Bobby Pierce and Joe Chisholm were opening night winners as the three evening Dairyland Showdown for World of Outlaws Late Models and Northern Lights Modified Series drivers began on Thursday night, April 30th at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway North of Fountain City Wisconsin.
Both series will run three full shows, culminating in a forty thousand dollar to win Late Model event on Saturday night along with a three grand to win Modified series event also.
Thirty seven Late Model drivers, most of whom were the same drivers that raced at Independence Iowa two nights earlier along with twenty USRA Modifieds made up the field on Thursday night. Both series would use the identical format with qualifying setting the running order for the heats, the two two in each heat redrawing for the main event and then everyone else lining straight up off heat race finishes. The B Feature drivers plus series provisional starters would tag the back of the field while the Modifieds allowed everyone to start their main.
Nick Hoffman was quickest overall at 13.599 seconds while Michael Leach was fastest in group B at 13.956. The Mods qualifying as one group with Jacob Bleess fastest at 15.857 seconds. Track officials did a good job of running off the time trials in rather quick order so that the qualifying didn't drag on forever, a common occurrence at time trial shows with multiple divisions going "under the clock", and especially so on what would be an uncharacteristically cold last day of April in the Coulee region of Wisconsin.
Probably the biggest shocker during the qualifying events was the "clunker" pulled by "Superman" Jonathan Davenport who for the second straight Outlaw event, performed at a less than spectacular pace, and actually worse than he did in Independence where he had trouble even staying on the track.
At MTS, he only qualified for the third row in his heat race and then on the opening lap slammed the third turn wall so hard that he did damage not quickly able to repair. He was done for his heat, started tenth in a B Feature in a back up car and only made it up to fifth, thus failing to even qualify for the show as provisional rights to the main are granted on series loyalty, not speed and thus Dennis Erb Jr, Tristan Chamberlain, Logan Zarin and Brent Larson made the show, not Davenport.
Twenty six drivers started the quick thirty lapper and while most lauded over the passing job put on by Pierce, most missed what was probably the key moment of the night and that was on the opening lap of the race. Pierce jumped the cushion and lost at least three spots immediately but his "bacon" was saved when Chris Simpson ground to a halt on the front chute with his car making some bad sounds indeed. The first lap was not then completed, so a complete restart was called for and Pierce was saved.
The second attempt saw Drake Troutman jump into the top spot, a position that he would hold for the first eighteen laps. Ryan Gustin and Nick Hoffman raced hard for the second spot as Troutman put some distance on the field.
Pierce, meanwhile, was running a line that no one else seemed to want to try, up high against the wall while most of the drivers hugged the low side. For a number of laps Pierce didn't seem to be gaining but then slowly and then more quickly, he began to put up the pace.
Near the halfway point of the race, he caught the battle for second and on his second attempt, he was able to split Gustin and Hoffman on the front chute and drive into second.
He then began to reel in Troutman who was having some problems at this point as he had caught the back of the pack. Pierce quickly reeled in the leader and with a slider on lap nineteen, he took over the top spot.
And while he did put some distance, he wasn't able to completely shake Troutman as he also seemed to bog down a bit, as he related in his post race interview. Nevertheless, he continued to have the field covered and drove home the winner without a serious challenge.
Troutman settled for second with Gustin edging out Hoffman for third. Time McCreadie ran fifth for most of the race and that's where he ended up.
After the opening lap slowdown, the race went thirty laps nonstop and Simpson was the only driver not to finish. Seven were a lap behind at the checkers but all others finished.
The Modified main saw a late race pass by Joe Chisholm steal away the win after Alex Williamson led the first twenty one laps. Williamson started on the pole and was in control for most of the race, an event that was stopped twice in the first six laps, the most serious of which saw Zach Brom and Darwin Karau involved in a grinding collision on the back chute that eliminated both.
Williamson continued to lead by Kyle Brown slowly began to cut into his advantage as the race moved past the halfway point. Brown was able to get within striking distance as the top two drivers struggled with the slower traffic with neither of them able to make a move to clear themselves.
This opened the door for Chisholm who was running third and was some distance back from the top two. However, as their pace got slowed, he quickly caught the leaders and suddenly, with less than five laps to go, it became a three car battle for the top spot.
Williamson and Brown continued to be befuddled by the slower cars, still now able to find and opening but when the door opened down the back chute for an inside charge, Chisholm was right there to find the seas parting and he went from third to the lead, just that fast.
With only three laps remaining, he then pulled away with Brown left to salvage second while Williamson dropped all the way to third. Quick qualifier Bleess settled for fourth ahead of Parker Hale and all but three drivers finished this event.
It was a cold night at MTS with temperatures dipping into the thirties before the final checkered flag waved. For this reason, plus it being a Thursday, while a good crowd was on hand, the stands will likely be much more crowded in the coming two nights.
Recognizing that it indeed was nippy, Outlaw officials did an excellent job of moving the show along, with their ten minute horn going off nearly as the preceding race cars hit the scales. Discarding the extra glitz, it was just hardcore racing on Thursday with the complete show being done in two hours and two minutes with the final checkers waving at 9:30 pm. This was the Outlaws show this weekend as for the first time the Dairyland Showdown was an Outlaws race as they rented the track, rather than just being the sanctioning body on hand for the promoters.
Full programs in both classes are upcoming the next two nights with the weather promised to gradually warm up as Saturday approaches.
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