After an outstanding performance on Monday night at the Proctor Speedway, the XR officials and race teams made the fifteen minute commute across the Bong Bridge over the St. Louis River into Wisconsin(Superior to be exact) and then out to the Head of the Lakes Fairgrounds and the Gondik Law Speedway on South Tower Avenue. The Bong Bridge, by the way, is named after a WW2 flying ace from a small farming town just South of Superior who was one of the heroes of that conflict before being killed in and accident when he was functioning as a test pilot for the military. But enough with the local history lesson.
Tuesday the XR Series Late Models were racing for another fifteen grand to win main event at Gondik with the WISSOTA Modifieds and Super Stocks as the support classes. Twenty seven Late Models signed in to race on Tuesday night with the only prominent one from Proctor not on hand on Tuesday being Tyler Erb who was rumored to be taking a night off to wash some clothes. Gained in his place however, were Cade Dillard and Brian Shirley so if anything, the field was just a bit stronger on Tuesday.
The heavy feared rains that were in the forecast for the overnight hours of Monday did not materialize which was a break for the track prep crew who have already been strained as they try to recover from a weekend doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday put on by Chris Stepan, the Summer Nationals announcer, that featured the local classes and paid ten grand to the Modified winner on Sunday.
But the combination of a very humid day, plus heavy cloud cover all day, allowed the track prep crew to put together a lightning fast track, one that blitzed the old track record but also made it tough to pass on. In fact, after the heat races, the running order for the mains was tossed as the Late Models went from first to last in the hopes that the two support classes, running their mains, would help to slow down the track. But on this dewy night, that didn't happen and the XR drivers still found a blistering fast track to be their foe come feature time.
As the twenty third driver to hit the track for time trials, Nick Hoffman smashed the old track record with a lap recorded at 15.250 seconds on the four tenth mile oval that is paper clip shaped with long straightaways and tight but wide corners on this Lake Superior red clay track. Heat race action was even faster with Ryan Gustin timed at 15.098 seconds and the track didn't slow down much for the main event either.
The three XR heats went by in the blink of an eye with all three winners coming from the front row and not a yellow to be had. After waiting out two quick feature races for the support classes, it was time for the Late Models to take to the track. Twenty six drivers started the main event after Aaron Lillo scratched out with a believed motor issue during his heat race.
With the momentum of the track, the outside lane was the place to be on the start but the first start was flawed when Mike Marlar gave Brent Larson some help in turn four, turning him in front of most of the field. Tyler Stevens ripped most of the side of his car off as he caught the spinning car and Sam Mars messed up the nose on his car and both were eliminated before a lap could be scored.
The restart saw Gustin use that outside lane to get the jump on Hoffman and take the early lead with the green only lasting for two laps before Travis Budisalovich spun and slowed things down once again. At this point, Marlar had moved into third with Devin Moran and Ricky Thornton Jr next in line.
The field then would race for twenty three non restricted laps with Gustin continuing to lead as he worked through lapped traffic. Moran got by Marlar for second and Bobby Pierce, who had started fifth but faded back at the start, had worked his way back up to the top five.
For some reason, just before the start of the race, the distance had been cut from forty to thirty five laps for a reason unknown to us and also not announced, so the drivers had to make their move just a bit quicker. As the race moved through the twenties, Gustin gradually started to lose a bit of his edge with Hoffman starting to cut into his lead, slowly at first and then more dramatically.
Suddenly, he was on the tail of Gustin and with a big run off turn four, drove to the inside of Gustin and squeezed past just after the flag stand. Now whether or not Hoffman's tight move, which saw him slip past Gustin with only inches to spare, caused Gustin to lose the air off his nose and push, or whether Ryan just drove harder into the corner in an effort to regain the lead, we don't know, but the bottom line was that Gustin lost control, went sliding up the banking and slammed the turn one wall very hard, ending his night but he was fortunately OK after a hard hit.
Hoffman then would take over and win the ten lap dash to the finish but things got tight at the end. Pierce had gradually worked his way forward and was fourth for that last sprint. However, he got by both Marlar and then Moran using the low and as yet untouched part of the track, He reeled in Hoffman over the last few laps and its a good thing for Nick those five laps had been cut from the race or he might have been in big trouble because as it was, Pierce had closed to within a couple car lengths when the checkered flag waved over the field. Moran settled for third with Marlar and Dennis Erb completing the top five. Fourteen cars were still on the lead lap and eighteen on the track at the checkers.
With my two night stand with the XR Super Series at and end, I can't help but mention how poorly both Ricky Thornton Jr and Brandon Sheppard performed. Expected to be right in the mix for wins both nights, neither showed much of anything and it was shocking to see how poorly, Thornton Jr, the top rated driver currently in the country, ran back to back. He labored to a seventh place finish on this night and was even poorer at Proctor.
The two support classes saw dominating performances in less than scintillating main events. Both of these classes had small fields on Tuesday and much smaller than for a normal night but both have been racing so much lately that the drivers are probably worn out along with the equipment. This is still a working night for most folks and with just regular pay on the line, a likely night to take off.
It was an emotional win for Darrell Nelson in the Modified feature. A local legend and winner of likely more features than anyone in the history of Twin Ports racing in both Late Models and Modifieds, Tuesday night was his first feature win since a diagnosis of prostrate cancer and surgery in the off season. He has just returned to racing within the last couple of weeks but it didn't take him long to get back in the swing of things as he pulled away early to win by a big margin over Jake Hartung and Cole Chernosky.
Jordan Henkemeyer took the lead from the green in the Super Stock feature race and led all the way, never being challenged either. A good battle for second saw D.J. Keeler top Matt Deragon for that spot. Current WISSOTA national point leader Dexton Koch had to settle for fifth as the fast track made passing an adventure.
A good but not over whelming crowd was on hand for the show and even though they spent a few minutes after the heats trying to figure out how to slow down the track, the program was completed well before 10 pm.
Thanks to all the XR officials for their help along with the track workers at both Proctor and Gondik Law for their help. These are two tracks that I frequent quite often over the course of a Summer so I know most everyone at both places, which is always a bonus when a special show comes to town. It must have been a frustrating couple of nights for traveling announcer "Big Boy" with pa systems at both tracks being substandard and on the fritz more often than they worked. They really need to spent a few bucks and upgrade their systems.
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