With the temperature dipping into the 30's by feature time, with no wind if you were well prepared it was still a pretty nice night to watch some late season dirt track racing at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, Friday night. This was the opening night of the 2016 Memphis Fall Nationals and tonight's finale will run under warmer conditions at the track that is one of the widest and raciest in the Midwest.
With a mix of rules that combines the IMCA, USRA and UMP sanctions, thirty Modifieds were on hand with some of the best in the Midwest in the field and their 25-lap feature wrapped up the evening. With the draw/redraw format rookie driver and Mount Pleasant, Iowa, native Rob Jennings had the thrill of drawing the pole position with Kyle Brown starting next to him and Zack VanderBeek and Cayden Carter in the row behind him and as the green flag waved Jennings was quickly swallowed up as Brown and VanderBeek raced side-by-side for the lead. With Zack racing low and Brown on the cushion, Kyle would have the edge at the flagstand for the first two laps before the caution waved when Milo Veloz and Dugan Thye tangled in turn three.
The action was short-lived on the restart when Donovan Lodge, Larry McConnell and Dakota Hayden got together in turn one and once back to action Brown would establish himself as the leader. The man on the move though was Michael Long who had started tenth and moved to fourth in the first two laps, and on the restart he would split the gap between VanderBeek and Carter to move to second and within the next two laps he would pull even with Brown to race him for the lead. Just as he had done with VanderBeek earlier, Brown was able to use the cushion to fight off Long for a few laps until Michael pulled off the slide job in turn two to take the lead. Brown would return the favor in turns three and four only to have Long kick off the cushion and drive back under Brown to cross the stripe as the new leader on lap eight.
With Brown and Long swapping slidejobs Cayden Carter closed in fast to make it a three-car battle, but he would drop out of the race suddenly on lap thirteen. From there the runner-up in the 2016 UMP Modified National Championship chase would drive away to take the win over Brown and VanderBeek. Andrew Schroeder made an impressive drive from twelfth to fourth at the checkers while fifth row starter Kevin Kile was fifth.
The Sport Mods had the largest car count of the night with 34 and following four heats and two B-Mains it was a stout group of 24 drivers that would go twenty laps for $1,000-to-win. John Oliver Jr. was slated to start third on the field, but he would pull to the infield before the parade lap allowing Brayton Carter to slide up a row and it would be Carter who would lead the field back to the stripe for lap number one. Apparent contact from Curtis Van Der Wal would send pole-sitter Brandon Dale for a spin as the field then raced through turn two and both Dale and Van Der Wal would be sent to the back for the restart, although Curtis would decide to head to the pits before the green flag waved again.
Even though he had started ninth, Jim Gillenwater was there to take the lead away from Carter on the restart and his preferred bottom line was looking stout as the veteran driver from Keokuk began to pull away. A caution for Jami Ritter's spin on lap six brought the field back together for a restart and this would put Brandon Lennox in a position to challenge Gillenwater. Lennox had started one row ahead of the leader and he was using the high line around the 3/8th-mile making for an interesting battle and on lap twelve the high line would prevail as Lennox drove around Gillenwater for the lead. The caution would wave one last time when Kansas City area driver Mike Tanner would spin in turn one on lap seventeen and following the restart Gillenwater would keep the heat on the leader, but he could not get past Lennox who would score the victory. Last Saturday's winner at Donnellson, Logan Anderson would come from tenth to finish third, Brayton Carter would hold down fourth and Tim Plummer would take fifth after starting eighth on the grid.
A solid roster of twenty Stock Cars were on hand and their twenty-lap main event would be the first of the five headliners with Todd Reitzler and Nathan Wood bring the field to green. The action was intense at the front of the field with drivers racing four-wide on a few occasions as Reiztler would lead laps one and two before yielding to Mike Hughes. Hughes had started sixth, but found his way to the bottom to take the lead with Jeff Mueller applying the pressure trying to find an opening to get underneath Hughes. Cayden Carter had moved from eighth to third, also primarily using the bottom, but as the laps wound down he decided to go to the top and with Hughes and Mueller focused on trying to stay as low as they could, Carter would let it all hang out on the cushion and he would sail by them for the lead on lap fifteen.
After taking the lead Carter returned to the low line to shut the door on Mueller who did slip by Hughes as Carter was challenging and who is notoriously strong on the bottom. A "catfish" as they would like to say. Unable to mount a charge on the new leader that would be how they would finish with Carter taking the win over Mueller and Hughes. Jason Cook started tenth and was right there at the checkers for fourth followed by Johnny Spaw and John Oliver Jr. Oliver had suffered mechanical issues in his heat race and had started from the back of the 20-car field.
The Sport Compacts usually run clean and green here at Memphis, but when the soon to be lapped car of Eric Misner spun in turn three on lap six it sent the lead pack scrambling. The leader, Brandon Reu was able to drive under the disabled car and when Barry Taft took evasive action to the outside it was too late for the third-place driver Darin Smith to react and he plowed into the side of Misner. Brandon Lambert then spun to avoid contact only to have Alyssa Steele hammer him at high speed and the red flag waved in order to give the wrecker crews space to work to clear the area. Thankfully all drivers involved were uninjured. Once back to green Reu would continue to lead Taft all the way to the checkers with Kimberly Abbott nipping Jake Detrick by inches for third. Casey Lambert, who had started last in the thirteen car field completed the top five.
The Hobby Stocks were short on numbers with eleven, but definitely not short on talent with former All Iowa Points champion Dustin Griffiths leading the way on lap one. Marengo, Iowa's Nathan Ballard would take that lead away on lap two and while Ballard tried to pull away Griffiths had his hands full with Danny Thrasher who was challenging for second. The caution waved for debris with five laps remaining and on the restart Thrasher and Griffiths made contact on the front stretch causing a tire to blow on Thrasher's ride ending his night. The tussle also caused Griffiths to drop off the pace and when Mike Hughes moved to second he would close in on the leader, but could not mount a challenge as Nathan Ballard took the win. Mike Kincaid finished in third, Clint Nelson was fourth, Griffiths faded to fifth and Calvin Dhondt was the final car still in action at the checkers in sixth.
Hot laps for tonight, Saturday, are scheduled for 6 p.m. and not only will the action keep the fans warm, the weather should help as well as the Late Model division will join ticket. Make your way to Memphis!
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