Night number two of the sixteenth annual "Clash at the Creek" was held under steamy conditions on Wednesday night, June 12th at the 141 Speedway between Francis Creek and Maribel Wisconsin. On this night, three dominating drivers drove to victory lane, two of them leading all laps in their main events.
For Eric Mahlik and Coy Vlies, their Stock Car and Sport Mod wins came after they took the lead on lap one and proceeded to dominate things in their divisions as they drove on to victory. Benji LaCrosse had a tougher time of it, not leading the Modified feature until lap thirty two of the fifty lap "Clash" finale but once he did take the lead, he proceeded to disappear into the eastern Wisconsin sunset.
The program for Wednesday night would be exactly that same one offered on Tuesday, right down to the number of heats and B Features that led up to the three feature races. The car counts were very similiar also to Tuesday night with thirty one Sport Mods and thirty eight Stock Cars signing in. There were fourteen additional drivers entered in these two classes with obviously some from the first night that did not return. The Modified field was set at seventy three with the only change seeing Jerry Flippo driving one of Tate Johnson's cars while Flippo tucked his own car in the trailer for the night. Thirteen states were now represented on the track after Illinois Sport Mod driver Austin Stamm joined the action on Wednesday.
The running order would see the Stock Cars go first on Wednesday as they swapped spots with the Sport Mods, Otherwise, everything was the same.
Also the same was the unsettled weather the track was facing. While the temperatures jumped up about fifteen degrees on Wednesday, there was still a large blob of weather to the West of the track, even though there was no mention of rain in the forecast. They did slip to the South of the track but round two came charging in later from western Wisconsin and indeed, I was not too far away from the track upon the completion of the show when lightning became visible in the northern skies. But they got it in and that's what counted. However, these threats of bad weather couldn't have helped the crowds which didn't seem as big as they have historically been over the past few years.
Toby Kruse was his usual positive and upbeat person when I talked to him before the show on Wednesday though, and he expressed happiness in how things were going so far so if the promoter is happy, then I feel much better about things.
They were really slipping up on Wednesday as the program started a whole two minutes after the advertised starting time! They would get the twenty seven race show completed well before the curfew too with the final checkered flag waving before 10:30 pm. One hundred laps of feature racing action between the three classes would be run off with a total of only five yellow flags too, which certainly helps when you are constantly chasing the watch.
The heat race action was intense in all three classes and usually the second night things tend to get a bit heated based on several factors in play from opening night. While there were not a lot of yellow flag slowdowns, there were several dust ups in the Modified heats and let's just say that Travis Hansen and Dylan Thornton should not be invited to the same cocktail party. Ditto for Brandon Schmitt and Marcus Yarie along with Cody Laney and Dallon Murty as things got heated on a few occasions with everyone trying to earn passing points badly and with the track unwilling to punish rough driving, they were asking for what they go. More on this later.
One change that did take place that would have an effect on the feature racing was that the track "farming" would take place after the completion of all B Features and not just before the Modified feature. This would affect the condition of the track for all three classes and make the racing just a bit different because of that.
The Stock Cars hit the track first for their twenty five lap main with plenty of grip in the racing surface. A first lap grinding crash eliminated contender Jordan Grabouski but after that, they would race nonstop to the finish. With Mahlik on the pole and plenty of bite, he pulled away from the field and was never challenged during the race. He was simply too fast for the competition on Wednesday and built a comfortable lead over the field.
There was a good battle for second though, as Tim VanDeHei, Rick Dix, Cole Czarneski and Brandon Czarapata all fought for that spot. Later in the race, Luke Lemmens came charging up from the seventh starting spot to be a factor. At the finish, Mahlik was comfortably in front with Lemmens completing his charge up to second and Czarapata third.
The Sport Mod main had a dominating player also as Coy Vlies started on the outside pole and led all laps as he raced his way to victory. His win was not as easy however, as he was challenged quite hard by Tuesday night winner Cory Kemkes. Kemkes came from the fourth row and moved into second after a tough battle with Craig Dorner and Vlies had to deal with two late race yellows that packed the field up against him.
However, he pulled away on every restart and while the distance he led by was not large, he was able to keep the contenders at bay. Kemkes and Dorner swapped the second spot three times before a late race move by Cory got him second for good with Dorner settling for third.
It was then time for the fifty lap finale for the Modifieds but unlike Tuesday night, there was no more additional track prep done and I think we would see the results of that later in the race.
Twenty four cars took the green flag for the feature but on the opening lap, outside pole starter Jayden Schmidt would spin up to the wall in turn three, triggering the yellow flag. For some reason that I can't explain, he was given his spot back even though there was no contact with other cars and he clearly spun on his own and all week, no drivers have been given their spots back, contact or not. The call was bull**** and something you would only expect to see at a UMP track where anything goes.
In any event, Schmidt then would lead the opening lap on the second attempt, but would be passed just a lap later by Josh Long for the lead. In some form of fairness, Schmidt then slowed soon after with mechanical issues and would be scored last in the race.
Long couldn't hold the lead for much time either, as just two laps later Grabouski came storming up and drove quickly past Long to claim the top spot. Jordan then set a blistering pace as he put distance on the field. There was quite a gaggle of drivers battling behind the leader including Cory Schroeder, Johnny Whitman, Murty, Joel Rust and Kyle Strickler. But Grabo was pulling away from all of them.
Slowly and smoothly moving up however, was Benji LaCrosse. He started twelfth on the grid and was advancing smoothly, not showy but steadily. All week, he had made this track into about an eighth mile oval, running on the extreme bottom lane, hugging the ute tires and keeping his car straight and smooth. And for the second straight night, he was making that line work.
Grabo was up on the cushion and continued to lead but by the halfway point, LaCrosse was up to second, ahead of Long, Murty and Schroeder. Right at that halfway point, Grabouski started to realize he was in trouble. The top side was going away and it appeared that the lower groove was taking rubber. LaCrosse was catching him at a fast pace and Jordan tried to move to the middle groove and find something that worked but he was spinning and losing time rapidly.
On lap thirty two, LaCrosse drove under him to take over the lead despite Grabo trying to block him but Jordan simply couldn't get his car to hold the bottom lane. As LaCrosse disappeared into the night, Grabouski gave up trying the low side and went back up on top but no matter where he ran, he was losing ground.
After the first lap yellow, the race ran off fifty straight green flag laps and LaCrosse just kept building his lead. Most drivers were saving their equipment so when they came close to being lapped, they would just pull into the infield as the field shrunk. By the checkered, their were only fourteen cars on the track with five of them being a lap down. LaCrosse had nearly a full straightaway over the field and his familiarity with the track was telling at the end. Grabouski managed to manhandle his car home third and late in the race, the top side gave up on Murty which allowed Long to drive under him and complete the top three.
During the course of the night, there were several instances of drivers retaliating on each other and hitting under the yellow or after the completion of races. Where I live, if you did that you would be automatically disqualified from the race and that is something that should be tightened up here. Also, I'd like to see the black flag used to, for instances when drivers clearly get "dumped" by other drivers, whether on purpose and accidentally. Even if you're not going to give drivers their spots back when this happens, which they should, they could at least send the offender off the track instead of rewarding him by allowing him to continue in his spot unchecked.
But that being said, overall it was another entertaining and busy two nights of racing. I still marvel at how many races they can get completed in such a short period of time, and to look at the track, you wouldn't think they could run as hard as they do and as close as they do without their being constant crashes but that simply is not the case.
Thanks to Toby Kruse, the Czarneski's and all the workers at 141 who put in a couple of grueling days in getting this show completed.
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