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.
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