The fifteenth annual USMTS King of America race began on Thursday night, March 26th and for the second consecutive year, it was again held at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri.
This three night event will showcase USMTS Modifieds, along with USRA Stock Cars and B Mods with those two classes beginning their Iron Man Series which will see them visit a number of tracks across the Midwest this summer, racing their own point series for prize money and point fund money.
This would also be the first time that the USMTS season began with the KOA race as an earlier even last month was rained out in Texas, thus making the KOA even more important than ever for point chasing drivers.
It was a spectacular March day on Thursday with the unbelievable weather from last weekend carrying over to Thursday. The rest of the weekend, however, promised a return to reality with much cooler temperatures and wind.
Ever since this race moved to Lucas Oil last year, the car counts for this event have been very strong and such was the case again this year. Interestingly, the total car count along with car counts in each class ended up being extremely close to last year's event. One hundred and seventy six drivers representing eleven states in the three classes offered signed in to race on Thursday, three less than last year. The Modified count at sixty six was six less than last year but the B Mods were up one to sixty one and the Stock Cars up two to forty nine. It made for plenty of racing action for the fans on hand along with the tv audience on RacinDirt.
Each night would offer a separate show with the driver's highest point total for the two preliminary nights determining their starting positions in either the feature or one of the qualifying events on Saturday night. Therefore, it made each race important for points as well as cash offered each night.
The USMTS will again be qualifying each night with the results of the time trials setting up a new format for the heat races. Starting in order with the quickest qualifier of each flight of two, the drivers themselves pick their own starting positions for their heat races, bearing in mind that passing points from the heats would be half of the determining factor, along with the qualifying, as to who moved directly into the mains rather than running a B Feature. Strategy, luck and who is also in the same heat all play a factor in where a driver decided to line up and this will be an ongoing story as the USMTS season develops. The drivers must also hustle to the draw area to select their position as time is of the essence because racing is ready to begin and those that were tardy had a position drawn for them by management. Thursday night's heats ended up providing some surprise winners with passing at a premium due to the balance of the field and those kinds of strategy, track conditions etc. will all play a part in decisions made for upcoming races. In fact, points were so tight on Thursday that four of the six USMTS heat winners had to still run B Features and one ended up not even making the main.
Other format changes included no redraw of the top point earners in any class so the driver earning the most passing points in the heats would start on the pole for a feature race. The "Choose Cone" is now a thing of the past, and that is something I kind of enjoyed watching to see the strategy it offered played out, but apparently management didn't like it and it got ash canned. After a couple of weeks of watching the "no fault" rule in play, it was good to see race management send drivers to the tail for over aggressive driving and move the offended drivers back to their previous running positions, such as I see at home all the time.
Multiple heat races for all three classes plus at least two or three B Features for the big fields were required to set the running order for the three main events and as usual for such a big race, there were plenty of excellent drivers and teams that had to watch the feature races from the sidelines as the competition was brutal.
The Stock Car feature would roll out as the first of the three main events after the track had been refreshed after the completion of the B Features. The track was in good shape all night, smooth and becoming black slick as the events added up on its surface. Most drivers were using the low and middle lines in the corners with not much rim riding on Thursday. Track officials were touting the newly redesigned turn three and four area where the banking now carries right up to the wall with no "shelf" on the outside of the track but we didn't see much wall banging so it was hard to tell just what kind of factor the new corner will be.
Andrew Inman earned the pole for the Stock Car feature but it was William Garner who came off the top side of the track to take the early lead. Debris on the track stopped the action before one lap could be completed so it was a "do over" which Garner again led.
However, on the move after starting third was Johnny Fennewald and he quickly closed in on Garner and indeed, swept past him on lap four to take over the top spot. Fennewald then began to pull away from the field, opening up a strong margin and adding to it as the laps ran off. Garner got passed by Shayne Bailey for second but he didn't give up and in fact fought his way back past Bailey by the halfway point for second.
After the first lap slowdown, the race settled in and in fact, the last nineteen laps of the race stayed under the green which was a benefit to Fennewald who got in a groove and just pulled away from the pack. At the finish, he had considerable distance on runner up Garner with the other #7 driver Bailey running a close third. Mason Martin started seventh and drove up to fourth with Jeffrey Abbey putting on a show as the Texas driver came from sixteenth to complete the top five. Only two drivers failed to finish the feature and all were on the lead lap at the finish.
It was interesting to note that when this class was first started at Lucas several years ago, the local drivers were, quite frankly, not too good and generally got beaten up by the travelers but not so much any more as the top four finishers were all drivers from the local area that put laps in here on a regular basis.
The B Mod feature proved to be a good three car battle for the win that started right from the beginning of the race and carried all the way to the final checkered flag. And it again was two local drivers that battled it out for the win.
Jon Sheets and Kris Jackson shared the front row and Jackson drove deep into turn three to take the early lead. Sheets was right on his tail and pressuring hard for the lead with Tim Karrick slipping into third.
Jackson continued to hold the top spot but Sheets was all over him, trying on each lap to slip under Jackson and then beat him to the cushion where Jackson seemed most comfortable. Meanwhile, Karrick rode on the low side while looking for an opening. The lone yellow of the race broke up the action one lap past the halfway point.
On the restart, Sheets selected the high side but got a terrible restart as he slipped back with Karrick moving into second and Sheets driving hard just to maintain a spot behind him. As Jackson moved away, Sheets really got up on the wheel and repassed Karrick who preferred to continue to run the low side.
The last few laps saw Sheets again pressure Jackson, looking to his inside on every corner and trying to slide up the track and beat him to the cushion but Jackson always fought him off and Sheets didn't get carried away and try something wild.
Sheets made one last run on the final lap but again, Jackson had him covered as he drove on for the win with Sheets and Karrick both close behind him.
Meanwhile, Josh Cain had made a strong drive of his own, coming from thirteenth to race up to a close fourth place finish, edging out Dawson David who had run in the top five throughout the race.
The USMTS Modified feature turned out to be a great event for the Hodges Farms and Dredging Team as then managed to finish back to back for the win. Even more significantly, the drive to victory by Gabe Hodges was his first ever USMTS feature win and he earned it with a tough drive over his team mate Reece Solander and Tyler Davis.
Davis earned the pole and led the first three laps of the race with Hodges and Harley Dais his early challengers. Davis was running the middle groove and Hodges up one lane and that proved to be the fast route as he drove around Davis on lap four for the lead. Shortly thereafter, the race got bogged down with three yellows for minor spins that kept the field bunched.
By the halfway point of the contest, Hodges continued to lead while Solander had worked his way up to second and the driver on the move was Tanner Mullens who had started eleventh but was up to third as Davis fell back slightly.
Those were the top three as the race moved into its second half with a lap seventeen yellow for a spinning Stormy Scott slowing the action once again. On the restart, Mullens made a great move as he used the low side of the track to drive under both Solander and Hodges and take over the lead. The yellow again packed the field and to Hodges' credit, he made his own charge that saw him move back and challenge Mullens for the lead.
In fact, right before the yellow waved one last time with twenty two laps completed, he edged past Mullens to again be scored the leader. The eight lap sprint to the finish saw Hodges have to battle off the charge of Solander lap after lap. The yellow hurt Mullens deeply and he didn't get up to speed after the restart, lost several spots and eventually pulled off the track.
Solander drove up the track off each corner, trying to slip past Hodges but he gave him room, as team mates should do and Hodges had enough speed to fend him off. They finished in close formation but Hodges brought home the important win for himself. Davis fought his way back up to third at the finish and Rodney Sanders, who seemed to be fighting his way from the back all night, charged up from twentieth to finish fourth with Brandon Davis coming from twenty fourth to complete the top five. Only five drivers failed to complete the race and all drivers were on the lead lap at the finish. It was an excellent night for Kansas drivers with them occupying the top three positions at the finish.
Head Tech Inspector Darlo Mulder announced that the inspections, despite it being early in the year, would be thorough and in fact, four drivers, two in each open wheel class, lost qualifying spots for the main when they failed post race inspections.
It was a long night of racing but there were no delays except for the track prep for the features that was deemed necessary. The races came out in prompt fashion and there truly weren't many yellows all night except for the Modified feature. The first race hit the track at 7:31 pm ( no matter how smoothly they run, time trials do take valuable time) and the final checkered waved at just about Midnight. It was great to hear out own Jeff Broeg as one of the three announcers for the show on this night and he did a fine job with it sounding like he will be expanding his announcing duties this year beyond just the Sprint Invaders Series.
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