The Comp Cams Super Dirt Series Late Models visited the Arrowhead Speedway near West Siloam Springs Oklahoma on Friday night, March 15th for the second race in their long point season. Along with the CCSDS Late Models, the USRA Modifieds and B Mods would also be in action with a full racing program.
This would be my first visit to Arrowhead Speedway since its complete makeover before the 2023 racing season began. I had been at the track a few times "back in the day" when it was known as the West Siloam Speedway and perhaps a couple of other names under various promoters but about the only thing that ties those tracks to this one is that they all resided in the same location.
The Arrowhead Speedway, as it stands now, is certainly one of the nicer facilities in the entire Midwest and a well planned out racing facility. It would appear that track owner and part time racer Willie Gammill spared no coin when he built this track as it features top notch planning and quality construction from top to bottom. I was told that Jason Hughes, who's racing shop is just miles from the track, was consulted for much of the planning and with folks like Gammill and track promoter Bryce Hall involved, all have been around the block and know what is good and what isn't at a race track and how things should be laid out to provide the best experience for both the racers and fans.
Quite frankly, to me it looks like they relied on Lucas Oil Speedway as a blue print with much of the facility laid out just as Lucas is. It might not be quite as fancy as Lucas, but it could be a younger brother to that track.
The racing surface is about a quarter mile in distance and while I have heard it described as both a quarter and a third, it looks closer to the former to me. It is covered in rich black dirt, a vein of which was found in the local area and the black dirt sure sticks out from the bright red clay that this area has for a base everywhere else. It has grandstands on both the front and back chute of the track, just like Wheatland and VIP booths top the grandstand all the way around the track. Each booth has its own bathroom, with a luxury couch and good sight lines. There is nothing in the middle of the track to obstruct viewing and on this night, I chose to sit on the back stretch with the wind at my back, just as I play the wind at Wheatland.
The pit area provides cement slabs for the racers to pit on and while not every inch of ground is paved, the driveways and walkways are all concrete and rainy weather should not make the pits a mess like most tracks. They have a large tech shed and plenty of buildings to shore equipment and there is a separate driveway for the spectators and competitors to get off highway 412 where traffic is screaming by at 70 mph.
There are fine restrooms on both the front and back chute and concession stands also. Interestingly, the track concession stand is rather spartan in that it offers only a few items and the reason being that there are a number of food trucks on the grounds for all racers and the fans enjoy having the wide variety of items to chose from. This is an interesting concept but not a bad one.
The track lighting is spectacular and amongst the best seen anywhere and they even have the ability to dim, darken and change colors on the lights, such as they do at Knoxville and 81 Speedway. There were a lot of fine looking speakers all the way around the track but I can't comment on how well they work because I didn't get to the front stretch and none of the speakers were working on the back chute. We were left in the dark, so to speak, as we couldn't hear anything all night and the opening night problem was never solved which was a bit of a disappointment. The only glaring need I saw was that the track had no scoreboard, which I thought off but perhaps that is still in the plan for the future. Without a scoreboard and no pa system to rely on, we, on the back chute, were left to guess on many things all night.
The track has a concrete wall all the way around the track and there is only one entrance/exit, that off turn four which meant that all cars had to both come and return through that space. That can create a bit of a slowdown but they had it well organized so it wasn't much of an issue.
I had known Bryce Hall for a number of years through USMTS, USRA and his days as the promoter at the highbanks of Salina but I also ran into someone else that I knew very unexpectedly. Chris Loberg used to live in the Eau Claire and Rochester areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota and used to race Modifieds where I saw him in action from time to time. Imagine my surprise as I was walking the pits and I heard someone yell out my name, only to discover that it was Chris. Seems that he know lives in this area, works down here and would be the flagman for the evening's events. He was also kind enough to take me on a quick tour of the grounds so I got to see just about everything the track had to offer. It's strange how you run into people at the least expected times.
The Comp Cams series brought in a great field of forty Late Models for the show on Friday, everyone looking to make the thirty five lap feature race that paid five grand to the winner. It would be a short night for Kylan Garner however, as he would blow up an engine in hot laps and be done for the night.
The usual Comp Cams format was used with the field split in two and qualifying setting the running order for the four heat races. Quickest time of the night would be Scott Crigler at 13.052 seconds while Daniel Hilsabeck would be just behind , topping group two. UMP's Sam Driggers was again on hand to help administer the program.
Four heats and a pair of B Features would set the running order for the main event and with provisional starters, there would be twenty six drivers taking the green flag for the main. Tony Jackson Jr would get the jump on Crigler to take the early lead with Crigler getting shuffled back right away by Tristan Chamberlain who moved into second. The first thirteen laps would go nonstop and there was some wild goings on in the pack while the battle for second was harsh with Jackson Jr stepping away from the field just a bit. While Chamberlain and Tyler Stevens engaged in war, Jackson Jr would catch the back of the pack within a few laps and the heavy traffic made navigating tough.
Following a minor yellow, there were some more wicked slide jobs thrown with Stevens getting the front end of his car bashed in that would eventually see him slow and then call it a night. Chamberlain would continue to hold second but Logan Martin was on the move after starting eighth and he was up to third by the halfway point of the contest with Hilsabeck following him.
Martin was getting a great run off turn four and he dipped under first Chamberlain and then leader Jackson Jr to take over the top spot just one lap later. Stevens dropped out and then third running Chamberlain also had issues and slowed, ending his night.
A late race yellow set up a three lap sprint to the finish but Martin pulled away and didn't let anyone challenge him. Jackson Jr had slipped to third but Morgan Bagley, who had passed him, seemed to be slowing just a bit himself and Jackson Jr would get back around him for second with Bagley settling for third. Consistent runs by Kyle Beard and B.J. Robinson would see them complete the top five as twenty three of the starters were still on the track at the finish.
Twenty two USRA Modifieds would sign in to race which meant three heats and their twenty lap main event. It would be an easy go of it for Tyler Wolff who would start on the pole and run away from the field for a strong win.
After a first lap yellow when Steve McLaughlin would hammer the first turn wall, this race would go non stop, green to checkers. Wolff would pull away and at the end would have a full straightaway lead on Trevor Hughes. Wolff's biggest issue was lapped traffic, of which there was much, but he handled it well and at the end, had seven slower cars between himself and Hughes for the dominating victory.
Hughes did much passing himself, starting fifth on the grid and moving up to third by the halfway point of the race. He then had a good battle with Paden Phillips before making a late race pass on him to secure second. Brendon Gemmill also was able to get past Phillips for third with Chad Davis completing the top five.
Arrowhead Speedway has one of the highest weekly counts of B Mods of any USRA sanctioned track and typically runs double feature races because they have so many cars. Such was the case again on Friday with thirty nine signing in to race. However, on this night they ran just the one feature and the top twenty four would start the main. Three different leaders would hold the top spot in the twenty lapper before Kyle Slader took command late and drove on for the win.
Kyle Ledford would take the lead at the start with outside front row starter Dalton Ragsdale having to drop out of the contest before the green was even displayed. Ledford would lead for only a single lap before Sundance Keepper would drive past him on the outside to take over the top spot. Slader would be on the move and would drive up into second and then put the heat on Keepper.
Also flying forward was J.C. Morton who started ninth but using the top side of the track, was soon up to third and still pushing. He got by Slader and moved in on the leader, trying several times to get past but not quite pulling off the move.
Things changed following another yellow though as Slader used the top side on a restart to drive past Morton into second and then when Keepper pushed up the track, Kyle was able to drive past and take over the lead. Morton would then move into second as Keepper was starting to lose his edge.
A third and final yellow would bunch the field once more but Slader got away well and despite Morton pushing for all he had, he wasn't able to cut into the lead of Slader who would drive on for the win. Mason Day would come on strong at the end to finish third ahead of Kort Morgan and Keepper. Lots of mechanical issues would shelve nearly half the field by the time the race was completed.
The track held up well for opening night and particularly following the storms of Thursday. They did tickle and water it before the main events and I'm not sure if it made much difference as it seemed to be racing well before they stopped. However, the track remained smooth and fast with a nice cushion and good side by side racing along with little dust.
It was a big eighteen event program and they did a fine job of moving it along, with one race right after the other and not a lot of yellow flags, aided by the one spin rule in effect. In fact, the whole show was completed in just over three hours. The one curious fact though, was that they didn't start hot lapping until 7:30 pm and the first race wasn't scheduled until 8 pm, seemingly very late for a Friday night but there must be some reason for that. Of course, with time trials the program never gets started on time and it was 8:42 pm before the first green flag waved. Thus, while they ran off a quick three hour program, it was still Midnight before the final checkered waved, just a bit late for my taste.
Thanks to Chris Sullivan and all the folks from Comp Cams. It looks like they are off to a strong start to their season. Thanks to Bryce Hall and Willie Gammill for the chance to see racing at one of the up and coming tracks certainly in the Midwest and a real show place. They have a big two day event for Stock Cars coming up this coming weekend that should be quite the show also.
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