It's been a long and trying week for race teams, officials and fans here in the desert to see racing action during the Wild West Shootout at the FK Rod Ends Vado Speedway Park. Snow, wind and bitterly cold temperatures resulted in racing action being postponed on Wednesday night for round three of the mini series and then even harder snow on Thursday resulted in round three being canceled. Quiet frankly, everyone was lucky that the sun came back out on Friday morning and helped with the melting process, otherwise the Friday show might have not be held either. The pits were uncharacteristically muddy on Friday, there was still snow beside some of the trailers even after the Friday show was completed and temperatures barely cracked the forty degree mark. In retrospect, when the forecast which was accurate and consistent for what happened as early as last Sunday was fulfilled, it might have been better to race on Tuesday instead of having a practice night and then all six shows could have been held. But hindsight is twenty twenty as management had to provide refunds on Friday for six day arm bands etc. so they made good with the teams.
The track prep crew deserves much credit for bringing the racing surface around and making it manageable for Friday night racing. It was very wet and soft even in the early afternoon but fears that it would be rough never came to bear fruit and while they had to spend some time knocking down the cushion, the track stayed very racy, just as it has been all week, albeit blinding fast that some probably didn't particularly like, but that situation could have happened anything all year and at any track. Everyone pitched in to get the facility in shape for the drivers and fans and track announcer and series co-promoter Ben Shelton was even seen working a push broom, removing moisture behind the grandstands.
A few teams did pull out after the nearly week long delay with some worried about the weather on long trips home and some just not wanting to wait out the weather conditions. However, there were also seventeen teams that arrived on Friday night that had not raced previous to that night so there were plenty of racers on hand to put on a show for the fans.
Among those that remained was Chris Lewis who took a tough flip on Sunday but elected to remain, fixing up his Modified so that he could race on Friday night. Making it even tougher for Lewis was the fact that his was one of the few teams still working out of an open trailer.
The fast track did produce the quickest times of the week so far with Garrett Alberson setting fast time with a lap at 14.283 seconds, perhaps foreshadowing what he would be able to accomplish later. The race program was nearly identical to the previous weekend's events with qualifying for the Late Models while the Mods and X Mods drew for position and then raced for passing points. Heat races were followed by a pair of B Features for each class and then as quickly as possible, track officials moved into feature race action. One staple always for this series has been quickly run programs and that remained the case on this cool Friday night.
Kelly Carlton is one tough Race Director and he is insistent on starts and restarts to make sure that they are fair and even. A number of starts were called back on Friday and have been all week, perhaps more so than any other event you might see all year but the drivers are told at their meeting what the rules are, and he sticks to them, no matter who it might be involved.
And as has been the case all week, the Late Models would be first up for their main event. On this night, a thirty lap main event would highlight their program and with the fast track, drivers were under the gun to make their moves quickly and not wait for things to shake out.
We saw this urgency right from the drop of the green flag as Alberson, who started on the outside of row two, split Kyle Beard and Drake Troutman in the first turn, then slid past Ross Bailes in turn three and show into the lead before one lap was completed. From there, he would stretch his advantage while there was plenty of action behind him with much shuffling of position and more than a few rubs between drivers as no one was backing off. As Bailes worked his way into second, flame throwers Ethan Dotson and Tyler Erb had more than one dust ups with each other while Bobby Pierce worked his way up after starting eighth on the field.
By the halfway point, Alberson continued to hold a good sized lead over Bailes, having a great run as he drove the Austin Kirkpatrick ride once again with Dotson moving to third ahead of Drake Troutman and Erb. Bailes, Erb and Dotson continued to blast away on each other with the result being a flat tire for Dotson while Pierce continued to march forward.
With just two laps to go, Bailes great run came to an end as he suffered a flat tire and banged up against the turn three wall which allowed Pierce to take over second. The two lap sprint to the finish saw Alberson not mess up on this restart as he took off strong on the single file start and held off challenges of Pierce to take the win. Erb finished third with Dustin Sorensen having another solid run and Brandon Sheppard, who was racing from behind all night, charged all the way from twenty first to complete the top five. The fast track did take it's toll with ten cars not going the distance.
The X Mod feature saw a dominating performance by Christy Barnett as she led from start to finish to take the twenty lap win. She pulled away right from the start with Greg Gorham trying to stay with her. Barnett was in lapped traffic early and she made some strong moves as he fought through the slower cars while still maintaining her lead. Scott Bintz, who is having a stellar week so far, again put on a strong performance as he worked his way up from the third row to challenge Gorham for second.
The lone yellow of the race was actually a red flag as North Dakota's Nate Reinke, who is always a strong challenger in this series, clipped a spinning car that he couldn't avoid on the front stretch and flipped over on his roof, triggering the stoppage.
The final nine laps of the race saw Barnett pull away again as neither Gorham nor Bintz could stay with her, as she finished with a comfortable margin over them. Shayne Bailey put on the drive of the race, coming from eighteenth to finish fourth with Josh Cain rounding out the top five as only five drivers failed to complete the distance.
Kyle Strickler has been quick to adapt to the USRA style of Modified racing as opposed to the UMP type he is used to with tires and some other differences in the rules. Friday night he started on the pole and no one would touch him as he drove to a dominating win over a strong field of drivers. As Strickler pulled away, Rick Ortega was having a strong outing as he held off Rodney Sanders for second for a number of laps.
Sanders would finally get by for second as Strickler was already navigating his way through traffic. On the move were Gary Christian and Cade Dillard from the third and fifth rows respectively. Bad luck would strike Ortega as he lost a driveshaft and spun in turn two, ending his night.
Dillard was the driver to watch as he was picking his way to the front and by the halfway point was up to third, which then led to a good battle with Sanders for the runner up slot as Strickler was still solidly in the lead.
Following the Ortega restart, Dillard tried to get past Sanders when suddenly a huge cloud of smoke and sparks emitted from the Dillard car and he was done, triggering yet another yellow.
The last eight laps saw Strickler comfortably in front with Sanders settling for second. A banger between Christian and Dustin Sorensen, who had charged from sixteenth, saw Christian the winner as he maintained third while Sorensen settled for the next position. Paden Phillips completed the top five with a number of drivers securing their first top ten runs of the week to date. Seventeen drivers completed the event, all on the lead lap.
The high speeds on Friday led to several grinding collisions and in addition to Reinke's flip, Jake Timm took a hard tumble with his Late Model that likely ended his WWS while X Mod driver Jimmy Downs nosed into the back stretch wall and also went for a header too.
Discussions have already started concerning the 2026 Wild West Shootout which will be the twentieth edition of this event. It is way too early to be certain of anything when it comes to next year and I will just say that it is possible that this event might be positioned somewhat differently on the racing calendar next year but there are still a number of factors that must align for that to happen. Stay tuned.
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