Another day, another new city and track for the nomads of the World of Outlaws Late Model tour. Tuesday night their band of wanderers moved about two hours West from Independence across central Iowa to the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City for another night of racing on their tour of the Midwest.
Webster City would provide another different kind of challenge to the drivers, many of whom had never either been at Webster City before and perhaps had last raced here years ago. The dirt at Webster City looks more of what you would expect in Iowa but recent changes to the track have seen the outside walls eliminated and the corners both shortened and widened and while those changes have been subtle, to me at least they have made racing this track quite different. And from the few times I have been here since those changes, the difference has been a positive one.
Along with the Late Models, three support classes were also a part of the program as B Mods/Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks were all putting on a full race program. Originally, only two classes were supposed to be racing and the first two classes that filled the entry list would be the classes to race. But apparently, none reached that twenty four car limit so it was decided that all three would race. Rules were opened up so anyone could race and didn't have to worry about tires etc. which probably helped them achieve what was probably their biggest car count of the year in those classes as twenty one Hobby Stocks, eighteen Stock Cars and fifteen B Mods signed in to race. Several drivers from distant parts raced at Indee on Monday night and then stopped here to race on Tuesday before heading home.
The Late Model field was down to twenty four on this night. The top fifteen in WoO points will always be making the journey and then after that, it is a crap shoot just to see who might show up and help fill the field. With few open motor Late Models in central Iowa, they were probably lucky that they could muster up twenty four cars. However, in search of a quick show on a week night, twenty four cars is just about perfect as that allows everyone to start the feature while no B Feature would be needed.
Another factor to consider on this night was the weather. All week the forecast has not been good for Tuesday night and even earlier today, there was a strong chance of T storms arriving by late afternoon or early evening. But here is another lesson to be learned. Never believe the forecast as they are wrong far more often than they are right. Someone traveling a distance could have looked at that forecast and said, screw it, I'm not driving a distance only to get caught in the rain.
And they would have missed out on what turned out to be an interesting race. There was a two minute "sun shower" in the late afternoon from one lone cloud that actually felt good and helped to cool things down. The storms all stayed to our South and we had a light show of lightning in front of us for much of the night but no rain in our whereabouts.
They were really dumping the water on the track before the show and it seemed to have helped much, as there was little to no dust and the racing stayed good throughout the night. And except for a bit of high side packing after the heats, we saw no more appearances from the water truck after the racing started.
I found out that Chad Simpson's problem last night was a battery failure and what a time for something like that to happen. A very insignificant item cost him a chance to make some very good money and must be maddening to a crew that works so hard to get everything right and then have a goofy thing like that happen.
Speaking of that, there were plenty of crews tearing their hair out on Tuesday after time trials and the heat races were completed. Cody Overton had to go to a back up car after their car wouldn't start of all things. Andrew Kosiski missed time trials and his heat when the rear end failed in hot laps. Cody Laney had to go to a back up after his car wouldn't start either. Both Ryan Gustin and Tristan Chamberlain had to go to back up cars when they blew motors in their heats. Gustin still finished in a redraw position and they went through that formality before sending him to the back after he had to go to that back up.
Kyle Bronson debuted a new Longhorn on Tuesday night and he turned the quickest lap of the night at 17.503 seconds. He then redrew the pole for the feature but didn't race as well as he did qualify. With drivers like Pierce, Shirley and others all bringing out new cars recently, it appears that Late Models are now like Sprint Cars as they have only a limited "shelf life" before they get flexed out from racing and must be replaced. I suppose that is an expected consequence of racing today as we know it, but just makes the sport even that much more expensive and difficult for the local racer to even be competitive at.
Other than some of the Late Model drama over mechanical issues, the heat races went off very smoothly although the first one didn't hit the track until 7:51 pm. Once the show got moving, they kept things flowing in a quick manner and recognizing that it was a week night, and with lightning flickering to the South, they continued that pattern with the feature races.
The Hobby Stocks would be first and this race was a blow out with track point leader Bryce Sommerfeld dominating. After Riley Crimmins led the opening lap, Sommerfeld drove under him on lap two and then pulled away from the pack. He led the rest of the race, often by a considerable distance over the field. There was a good battle for second though, as Crimmins fought to hold off Dylan Nelson, Lincoln Miller and Parker Anderson.
Anderson got turned late in the race and they lone yellow of the event was the result. Anderson did get his spot back and during the remaining six laps, Sommerfeld once again pulled away. The battle for second went to Nelson as he edged out Crimmins and Anderson with Scott Dobel making a late charge into the top five.
The Outlaws have arranged to have their feature race run fairly early in the program and that, I think, is a good thing. In theory at least, the tracks should not be used up when they run second and this way, their part of the program is completed fairly early in the evening for those who must leave to get home or get ready for work the following day. The trade off is that with this time line, the Late Models are usually packed up and ready to roll as soon as they can get out of the pits so if you want to have contact with the drivers and see the cars close up, you better get to the track early and buy a pit pass as there will be nothing to find in their pits once the program is over as they will already be down the highway.
Thirty five laps was the distance for the main event Tuesday night for the Late Models and the first lap was a wild one with Tyler Bruening coming from the second row to lead the opening lap. Brandon Sheppard quickly moved in though and passed Bruening just a lap later to take over the lead.
Bobby Pierce was quickly on the move too, and by the third lap he was challenged Sheppard for the lead. They diced back and forth but on lap eight, it was Pierce that drove past for the lead, after which he would lead the remainder of the contest.
However, it was not a runaway as Sheppard remained within a few car lengths of Pierce and several times, as they fought through lapped traffic, Sheppard was able to nose up behind the leader but never had quite enough to make a pass. Both the front runners were moving around the track, trying different lines and also moving as need be to avoid the slower cars. Laney was having a great run as he maintained third for many laps. Later Max McLaughlin would brutalize Laney, taking his whole left side off while making an awkward pass for position and then Laney faded badly in the late going. Brian Shirley also started to march back toward the front after losing several positions early.
Cade Dillard was in a challenging position until he lost a driveshaft with just six laps to go and this would bunch up the field. Something I have noted, especially this year so far, is that following yellows the most passing and changing of positions takes place as it seems that how tires react under yellow changes wildly from driver to driver and is so unpredictable.
This race would be a good example. When the green reappeared, there was a mad scramble of position changing as while Pierce was able to get away OK, Shirley would get past Sheppard for second and as they battled, Pierce then disappeared from them both and Bruening, who wasn't even in the top five at the yellow, came roaring through and passed McLaughlin to take over fourth. It is however, kind of a sad commentary on our times when we have to rely on tires to provide the biggest excitement.
For Pierce, however, it seems that he is really in a groove right now and that one hundred point deficit that he currently faces in the points is still a reachable goal. And if he got there, wouldn't that be a story!
The B Mods hit the track next and their race would be just as big a walkover for the winner as the Hobby Stock had been. And again it was the track point leader, in this case Ty Griffith, that dominated the action. He started in the second row but with a hard charge to the very inside of the track, was able to drive under the field and claim the lead before one lap could be completed. A big smasharoo in turn three eliminated three cars and stacked the field once again. but Griffith just drove away with ease from everyone.
Tyler Inman, driving a #37 car on this night, eventually worked his way up to second but he was a full straightaway behind the leader while third place driver Kaeden Bronner was a half lap back. This race seemed to drone on forever with everyone just getting in line and riding it out and at the end, only eight cars were on the track with Griffith miles in front.
The Stock Cars completed the evening's entertainment but putting Derek Green on the pole was not to the advantage of those looking for a close Stock Car battle. Green grabbed the lead right from the start and was unchallenged for the event. Even though the race was stopped at the halfway point for a spinner on the front stretch, when the green reappeared, so too did Green disappear.
He would pull away from the field as Johnathan Logue, running right against the inside wall, drove up to second after starting seventh but he had nothing for the leader and would settle for second with Bill Crimmins, who had trouble and dropped out of his heat, making a remarkable charge up from eighteenth to third at the finish.
It was a well run program on Tuesday night and the final checkered waved at about 10:20 pm which was very acceptable. And I will have to say that the Hamilton County Speedway raced very well tonight. The changes in the track seem have done wonders for it as it races much better than it used to with drivers all over the track and much passing as well as side by side racing that we didn't use to see. The Hobby Stocks were running three and four wide and that was not something that we used to see here either.
Kudos to the Outlaws too. There have been times in the past where it seemed like after the first few laps, the drivers would just line up and ride around the track, using the same line and not doing a whole lot. But so far this week, that seems to have changed. There has been good racing throughout the events and much passing and repassing and drivers trying different lines. Both nights have provided entertaining racing.
The crowd was a very good one tonight, despite the threatening weather conditions, to see a well run and entertaining racing event. Perhaps this will help to ease the sting for Todd Staley and his crew here after the recent announcement that they had to suspend weekly racing operations here because they just couldn't get the car count and crowd count that they needed to justify continuing operation. This kind of night may help them put cars in the pits and butts in the stands for the races that they intend to complete this year.
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