The POWRi Midget series returned to the US 36 Raceway near Osborn, Missouri, Sunday for a night of action on the high-banked 3/8th-mile oval. When we attended this event last season it was one of our favorite shows of 2009 as all three divisions, the Midgets, the Modifieds and the Sport Mods all saw some great racing and the show was topped off by a last lap pass by J.J. Yeley to win the main event. This year, the Midgets put on another good night of racing, but the two Modified divisions came down with yellow fever that made for a late night.
Twenty-nine Midgets filled the upper pit area as four heats and a B-Main whittled the field down to twenty-two cars. Actually, make that twenty-three as former champion Brad Kuhn used a provisional to start the thirty-lap feature at the rear after struggling all night with mechanical issues. The first attempt at a start saw pole-sitter Andy Shouse and current point leader Brad Loyet make contact in turn one sending Loyet up the track and almost into the fence. Both cars stayed under power and in motion, but the caution waved anyway and both drivers were placed back into their original starting positions. On the next start Nick Knepper shot to the lead down the backstretch with Loyet, Bryan Clauson and Zach Daum in hot pursuit. These four drivers separated themselves from the rest of the field running in close formation around the cushion at both ends. As they entered lapped traffic things got real interesting with the leaders choosing different lines with plenty of slidejobs to go around, and I was impressed with how the backmarkers handled the situation as nobody ran into anybody! On lap eight as the four top contenders and three lapped cars raced their way through turn four in about five different lanes, Clauson used the bottom groove to drive from third to first down the front straightaway.
Even with the new leader, that wild battle at the front continued until lap fifteen when the caution waved for Don Droud Jr. who had spun in turn one. With clear track ahead of them on the restart, the lead quartet again drove away from the field and things were just about to get crazy again with lapped traffic when on lap twenty-three the red flag suddenly appeared for Mario Clouser who had flipped into the catch fence in turn two. Clouser crawled out from his car that was tangled in the fence and walked away while track crews went to work on making repairs to the barrier between the track and the pit area. After the long red neither Nick Knepper, who had been running fourth, or Tim Siner were able to re-fire and both drivers retired to the pits. As the field came to the green for the restart the lapped car of Will Pierce went spinning to the infield, apparently after contact from behind by Daum who was then moved back two positions in the running order from third to fifth for the next restart.
With no traffic to contend with over the last seven laps Clauson rode the preferred groove around the top unchallenged to the $3,000 victory with Loyet not too far behind in second. Matt Sherrell benefited from the penalty to Daum to take third while Daum passed Andrew Felker in the final two laps to finish fourth. Kuhn’s crew got the bugs out of his car just in time for the feature as he made a couple of challenges to Felker on the final lap for fifth, but he will have to be happy with a sixth-place finish on what had to be a frustrating night for the former National Midget Driver of the Year. Another driver that we felt would be a top contender on the night, Chad Boat, had his evening come to an end when his motor blew during the first heat race.
Twenty-five Sport Mods and forty Modifieds were on hand to lend support on the evening. The three Sport Mod heats struggled on a track that was still a little slick after being reworked and watered after hot laps while the Modified heats went pretty well except for a hard rollover down the front stretch by Michael Dotson in the final qualifier. Twenty-one cars started the Modified B-Main though and, after running about five green flag laps without incident, you could say that the wheels fell off as drivers mainly in the back of the pack kept spinning and or colliding causing caution after caution. Finally after twenty-five minutes and two attempts at a green-white-checkered finish, the event was mercifully brought to a conclusion to the delight of much of the large crowd. Only the fans of the drivers running ninth on back who would not earn a transfer could have wanted this race to see another green flag.
The Midgets had been running third in the order through the qualifying events and we were thrilled when they announced that their feature would run first. And, when the checkered flag fell on that main event at 10:25 p.m. we headed for the car and our three and a half hour drive home. Checking the results here on Monday I see that Mark Dotson took the win in the Modified feature ahead of Matt Dotson, Jason Bodenhammer, Dennis Elliott and Shad Badder. Badder was the big mover in the race coming from sixteenth to finish fifth. USMTS regular Johnny Scott out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, came from tenth to finish second in his heat but then wound up with a 22nd-place finish in the feature. Cody Graham picked up the win in the Sport Mods followed by Tim Eaton, Jacob Ebert, Blake Peeler and Chris Wright.
A big thanks to track owners Mike and Ruth Franks for the hospitality shown to both Morgan and I this evening, keep an eye on the US 36 Raceway website to see when you can catch a special event at this fine facility.
If you are a Sprint Car or Midget fan make sure that you check out our newest blogger, soon to be added to Positively Racing, for Open Wheel News and Notes.
Next up for us is a trip to Farley on Tuesday for the Deery Brothers Summer Series event and then on Thursday it will be night number one of the Southern Iowa Sprint Speedweeks kicking off with the 360 Nationals at Knoxville. Hope to see you along the way!
No comments:
Post a Comment