With building heat and humidity plus a lightning fast racing surface, it was a hard night on man and machine as the West Liberty Raceway and Coors Light presented its annual "Tornado Tuesday" featuring the Midwest Late Model Racing Association (MLRA) Late Models racing for a $10,000 top prize. IMCA sanctioned Late Models served as the support class with $1,000 going to the winner and despite the posted purse, the car counts in both divisions were smaller than expected.
Twenty-four MLRA Late Models signed in and from the first heat race it was pretty obvious who the man to beat would be. Chris Simpson had raced his way to a $10,000 win the night before in Farley and he stormed to the front in tonight's opening qualifier after starting fifth and drove away from last night's runner-up Ryan Gustin. Nick Marolf looked strong as well running away with heat number two and young Spencer Diercks made it an Iowa sweep as he walked away with a win in heat race number three.
The passing points system firmly planted Simpson on the pole for the 50-lap main event and he moved out to a quick lead at the drop of Doug Haack's green flag. Marolf was able to keep pace though, and what a fast pace it was as the two leaders were clicking off laps in the low 19 second range around the big half-mile. Lapped traffic came into play quickly on lap six and while exiting turn two on lap seven Simpson had to stand on the binders to keep from getting into Jay Johnson. This allowed Marolf to close the gap and when the leader went to the middle groove to split a pair of lapped cars coming out of turn four Marolf saw his chance. With a big run coming on the outside Marolf aimed for the cushion entering turn one, but when the lapped car of Matt Furman went for the same spot Marolf went over the cushion and slammed hard into the turn one wall.
The disappointed driver climbed out from the car uninjured and, after inspecting the damage, he turned away the wrecker and drove the car to the pit area.
On the restart series regular Brantlee Gotschall smacked the turn three wall and then limped to a stop just after the eighth lap was scored and on the ensuing restart defending MLRA champion Terry Phillips moved to second and tried to maintain the pace being set by Simpson. A caution for J.C. Wyman closed the gap again on lap sixteen, but again Simpson pulled away and then a pair of cautions for first Jason Utter and then Jesse Stovall on lap twenty-four again gave Phillips a chance to make a move, but there was no touching the leader.
Only twelve cars remained in action at mid-race and the attrition continued as two drivers who were in the top five for most of the event, Diercks and Gustin both pulled to the infield on lap 35 and 36 respectively. The top rookie on the series, Tad Pospisil slowed with a flat tire with four laps remaining and after a quick change he was back for the restart, but the story was the same as Chris Simpson pulled way for his second big paycheck in a row. Phillips was second, Jesse Stovall battled his way back up to third, Denny Eckrich found the bottom groove to his liking in the second half of the race and came from 17th to finish fourth just ahead of his older brother and MLRA regular Dave Eckrich. Tyler Bruening finished in sixth, Pospisil was seventh, Brent Larson passed Joel Callahan for eighth on the final lap and those were the nine cars that made it to the checkers.
Kevin Kile and Chad Holladay had both looked dominant in winning the IMCA Late Model heat races, but front row starters Kyle Hinrichs and Cayden Carter pulled away in the early stages of the 35-lap main event. As Carter kept Hinrichs in his sights, the race to watch was further back as Nick Marolf, Holladay and Jonathan Brauns raced three-wide at times for position. Kile was running third, but losing ground to the leaders when he pulled to the infield on lap 22 and just when it looked like Carter was closing in to challenge for the lead he jumped the cushion in turn one with ten laps to go and gave up a lot of ground.
As the laps ticked down in the non-stop event Carter had again closed to within five car-lengths, but there would be no catching Hinrichs on this night as he secured the win. Marolf, who was the only driver doing double-duty, finished in third while Holladay nursed home a sick sounding motor in fourth. Daulton Maassen was two laps down to the field in fifth. Brauns was sixth, Kile seventh, Ron Boyse eighth , Rob Moss ninth and Andy Eckrich was the first to retire from the event in tenth.
Tornado Tuesday Notes......Mike Fryer had a nice run going in third during the third MLRA heat race before a tire went flat......The black 33 of Nick Marolf was on the track a lot tonight as not only did Nick do double duty, Matt Furman also made a brief appearance in the second MLRA heat driving Marolf's IMCA car for a couple of laps before pulling in. Furman's tow vehicle was soon after spotted arriving late and he would then start his own car #51 in the feature......Maassen's car #8D got a work out as not only did he go 33 laps in the IMCA main, but J.C. Wyman also drove it in the MLRA feature after mechanical issues on his own car. I figured that it would be a start and park scenario, but Wyman actually passed a couple of cars with the spec engine and stayed on the track until his caution on lap sixteen.....Maassen who is from the southwest Iowa town of Avoca made a three-day swing out of it by racing at the weekly show in Dubuque on Sunday before going to Farley and West Liberty.......The final checkers waved at 9:05 and the MLRA now heads north to the Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota for a Wednesday show before a Friday and Saturday doubleheader at the Junction Motor Speedway in Nebraska.
While the $10,000 winner's purse kept "national" drivers Mason Zeigler, Tyler Erb and Billy Moyer in the area after the USA Nationals for the Farley show, they all headed for home on Tuesday leaving West Liberty with a driver roster that would have likely been the same for a $3,000-to-win MLRA sanctioned show. Those 24 did provide some thrills, especially at the speeds that the smooth and tacky surface allowed on this night, so for this fan there were no regrets about where I spent my Tuesday night, but it will be interesting to see if promoter Keith Simmons makes any changes to this doubleheader in 2017. Perhaps peeling some money off of the top and bulking up the pay for positions 12 through 24 might increase the number of regional drivers since the National guys apparently don't want to stick around after three nights at Cedar Lake. Also, if you make 12th pay, for example, $25 more than 13th and 13th pays $25 more than 14th, and so on, it might keep a few more cars on the track for the entire distance rather than having the non-MLRA regulars drop out when they decide that 12th on back is the best that they can do on the night. And, in regard to the IMCA Late Models, perhaps they are not the division to run as support to this show. Bruening, Callahan, Jay Johnson and Justin Kay are all IMCA competitors who chose to race in the "open" class instead tonight which helps one, but hurts the other. Yes, the combination is a Late Model fan's dream, but that $1,000-to-win purse would have likely pulled in twice as many Modifieds or Sport Mods.
Either way, it is great to see the Open Late Models fly around one of my all-time favorite tracks and I thank Simmons Promotions for making that happen! I look forward to working with Keith, Kevin, Doug and the entire SPI crew next Tuesday night when the Deery Brothers Summer Series takes on the highbanks at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on August 16th.
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I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Bryan Clauson on Monday morning. He was an incredible talent with a humble personality and, while I never had the opportunity to get to know him personally, I did get a chance each August to see how he interacted with his friends and family. Bryan's fiance Lauren has sat in the same section as us at the Knoxville Nationals for many years now and of course after she started dating Bryan he would join her in the stands on the nights that he wasn't racing either there, or somewhere else on the road with USAC. He was a star who was just "one of the gang" there in the stands and it was obvious that he was someone that people just wanted to be around. Clauson won the ASCS National Series event at Badlands Motor Speedway on Sunday July 31st and he was the USAC Midget feature winner in Solomon, Kansas last Wednesday night. My last time to see him in competition was Thursday night in Knoxville at the 360 Nationals and he was leading the Belleville Midget Nationals at the time of his crash on Saturday night. Bryan will be missed greatly by all and the tribute video on the USAC Racing Facebook page still brings tears to my eyes as I watch it today.
The Sprint Car that he drove last Thursday paced the field at Monday's Front Row Challenge in Oskaloosa and you can bank on the fact that everybody will keep his memory close to their hearts as the Five Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals starts its four night run tonight.
Rest in Peace BC
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