Dillard Tops KOA; Clancy and Schweizer Also Winners

 Saturday night, March 29th, the XIV running of the King of America event wrapped up at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri, Twenty thousand dollars was on the line for the USMTS Modified winner and following a lap forty three yellow, Cade Dillard, who started seventh on the grid, swept past Tanner Mullens and then drove away from the field to claim his first ever KOA title. B Mods and Stock Cars also ran their third straight program and the winners in those two classes were Chad Clancy and Rodney Schweizer. 

Saturday brought summer like weather to the edge of the Ozarks but also the threat of heavy thunderstorms moving in by evening. Thankfully the storms held off but a light show from some boomers North of the track kept everyone on edge and also caused track officials to push, push, push all night. 

Five first night drivers in the B Mod field were on hand Saturday, pushing the three night total of drivers that participated to one hundred and ninety nine, a very impressive number given that only three classes raced. 

While the Stock Cars and B Mods ran the same format as the previous two evenings with heats and B Features preceding their main events, the Modifieds had a whole new format for the Saturday night finale. As we learned today, the Modified drivers had been receiving points each night for their qualifying, heat race, B Feature and feature race finishes along with hard charger points. The best night of the two point totals for each driver was used to set the final running order for Saturday with the top eight in points moving directly into the sixty lap main event and everyone else moving into one of three B Features with the top five in each moving to the main while the next eight ran a non qualifiers main. 

I did not know anything about this until I saw it posted on race day and while my knowing is hardly important to the overall running of the event, it would have been a nice courtesy to let the fans know about this as the weekend moved on. The announcers never mentioned this once during the two preliminary nights and I was told that drivers were told different things about the procedure over the weekend until it was officially announced. Transparency is such things and posting as such before hand is always a good thing. 

The Modified format for the final night as such was not a bad one and in fact, I would have liked to see it used for the other two classes on Saturday, thus eliminating eleven heat races and speeding up the show while allowing more time to focus on the three big main events. As it was, there was actually too much of a good thing on Saturday, with too many races that left the main events to run as such a late hour that many people had already called it a night. The formula should be to focus on the "big show" and not have so many preliminaries on the final night. 

The non qualifier features are another case in point. While I'm sure they are an attraction for drivers who otherwise might not get to run a main, for the crowd they are just another preliminary event pushing back the start of the three mains to a later hour. The decision to run those three races before the main events, particularly on  a night when the weather could produce a storm at any point, felt like a wrong one to me and I noted that many people in the crowd weren't even paying an attention to these three races. And if for any other reason, they should have been left for last just to save laps on the track, which by the way, held up very well despite the obscene number of laps on it over the last three nights. 

They did "farm" the track once with just the three feature races remaining to be run, and then the B Mods raced their main as a way of widening out the groove before the Mods it the track for their feature. 

J.C. Morton started on the pole and led the opening laps of the B Mod feature over the twenty four car starting field. Chad Clancy started right behind Morton and quickly pulled into the second spot with Kris Jackson moving up to third. Ben Moudry and Brayden Skaggs collided with six laps completed, triggering the first yellow flag. 

Morton continued to lead following the yellow with Clancy chasing him hard along with Jackson, Kyle Henning and Dennis Cole. A spin by Stephen Clancy bunched the field once again near the halfway point of the race and following that slow down, things started to change. In the next few laps Morton started to get loose exiting the turns and Chad Clancy was quick to jump on that, making an inside pass off turn two and taking over the lead. There was a long green flag period of racing after that, in fact all the way to the conclusion and Chad Clancy pulled away from Morton and the field as he drove home for an unchallenged win. 

Morton was able to hold on for second but the story in the late going was the run by Cody King. Not even in the top five on the second yellow flag, he came charging up in the second half of the race, reaching third with a late pass on Jackson but not getting a late yellow which would have beneficial to him. Jon Sheets rounded out the top five in a race that saw only four drivers not finish and only the two yellow flags to slow the action. 

It was then time for the sixty lap KOA Modified feature. While the starting field of twenty seven drivers was not even as large as the previous night, they made the start look different by starting the race with a three wide start that was handled well by the racers. 

The top eight drivers redrew and Tanner Mullens got the pole and he then led the opening lap before Keith Foss pounded the wall in turn four, triggering a quick yellow. Things got real racy on the restart with Mullens leading for a lap before he was passed by Jim Chisholm but Mullens was up to the challenge as he got right back past Chisholm one lap later. 

Mullens then took off like a rocket as he was clearly the fastest driver on the track through the first half of the race. He pulled away by nearly a full straightaway as the groove started to change with most of the front runners going to the top side of the track. As Mullens disappeared, Terry Phillips was one of the first to find the top side and he came from fifth to pass Chisholm for second. 

A spring on the track triggered the yellow with twenty three laps completed and Mullens lost his big advantage. However, he took off again and started to open his lead back up as Phillips, Chisholm, Cade Dillard and Alex Williamson rode in the other top positions at this point. 

By the halfway point, Dillard was one of the quicker cars on the track, having driven up to third after starting seventh with Dustin Sorensen in tow. Mullens still seemed in control and maintained his lead although Dillard continued his climb, getting by Chisholm for second. 

With forty three laps completed, things would change dramatically when the yellow flew for the third and final time when Kyle Strickler slowed with a flat tire. On the green, suddenly Mullens was eaten alive as Dillard passed on one side and Chisholm on the other and after dominating in the early going, Mullens was now struggling to stay in the top five. 

The last seventeen laps of the race would be completed nonstop and Dillard pulled away from the field, running a lane right through the middle of the corners while others struggled to stay with him. In the later laps, Chisholm would gain some ground, perhaps as Dillard's car got a bit tight or maybe he was just being careful. At the checkers, Chisholm made it closer but Dillard was still a comfortable winner. 

One of the big stories of the race was the performance by Modified rookie Bobby Williams as the former B Mod champ at Wheatland put on a great show. Hanging just outside the top five for most of the race, following the last yellow he moved to the low groove and made up much time, driving past both Mullens and Sorensen to finish a sterling third. Only four of the starting field failed to finish the race yet only one driver was lapped during the event. 

The Stock Cars completed the night, racing on a slippery surface but it suited them well as they put on a very entertaining event that saw three different leaders in the thirty lap finale. Chris Dishong led the twenty four car field to the green and he then led the opening lap. One lap later eventual winner Rodney Schweizer moved up from the second row to grab the top spot but the battle wasn't over quite yet. 

Following a lap five yellow for a Brandon Hare spin, Texas driver Blake Clark who started seventh, moved to the second lane of the track and made time immediately, edging past Dishong and pulling up beside Schweizer for the lead. Clark, one of the few driving the new style Camaro stock car body, was able to edge past Schweizer and lead lap seven but wasn't able to fully clear Rodney, who moved back into the lead the following lap. They raced side by side for a few laps before Schweizer solidified his advantage and Clark dropped back to the inside line.  

However, just like Friday night, both Jaylen Wettengel and Jeffery Abbey were on the charge, moving into third and fourth by the halfway point. As Clark faded back, a late race yellow with just six laps to go gave Wettengel and a surging Tyler Cadwallader the chance to challenge for the top spot. 

But the final green saw a wild scramble take place with drivers three wide and the sportsmanship award tossed to the wind. Schweizer was able to sneak away from the madness and drive on unhindered for the win. Cadwallader ended up second with Abbey, Wettengel and Myles Michehl completing the top five. Again, only four drivers wouldn't finish the race with the final checkers waving just at Midnight. 

Remember all the nice things I had to say about the scoreboard last night after I took it to task following the opening night Problems? Well, forget that as the board went back into snooze mode on Saturday. After providing us with helpful information for a few races that included a lap countdown and running order, it lapsed back into the opening night mode where all the running order information was so small it couldn't be read if you were standing right under the board and no information on laps was projected so for the vast majority of the night, we were clueless on what part of any race we were at. What happened to the board, I don't know. 

The tech building remained a busy place on Saturday night with four more drivers disqualified from events for technical issues. 

There has been much talk on line this week about Lucas Oil Speedway hosting this event for the first time and whether it should be here and some folks longing for the days of the past when the race was run at Humboldt Speedway in Kansas. Well I was there for all those races at Humboldt and while in the early years they had some great races there with big crowds and lots of cars, in recent years that has not been the case. They had struggled with the weather, which is not their fault but there can be no argument that the race had lost some of it's popularity in recent years with the crowds being down quite markedly. 

The race hadn't made money for several years and that was just not something that could continue and it was a cooperative decision between the ownership of Humboldt and USMTS that it needed to be moved elsewhere. 

The  KOA had some great years at Humboldt but there can be no question that it is now located where it should be. Thanks to all the officials of the USMTS and the working staff from Lucas Oil Speedway for three nights of intense racing action. A special nod should go to the track prep folks for a job very well done. 

Jim Chisholm, Sheets and Abbey Top Night Two of KOA at Lucas

 Friday night, March 28th was night number two of the XIV running of the King of America event featuring the USMTS Modifieds plus the USRA B Mods and Stock Cars at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri. Jim Chisholm and Jeffrey Abbey both survived late challenges by other drivers to take feature wins while Jon Sheets drove to a dominating win in the B Mod class. 

It was a hazy sunny and very windy Friday in southern Missouri and while the wind made it feel colder than the temperature actually concurred, the weather so far this week has been superior to many of the previous KOA's held in recent years. Everyone is hoping that the storms will hold off for one more night so that the drivers and fans can see a full weekend of racing, something that has been hard to come by for this event for quite a few years past. 

Another very large field of entrants were on hand for the Friday night portion of the weekend with one hundred and eighty two drivers entering competition. The Stock Car field was up two, the B Mods one while the Modifieds remained the same with seventy two drivers entering. However, there were an additional fifteen drivers on hand that hadn't raced on Thursday so in total, one hundred and ninety four drivers have raced so far this week. 

The format would be identical to Thursday's with the exception that the drivers would be racing for more money come feature time with the laps in all three classes bumped up few. Both of the support classes got a shot at hot laps on Friday before the Modifieds came out cold for their time trial efforts. 

Their field was split into three groups once again with New Mexico's Nathan Smith turning the quickest lap of the night at 17.354 seconds. His brother Mark and Jason Hughes would be quickest in the other two groups. Both Smiths have shown great speed this week but so far they haven't been able to transfer that to good finishes and that trend would later continue on Friday. The Modified pits went into a frenzy when Nathan pulled a six for the invert, the highest it could be and sending some of the fastest drivers into apoplexy at the thought of having to start on the outside of row three for their heat races. Perhaps as a result or just coincidentally, the heats is all three classes were exceptional on Friday with much three wide racing and great battling back through the pack. It didn't hurt that for the second straight night the track appeared to be "spot on" with multiple grooves and racing all over the surface while again at the same time having very few yellow flags to slow the action. 

Any nasty comments I made about the scoreboard Thursday should now be rescinded after the show on Friday. Perhaps they were having technical issues or maybe the board operator was not on hand on Thursday but no matter, all the things I was hoping the scoreboard would do, well it did them on Friday. Nice, easy to read running orders, plus the time trials and running count on the laps completed were all working on Friday as well as the instant replays for the crowd as well as for the tv audience. The touted scoreboard came through with even more than could be hoped for, thus adding to the pleasure of a visit to the "Diamond of Dirt Tracks."

The Modified feature would be up first again on Friday and apparently there were a lot of drivers guaranteed to make the feature that didn't make it in the old fashioned way called qualifying as a gigantic field of thirty two drivers would take the green flag from Chris Loberg for the forty lap main. 

Jim Chisholm had the pole and while he technically would lead all forty laps, he had plenty of company at various times as he fought to hold off the field. Nathan Smith and Stormy Scott battled for second early with Scott taking over the position when the first yellow was triggered by an A.J. Hoff spin. Reece Solander and Chad Wheeler had moved into the top five by this point and with the green reappearing, Scott put pressure on Chisholm for the lead. 

Another six laps were completed before Henry Chambers lost a wheel and the action slowed once again. The longest period of green flag racing then took place with a full sixteen straight laps under the green seeing Chisholm still up front with Scott settling into second with Wheeler moving into third ahead of Solander and Bobby Williams as the rookie Modified driver was making a strong move toward the front. 

At this point Solander went to the cushion and it paid immediate results as he blew past Wheeler and Scott and closed rapidly on Chisholm for the lead. He was just ready to drive around Chisholm when Jim, monitoring the video board, saw Solander tearing up at him using the cushion and he pulled to the top side of the track, just in time to hold off Solander's charge with the yellow flying just a lap later when Kale Westover hammered the wall in turn four. 

The restart went South with a big crash taking out Jason Langford, Tyler Davis, Nathan Smith and Steve Lavasseur in one of the messiest moments of the week so far. The final restarts proved to be a game of "cat and mouse" as Chisholm would select the inside for the double file restarts but then break for the cushion in the first turn, each time beating Solander to the top side which was critical. Reese was just not able to get the jump and had to settle in behind Chisholm and hope for a mistake. 

One more yellow with just seven laps to go when Rodney Sanders got a flat tire slowed things, but again, Chisholm got the jump and then moved to the cushion. Solander could do nothing but hope for a mistake but Chisholm made none as he drove home the winner. Cade Dillard made a great late run toward the front. Not even shown in the top five with just those seven laps to go, he moved lower on the track and found success,  driving all the way up to third and closing on Solander at the finish. Scott would follow and Kyle Strickler made his own charge, coming from twenty second to round out the top five. 

For the first time all week, there were a substantial number of drivers that didn't finish the race with eleven in the pits by the checkers, many with damage from a couple of hard crashes that took place. We also saw the first "killing" of  "The Choose Cone" when Jacob Bleess made his move too late and in trying to cut from one lane to the other, "murdered" the cone. For his transgression, he was put to the tail of the field.

Twenty four drivers would start the twenty five lap B Mod feature and on the opening lap, Jake Richards came from the second row to duck inside Boone Evans and Ben Moudry to take the early lead.  Moudry battled back and put pressure on Richards with Kris Jackson and Evans close behind. Jon Sheets quickly moved to the cushion where he has shown speed this week and he moved up to third riding the tall side of the track after starting ninth before the lone yellow of the event took place when Moudry was turned with Terry Schultz crashing into the spinning car, eliminating both from the contest. 

The green returned and it took Sheets only two laps to blast by Richards and take over the lead and he was spotless running the cushion as he pulled away from the field. Jackson continued to move forward and by the halfway point had raced up to second with Jones being followed by Landyn Randt and Dan Hovden. 

The race stayed under the green and Sheets was in the groove as he continued to work the high side of the track. Jackson pushed hard but he wasn't able to cut into the lead that Sheets maintained but Hovden was able to find some traction lower and he drove up to third. The top three would maintain their distance the rest of the way with Sheets driving home for the win, uncontested. Richards held of for fourth and Scott Bintz made a late charge, coming from thirteenth to complete the top five. 

The Stock Car feature saw Jeffrey Abbey start on the pole and that was where he remained after twenty five laps of racing. This nonstop event saw Abbey pull away at the start while there was considerable battling for position behind him. Most drivers were running low on the track at this point but Paul Conrad experimented with the high groove and it did work for him for a number of laps until he gradually faded back in the late going. 

Darrin Schmidt moved up and took the second spot by the halfway point of the race with Rodney Schweizer next in line. Making a steady charge was Jaylen Wettengel who started fourteenth and was up to third by the halfway point. He continued to move forward, finding traction when others struggled as he moved around and was able to pass for second and then set off after the leader. 

Abbey continued to hold the point but in the last five laps Wettengel closed up much of the margin that Abbey had. The green to checkers run helped Abbey and while Wettengel got close to a challenge, he ran out of laps and Abbey drove home for the win. Schmidt had a solid run for third with Schweizer  and Pat Graham completing the top five. Just a single driver failed to finish among the twenty five starters and all were on the lead lap at the conclusion. 

For the second straight night the racing surface was "spot on" with the drivers able to run multiple grooves all night on a smooth racing surface. They did take their first "farming session" of the week before the three feature races but think the track would have been fine even without the quick extra work. Whatever issues the track may have caused at other times, it has been excellent so far this week, even with another twenty eight races and nearly two hundred cars. 

Speaking of busy, the folks that manage the rules in the tech building have been working overtime so far this week. Of course, they got plenty of notice on Thursday night with the DQ for apparent race winner Dustin Sorensen and also Scott  but on Friday they were really busy as no less than eight drivers were DQ'd over the course of the night for various issues. 

Saturday night the KOA wraps up with another full show for all three classes, topped by a twenty grand to win Modified main. 

Dillard Tops KOA Round One after Sorensen DQ'd

 A big surprise came long after the checkered flag flew and the awards were handed out and the interviews completed Thursday night at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri. Apparent opening night Modified winner for the XIV running of the USMTS king of America event Dustin Sorensen was disqualified for having an illegal deck height violation on his car and second across the finish line Cade Dillard was awarded the win and the three grand that went to the opening night feature winner during one of biggest weekends of the USMTS racing season. 

Also joining the Modified drivers on the opening night of this three night bash were the USRA B Mods and the Stock Cars. No such post race dramatics resulted from these two races though, with first across the line drivers Kris Jackson and Derek Green both passing inspection and taking home their wins without additional drama. 

The XIV running of the King of America event here at Wheatland has been the first time this race has been held anywhere but at the Humboldt Speedway in Kansas. Last week during my conversation with Humboldt promoter John Allen this move came up as part of the conversation and he stated that it was a combination decision between the USMTS and Humboldt principals Allen and J.R. Sartain that this event would be moved in 2025. There was also much discussion about the move among the Humboldt faithful and there were plenty of them not happy about the switch, losing one of their big scale races of the year. 

However, Lucas Oil Speedway is an obvious choice if the race were to be moved and graced with good weather so far this weekend, something that plagued Humboldt in recent years, the opening night would be deemed a success, even if the crowd was still a bit on the light side. 

The drivers certainly turned out for the opening night of three, with full shows to be raced each night with the purse going up each night as well. One hundred and seventy night drivers signed in with just three classes racing including an impressive seventy two Modifieds. The pit area was so jammed that they had to go to overflow parking, something that I witnessed for the first time at Wheatland. 

Among the new items on display at Lucas Oil was their new scoreboard which, in my opinion, was very disappointing. Yes they did show replays which was nice but no where on the vast board does it show the laps completed or to go for a race and the running order is so small that there is no way it can be read from the grandstands. A lot of useless information is projected that is way too small to be read and no where does it show where we are in any race. A lot of money was spent with very little return for the customers. 

The racing procedures for the event would see the Modifieds qualifying with an invert picked by the fast qualifier. Passing points would then be used for the heats with the top twelve moving on. The rest raced in gigantic Jeff Broeg size B Features with twelve more moving on. Provisional starters completed the field. Double file restarts were the order and the "choose cone" was also used. 

The other two classes drew for heat races with passing points being used for them also. Heats and B Features were necessary for both because of the size of the field. They used Delaware style restarts with no "Choose cone" for some reason. There were no provisional starters with twenty four only in their feature races. 

Before the races one of the folks I ran into was Buck Monson, the photographer that got run over by an errant race car down at the Heart of Texas Speedway. He was sporting a cast on his right wrist as a broken wrist was discovered after the fact by doctors in his home town. However, he was upbeat as he said that as long as he can still shoot photos, he's a happy man. I also saw for the first time one of the "new" style Stock Cars with the new style Camaro body on them. I had been waiting to see one and it did quite a while this Spring before I saw one in person. One man's opinion on the first night of observation, thumbs down. I will say no more. 

With such a large group of cars, the Modified qualifying was divided into three groups on Thursday. Qualifying did provide some surprises with quickest overall being Mark Smith out of New Mexico with a lap of 17.268 seconds. Cade Dillard and Kaylin Lopez were quickest in the other two groups. The invert drawn by Smith was three for the heats, a significant draw. I still don't understand why if we're going to qualify and use passing points that an invert is justified but that decision is beyond my pay grade. 

In any event, six big heats and three even larger B Features were then held to decide who makes the main. Biggest news from those races was that Brandon Givens, leading a heat and then suddenly slowing which cost him his opportunity to make the main and Stormy Scott, running a Modified for the first time in six years, was in the show through a B Feature until he was disqualified post race for an illegal shock. 

By feature time the track was black and super slick but it was throwing no dust, despite the fact that a strong wind was blowing all night. With provisional starters, twenty nine Modified drivers would take the green for thirty laps. Interestingly, Modifieds would run first all night. 

Dustin Sorensen started on the outside pole and with the outside lane seemingly the place to be all night, he got the jump on Terry Phillips to take the early lead. Phillips and Dillard battled for second with Alex Williamson using the top side to stay with them while Sorensen was able to pull away in the early going. 

Kyle Brown got turned around to trigger the first yellow, they raced a few more laps and then Dustin Stand got turned around also, triggering yet another yellow in the only race all night that saw more than two yellow flag slowdowns which was quite amazing.

Sorensen and Dillard broke away from the field with Sorensen rolling the outside line and Dillard repeatedly trying to get under him in the corners. Momentum was big at this point and Sorensen was using that to keep him in the lead, despite Dillard showing him a nose on several occasions. By the halfway point, Tanner Mullens and Keith Foss had both moved into the top five as they progressed toward the front. 

Gary Christian slammed the first turn wall with fourteen laps completed, bunching up the field once again. The top two took off again with Mullens and Foss battling hard for fourth. Jason Pursley got turned with just seven laps to go, setting up one last battle for the lead as Sorensen had been changing up whether or not he started on the inside or outside on restarts. 

The gloves came off on the final green flag with Dillard building up a heat of steam down the back chute and throwing a wicked slider for the first time at Sorensen. Dustin patiently waited for him and then crossed back over, regaining the lead as Dillard lost time coming off turn four. This gave Sorensen the room he needed to pull away as Dillard now had Phillips to contend with. Cade was able to fight him off, however Sorensen was long gone as he drove home for the win. Phillips crossed third with Foss and Mullens next in line. 

It was well into the next feature race before the announcement was made to the public that Sorensen had been disqualified in tech for a deck height violation with Dillard elevated to the win. Everyone moved up one spot with Rodney Sanders then into the top five. Only two drivers failed to finish the Modified main with all on the lead lap. 

Twenty four M Mods were up next for their twenty lap main event. These drivers did an amazing job as there was just a single yellow flag in their main, but it was a significant one in the race outcome. Aaron Marrant got the jump on Rylan Gibbs to take the early lead with team mate Chad Clancy then driving into second. Kris Jackson was on the move after starting eighth  and by the halfway point he was up to third after a good battle with Talan Willis. Jon Sheets was putting on a show as he rode the top side of the track, coming from thirteenth to the top five by the halfway point of the race. 

The only yellow flew just past halfway when Gibbs, a challenger the first half of the race, blew up and wasn't able to exit the track. This moved Jackson up beside Clancy and he quickly sprang up to second when racing resumed. 

Marrant had his hands full with Jackson and with the field mostly working low, one slip off the bottom in turn one was all it took and Jackson was past him just that quick. And once in front, Kris pulled away and stretched his advantage over the final five laps. Marrant would hold on for second with Willis, Sheets and Tyler Kidwell completing the top five. That was, however, until they reached tech and this time it was Willis that didn't please officials with his third spot removed and everyone else moving up one which elevated Clancy to a top five finish. Only one car failed to finish this race with again, everyone still on the lead lap. 

Twenty four Stock Cars completed the night's racing with their twenty lap main. Using the outside starting spot, Texas driver Jeffrey Abbey took the early lead over Pat Graham. The Stock Cars lined up on the inside line and not much activity was done outside that first lane of traffic. 

Except for Derek Green as the Granada Minnesota driver moved up one lane and gradually, lap after lap, was able to edge past his competition using that second lane. Abbey tried to drive as deep into the corners as Green was able to, but when he slipped up the track in turn four, Green turned under him to take over the lead just before the lone yellow of the race, for a harmless spin, stopped the action for the only time in this race. 

Back on green, Green pulled away and by the finish, was nearly a full straightaway ahead of the pack. It was a battle for second but Abbey held off Brandon Hare , Graham and a charging Jaylen Wettrengel to hold on to second. Just a single car failed to complete the race and again, everyone was still on the lead lap at the conclusion. 

Kudos go out to several different groups on this night. There were twenty eight races contested on this night, under mostly sunny and windy conditions. Yet the track stayed racy right to the end with no dust and not any evidence that it was starting to take rubber. And just as importantly, the track was not touched once the race cars hit it for the first time. So the track prep crew hit a home run on Thursday. 

The drivers also did an amazing job with there being few yellow flags and not really a significant pile up all night. The vast majority of the drivers completed their races and all were very competitive as there were very few lapped cars. Sixteen of the twenty eight races went green to checkers and only the Modified feature that saw more than two yellows. In fact, the other two feature races had just one yellow each. And what about three twenty car Modified B Features, all three of which went green to checkers! That may never happen again. It was remarkable how smoothly the drivers raced, given the fact that many were making their first runs of the year, many others had never raced here before and that the stakes were high. 

Time trials were the time eater as they always are. Racing thus didn't get started until 7:51 pm but with absolutely no breaks between races and cooperation from the drivers, the full program was completed in just three and a half hours. That was amazing and likely won't be able to be accomplished again, ever. 

Schiffelbein Jr Repeats at Humboldt

 In what was probably the finest weekend of his Modified racing career, Berryton Kansas' Randal Schiffelbein Jr not only won his first ever Modified feature on Friday night at the Humboldt Speedway, he came right back on Saturday night to win again, making it a sweep of the Heartland Modified Tour opener and adding thirty five hundred dollars to his racing account. 

The win was not a "gimme" as both Shadren Turner and Tyler Davis had shots to pass Shiffelbein Jr on the final lap but neither was able to pull it off in what ended up being a thrilling finish. 

Factory Stocks and Midwest Modz were again the support classes on Saturday night with Dallas Joyce also recording a weekend sweep on the Factory Stocks while a late race tangle among the leaders opened the door for Jared Willard to take home the win. 

Despite plenty of action on Friday night, the Modified delegation proved to be very resilient with only a single driver not returning to race on Saturday. However, a blown motor in hot laps by Derek Watson would reduce the field to forty for racing action. 

Time trials would see Tyler Davis turn the quickest time overall at 15.759 on a slicker than Friday track while Dustin Hodges would top the second flight. Four heat races followed and in one change from Friday to help move the program along, five cars qualified out of each heat and they then ran just a single Jeff Broeg sized eighteen car B Feature that qualified the last four cars for the twenty four car starting field. 

There was heat race drama for Hodges when he got a flat tire while leading a heat and then failed to make the main out of his B Feature, thus putting one of the fastest cars in the pits early. 

The redraw for the Modified feature found Schiffelbein Jr on the pole and he got the jump, only to have that start called back for a spin by Dan Powers. The second attempt found Davis, from the outside, getting the jump this time and Tyler took the early lead. Drivers were mostly working the inside line on the track which was even more slippery by feature. Davis soon had trouble holding his car to the inside line and Schiffelbein Jr, getting a great run off the bottom exiting the corners, drove inside Davis on lap five to take over the lead after challenging first for a couple laps. 

As Schiffelbein Jr extended his lead, the battle then turned to the second spot where Davis fought to hold off Shadren Turner who had moved up from the fifth starting position. Turner was setting off sparks on every lap as he clipped the front stretch wall on most laps after bowing out off the corners. Turned continued to challenge and by the halfway point had ducked under Davis for second. 

By the halfway point of the race, the drivers were all rimming the inside line as the track started to take rubber and following the third and final yellow for a spinning Troy Gemmill , a single file restart was called for, recognizing the rubbered up surface. 

Schiffelbein Jr continued to lead but on the long green flag period that followed, Turner got close enough to take a couple strikes to the inside but each time, Randal held him off. 

Things got very dicey as the final laps approached. The field was running mostly single file and hugging the inside line and when Schiffelbein Jr caught the back of the field, he was faced with a tough decision won whether to try and pull out and pass the slower cars or stay in line and hope that they were fast enough that no one else could go around him. 

With less than five laps to go, Schiffelbein Jr chose to run the inside and hope. Turner had caught him and made a bold move to the outside try to and pin Randal behind the slower cars as the white flag waved. He continued to try down the back stretch but Davis, who had also caught up, jumped ahead of him and also tried to go to the top side on the final corner. 

Things worked out for Schiffelbein Jr as the back of the pack cars were just fast enough that he could stay ahead of his challengers and cross the line as the winner. Turner was able to get more momentum than Davis and beat him back to the line for second with Jason Pursley and Henry Chambers, who had run consistent races, completing the top five. Only four cars failed to finish and as such, the cars were strung out all the way around the track like a train in the final few laps. 

It was another short field in the Factory Stocks and after Dallas Joyce earned the pole position, the race was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Dylan Allen was able to stay with Joyce for a couple laps, but he then gradually pulled away in the nonstop race, winning by nearly a full straightaway. 

Grant Reeves, making his first start of the year, did eventually drive past Allen and claim the second spot with Ethan Vance and Kenny Schettler following. 

Twenty four Midwest Modz took the green flag for their main event with memories of the long contest fresh in track official's minds. On Saturday, the Midwest Modz were on the twenty minute time clock and while they had some action packed laps, they eventually had the plug pulled on their race after they managed to get fifteen successful laps completed. 

There was plenty of action up front however with three different leaders of the race that produced plenty of action despite the short laps. Jared Willard earned the pole and he led the opening two laps before last night's winner "The Real Tyler Davis" passed him. Willard didn't give up and continued to challenge as he tried to get the lead back. 

Dylan Daniels started seventh but was on the move early, driving past Willard to move into second as the halfway point of the race clicked off. Shortly after, the third yellow of the race was a dandy as a seven car pileup in turn three took quite some time to clear the track. When racing returned, Daniels continued his charge as he got past Davis to take over the lead. 

Davis refused to yield and charged back at the leader but unfortunately, Davis caught the rear end of Daniels in turn four and turned him around, triggering another yellow. Both Davis and Daniels opted to leave the track at this point and a surprised Willard inherited the top spot. At this point, track officials "gonged" the proceedings with a green, white and checkered finish called for. 

Willard then held off a charging Ryan Smith, who started tenth, for the win with Mitch Coulter coming home third. It was Willard's first ever win in the Midwest Modz and first also at Humboldt. 

Despite the Midwest Modz best efforts to slow the proceedings, the program was completed overall in a much more rapid fashion than on Friday and the final checkered waved at 10:30 pm. 

One of the best parts of the weekend was a chance opportunity to spend a goodly amount of time chatting with track promoter John Allen who had quite a long night on Friday and into Saturday morning following some of the on track action and resultant blow by. We covered a wide range of topics and I find Allen to be one of the more thoughtful and reasoned promoters of all that I have known. A talk with him would certainly be an eye opener for those folks that think a track promoters life is one of leisure, just sitting back and raking in the cash. 

Thanks to John, Trenton and all the other officials for a good weekend of racing with the Heartland Modified Tour. They return to action in a couple weeks with Missouri races. Check their schedule for details but if the openers were any indication, they are going to get great support from their drivers all year. Allen has a huge event next weekend when the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars take to his 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas.  

Schiffelbein Jr. Takes Heartland Tour Opener at Humboldt

 The Heartland Modified Tour season opener was Friday night, March 21st at the Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt Kansas. The regional Modified Tour series raced on Friday night as a part of their season opening weekend doubleheader here, dubbed the Whitworth Spring Classic in honor of the Whitworth family, the original owners of this facility that pushed it to the forefront among tracks in the Midwest for their big time Modified races. 

Randal Schiffelbein Jr made a big move on the opening lap to grab the front spot and then led from that point to the finish to score his first ever Modified feature win at "The Hummer." Midwest Modz and Factory Stocks were also on the racing card on Friday with "The Real Tyler Davis" and Dallas Joyce the winners in those two main events. 

Many will know that this was a weekend of conflict, for lack of a better word to use, among Modified racing teams and promoters over their scheduled events. Everyone is aware that there is also a one hundred grand to win Modified race going on this same weekend about two hours straight West of Humboldt. The establishment of this race, both of its timing and location, has created quite a schism among drivers and who they will support with long term ramifications possible. 

I talked to Heartland Modified Tour owner and promoter Trenton Berry about this as we both kind of tip toed around the subject. I didn't want to belabor the issue, feeling Berry had been asked these same questions about a million times since the announcement of the hundred grand show and not surprisingly, Berry taking the high road. Berry is trying to make this regional series work for the drivers of the Midwest and possibly the most disappointing thing to him is some of the drivers that were supporting the other hundred grand show, drivers that he would have expected to support this series designed to help the promoters and drivers of this area with some special events to help them while also at the same time not making the purses so big that it ham strings the promoters as this series does go to some fairly small facilities. 

Berry did work very hard to ensure a good field of cars for this event, believing that no matter what else was going on, he needed a solid field of drivers for the first events for the series this year. And he succeeded in doing so, as forty two Modified drivers signed in for the first of two nights of racing with full shows offered both nights. I suspect that Trenton was very happy with the number of drivers he drew and while the other event saw just over sixty drivers for the hundred grand, he was still able to provide the fans of Humboldt with a very solid field. Moving forward though, it will be interesting to see what ramifications come from where the drivers selected to race this weekend. 

The Heartland Tour, just as with the ARMS Tour that Berry also owns, has seen some procedural changed for 2025. Berry said he looked at a number of different qualifying tactics to use and talked to many drivers and in the end, despite that fact that Berry stated he doesn't like time trials, that is what the Heartland Tour will be using this year.  

The drivers qualify with a split field, and with the number of drivers on hand Friday, they ran four heat races. The heats are started straight up from the times with four drivers making the feature. the rest go into a pair of B Features to set the twenty four car field for the main event. The heat winners redraw against themselves for positions in the main and the second place heat race finishers do the same. It is virtually the same format that most of the Late Model series use with passing points apparently now a thing of the past. Modified drivers, just as the Late Model drivers have learned in recent years, now face a good portion of their evening's success on how they qualify. Is this a good thing? I guess the numbers of butts in the stands over time will tell us that but I know that I share Trenton's opinion on qualifying. 

The majority of drivers on hand this weekend are from the Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri area and kudos to them for having so many strong teams while still missing a number of drivers that would routinely be a part of this series. Even with some absent, there still were twelve of the top twenty in 2024 points on hand. Wyatt Gaggero and Jason Pursley were the quickest of their flights in time trials with Gaggero overall fastest at 15.340 seconds. As stated earlier, four heats and a pair of B Features set the running order for the main with no provisional starters.

Dustin Hodges and Shadren Turner shared the front row for the thirty lap main event but the move of the race was made by Schiffelbein Jr on that opening lap as Hodges drifted a bit up the track on the opening round and Schiffelbein Jr ducked under him in turn four and edged into the lead. He was able to completely clear Hodges on the next lap and the race lead was him. 

Only one full lap was made before the first year when Bobby Williams spun but Chase Sigg and Chevy Coleman had moved into the top five. Schiffelbein Jr continued to lead on the restart as Turner moved into second and provided the stiffest challenge to the leader. 

Several laps of hard racing saw quite a bit of contact back in the pack as the track had turned icy slippery and drivers fought for traction. Lap eight saw the second slow down of the race as Tyler Davis and Coleman came together in turn four. More on the fireworks involved in that accident later. 

As the race continued into its second half, Schiffelbein Jr continued to be challenged by Turner who nearly got a nose inside for the lead off turn four. Gaggero was on the move after starting sixth and he crashed the top three by the halfway point with Hodges and Brandon Givens next in line. One more yellow slowed the action when Derek Watson lost power on the track and slowed. 

Schiffelbein Jr then started to pull away from Turner and run alone as the leader. There would be no late challenges and he crossed the finish line alone as the winner. Turner finished a strong second with Gaggero, Givens and Hodges rounding out the top five. Seventeen drivers were still on the track at the finish. 

Speaking of the one "black eye" of the race, Davis had been moving forward after starting fourteenth on the grid. A couple of his passes had been done using quite a bit of force on the drivers he wedged out of the way. After doing so to Coleman, Chevy responded by taking out Davis and instead of Ford vs. Ferrari, we had Chevy vs. Davis. They slammed each other quite hard under yellow and then the scary part occurred when Davis went roaring into the infield to the hot pit area where Coleman was stopped for service. Lots of folks in the area with no protection as Davis came barreling into the area and a minor scrum broke out between crews with officials trying to mitigate the damage. Both drivers were disqualified from the event and it was a bad scene indeed. These are the types of things when people get hurt. It seems awful early in the season for such hot tempered behavior but both drivers are from the Wichita area and perhaps there is history from that but in any event, it was an ugly scene. 

It was noted that while the other two classes racing on this night used "The Choose Cone", the Modifieds did not and did their normal Delaware restart. Well known starter Mike Striegel was waving the flags for the Modified series also. 

A nice field of two dozen Midwest Modz signed in for racing on Friday which saw them run three full heat races and a main event using passing points to set their running order. 

In a bit of confusion, "The Real Tyler Davis", this one from Chanute, led from start to finish to win the twenty lap main event. Fortunately, the Midwest Modz did a bit better than last week's yellow flag fiasco, but they still managed to slow the action six times for one car spins with a couple of the multi spinners asked to leave the track due to their difficulties. 

Davis started on the outside pole and led the entire contest as he worked the high groove to his advantage. He had several challengers for second with Dylan Daniels running there first before he was replaced in second by Brady Folk. Folk's night ended when the rear end on his car locked up, triggering the last of the yellows. 

Davis remained solid up front and drove on for the win with Sam Keller coming from seventh to claim the runner up spot after a good battle with Daniels and Ryan Smith. 

The Factory Stocks had a very meager field of drivers on hand which resulted in just a single heat and then feature. Dallas Joyce started on the pole and led all the way, opening up nearly a full chute on last week's winner Dylan Allen. Donnie Devers finished third as only those three were still running when the checkered came out. 

When talking with Berry, one of the strongest reasons that he doesn't like time trials is because they always seem to cause the racing event to start late as tracks never seem to start early enough and budget the proper amount of time to do the trials and still start at their advertised time. But unfortunately, while the problem has been diagnosed, there was no cure for the ailment, at least on this night. 

The first race didn't start until 8:43 pm which put the rest of the program behind schedule and the final checkers didn't wave until Midnight on a March evening where once the sun set, it cooled off rapidly. And most unfortunately, many in the crowd had froze out by then and weren't even on the grounds to see the Modified feature which was the last race run. Humboldt has an advertised start time of 8 pm for their weekly shows, which seems ridiculously late as discussed in last week's blog. However, the racing product was good in the Modified class tonight with just a few loose ends to be tied up.  

Culp Drives Around Moyer for Comp Cams Super Dirt Series Win at Springfield

 Somehow the Springfield Raceway managed to avoid the brunt of the violent storms that hit much of the Midwest this weekend and racing was held on Saturday night, March 15th with the Comp Cams Super Dirt Late Model Series being the focus and they provided a fine thirty five lap main event that was captured by Timothy Culp after a stirring drive saw him overtake race long leader Billy Moyer and take his first CCSDS win in nearly four years. 

Five other weekly classes were also on the card to provide a very full night of racing that was completed just as another round of precipitation moved into the Springfield area, resulting in a dusting of snow later. It was a cool afternoon to start off the racing event but when the wind picked up in intensity and switched to the Northwest, it got down right cold but fortunately, those fans on hand to watch the featured event saw the Late Model feature rolled out as the second main event and first after a short break to spritz the track. 

The B Mods, Midwest Modz both A and B, along with the Pure Stocks and Front Wheel Drive(Forward) cars were all in action, making for a full pit area and quite a number of preliminary races before we could get down to brass tacks and begin the mains. The saving grace was that the numbers were such that no B Features were needed for any of the other classes with only the Comp Cams cars needing a pair of B's . 

I'm sure that the Late Model drivers were disappointed that with many making a long drive for the weekend, the Friday night event at Tulsa was canceled after the winds there were so strong that it made racing unsafe for both the spectators and participants. Nevertheless, thirty eight Late Models pulled to Springfield on Saturday night, representing nine states and Jake Timm even stopped on his way home from Tennessee after his Saturday night event there was rained out. 

Rain on Friday had left the track blinding fast and it appeared it was going to be loose and perhaps a problem for the racers. However, Jerry Hoffman does know his red dirt well and the track rolled in nicely through hot laps and made for a good racing surface that was wide and smooth, had at least a couple lanes and a nice berm for those brave enough to dance with it. 

Comp Cams does use a rather straight forward and unimaginative way of lining up their races. Time trials start the show, followed by heat race run straight up and then the feature is lined straight up on the results of the heats. A couple B Features add three cars to the show plus two provisional starters that there is your twenty four car field. 

Time trials produced a bit of a surprise when Kayden Clatt was quickest overall at 11.880 seconds. Group B saw Moyer jump the cushion on his first lap but then he came right back and set quick time for that group at 12.062. 

The Late Model feature saw Moyer get the jump on Clatt to take the early lead. Moyer was running a different line than most of the drivers as Billy, who is usually a "bottom feeder", was running high on one end of the track and right through the middle on the other end and making it work as he pulled away slightly. Clatt has his hands full with Timothy Culp with Timm and Kirby also in the battle for second. However, Moyer was running strong and the first half of the race gave the appearance that we were going to see another feature win for the Hall of Famer. Just as he caught the back of the pack, the yellow waved with sixteen laps in for a stalled car. 

The green saw Culp get past Clatt for second before the yellow came back out quickly for another slowing car, just at the halfway point. Timm was now up to third with Kirby and Clatt next in line. 

How many times in recent years have we seen the majority of successful passed completed just following yellow flag periods when the fields are bunched up. And I feel strongly that if the yellow hadn't flown when it did, we would have witnessed another win for the Hall of Famer but to his credit, when the green came back out, Culp threw a big slider and was able to get past Moyer and take over the lead. The track appeared to be changing as Culp pulled away from the pack while Moyer slipped back to third briefly before fighting his way back into second. 

The final fourteen laps ran off under the green without delay and Culp was not challenged as he drove on for the win in his Capital Race Car. Moyer got back in his groove and finished second with Timm and Kirby close behind. Morgan Bagley charged from fourteenth to complete the top five. All but two drivers were still on the track at the completion of the event. The track held up well and the drivers were still racing all over the surface at the finish, with the groove moving around also which allowed much side by side racing. 

The other five classes drew for starting positions and then used passing points to line up their main events. The Pure Stocks were up first as their main ran directly after the final Late Model preliminaries were completed. 

This race saw a good three car battle for the win with Derek Lampe taking the early lead in his "Grocery Getter" station wagon with Michael McKnight and James Redus right with him. Jeff Reid made a banzai move to try and get the lead from the second row early but he spun and triggered the first yellow flag. The top three ran side by side and Redus split the two others, taking the lead just one lap later. 

Redus then led the rest of the event, but he margin of error was slim as both Dustin Isaacs and Lampe were close behind while they engaged in their own battle for second. Redus drove on for the win with Isaacs holding off Lampe for second as fourteen cars took the green flag. 

Following the Late Model feature, it was time for the Forwards to hit the track with eleven of them taking the green. A dandy two car battle up front highlighted this race as Daniel Barton took the initial lead, only to be passed one lap later by Amadeus Keepper, who held off Barton through the first half of the race, although they spent most of that time running nearly side by side. Just as Barton retook the lead on lap eight, the lone yellow flew for a loose wheel on the track. 

Barton then managed to pull away over the final four laps and take the win. Meanwhile, Allen Thompson, who was running fourth with just those few laps left, put on a big charge and nipped Keepper for second at the finish. 

Midwest Modz A fielded a sixteen car field for their main event, the only one of the night to go green to checkers. Logan Roark jumped into the early lead with Carter Harrison close behind. Harrison was on the move and just two laps later he blew past Roark and took over the top spot. 

One in front, Harrison checked out on the field. Roark continued to hold second until he blew his motor in a spectacular fashion and pulled off the track with the race remaining under the green. Harrison's only issue after that was lapped traffic but he negotiated it well and crossed the finish line with a big lead for the win. Jordan Bryant ended up second with Ben Newell third. 

Another whipping was administered in the B Mod feature where Kris Jackson started on the pole and disappeared into the Missouri darkness as the rest of the field tried to figure out how to keep up with him. 

Jackson was long gone early, even after the race was stopped with six laps complete for a spinning car. Once back under green, Jackson again was long gone while the battle was for second. Rex Harris was running second but by the halfway point Anthony Ferrara had passed him to take over the runner up slot. They would finish in that order with Cole Campbell making a late charge to grab third. 

Midwest Modz B had the largest field of the night for the support cars and twenty three of them took the green for their twenty lapper. In this case, a bigger field also produced bigger problems with the yellow getting a work out . Gavin Buckley took the early lead with James Lee chasing him. But with five yellows in the first five laps, track management called for a single file restart as weather was moving in on the track. 

Buckley continued to lead Lee and Eli Ellis past the halfway point with the yellow flag taking a break as eleven green flag laps were completed consecutively. Buckley had built up a big lead when his car suddenly quit down the front chute and he pulled to the infield, turning over the lead to Lee. 

Light precipitation was starting to fall around this time and while the track was still raceable, it was starting to get just a bit slick. Then the yellow flew once again for a spinner and this set up a four lap dash to the finish. The cars were lined up single file with Lee leading Braxton Rupp and Ellis. 

However, the move of the night was upcoming and it belonged to Jordan Cater. He was fourth when the green reappeared but while the front three cars followed each other nose to tail on the low side of the track, struggling with the slightly slick conditions, Cater went to the cushion where he could maintain his momentum and the track wasn't so slick and he blew by the three drivers in front of him like they were anchored at a dock. 

He tore away from the field and was still pulling away when the checkers fell. Rupp pulled out of line when he realized what was happening and he managed to get past Lee for second. The race finished just in the nick of time as the precipitation picked up and would have ended the show. The final checkers waved just around 10 pm. 

Thanks to the folks from Comp Cams and especially Chris Sullivan for his help as well as Jerry Hoffman and his staff from the Springfield Raceway. Both the Comp Cams and Springfield have busy upcoming schedules so check out both for exciting events in their future. 

 

Sheets Tops Humboldt; Hurricane Force Winds The Big Story

 The violent storm front that blew in over the weekend of March 14-15 created big problems for race track across America. Many cancelled their shows and there were only a very few that stuck it out and put events on. One of those that did race on Friday night, March 14th was the Humboldt Speedway in Kansas. 

Conditions were far from great there and in fact, it turned out to be one of the most miserable nights to be watching racing that I can remember in quite some time. Unfortunately for the few and tough spectators that chose to brave the elements, the grandstands at Humboldt face to the South, which unfortunately for us, was then forcing us to sit facing directly into the blasts of wind that never did seem to let up all night. Quite frankly, it was brutal and many of the fans that did show up either stayed just to watch their favorite driver or called it a night early on after determining it was just too much to bear. Even the flagman almost got blown out of his stand one time when a mighty gust struck us full bore. 

And with Kansas being bone dry this Spring and the wind so strong it was almost impossible to keep moisture in the race track, the combination of blowing dust from the wind, mixed with the dust from the track plus the infield, pits and anywhere else dust could be churned up, it was a sandstorm into the faces of the fans. And the blowing dust was everywhere, creating a visual that was uncomfortably weird until the sun set and we could see it no longer. Throw in the smoke from numerous grass fires that authorities were very concerned about and the air quality was considerably less than desired. 

Promoter John Allen told me that since they had no classes running wings and with the hype of the opening night, it didn't want to cancel just because of the wind so the decision was made to go ahead and race, knowing that only the tough and perhaps loony fans would show up. And here I was. 

Humboldt no longer runs Modifieds as a part of the their weekly shows with the USMRS B Mods being the top class. They are supported by the Midwest Mods, the Factory Stocks and the Mini Stocks/Hornets. This was the first night for points for the 2025 racing season as well as being the track opener. 

No B Features were needed on this night with the largest car count being in the Midwest Mods where they had nineteen cars. Racing would begin just after 8 pm which is their normal starting time. 8 pm seems quite late for a show to begin but they must have their reasons for doing so but this does more than likely make for a late Friday night as it they were able to pull off a three hour program, which is optimal for any track, it still makes it 11 pm before they get done, something not tolerated so well by race fans these days. 

Humboldt still doesn't have a scoreboard, something which I thought they were set to erect some time ago, so that makes writing stories a bit of a challenge. Something new procedure wise this year at "The Hummer" was that they instituted the Choose Cone for restarts, still using Delaware style starts but allowing the rest of the field to double up behind the leader, based on their choice. This seems rather straight forward to me but there were issues with it on Friday as some drivers just couldn't figure it out and on a night when you wanted things to go as smooth as possible, they had to explain things to a few drivers from time to time. Passing points were used to line up the main events with the top point earner in the heats getting the point, with no invert or some such thing. 

The heats did click off quite quickly and it seemed for a fleeting moment that it might be a quick night of racing, with everyone on the grounds wanting to get out of the wind as quickly as possible. However, the wind did a job on the racing surface which turned icy slick by the end of the heats and with the dirt and sand flying across it, it made it even slippery. Plus there were probably opening night jitters among some of the drivers plus there were others that just drove like butt heads. The result was four labor intensive main events that took a long time to run, despite the best efforts of the track crew to keep things moving. They cut intermission to a scant ten minutes, calling for the drivers to line up for the feature races quickly and postponed the trophy presentations until all racing was done but those were just band aids on a problem of drivers over driving and spinning themselves plus others. 

The Mini Stock/Hornet feature was first up and actually was the best of the main events. However, it ended with controversy when the top two drivers, racing for the win, crashed each other out coming to the checkers. 

Dillon Box started on the outside pole and led the opening lap but he was passed one lap later for the lead by Clint Haigler. Haigler then led for two laps before Box got back past him as the leaders ran in tight formation. They were joined by Conner Rigsby in a nice three car battle. 

Rigsby got into second by the halfway point of the race which had gone nonstop following a crash just seconds after the green flag was waved. However, Haigler found a new line higher on the track and he moved back past Rigsby and in the late laps closed on Bos once again for the lead. 

Box took the white flag as the leader but  Haigler moved up beside him and drove into the lead as they hit turn three on the final lap. Box, however, was not going to settle for second and he dove way too hard into the final corner, sliding up the track and turning Haigler into the outside wall where he also became entangled with Haigler and with them stranded, Rigsby drove by them and took the checks as the winner. Rick Andres ended up a surprising second with Dennis Aiello third with neither Haigler nor Box finishing. It was a tough way to begin what will be a long season of racing for them. 

Midwest Mods were up next and the largest field of drivers created the most problems as this race was slowed a mind boggling eight times, mostly for one car spins and an occasional tangle thrown in for good measure. 

The one constant of the race was Steve Muilenburg who took the lead from the pole and led all the way for nineteen laps which turned out to be many, many more. Dylan Daniels held the second spot for most of the race before he started to fade at the end and he finished up out of the top five with a flat tire hindering his late race run. 

With all the yellows, the mid pack order was shuffled many times but gradually moving up after starting eleventh was Jacob Hall. He got up to second with a pass of Daniels and put the most pressure on Muilenburg of the race. Hall looked to the very low side of the track and challenged during the longest green flag run of the race, but at the end Muilenburg again pulled away for the win. Alex Schultz started thirteenth and finished third. 

The Factory Stock feature was much the same with one leader for the whole contest and way too many yellow flags. Dylan Allen started on the pole and he was never challenged through seven yellow flags, each time pulling away once the green flag flew. 

Early one the running order was shuffled when Jacob Ellison, Mike Keever and Kenny Schettler, all battling for second, piled up with Ellison done, Keever to the back and Schettler restored to his spot. 

Through all the yellows and the restarts, Allen maintained his lead and was never pressured as the took the checkers as the winner. Keever used all the restarts to work his way back through the field and he ended up second with Schettler third. 

The B Mods would complete the night and this race belonged to Jon Sheets as he led from start to finish and kept the field comfortably behind him. He took off from the outside pole and grabbed the lead immediately and while there was a good battle for second, he was not a part of that. 

Jackson McGowan was holding that spot until he crashed out of the race and then a good battle for second broke out amongst Matthew Kay, Terry Schultz and Ryan Smith. Late in the race Schultz got past for second as he held off Kay but neither had anything for Sheets who drove home for the win. 

All racing was complete by about 11 pm , that magic time they were hoping for and it would have been earlier had not the feature races droned on for what seemed like forever. Fifty seven drivers completed on opening night in the four classes. 

Thanks to John Allen for his hospitality. he took time out of a busy opening night to talk for a few moments and he is always a great host to meet. Next week Trenton Berry's Heartland Modified Tour visits Humboldt for two nights of racing. 

Strickler Holds Off Sanders For First USMTS Win at RRP

 The United States Modified Touring Series continued their run of races in the state of Texas, heading to the Rocket Raceway Park near Petty for the first night of the Texas Spring Nationals on Friday night, March 7th. In what was one of the longer and caution plagued events that the USMTS has run recently, North Carolina's Kyle Strickler made a first lap move stick to grab the early lead and then hold off Rodney Sanders over a long period of time to get his first ever USMTS win. 

When Strickler opted to test the USMTS for a full season in 2025, it was assumed that it wouldn't take him long to find victory lane as he is one of the top Modified drivers in the entire country, and that proved to be the case as in only his third USMTS run of the season, he found victory lane despite a tough battle to hold off Sanders for the win. 

The Texas Spring National also had racing in three other classes on this Friday night with the Factory Stocks, Stock Cars and Limited Mods/B Mods all running under USRA rules and the winners of those three mains included Richard George Jr, Tyler Honeywell and Boone Evans. 

Forty three Modified drivers signed in to race on Friday night, or at least that's what My Race Pass said. However, I think A.J. Hoff and Reece Solander were only signed in for points purposes and they were not on hand and actually hundreds of miles away from the track. With forty one drivers actively on hand but missing only two of the top twenty in current points,  the program would include qualifying, four heats, a pair of B Features and the forty lap main event. 

Qualifying would produced a large surprise when Sean Gaddis pulled one out of his hat, increasing his lap speed by over six tenth of a second on his second lap and getting the quickest lap of the night. He then pulled a "three" for the invert that set the lineups for the heat races. 

The heat races were significant in two regards. Kale Westover showed great speed in winning a heat race. Unfortunately, his car was "up" on the bars at its conclusion due to a suspension problem and he was disqualified for a deck height issue. He later would make the main as a provisional starter. Quick qualifier Gaddis hammered the wall during his heat race, tearing up his car badly and he also had to start the main as a provisional racer. 

With all the non qualifiers that had to be added, a big field of twenty eight drivers would take the green flag for the forty lapper. The track had been a low groove track all night to that point and it got even more pronounced so in the main event with everyone fighting to get to the inside line and only the brave trying to gain ground around the outside. For a number of laps, the double file restarts with some trying the second lane produced some side by side racing but that gradually went away as the track started to take rubber around the halfway point of the event. 

With everyone fighting for the low side real estate, it was the perfect scenario for some beating and banging and this broke out early and never did ease up. Unfortunately, the scoreboard was not linked up with the Modifieds so it was nearly impossible to determine just what lap the race was on until the halfway signal was given by the flagman, who by the way was outstanding. 

Trevor Hughes held the pole but he slid up the track on the opening lap and with a bold move, Strickler shot up from the second row to lead the first lap as he recognized how important it was to get to the front quickly. He then led the rest of the race but the constant yellows and eventually Sanders did not make it easy for him. 

The first yellow was triggered when Jason Hughes slowed and clipped Terry Phillips before he could exit the track. The retirement for Hughes was apparently a short one as he will run a "pick and choose" campaign after having sold his chassis business to his son. For Phillips, he must have wondered what he did wrong on this night as at least three times he was involved in accidents, none of his doing. 

The first half of the race was especially troublesome with at least six yellows and this would not have been the night to take a new fan to the track as it was a trying experience. Having quick cars and taking advantage of all the slow downs, Sanders and Jim Chisholm marched through the field, Sanders from fourteenth and Chisholm from the row behind him. 

Tanner Mullens used the outside on several restarts to try and get past Strickler but couldn't pull it off and as Sanders got past him for second, Mullens hammered the home stretch wall, slowing and ending his chances for a win. 

The last half of the race saw Sanders apply heavy pressure to Strickler, several times getting to his back bumper but unable to find a way by on what was now a very one lane track. Sanders may have been just a tick quicker, but the veteran Strickler was not about to make a mistake and give Rodney any openings. Strickler crossed the finish line with a couple car lengths on Sanders and Chisholm close behind him in third. Tyler Davis ran a consistent race for fourth with Trevor Hughes holding on for fifth. Only thirteen drivers would finish out the contest with many thankful that there would be no racing on Saturday due to the damage that many had suffered. With his consistent runs so far in 2025, Sanders would leave Texas with the point lead for the USMTS as the troops march on next to Lucas Oil Speedway for the King of America event, moved to Wheatland Missouri for the first time this year. 

The Factory Stocks and Stock Cars both had small fields of drivers on hand for Friday. A dozen drivers took the green for the Factory Stock main event with Richard George Jr jumping past pole starter James Proctor to take the early lead. Rodney White, the winner in the last Factory Stock special held here earlier this month, moved quickly into second and put the pressure on George Jr for the lead. 

White was one of the few all night able to make the second lane work and as George Jr kept his car pinched tight against the inside berm, White was able to gain a little momentum and pull up beside the leader. 

However, just as he made the pass for the lead at the halfway point, the lone yellow of the race flew for a spinning car. This gave George Jr. the point back, and he would broaden out his line just enough that making a move past him was challenging, George Jr would not be challenged the rest of the race and drove on for the win over White, Rowdy Day, Colton Frazier and Daylon Briscoe. 

Eleven drivers took the green for the Stock Car feature with significant happenings on the opening lap when pole starter Tommy Fain spun in turn one. All drivers missed him but he would have to go to the tail of the pack, at least for some laps. 

During the afternoon, Tyler Honeywell spotted me in the pits from last year, remembering that I was wearing my Packers sweatshirt and stopping me since he was a gigantic Packer fan, even though he lives in Texas. He remembered me from last year and had to show me his three Packer racing helmets, one for each color that Packers wear. He selected the yellow one for Friday night and it looked good in victory lane as Tyler got the jump on the restart and held off the field for twenty laps. 

It was not an easy win however, as Boone Evans was all over him the first half of the race. Evans was running up the rear bumper of Honeywell so he made a bold move to the outside but found the track couldn't handle his charge and he went spinning off the end of the track. 

This put Shawn Graham all over Honeywell while one of the other few able to make the second lane work was Fain, who had moved from the back of the pack up to fifth by the halfway point. 

Fain continued his charge and as Honeywell held off Graham, Fain moved into the picture. On the final lap Fain drove around Graham and then charged after the leader. Tommy got a great run off turn four but came up a half length short as "Packer" Tyler Honeywell took the win. Michael Smith and Anthony Boatman completed the top five. 

The Limited Mod feature had a full field of cars, split between Southern Sport Mods and B Mods. There was also plenty of trouble in this race, with five yellows for spins and a couple of collisions. Mason Day grabbed the initial lead from Matthew Riskey but after a lap and under the yellow, Day headed for the pits with mechanical issues, turning over the lead to Riskey. But he was challenged by both Denny Gieber and Boone Evans, up from fifth. 

Evans, who seems to have a car to race in every class here in Texas, drove past Riskey on lap five and once in front, he then pulled away from the pack. 

Despite three yellows during the second half of the race, Evans was the class of the field as he pulled away from the pack each time the green waved. There was a good battle, however, for the positions behind him with considerable trading of positions that came right down to the finish. 

Riskey battled with Matthew Day for second and grabbed that spot on the final three laps with Josh Landers slipping past Day for third right at the end and Cody King completed the top five. 

New track General Manager and Promoter Kevin Rogers was introduced to the crowd. Rogers, the head of RaceOn, recently purchased the track from Kevin Sustaire. 

The Texas Spring Nationals was scheduled to be a two night event but with a dreary weather forecast for Saturday, it was announced during the evening that the Saturday part of the program was cancelled and the drivers quickly loaded up and headed home once they were done racing. 

Chisholm's Roll, Joe Saturday Night USMTS Winner

 The doubleheader weekend of USMTS Modified racing concluded on Saturday night, March 1st at the Heart 'O Texas Speedway in Elm Mott and what a weekend it was for the racing Chisholm family out of Osage Iowa. 

On Friday night, Jim, the defending USMTS Modified Series point champion, started off the new year with a bang as he won the opening night event while younger brother Joe had a solid run, finishing in the fifth spot. Their domination of the weekend continued on Saturday when Joe won his first ever USMTS main event, fighting off Tanner Mullens to get the win. Jim did not have quite as good of luck however, as after starting sixteenth in the main event and working his way into the top five by the halfway point of the contest, a flat tire sent him to the pits for a replacement and he would have to settle for ninth and repassing much of the field for a second time. 

The undercard action saw the Limited Mods and Factory Stocks also run  full program with Louisiana's Coty Tupper winning for the second time this weekend and Boone Evans made a late race pass to take the Factory Stock main event. 

It was a spectacularly beautiful March night for auto racing and a big crowd packed the HOT for the last appearance of the USMTS at this track in 2025. Attrition had taken a small toll on the field by Saturday as forty three drivers signed in for Modified racing. Thus, with this number of entries, the field was split into four big heat races as opposed to six rather small heats that we saw on Friday night. The field was still split in halves for qualifying and the top twelve in passing points automatically moved to the feature. 

Reece Solander and Jamie Burford where the quickest under the clock with Burford, the former Late Model star who is making a return to Modified racing after nine years, was fastest overall at 15.070 seconds. After that he struggled though and came up one spot short of making the feature through a B and had to rely on a provisional starting spot. Burford drew a "5" for the invert, one of the most important events of the night for the drivers. 

Changing up from the previous two nights when the track was just too slimy for fair qualifying for those that drew low pills, the track was considerably drier on Saturday and while qualifying went much smoother, many drivers struggled with their heats, with many more yellows for spins etc. than the previous nights. I also felt that the track was the feature was not as good as the previous nights, while the fast groove seemed narrower and tougher to pass on. 

With the first race of the season in the books, the number of cars added to the feature increased with Trevor Hughes, Gary Christian and Mark Smith joining Burford as additions, making it twenty six cars for forty laps for the top prize of five grand. 

Joe Chisholm drew the outside pole on the redraw and with the top side fast for those that wanted to get up to the top, he jumped into the early lead over Carlos Ahumada Jr and Tanner Mullens. Ahumada Jr would start to slip back in the field though, with Mullens moving to second and both Kyle Strickler and Rodney Sanders moving forward. 

A multi car pileup on lap thirteen slowed the action for a second time and this almost proved to be Joe Chisholm's downfall. The choose cone was in effect once again and for some strange reason that boggled the minds of those paying attention, despite the fact that Chisholm had been ripping the cushion lap after lap, he chose the bottom for the restart. 

Mullens just licked his lips in anticipation and sure enough, when the green dropped, Mullens blew past to take over the lead. He maintained that spot for the next six laps, despite another slowdown for another big crash and having Chisholm all over his rear bumper. 

But Joe showed that he was the faster of the two drivers, as on lap nineteen, after working Mullens hard for several laps, he was able to pull off a slider and race back into the top spot. They raced that way through the halfway point of the event, with Strickler and Sanders joined by Jim Chisholm in the top five. 

Jim may have succeeded his brother as the quickest driver on the track at this point as he has worked his way forward after starting in the eight row and in fact was able to get past  Sanders for fourth before disaster struck. He slowed on lap twenty four with a flat tire and was forced to pit along with Strickler who suffered the same problem. 

Thus the lineup for the restart was really shuffled with both Solander and Kyle Brown appearing for the first time in the top five. After all the yellows in the first half of the race, the last sixteen laps ran off green to checkers and Joe showed that he was quickest of all, pulling to a nearly full straightaway lead. However, his fans could never relax because even though he had a comfortable lead, he made things exciting by pushing so hard and his hammering style of racing saw him twice almost overshoot the second turn and cause disaster for himself. But somehow he bailed himself out each time and saved the night for himself. 

In the last few laps he caught the back of the pack and with passing tough with the fast lane full, they might have helped Chisholm and he wisely slowed down, followed them and eased his chances of flying off the end. Mullens would close up some but Joe still had a comfortable lead at the checkers. 

Terry Phillips made a strong run of his own after starting fifteenth as after not even being in the top five until the very end, he continued to charge and got by both Solander and Sanders to finish a strong third, despite fighting some health issues with his vision over the weekend. Eighteen drivers finished the contest and with the numerous yellows, all were on the lead lap. 

An interesting development occurred in the Limited Mod class. Friday night winner Denny Gieber who won the race on Friday racing a B Mod, switched cars on Saturday night and was instead running a Southern Sport Mod. The move was not a helpful one as he would finish midpack on Saturday. 

The driver that has been hot here all weekend, Coty Tupper, would dominate the Limited Mod feature. Tupper, who has been speedy all weekend, has also faired well when it came to the redraw as he started outside pole on both Thursday and tonight and won both nights. When he started tenth on Friday, he had to work very hard and have some breaks to get up to second at the finish. 

Tupper blew away from Kyle Wilkins as the start and opened up a large lead over the field. There was some good battling back in the pack though, as Jake Smith, Dan Wheeler, Wilkins and Casey Brunson battled hard, exchanging slide jobs in what was an entertaining fight for position. 

After starting tenth, Trevor Cogburn used the same banzai style that he had shown on Friday night to advance through the pack but when he tried to slide job two drivers on the same corner it didn't work out and his spin at the midpoint of the race was the only slowdown of the event. 

The final half of the race ran off green to checkers with Tupper building up nearly a full chute lead over the field. Smith used a couple more slide jobs to work his way into second but he was way too far behind to be a factor. Wheeler finished third and Wilkins had bad luck when he blew a motor on the final lap and gave up a good finishing spot. Brunson ended up fourth ahead of T.J. Evans. 

Things looked pretty cut and dried in the Factory Stock feature until a late race yellow really changed things around. Michael Bowles started on the pole and sprinted away from Steve Grantz in the early going, and eventually opened up a comfortable lead over Grantz. 

Brian Johnson, who had started twelfth, gradually worked his way to the front and moved into third by the halfway point of the race with Boone Evans close behind but both were considerably behind the top two. 

However, this all changed with just five laps to go when a spinning car triggered the first and only yellow of the race. This bunched up the pack and suddenly it was a three car race for the win with both Johnson and Evans pulling up beside Bowles and they went three wide for the win. 

Johnson was able to edge past Bowles with two to go but then Evans dove under Johnson and took over the lead as they saw the white flag. Evans pulled away on the final lap as he came from tenth for the win with Johnson a close second and Bowles a disappointed third as the late yellow certainly cost him the win. 

USMTS was back in rhythm on Saturday night with a show that started right on time, ended much earlier than the previous nights and also saw no breaks at all, rolling right into main events as soon as the last qualifying was done. 

The Modified drivers now have a full week to put things back together and wash up the equipment before they head to Rocket Raceway Park near Petty Texas for the next round of USMTS racing next Friday and Saturday. 

As always, thanks to the folks at USMTS and ARMS for a solid weekend of Modified racing and also to the staff at HOT for their work on what was likely a grueling weekend of racing to begin their long season here in Texas.  

Jim Chisholm With HOT Start in USMTS

 Jim Chisholm served notice that he intends to defend his 2024 National Championship with the United States Modified Touring Series in the strongest manner that he can and he did so by taking the lead on the fifth lap and leading the rest of the forty lap opener for the twenty seventh season of the USMTS on Friday night at the Heart 'O Texas Speedway in Elm Mott. 

Support classes for the USMTS opener on Friday were the Factory Stocks and the Limited Modifieds and the winners in those two classes were Westin Abbey and Denny Gieber. 

It is hard to believe that the USMTS is beginning their twenty seventh season of racing. After all, it seems like just yesterday when Todd and Janet Staley bought the series and changed the name from the USMS to USMTS and then took off and ran with the idea of a traveling series for Modifieds when no one else had even contemplated such an idea. Well, it proved to be an outstanding business decision and the rest is history with the series seemingly in just as strong a position as it has ever been with a solid schedule at some of the finest race tracks in the country. 

A tour of the pits before the races would reveal that last night's quick qualifier Casey Fowler did indeed blow a motor right off the bat in his heat race. They were forced to change engines today in the pits and the word was that the motor they blew was a brand new piece, racing in its first night of competition. They were discouraged, needless to say, but hope springs eternal that Friday night would be a  better night for them. 

An odd situation developed this weekend with the "preliminary" night of ARMS racing on Thursday night actually producing a larger car count that the USMTS did on Friday. Down three cars, the USMTS field of forty eight was still strong and not one to quibble with. A check of last year's point standings did reveal that they lost three of their top ten point drivers from last year in Jake Timm, Dan Ebert and Jason Hughes along with a no show by Tyler Davis. Both Timm and Ebert have moved on to Late Model racing in 2025 and Hughes is reportedly retiring from racing. Jason was in the pits on Friday but just helping his son on his car which now carries Jason's sponsors and even his car looks. It will be hard to imagine USMTS racing without Jason Hughes being in the field. 

The USMTS continues to use a rather different method of qualifying their cars for the main event in 2025. They are back to qualifying the cars with the field split into two groups with three cars under the clock per session. The quickest driver overall, which happened to be Kale Westover at 15.581 seconds, then rolled a dice to determine the invert in the heat races. Tonight the quickest four in each heat were inverted. The drivers then earn passing points for their heats with the top twelve making the main and the rest in a B Feature. Two provisional starters set up the twenty four car field for the main. The method of time trialing and then both inverting heats and using passing points can be debated all night but the bottom line is, that is the way they do it and if you want to race with them, you have to adapt to how they run their show. 

For the second straight night, the track didn't roll in as expected but Todd is true to starting a racing program on time, so the Mods had to qualify on a pretty slimy race track, with the first drivers out really having a challenging track to deal with which, I'm sure, pleased them no end. However, series announcer Erik Chesterman made it clear that their laps were going to be their only laps with no retries or "mulligans." This did help insure that the program started within mere minutes of the advertised time, unlike Thursday night. 

The forty lap feature for the Modifieds would see Chisholm come from the fourth row to take the win. Kale Westover, by the luck of the redraw, started on the pole but on the opening lap he slipped up the track and allowed Keith Hammett to duck under him and record the lead for the first lap. Westover's night dipped even more when he rolled to a halt one lap later, triggering the first yellow of the event. 

Chisholm had already moved to second with Kyle Strickler, Kyle Brown and Philip Houston close behind. Chisholm continued to pressure Hammett for the lead and on lap five Hammett slipped up the track and Chisholm shot under him to take over the top spot. 

Three yellow flags slowed the action in the first eleven laps and with the USMTS utilizing the "choose" cone and also double file restarts even for the front row, after each yellow Chisholm had Strickler, not afraid to try the outside, right beside him. On each occasion however, Chisholm managed to fight off the North Carolina national Modified star and continue to maintain the lead. 

The track started to go low side dominant and both Rodney Sanders and Tanner Mullens started to move up and they both put Strickler behind them by the halfway point of the race. Only Joe Chisholm stayed on the top side of the track and he pounded the cushion with fury while managing to stay up with the leaders. 

Mark Smith collected Brown and Carlos Ahumada Jr. in a turn three pileup and after Smith then pounded the turn two wall five laps later, he was done and the yellow flags also stopped, setting up a fifteen lap race to the checkers. 

Sanders was very strong and several times he got a nose under Jim Chisholm as they battled for the lead. Sanders appeared that he might be the fastest car at this point, but Chisholm was not going to give him the inside line. 

In the last few laps, Sanders slid back a few car lengths with Jim Chisholm then continuing his strong run as he drove home for the win. Sanders, Mullens, Joe Chisholm and Strickler completed the top five. Sixteen cars completed the feature race with all on the lead lap. 

Both the Factory Stocks and Limited Mods had improved car counts for Friday night's show and both provided entertaining feature races. The Factory Stock main saw a great battle between Westin Abbey and Johnny Torres for the win. While the lead position was only officially changed one time, in the early going of the race they were swapping the lead on each end of the track with slide jobs breaking out left and right. 

However, each time, except for lap four, when Torres led at the line, Abbey was scored the lead driver. Cody Dixon was running third by the halfway point but then contact between himself and G.W. Egbert IV led to some hard feelings expressed on the track and a shuffle of the running order. 

Meanwhile, the leaders hugged the low groove and while Torres rode right on the rear bumper of Abbey, Westin was able to hold on and take the win. Last night's winner Cameron Cook crossed the line third but failed in post race inspection, giving third to Egbert over Michael Bowles and Cody Frank. 

Nineteen drivers started the Limited Mod feature race which also had its share of action. Three different drivers led at points of this race and hard feelings also developed over some of the activity during this fifteen lapper. Mark Fox started on the pole and led the opening lap before he was passed by Trevor Cogburn who was running an exciting line high up against the wall in the turns. 

Cogburn led over Michael Dabney with Boone Evans moving up rapidly in the field to crack the top three and then engage in a slide job special as he fought with both Cogburn and Denny Gieber for the lead. Gieber had started seventh but smoothly moved forward and as the other leaders battled hard with each other, he was able to slip by and take over the point. 

Things got pretty physical for second as the slide job intensity got even stronger but that came to an end with just three laps to go when Evans spun his way out of the contest. Gieber was very smooth right on the bottom and he would pull away for the win. Cogburn continued to pound the cushion in a late attempt to make a winning pass but it cost him second as last night's winner Coty Tupper who had started tenth, slipped under him for second on the last lap. Jake Smith and Dabney completed the top five. With the intensity displayed by the support classes for the first racing weekend of the year, I can't imagine how hard they must go at it by the time the heat and humidity of July hit!

Excellent last February weather continued on Friday with the promise of more when we turn the calendar to March on Saturday night. The same three classes will again be in action with the second point race for USMTS paying another five grand to the winner. RacinDirt will have the broadcast for those unable to jump in the car and drive to Texas on Saturday. 

Mullens Tops ARMS Opener at HOT

 The American Racer Modified Series kicked off their 2025 racing season on Thursday night, February 27th at the Heart 'O Texas Speedway located north of Waco in Elm Mott Texas. After losing a pair of races last week also in Texas due to harsh temperatures, Trenton Berry and Eric Chesterman were more than happy to start the season for one of three Modified series that they will be undertaking this year. 

An excellent field of fifty one drivers signed in to race on Thursday, many on hand because they support this series that runs primarily in the Texas and Louisiana area and others on hand for a paid hot lap practice session as they prepare for the USMTS season which kicks off on Friday night at this same track. 

It was a spectacular but then heart breaking night for Anthony New Mexico's Mark Smith who after setting quick time of the night, led the first twenty laps of the main event. However, with a comfortable lead, he spun all by himself which triggered a yellow flag, sent him to the back and took away any chance he had of winning the main. 

Tanner Mullens took advantage of the break he received and led the rest of the event, holding off Jim Chisholm to take the win. 

Factory Stocks and a combination of Southern Sport Mods, B Mods and Midwest Mods formed the Limited Mod class and these two classes also ran a full program with numbers in each class just about right for a mid week show in February. Winners in those two classes were Cameron Cook and Coty Tupper. 

The program has a new look to it this year, in that the drivers for the ARMS Modified series have a new way of qualifying for their main event. I must confess that I was surprised to find out just what the system would be, usually expecting to find some form of passing points used for these well paying Modified series. 

Imagine my surprise when I found out that they would be using a system that almost mirrors that used by the UMP Late Models when they race in Florida. The field was split into two groups for qualifying and drivers would qualify against everyone else in that group. The heat races were then lined straight up based on qualifying times with six heats run for the fifty one cars on hand. The top three in each heat made the main event and everyone else started straight up in one of two B Features that would take another three, thus producing twenty four cars for the main and with this being the first race of the year, there were no provisional starters. Thus the format was almost identical to that used by UMP in Florida. And just like the Late Models, this puts a huge premium on qualifying because a poor time trial lap sets one back so far that digging out of that hole, with only three cars making the main out of eight or so in a short eight lap heat race makes for very tough sledding indeed. When Berry spoke on the microphone he indicated that this method would be used for the time being but seemed to indicate that perhaps at some point they would revisit this plan, based I'm guessing on how the drivers like it and what kind of racing was produced. 

The track had been watered very generously for Thursday night and extra packing was needed to roll in the surface. It produced a screaming fast track with a big berm that many raced off of. The racing seemed to be especially intense for the opener and there was much hard driving seen all night. And even after the whole show was completed, there was not even a whisper of dust to be found as the drivers were still spraying mud clods off the corners. 

When they started qualifying, which was well behind the advertised schedule, the track truly wasn't still ready to be raced on and this produced some interesting results from the qualifying sessions with several surprising entrants at or near the front of heats and some figured to be fast having to dig out of deep holes. But the bright side was that it produced some highly interesting qualifying events with half the heats seeing winners coming from back in the pack, not the sort of racing usually seen in heats whre the fast cars are starting right up front. 

The quick qualifiers were Casey Fowler, who unfortunately then blew up a motor in the first heat race and Smith with laps at 15.005 and Smith quickest overall at 14.608 as the track got faster and faster, the more cars that raced on it. The groove gradually widened out and by feature time they were running side by side, two and three deep with drivers like Rodney Sanders and Reece Solander setting off a shower of sparks every time they came down the front stretch as they rubbed the concrete wall. 

Twenty four drivers started the thirty lap main event which had all the ear marks of a classic race, and likely would have been so except that after some pretty smooth previous races, the Modified feature was plagued by yellow flags with the yellow bunting flying nine times with the longest green flag stretch of racing the last six laps of the contest. 

But for short bursts and stretches, the race was excellent with large packs of drivers battling for position and while many used the berm to walk around the track, there were others making the low side work as well. 

Smith took the lead from the pole after redrawing that spot and he led early over Mullens, Tater Hyde and Nathan Smith. The racing was intense but short lived as the yellow waved five times before the first half of the contest was done. Thankfully, virtually all the yellows were for one car spins and despite how hard they were racing, there were not a lot of serious crashes. 

By the halfway point, Smith was continuing up front and every time the green would wave, he pulled away from the pack. Mullens still ran second but Sanders and Jim Chisholm were both making progress through the field. Sanders was especially impressive as he moved up from eleventh to third, with a shower of sparks down the front chute on virtually every lap as he threw caution to the wind. 

Then, to everyone's surprise and shock, Smith, with a healthy lead, spun all by himself in turn one and forfeited what appeared to be two grand to add to his checking account. He went to the back of the pack and Mullens inherited the point.

The last nine laps Tanner continued to lead but Chisholm tried to pressure him as they had to withstand two more slow downs. However, Mullens was up to the task and he didn't allow Chisholm to close on him as he took the win. Sanders ended up third, with a steady Carlos Ahumada Jr and Kale Westover completing the top five. Fourteen drivers completed the contest with all on the lead lap. 

The support classes both did their jobs very well and they both produced entertaining features while at the same time not taking a lot of time as both mains went off smoothly. And throw in the fact that the Factory Stock feature was a nail biter with the margin of victory being about a half car length. 

They only had ten cars on this week night but the Factory Stocks put on a very good main event. After a first lap yellow that saw Michael Bowles surge into the lead and then stall before he made the first turn, the rest of the race would go without a single yellow flag. 

Cameron Cook took the early lead and built up some distance on the field as the pack was batting behind him, giving him a chance to pull away. However, Westin Abbey finally cleared to second and he set off after the leader. With the race staying green, it didn't seem possible that he would catch up but he continued to press and as the laps ran down, he was able to catch Cook for the lead. 

The last few laps they raced nearly side by side with the margin of the lead getting smaller on each lap. The final tour saw then side by side with Abbey on the bottom. Much respect should go to both drivers as with the circumstances as they were with a still heavy and slick track, each could have easily booted the other out of the way, but they chose to race clean and side by side with Cook holding off the charging Abbey by perhaps half a car length at the line. Frank Lackey finished third. 

Sixteen Limited Mods from various disciplines took the green flag for their fifteen lap main event. Remington Budd started on the pole and he managed to hold off Coty Tupper for two laps as the two Louisiana drivers fought for the lead. 

Finally, Tupper was able to make the pass for the top spot after the yellow waved twice in the first two laps but followed with thirteen straight under the green. 

There was some great infighting for spots back in the pack with a great gaggle of cars all fighting for third after Tommy Williams broke free into second. Tupper continued to maintain his lead and he drove on for the win with Williams and Minnesota drivers Jake Smith and Dan Wheeler trailing. So the score was USRA B Mod first, Southern Sport Mod second and WISSOTA Midwest Mod third. 

A very scary moment occurred that triggered a yellow flag on lap twenty one of the Modified feature when an errant car spun quickly into the infield in turn one and veteran Minnesota photographer Buck Monson was clipped by the spinning car. He tried to dive out of the way but was struck by the car and then thrown into a barrier designed to protect the infield light poles from the cars. Buck was beaten up pretty good but at last word had no broken bones and vowed to be back at the track on Friday in some shape or manner. It was ironic because just earlier in the evening Buck and I were giving each other grief, I because he was riding around the pits on an electric bicycle and he because I came all the way down from Wisconsin to watch this race weekend. You just never know what is around the corner. 

While the racing was good and the show itself was tightly run once it got going, it was a slow night to develop with the extra track packing and seemingly some first night disorder about lineups etc. While the actual racing was accomplished in three hours, the first heat didn't hit the track until just before 9 pm, hardly what one would like to see on a week night. The time trial format takes more time and they hadn't properly budgeted for that and the whole show just needed some tightening up, something that hopefully will be accomplished by Friday. Nevertheless, thanks to Berry and Chesterman for their help and after all, we are racing and it's still just February.