Continuing their swing through the upper Midwest, on Friday night the Modifieds of the USMTS made a visit to the Mississippi Thunder Speedway near the small town of Fountain City Wisconsin. On tap was the twelfth annual Spring Shootout featuring the open wheel Modifieds of the USMTS with four classes of USRA sanctioned racing as the support classes.
While a large number of Friday night race tracks in the Midwest fell victim to the weather, the Mississippi Thunder Speedway, less than a mile from the giant river, remained high and dry. The storms that rolled through in the morning pretty much split when they arrived here in the Coulee region of Wisconsin and dropped very little rain and no more storms reenergized during the afternoon, thus providing a sunny but very windy day to do some racing.
The car count for the Modifieds, which had been just a bit on the small side for the first two nights of this swing, built on Friday as local USRA racers from this area joined the travelers while there were also a few new faces as some drivers took advantage of this opportunity to race and test their equipment before next weekend's gigantic one hundred thousand dollar to win event. Solid fields of cars would be on hand for the support classes, running regular point shows so it would be a full night's worth of racing for the fans. It was a very late arriving crowd as the holiday weekend started, but a decent sized crowd would eventually fill the grandstand seats along with the lawn chairs which are big here. It was a tough schedule with two oversize events playing on back to back weekends and certainly some folks had to decide which one they most wanted to see.
Forty two Modifieds would sign in to race which put them into four big heat races. Pleasantly this year, the time trial format has been dropped and the drivers just draw a pill, race like heck in the heat races for passing points and that then decides the lineups for the rest of the program.
Racing would start at 7:18 pm and the heat races would click off smoothly. Two big B Features for the USMTS cars then determined the rest of the starting lineup for the main and also decided who the provisional slots would be doled out to. After the Mods ran third in the running order for the heats, it was decided to make their main event the last race on the program, a move that likely had mixed reactions from the fans as it did start to get a bit late. However, I didn't see a lot of people get up early and leave but there were a few.
This decision would give the Hobby Stocks first crack at feature racing and twenty of them then took the green flag for an eighteen lap race. A big pileup on the opening lap slowed things and on the restart Chris Hovden came flying forward from the second row to take the early lead. He was challenged hard by Josh Ludeking who started beside Hovden and they were the class of the field.
Despite three more yellow flags, those two did dominate the race and spent most of the contest fighting with each other. Hovden would lead all laps but Ludeking was always pushing him for the top spot. That's the way they finished with Steve Dwyer coming home third.
Twenty four B Mods then took the green for their main event and this race saw a dominating performance by Jett Sorensen who led from the drop of the green right to the checkered flag. Although he was scored the leader of all laps, his lead was challenged late in the race by Caden Neisius and Nate Butterfield. Neisius was particularly hungry for a win here and nearly got past Sorensen a couple of times late in the race.
A couple late yellows were helpful to Sorensen as they ended side by side racing and allowed Sorensen to get control once again. The top four finished in a tight pack and behind them another great race for position saw about five cars contesting spots as they crossed the finish line.
However, the big story of the race was delivered from post race technical inspection. The second place car of Neisius and the fourth place car of defending track champion Ryan Olson were both disqualified for pull bar infractions, whatever that might be. Butterfield was officially credited with second and Ben Moudry third at the pay window.
Fourteen Stock Cars would then go for twenty laps with Dillon Njus taking the initial lead after he started on the pole. He held the top spot for five laps before Blake Adams drove past him on the top side to take over the lead. Adams then put some distance on the field as Lucas Schott, doing double duty, fought with Brady Williamson for second.
Adams' lead was halted on lap fourteen when the only slowdown of the race occurred for a couple spinning cars. Adams then drove away from the field once again and while Schotts tried to stay with him, Adams was simply just a bit quicker and did drive on for the win. Williamson would round out the top five.
The USRA Late Models went twenty laps nonstop and this race had a wild conclusion with a series of aggressive slide jobs settling the outcome, that is until the drivers got to the tech building.
Kory Ressie started on the pole and then led the first thirteen laps, all under the green. He built up a nice sized lead but eventually, as the laps continued under the green, Triton Krause and Brad Waits both started to catch him. Just past the halfway point, the lead really started to shrink and Krause was all over Ressie, looking for a path past him with Waits closely behind.
Krause sized up the situation and then during the final five laps, it turned into slide job city with wild ones being executed by each of the top two drivers, sometimes with multiple attempts on the same lap. Somehow they managed to continue this without wrecking each other but that it didn't happen was a wonder.
Coming for the white flag, both Krause and Ressie went at it again and as they engaged in their own little war, Waits was able to drive under them and take over the lead. One the final lap Krause pulled another slider on Waits but Brad crossed him over and drove home as the winner. At least we thought so, until word came from the tech building once again.
Whether the tech inspectors were having a bad night or not, we will never know but they were making some big, impactful decisions on this night. Winner Waits was disqualified for some violation of an unknown nature and Krause was elevated to the winner's position despite missing out on the victory lane interview and photo opportunity. Ressie was scored second and Matthew Larson given credit for third.
At last it was time for the USMTS feature, scheduled for forty laps with five grand going to the winner of this race. With numerous provisional starters, twenty nine drivers would take the green flag. The start was a wild one as Jake Timm, who started in the second row, found a hole between Brandon Davis and Joe Chisholm on that opening lap and he shot into the lead immediately. One lap later a multi car stack up slowed the action.
Racing then continued with Timm being chased by Brandon Davis with a great battle for position going on behind them. Again the yellow waved when Jacob Hobscheidt went around. This was, however, the end of the race slowdowns and the last thirty three laps would go green to checkers.
Timm was setting a frantic pace but Davis was able to keep him within reach while a dandy battle for third saw Cayden Carter, Jake O'Neil and Schott took place. At the halfway point, O'Neil moved into that third spot but there were several others on the move forward including Rodney Sanders, Jim Chisholm and Tanner Mullens.
With so many green flag laps and so many cars still on the track, the second half of the race was a story of getting through the lapped traffic smoothly, with both Timm and Davis having to work hard to keep the field off their backs. Timm was pounding the cushion and that was his line while Davis was moving around more on the track, trying both high and low to cut the lead that persisted.
Incredible moves were being made by the leaders as they cut through the traffic while trying to keep an eye on each other. With just seven laps to go, Timm got too hot into turn one and got into the concrete. This slowed him just enough that Davis was able to drive under him and take over the lead. And despite Timm pushing for all his worth those last laps, Davis would actually pull away with his smooth line around the track.
Davis would take the win with Timm second and O'Neil, who had lost third to Sanders at one point, did then get back around him to complete the top three. Sanders and Carter were next in line. Only fourteen drivers did manage to stay on the lead lap with the hectic pace being set and there were seven lapped cars all running at the front of the field at the end, making the event even more challenging. Only five drivers weren't on the track at the finish. For Davis, it was incredibly his first ever win at MTS although for years he was a Chateau Speedway regular on Friday nights, a track that runs the same classes so Davis probably doesn't have a huge number of starts here.
It got to be kind of a long night but the racing was good for the most part. That darn wind could have laid down though as it actually switched directions and picked up in intensity as the evening progressed, making for a Fall like feel with fans starting out in shorts and bundled to the max by the end of the evening. I know I scrambled to the car immediately and turned on the heat! Such a wimp.
Thanks to Bob, Tyrone and all the staff at MTS along with continuing support from the USMTS staff. We were among the few seeing racing on Saturday night so thanks to all for plunging ahead with the show when it would have been pretty easy to cancel.
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