Sheppard Edges Madden at Gondik Law

 Tuesday night, July 13th, the World of Outlaws Late Models made an appearance at the Gondik Law Speedway in Superior Wisconsin as a part of their swing through Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. With these name drivers seldom making an appearance at this part of the world, this race is always a highly anticipated event for race fans from the Twin Ports area of Superior Wisconsin and Duluth Minnesota and area. Along with the Late Models on this night, the WISSOTA sanctioned Modifieds and Hornets would also be racing. 

It was a warm and humid night in the Twin Ports which is generally a pretty rare thing although it has happened more this warm Summer than so for probably a number of years. And in fact, the track dodged a bullet on Tuesday as some big storms developed just South of Superior but it appeared that for once Lake Superior helped them out as it seemed that the relatively cool air near the lake steered the storms away from the city which it can do on occasion. All the speedway saw was one large clap of thunder and about two drops of rain. 

Gondik Law Speedway is a bit tricky to find the entrance into unless you're familiar with the facility and the Outlaw rigs were trolling the neighborhood as they drove back and forth before finally finding the proper entrance gate and eventually into the pit area. 

For those not aware, Gondik Law Speedway is a bit of an unwieldy name for a racetrack but the management team at this fairgrounds facility found a corporate sponsor in attorney Rick Gondik and part of his sponsorship included naming rights to the facility which used to be known at Superior Speedway and before that, Tri State Speedway. The four tenth mile red clay oval features long straightaway and banked sweeping corners and is generally prepared to slick up and be a handling rather than brute horsepower track and that was the way it would be on this night. 

The Outlaws showed up with about nine or ten(depending on who you count as an Outlaw) of their own cars and then depend on local and regional talent to fill out the field. Fortunately for them, the area Late Model drivers, running under the WISSOTA sanction, are generally ready to give it their best and show up to try and run against the open motors. While giving away lots of horsepower to the open cars, the area drivers generally show well as despite running spec engines, these teams are no slouches and have plenty of talented drivers in their midst. In fact, two of the WISSOTA drivers, Steve Laursen and John Kaanta, would make the redraw and Laursen would be lucky enough to draw the pole for the forty lap main event. 

There was considerable talk as one of the Outlaws best, Cade Dillard, was not on hand due to illness and was resting in Menomonie Wisconsin. He apparently became ill while at Mars' shop and was briefly hospitalized and was currently resting, hoping that he would be healthy enough to run the upcoming weekend races. Jimmy Mars taped a yellow #97 on his car so Dillard could receive owner's points for the night. What specifically was bothering Dillard was not revealed by the tight lipped crew of Mars and Outlaw officials and I suppose, it really is none of our business but hopefully he will be back behind the wheel soon. 

Qualifying heats and a B Feature would only leave three cars not making the feature for forty laps. Dennis Erb Jr, hoping to continue his recent success, would take the lead from the outside pole and hold the top spot for well over twenty laps until Brandon Sheppard would start to build up momentum on the high side of the track and gradually cut into the lead. He would make a big sweep off turn four and blast past Erb on the high side for the lead. 

Sheppard would be comfortably out front as Chris Madden moved into second and he would be able to cut into that lead slightly. However, with only two laps to go, a yellow for a slowing car would bunch the field and Madden would make a strong push in the final two laps. He would draw even with Sheppard down the back chute on the final lap but would race Brandon clean on the final corner, staying in his lane and allowing Sheppard room to maneuver on the top side, rather than try and crowd him into the wall or run him out of room. Sheppard would use the high side momentum to squeeze past Madden off turn four and score a narrow victory with Erb Jr hanging on for third. It would have been a shame for Sheppard to lose the race on that late yellow which was a manufactured one that didn't need to be called but as they say in the business, made for great theatre with a near photo finish. 

Laursen and Kaanta would hang with the big motors for quite some time but a couple of late cautions would hurt their efforts as "nitro" James Giossi would be the highest finishing spec engine car in fifth but finishing ahead of some pretty big names such as Gustin, Mars and Weiss. 

Earlier in the evening Weiss had told me that he had a new car in the upper berth of his trailer that he would be testing on Wednesday at the Norman County Speedway in Ada Minnesota as they  were looking for a slick track to work on setups and this track was on the way to Grand Forks.

The Modified feature got off to a rocky start with two yellows before a lap could be completed. After that, however, they ran off nonstop in their twenty lapper and it was local driver and legend Darrell Nelson who would come from the second row, lead lap one and then run off and hide on the field. He spanked the field to a level not often seen as he had a full straightaway on the pack at the finish as he had his MB cooking on this night. Shane Sabraski would eventually work his way into second but would have no chance of catching Nelson unless a yellow appeared and that did not happen. Sketter Estey would finish third. 

The Hornets wrapped up the night as many headed for the gates with Mac Johnston leading this race, which went nonstop, from start to finish and winning by a big margin over Casey Fitzpatrick and Tyler Schramm. 

A big crowd, which paid forty bucks a pop, grandstands or pits, was on hand for the show and they all seemed pleased to have seen what they did which likely means that the Outlaws will be back in town come July of 2022. Thanks to the Outlaw officials and the help at Gondik Law Speedway, a track I get to quite often during the year and only seventy five minutes from my back door. 

Aikey Tops Osborn Memorial Race At Independence

 In what turned out to be one of the most successful promotions of the year to date in the Hawkeye State, Jeff Aikey topped the first annual Denny Osborn Memorial Race on Tuesday night, July 6th at the Independence Motor Speedway. Aikey would take the lead one lap short of the halfway point and would hold the top spot the rest of the sixty lap distance. 

Independence typically holds an open Late Model race during the annual Buchanan County Fair which was just in the setup stages on Tuesday night which unfortunately meant that the "Fair Food" was not yet available. This year however, event promoter Travis Smock and area businessman and former promoter here Todd Summers decided to call it the Denny Osborn Memorial in honor of the local driver who was a star performer here for several decades and passed away in May after battling cancer. Much money was raised from the business community, such that the race paid $7,200 to win when it usually pays three grand and many other positions also got a purse boost. The IMCA sanctioned Modifieds and Stock Cars also got a boost in pay with both paying a grand to win their respective events. 

It was a brutally hot and steamy July night but the grandstand was packed come race time and probably hadn't seen a crowd this large since perhaps in the glory days of Iowa Late Model racing when Osborn was one of the king pins of dirt track racing in the state of Iowa. 

In a nice touch, the Late Model driven by Ben Seemann and the Modified of Troy Cordes both wore special tin for this race as both cars were adorned with the bright orange colors that Osborn made familiar and racing with his #72 on both cars. 

A very large field of thirty eight Late Models signed in to race along with twenty three Stock Cars and twenty eight Modifieds as everyone wanted to be a part of this special show. Particularly interesting were the number of driver changes for this night in the Late Models as many drivers that apparently didn't have legal cars for this race still wanted to be a part of it and made arrangements to have a ride for this show. 

Among the many driver changes were Darin Duffy in the car that Aikey has driven so far this year as Jeff would debut a new Rocket chassis for this show. Jeremiah Hurst would be driving the #40 car for Joel Callahan, Chad Simpson would be driving the #93 for Jay Johnson, Brian Harris would be driving the #99 Curless Motorsports entry, Ryan Gustin would be driving the #87 for Johnny Emerson and with Smock busy being the promoter, Dallon Murty would be taking his first Late Model ride driving Smock's #98 car. One could have made some good coin with a printed program with on this night with all the driver changes. Inde open rules would be used on this night which I believe mirror the SLMR rules while the other two classes would be running IMCA rules. 

Three heats and a feature race using the draw/redraw method would set the field in both the Stock Cars and Modifieds while passing points(eminently fairer) would be used to set the field for the Late Models with four heats and a pair of B Features to set the twenty four starters. Some strong runners such as Darrel DeFrance, Bobby Hansen, Seemann, Nick Marolf and Jill George would all be left off the starting field, not making it with their two chances in either a heat or a B and no provisional starters for a twenty four car field. 

Racing started right at 7 pm and with no more than a single yellow in all the qualifying events, it was not long at all before announcers Ryan Clark and "Big Boy" were ready to introduce the lineups for the main events with Stock Cars being first on the agenda. 

In this race we would be treated as a crowd to probably the best passing performance on the night as Dallon Murty one again left the crowd in wonder with the marvelous job of driving that he did as he almost with scientific precision, picked apart the Stock Car field. It was a joy to watch him as he moved high and low on the track, searching for the holes to make passes and always seemingly one step ahead of the field in figuring just where exactly on the track he needed to be to make passed and hook up in the fast lane. 

He would start in the third row of the race and would maneuver past Tom Schmitt, Cole Mather and Phil Holtz before batting it out with Johnny Spaw for the lead. Murty would go to the cushion against the low riding Spaw and would drive past him on lap ten to take over the lead. 

A couple of yellow flags would bunch up the field between laps ten and twenty and Spaw, not giving up, was able to nose back into the lead for a lap before Murty again resumed with the top spot. Late in the race, Spaw continued to pressure and with the top side of the track seemingly slowing down just a little, Murty found a new line that saw him diamonding off the corners which worked better and allowed him to open up a slight lead which he would hold to the finish. I can't say for sure but I believe that Murty was actually driving his father's car on this night. Spaw, Mather, Holtz and Dusty Vis would complete the top five in a race that saw only four starters not go the distance but they were so evenly matched that not a car was lapped in twenty five laps. Murty reported that his win Tuesday was number twenty five already this season!

The Modified feature presented a great battle, but unfortunately it was for second as Chris Simpson had the field covered easily for twenty five laps to get the win in this race, stopped only twice for minor spins. 

The Mars brothers and A.J. Diemel are trying to expand the MB Customs brand of Modified chassis to this part of Iowa and to whit, they have put one of the state's best drivers behind the wheel of their open wheel brand for special events and on this night Simpson was the class of the field. Of course, it didn't hurt that he redrew the pole but he powered away from the field to the extent that there was little doubt who was the fastest in class on this night. 

Simpson held a comfortable lead for most of the race while a great battle for second saw Mike Burbridge, Timmy Current and Troy Cordes battle for the runner up honors. Cordes and Current took turns trying to dislodge Burbridge from second but Mike proved tough to get past and he held off multiple challenges for that position. Late in the race Current would fade back a bit and the challenge came from Joel Rust who was pounding the cushion and came from the sixth row. 

He too would challenge Burbridge for second but come up short as the Delhi racer had one of his strongest runs that I have seen in quite some time. Cordes and a steady Derrick Stewart would complete the top five. 

The Late Models would wrap up the evening with their sixty lap main event. Since early in the afternoon, the discussion among many in the pits was how well would the race track hold up under the brutal weather conditions and the pounding of the big field of Late Models. Tracks "rubbering up" has been a constant issue for many Late Model events already held this year and I personally think I have seen more "rubbered up" Late Model shows already this year than I have for many years. Whether it is the tires, the weather, the tracks themselves or some other dark force, there have been a lot of one lane, follow the leader types of race tracks this year and unfortunately, despite their best efforts to water and scrape the track, Inde would follow that pattern once again on this night. 

It was less that ten laps into the race before it was apparent that the track had went one lane, with a rubber trail that the racers had to be in to go fast and if they slipped out of that lane, they dropped like rocks. It was necessary to go one lane racing and passing became very tough indeed. 

Before this came to a head, there was a scramble for the lead with Brian Harris leading the opening lap until he was challenged by Sean Johnson. Sean took over the lead on lap four when Harris slipped over the banking on the back chute.

Johnson would lead for eight laps but with his car not being able to hold the bottom lane, he slipped out of the groove and Justin Kay, who had moved up from sixth, took over the top spot. He then built up a comfortable lead until he caught lapped traffic and with the tail end cars not wanting to yield their spots and everyone at nearly the same pace, Kay got hung up there. 

The rest of the front five cars gradually caught up with him with Aikey making the most moves. He started tenth and was the best at moving forward as his very aggressive style of driving traffic gave him success but he was also doing a good share of leaning on other drivers to get by in the corners. He closed on Kay and the battle would begin. However, the sole yellow for a spin with twenty nine laps complete would change the course of the race and alter any strategy that might have been forthcoming. 

The Delaware double file restart would tell the tale of this race as Aikey got a great jump and was able to get up beside Kay and then drop past him down the back chute to take over the lead. Forgive me for playing the "Devil's Advocate" here but that restart looked for all the world to me like a jumped start by the #77 car and one that seemed to be more blatant than a couple of other starts over the course of the night that were called back. However, no call was made and the race continued.

Aikey would eventually catch the back of the pack and he would have his issues too. Twice he tried to pass cars on the outside of turn four, got out of the rubber and almost gave up the lead. On the second one, he had to make a panic move to the bottom, diving down so hard that he forced a closely following Kay to have to steer under the ute tire in that corner, costing him second to Simpson as Kay seemed to be in the wrong place all night. 

Simpson would have nothing for Aikey and a very popular win was achieved by Aikey in front of the home track fans. Aikey has raced at Inde forever and raced against Osborn and from being from the area, he well knows the significance of this win as it had special meaning to him, knowing the Osborn family well. Logan Duffy and Johnson would complete the top five in this race that saw only seven of twenty four not complete the distance. 

Despite a slightly less than scintillating Late Model feature, this was certainly a great event and the huge crowd mostly loved the finish with the home town driver taking the big money. All those responsible for organizing this event and gathering the contributions are to be applauded for their efforts. I happened to be sitting in the next section to the Osborn family reserved section and many of them were wearing racing t-shirts of their era and they alone were worth the price of admission. This was one of the "feel good" events of the year to date and it is always a good thing to honor the legends of our sport that drove it into the modern era. I don't know whether this race is destined to become an annual event or if this would be just a "one of a kind" but either way, it was a great way to spend a Tuesday night with the Fair atmosphere at the dirt track. 

Gansen and Kay Top Strategy Filled Dubuque Features

 What better way to complete a busy Fourth of July holiday than a trip to the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway for their Fourth of July extravaganza. This Sunday night race would be Fast Shaft qualifier event with the Modified feature paying a grand to win and along with that , sponsor contributions had raised the Hobby Stock feature payoff to nearly five hundred dollars to the winner along with boosts to other finishing positions also. In addition, the Late Models and Sport Mods would be racing along with the Limited Late Models and AIRS series so a full night of racing action was promised. 

It was a really steamy night but just what you would expect, I guess, for the Fourth of July holiday. For the longest time it didn't seem like anyone was going to show up to watch the racing but I guess folks were just hanging out where it was cool until the last minute because by the time they dropped the first green flag, there was a very nice crowd on hand. And oh, by the way, there were also fireworks to conclude the program too. 

Eighty four race cars in five classes signed in to race on this night with only the Limited Late Models not fielding a group of cars that was sustainable. All other classes either had two or three heats while the Limited cars barely had enough for one small heat. With the seemingly minor differences in rules between the Limited Late Models and IMCA Late Models( in fact sometimes some of the Limited cars run with the regular Late Models at various times) it doesn't seem logical to be presenting both classes anyway. 

An interesting pattern change has seemed to develop over recent years at this track. Even though the Wisconsin border is barely a few miles from here and the only type of racing in Southwestern Wisconsin is either IMCA or IMCA type, the number of Wisconsin based cars at this track was always very, very small. In the meantime, there always used to be a large number of Illinois cars, particularly from the Freeport area, that always raced here. Now that pattern has done a hundred and eighty degree turn. While the Illinois cars are very scarce at the track, the number of Wisconsin based cars has ballooned. In fact, on this night, with twenty two Badger state cars, just at a quarter of the entire field was drivers that had crossed the Mississippi to race here at the Fairgrounds. While track announcer "Big Boy" proclaimed that it was sometimes hard to get racers to come out for holiday events, it seemed on this night at least that the field of cars was actually larger than their normal fields on a Sunday night would be. 

It was a brutal night to try and get moisture into a racing surface but they were dumping the water on continuously from the time I got to the track and while they might have had a little more dust than normal, and of course the wind was blowing right into the grandstands, the track actually seemed to improve as the evening progressed and I thought they had an excellent track to race of for the feature races with plenty of different grooves and lots of side by side racing that always seems to be prevalent here. 

While I confess to not knowing a lot of the drivers here, I did visit briefly with a couple in the pits before the show and one I talked to was James Curran who told me that he would soon have both a new Late Model and a new Limited Late Model to put on the track as he races in both classes as the opportunities present themselves. 

Spotted in the grandstands watching the show on this night was Hall of Famer Ed Sanger and while I'm told that he often attends the races here, it is still a thrill to see a man who has had so much to do with elevating Late Model racing as a whole on hand to watch the evening's show. In the years when I discovered Late Model racing in the state of Iowa, he was "The Man" and while there were plenty of other outstanding drivers at that time, he was still the one to beat. 

Sunday's show was a draw/redraw program for all classes which is eminently fairer for the racers but does not always do favors for the fans looking for racing with lots of passing. On this night the results were a bit spotty as three of the five feature races were won right off the pole with one driver leading all laps but that statistic might also be just a bit misleading. Let's look closer and seen what transpired on this corn growing night in northeastern Iowa. 

The Sport Mod feature was first and in this race Troy "King Kong" Bauer did kill the field. He started in the second row, had the lead before one lap was completed and would lead the rest of the way without a serious challenge being thrown his way. Gage Neal and Tyler Soppe did their best to keep up with him as he slalomed through lapped traffic but they could never really push his lead. 

The Hobby Stock class has made a very nice improvement at this track. On life support for a period of time when they just couldn't produce any cars, the number of local and area cars has enlarged recently and the extra money on this night likely produced a few more as twenty of them were on hand. 

This race too, was won right off the pole with Daniel Wauters leading from start to finish. However, it was a close race and Wauters was challenged by a pack of about four cars that seemed to be trading positions on nearly every lap. After a mid race yellow, Wauters drove a very conservative race, hugging the low groove and if he hadn't been so fast accelerating off the corners, he likely would have been passed. He indicated that he likely had broken a shock or something along those lines that made him drive a very conservative race. When I first met Daniel a number of  years ago at a race in Maquoketa, he was just getting started in the sport and was as green as the grass in our lawn at home after we got a needed storm on Sunday night. However, he seems to have picked things up nicely, thank you, as his win on this night was reported to be his twentieth of the year already!

The Limited Late Model feature was done quickly with David Webster passing Mitch Current after one lap and then holding off Steve Schueller for the win. Webster, the veteran racer from across the river, seems to have a Late Model for every sanctioning body that he competes from the biggest sanctioning bodies in the country to the local races. 

The Modified and Late Model features were both excellent. In the Modified feature, Bryce Garnhart led for the first fifteen laps but he was under constant attack from both Matt Gansen and Ryan Duhme. They were all over him in each corner as Garnhart worked the low line on the track. Gansen was relentless as he hammered the cushion and lap after lap he started to edge up on Garnhart. 

Finally, Bryce, feeling that his line was slowing down, jumped up to the cushion himself and that proved to be his downfall as Gansen then moved inside him and made the winning pass with just five laps to go. Gansen then moved back up to the cushion and Garnhart went back to the bottom to try and slide under Matt and retake the lead. 

However, Gansen had the high groove down pat and he drove on for the win. Garnhart pushed so hard on the last lap, trying to regain the lead, that he slipped out of his groove and Duhme was able to pass him for second. 

Kay started on the outside pole and while he would lead all twenty five laps, it got sticky for him near the end of the race. He made the low side work and had built up a good sized lead but Ron Klein and Luke Merfeld were working the top side and just like in the previous race, the top side started to pick up speed and both closed on the leader. But Kay wasn't born yesterday and he was monitoring the situation even as he tore around the track. When he made the decision that he needed to change lanes, he jumped up to the cushion himself and it did indeed help him as he picked up speed and gained a little distance. 

While Klein and Merfeld continued to push, Kay was in control and would drive on for the win with those two chasing him across the line. 

All racing was done just about 10 pm and normally I would have stayed for the fireworks show as I like fireworks, but it was a daunting nearly five hour drive facing me and with the opportunity to beat most of the spectators out of the parking lot, I reluctantly turned tail for home and instead watched all the back yard fireworks as I drove through Dubuque and other environs close by. 

Thanks to everyone at Dubuque for a fine wrap up to the holiday weekend and a special hello to starter Doug Haack who tells me that he'll take hot July weather anytime over the bone chilling cold of Winter.     

Brown Edges Thompson in Spencer Thriller

 Round number two of the Midwest Madness Tour presented by Western Iowa Raceing Results was held on Tuesday night, June 29th at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa. After a disappointing rainout on Monday night at Park Jefferson where they happened to be in just the wrong spot to get dumped on by the scattered down pours and turn their facility into a muddy mess, everyone returned on Tuesday to Spencer refreshed and ready to get after it. 

And when I say everyone, I mean that the pits was swelled to the breaking point as one hundred and sixty five cars in five classes signed in to race in what turned out to be a racing extravaganza of talent and competition. The highest car count was in the Modified class with forty entrants but the other classes racing, the Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks, were all very close to that number. Even the Sport Compacts had enough cars to legitimately hold two heat races. All five classes were under IMCA sanction but on this night it was draw/redraw for all five divisions. 

This has been an incredibly busy time for many of the teams, most particularly those that race in the Mod, Stock Car and Sport Mod classes. Many raced a couple of weeks ago in eastern Wisconsin, then they just got done with a long weekend full of high dollar shows in central Minnesota with lots of them rushing straight here to western Iowa, there will be many holiday specials coming up in the next week and then many are also getting ready to head to North Dakota for a full week's worth of high dollar racing out there. This might be the busiest year yet for those racers seeking the big dollars and we are right in the middle of that time right now. Race cars and teams are being taxed to the limit right now and while this whole thing is supposed to be fun, right now it is becoming a job for lots of them. 

When the pits opened this afternoon, the race cars just started streaming in and the line never got shorter up until almost race time as the folks selling armbands and signing in the drivers were taxed to the limit to get everything ready on time. One great advantage that this track holds is that they have almost unlimited parking space for the big rigs out in the parking lots that are used for the Fair. Many like pitting out there on the cement but the only draw back is that the entrance to the pits is just single file wide so everyone must pay attention so that they don't miss their race. 

Clay County does one of the best jobs of anyone at running off a speedy program. Cars are staged on the concrete just outside the track and as one race is just finishing up, the next one is rolling through the gate and on to the track where they quickly get their starting spots and the race goes green on the following lap; no messing around here. And to make that point even stronger, Mike Van Genderen is on hand this week to function as Race Director and we all know his track record when it comes to moving along a race meet. and the thirty two race program we saw on Tuesday night was completed in under four hours. The one spin rule is insisted on here and it works so great that any track facing a big show that doesn't use the one spin rule deserves any criticism they receive for running an overly long program. There were only two races all night that had more than two yellow flags in them and they wre both feature events. Perhaps the only part of their entire race program that could use a little work is their hot lap sessions where they chose to hot lap all cars that desire to do so and this part of the evening does take quite some time to the point that they never do get started on time with tonight's first green flag at 7:37 pm, quite a bit behind the advertised time and this has been consistent for every show I have attended here. They do need to rethink this part of the evening and perhaps only hot lap first timers to the track, perhaps only some of the classes or as some tracks do, don't hot lap anyone and just start at 7 pm. All would work and it probably wouldn't hurt to cut down the number of pre race laps for the track, although it held up great tonight and provided multi groove racing from start to finish. 

The racing was great tonight with top notch battles for the lead, some epic slide jobs thrown in and also some amazing charges up through the field, despite the fact that none of the feature races were bogged down with yellow flags. It is impossible on a night like this to highlight everything so I'm just going to give a summary of each main event. 

The Modified feature was perhaps the best main of the night as forty cars were whittled down to twenty four for their thirty lap main event. Early on it was Chris Abelson that took the lead from the pole and he led for a number of green flag laps. However, Cody Thompson got up on the cushion and really started coming on fast and he caught the leader and blew past him on the outside. 

Abelson tried to fight back and they made an epic turn four corner where both were flat out, not lifting as they went side by side. Thompson made it and Abelson spun out, triggering the yellow flag. Abelson's spin was met by loud cheers as apparently he is not a fan favorite here. Thompson wasn't out of the woods yet though, as Kyle Brown had been moving up from seventh and he drove under Thompson to take over the lead. However, Cody got back up on the wheel and squeezed past Brown with two laps to go, a move that was so tight the sparks flew off Thompson's car as he zinged the concrete wall with his spoiler. 

Brown again fought back and they raced into the final corner for the win. Brown was able to squeeze past on the low side and Thompson's cross over down the main chute came up short as a great Modified feature was concluded. Jeremey Mills would finish third. 

The Stock Car feature wasn't much less lacking in excitement than the Mods were. This race saw Damon Richards and David Smith battle it out for the early lead before Smith prevailed. However, Smith soon had to deal with Derek Green as the Granada driver found a line on the cushion that was working well for him and after starting seventh, he and Smith went at it lap after lap. 

Green's race had started badly with a first corner jingle along with several other cars but he got his spot back and soon worked his way up to challenge Smith. They went back and forth before Green was able to edge into the lead. However, there was a swarm of about six cars just a few lengths behind that were swapping spots and threatening to challenge for the lead. Green also had more excitement when as the leader, the car of McCain Jennings slowed off turn two and Green ran up the back of him and spun him into the infield, triggering the second and last yellow of the race. 

The last half of the race ran off non stop and Green found a line where he hammered the cushion in turn three while hugging the low groove on the other end of the track and that allowed him to pull away for a fairly comfortable edge which he maintained to the finish. Justin Luinenberg made a nice run to second and Richards, who had slumped back, also made a late run forward to get third. 

The Sport Mod feature got off to a wild start as they were legitimately running five wide down the back chute and not  the invented five wide that some announcers try to foist on the crowd, but the real thing. This kind of crazy behavior also triggered three yellow flags in the first five laps after which they settled down a bit. 

Matt Looft used these early yellows to gain a bunch of spots and after they had continuous racing starting in lap six, he had worked his way up to fifth after starting eighteenth. After that, he had a magnificently handling car that was able to run right on the bottom of the track, maintain traction while others either spun their tires or slipped up the banking and he drove under car after car to take over the lead. Once in front, he was gone as he drove away from the field with no yellows to bunch the action. Cory Hoogland made his own strong drive up through the pack from seventh to finish runner up and Justin Svoboda, who was among the leaders throughout the race and did lead some laps, would finish third. 

The Hobby Stock feature would bring us the most dominating performance of the night as Josh Sidles would start on the outside pole and drive away from the field. This race would go green to checkered nonstop and Sidles was able to pull to nearly a full straightaway over the field and with the pack running strong, he didn't even have to lap a single car. Cory Probst would make another of his patented charges through the field, coming from ninth to finish second and he might have had something for Sidles but never got the yellow he needed. Luke Ramsey came from tenth to finish third. 

After a first lap yellow, the Sport Compacts ran green to checkered also and it was another run away win for Drake Bohlmeyer. He started on the pole and led from start to finish and never was challenged. Jaedon Erickson would finish second with Zach Bohlmeyer third. 

This is a strange division with half the cars sporting nice paint schemes and lettering and half the cars having taped on numbers, flapping in the breeze and unreadable from the stands. I was told once that Sport Compacts purposefully keep their cars looking ratty so that others don't consider claiming them and I don't know whether it's true or not, but the ratty part sure is. 

The track, as mentioned earlier, held up very well and they must have done a great job getting it ready. I suppose too, that we must give Mother Nature some credit as Spencer received some good rains on Monday night which always help a race track and in this case, made for a muddy East end of the pit area that was largely unused. 

It was a top notch show from start to finish and if you like nonstop racing with nary a break, this is the place to be. Thanks to everyone at Clay County for their efforts on this night. Their formula of running around a half dozen shows a year, all of them being week nights, seems to be working great for them and might perhaps be a formula that other struggling tracks might want to consider. 

Shirley Dominates Summer Nationals at LaSalle Speedway

 Continuing my week of bouncing around to see various series events and visiting various states, on Wednesday night, June 23rd I dropped into the LaSalle Speedway in LaSalle Illinois as the UMP Summer Nationals "Hell Tour" made a stop at Tony Izzo's quarter mile oval. 

This was the start of the second week of the "Hell Tour" and after having three days off following a Sunday night rainout in Indiana, everyone was fresh and ready to start a week of short track racing on Illinois bullrings. 

Along with the Late Models, the Summit Racing Equipment Modified series would also be racing on this night along with the UMP Street Stocks who would be running double feature races to make up for a feature race rained out at this track early in the Spring. 

A very strong field of Late Models would sign in to race on this night with thirty five of them on hand and several surprise entrants that makes this a fun series just to see who all is on the entry list each night. Cade Dillard and Garrett Alberson would be among the surprises on this night as both are veteran drivers that specialize running other series' races with both dropping in to LaSalle to get both track time and to test the tires that are being used now with this race tire shortage getting to be a series thing across all forms of motorsport and who would have ever guessed that this would even be an issue. It always used to be a question of if a team had the money to buy another tire and now it is whether you can find someone that even has tires to sell. Strange indeed. 

Both the support classes needed some support on this night as both produced rather sparse fields of cars with only sixteen Modifieds and eleven Street Stocks but I guess for those hard core Late Model fans it was probably good news as their parts of the program would be shorter in length if all you really wanted to see race was the Late Models. 

Rain hit the LaSalle area early on Wednesday morning and truly we were probably very lucky to even have a race to attend. But they got the track worked into shape and it was a smooth and fast track on this night. It built up a huge berm during qualifying that made it a track for the bravest of brave but repeated packing efforts over the course of the night produced a good track with good racing in the preliminaries but later we'll talk about the fact that they just might have "over engineered" themselves for the main event. 

The usual Summer Nationals format was used that is a tried and true UMP tradition and thankfully we didn't have to jump start our hearts from any shocking experience as all four pole sitters won their heats as expected. The large exception was Ashton Winger who led for sure the most unpredictable of nights of anyone on the grounds. He had a night to remember as she did a violent barrel roll in qualifying when he jumped the big berm and went summersaulting in turn one. It took him a bit to get out of his car but he was OK. 

Now most would have called it a night but Winger was here to race and he rolled out his back up car and started ninth in his heat and through some determined driving and finding the breaks when he needed them, he got all the way to third which allowed him to start tenth in the feature. 

And he put on a show in that race too, being the first to get off the bottom lane of the track and race the cushion and that allowed him to gain several spots in a race where there wasn't much passing. However, the good news story ended badly when he got too high on turn four on the final lap of the feature and hammered the wall, losing three positions as he limped to the finish line and worse yet, again badly damaging his back up car. His crew will be very busy on Thursday trying to cobble together something to race on that night. 

It seemed that by feature time for the Late Models(which they pleased the fans when they ran the Late Model main first), the track had been widened out nicely and appeared in prime shape for the forty lapper. However, here is where they might have "over engineered" themselves as instead of just leaving well enough alone or perhaps just rolling in the cushion a bit, they instead watered the whole surface and ripped the track, something that just didn't seem to be needed. So what they ended up with was a blinding fast track that was just too fast right around the bottom and that is where everyone ran, cutting the passing as everyone tore around the short way. It made for a quick feature that ran off nonstop but other than the leaders having to fight the back markers to get by when they didn't want to move off the bottom either, there was not  a lot of side by side racing, a shame since it appeared that they were primed for just that. 

Brian Shirley led from green to checkered and was not ever really challenged with his biggest "pucker" moments being when he tried to get around a few of the slower cars which forced him to go to the second lane which was just a bit sketchy compared to the low groove. However, he managed to pull off the passes and drove home for the five grand win over a good effort by Alberson who finished a strong second with Ryan Unzicker closing on him at the end. 

Point leader Bobby Pierce had a trying night as he blew a tire during his heat and was forced to use a provisional as he used the Last Chance race as a hot lap session. Starting nineteenth on the grid and with everyone racing fast and not a lot of room up top to pass, he settled for ninth which was quite an accomplishment to move up that many positions. Only four cars didn't finish the race and there were twelve on the lead lap at the end. 

While the Modified feature paid fifteen hundred bucks to win, apparently it doesn't pay back so well as only five of the top ten in current points in the Summit series were on hand as I guess there aren't many that race the series for points other than Nick Hoffman. Two heats would set their field for their twenty five lap main event and it was another walk in the park for Hoffman who has now won all six races in the series. He pulled away from Mike McKinney right away and there was no question who would win this race as there weren't enough cars in the main for the back markers to cause much of a problem and that would likely be the only thing that could mess up his run. 

The top five stayed in order throughout the race which had only one yellow flag with McKinney settling for second over A-Dog Weisser with Ray Bollinger making the only pass in the top five when he got past Tommy Sheppard Jr. 

The Street Stocks ran two feature races. The first was for those cars that returned from the Spring race that saw their main event get postponed. There were only five of them which left not much in the way of drama as Zach Zuberbier led from start to finish and wasn't challenged in that nonstop race. 

The second feature was for all in attendance on Wednesday and for most of the race it appeared that we were going to see the third straight pole sitter win the main. But then things got wild and crazy in the last few laps and those hearty fans that stuck things out to the end saw some drama. 

Megan Irwin had led from the start but she was receiving stiff challenges from Lance Evans who kept trying to poke his nose to the inside of her in the corners. However, he overdid it and clipped her car which gave him a flat tire and ended his chances of winning. 

This allowed Zuberbier to move up to second and challenge and with just a couple of laps to go, following a fifth yellow when Evans gave himself a flat tire, Irwin again jumped into the lead, only to suddenly lose power on the back chute as an ominous puff of smoke came from the back of her car. 

The field, such as it was, was tightly packed behind her and cars scrambled in all directions to avoid her with a couple launching themselves over each others hoods. However, they all flew into the infield and the starter kept the green flag flying and Zuberbier managed to find the clean route to the front and he held on the final couple of laps to take the win as track officials had to separate a couple of  the drivers not totally enamored with each others driving styles. 

Zuberbier was trailed by Terry Reed and Joe Hillman at the finish. 

All racing was complete before 10:30 pm and for those fans that were on hand to see the Late Models and Modifieds, the running order allowed them to leave early and the parking lot was pretty clear by the time the last checkered flew. 

LaSalle is only running a series of special events again this year with no weekly racing and I believe that this race is the last on their current schedule for 2021, pending any additions. The track is still in fine shape and racing nicely but the lack of use is starting to show up in various places as the scoreboard hasn't worked for quite some time and the pa system was not the best tonight as all around me couldn't hear Ruben at all. 

However, they ran off a crisp show once the qualifying was out of the way and the big crowd on hand shows that there is much appetite still in central Illinois for Late Model racing.  Thanks to Tyson Graves, Tony Izzo Jr and the Dirt Car Summer Nationals staff for their help as they presented a solid night of Late Model racing. 

Looft Tops Sport Mod Nationals at Hancock County Speedway

 Tuesday night, June 22nd, I made my first visit of 2021 to the Hancock County Speedway in Britt Iowa. The special event on this Tuesday night was the annual Sport Mod Nationals, this year at Brill sponsored by Seed MaxYield, the same firm, by the way, the employs long time track announcer Chad Meyer. 

The Sport Mods would be going for thirty laps with the winner taking home twenty five hundred dollars, very good money indeed for a Sport Mod while the other classes that regularly race at Britt, all sanctioned by IMCA, the Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts would all be running a program too for their regular weekly payoff. 

It was kind of a strange day weather wise with it being cool early on but then a definite increase in humidity that made it quite uncomfortable as the afternoon progressed. Some ominous clouds drifted by with most staying to the South and while we had a short "sun" shower that didn't even dampen the grounds, it produced a spectacular rainbow that arched to the East of Britt. That must be good luck, right?

The Fair Board has recently retaken the promoters reins here at Hancock County after the previous promoter opted out in the middle of the season with the track being shut down for a couple of weeks with car counts very low and enthusiasm at a low point. After taking some time to reorganize, the Fairboard restarted races last Friday with the report that somewhere in the neighborhood in twenty to twenty five more cars signed in to race and that there seems to be much more in the way of positive vibes for the race meet. 

They would hope to continue that trend on Tuesday night and from what I could see, they did just that in a big way. Meyer made a point of thanking the crowd repeatedly and seemed to indicate that the crowd was much bigger than any seen here for quite some time. It was a very late arriving crowd but I suppose on a week night that would likely be the case but when they all got to the track, there was a goodly number of them. 

Eighty eight cars signed in to race in the five IMCA classes that were on hand with almost half that count being in the Sport Mods. Pay the money and the cars will be on hand seems to be a simple explanation as forty three Sport Mods from as far away as eastern Wisconsin, the Red River Valley of Minnesota and the Arizona drivers making Iowa their Summer home were on hand. Car counts in the other classes were still kind of on the small side but at least they had enough cars for double heat races. 

Qualifying for the Sport Mods, however, was no easy task. Five heat races would take four cars apiece and one gigantic B Feature of twenty cars(Jeff Broeg would approve!) would qualify the last four with no provisional entries assigned. 

Remember that weather that we talked about earlier? Well, all the storms that were drenching central Iowa seemed to be backing up into our area. Lightning flashed in the southern skies and while the program had been moving along at a brisk clip even before the weather was discovered to be worsening, they really turned things up a notch at this point in order to get the show completed. While the folks around me in grandstands eyed their phones and seemed to wish that the rains would come our way(apparently this is also an area badly needing rain), the rest of us hoped for smooth main events so we could get the whole show in  and not have to sprint to our vehicles in a down pour. 

The driver cooperated also. As the crews raced to get the Sport Mods ready for their big show, some of the other feature races were ran off in the interim and they were about as smooth and quick of mains as possible with two running green to checkered and the other having only just one yellow. 

They weren't necessarily particularly compelling races but they did get done in short order. The Sport Compact main saw Jaedon Erickson start on the pole and he ran away for an easy victory. There was, however, a good three wide battle for second that finally saw Lucas Parsons take the position on the last lap with Cade Lehr trailing. 

The Hobby Stocks followed with another green to checkered run. Josh Sidles started on the pole(all classes were draw/redraw on this night) and he ran away for an easy win with no one challenging him. There was a good battle for second though and Chris Krug held off a pack of challengers to take second ahead of Tony Smidt, Carter Koop and Kolby Goepel. 

The Stock Car field was also a small one but their race got much more interesting. Troy Swearingen seemed dominant in his heat race and then redrew the pole which seemed to be a "no brainer" as to the winner. However, he had a terrible first lap and fell back to third as he was passed by both McCain Jennings and Andrew Borchardt. 

However, Swearingen then dug in and righted the ship, working his way back past the two cars that had previously passed him and by the halfway point of the feature, he was back in charge. He then pulled away to make things easier on himself the last half of the race with those two trailing him. 

Earlier, Kevin Opheim provided the entertainment as he went flying off turn three in his heat race and then came screaming back onto the track like a Scud missile taking air, flew down the back chute where he spun again with such speed he almost tipped over and then decided that the pits looked like a much safer place to be. His feature race was much more tame but didn't provide even a top five finish for the Mason City driver. 

It was then time for the Sport Mod thirty lapper as lightning flickered to the South and the Sport Mods provided any close racing action that the previous three features didn't provide. The statistics will show that Matt Looft would lead all thirty laps and that sounds pretty tame but I guarantee that it was no where as easy as that as he was repeatedly challenges by several different drivers for the lead but each time it looked like he was going to be passed, he dug down and held everyone off. 

Early on there was quite a scramble going on behind him and when the first yellow waved with seven laps complete, he was being chased by Jake Sachau, Vern Jackson, Shane Paris and Alec Fett. 

Jackson would spin one lap later and this would slow things down again but on the restart Sachau and Jared Boumeester, who had made up a considerable amount of ground, both battled for the lead. It looked like Boumeester was going to make the pass but as would play out several other times, every time it looked like Looft would get passed, somehow he managed to fight off the competition. 

At the halfway point Looft continued to hold off Sachau, Boumeester and Fett with young Jayden Schmidt suddenly becoming part of the lead group. The teenager from eastern Wisconsin has been tearing things up in the Green Bay area and I see why as he was very fast and worked his way into the top five after starting twelfth. Also starting to move up at this point was Colby Fett who had started in the sixth row and this race was one that saw much movement from deep in the pack toward the front, despite the fact that there were few yellows and there was just a lot of hard racing and passing going on. Sachau would later slip over the banking while trying for the lead and all back to the second five in the running order.

One late yellow set up a four lap dash to the finish and once again Looft was up to the task as he fought off the late charges of Colby Fett to take the win and cash the big check. Schmidt continued to charge as he  finished third and impressed everyone on hand. Paris, who had started up front and then faded as far back as ninth, made his own late charge and finished fourth ahead of Boumeester as the quality and depth of this field was outstanding.  

With trophy presentations saved for the end, the Modifieds were rushed onto the track to try and complete the program. Nick Meyer started on the outside pole and would go on to lead all twenty laps in this race. He built up a big lead but then Arizona invader Chaz Baca would start to move up after starting in the third row. Baca was working the low side of the track and closed on the leader and it looked like the top spot might change hands. 

However, while Baca got close, he could never just get past and after Meyer withstood his best attempt, Nick started to again pull away and would drive on for the win. Jeremy Mills would finish third. 

Wow, it was quite the whirlwind of activity once the race officials put everything in high gear with the weather approaching and it was almost impossible to take a breath, the races were coming that hot and heavy. The whole show was completed in about two and a half hours with their top notch efforts beating the rain. When I left, it still hadn't rained and I don't know if it ever did but certainly it's better to be safe than sorry and for that I give all the credit in the world to the track officials for their great job and to the drivers for running very clean feature races when their help was needed. 

I'm sure the crowd appreciated their efforts and I want to wish them good luck the rest of the year in their efforts to revive the program here in the Hobo capital of the world. The Night of 1000 * and 10000* races are still on the schedule for August so check out their website for more details. Thanks again to everyone at the Hancock Co. Speedway.

Gravel On The Rubber for Huset's Win

 Monday night, June 21st, I did something out of the ordinary for myself. Not being too much of a follower of Sprint Car racing other than to kind of keep an eye on who is doing the winning, an opportunity came up that I just couldn't pass up. 

A rare Monday night race was available and with nothing else on my schedule for that night, and also by coincidence finding myself in South Dakota after weather drove me out there on Sunday, I was in the neighborhood as Huset's Speedway welcomed the World of Outlaws Sprint cars for part one of the "Showdown" between themselves and Jackson Speedway across the border in Minnesota. Also, I had not been to Huset's in many years, certainly not since all the renovations were made that made the place almost unrecognizable so this was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. 

It was a rare cool June day in the heartland as a cold front had blown threw the previous day and the temperatures were struggling to reach even seventy degrees and a sweatshirt would be needed before the night was over. 

I can't begin to even detail all the changes that have taken place at Huset's since its major renovation but while it still sits on the sidehill and the parking lot in down in the hole, just about everything else looks different. One major improvement was the moving of the pits to the outside of the track, thus improving the visibility of the fans without a lot of vehicles etc. cluttering up the infield. Being just a quarter mile oval, the size of the track also makes the action even more fierce. 

Huge money is on the line for the Sprint Cars this week courtesy of Todd Quiring who owns both Huset's and Jackson and since he recovered Huset's from the dormant state it was languishing in, he is almost a folk hero in these parts.  The "Shootout" will offer $30,000 to the winner of Tuesday night's fifty lap feature at Huset's and there is a one hundred grand bonus in play for a sweep of Huset's and Jackson and these are the kind of numbers that even get the attention of the WoO drivers. With that much money on the line this week and little travel required by the teams, this event was a big draw and there were forty three Sprint Cars signed in to race on this night. And for a Monday night race, there was also a gigantic crowd on hand too, many of which have taken Tuesday off based on the amount of "barley pop" that they were swigging down. 

This would be a one class program with only the Sprint Cars in action so a few breaks were necessary to give crews a chance to prep their cars between races and do some necessary track work too. Still, because they ran time trials as the Outlaws always do, the show didn't get started until around 8:20 pm (see previous blogs for my comments about time trials and how they totally destroy planned starting times), but they got the whole show done in about two hours time. 

Cars are blinding fast here on this banked black dirt oval with Kerry Madsen being the quickest at 10.706 seconds. It was the usual format for the Outlaws with heats, a C Feature that was necessary on Monday, a Last Chance race and dash that would set the first four rows for the feature and the main event, on this night being thirty five laps on this smaller oval. 

It was a block buster front row for the main event with David Gravel on the pole and Donny Schatz next to him. They would battle on the opening lap before Schatz would take the lead away. Gravel was closely following and within seven laps the leaders were battling lapped traffic which is a huge thing here. Getting through the traffic determines who gets the win or not as normally there is so much traffic that getting hung up kills momentum. 

On this night, it was Gravel that made the right moves. Schatz came up on a slower car quickly and got pinned to the low side of the track and Gravel tore past him for the lead. Shortly after, the only yellow flags of the race took place when Aaron Reutzel exploded a tire and then two cars tangled on the restart. Other than that, it was smooth sailing and the thirty five laps just flew by. 

Gravel had a decent lead until he caught the back of the pack and then he couldn't get past Brock Zearfoss as the track started to rubber up badly. There was one groove near the high side and to get out of that lane would be a disaster. With Gravel being slowed, Schatz was able to catch him and make one attempt to drive under him but it didn't work, he lost some ground and the race ended before he could attempt another pass while Gravel stayed in the rubber.  The margin of victory was .297 seconds.   Kerry Madsen, driving Tony Stewart's car, finished a strong third with Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson following. Larson didn't have much to show the crowd on this night as a strong field and track conditions kept him from standing out. It probably didn't hurt the feelings of management when the winning car had Huset's Speedway plastered all over it. 

To be honest, the track conditions proved to be a major disappointment for me. Let's face it, a rubbered up race track is no good, no matter what class of cars are racing on it and you know it was bad when the leader can't pass the last place car and was forced to just stay in line and try to protect his position. The cars were smoking their right rear tires coming off the corners and the leaders all commented afterward that they were all just about out of tires. This happened in thirty five laps. What will happen when they try to run fifty on Tuesday?

Even though they dumped water on the track all afternoon and took three breaks to till the track and add water after the heats, C and Last Chance race, they still ended up with a rubbered up mess. Since they run Sprint Cars here on a weekly basis, I would have thought they would have had a better handle on track prep than they showed on this night but perhaps it was just one of those nights. 

I guess folks that attend the WoO races come to expect what happened because they all seemed totally enthralled with the action but what I saw was eight races that were all won from the front row, only one change of the lead in the feature and lots of raw power and speed but not a lot of racing. This is not a condemnation of the Sprint Cars as much as it is of this form of racing that uses time trials to set the running order and then starts everything straight up and when the cars are so closely matched, it makes it hard to pass, particularly when the track doesn't allow much.  

Speaking of rock stars, the Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, was on hand to welcome everyone to the races and wave the opening green flag. Clearly she is highly thought of by the home state race fans in attendance as they treated her like a rock star and she acted the same way in return. My feelings on her, based on what her comments had been during the Pandemic made me think more of rockhead than rock star but that is a topic for another conversation. On this night, she had the spectators eating out of her hand.

Other stars on hand included Doug Clark, long the flagman at the Knoxville Raceway. While he doesn't flag here at Huset's, he still works at the track as he is the coordinator for the infield staging and action and his son Justin is the starter as waving flags and dodging debris seems to run in the family. 

I would imagine that another huge crowd will be on hand for Tuesday night's show and this track now seats in the thousands. Quite amazing to me was that even with the big crowd, the traffic egress from the track was smooth and it took no time at all to be on the way afterward. 

Thanks to the folks at the World of Outlaws for letting me in to witness this race which is more than just a race but an "event" and special thanks to "Crazy Martin" for snagging for me one of the best seats in the house while I was roaming the pits.