Braaksma Switches Coasts, Results the same-Victory

 Monday night, February 23rd provided an interesting change of pace for us. We have been watching the Late Models almost exclusively of late and Monday gave us the opportunity to see the IMCA group back in action with Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods all racing at the first night of the Clash on the Coast, an event promoted by Peyton Taylor and family. 

To do so, we had to motor about five hours West and North toward Florida's peninsula, a region of the state that we had not had much contact with. The Clash on the Coast has been struggling to get their series started as the weather has been fighting them, particularly with much new construction ongoing at our destination. Finally however, things dried out enough that they were able to hold practice on Sunday night with the first race scheduled for Monday. 

Just about everything here was new or different, even the name of the track. Long known as Northwest Florida Speedway, we were on hand as the name was officially changed to Blackwater Speedway by new track owner and promoter Ron Wolverton with the start of Monday night's racing action. 

Wolverton just took over ownership of the track and the first upgrades to the track and facility didn't start until January 9th of this year. The amount of change they completed in that short period of time was quite staggering  and while many projects are still to be either completed or done, the changes were quite noticeable. 

Of course, I had never been here before so while I could see that some things were fresh, I had to rely on those familiar with the place to point out some of the other changes, along with a very informative article on Speed Sport written by IMCA's Ben Detherage. 

It was easy to see that both the pits and spectator parking had been increased recently with a lot of dirt moved and some driveways a bit on the soft side. There were new bleachers, new boards on existing bleachers and a major rework of the track itself. The concession stand was in the midst of updating, new bathrooms are to be built with temporary ones used currently and just about everything on the grounds in the process of being spruced up. 

Blackwater is called a quarter mile but it just might be a bit bigger than that with a pronounced D shape to the racing surface. The track had seen the application of a major amount of new dirt and it was soft, making for some bumpy conditions for the drivers to race on with the insides of the corners especially challenging. Finally, to keep the drivers from racing through the holes and making them worse, a number of large ute tires were hauled on to the track and set in the holes, forcing the drivers to race around them. One of the busiest employees of the night was the gentleman in the infield spray painting the tires orange before they were placed on the track. 

Track lighting was good and they had a very nice scoreboard in the infield that was visible to all. The track did have one noticeable inherent flaw and that was a very high concrete wall down the front chute. With the grandstands quite close to the track, the cars were impossible to see as they raced down the front chute as the wall covered them. I call this the "Cedar Lake Syndrome" where it's impossible to see cars race down the front chute if you are sitting on that side of the track and there are several other tracks that have the same issue. 

Despite having a solid announcing team on hand headed by Jerry Van Sickle, we didn't hear them all night as p.a. problems kept there from being any sound in the grandstands. You realize how much you appreciate announcing, and especially good announcing, when it isn't available and you have to "wing it" for yourself, trying to figure out what is going on and who is who. It also hurts the track itself not being able to plug the sponsors and let the fans know just who all the drivers are. 

A practice night had been held so there were no hot laps on Monday night, just as it should be. This way, with such a large field of racers, racing can begin at the advertised time, not an hour's worth of hot laps first as we have been having to deal with from time to time lately. 

A great field of drivers were on hand for the first night of the Clash with seventy Modified drivers along with thirty nine Stock Cars and thirty five Sport Mods. The Sport Mods were added to the program this year and they turned out a solid field for their first chance to be a part of this race. 

While they race IMCA Mods locally and in this area, I don't believe they have either Stock Cars or Sport Mods so virtually the entire field in those two classes were comprised of drivers from the Midwest and Heartland and many fans watching on tv from home must have thought they were at any number of local tracks where these drivers race weekly. Particularly strongly represented were drivers from the Hawkeye State, which is understandable but I felt like I must be at some Iowa track I recognized so many of the teams in action. 

The format was the typical one used by IMCA with a draw/redraw component used. Ten heat races and three B Features were used to set the field for the thirty lap Modified feature race. The action got off to a wild start with Slade Hartwick flipping in the first heat race. He would return to run a B Feature later but didn't qualify for the show. 

Some of the early heats were a bit rugged before the drivers figured out the track and settled in a bit. Some extra packing was used during the early races to pound in the cushion while a bit more water was added but after that, it was racing and non stop right to the finish. With twenty eight races including three extra distance main events, there was plenty of racing for everyone. 

The Modifieds ran first all night with their thirty lap feature the first up. Twenty six drivers took the green with two that had made the event not starting. The opening lap saw Time Ward and Joseph Joiner battle for the lead with Ward scored the leader by inches. One lap later Joiner took over the top spot and he would lead the next eight laps. 

This was the only one of the three features to not run off very smoothly and there were four yellows in the first five laps for spinning and stalling cars. As Joiner continued to lead through the opening part of the race, it took Ethan Braaksma little time to move into second and he challenged Joiner hard for the top spot. 

Driving the same car that he had so much success with in Arizona, he slipped under Joiner on lap ten when Joseph went high in turn one and took over the lead. From that point on, the race was his and while he had to endure five more yellows that brought the field back to him, he never was seriously challenged after that. 

There was much movement behind him though, as each yellow saw some shift in the running order. Probably the strongest challenge to Braaksma came after the final yellow on lap twenty two when Troy Morris III got up on the cushion and stayed close following the yellow. 

However, Braaksma continued to be smooth and run his line and he then eventually opened up some distance as he drove on for the win. Morris III came home second with Jed Freiburger having a strong run to come home third. Joel Rust and Dylan Thornton completed the to five with Iowa drivers controlling the race. In fact, the first non Hawkeye across the line was Chris Spaulding who seems to have a Modified for just about every sanctioning bodies' rules. 

Reed Wolfmeier led from start to finish to win the Sport Mod feature which came next. Twenty four drivers started this race and were much better behaved than the Modifieds, as they had only three yellow flags in their feature and the majority of the drivers finished the race while the Modified feature saw only ten drivers on the track at the end. 

Wolfmeier was dominant from start to finish but there was a good battle for second with Mike Smith, Joe Docekal, Ben Chapman and Cam Reimers dueling for the spot. The battle between Smith and Docekal was especially intense with Joe getting the second spot back following a late yellow and then fighting off Smith for runner up honors. 

Brayton Carter had car problems early and had to run a B Feature but he then raced up from fourteenth to finish fourth with Cole Suckow completing the top five. Again, all familiar names from Hawkeye tracks. 

One "Cheesehead" did do the state proud though, as crafty veteran "Hot" Rod Snellenberger led from start to finish to win the Stock Car feature. Snellenberger, who usually drives a rather "used up" looking car despite the fact that they are fast, had a sparkling looking ride for this show and it was fast as well as he pulled away on the green and drove away from the pack. He only had one yellow flag to deal with as the Stock Cars put on a smooth show and only four drivers didn't finish the race. 

Nathan Ballard and Owen Barnhill ran second and third for much of the early going with Barnhill moving into second by the halfway point but Curt Lund was the driver on the move. He got up to second by the halfway point and then slipped past Barnhill for second. 

In the closing laps, Lund started to put some pressure on Snellenberger, closing the lead down to just a couple car lengths but then Hot Rod adjusted his line and closed up the inside groove where most of the drivers were running after a long night of track pounding. 

Snellenberger would then stabilize his advantage at a few car lengths and drive on for the win over Lund. John Oliver Jr was among the leaders the whole race and he ended up third. Mike Vandermark Jr made a nice move up from twelfth to finish fourth and Mike Albertson completed the top five. 

It was a long night of racing with action wrapping up somewhere around 11:30 pm on what was a very cold night in February with temperatures dipping into the 30's. However, considering the less than ideal weather and the fact it was indeed a Monday night, I thought the crowd to be very good. 

Due to their adjusted race schedule because of the weather issues, Monday night's race will be the only one of the series that we will be able to attend but we thank Peyton Taylor, all his workers and all the track employees for their efforts at both running off this show and putting the Blackwater Speedway in a very good place for the future.