The Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome at America's Center continued on Friday night, December 6th. A fresh set of faces were on hand to do battle as the second half of the entered drivers in the Modified and Late Model classes would take to the track to try and qualify for the big show on Saturday night. Sixty three Late Model drivers from literally all over the country plus another thirty one Modified drivers were on hand for the Friday night show, making it a round two hundred drivers that raced here this weekend. Consider that all two hundred cars, their crews plus their trailers(not the haulers) are all parked under one roof in the pit area of this facility and that will give you an idea of the immense size of this building, located right in downtown St. Louis. And they are actually just completed an addition to this building, something that I found just a little surprising since they no longer have a prime tenant any more after the Rams fled the Midwest for California. But the fueling area for the cars, which used to require them to drive out on the street beside the building which, by the way, did make for a real interesting visual for the town, is now done inside in a new bay cargo area just constructed.
The on camera crew working this race and well as informing the crowd has not changed as they are about the best at what they do. Dustin Jarrett and Ben Shelton are the play by play announcers while Iowa's own Jerry Van Sickel is the expert announcer for the Modified class. Blake Anderson works the infield while Trenton Berry roams the stands and VIP suites looking for people to interview.
Blake usually manages to bring up "Crazy Martin", the mayor of Ogden Iowa at least once during every broadcast while Berry generally interviews everyone from south Missouri and oh, did that mention of the Heartland Modified Tour slip out, which by the way, Berry owns. But other than that, they do a good job although only Shelton of the announcers doesn't interject a bit of his own agenda into the broadcast if you know what to listen for.
For the second straight night, racing would get started just a bit late as time trials have not gone smoothly either day so far with quite a large group of the Late Model drivers just not able to keep their cars going the proper direction without spinning a time or two. The down side to having open registration for that class is that a lot of drivers manage to ease their way on to the entry list for this event that quite frankly, have no business being here. Listening to the introductions, I was struck by the number of drivers racing here that aren't even using open Late Models but 602 and 604 cars, Super Stocks and there were even several making their first starts in Late Models. This in not the venue to be making one's debut.
Thornton Jr and Freddie Carpenter were the quick qualifiers in the Late Model class while the last car to hit the track for the night, Trevor Neville, would top the mark for the Modifieds.
While managing in large part to avoid the "big" wrecks on Thursday night, Friday would see at least a pair of spectacular events. Unfortunately, here when there is a big wreck, it generally involved getting into and sometimes tearing down the wheel fence surrounding the track. While prepared to make repairs, these things take time and I would estimate that around ninety minutes was needed to fix the two big fence wreckers that occurred on Friday night.
If he couldn't be fast, at least Darin Weisinger Jr managed to be spectacular as he put his almost totally through the fence in turn three with the front end falling to the pavement floor while the rear end was hung up and hanging from the fence. It was quite a visual and fortunately, no injuries resulted.
And of course there was the expected blow up after one of the big crashes on the front stretch. After the hit, a good ole boy from Louisiana sprinted the length of the front stretch to try to remove the helmet and have words with another good ole boy from Mississippi. It was difficult because the helmet was still buckled but he gave it is all, trying to rip off the helmet repeatedly. Track officials eventually meandered on to the scene at their own pace to break things up as while they say that this kind of behavior is frowned on, the truth is that they not only want it to happen but cultivate such activity. This is the "WWE" part of this whole event that I frown on but the reality is that it makes for great tv. Let's face the facts, this event is one part race and an equal part circus side show and that balance is needed to put thirty thousand folks into the seats which might happen on Saturday night.
Highlights of heat race action included the sterling drive of Austin Howes who was able to fight off Hudson O'Neal and make the feature race and the drive of fourteen year old Carter Schlenk who won a heat race. On the other side of the coin, Rusty Schlenk made a horse's you know what of himself after he repeatedly tried to rough up a seventeen year old female driver who's only apparent injustice was to pass him and make him look slow.
After six heat races and a pair of B Features, there would be eighteen cars left to run the Late Model main. Thornton Jr, who has been on a roll so far here this weekend, continued his hot streak as he would lead the feature race from start to finish and really not be seriously challenged. Nick Hoffman would quickly move into the second spot and he would ride there throughout the race. Occasionally when the leaders got into lapped traffic, Hoffman would shorten up the lead but Thornton Jr was working good enough that he could move out and pass the slower cars which made him nearly untouchable.
The track quickly went low groove dominant, despite attempts to water and bring the top side to life but truly, the racing has been dominated through the first two nights by a lot of one groove racing, making the action something less than expected, at least to this point of the weekend.
One yellow bunched the field with just four laps to go but Thornton Jr got a good restart and he and Hoffman escaped challenge. There was a good battle for the last locked in position but Gordy Gundaker managed to hold off Myles Moos and Carpenter and take that important position.
Neville, after setting fast time in the Mods, was just as dominant in their main event. He took the lead immediately and built up a sizable advantage as Trent Young and Jordan Grabouski battled it out for second. Kenny Wallace and the spectacular Dylan Thornton kept the crowd entertained as they tried to hang with the top three.
A mid race yellow slowed the action when Bone Larson shortened up his front end considerably on the concrete but Neville again pulled away and would drive on unhindered to take the win. The battle for second continued to entertain with several slide jobs breaking out and in the end, it was Grabouski that managed to fight off Young for second. Everyone else will have to race again on Saturday night.
Saturday night will feature a series of "ladder" events until the field is cut down to feature race size and two champions will be crowned. Racing and tv action start at 3 pm.
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