For quite a number of years in a row, this has been the weekend that we have had the pleasure of attending the Duel in the Desert at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But for issues having to do with vacation time, this race was not an option this year for us. While we will miss the excitement of Vegas and seeing friends that we have made over the years and often only see in Vegas, life goes on.
However, that does not necessarily mean that I'm just going to lie down whimpering in the corner and let the weekend pass without seeing any kind of motorsports activity, especially so with the outstanding weather that we have been experiencing for the past few weeks.
Twenty five years ago or so, I had a friend that was attending optometry school in Memphis Tennessee. Being a big race fan, he sought out to attend races in that area and one of the tracks that he found and often raved about was the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis Arkansas, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis. Known as "The Ditch", RIS has long been known for its racy surface and great action, particularly in the Sprint Cars which are the "bread and butter" of this area. With drivers such as the Swindell brothers, the Hoods and many others from this area, a long and rich racing tradition holds out at RIS, where these drivers and many others got their racing start at a track that has been running continuously since 1949.
In recent years, the United Sprint Car Series(USCS) has wrapped up their season the second week in November with a big two day show at RIS. And for seven years, this special event has been highlighted by the "Flip Flop 50", a two feature event program that splits the feature into twenty five lap segments with the field completely inverted for the second twenty five laps based on the finish of the first twenty five. Both features have a generous payoff and there is also a bonus offered if one driver can win the first feature, go to the tail for the second main and win that one also. In seven years that has not happened so far with Tim Crawley the closest as he managed to get up to third in the second main.
USCS is a major sanctioning body in this region and this is the last race on their long season schedule. Being the final point race, there is also extra drama with a championship in the 360 Sprint Cars to be decided this weekend. Team mates Terry Gray and Morgan Turpen are separated by only five points entering the weekend's events, and by Saturday night one of them will be crowned the USCS point champion. USCS also sanctions a Modified division where Troy Dow has a big lead in the points and is just waiting for the mere formality of the racing to conclude before he is crowned. USCS also announced this weekend that they will be sanctioning a Crate Late Model division next year too.
The format of the weekend will see 360 Sprint Cars run qualifying heats on Friday(no time trials, thank you) and a dash for the top point cars that will set their starting lineups for Saturday. The Modifieds will run a full show both on Friday and Saturday. Late Models will have heats as well as the Street Stocks plus a dash. The USCS also has a 600 Sprint Car series that will run a full show both Friday and Saturday. While I don't keep track of the 600 Sprints, I can tell you that there were about thirty of them on hand and that Joe B. Miller, who also runs Midgets and Sprint Cars, won their feature on Friday. They also had about one yellow for each of the cars on hand in their main event!
At first glance, RIS reminds me of many of the "bullrings" you might attend in Illinois. It is a quarter mile, high banked track featuring their bragging product, Mississippi River "gumbo" as the surface. They prepare it in a very unusual way as they put some water on it early and then just let it sit. When the cars come out to roll it in, it looks dry and you expect the dust to fly. However, the moisture comes right up and I can say that I didn't see a whisper of dust all night. It didn't have the "hammer down" aspect to it on this night that I might have expected but instead really slicked up but the surface is wide and provides a lot of different grooves and there was plenty of side by side racing all night.
The track has good lighting, and a big grandstand on both the front and back chute. The grandstand was built correctly and has a really steep pitch which makes it tough to clamber up and down but provides excellent sight lines. The sound system is strong enough to knock you right out of the grandstand and a small scoreboard at the end of the front chute does its job.
The pits start almost directly behind the main grandstand and wraps all the way around the track with extra space roped off in the parking lot for this weekend's big field of cars as the pits aren't very big. The spectator parking lots are cramped and small, again reminding me of some Illinois ovals and the main parking lot is shared with the West Memphis VFW, which makes it handy for the spectators to walk next door and have a "cool one or two" before the announcer calls the cars out to wheel pack, at which time they exit the VFW and walk over to the track. If you didn't know exactly where the track was located, you might not even see if when you drove by as there is no sign of any kind identifying where the track is.
Car counts were twenty eight in the Sprints, eighteen in the Late Models, thirty five in the Modifieds and twenty three in the Streets along with the previously mentioned thirty plus in the 600 Sprints.
Heat races were entertaining in all the classes and while the Sprints respected each other, the other classes drove like it was the last race of the year. By that, I mean that they were super aggressive and there was almost an untold amount of smashing and bashing. But it made for spectacular racing.
The Sprint action identified Derek Hagar and Sammy Swindell as the drivers to beat. Swindell was driving the A.G. Rains car this weekend and among the "hired guns" on hand was Spencer Bayston in the Kevin Swindell entry. Among the most interesting of the entries was Ray Bugg, who the announcers said was retiring after this year. The interesting thing is that Ray is seventy eight years old!
The Street Stocks and the Crate Late Models were really rough on each other and there will be much thrashing on the cars on Saturday to get them ready to race for the main events. While the Late Models also have the option of running the same motor as the Street Stocks, it seemed that most of the Late Models were using the crate option and running the big ten inch blades on the back of the cars.
I thought the Modified field was the strongest from top to bottom and I think the number on hand caught track officials by surprise. There was no B feature on the schedule and they had to scramble to add a couple of them to qualify all the cars for the main. The Modified feature was, I thought, the best race of the night and also the cleanest with only two yellows in their twenty five lap main. Dow quickly came up from the third row and led most of the contest, although he was challenged by Ashley Newman for the lead in the late going. The Modified feature gave a preview of what to expect in the mains on Saturday as the lapped traffic was fearsome and I'm told that when the Sprints get into traffic, which comes quickly, the racing them truly gets wild.
The only down side of the opening night of racing was the late hour that the show concluded with the final checkered flag not waving until well after 1 am in the morning. Most of the spectators had found their way to the gates long before the race concluded on a cool night in November. While there were a lot of races run and a lot of yellows that couldn't be avoided, some blame must also go to the track and its operators as the hot laps moved at a "snail's pace" and the show started over an hour late, time that could have been better used later that night.
My request for credentials got buried in the USCS "spam mail" but just by dumb luck, the person I flagged down for help proved to be USCS PR person Wesley Outland who quickly cleared things up for me and was most helpful, along with RIS's Sherry Allen. Outland also shared the announcing duties with Nick Robbins of "Race On Texas" productions and they certainly kept everyone informed on what was going on.
Opening night was enlightening and I look forward to see how the program will play out on Saturday. Likely the only new cars on hand on Saturday might be some new Modifieds, as they have another full, completely separate program upcoming.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Sanders Misses the Desert Buffet; D.Q.'d from Feature Win
While the headline of this post seems to make no sense, humor me for just a few minutes as I try to explain the shocking conclusion of a good racing weekend.
Saturday night brought the feature race to the grid for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown at C. Ray Hall's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas. It was the ladder events for the Modifieds and even though the ladder didn't have quite as many rungs as some of USMTS's special events, that doesn't mean that the racing was any less intense. Also racing on Saturday was another full show for the B Mods/Sport Mods including a grand to win main event.
There was one additional entrant in the Modifieds as John Webb from Pauls Valley OK. debuted a brand new MB Customs Mod. He was not on hand for Friday's show as his daughter was cheer leading her last ever high school football game and he was not about to miss that event. He didn't let his tail back starting spot spoil his evening as he later would fight his way into the main event and finish in the top twelve.
I got the opportunity to meet young Modified driver Logan Robertson from West Texas. He is running an MB Custom Mod also and was actually the person that drove up to Wisconsin to pick up Webb's new Modified. Logan is a regular at Webb's Southern Oklahoma Speedway, even though it is a four hour tow for the family based team. He also travels to as many special events as possible too.
We were treated to some special information as both Hall and Todd Staley were interviewed on the track during one of the breaks in the action.
C. Ray admitted to being surprised by the large crowds on hand both nights for this weekend's events. The crowd on Saturday was very impressive and was nearly a sell out and C. Ray admitted he didn't expect this big of crowds for this weekend. C. Ray also admitted that it was largely him that turned this planned three day event into a two day show with a reduced purse as he just wasn't sure how the fans would respond to racing this late in the year. Clearly, he won't slip up like this again next year as he and Staley announced that they will have an April show in 2017 paying ten grand to win and a late season event is also in the works, likely with at least ten grand on the line for that race also. My guess is that there would have been a good twenty more cars this weekend if it would have been a three day show. C. Ray also announced that the World of Outlaws Sprints will be at 81 next year also.
Staley reported that each region for his series next year will pay $20,000 and the Hunt will likely pay $40,000 to the winner. Todd confirmed that the prematurely leaked event at the Cedar Lake Speedway will indeed happen with that June event to pay fifty grand to the winner as the folks at Cedar Lake apparently have the desire to "one up" Bob Timm at Mississippi Thunder Speedway who paid forty grand to win a race this year.
This race previously was the two day weekend event for the UMP Late Models as a part of the "Hell Tour" Summer Nationals. With Cedar Lake apparently not participating in the series next year, I guess only Sam Driggers of UMP knows what this means for the series.
I'm not sure just what was going on but for the second straight night it appeared that the track was over watered, resulting in some "hammer down" conditions and a lengthy packing session involving the race cars necessary. While the low line worked at times for some, it wasn't a consistent groove that could be used and so most of the racing was done in the high groove, leading to some dicey rim riding and lots of instances of slide jobs being used.
After carving down the forty four car field through two preliminary races, the twenty six car field of Modifieds was set to go for fifty laps. After being the high point earner in heat race action on Friday, it was Sanders who started on the pole and he took the immediate lead. Ryan Gustin quickly moved into second after starting sixth and he was essentially a two car race the entire distance. There were three yellows in the race and all were for minor spins and stalls.
The middle part of the race was probably the most entertaining part of the event as Gustin was able to run relatively close during this time and watching the two dive through the heavy lapped traffic was both exciting and entertaining. After a lap twenty nine yellow, Sanders was able to gain a comfortable lead and his main danger was again the lapped cars but he skillfully worked past them. He crossed the line with a comfortable lead over Gustin and Dereck Ramirez.
However, that's when things got crazy. Second through fifth passed through the scales and pulled down to the front chute. Sanders was the last to scale and almost immediately, it appeared that something was wrong. The car was placed on the scale a couple of times, then backed off and then re positioned. Still there were no announcements and a lot of people seemed to be looking at each other. There were way too many people near the scale that added to the confusion.
Soon there was a lot of finger pointing and arm waving and lots of activity by members and car owners of the cars that finished behind Sanders. An announcement was made that Sanders was the winner but that didn't seem to end the confusion and there was lots of heated discussion among the teams represented the front runners. Most of the crowd had exited the facility by this time when suddenly, the announcement was made that Sanders had been disqualified and that Gustin was the winner. I'm guessing that most of the fans in attendance didn't find out until much later that Sanders wasn't the winner.
To Rodney's credit, he seemed, at least at the scale, to take the news well. I saw no yelling, or displays of anger and there was no spraying of gravel as he left the scale. What happened in the confines of the pits is, however, unknown. While the issue was trying to be sorted out before an official announcement was made, the pit announcer interviewed the second through fifth finishers and they were at mid season form with their whining. Runner up Gustin, before he was proclaimed the winner, was complaining about lapped cars not getting out of the way, third place finisher Ramirez was complaining about a one lane track. Only Terry Phillips gave any indication that he enjoyed the race and he is usually "Mr. Grumpy" about most things. Racing in November on a beautiful night and that's the best they can do?
I caught Staley as he was crossing the track and heading up to the tower after the final announcement was made but while much milling around on the track was still taking place. I asked Todd how much Rodney was light and he told me that the track scale measured in increments of five pounds and that the measurement was at 2445 pounds which means that Sanders was somewhere between one and five pounds light. That's why I say that if Rodney had made one more trip through the buffet he might have made weight!
For the second straight night Gustin played with the B Mod field before winning another grand. He started third and took his way getting to the front as he sized up the field. However, when the proper time came, he made his move to pass for the lead and then he proceeded to pull away for an easy win. I did notice that the McCartney team that Gustin was driving for no longer sponsors the Gressell Modified team.
The B Mods did a nice job running their main as they had only one yellow in their twenty five lapper and only three cars didn't finish the event. Gustin's biggest challenge was weaving his way through the heavy lapped traffic with at least ten cars down a lap at the end and only eleven on the lead lap.
For the second straight night the Sport Mods took the B Mods to task with five of the top six finishers being Sport Mods after three of the four heats were also won by the Sport Mods. According to top B Mod finisher veteran Steve Muilenburg, the big spoiler that the Sport Mods have makes all the difference in the world.
Talk about clever marketing and merchandising. 81 Speedway doesn't have a concession stand in the pits. However, what they do have is two young guys on a cart that carry the same concession items that are available in the main grandstand and they roam the pits all night, and they stay very busy.
I enjoyed the weekend of racing at 81 Speedway. C. Ray made a point of stating that in working on his schedule for 2017, he respects the drivers and fans that come for the weekly show but he is also careful to offer a wide variety of types of racing so that things stay fresh. 81 Speedway has a lot of good things going for it and should be on your list for consideration for a track to visit in 2017 if you haven't been there before.
Saturday night brought the feature race to the grid for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown at C. Ray Hall's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas. It was the ladder events for the Modifieds and even though the ladder didn't have quite as many rungs as some of USMTS's special events, that doesn't mean that the racing was any less intense. Also racing on Saturday was another full show for the B Mods/Sport Mods including a grand to win main event.
There was one additional entrant in the Modifieds as John Webb from Pauls Valley OK. debuted a brand new MB Customs Mod. He was not on hand for Friday's show as his daughter was cheer leading her last ever high school football game and he was not about to miss that event. He didn't let his tail back starting spot spoil his evening as he later would fight his way into the main event and finish in the top twelve.
I got the opportunity to meet young Modified driver Logan Robertson from West Texas. He is running an MB Custom Mod also and was actually the person that drove up to Wisconsin to pick up Webb's new Modified. Logan is a regular at Webb's Southern Oklahoma Speedway, even though it is a four hour tow for the family based team. He also travels to as many special events as possible too.
We were treated to some special information as both Hall and Todd Staley were interviewed on the track during one of the breaks in the action.
C. Ray admitted to being surprised by the large crowds on hand both nights for this weekend's events. The crowd on Saturday was very impressive and was nearly a sell out and C. Ray admitted he didn't expect this big of crowds for this weekend. C. Ray also admitted that it was largely him that turned this planned three day event into a two day show with a reduced purse as he just wasn't sure how the fans would respond to racing this late in the year. Clearly, he won't slip up like this again next year as he and Staley announced that they will have an April show in 2017 paying ten grand to win and a late season event is also in the works, likely with at least ten grand on the line for that race also. My guess is that there would have been a good twenty more cars this weekend if it would have been a three day show. C. Ray also announced that the World of Outlaws Sprints will be at 81 next year also.
Staley reported that each region for his series next year will pay $20,000 and the Hunt will likely pay $40,000 to the winner. Todd confirmed that the prematurely leaked event at the Cedar Lake Speedway will indeed happen with that June event to pay fifty grand to the winner as the folks at Cedar Lake apparently have the desire to "one up" Bob Timm at Mississippi Thunder Speedway who paid forty grand to win a race this year.
This race previously was the two day weekend event for the UMP Late Models as a part of the "Hell Tour" Summer Nationals. With Cedar Lake apparently not participating in the series next year, I guess only Sam Driggers of UMP knows what this means for the series.
I'm not sure just what was going on but for the second straight night it appeared that the track was over watered, resulting in some "hammer down" conditions and a lengthy packing session involving the race cars necessary. While the low line worked at times for some, it wasn't a consistent groove that could be used and so most of the racing was done in the high groove, leading to some dicey rim riding and lots of instances of slide jobs being used.
After carving down the forty four car field through two preliminary races, the twenty six car field of Modifieds was set to go for fifty laps. After being the high point earner in heat race action on Friday, it was Sanders who started on the pole and he took the immediate lead. Ryan Gustin quickly moved into second after starting sixth and he was essentially a two car race the entire distance. There were three yellows in the race and all were for minor spins and stalls.
The middle part of the race was probably the most entertaining part of the event as Gustin was able to run relatively close during this time and watching the two dive through the heavy lapped traffic was both exciting and entertaining. After a lap twenty nine yellow, Sanders was able to gain a comfortable lead and his main danger was again the lapped cars but he skillfully worked past them. He crossed the line with a comfortable lead over Gustin and Dereck Ramirez.
However, that's when things got crazy. Second through fifth passed through the scales and pulled down to the front chute. Sanders was the last to scale and almost immediately, it appeared that something was wrong. The car was placed on the scale a couple of times, then backed off and then re positioned. Still there were no announcements and a lot of people seemed to be looking at each other. There were way too many people near the scale that added to the confusion.
Soon there was a lot of finger pointing and arm waving and lots of activity by members and car owners of the cars that finished behind Sanders. An announcement was made that Sanders was the winner but that didn't seem to end the confusion and there was lots of heated discussion among the teams represented the front runners. Most of the crowd had exited the facility by this time when suddenly, the announcement was made that Sanders had been disqualified and that Gustin was the winner. I'm guessing that most of the fans in attendance didn't find out until much later that Sanders wasn't the winner.
To Rodney's credit, he seemed, at least at the scale, to take the news well. I saw no yelling, or displays of anger and there was no spraying of gravel as he left the scale. What happened in the confines of the pits is, however, unknown. While the issue was trying to be sorted out before an official announcement was made, the pit announcer interviewed the second through fifth finishers and they were at mid season form with their whining. Runner up Gustin, before he was proclaimed the winner, was complaining about lapped cars not getting out of the way, third place finisher Ramirez was complaining about a one lane track. Only Terry Phillips gave any indication that he enjoyed the race and he is usually "Mr. Grumpy" about most things. Racing in November on a beautiful night and that's the best they can do?
I caught Staley as he was crossing the track and heading up to the tower after the final announcement was made but while much milling around on the track was still taking place. I asked Todd how much Rodney was light and he told me that the track scale measured in increments of five pounds and that the measurement was at 2445 pounds which means that Sanders was somewhere between one and five pounds light. That's why I say that if Rodney had made one more trip through the buffet he might have made weight!
For the second straight night Gustin played with the B Mod field before winning another grand. He started third and took his way getting to the front as he sized up the field. However, when the proper time came, he made his move to pass for the lead and then he proceeded to pull away for an easy win. I did notice that the McCartney team that Gustin was driving for no longer sponsors the Gressell Modified team.
The B Mods did a nice job running their main as they had only one yellow in their twenty five lapper and only three cars didn't finish the event. Gustin's biggest challenge was weaving his way through the heavy lapped traffic with at least ten cars down a lap at the end and only eleven on the lead lap.
For the second straight night the Sport Mods took the B Mods to task with five of the top six finishers being Sport Mods after three of the four heats were also won by the Sport Mods. According to top B Mod finisher veteran Steve Muilenburg, the big spoiler that the Sport Mods have makes all the difference in the world.
Talk about clever marketing and merchandising. 81 Speedway doesn't have a concession stand in the pits. However, what they do have is two young guys on a cart that carry the same concession items that are available in the main grandstand and they roam the pits all night, and they stay very busy.
I enjoyed the weekend of racing at 81 Speedway. C. Ray made a point of stating that in working on his schedule for 2017, he respects the drivers and fans that come for the weekly show but he is also careful to offer a wide variety of types of racing so that things stay fresh. 81 Speedway has a lot of good things going for it and should be on your list for consideration for a track to visit in 2017 if you haven't been there before.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Chisholm Trail Showdown Begins at 81 Speedway
The weather was spectacular all weekend, particularly for the first weekend of November. Who could possibly sit home all weekend and not take advantage of the great conditions, knowing that the "other show" will drop eventually and we will be paying for the fantastic weather we are currently enjoying.
With that in mind, along with other appealing considerations, off I headed for the great state of Kansas and in particular, the 81 Speedway in Park City for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown. Originally scheduled to be a three day show using the same format that Humboldt uses for their Spring show, as the race date drew near the program was altered and cut to a two day show with double heat races on Friday and the mains on Saturday. Along with that, a full show for the B Mods would be held each night.
Since the plans were already laid, I did go ahead although I was disappointed that the program would be pared by one day, as were many of the drivers that I talked to, especially those from farther away.
One of the appealing parts of the trip was a chance to again visit the 81 Speedway, a track that I have not been to in what I would estimate to be at least thirty years! My last trip to 81 had to have been back in the eighties where I saw a two day show in April that featured afternoon racing both days for the Sprint Cars and I remember that after the show on Saturday, I ducked down to Enid Oklahoma for their Saturday night show. It's been so long that I hardly even remembered anything about the track.It's been there a long time though, and while it is a nice facility overall, it is starting to show its age in certain areas.
81 is about a three eighths mile paperclip shaped track that is wide in the turns but doesn't have too much banking. When it optimum racing condition, it does provide multiple grooves in the corners. It has a brown dirt surface that generally slicked up but on the opening night of this show they had over watered it and it was pretty "hammer down" for the first round of heat races, after which it dried out and raced remarkably different for the second round of heats.
I was told that the ample grandstands held over 4,000 people and the seating has a nice pitch, so that virtually every seat in the house is a good one, even with some of the lower trailers pitted in the infield. One of the changes that have been made in the years since I was last here was that the majority of the pits have been moved outside the back chute. Musco lights were added about a dozen years ago and it is well lit, including the grandstand seating area.
The sound system is excellent and the announcers can be heard over the roar of the cars. One of the nice things they do here is they have a roving announcer in the infield who quickly interviews each race winner. I was very impressed with the quality of their announcers as a whole. I don't know that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing track announcer Warren Hardy before but he would have to go down as one of the top "voices" anywhere. He is knowledgeable, funny, informed and has a great voice.
The race cars were pretty slow to arrive on Friday afternoon and I was starting to get worried that this show was going to be a "bust." However, lots of late arriving rigs put the worst of my fears to rest and when the racing began, there were forty five Modifieds and thirty five B Mods on hand to race. However, while this was enough for the two day show, likely it wouldn't have flown if there were an extra day included and the lack of pre entries was probably the biggest reason that the show was cut by one day and the ten grand to win event moved to next April. It wasn't however, due to lack of a crowd in the stands and the number of people on hand had to have been one of the largest ones I've seen anywhere for what was essentially a B Mod show plus some Modified heats. However, I've always heard that Wichita is a good racing town with lots of cars and fans and the great weather certainly didn't hurt.
I did have a brief chance to talk to USMTS head Todd Staley in the pits before the show and he revealed that next year's schedule would likely be around sixty events. He's actively trying to reduce the schedule to that number, feeling that he has been running his drivers ragged the last couple of years and while the 2016 schedule probably ended up with about that many races, he also had about twenty rain outs, some of which they didn't mourn when they happened.
Don't expect much in the way of rule changes for 2017 and the new schedule should be revealed at the Harlan trade show upcoming, although there will still be some events that will need to be plugged into the preliminary schedule. The season will start out with an extended visit to the South, with races in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and possibly Mississippi before they come North for the Spring.
This race was "hyped" as a challenge race between the USMTS and the NCRA Modifieds and took place at the home track of C. Ray Hall's NCRA. There were eight of the top ten drivers in NCRA points on hand while only four of the top ten in Central Region points of the USMTS were in the pits, although Ryan Gustin was on hand to drive the award winning car of Jason Hughes. I guess this is proof that even with great weather, there does eventually get a point where some drivers have just had enough for the year.
Things eventually worked out to be pretty even between the two groups as the ten heat races were split equally between the two sanctioning groups and there were seven USMTS drivers versus five NCRA'ers that made the top twelve for the feature. One must also consider that the NCRA group does have the home track advantage too but the USMTS group is used to taking on the best of the locals at wherever they race. The only double heat race winner was Rodney Sanders and he will start on the pole for the fifty two lap, five grand to win show on Saturday night.
While the Modified portion of the show was billed as a showdown between sanctioning bodies, it reality the B Mod portion of the program was the same. Incredibly, with all the Modifieds they have racing at their weekly shows, 81 Speedway does not have a B Mod class. As it was explained to me, they have three different "levels" of Modifieds racing at 81, almost like the different levels of baseball teams. While the rules for each level are the same, drivers designate which "group" they are going to race at during the season. They have the "rookies" which is reserved for drivers that have never won a championship, the "AAA" for those moving up and the NCRA Mods for those at the top of their game. However, they have no B Mod class, something that several drivers I talked with wished that they had.
So, the B Mod portion of the program was left to see how many IMCA Sport Mods from northern Kansas and Oklahoma would show up and the B Mods would be drivers from eastern Kansas and the Kansas City area. So it was quite impressive when thirty five of them appeared and many of the spectators on hand were quite surprised to see as many as they had. Drivers from Missouri and Kansas helped to fill out the field and Jackson Hale and family came all the way from Minnesota.
IMCA Sport Mods won three of the four heats while splitting the two B features with the B Mods. The top two finishers in the main were also Sport Mods. Ryan Gustin, driving one of the McCartney entries, a big sponsor on his former Modified team, came from the fourth row to win the six hundred dollar victory. Travis Johnson, who won a B feature, stormed up from the thirteenth starting spot to finish a strong second just ahead of the first B Mod driven by Missouri veteran Steve Muilenburg. The B Mods put on a good show with only two yellow flags in their twenty lap main and only three starters that didn't complete the distance. I will bite my tongue while not commenting on what Gustin was doing driving a B Mod in this show.
One of the top runners in this class was eliminated early when Mike Roach blew a motor during his heat race. There were several motors that went up in smoke early as the track was pulling very hard.
I wanted to give a special word to a couple of drivers that towed all the way from South Dakota for this event. WISSOTA drivers Arne Anderson and Duke Erickson came from Watertown and Sioux Falls respectively, and neither was anxious to wrap up their racing seasons so they hooked up and towed out here, both with open trailers and both by themselves. Anderson has his own construction company and has been racing the most of his eight years in the Modifieds this year, as I have seen him race several times in the past few weeks at events in Minnesota. Erickson is a Modified rookie, having raced motocross motorcycles until he grew tired of healing up from injuries! He also has traveled a lot in his first year of racing, running regularly in Aberdeen and Watertown South Dakota as well as Madison Minnesota.
I also had a chance to talk with Johnny Allen in the pits before the show. He is on hand, working with his many customers as well as working on the B Mod of his son Dylan. Dylan is a college student in Springfield Missouri so hasn't had the chance to race too much this year. He will be graduating next Spring with a degree in Marketing and is anxious to join the working world. Meanwhile, he plans to race when he can and spectate also. Johnny admits that he misses racing and is entertaining the thought of perhaps getting back behind the wheel but his business interests and the desires of his racing sons now come first.
There were very few yellow flags and most of them were for minor spins as it was a very smooth night of racing with the final checkered flag waving before 10 pm as there was not a single event that had more than two yellows.
Perhaps the most hard luck victim of the entire night was Shaun Peterson who towed all the way from Alexandria Minnesota to race his Mod. He was running well in his first heat race, having passed a few cars which is always important at one of these passing points races when another car spun in front of him. He clipped the car and damaged his right front and as he went down the back chute, the entire right front hub broke and the wheel exited the car. The runaway wheel got some incredible height, bounced over the fence that surrounds the track and out on to the busy street that borders the track. I'm not sure where, or if , they found the wheel but the neighbors live right across the street from the track and they might have gotten a souvenir from the evening's racing. The damage was too severed for Peterson to fix quickly and he missed the second round of heats, thus insuring that his starting spot for action on Saturday is going to be dismal.
With that in mind, along with other appealing considerations, off I headed for the great state of Kansas and in particular, the 81 Speedway in Park City for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown. Originally scheduled to be a three day show using the same format that Humboldt uses for their Spring show, as the race date drew near the program was altered and cut to a two day show with double heat races on Friday and the mains on Saturday. Along with that, a full show for the B Mods would be held each night.
Since the plans were already laid, I did go ahead although I was disappointed that the program would be pared by one day, as were many of the drivers that I talked to, especially those from farther away.
One of the appealing parts of the trip was a chance to again visit the 81 Speedway, a track that I have not been to in what I would estimate to be at least thirty years! My last trip to 81 had to have been back in the eighties where I saw a two day show in April that featured afternoon racing both days for the Sprint Cars and I remember that after the show on Saturday, I ducked down to Enid Oklahoma for their Saturday night show. It's been so long that I hardly even remembered anything about the track.It's been there a long time though, and while it is a nice facility overall, it is starting to show its age in certain areas.
81 is about a three eighths mile paperclip shaped track that is wide in the turns but doesn't have too much banking. When it optimum racing condition, it does provide multiple grooves in the corners. It has a brown dirt surface that generally slicked up but on the opening night of this show they had over watered it and it was pretty "hammer down" for the first round of heat races, after which it dried out and raced remarkably different for the second round of heats.
I was told that the ample grandstands held over 4,000 people and the seating has a nice pitch, so that virtually every seat in the house is a good one, even with some of the lower trailers pitted in the infield. One of the changes that have been made in the years since I was last here was that the majority of the pits have been moved outside the back chute. Musco lights were added about a dozen years ago and it is well lit, including the grandstand seating area.
The sound system is excellent and the announcers can be heard over the roar of the cars. One of the nice things they do here is they have a roving announcer in the infield who quickly interviews each race winner. I was very impressed with the quality of their announcers as a whole. I don't know that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing track announcer Warren Hardy before but he would have to go down as one of the top "voices" anywhere. He is knowledgeable, funny, informed and has a great voice.
The race cars were pretty slow to arrive on Friday afternoon and I was starting to get worried that this show was going to be a "bust." However, lots of late arriving rigs put the worst of my fears to rest and when the racing began, there were forty five Modifieds and thirty five B Mods on hand to race. However, while this was enough for the two day show, likely it wouldn't have flown if there were an extra day included and the lack of pre entries was probably the biggest reason that the show was cut by one day and the ten grand to win event moved to next April. It wasn't however, due to lack of a crowd in the stands and the number of people on hand had to have been one of the largest ones I've seen anywhere for what was essentially a B Mod show plus some Modified heats. However, I've always heard that Wichita is a good racing town with lots of cars and fans and the great weather certainly didn't hurt.
I did have a brief chance to talk to USMTS head Todd Staley in the pits before the show and he revealed that next year's schedule would likely be around sixty events. He's actively trying to reduce the schedule to that number, feeling that he has been running his drivers ragged the last couple of years and while the 2016 schedule probably ended up with about that many races, he also had about twenty rain outs, some of which they didn't mourn when they happened.
Don't expect much in the way of rule changes for 2017 and the new schedule should be revealed at the Harlan trade show upcoming, although there will still be some events that will need to be plugged into the preliminary schedule. The season will start out with an extended visit to the South, with races in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and possibly Mississippi before they come North for the Spring.
This race was "hyped" as a challenge race between the USMTS and the NCRA Modifieds and took place at the home track of C. Ray Hall's NCRA. There were eight of the top ten drivers in NCRA points on hand while only four of the top ten in Central Region points of the USMTS were in the pits, although Ryan Gustin was on hand to drive the award winning car of Jason Hughes. I guess this is proof that even with great weather, there does eventually get a point where some drivers have just had enough for the year.
Things eventually worked out to be pretty even between the two groups as the ten heat races were split equally between the two sanctioning groups and there were seven USMTS drivers versus five NCRA'ers that made the top twelve for the feature. One must also consider that the NCRA group does have the home track advantage too but the USMTS group is used to taking on the best of the locals at wherever they race. The only double heat race winner was Rodney Sanders and he will start on the pole for the fifty two lap, five grand to win show on Saturday night.
While the Modified portion of the show was billed as a showdown between sanctioning bodies, it reality the B Mod portion of the program was the same. Incredibly, with all the Modifieds they have racing at their weekly shows, 81 Speedway does not have a B Mod class. As it was explained to me, they have three different "levels" of Modifieds racing at 81, almost like the different levels of baseball teams. While the rules for each level are the same, drivers designate which "group" they are going to race at during the season. They have the "rookies" which is reserved for drivers that have never won a championship, the "AAA" for those moving up and the NCRA Mods for those at the top of their game. However, they have no B Mod class, something that several drivers I talked with wished that they had.
So, the B Mod portion of the program was left to see how many IMCA Sport Mods from northern Kansas and Oklahoma would show up and the B Mods would be drivers from eastern Kansas and the Kansas City area. So it was quite impressive when thirty five of them appeared and many of the spectators on hand were quite surprised to see as many as they had. Drivers from Missouri and Kansas helped to fill out the field and Jackson Hale and family came all the way from Minnesota.
IMCA Sport Mods won three of the four heats while splitting the two B features with the B Mods. The top two finishers in the main were also Sport Mods. Ryan Gustin, driving one of the McCartney entries, a big sponsor on his former Modified team, came from the fourth row to win the six hundred dollar victory. Travis Johnson, who won a B feature, stormed up from the thirteenth starting spot to finish a strong second just ahead of the first B Mod driven by Missouri veteran Steve Muilenburg. The B Mods put on a good show with only two yellow flags in their twenty lap main and only three starters that didn't complete the distance. I will bite my tongue while not commenting on what Gustin was doing driving a B Mod in this show.
One of the top runners in this class was eliminated early when Mike Roach blew a motor during his heat race. There were several motors that went up in smoke early as the track was pulling very hard.
I wanted to give a special word to a couple of drivers that towed all the way from South Dakota for this event. WISSOTA drivers Arne Anderson and Duke Erickson came from Watertown and Sioux Falls respectively, and neither was anxious to wrap up their racing seasons so they hooked up and towed out here, both with open trailers and both by themselves. Anderson has his own construction company and has been racing the most of his eight years in the Modifieds this year, as I have seen him race several times in the past few weeks at events in Minnesota. Erickson is a Modified rookie, having raced motocross motorcycles until he grew tired of healing up from injuries! He also has traveled a lot in his first year of racing, running regularly in Aberdeen and Watertown South Dakota as well as Madison Minnesota.
I also had a chance to talk with Johnny Allen in the pits before the show. He is on hand, working with his many customers as well as working on the B Mod of his son Dylan. Dylan is a college student in Springfield Missouri so hasn't had the chance to race too much this year. He will be graduating next Spring with a degree in Marketing and is anxious to join the working world. Meanwhile, he plans to race when he can and spectate also. Johnny admits that he misses racing and is entertaining the thought of perhaps getting back behind the wheel but his business interests and the desires of his racing sons now come first.
There were very few yellow flags and most of them were for minor spins as it was a very smooth night of racing with the final checkered flag waving before 10 pm as there was not a single event that had more than two yellows.
Perhaps the most hard luck victim of the entire night was Shaun Peterson who towed all the way from Alexandria Minnesota to race his Mod. He was running well in his first heat race, having passed a few cars which is always important at one of these passing points races when another car spun in front of him. He clipped the car and damaged his right front and as he went down the back chute, the entire right front hub broke and the wheel exited the car. The runaway wheel got some incredible height, bounced over the fence that surrounds the track and out on to the busy street that borders the track. I'm not sure where, or if , they found the wheel but the neighbors live right across the street from the track and they might have gotten a souvenir from the evening's racing. The damage was too severed for Peterson to fix quickly and he missed the second round of heats, thus insuring that his starting spot for action on Saturday is going to be dismal.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
World Finals Truly a Colossal Event
I am just returning to some sort of normalcy after a long drive down to Charlotte North Carolina and back for the World Finals at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The long drive home followed up immediately by a couple of surprise days of employment has put this entry into the "old news" category almost before it got spit out of my lap top. For that I am sorry, but with the huge numbers of "real media" on hand to cover the event plus live TV, anyone that really wanted to know who won and other details of the event should have been able to do so almost immediately.
This was actually planned as a "bus man's" holiday with no reports of any kind, but when Shaun Johnson of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Operations Department generously offered to arrange free pits passes for us, I felt compelled to supply some kind of report to all those still following this blog, which appears on a rather hit and miss schedule at this late time of the racing season.
So rather than supply a "blow by blow" account of who won and the other minute details of the event, which is not my forte anyway, I'll try to amuse with a few of my thoughts on the overall event.
The car count in two of the three classes that participated was down from the record breaking numbers of 2015. The Late Model count dropped by double digits from last year while the Sprints was down by a smaller amount. Only the big block Modifieds held true and actually had one more car participating than last year. In all, one hundred and sixty four cars took to the track for qualifying on Thursday. Later in the week, Late Model drivers Joey Coulter, Dustin Mitchell, Willie Milliken and Brian Shirley either rolled out back up cars or borrowed rides from other racers so they could continue competing.
There were only two drivers that participated in more than one class and they were Dave Blaney and Donny Schatz. Blaney ran both a Modified and a Sprint Cars while Schatz had his new XR1 Rocket Late Model to compliment his title winning Sprint Car. It is interesting in particular to watch Schatz during the course of the week. He spends as little time as possible with the Sprint Car in their section of the pit and instead spends most of his time shooting the breeze with the Rocket people and their acquaintances in the Late Model pit. My feeling is that he has been with his crew in the Sprint so long they know just exactly what he wants and any adjustments are made seamlessly while he seems to just have more plain fun hanging out with the Late Model guys. I was told by a reliable source that Schatz's plan is to run the Sprints for three more years and then retire from that aspect of the sport. He's then going to have some fun and my guess is that the fun includes running his Late Model a whole lot more.
One driver that would have liked to run both classes was Tim McCreadie and it is quite surprising that for a high profile event like this that he can't line up a ride with one of the large teams. Folks who aren't familiar with the big blocks should know that money oozes from these teams in just as impressive fashion as any Late Model or Sprint Car operation. And these cars are very much fun to watch in action. They definitely aren't afraid to "lay the lumber" on each other and their fans are just as rabidly enthusiastic as any in the sport.
It was a "who's who" of drivers in all three classes. While there were certainly some of the big names missing, many of the best in the business were on hand and just to see the list of drivers that couldn't even make a main event was impressive.
Overall, drivers were pretty happy with the track conditions for all three days. While there were certainly some periods of time when the track went one groove, most of the time there was racing all over the track. It was somewhat comforting for the local tracks and promoters that with the best in the business brought in to prepare the track, they still completely goofed on Friday night by over watering the track and causing the event to start a full hour late.
While the drivers as a whole were happy with the track, fans on the pit side of the track might have felt somewhat different. Even though there was a cushion and two grooves, the track continued to blow dirt at a monumental level, creating a sandstorm on the pit side of the track. Thursday and Saturday night, the track was a "top five, dirtiest night" ever spent at the track for me. We all complained as we coughed up dirt, but I didn't seen anyone get up and leave. It was a weekend for the hard core fan though, as I can't imagine any "casual fan" putting up with the dirt and ever returning again. Unless of course, you were sitting with the "beautiful people" in the VIP suites.
The employees at the DT@CMS are a very polite crew. They are most helpful and courteous and not at all like their brethren at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track where many of the employees are somewhat on the surly side.
Despite great competition and lots of it, it was interesting how the same few drivers seemed to dominate in the three classes all weekend.
Unless you have been to this event, it is hard to comprehend the actual number of fans that are on hand. I can't even imagine how many people were on hand but it must be among the biggest couple of dirt track races anywhere. Even many of the employees at the "Big Speedway" commented on how many campers were on hand for the weekend, perhaps even putting the NASCAR premier events to shame.
If you are a dirt track fan, and I don't care which class is your favorite, it should be a top priority to attend this event at least once.
This was actually planned as a "bus man's" holiday with no reports of any kind, but when Shaun Johnson of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Operations Department generously offered to arrange free pits passes for us, I felt compelled to supply some kind of report to all those still following this blog, which appears on a rather hit and miss schedule at this late time of the racing season.
So rather than supply a "blow by blow" account of who won and the other minute details of the event, which is not my forte anyway, I'll try to amuse with a few of my thoughts on the overall event.
The car count in two of the three classes that participated was down from the record breaking numbers of 2015. The Late Model count dropped by double digits from last year while the Sprints was down by a smaller amount. Only the big block Modifieds held true and actually had one more car participating than last year. In all, one hundred and sixty four cars took to the track for qualifying on Thursday. Later in the week, Late Model drivers Joey Coulter, Dustin Mitchell, Willie Milliken and Brian Shirley either rolled out back up cars or borrowed rides from other racers so they could continue competing.
There were only two drivers that participated in more than one class and they were Dave Blaney and Donny Schatz. Blaney ran both a Modified and a Sprint Cars while Schatz had his new XR1 Rocket Late Model to compliment his title winning Sprint Car. It is interesting in particular to watch Schatz during the course of the week. He spends as little time as possible with the Sprint Car in their section of the pit and instead spends most of his time shooting the breeze with the Rocket people and their acquaintances in the Late Model pit. My feeling is that he has been with his crew in the Sprint so long they know just exactly what he wants and any adjustments are made seamlessly while he seems to just have more plain fun hanging out with the Late Model guys. I was told by a reliable source that Schatz's plan is to run the Sprints for three more years and then retire from that aspect of the sport. He's then going to have some fun and my guess is that the fun includes running his Late Model a whole lot more.
One driver that would have liked to run both classes was Tim McCreadie and it is quite surprising that for a high profile event like this that he can't line up a ride with one of the large teams. Folks who aren't familiar with the big blocks should know that money oozes from these teams in just as impressive fashion as any Late Model or Sprint Car operation. And these cars are very much fun to watch in action. They definitely aren't afraid to "lay the lumber" on each other and their fans are just as rabidly enthusiastic as any in the sport.
It was a "who's who" of drivers in all three classes. While there were certainly some of the big names missing, many of the best in the business were on hand and just to see the list of drivers that couldn't even make a main event was impressive.
Overall, drivers were pretty happy with the track conditions for all three days. While there were certainly some periods of time when the track went one groove, most of the time there was racing all over the track. It was somewhat comforting for the local tracks and promoters that with the best in the business brought in to prepare the track, they still completely goofed on Friday night by over watering the track and causing the event to start a full hour late.
While the drivers as a whole were happy with the track, fans on the pit side of the track might have felt somewhat different. Even though there was a cushion and two grooves, the track continued to blow dirt at a monumental level, creating a sandstorm on the pit side of the track. Thursday and Saturday night, the track was a "top five, dirtiest night" ever spent at the track for me. We all complained as we coughed up dirt, but I didn't seen anyone get up and leave. It was a weekend for the hard core fan though, as I can't imagine any "casual fan" putting up with the dirt and ever returning again. Unless of course, you were sitting with the "beautiful people" in the VIP suites.
The employees at the DT@CMS are a very polite crew. They are most helpful and courteous and not at all like their brethren at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track where many of the employees are somewhat on the surly side.
Despite great competition and lots of it, it was interesting how the same few drivers seemed to dominate in the three classes all weekend.
Unless you have been to this event, it is hard to comprehend the actual number of fans that are on hand. I can't even imagine how many people were on hand but it must be among the biggest couple of dirt track races anywhere. Even many of the employees at the "Big Speedway" commented on how many campers were on hand for the weekend, perhaps even putting the NASCAR premier events to shame.
If you are a dirt track fan, and I don't care which class is your favorite, it should be a top priority to attend this event at least once.
Monday, October 24, 2016
And the Final Checkered Flag Flies
The final checkered flag of the 2016 racing season in the state of Minnesota flew on Saturday night, October 22nd with the concluding round of the Topless Nationals at the Wagamon's Ogilvie Raceway.
Nearly all the race cars returned for Saturday night's second session of racing after preliminary qualifying took place on Friday night. Substituting for the Hornets, who ran a full show on Friday night were the UMSS Traditional Sprints, or in other other words, wingless Sprints running either a 602 or 604 crate motor or restricted motors of about the same relative power and cost of the MidMods or B Mods. However, I have been told that a 525 crate motor option with restrictions may be in the rules for next year, and in fact, I already know of one team that has already purchased a 525 crate for next year. At $14,000 a pop, where's the economy in that?
Multiple B features were needed for the MidMods and Mods with the other classes starting all cars in the main events. For the first time that I'm aware of, the Traditional Sprints race group time trials as they hot lapped before their individual heat races. Officials then inverted five for each heat with the cars staying right on the track and racing without a break as the officials called down to the drivers their starting spots. Normally I believe they draw for starting positions for their heats. I'm not sure if this is a proposed change for 2017 or not, but I do know that some of the tracks they race at don't have the technology to do this as it was done Saturday night.
One advantage of the cars racing topless was that it gave a couple of the drivers a chance to string some lights on their roll cages in celebration of the season. Both Matt Dickey and Justin Oestreich had colorful Halloween themed lights on their open wheel cars. Oestreich has done this every year since the Topless race started.
A couple of interesting notes from the pits Saturday included the return to racing of "Dyno" Don Swearingen to the racing ranks. Dyno raced for years in the Late Models and did quite a bit of traveling in his day including going to Robert Smawley's race at Kingsport Tennessee in the old NDRA days. I remember him being there because so was I!
In recent years Dyno's son David has raced a MidMod and his daughter Krysta a Pure Stock but they adorned David's car with Don's old number #07 and he raced the MidMod this weekend.
The two car team of John and Josh Kallas pulled all the way from Hurley Wisconsin for this weekend. If that doesn't seem too far, check your map and you'll see that Hurley is just across the border from the U.P. of Michigan! By the way, Hurley was(and is) well known as one of the most wide open towns in the Midwest, if you know what I mean!
If fact, their trip was so far that they arrived too late for Josh to run his heat race on Friday and he just tagged the field for the feature on Saturday. Josh is a first year driver in the Pure Stocks and looking for track time so he just took the roof off his Pure Stock and he ran with the Streets! John tells me that his Jet MidMod is for sale and he is looking to buy a different car for next year. John got a lead on this current car from his friends the Sorensons from North Dakota and Montana after they met while pitting side by side one year at the WISSOTA 100 in Huron.
Also making his racing return after a number of years was Bob Smith. Smith had a highly successful career racing both open wheel and fendered cars but gave it up a few years ago to help his daughter start her racing career in a Hornet. However, just recently he purchased a Street Stock out of North Dakota and they allowed him to tag the field Saturday, after not having been on hand Friday as he just got the car finished up. It would appear that he will be returning to racing on a regular basis next year.
In all honesty, the feature races on Saturday weren't near as good as they were two weeks earlier during the Fall Classic. There were way too many yellows that kept breaking up the flow of the races and the track didn't hold up near as well as it did two weeks ago, even though there were at least a hundred less cars racing on it.
Three drivers continued late season hot streaks. Ryan Satter, Jeremy Nelson and Dave Mass all won either a feature race last weekend at Granite City's National Championship Weekend or features at the Fall Classic, one week earlier.
Satter dominated the Street Stock feature and also had his best year yet, finishing third in WISSOTA national points. Satter, who comes from the wide spot in the road also known as Dent Minnesota, made a bold three wide move on the opening lap of the feature and gained the lead. Despite six yellows that brought the field back to him, on each restart he was dominant was was not challenged to the finish. Justin Vogel, who won here two weeks ago, finished second.
The Midwest Mod feature went to soon to be crowned national champion Jeremy Nelson. Switching back to his GRT chassis this weekend which he seems to rotate on a weekly basis with his MB, Nelson caught a high flying Eric Lamm to get the lead and then take the win. Lamm has been extremely strong in recent weeks also, taking a win last Sunday in Granite City. He jumped out to a big lead running the cushion but when the track started to take rubber, Nelson caught him quickly and Lamm was one lap too late getting to the rubber. "The Cobra", Cody Lee, had his second strong run of the post season here, finishing third.
They farmed the track at this point and the Traditional Sprints then put a real good show in their main event. Johnny Parsons III(of the famed Parsons family) led from the start running the low side. James Giassi was working the high side and gradually gained on Parsons, finally catching him with just a couple laps to go and executing a classic high side pass for the win. There were fifteen Traditional Sprints on hand for the show.
Mass killed the field in the Super Stocks, getting to the front early and holding on through seven yellows for the win. Mass has been extremely dominant at the end of this year, winning several special events along the way. Dexton Koch and Dustin Nelson trailed Mass.
The Modified feature brought with it a ting of controversy. Dave Cain and Josh Angst redrew the front row and the race was a two car battle from start to finish. Cain got the early lead but Angst was all over him, looking high and low for an opening. Angst did appear to be faster but the crafty Cain used the groove well and kept Josh behind him.
Then, after two and a half races, the track again started to take rubber, and all the drivers dove to the low side. The track became a high speed, one groove affair with Angst continuing to pressure Cain. The leaders started to hit lapped traffic which became a problem for both of them as they tried timing it right so they didn't try to pass the slower cars in the corner and get moved out of the rubber groove.
Angst played it perfect with only six laps to go as he pinned Cain on the low side of the track exiting turn two and tried to drive around him. Cain was blocked by the slower car and Angst was ready to pass him so Cain did the only thing he could do and that was to "dump" the slower car, spinning him out of the way so that Cain could maintain the lead. This triggered the yellow for the spinner and then it became a waiting game to see how track officials would call it.
I know that there are some promoters and sanctioning bodies that always announce that the leader must pass the slower cars, not drive through them. Other tracks and promoters fell that the leader has the right to move slower cars out of the way if need be. On this night and at this track, the decision was made to restore Cain to the lead and send the slower car to the back of the pack. Some in the crowd agreed, and some did not but that was the decision they made.
Cain controlled the final six laps and made sure that he didn't give Angst any openings as he drove on for the win. Jeremy Nelson had a nice night as he moved up for third at the finish. Some of the drivers hand signaled the starter to go single file on the last restart because of the narrow groove, but they went double file and there was plenty of banging as everyone fought to get to the rubber. Nelson was a big gainer because of this while Justin Oestreich came out a loser on the deal.
Thus the 2016 racing season in the Upper Midwest came to a close. Even with cool temperatures, the crowd was very good on Saturday night and after some shaky early years, it seems that this late season wrap up race has developed some solid "legs" and will be a yearly staple on the "Big O's" schedule.
Nearly all the race cars returned for Saturday night's second session of racing after preliminary qualifying took place on Friday night. Substituting for the Hornets, who ran a full show on Friday night were the UMSS Traditional Sprints, or in other other words, wingless Sprints running either a 602 or 604 crate motor or restricted motors of about the same relative power and cost of the MidMods or B Mods. However, I have been told that a 525 crate motor option with restrictions may be in the rules for next year, and in fact, I already know of one team that has already purchased a 525 crate for next year. At $14,000 a pop, where's the economy in that?
Multiple B features were needed for the MidMods and Mods with the other classes starting all cars in the main events. For the first time that I'm aware of, the Traditional Sprints race group time trials as they hot lapped before their individual heat races. Officials then inverted five for each heat with the cars staying right on the track and racing without a break as the officials called down to the drivers their starting spots. Normally I believe they draw for starting positions for their heats. I'm not sure if this is a proposed change for 2017 or not, but I do know that some of the tracks they race at don't have the technology to do this as it was done Saturday night.
One advantage of the cars racing topless was that it gave a couple of the drivers a chance to string some lights on their roll cages in celebration of the season. Both Matt Dickey and Justin Oestreich had colorful Halloween themed lights on their open wheel cars. Oestreich has done this every year since the Topless race started.
A couple of interesting notes from the pits Saturday included the return to racing of "Dyno" Don Swearingen to the racing ranks. Dyno raced for years in the Late Models and did quite a bit of traveling in his day including going to Robert Smawley's race at Kingsport Tennessee in the old NDRA days. I remember him being there because so was I!
In recent years Dyno's son David has raced a MidMod and his daughter Krysta a Pure Stock but they adorned David's car with Don's old number #07 and he raced the MidMod this weekend.
The two car team of John and Josh Kallas pulled all the way from Hurley Wisconsin for this weekend. If that doesn't seem too far, check your map and you'll see that Hurley is just across the border from the U.P. of Michigan! By the way, Hurley was(and is) well known as one of the most wide open towns in the Midwest, if you know what I mean!
If fact, their trip was so far that they arrived too late for Josh to run his heat race on Friday and he just tagged the field for the feature on Saturday. Josh is a first year driver in the Pure Stocks and looking for track time so he just took the roof off his Pure Stock and he ran with the Streets! John tells me that his Jet MidMod is for sale and he is looking to buy a different car for next year. John got a lead on this current car from his friends the Sorensons from North Dakota and Montana after they met while pitting side by side one year at the WISSOTA 100 in Huron.
Also making his racing return after a number of years was Bob Smith. Smith had a highly successful career racing both open wheel and fendered cars but gave it up a few years ago to help his daughter start her racing career in a Hornet. However, just recently he purchased a Street Stock out of North Dakota and they allowed him to tag the field Saturday, after not having been on hand Friday as he just got the car finished up. It would appear that he will be returning to racing on a regular basis next year.
In all honesty, the feature races on Saturday weren't near as good as they were two weeks earlier during the Fall Classic. There were way too many yellows that kept breaking up the flow of the races and the track didn't hold up near as well as it did two weeks ago, even though there were at least a hundred less cars racing on it.
Three drivers continued late season hot streaks. Ryan Satter, Jeremy Nelson and Dave Mass all won either a feature race last weekend at Granite City's National Championship Weekend or features at the Fall Classic, one week earlier.
Satter dominated the Street Stock feature and also had his best year yet, finishing third in WISSOTA national points. Satter, who comes from the wide spot in the road also known as Dent Minnesota, made a bold three wide move on the opening lap of the feature and gained the lead. Despite six yellows that brought the field back to him, on each restart he was dominant was was not challenged to the finish. Justin Vogel, who won here two weeks ago, finished second.
The Midwest Mod feature went to soon to be crowned national champion Jeremy Nelson. Switching back to his GRT chassis this weekend which he seems to rotate on a weekly basis with his MB, Nelson caught a high flying Eric Lamm to get the lead and then take the win. Lamm has been extremely strong in recent weeks also, taking a win last Sunday in Granite City. He jumped out to a big lead running the cushion but when the track started to take rubber, Nelson caught him quickly and Lamm was one lap too late getting to the rubber. "The Cobra", Cody Lee, had his second strong run of the post season here, finishing third.
They farmed the track at this point and the Traditional Sprints then put a real good show in their main event. Johnny Parsons III(of the famed Parsons family) led from the start running the low side. James Giassi was working the high side and gradually gained on Parsons, finally catching him with just a couple laps to go and executing a classic high side pass for the win. There were fifteen Traditional Sprints on hand for the show.
Mass killed the field in the Super Stocks, getting to the front early and holding on through seven yellows for the win. Mass has been extremely dominant at the end of this year, winning several special events along the way. Dexton Koch and Dustin Nelson trailed Mass.
The Modified feature brought with it a ting of controversy. Dave Cain and Josh Angst redrew the front row and the race was a two car battle from start to finish. Cain got the early lead but Angst was all over him, looking high and low for an opening. Angst did appear to be faster but the crafty Cain used the groove well and kept Josh behind him.
Then, after two and a half races, the track again started to take rubber, and all the drivers dove to the low side. The track became a high speed, one groove affair with Angst continuing to pressure Cain. The leaders started to hit lapped traffic which became a problem for both of them as they tried timing it right so they didn't try to pass the slower cars in the corner and get moved out of the rubber groove.
Angst played it perfect with only six laps to go as he pinned Cain on the low side of the track exiting turn two and tried to drive around him. Cain was blocked by the slower car and Angst was ready to pass him so Cain did the only thing he could do and that was to "dump" the slower car, spinning him out of the way so that Cain could maintain the lead. This triggered the yellow for the spinner and then it became a waiting game to see how track officials would call it.
I know that there are some promoters and sanctioning bodies that always announce that the leader must pass the slower cars, not drive through them. Other tracks and promoters fell that the leader has the right to move slower cars out of the way if need be. On this night and at this track, the decision was made to restore Cain to the lead and send the slower car to the back of the pack. Some in the crowd agreed, and some did not but that was the decision they made.
Cain controlled the final six laps and made sure that he didn't give Angst any openings as he drove on for the win. Jeremy Nelson had a nice night as he moved up for third at the finish. Some of the drivers hand signaled the starter to go single file on the last restart because of the narrow groove, but they went double file and there was plenty of banging as everyone fought to get to the rubber. Nelson was a big gainer because of this while Justin Oestreich came out a loser on the deal.
Thus the 2016 racing season in the Upper Midwest came to a close. Even with cool temperatures, the crowd was very good on Saturday night and after some shaky early years, it seems that this late season wrap up race has developed some solid "legs" and will be a yearly staple on the "Big O's" schedule.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
The "Big O" Topless to Wrap Up 2016
The last dirt track races of the 2016 racing season in the state of Minnesota commenced on Friday, October 21st with opening night of the seventh annual Topless Nationals at the Ogilvie Raceway.
This race, which was not highly supported in its first couple of years, has seemed to gain traction in recent years as it appears that many drivers like the novelty of racing topless once a year and the last race of the year is the perfect time to do such a promotion, since many racers at getting ready to tear their cars apart at this point of the season anyway. And it seems that more and more, there is a core of racers that just can't get enough racing in, and are willing to race just as long as tracks will offer them events. All classes except the Hornets ran without tops with it being optional for the Street Stocks but just about all of them removed their roofs too.
In the last couple of years this race has started attracting a real cosmopolitan field of drivers, representing three sanctioning bodies and several states. And there has not been a shortage of drivers willing to race either. Friday night, one hundred and sixty three drivers signed in to race, representing five states and three Canadian provinces. This alone is an impressive figure with the furthest tow likely being Kody Scholpp who pulled all the way from Lampman SK. There were also a number of drivers from both Dakotas as well as the Winnipeg area along with one lone entrant from Iowa.
The classes racing on Friday included Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks, Street Stocks and Hornets. The Hornets ran a complete show on Friday with the other classes running heats only. They will have their B's and features on Saturday night and the UMSS Traditional Sprints will also join the show for a complete program too.
While most drivers represented the host WISSOTA sanctioning body, there were also IMCA and USRA cars on hand too. Everybody ran under their own rules package including tires and I didn't notice any huge disparity between the cars in the various groups.
There was one IMCA Stock Car that ran with the Street Stocks and I thought that he would dominate but Dan Mackenthun didn't show the speed that I would have expected from him. Perhaps they had him "choked down" after Andy Altenberg came in and blew away the Street Stocks, as he should have, a couple of years ago. I will have to check on this. A couple of IMCA Hobby Stocks also ran with the Street Stocks too.
One of the new drivers I chatted with was Brent Thompson from Minot North Dakota who was on hand with his Sport Mod. Brent works in the oil patch in North Dakota and moved West after originally living in southern Minnesota. In fact, he will be moving back to the Twin Cities suburbs soon and will likely race some Minnesota IMCA tracks as his job is two weeks on and two weeks off. His father runs Dakota Trackside, the prominent parts dealer in North Dakota. Brent was just hoping to be competitive in Ogilvie and in fact, ran a good third in his heat. However, with passing points setting the fields in all classes, it was hard to determine whether or not he had made the main.
Jeff Massingill was on hand with a new Modified ride for himself. Jeff, who prefers the Late Models and wished they were running them this weekend like last year, was driving a Rocket from Ruhlmann chassis that his Modified car owner Johnny Carpenter had just picked up. Massingill admits that he does not like the Modifieds with the vast majority of his racing experience being in fendered cars. Jeff had a couple of days off this week as he runs a school bus service for a couple of school districts in northern Minnesota and with MEA this week, there was no school, thus no work for him. Jeff tipped that he will be turning wrenches for J.R. Haley for the indoor event in St. Louis as Haley will be bringing Ricky Thornton Jr. to that event as his driver.
Another driver I talked to was a third generation racer from the renowned engine building family from St. Paul Minnesota, the Kelley family. Matt is the son of Mike Jr. and Mike Sr. was the originator of Kelley Racing Engines in St.Paul, a builder of racing engines since the 1960's. Matt is a young driver just getting his feet wet in the sport and is driving an older MidMod that his father Mike Jr used to race. Later, Matt's uncle Shaun would also show up with his car to race in the MidMods also.
It was a rough night for recently crowned WISSOTA national Street Stock Champion Tim Johnson from Brainerd. He was battling in a heat race for position when contact occurred with another car and in what I thought was a questionable call at best, Johnson was sent to the rear. In his haste to get back to the front of the field, he got sideways and caused another spin and with the two spin rule, the new national champion was sent to the pits, where he will have to charge from the tail Saturday night.
Things didn't get better for Johnson in the other two classes he races in either. A big winner in both Modifieds and Super Stocks as well as his Streeter, he was leading qualifying races in both classes when he got caught and passed by Joey Jensen and Dave Mass respectively, something that very rarely happens to Johnson. I guarantee that he'll really be driving harder than normal on Saturday to make up for what happened in his heats.
The "Big O" was decorated up for this event, as they are hosted a Breast Cancer fund raising event this weekend. The walls all the way around the track are a freshly painted pink as well as all the corner tires. Even the rules on the event flyer are printed in pink!
A total of eighteen qualifying races were held on Friday night. With passing points being used in all divisions, some of those who particularly prospered were Sketter Estey who came from ninth to win a MidMod heat, Mass who came from sixth to win a Super Stock heat, Jensen who came from ninth to win a Modified heat, and both Dave Cain and Josh Angst who came from sixth to win other Modified heats. Newly crowned Midwest Modified national champion Jeremy Nelson won heats in both the MidMods and Mods, driving his MB in the Mods and this week substituting his MB MidMod for a his GRT chassis.
The Hornets wrapped up the night with their feature event of the weekend and the nonstop twenty lap headliner went to Jason Reinke. Reinke set a torrid pace and he lapped all but four other competitors in the seventeen car field.
This race, which was not highly supported in its first couple of years, has seemed to gain traction in recent years as it appears that many drivers like the novelty of racing topless once a year and the last race of the year is the perfect time to do such a promotion, since many racers at getting ready to tear their cars apart at this point of the season anyway. And it seems that more and more, there is a core of racers that just can't get enough racing in, and are willing to race just as long as tracks will offer them events. All classes except the Hornets ran without tops with it being optional for the Street Stocks but just about all of them removed their roofs too.
In the last couple of years this race has started attracting a real cosmopolitan field of drivers, representing three sanctioning bodies and several states. And there has not been a shortage of drivers willing to race either. Friday night, one hundred and sixty three drivers signed in to race, representing five states and three Canadian provinces. This alone is an impressive figure with the furthest tow likely being Kody Scholpp who pulled all the way from Lampman SK. There were also a number of drivers from both Dakotas as well as the Winnipeg area along with one lone entrant from Iowa.
The classes racing on Friday included Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks, Street Stocks and Hornets. The Hornets ran a complete show on Friday with the other classes running heats only. They will have their B's and features on Saturday night and the UMSS Traditional Sprints will also join the show for a complete program too.
While most drivers represented the host WISSOTA sanctioning body, there were also IMCA and USRA cars on hand too. Everybody ran under their own rules package including tires and I didn't notice any huge disparity between the cars in the various groups.
There was one IMCA Stock Car that ran with the Street Stocks and I thought that he would dominate but Dan Mackenthun didn't show the speed that I would have expected from him. Perhaps they had him "choked down" after Andy Altenberg came in and blew away the Street Stocks, as he should have, a couple of years ago. I will have to check on this. A couple of IMCA Hobby Stocks also ran with the Street Stocks too.
One of the new drivers I chatted with was Brent Thompson from Minot North Dakota who was on hand with his Sport Mod. Brent works in the oil patch in North Dakota and moved West after originally living in southern Minnesota. In fact, he will be moving back to the Twin Cities suburbs soon and will likely race some Minnesota IMCA tracks as his job is two weeks on and two weeks off. His father runs Dakota Trackside, the prominent parts dealer in North Dakota. Brent was just hoping to be competitive in Ogilvie and in fact, ran a good third in his heat. However, with passing points setting the fields in all classes, it was hard to determine whether or not he had made the main.
Jeff Massingill was on hand with a new Modified ride for himself. Jeff, who prefers the Late Models and wished they were running them this weekend like last year, was driving a Rocket from Ruhlmann chassis that his Modified car owner Johnny Carpenter had just picked up. Massingill admits that he does not like the Modifieds with the vast majority of his racing experience being in fendered cars. Jeff had a couple of days off this week as he runs a school bus service for a couple of school districts in northern Minnesota and with MEA this week, there was no school, thus no work for him. Jeff tipped that he will be turning wrenches for J.R. Haley for the indoor event in St. Louis as Haley will be bringing Ricky Thornton Jr. to that event as his driver.
Another driver I talked to was a third generation racer from the renowned engine building family from St. Paul Minnesota, the Kelley family. Matt is the son of Mike Jr. and Mike Sr. was the originator of Kelley Racing Engines in St.Paul, a builder of racing engines since the 1960's. Matt is a young driver just getting his feet wet in the sport and is driving an older MidMod that his father Mike Jr used to race. Later, Matt's uncle Shaun would also show up with his car to race in the MidMods also.
It was a rough night for recently crowned WISSOTA national Street Stock Champion Tim Johnson from Brainerd. He was battling in a heat race for position when contact occurred with another car and in what I thought was a questionable call at best, Johnson was sent to the rear. In his haste to get back to the front of the field, he got sideways and caused another spin and with the two spin rule, the new national champion was sent to the pits, where he will have to charge from the tail Saturday night.
Things didn't get better for Johnson in the other two classes he races in either. A big winner in both Modifieds and Super Stocks as well as his Streeter, he was leading qualifying races in both classes when he got caught and passed by Joey Jensen and Dave Mass respectively, something that very rarely happens to Johnson. I guarantee that he'll really be driving harder than normal on Saturday to make up for what happened in his heats.
The "Big O" was decorated up for this event, as they are hosted a Breast Cancer fund raising event this weekend. The walls all the way around the track are a freshly painted pink as well as all the corner tires. Even the rules on the event flyer are printed in pink!
A total of eighteen qualifying races were held on Friday night. With passing points being used in all divisions, some of those who particularly prospered were Sketter Estey who came from ninth to win a MidMod heat, Mass who came from sixth to win a Super Stock heat, Jensen who came from ninth to win a Modified heat, and both Dave Cain and Josh Angst who came from sixth to win other Modified heats. Newly crowned Midwest Modified national champion Jeremy Nelson won heats in both the MidMods and Mods, driving his MB in the Mods and this week substituting his MB MidMod for a his GRT chassis.
The Hornets wrapped up the night with their feature event of the weekend and the nonstop twenty lap headliner went to Jason Reinke. Reinke set a torrid pace and he lapped all but four other competitors in the seventeen car field.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Big and Long Night of Racing at Spring Lake Speedway's Autumn Clash
One of the last dirt races in the state of Wisconsin was conducted on Friday night, October 14th at the Spring Lake Speedway near Unity Wisconsin with the running of part one of the second annual Autumn Clash. SLS was completing its first full year of racing in 2016, having started their new endeavor last October when new promoter Scott Duval opened up the track with the first annual Autumn Clash.
SLS ran their first full season this year and overall had a very positive first full season. The crowds were good and I think even better than Duval probably was expecting. He ran a limited schedule of about a dozen races(give or take due to rainouts), and told me that he plans to schedule a ten night schedule for 2017. He feels that an every week program is just a little too much for his staff to handle and more than the fans want to see. His hope is to make every night special with some kind of special promotion and the every week thing starts to wear out come the heat and humidity of July and August.
Car counts for his first year were OK with some classes running stronger in numbers than others. Most of the local racers had either retired or sold off their dirt equipment with the track's status being so uncertain the last few years and Unity is in kind of the transition zone between the dirt tracks of western Wisconsin and the tar tracks of central Wisconsin. However, there is still plenty of interest in dirt track racing in that part of the state and Duval is expecting more local racers to start to get back into the sport if SLS shows stability and proves that they will be running for the long haul.
Duval surprised just about everyone when after weighing the options of the different sanctioning bodies, he chose to become sanctioned by NASCAR. While there aren't many other tracks near or far away using NASCAR sanctioning, he appears to be happy with it as he plans to continue with their sanctioning next year. In reality, he used WISSOTA rules to govern his racing except for the Modified class which used amalgamated rules that allowed WISSOTA, IMCA and USRA cars to all compete together.
Probably the biggest problem Duval ran into during his opening year was in the racing surface itself which was quite unsettled for most of the year. Some bad clay that had to be removed from the track set him back and there were some nights when they tended to over water the track, according to the drivers I talked to. Duval agreed that issue was of major concern to him and as a driver himself, he understands that the track must be in race ready shape for the drivers. A major addition of more clay is in the works for the off season.
This track issue would rear its head again for the Autumn Clash as the racing conditions were among the roughest that I have seen at a track since the opening nights of 2016. The track had a lot of bumps and ruts and the number one-two corner was really soft. This, along with the unfamiliarity of many of the drivers with the track along with the "devil may care" attitude that many drivers exhibit while running some of the late season shows, resulting in a night of many crashes and wrecks and an inordinate number of cars that suffered some major damage.
One of the things about this program that had Duval most excited and I must say had me intrigued to was the mixing of classes from the eastern part of the state with the local cars and western Wisconsin cars running under different rules packages.
The Modifieds were running under their own rules package and this resulted in about half the field running under WISSOTA rules, about half under IMCA rules and a couple of USRA and even UMP rules cars on hand. Some of the IMCA cars kind of cheated the rules by adding spoilers while others chose just to rune like they normally do.
The Modified main saw local racers Jared Loos and Chris Oertel battle early until they got together and Loos was sent to the tail. Kevin Adams then took advantage of this to blow past Oertel on the high side and he then controlled the rest of the event. It was reported to me later that Adams was already testing out his Florida setup, running his "big" motor and no spoiler but I can't confirm that. Matt Gilbertson towed all the way from western Minnesota with his MB and finished a strong second ahead of Ryan Aho, driving Darrell Moe's car that promoter Duval himself drives when he's not busy promoting.
Most of the Super Stocks were running under WISSOTA rules with several of the eastern Wisconsin Grand National cars also racing. The Grand Nationals were to run their in their own class on Saturday but were allowed to run with the Super Stocks on Friday. I was told that the Grand Nationals might have a little more power but didn't handle near as well as the Supers, based on their rules. It turned out that the Supers dominated but they also out numbered the Grand Nationals by two to one along with having track experience.
Jeff Klopstein Jr led eighteen and a half laps until he made one mistake and was passed by ABC track champion, the "Flying Farmer" (how many of them are there anyway?), Nick Oreskovich, who went on for the win.
For Midwest Modifieds, it was again up to everyone to run their own rules. Midwest Modifieds, WISSOTA style, dominated but there were almost ten Sport Mods on hand along with a few B Mods from USRA.
Coming from the fourth row, Chippewa Fall's Michael Truscott was the winner. Truscott, who has a twenty grand to win victory this Fall among his special event wins, used the high side to fly past the competition for the win. Much of the remaining field was most focused on trying to become the first racer to put a hole in Duval's wall as they were creaming the concrete from nearly every angle possible. It was a devastating night on the equipment and one in which the wrecker drivers were hoping that they had filled their fuel tanks, they were making so many runs back and forth to the pits! Less than half the field was able to see the checkered.
What seemed as the most unfair pairing actually turned out to be one of the better features of the night. The IMCA style Stock Cars were making their first appearance at the track and were running a complete show on Friday, to then be replaced by the WISSOTA style Street Stocks on Saturday. While they both look similiar, the Stock Cars have a whole lot more horsepower than the Streets while having to weigh more and running the IMCA tire. Most people(including the Street Stock drivers who opted to give it a go), felt that they were running at a severe disadvantage and wouldn't be competitive.
With an excellent showing of Shawano based Stock Cars, there was a strong field of cars from both quarters for the race and while they didn't win, the Street Stocks showed that while they didn't have the power to pass the Stock Cars, they did have enough speed that they could maintain their positions and make it tough for the Stockers to get by.
Kyle Frederick, one of the better Stock Car drivers in the state, did win the race when he was able to use his power to make an outside pass on a restart. Paul Diefenthaler, who runs a Street Stock in eastern Wisconsin that uses very similar rules to the WISSOTA cars, finished second and Jay Kesan, driving a WISSOTA Street, finished third.
Those four feature races were the only ones completed as a bad wreck in the Pure Stock feature required transporting a driver to the hospital and without another ambulance on the premises, the time that it would have taken before the race could have been restarted was prohibitive and the event was called complete with the Pure Stock feature partly completed. The Hornets split their prize money equally. It was later reported that the Pure Stock driver was released from the hospital with no apparent injuries.
With well over a hundred and fifty cars on hand, there were many races to be run. And while they started pretty much on time, just running that many events took a considerable amount of time. Factor in all the grinding crashes that took time to clean up and things got quite late. The track must also accept part of the blame, as they were quite slow restarting races and there was a lot of unneeded laps taken between each event before things proceeded. The bottom line was that it was nearly one thirty am before they finally stuck a fork in the action.
However, I did find the racing entertaining and it was not a bad show by any means. There was a good crowd on hand and they seemed pretty accepting to the late night. When they got tired and had enough, they simply packed up and either headed home or down to the party which was already going strong long before the final checkered waved. After all, it IS Wisconsin and the beer must flow!
The second half of Duval's doubleheader was rained on on Saturday and for SLS, their first full year of racing is now complete.
SLS ran their first full season this year and overall had a very positive first full season. The crowds were good and I think even better than Duval probably was expecting. He ran a limited schedule of about a dozen races(give or take due to rainouts), and told me that he plans to schedule a ten night schedule for 2017. He feels that an every week program is just a little too much for his staff to handle and more than the fans want to see. His hope is to make every night special with some kind of special promotion and the every week thing starts to wear out come the heat and humidity of July and August.
Car counts for his first year were OK with some classes running stronger in numbers than others. Most of the local racers had either retired or sold off their dirt equipment with the track's status being so uncertain the last few years and Unity is in kind of the transition zone between the dirt tracks of western Wisconsin and the tar tracks of central Wisconsin. However, there is still plenty of interest in dirt track racing in that part of the state and Duval is expecting more local racers to start to get back into the sport if SLS shows stability and proves that they will be running for the long haul.
Duval surprised just about everyone when after weighing the options of the different sanctioning bodies, he chose to become sanctioned by NASCAR. While there aren't many other tracks near or far away using NASCAR sanctioning, he appears to be happy with it as he plans to continue with their sanctioning next year. In reality, he used WISSOTA rules to govern his racing except for the Modified class which used amalgamated rules that allowed WISSOTA, IMCA and USRA cars to all compete together.
Probably the biggest problem Duval ran into during his opening year was in the racing surface itself which was quite unsettled for most of the year. Some bad clay that had to be removed from the track set him back and there were some nights when they tended to over water the track, according to the drivers I talked to. Duval agreed that issue was of major concern to him and as a driver himself, he understands that the track must be in race ready shape for the drivers. A major addition of more clay is in the works for the off season.
This track issue would rear its head again for the Autumn Clash as the racing conditions were among the roughest that I have seen at a track since the opening nights of 2016. The track had a lot of bumps and ruts and the number one-two corner was really soft. This, along with the unfamiliarity of many of the drivers with the track along with the "devil may care" attitude that many drivers exhibit while running some of the late season shows, resulting in a night of many crashes and wrecks and an inordinate number of cars that suffered some major damage.
One of the things about this program that had Duval most excited and I must say had me intrigued to was the mixing of classes from the eastern part of the state with the local cars and western Wisconsin cars running under different rules packages.
The Modifieds were running under their own rules package and this resulted in about half the field running under WISSOTA rules, about half under IMCA rules and a couple of USRA and even UMP rules cars on hand. Some of the IMCA cars kind of cheated the rules by adding spoilers while others chose just to rune like they normally do.
The Modified main saw local racers Jared Loos and Chris Oertel battle early until they got together and Loos was sent to the tail. Kevin Adams then took advantage of this to blow past Oertel on the high side and he then controlled the rest of the event. It was reported to me later that Adams was already testing out his Florida setup, running his "big" motor and no spoiler but I can't confirm that. Matt Gilbertson towed all the way from western Minnesota with his MB and finished a strong second ahead of Ryan Aho, driving Darrell Moe's car that promoter Duval himself drives when he's not busy promoting.
Most of the Super Stocks were running under WISSOTA rules with several of the eastern Wisconsin Grand National cars also racing. The Grand Nationals were to run their in their own class on Saturday but were allowed to run with the Super Stocks on Friday. I was told that the Grand Nationals might have a little more power but didn't handle near as well as the Supers, based on their rules. It turned out that the Supers dominated but they also out numbered the Grand Nationals by two to one along with having track experience.
Jeff Klopstein Jr led eighteen and a half laps until he made one mistake and was passed by ABC track champion, the "Flying Farmer" (how many of them are there anyway?), Nick Oreskovich, who went on for the win.
For Midwest Modifieds, it was again up to everyone to run their own rules. Midwest Modifieds, WISSOTA style, dominated but there were almost ten Sport Mods on hand along with a few B Mods from USRA.
Coming from the fourth row, Chippewa Fall's Michael Truscott was the winner. Truscott, who has a twenty grand to win victory this Fall among his special event wins, used the high side to fly past the competition for the win. Much of the remaining field was most focused on trying to become the first racer to put a hole in Duval's wall as they were creaming the concrete from nearly every angle possible. It was a devastating night on the equipment and one in which the wrecker drivers were hoping that they had filled their fuel tanks, they were making so many runs back and forth to the pits! Less than half the field was able to see the checkered.
What seemed as the most unfair pairing actually turned out to be one of the better features of the night. The IMCA style Stock Cars were making their first appearance at the track and were running a complete show on Friday, to then be replaced by the WISSOTA style Street Stocks on Saturday. While they both look similiar, the Stock Cars have a whole lot more horsepower than the Streets while having to weigh more and running the IMCA tire. Most people(including the Street Stock drivers who opted to give it a go), felt that they were running at a severe disadvantage and wouldn't be competitive.
With an excellent showing of Shawano based Stock Cars, there was a strong field of cars from both quarters for the race and while they didn't win, the Street Stocks showed that while they didn't have the power to pass the Stock Cars, they did have enough speed that they could maintain their positions and make it tough for the Stockers to get by.
Kyle Frederick, one of the better Stock Car drivers in the state, did win the race when he was able to use his power to make an outside pass on a restart. Paul Diefenthaler, who runs a Street Stock in eastern Wisconsin that uses very similar rules to the WISSOTA cars, finished second and Jay Kesan, driving a WISSOTA Street, finished third.
Those four feature races were the only ones completed as a bad wreck in the Pure Stock feature required transporting a driver to the hospital and without another ambulance on the premises, the time that it would have taken before the race could have been restarted was prohibitive and the event was called complete with the Pure Stock feature partly completed. The Hornets split their prize money equally. It was later reported that the Pure Stock driver was released from the hospital with no apparent injuries.
With well over a hundred and fifty cars on hand, there were many races to be run. And while they started pretty much on time, just running that many events took a considerable amount of time. Factor in all the grinding crashes that took time to clean up and things got quite late. The track must also accept part of the blame, as they were quite slow restarting races and there was a lot of unneeded laps taken between each event before things proceeded. The bottom line was that it was nearly one thirty am before they finally stuck a fork in the action.
However, I did find the racing entertaining and it was not a bad show by any means. There was a good crowd on hand and they seemed pretty accepting to the late night. When they got tired and had enough, they simply packed up and either headed home or down to the party which was already going strong long before the final checkered waved. After all, it IS Wisconsin and the beer must flow!
The second half of Duval's doubleheader was rained on on Saturday and for SLS, their first full year of racing is now complete.
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