The Gateway Dirt Nationals kicked off on Thursday night, December 14th at the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis. As has been the norm in the last few years, Late Models and Modifieds would be the two divisions racing on this weekend, with this being the first of three nights of racing action here.
Both classes will run full shows on the opening two nights with the field split for the first two nights and then everyone will come back and race on Saturday for the big money main events.
The Late Model field is open to everyone and it is first come, first served with the field filling very quickly once the go ahead was given to start entering. In fact, so many drivers want to test this event at least once that a back up list is developed with drivers then being added to the entry list if for some reason someone entered had to back out for whatever reason. There is always some last minute jockeying going on with sometimes drivers moved from Thursday to Friday or visa versa that alters the numbers slightly and this year there would be sixty three Late Model drivers ready to test the tight oval on Thursday.
The Modified field, on the other hand, is by invitation only with drivers wanting to race presenting their resumes to the management who then doles out the invitations to drivers. The Modified field is kept small because there simply is neither the time nor space at the America's Center to house all the racers that would like to try this race at least once. Through experimenting over the years with numbers, the management has figured out just how many cars they can accommodate and still get the show over at an early time and avoid the very late nights that punctuated this event in its early years. This year there would be twenty eight Modified drivers representing a broad range of sanctioning bodies and area to do battle.
It is surprising but nice to see how many teams put special wraps on their cars for this event, especially knowing how the racing is here indoors and that lots of contact with each other and the walls is the norm for racing here. While some teams just presented their battle scarred machines, rubbed up after a long season of racing, there were many that had special wraps highlighting the Dome and St. Louis and others highlighting the holiday time of the year. Pictures were taken early, a wise thing, as while a few escaped damage, many were torn up before the night was over and some barely survived their first lap of competition.
The pits had been rearranged this year with a totally new parking arrangement that saw the race cars parked in long rows nearly the length of the building instead of a maze of short rows everywhere and it seems to me to flow much better and better utilize the space in the building. Also to be noted was the change to the race track itself with the exit removed from turn two and instead redesigned at a different angle in turn three. This greatly decreased the number of bad wrecks when racers would hook the outside wall and drive out exiting turn two which had been the scene of many bad crashes over the years. Things went very smoothly on opening night once everyone figured out the procedure that they had to go to the infield and then drive backward up the track and out the exit, much like they do at East Moline, Macon and lots of other bull rings in the Midwest.
It did not take long for the action to heat up as one of the weekend favorites, Hudson O'Neal, had his motor lock up on him and he pounded the first turn wall in hot laps and reported that he was done for the weekend before he could even turn a lap in competition. This was disappointing to his many fans on hand but certainly wouldn't be the only car to be eliminated early.
In and effort to keep the track smooth and not rut up like some years, the racing surface was really pounded down hard and quickly turned black and very slick. The only watering they did was right before the two feature races except to "tickle" the track a few times. Things were mighty dusty for the fans and while the drivers weren't bothered, the dust filtered down from the ceiling onto the fans like falling ash and everyone was pretty much covered before the night was over. It was not pleasant but as one of the drivers said, now that they have the track smoothed out for the weekend, they can probably put a little more water on starting on Friday to hopefully speed things up a bit and widen out the track more.
The Late Model field was split into two groups for their six heat races and Nick Hoffman and Freddie Carpenter were the two quick qualifiers with Hoffman at 12.778 the fastest of all. Dave Hess would lead Mods at 13.412 seconds.
Six heat races for the Late Models and four Modified heats would qualify cars for the main. Three B Features would set the final running order for the two, eighteen car main events, of which only the top three would be locked in for Saturday's main event.
The action started quickly and there was plenty of it as you might expect on such a tight track with so much on the line and drivers feeling both extra pressure and adrenalin to make the shows and also be spectacular. Jason Feger was prominently featured in one of the big "dust ups" but he wasn't the only one for sure.
Drivers were told at the driver's meeting that it they had a problem with another driver they should "settle it on the track"! That kind of mentality is what keeps some purists of the sport away from this event and I can't say that I totally disagree with them. This event is sold as one part racing, one part circus and one part WWE and some times things get out of hand here but I guess all should recognize that when they walk in the doors to either attend or race. Apparently this race can't be sold on its racing merits only and has to resort to some of the other things that we see on display.
The slow and dusty track did not provide the most spectacular of feature races on Thursday but at least, after being plagued by many yellows in the preliminary events, when the evening's best drivers hit the track for the mains, they did better with only one yellow in the Late Model feature and two in the Modifieds.
Nick Hoffman redrew the pole for the Late Model feature and as the quickest qualifier of the night, that was all the special break he needed as he led easily from start to finish to top the Late Model main. He pulled away right from the start with Jadon Frame trying to stay with him. Hoffman pulled out to a big lead before the lone yellow waved just one lap early of halfway.
This eliminated all the slower cars that Hoffman had just caught from being a problem and he was able to pull away once again. Jason Welshan was able to get past Frame for second but was unable to cut into the lead of Hoffman. Nick just got to lapped traffic as the race ended so it worked out excellently for him. Only the top three were locked in for Saturday so Welshan and Frame also won't have to worry about getting themselves into the show on Saturday.
The Modified feature saw Hess jump into the lead but the yellow waved before a lap could be completed and on the restart, Ricky Thornton Jr was better prepared and he got the jump on Hess to take over the top spot. Only one lap was completed before the yellow waved again but after that, they ran nineteen laps straight through to the finish.
Thornton Jr was able to pull out to a big lead and only had to deal with a couple of lapped cars near the end which didn't hinder his effort at all. He had a big lead and pulled away from the field. Michael Ledford was able to get past Hess for second at midrace but never could close on the leader but they completed the top three and locked themselves in for Saturday night also. Only one driver in each of the two mains failed to complete the distance.
The show was completed early with all racing done around 9:30 pm which the town fathers approve of since it releases hoards of hungry and thirsty folks loose to test the limits of downtown St. Louis after dark. One would be advised to be on foot in the downtown area this year as there is a ton of construction projects underway with many streets closed and navigating a thrill at best.
The Friday night show will be a duplicate of Thursday night's with a whole new set of faces to compete in both classes and then everyone will get back together on Saturday to crown champions in both classes.
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