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.
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