There is nothing better than the feeling that you get when you pull into a race track for the first time in a new season. After four and a half months the sight of that first car haluer on the highway and the smell in the air as I walk toward the grandstands gets my adrenaline pumping and that feeling was renewed Friday night as I approached the historic Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Illinois. After watching the radar all morning I nearly made the decision to stay home and watch more basketball, but I took the chance and the action on the tiny 1/5-th mile speed bowl made the four hour trip very worthwhile!
The "Shamrock 40" for the UMP Super Late Models was the headliner and with a $1,500 winner's check up for grabs I thought that I might see more than the nineteen car field that assembled, but perhaps the radar, the forecast and those darned gas prices all played a role in the car count. There were plenty of top contenders who were there though and the action during the qualifying races was rough and tumble in the tight confines leaving only a few cars with straight sheet metal. Frankie Martin and Michael Kloos started the forty-lapper on the front row and it was the pole-sitter Martin who jumped to the early lead. With Martin up on the cushion and Kloos working the bottom, the lead changed hands on lap four. The large crowd on hand tonight was particularly interested in the progress of Randy Korte who was returning to action after missing nearly all of 2010 following surgery. Korte had won the first heat in thrilling fashion but when the dice roll for the dash started him at the rear of the six-car event he could only earn a third row start in the main event. "King Kong" was on the charge though and on lap sixteen he moved by Martin for the runner-up spot.
Kloos enjoyed a solid lead at this point and there were also a few lapped cars between he and Korte. While the gap between first and second may have been closing a bit, Korte had to be more focused on the challenge that he was getting from Mike Hammerle. The veteran driver out of St. Charles, Missouri, is never flashy and you will rarely see him up there banging the cushion, but if the low groove is working you can bet that "The Hammer Man" will be in contention and that was the case tonight. Korte and Hammerle made contact going into turn one with ten laps to go, but both drivers maintained control as tenth-starting Brent Kreke moved in to make it a three car battle for second. Two laps later Korte slowed with mechanical issues ending his evening and the caution erased a big lead for Kloos.
Kreke would restart in second and having found a groove through the middle he was all over Kloos when the green flag returned. Kreke was able to put a nose to the outside of the leader on two occasions over the final laps, but Kloos was solid on the bottom as he held on to take the opening night victory. Kreke settled for second with Hammerle in third, Martin faded to fourth and a rim-riding Cory Daughtery who started next to Kreke in row five completed the top five.
The UMP Modified field of fifteen was also lighter than I expected and it was the defending National Champion Mike Harrison who went flag-to-flag to win the twenty-lap main event. It was not a cruise through the park for Harrison though as he first had to squelch the early high-side challenge of Brian Bielong by moving up to that top groove and then later it was Dean Hoffman who tried to drive by him on the bottom. Harrison showed his muscle on the final restart as he ran the final four laps flawlessly on a cushion that was now right up against the wall on both ends and the $750 top prize was his. Hoffman finished second, Brett Korves came from the fourth row to finish third, Tim Hancock started twelfth and finished fourth while Bielong ran the final eight laps with a flat left front tire and faded to fifth.
The Sportsman division was also on the card and it was Mike "Wahoo" Jones who passed John Schrand and lap six taking the win in the fifteen-lap finale. Schrand, Cory Ford, Denny Tribout and C.J. Simpson completed the top five.
Belle-Clair Notes......Announcer Mike Meuer welcomed the crowd to the 63rd season opener for the speedway that is tucked into the south side of the city of Belleville. Proof that a city and a race track can coexist just fine. For Meuer, the "Talker Guy" with the perfect voice, it was the beginning of his 41st year of calling stock car races.....This was my second-ever visit to the facility having stopped here on our "Talladega Trip To Hell" back in 2007. Not far down the road from Belleville the trip turned ugly and included two blown tires on an RV, a disabled fuel pump, a motel in southern Illinois that had decoy cars with no engines parked in front of it, a rented Dodge Caravan with seven men (and of course a cooler), a drunk driver passing us and then rolling his car in the ditch just ahead of us and a Monday rain date for the Cup race. And those were just the highlights! Thank goodness this vist to Belle-Clair went off without incident......The track was perfectly prepared tonight, but I would definitely recommend that you arrive early and sit up high in the covered grandstands on either side of the track if at all possible. Early in the evening during hot laps, while the track is still moist, the cars sling mud into the crowd and even though I was three rows from the top and just to the right of the start-finish line I still found a couple of tater tots in my hair later in the evening. At feature time, even though the track did not seem to be dusty, it was definitely swirling in the air and while the roof kept most of it off of me I noted on the way out that the bottom rows were completely covered with a layer of dirt......C.J. Simpson did double-duty taking fifth in the Sportsman main and he was 11th in the Late Model feature....."The Italian Stallion" Bobby Martintoni drove the #8B Modified tonight that will be wheeled by Brandon Bittle this season. Martintoni was a top-five contender early before being the first to retire to the infield.....I wasn't the only Iowan on hand as I spotted Hawkeye Racing News columnist Larry Bontz headed into the grandstands as I approached the ticket window, but I never did find him inside.....The show started promptly at 7 p.m. and the final checkers waved at 9:46.....The speedway will take next Friday off before starting its regular season on Friday April 1st.
Race number one for 2011 is now in the books and while another trip to the St. Louis area for the UMP Roundup in Pevely next week may be tempting, my next event will likely be just a little closer to home during the first week in April. Check our extensive Specials schedule at PositivelyRacing.com to find an event near you and start your season out in style.
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