's were helped greatly this weekend by the new Fair Board and Race Committee from Memphis. Apparently the previous Fair Board all resigned recently with the last race here being put together by the new Board and Race Committee in less than one week. What this means for racing going forward at Scotland County I do not know but clearly there may be some new folks in charge in 2024. I met a couple of the folks on the Race Committee and they were both very friendly and accommodating, something this not always the case at some tracks. 

There were some familiar faces helping with the operation on Friday though, as "Big Guy" Kevin Eggleston was waving the flags and Tony Paris calling the action. I did also catch a glimpse of Kevin Feller who I would assume was doing scoring and timing. 

The program would feature the six classes of cars that most frequently race on area tracks with everything from Sport Compacts to IMCA style Late Models in action on this night. Eighty eight cars would sign in to race and while that is not a pit exploding number of racers, quite frankly, on a cool late Fall night, that for me is just about the right number of cars with no B Features needed and everyone getting to run a main. 

And speaking of the weather, after all the promises of such nice weather, things kind of took a nasty turn as Friday progressed with lots of clouds and even some rain in the forecast. It did sprinkle on and off for at least a couple of hours as drivers were arriving and while it never got to the point to threaten the show, there were no doubt some that chose to leave their race cars home on a such a damp and cool night while others sat on their couch and watched the event on tv. Even after the show, I ran into long stretches where the highway pavement was still wet, indicating that some got more than just sprinkles. 

Two heats and a feature would be the program except for the Sport Mods where they had enough cars for three heats. The track was heavier on this night than I can remember seeing before and while the speeds were high, it took some time to widen out the groove. However, there was not a whisper of dust all night and although just a bit choppy early, the track seemed to smooth out as the night progressed. 

The program started right at the advertised time and with a one spin rule and only a single yellow flag in the thirteen heat races, all qualifying was completed in just sixty three minutes. The kids got to come on to the track at that point for the candy toss and then it was time to go feature racing. 

The six feature races would provide some fine racing action with several of them not decided until the last laps and some great side by side racing for the top spot. In fact, things were so intense that in at least two of the features, there was some spirited jousting between drivers battling for the lead, both during and following their respective contests. 

However, with all this going on, the performance of Todd Reitzler, who came from the back after a near disaster during the Stock Car feature to end up the winner, stands out from the rest. Fifteen cars would start the Stock Car main with Dustin Griffiths taking the early lead. He could only hold the point for two laps though, until he was passed by Jason See for the lead. John Oliver Jr. would move into second and was giving See plenty to worry about.

Just at the halfway point, Reitzler, who was running fifth, would get wildly up on two wheels heading into turn three and nearly take a wild flip. However, he was able to right the car but still flew off corner three at a high rate of speed, into the bean field that had just be combined in the hours that the pits filled up. 

Reitzler was able to return to the track and the race but he had to go to the tail plus the right front of his car was clearly damaged with it nearly dragging the ground. Nevertheless, he would return to the race when just one lap later, Josh Robinson would take a violent flip in turn one and trigger the red flag. He would be OK and the race would continue. 

See would continue to lead with Oliver Jr. chasing but Reitzler was working his way back up through the field, picking off car after car despite his front end issues. He would get back into the top five and continue to charge, moving pas Oliver Jr. for second and setting out after See. Coming to the white flag, Reitzler would get under See in turn four and make the winning pass while pulling away on the final lap to record quite the stunning victory. See and Oliver Jr. would trail at the finish. 

The Modifieds would roll out next and provide another barn burner of an event. Jarrett Brown would move past Kurt Kile and Austin Becerra to lead lap one but soon after, Becerra would work the outer lane and make the pass to move into the lead. Meanwhile, Chris Spaulding, who started sixth, was on a tear as he came flying up and fought his way into second spot. 

He set off after Becerra and they separated themselves from the pack. Spaulding was all over Becerra as he looked for a way by. Finally, he pulled a bold slide job in turn three and dove under Becerra to take over the lead. However, Becerra tried to counter by diving under Spaulding but he unfortunately caught the rear end of Spaulding's car and turned him around leaving turn four. 

The yellow flew and as track officials tried to sort everything out, Spaulding made Becerra aware that he didn't appreciate the move with several dive bomb moves under the yellow. The call was made that Spaulding would go to the tail for the spin but Becerra would join him there for "questionable driving." 

That would put Kile into the lead and he would hold on for the last seven laps to take the win. Tim Ward would pass Brown for second but too late to make a charge on Kile, who pulled into victory lane with his own set of issues as the right front on his car was damaged and the race ended just in time for him. 

The Sport Compact feature would find Cyle Hawkins taking the early lead with Barry Taft and Jeffrey Delonjay challenging him. Delonjay was especially fast and he moved into second and tried for several laps to get past Hawkins. Finally, with just three laps to go, he was able to make the pass on the high side in turn one and would then pull away. 

The race produced a one lap sprint to the finish when Taft broke on the track and while Delonjay would pull away, Hawkins would go up in smoke on the final tour with Chevy Barnes moving into second and Matt Moore third. 

The theme of the night was close racing and the Late Models following that script well. This race would see a battle that wouldn't be settling until the closing laps with one competitor not happy with the results. 

Sixteen cars would take the green with rookie Josh Foster leading the first four laps. He would be challenged by Evan Miller who would make a bold pass on the tall side of turn  four to take over the lead. On the move was C. J. Horn who redrew poorly, starting eighth but he quickly passed cars and moved into a challenging position. 

Horn would catch the leader and press Miller and the two would thrill as they tore through lapped traffic and tried to maneuver past each other. Horn dropped back slightly and then made one last charge that would see him get side by side with Miller. They raced that way for two laps as neither would give and inch and as they took the white flag, they were still side by side. 

However, both tried to squeeze low into turn one and there just wasn't room with Horn going for a spin and the lone yellow of the race triggered. Miller would retain the lead and would then hold off Tommy Elston for the last two laps for the win with Darrel DeFrance edging into third on the final lap. After the race, Horn was not happy and dive bombed the winner as well as trying to plead his case to "Big Boy." Neither were successful. 

Nineteen Sport Mods would go nonstop in their main event and it would be a familiar face in victory lane as Brayton Carter would fight his way past John Oliver Jr. to collect the win. Oliver Jr. would take the early lead with Carter quickly moving up from third to challenge. Those two would separate themselves from the pack and they had quite the battle with Oliver Jr. working the outside line and Carter trying to get inside of him. 

Finally, on lap ten, Carter would edge in front but Oliver Jr. was staying right with him. Lapped traffic was heavy and that made the difference as Carter made a couple of spectacular moves in traffic that allowed him to earn some distance over Oliver Jr. which he held to the finish. Brandon Lennox would finish third. 

The Hobby Stocks would wrap up the night with another nonstop main and this race would be dominated by Bennett Johnson. He would start on the pole, take the early lead and then pull away from the pack. He would never be challenged as he made the top side of the track work for him, pulling away from the pack. 

There would be quite the battle for second though, with a group of drivers fighting for that position. After sliding back into the field, Nathan Ballard would make a late charge that would see him get to second as he passed Tom Killen Jr. late for that spot. 

The final checkered would fall at 10:05 pm, making this exactly a three hour show that was full of excitement and close racing. Congratulations to all for a fine night of racing. Thanks to the Gaylord's along with the Scotland County Fair Board and volunteers for their help. everyone overcame what was kind of a dismal weather day to provide an excellent night of racing and a good way to wrap the season at Scotland County Speedway.