The Lucas Oil Late Model Series rolled across the state line on Tuesday night, passing from Nebraska to Iowa and making their first ever visit to the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan. And likely Harlan's most famous race car driver, the late Tiny Lund, would have liked what he saw on Tuesday night. A great three car duel between Hudson O'Neal, Ricky Thornton Jr and Garret Alberson on a well prepared race track on a lovely July night in front of a packed house of vocal and enthusiastic race fans would have been something that warmed the heart of the gentle giant.
This night was a winner all the way around and the Lucas Oil folks on hand had to be impressed both with the racing and with the size of the crowd in this rather remote western Iowa community. Even the so called support class, the IMCA Late Models, engaged in a shootout of a feature race with Zach Zeitner making an aggressive slider on Jesse Sobbing in the final corner to win a somewhat controversial main event.
The entire night of racing was dedicated to the Kosiski family who were on hand including the race distance which was set at 53 laps. Family patriarch Bob spoke with James Essex before the feature race and the two shared some stories about racing, particularly the Late Model brand, before the main event started. The Kosiski family even have their own grandstand section named after them, a section of bleachers that was purchased from the auction of the I-80 assets when that speedway was closed two years ago. With the addition of that section of bleachers with some on the back chute that I don't think were there when I was last at this track, they can seat a lot of people here now, even though the center piece section of bleachers, the old covered ones, must date back to the turn of the century. The great Dan Patch may have raced in front of those bleachers, for all I know.
Twenty eight Lucas Oil and twenty one IMCA Late Models signed in to race on Tuesday night with the twenty eight just hitting the cut off point that allowed four heats and a B Feature before the main while the IMCA cars ran three heats before their twenty lap main.
While visiting the pits before the show began, I happened to run into a pair of pretty good promoters in their own right in ex Humboldt promoter Ryan Whitworth and Arrowhead promoter Bryce Hall, who were visiting for a couple days and had also witnessed the racing at Eagle on Monday night. The track promoter here Doug Batz is doing a whale of a job and they were doing all the right touches on this night to make it a great experience for all including making sure they had extra concession stands going and using the local fire department to help park cars and get the maximum use out of their fairground space. These are the kind of volunteer things that you note happen in small town America.
Devin Moran was the last car to take time trials and under a blazing Iowa sun, you would have thought the track would have slowed down slightly by then, but that was not the case as he turned quick time at 13.499 seconds. Thornton Jr, as the first driver out, turned the quick time for the first group of drivers but Moran was quickest overall.
I never witnessed racing on the old half mile here but I can not imagine that it raced near as well as the new third mile does and the shortening and reconfiguring of this track probably kept this track alive, with former racer Gary Hopp given much of the credit for moving the dirt and making the change happen. I do remember the last time I was here and there were people still pining for the old half mile, but I bet most of them have been won over to the new track by now.
The seven heat races were run off at a blazing pace with just one yellow flag to slow things down, the Lucas Oil B Feature went just as smooth and before you knew it , it was feature time. But first they did some farming and when they farm here, they don't mess around. They had some huge equipment to handle the task quickly and they dug plenty deep and applied plenty of water on this hot night. When they were done, the track was again blazing fast, just as it had been for the start of the program.
Things were moving so quickly, they decided to run the IMCA feature first, something that Lucas does not always do. I believe the IMCA program was a draw/redraw show and it appeared that two drivers were dominant over the rest, that being Zeitner and Sobbing and who drew the better redraw pill would have a distinct advantage. Well, it was Zeitner and he drew third in the starting order while Sobbing would have to start way back in tenth.
Jordan Krug led the opening lap but it took just that one lap for Zeitner to move up and make the pass for the lead. Once in front, he started to pull away from the pack while Sobbing was charging up through the field.
The track was very fast at this point and with a lack of big horsepower in the IMCA cars, there was not riding the cushion at this point with all passing having to be done with inside moves. How Sobbing was able to gain as many positions as he did, I'm not sure other than to say that he drove deeper into the corners than anyone and his car stuck great to the bottom of the track.
Yellows on lap six and seven repacked the field and helped Sobbing's charge and by lap seven he was up to second. He then chased Zeitner for the rest of the race, trying repeatedly to get past on the inside but Zach would close the door each time.
Nearing the end of the race, lapped traffic would come into play. Zeitner hit the traffic wrong and got blocked and Sobbing was able to edge past him as the white flag waved. However, Sobbing then had his own issue on that final lap with another slower car that ran him up the track down the back chute. Zeitner used that chance to drive very hard into turn three, run the lapped car up the track and into Sobbing with both temporarily slowed, and Zeitner dove under them both to regain the lead. There was a wild scramble to the line with Zeitner holding on by a car length for the win. Kale Kosiski made a late charge to get third. I imagine there was some discussion in the pits upon the completion of the race because it was not exactly a classic last lap pass by any means. Anthony Roth and Jack Hearty completed the top five.
Then it was time for the Lucas Oil fifty three lap main. The track was not touched before this race and it did slow down just a bit for the Lucas drivers but it was still very fast and there were two distinct lines that could be used.
These days, it seems like no matter what the situation, Hudson O'Neal and Ricky Thornton Jr can't seem to avoid being right in the middle of things and that would be the case again here at Harlan as they were the two main players in the feature race.
Thornton Jr started on the pole and led the first fourteen laps with Devin Moran, then O'Neal and Garrett Alberson providing the challenges. The first yellow saw a big change in the leadership as Alberson went for broke using the outside line and passed both his competitors, moving from third to first. That would only stick for four laps though as Thornton Jr would get under him and retake the lead.
O'Neal had found the bottom lane to his liking now and he moved right back in to challenge and when Thornton Jr slipped off the bottom, he dove in and made it three wide as they came down the front chute. It was wild. O'Neal took the lead over at this point and never would relinquish it again. O'Neal gained some time when Alberson got crossed up in front of Thornton Jr, they nearly wrecked each other while O'Neal drove away.
There were two lap yellows that packed the field once again but on each one, O'Neal drove away from Thornton Jr, despite Ricky nearly knocking down the outside walls as he repeatedly tried to make the high side work. It was spectacular but gained him no ground as O'Neal putted around the inside like a granny but it was the fast line for him and he pulled away for the win. Alberson, Moran and Jonathan Davenport completed the top five.
There were only three minor yellows to slow the action and only two drivers that did not complete the race. Everything went so smoothly that the whole show was done well before 10 pm and many in the crowd took the advantage of this to head to the pits and check things out.
This event had a nice vibe from start to finish. The folks running the show were excited to have the Lucas drivers in the house and they went the extra mile to make them and all the fans, feel welcomed. Lots of little extra touches were done that all scored points both with the spectators and I would assume, the sanctioning body folks. And the crowd was monstrously huge, a good thing for everyone.
Perhaps Lucas learned something this week. In going to two tracks that are not known nationally for Late Models and bringing their product to a different market, they hit a home run both nights with great racing and large crowds, even despite the heat that was an issue both nights. Perhaps this is something that the other sanctioning bodies will pick up on too and that is to perhaps spread their product around to different markets and introduce their racing to folks that normally don't get the chance to see it live.
I want to thank Doug Batz and all the folks at Harlan for their welcome. It was quite different in a positive way from my greeting at another track earlier in the week and appreciated.
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