All the factors were in place on Sunday afternoon for one last racing adventure for the 2010 season. The weather forecast for west central Missouri was for dry weather, a little windy but dry. The Butler Motor Speedway had an interesting show lined up featuring Late Models, Modifieds, B-Modifieds and couple of more support classes. And perhaps most importantly, the show was scheduled for a 3 p.m. start time meaning that I could leave at a reasonable time and likely get back home by midnight or a little after given the five-hour one-way trip. So I called my colleague Kevin Trittien (TapFan’s Tours) to see if he wanted to join me and the trip was on!!
If you are like me, when you have not yet attended a track, you build a picture of it in your mind based upon things that you have heard about it, read about it, seen in pictures from the internet or even from the glimpse that you can get of it when you drive by. Sometimes the picture that you build in your mind is pretty close to reality, while other times you are surprised by just how far off you were. For instance, when I went to Mason City for the first time I was surprised by how big of a track it was and by how black the dirt was. And when I went to Decorah for the first time I had no idea about the O-shaped surface and just how cool it was to sit in that old covered grandstand with the hills of northeast Iowa surrounding you. (yes, I’m getting sappy in my older years). Butler Motor Speedway or BMS as it is known sits just off the east side of the four lanes of Highway 71 and if you didn’t have one of Allen Brown’s Speedway Directories I don’t think you’d have a chance of figuring out just how to get there once you left the highway. You can’t see much from 71 and I have slowed down and tried to get as good as a look as I could the five or six times that I have driven by it the past few years. From those glances, and from the other methods of building a mental picture that I mentioned above, I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and found a nice and wide, gradually banked track that was larger than I had imagined.
The track prep crew had done a nice job of getting enough water into the surface to not only ward off the mid-day sun, but to stand up to a stiff wind out of the east that was blowing straight into the faces of us race fans. For a “day race” on a dirt track, we saw some good action during the heats and the first couple of features before ol’ BMS rubbered up and locked down for the Modified and Late Model main events. That wind was chilly, but with a little extra water around the edges during intermission, it was more a coating of residual rubber that I had to scrub off my face and out of my ears when I finally returned home rather than dirt.
The Factory Stocks were the first feature to hit the track and it was Don Dannar who showed that the high-line was usable as he drove past Paul Snyder mid-race for the lead and then went on to victory. Brian Ziegler also moved past Snyder to finish second while “The Wellsville Wonder” Snyder took third. Twenty-three B-Mods took to the track next and, as anticipated, there were a number of cautions to deal with. Bobby Maggard used the outside of row one starting spot to take the early lead from pole-sitter J.C. Morton with Jay Lamons running in third. It seemed like we were getting in one lap at a time with the cautions, but for the restarts with the double-file realignments I noted something interesting. It was announced that the second-place driver was given a choice of starting on that first double row on the inside or the outside, but for some reason Morton and Lamons kept choosing the inside. Makes sense, huh? A daytime racetrack, the bottom line has to be the better choice, right? Wrong. When Morton was running second under green, he’d restart on the inside and Lamons would ride the high groove off of four to take second for the next scored lap. The caution would come out again, Lamons would start on the inside and Morton would regain the second spot. This seemed to go back and forth at least four times leaving Kevin and I to wonder if they truly were “choosing” to restart on the bottom. This little sidebar ended though on lap six when the caution waved for a car that had spun in turn two, but well after the caution waved there apparently was contact between our two contenders for the runner-up spot and Morton went spinning down the frontstretch. After some heated discussion with track officials Morton ended up in the pits while the announcer said that Lamons would be headed that way as well only to have him then restart the race from the rear.
While all of this lap-by-lap action and additional drama was playing out, the man to watch was Mike Striegel. The driver from Hermitage had an impressive run in his heat race come to an end when he popped a right front tire, so he had started this event from outside of row eleven. And now, for this lap six restart, he would now be the driver on the inside of that first double row. Maggard did his best to hold him off, but with four laps remaining Bobby drifted a bit off of turn two and that was all that Striegel needed to get past him and go on to claim an impressive victory, whether it was day or night! Maggard continued to fade and eventually pulled off the track leaving Andrew Smith to finish second, Eric Tinderholt was third, Andy Beauchamp took fourth and Mark Evinger ran in fifth. Striegel wasn’t the only one who made up ground as Smith started tenth, Tinderholt came from thirteenth and Evinger started in the 19th position.
The Street Stock feature was next although three of the nine cars involved also ran in the Factory Stock division. All eight however were left wondering how in the heck they were supposed to keep up with Sundance Keeper as he cruised to an easy victory.
Twenty-five cars made the call for the Modified feature event and it took four tries and a single-file starting grid before one lap would be completed. Once under green you could tell that the track had become lightning fast, but incredibly one-grooved and it was pole-sitter Chad Lyle’s race to win or lose. The veteran driver out of Lone Jack who has made an impressive comeback from health issues earlier in the season is too good to “lose” a race like this and he cruised the entire distance out front for the $1,500 victory. Shad Badder started third and finished second, Terry Schultz started third and finished third, Aaron Marrant moved from sixth to fourth and Jody Tillman finished where he started in fifth.
A short field of eleven Late Models signed in, but by feature time only eight remained and there was no stopping Matt Johnson as he went flag-to-flag for the win. Larry Jones was the runner-up, David Turner took third, Chuck Comer was fourth and Jerry Morgan took fifth.
With the track locking down the action in the Modified and Late Model features was limited, but it was still an entertaining day at a new track for us and we were glad that we made the trip. Race fans in western Missouri, eastern Kansas should pay attention to the Racin’ Boys website over the winter as the new ownership at BMS prepares for what should be a solid 2011 campaign.
Kevin and I also enjoyed a few minutes talking with Trenton Berry. The announcer for the MLRA Late Model series, Berry has launched a new website RacinDirt.com that will feature video and audio highlights from events around the Midwest and much more.
The trip to Butler was a nice way to wrap up our 2010 racing season. Keep checking in to Positively Racing and the Back Stretch during the off season as I will offer up a summary soon of the 66 events that I attended this year, and I will try to keep you up to date on any news that I can pick up here and there. Plus, I am working on closing the gap between 2000 and 2005 when I did not compile the All Iowa Points and I should have the 2000 season completed soon. Do you remember what division that Jason Rauen was racing in then? How did Curt Hansen and Ed Sanger do in the twilight of their careers? Did all those wins in a row at Dubuque net Gary Webb his eighth All Iowa Points championship? Hey, what else have you got to do during the winter? Check back here often!
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