The final evening show of the Rio Grande eighteenth annual Wild West Shootout was held on Friday night, January 12th at the FK Rod Ends Vado Speedway Park in Vado New Mexico. After another windy afternoon, the hurricane force gale finally subsided as the sun set with the promise that the weekend would be warmer, a situation that everyone associated with this event is looking forward to.
The other thing that folks are looking forward to, both Late Model drivers and fans who like close feature racing, is for someone to step forward and put a challenge out on Bobby Pierce. For the third time in four nights of racing, the Illinois driver once again ran away with the Late Model headliner with the rest of the field unsuccessfully trying to keep up with him. After an opening night upset, Pierce has been in control of the Late Model action since and with a potential hundred grand bonus awaiting him if he closes out the weekend, someone will need to step up to slow down the Pierce parade.
New winners would emerge in the other two divisions however, with veteran Terry Phillips and Kris Jackson topping the Modified and X Mod divisions respectively with a southern Missouri sweep of the two classes.
The start of weekend two for this event, where drivers can cram three races in over a short time period, brought out the biggest field for the series so far as one hundred and fifty three drivers signed in to race on Friday with the biggest surge of new faces being in the X Mod class. So far this week, the Late Model numbers have been consistent as just below last year's turnout while the X Mods, with a big boost on Friday, have started to return to nearly the numbers seen last year.
The big gainer has been in the Modified class where the numbers have been consistently higher than in 2023 with tonight's field of fifty nine being the tops of the week so far.
However, even with the largest field of the week, track officials seen to like setting up Jeff Broeg sized fields for all events with the X Mods running thirteen cars to a heat while the Mods and Late Models are running eleven and twelve cars heats, a move that I can't indorse. Particularly with the open wheel cars running for passing points and only running eight lap heats in all classes, it feels to me like they are most concerned about getting the show over quickly, not providing fair racing for the drivers and giving the fans their monies worth. However, I don't see this changing soon, except that the Late Models will get ten more laps of feature racing starting tomorrow.
One thing that should be mentioned is that the management of this event does try to do things for the racing crews that are housed on the property for ten days or more. Free pizza was offered for all the crews one night this week and tonight after the races, Rumley Engineering provided free food and drink for the teams in a nice heated tent that sits behind the main grandstand.
As always, the Late Model cars qualify first and Garrett Alberson would turn the fastest lap of the week, stopping the clock at 13.889 seconds, the first sub fourteen second lap of the week while Cade Dillard would top the other group.
Qualifying would then be held for all three classes, followed by a pair of B Features for all three and then feature race time. Perhaps the most significant thing that happened in the heats would involve Dillard, doing double duty in both the Late Models and Mods. Dillard had been dominating the Modified action, winning the first three feature races and setting himself up for a nice bonus if he could maintain his stranglehold over the division.
However, that would come to a screaming halt quickly when the Modifieds took to the track for their heats. Christy Barnett would lose control of her car on lap one and spin in front of the field. Dillard would hit her with such force as to cause her car to flip over and also badly damage his own car.
Going off on the hook, Dillard would make a nice comeback later, coming from sixteenth to win a B Feature and also driving from eighteenth to finish in third in the main, but his big bonus was lost.
As has been the case this week, the Late Models would take to the track first for their main event after a track prep session following all qualifying.
One secret to Pierce's success this week as been to qualify well and then race to a heat win, thus allowing him to make the redraw for the front two rows. And he has been successful their two with him starting on the pole for the thirty lap main. This has not always translated into the initial lead for him and it didn't again tonight as Louisiana driver B.J. Robinson surprised many by taking the early lead.
Robinson would lead the first five laps of the main before it appeared that Pierce would decide it was time to go and he blew past Robinson at this point to take over the lead. Bobby would then put distance on the field with Robinson and Alberson battling for second. This battle would last past the halfway point of the race with Brandon Sheppard moving into fourth in his first appearance here this week with Shannon Babb following.
Two laps past the halfway point, the yellow would wave for a slowing Chase Junghans. Robinson, running the cushion, would stick his nose in the mud and lose several positions and would later do it again, ending his night
While Pierce would later complain about a mud packed rear wheel, it didn't seem to slow his progress as he pulled away from Alberson and Sheppard who had climbed to third. One more yellow would set up a three lap sprint to the finish and Pierce would again pull away. Sheppard appeared to have issues at this point as he lost speed, along with several positions on the track.
Pierce would drive home unchallenged while Alberson would have yet another solid finish. Dillard would finish third, ahead of Babb and Kyle Larson who had moved up from twenty second after going to a back up car.
The X Mods would have their share of difficulties getting all their qualifying events smoothly completed but come feature time they did much better with just a single yellow slowing their main. It started off badly for contender J. C. Morton however, as he spun on the opening lap and got drilled and while he soldiered on, his car was not the same after the accident.
Mike Rosales would have a good run, starting on the pole and leading the first ten laps of the feature. He was able to fend off Mike Anderson and Asa Flores in the early going as Reece Solander and Kris Jackson were working their way to the front. Just at the halfway point, both were able to get past him with Jackson taking over the lead.
Kris would then pull away from the field and stretch his lead as the race remained under the green the rest of the way. A good battle for second would see previous winner Nick Rivera edge past Solander in the late going to claim second. Rosales would finish up fourth with Jake Haddox completing the top five.
The Modified feature would round out the night and provide perhaps the most exciting main of the series so far. Three different leaders would hold sway during this twenty five lapper with the winning pass coming with just a lap and a half left in the contest.
Tyler Wolff would take the early lead after starting on the outside pole and he would maintain that position through the first half of the race. However, he had many and varied contenders up to that halfway point. Both Derek Ramirez and Dan Ebert put heavy pressure on the leader and looked to be ready to make a pass for the front.
Unfortunately, either would be around at the finish after Ramirez suddenly lost power down the back chute, triggering a yellow with eleven laps complete and then shortly after, Ebert would nail a dreaded infield ute tire, messing up his front end and eventually forcing him to call it a night.
Jake O'Neill would then become the primary challenger and on lap seventeen, he would take over the top spot. Also on the move were both Dillard and Terry Phillips. Dillard was really surging to the front after his start deep in the pack while Phillips had been flirting around the top five but started to make time when he went to the cushion. Wolff was also able to pick up the pace and he began to challenge O'Neill to get the lead back.
With only six laps to go, Wolff and Dillard tangled on the front chute with Wolff getting dumped by Dillard. Wolff was not happy and tried to give Dillard a flat tire under yellow, a move that didn't work and caused him to get disqualified.
Suddenly Phillips found himself in second and with his high side work, all over O'Neill for the lead. Jake was using the "windshield wiper" technique of riding the low side in the corners and coming straight out to the wall down the chutes. Phillips tolerated this for a couple laps and then crossed over O'Neill down the back chute. The move didn't fully work but it allowed Terry to get even more momentum and down the back chute on the next lap, he blasted past O'Neill on the high side to take over the lead as they came for the white flag.
Phillips would pull away on the final tour and get the well deserved win with O'Neill managing to hold off Dillard for second. Carlos Ahumada Jr and Jake Gallardo would complete the top five in what was a spirited finale to the evening.
Despite more entanglements in the early going, the full program was still completed by 9:30 pm and the crowd seemed improved despite the less than cozy weather conditions. An early starting time for both the upcoming events will likely help in that regard.
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