Our first trip to US 36 Raceway near Osborn, Missouri, will definitely not be our last as we were treated to a great night of racing Sunday night during the “Hotter Than Hell” event featuring the POWRi Midgets along with the Modifieds and Sport Mods. I have had several people tell me over the years that this high-banked 1/3-mile more often than not offered up three and four wide action and the perfectly prepared track did just that with all three feature races coming right down to the wire.
A stout field of 34 midgets filled the pits including some of the top names in the sport and they did not disappoint. The thirty-five lap finale saw Josh Wise dive to the bottom of turns three and four on the first lap to come from row two to take the lead at the stripe only to have that effort wiped out when Kellen Conover spun and collected Chris Deshon just before the flagstand. On the restart pole-starter J.J. Yeley used the Wise line in three and four to establish himself as the leader. On lap two Bryan Clauson tried to make a move on another competitor going into turn one, but when that driver also chose the same line Clauson had to lock it up and he slid to a stop to bring out the second caution of the event.
With the return of the green Yeley took off like a rocket and looked like he would run away with the event. As Yeley entered traffic though the second-place car of Brad Kuhn appeared to be making up some ground and when Joe Boyles coasted to a stop on lap fourteen Yeley was happy that the traffic was eliminated and Kuhn was happy that the lead was erased. As Kuhn was making up the ground on Yeley he had discovered that the cushion in three and four and the middle groove of one and two was the way to go so when Yeley went back to work on the bottom at both ends it only took two laps before Kuhn slipped by him on the outside to become the new leader. Tracy Hines cleared Jerry Coons Jr. for third and then went to work on Yeley briefly taking the second spot away from J.J. on lap twenty-two. With Kuhn now driving away the battle for second was the one to watch as Yeley, Hines and Coons Jr. diced it out through traffic until lap thirty-one when Hines, driving the Parker #24 tonight, slowed and coasted to a halt with just four laps remaining.
As the field lined up for the restart there were three lapped cars between Kuhn and Yeley, but just like earlier in the event the second-place driver had searched out a new “fast line” around the speedway as Yeley was now getting a great run down the backstretch by banking off of the turn two cushion. Yeley cleared the traffic in the first lap and quickly closed in on the leader Kuhn. With the white flag waving the huge crowd came to their feet as it was now obvious that Yeley had a run on the leader. Yeley caught the cushion just right in turn two, drove to the inside of Kuhn down the back straightaway and then slammed the door in turn three as he claimed the $5,000 victory. As Kuhn climbed from his car on the frontstretch he acknowledged the cheering throng with a bow while Yeley emerged from his midget with both fists in the air and he then climbed to the very top of the frontstretch fence to celebrate the victory with his many fans.
Jerry Coons Jr. joined the talented duo on the podium in third, Bryan Clauson put on quite a drive coming from the back after his early spin to finish in the fourth spot while Brady Bacon rounded out an impressive list of names in the top five. This race alone was more than worth the three and a half hour drive on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and it followed two very entertaining feature races in the Modified divisions that served as support for the evening.
The Sport Mod division needed five heat races and a B-Main to trim the large field down to twenty-four cars for the feature event with front row starters Cody Graham and Bob Penney battling it out for the lead through the early laps. Jeff Albright made the trip up from Lebanon and quickly moved from the outside of row six to the front to take the lead from Graham mid-race. As the leaders started working traffic, on two occasions Graham made the right choice of lines and was able to regain the lead when Albright would have to check up, but on both occasions Albright was able to storm right back to the front a lap later. With a late green-white-checkered restart clearing the track in front of the leaders Graham made one last bid that came up short as Albright picked up the victory. Royce Stanley started fourteenth and finished third, Blake Peeler came from row six to take fourth while Tim Eaton recovered from a first lap incident to round out the top five.
Jeff Albright races under Cody Graham to take the eventual win in the SportMod feature - Barry Johnson photo
The Modified main event had some controversy and a photo finish to set the stage in fine fashion for the midget headliner. Steve Starmer started from the pole and quickly opened a comfortable lead while a thrilling four-car battle for second went on behind him. Dennis Elliott, Jason Estes, Mark Dotson and Jim Moody were working every inch of the racetrack and were changing positions amongst themselves lap after lap until a caution flag slowed the field. On the restart Estes went to the cushion, Dotson drove to the middle and Moody dove to the bottom in turn one. As Moody drifted up the track in turn two his right rear caught the left front of Dotson, which then shot him up into Estes who then jumped the cushion. The race continued for a couple of laps until Estes had a left front tire go down and Dotson slid up the track and into the guardrail in turn two.
Under caution Dotson showed Moody what he thought of the move by driving his front bumper directly into the drivers door and both drivers were sent to the pits where, naturally, a scuffle then ensued. Security personnel did a nice job of not letting the situation escalate, plus with the green flag coming back out it drew the attention of those not directly involved back to the exciting racing action. Steven Glenn had been leading his heat race earlier in the night only to have mechanical issues drop him to the B-Main that he would later dominate. This started him on the inside of row nine and with Dotson, Moody and Estes now sidelined he found himself restarting third behind Starmer and Elliott. Glenn disposed of Elliott in one lap and then went to work on cutting into Starmer’s lead. When the lead pair took the white flag Glenn pulled a clean slider on Starmer by driving into turn one low and then sliding up to shut the door on him in turn two. Starmer would not be denied though as he kicked his right rear off the cushion and drove to the inside of Glenn down the back straightaway and when he entered turn three, he also tried to slide up the track to shut the door on Glenn. Just as Starmer did off turn two, Glenn made the same effort as he had the momentum coming off of turn four. The two came across the start-finish line nearly wheel-to-wheel with Starmer prevailing by less than a foot at the checkers. Doug Keller who had started twelfth would follow the lead duo in for third, Elliott would take the fourth-place money back to Mount Ayr, Iowa, while Joey Lile who started next to Glenn in row nine would round out the top five.
A fantastic night of racing was spiced up even more for me when POWRi series announcer Jim Childers stated after the opening ceremonies that the local announcer had failed to show and that he would do his best to announce the two Modified divisions. Never the one to shy away from a microphone I went to the booth and introduced myself to Jim and told him that I would be happy to handle the support divisions if he would like. I hope that I didn’t butcher too many of the names as I was surprised at how few of the Modified drivers that I actually knew, but with the exciting action in both divisions I had a great time providing the call.
The track runs a “specials only” schedule and you can check it out at http://www.us36raceway.com/. My son Morgan was already plotting how he could convince me to return for the Wednesday’s All Star Sprint Car show at US 36 Raceway before we headed for the car, but he settled for a promise that we would absolutely return for the next midget show here. I think we’ll make it back here even before then.
A stout field of 34 midgets filled the pits including some of the top names in the sport and they did not disappoint. The thirty-five lap finale saw Josh Wise dive to the bottom of turns three and four on the first lap to come from row two to take the lead at the stripe only to have that effort wiped out when Kellen Conover spun and collected Chris Deshon just before the flagstand. On the restart pole-starter J.J. Yeley used the Wise line in three and four to establish himself as the leader. On lap two Bryan Clauson tried to make a move on another competitor going into turn one, but when that driver also chose the same line Clauson had to lock it up and he slid to a stop to bring out the second caution of the event.
With the return of the green Yeley took off like a rocket and looked like he would run away with the event. As Yeley entered traffic though the second-place car of Brad Kuhn appeared to be making up some ground and when Joe Boyles coasted to a stop on lap fourteen Yeley was happy that the traffic was eliminated and Kuhn was happy that the lead was erased. As Kuhn was making up the ground on Yeley he had discovered that the cushion in three and four and the middle groove of one and two was the way to go so when Yeley went back to work on the bottom at both ends it only took two laps before Kuhn slipped by him on the outside to become the new leader. Tracy Hines cleared Jerry Coons Jr. for third and then went to work on Yeley briefly taking the second spot away from J.J. on lap twenty-two. With Kuhn now driving away the battle for second was the one to watch as Yeley, Hines and Coons Jr. diced it out through traffic until lap thirty-one when Hines, driving the Parker #24 tonight, slowed and coasted to a halt with just four laps remaining.
As the field lined up for the restart there were three lapped cars between Kuhn and Yeley, but just like earlier in the event the second-place driver had searched out a new “fast line” around the speedway as Yeley was now getting a great run down the backstretch by banking off of the turn two cushion. Yeley cleared the traffic in the first lap and quickly closed in on the leader Kuhn. With the white flag waving the huge crowd came to their feet as it was now obvious that Yeley had a run on the leader. Yeley caught the cushion just right in turn two, drove to the inside of Kuhn down the back straightaway and then slammed the door in turn three as he claimed the $5,000 victory. As Kuhn climbed from his car on the frontstretch he acknowledged the cheering throng with a bow while Yeley emerged from his midget with both fists in the air and he then climbed to the very top of the frontstretch fence to celebrate the victory with his many fans.
Jerry Coons Jr. joined the talented duo on the podium in third, Bryan Clauson put on quite a drive coming from the back after his early spin to finish in the fourth spot while Brady Bacon rounded out an impressive list of names in the top five. This race alone was more than worth the three and a half hour drive on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and it followed two very entertaining feature races in the Modified divisions that served as support for the evening.
The Sport Mod division needed five heat races and a B-Main to trim the large field down to twenty-four cars for the feature event with front row starters Cody Graham and Bob Penney battling it out for the lead through the early laps. Jeff Albright made the trip up from Lebanon and quickly moved from the outside of row six to the front to take the lead from Graham mid-race. As the leaders started working traffic, on two occasions Graham made the right choice of lines and was able to regain the lead when Albright would have to check up, but on both occasions Albright was able to storm right back to the front a lap later. With a late green-white-checkered restart clearing the track in front of the leaders Graham made one last bid that came up short as Albright picked up the victory. Royce Stanley started fourteenth and finished third, Blake Peeler came from row six to take fourth while Tim Eaton recovered from a first lap incident to round out the top five.
Jeff Albright races under Cody Graham to take the eventual win in the SportMod feature - Barry Johnson photoThe Modified main event had some controversy and a photo finish to set the stage in fine fashion for the midget headliner. Steve Starmer started from the pole and quickly opened a comfortable lead while a thrilling four-car battle for second went on behind him. Dennis Elliott, Jason Estes, Mark Dotson and Jim Moody were working every inch of the racetrack and were changing positions amongst themselves lap after lap until a caution flag slowed the field. On the restart Estes went to the cushion, Dotson drove to the middle and Moody dove to the bottom in turn one. As Moody drifted up the track in turn two his right rear caught the left front of Dotson, which then shot him up into Estes who then jumped the cushion. The race continued for a couple of laps until Estes had a left front tire go down and Dotson slid up the track and into the guardrail in turn two.
Under caution Dotson showed Moody what he thought of the move by driving his front bumper directly into the drivers door and both drivers were sent to the pits where, naturally, a scuffle then ensued. Security personnel did a nice job of not letting the situation escalate, plus with the green flag coming back out it drew the attention of those not directly involved back to the exciting racing action. Steven Glenn had been leading his heat race earlier in the night only to have mechanical issues drop him to the B-Main that he would later dominate. This started him on the inside of row nine and with Dotson, Moody and Estes now sidelined he found himself restarting third behind Starmer and Elliott. Glenn disposed of Elliott in one lap and then went to work on cutting into Starmer’s lead. When the lead pair took the white flag Glenn pulled a clean slider on Starmer by driving into turn one low and then sliding up to shut the door on him in turn two. Starmer would not be denied though as he kicked his right rear off the cushion and drove to the inside of Glenn down the back straightaway and when he entered turn three, he also tried to slide up the track to shut the door on Glenn. Just as Starmer did off turn two, Glenn made the same effort as he had the momentum coming off of turn four. The two came across the start-finish line nearly wheel-to-wheel with Starmer prevailing by less than a foot at the checkers. Doug Keller who had started twelfth would follow the lead duo in for third, Elliott would take the fourth-place money back to Mount Ayr, Iowa, while Joey Lile who started next to Glenn in row nine would round out the top five.
A fantastic night of racing was spiced up even more for me when POWRi series announcer Jim Childers stated after the opening ceremonies that the local announcer had failed to show and that he would do his best to announce the two Modified divisions. Never the one to shy away from a microphone I went to the booth and introduced myself to Jim and told him that I would be happy to handle the support divisions if he would like. I hope that I didn’t butcher too many of the names as I was surprised at how few of the Modified drivers that I actually knew, but with the exciting action in both divisions I had a great time providing the call.
The track runs a “specials only” schedule and you can check it out at http://www.us36raceway.com/. My son Morgan was already plotting how he could convince me to return for the Wednesday’s All Star Sprint Car show at US 36 Raceway before we headed for the car, but he settled for a promise that we would absolutely return for the next midget show here. I think we’ll make it back here even before then.
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