Okay, so I am now officially tired of traveling. With trips for both business and pleasure over the past two weeks I have spent four times as many nights on the road than I have at home and it is starting to wear on me. One more trip this week and then hopefully the only traveling that I will be doing through the Holidays will be some road trips to the late season races that remain on the schedule.
This past weekend saw my wife and I take a quick weekend trip to Dallas to visit our two sons and before that I was able to make it up to the opening night of The Darkside Fall Bash at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton Thursday night. The same crew of three freinds that went with me to the Knoxville Late Model Nationals joined me again on Thursday as they wanted to see what quarter-mile racing was all about and Tipton is a great place to take some newbies for that experience. Just like our trip to Knoxville, the weather forecast for the evening was not favorable, but when the rains from Wednesday night and Thursday morning stayed south of Tipton we knew that the show had a fighting chance. The local weather stations were predicting more rain to arrive sometime after ten o'clock and since the Darkside had stated that the "Late Model feature will start no later then (sic) 9:00" in their pre-race promotional releases we were on our way.
A large field of cars was expected across the five divisions and they delivered with a pit area that was packed full including twenty-five Late Models racing for $1,000-to-win and a whopping fifty Sport Mods who were not only racing for the $300 winner's check, but also a guaranteed start in Saturday night's big show. There were also more than 25 cars each in the Four Cylinders and the Outlaw Super Bombers, plus just shy of ten in the Two Driver class and once they were all checked in hot laps got underway around 6:20.
It was great to have Jerry Mackey on the mic along with the Darkside's "Big Boy" and they kept us informed of who was driving what, and where they were from, since several of these cars were new to me even though we are this deep into 2016. The heat races rolled off in fine fashion even while lightning was frequent due west of the track, but the radar showed that this activity would move to the north of us. I was a bit surprised that the Late Models were the fifth in the order given the weather that was still approaching from the southwest and the stated goal of starting the feature before nine o'clock, but I figured that officials had a plan in place especially since there would be B-Mains required in three of the divisions.
It was 8:40 when the first of three B-Mains for the Sport Mods rolled onto the speedway and I figured that the Late Models would follow these especially with the lightning now getting closer in the southwest sky. Obviously the rain was going to arrive earlier than predicted and we were keeping a close eye on it with the radar. Two Super Bomber B-Mains were next on the track and then the first of two B-Mains for the Four Cylinders came out with four of the five cars looking to transfer. It was now after nine o'clock and when Big Boy told the Two Man cars to go to staging I became a bit agitated.
I'm not proud of it, and I wish that I had just kept things to myself but I yelled out a couple of times asking why the Late Models were not in staging. A fan behind me sarcastically said "why don't you write about it in your blog" and I am guessing that it was the gentleman who goes by 1147 BigBore on the iowastockcars forum as the next day he said that I was acting like a two year old. It was actually the perfect analogy as when I had kids that age, if you told them that you were going to give them something, and then didn't, they would definitely let you know.
The Late Models were called to staging to follow the Two Man feature and after doing a four-wide parade lap the green flag waved around 9:20 with Andy Eckrich racing out to the early advantage. A five-car scramble on the front stretch brought out the caution on lap five and as the field was being realigned the rain drops started to fall. One of the new fans in our group has had two knee replacements recently so the last thing that we wanted him to do was to have to climb down the metal bleachers and then run to the car when the storm cut loose so we were on our way to the parking lot as the race went back to green. The rain became torrential as we drove past the golf course on the way out of town, but apparently they were able to get to lap 22 before it hit the track and the race was scored complete with Eckrich taking the win.
We saw a lot of different race cars and there was definitely plenty of "quarter-mile" action to keep the conversation going on the 75 mile trip home and you can bet that these guys will want to return to Tipton whenever the next opportunity comes along. From Dallas I checked in to see how the rest of the weekend went and the Darkside Fall Bash, that debuted last year in Maquoketa, is quickly becoming an October "must see" event that has likely now found a home in Tipton. Next year though, I hope that they leave out the promise to have any particular event on the track at a certain time. It will help me to act my age.
In other events around the area last weekend Chris Ableson won his 35th Modified feature of the season during I-80 Speedway's Cornhusker Classic. Ableson has been fantastic for the past three plus years now and is walking away with his third straight All Iowa Points title leading fellow Sioux City area driver Ricky Stephan by 100 points. That means that "Racer Ricky" would have to win twenty features in order to equal Abelson's current point total.
Only one non track regular was able to find victory lane during the two night show at Oskaloosa and that was Ron Kibbe from Danville. The 2016 Four Cylinder track champion at 34 Raceway, Kibbe inherited Saturday's win when Adam Gates was disqualified for ported heads. Cayden Carter was phenomenal sweeping both nights in the Modifieds and the Stock Cars to take four feature wins on the weekend. Curtis Van Der Wal won both nights in the Sport Mods while Dustin Griffiths and Mike Hughes split the wins in the Hobby Stocks. Trent Orwig won Friday's Sport Compact main event. Mike Van Genderen's run of Fall specials continues this week at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and it will be interesting to see if Carter can continue his hot streak.
One of the new names on the Late Model scene is Indiana's Hudson O'Neal, the teenage son of Don O'Neal. Hudson has been impressive in his first starts at Eldora this Fall after winning ten Crate Late Model features in 2016 and this past weekend at his home track, the Brownstown Speedway, it was no surprise that he would win the Super Late Model main event. But, the real surprise came when he drove a non-wing Sprint Car to a third-place finish after starting 11th on the field. The kid's a driver and look for him to start branching out to regional and national events soon.
Cedar Rapids native Griffin McGrath finished second in the Dick Trickle 99 during the Octoberfest racing weekend at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. The 2015 Fest champion Dan Frederickson was the winner in the event that drew more than 60 Super Late Models on the pavement. Frederickson came up one spot shy from repeating his win in the ARCA Midwest Tour finale on Sunday as Ty Majeski took the win. That capped off a great "Fest" weekend for the Cambridge, Wisconsin, driver as he won the weekly Late Model feature on Thursday as well as the Big 8 Late Model feature on Saturday. Signed as a Roush Fenway Development driver back in May watch for Majeski to start climbing the ranks of NASCAR in 2017. McGrath posted a solid seventh place finish on Sunday.
The Scott brothers, Johnny and Stormy crashed the IMCA party during the Fall Nationals at the RPM Speedway in Hays, Kansas, as they went one-two in the Modified headliner. Former Super Nationals champion Jeff Taylor from Arkansas was third, David Murray was the best home state driver in fourth while one of the best from Oklahoma, Cole Traugott was fifth. Jason Rogers was the Stock Car winner with Iowa's Mike Nichols in second.
One of the tracks that I visited for the first time ever this year is the Montpelier Motor Speedway in Indiana and I noticed that their recent "Late Season Shootout" drew a whopping 79 UMP Modifieds. Michigan drivers Chad Bauer and David Mielke finished first and second with Bobby Stremme in third. The track has one more race on the schedule for 2016 with the Monster Mash on October 22nd.
Tulsa, Oklahoma's Chad Davis won his sixteenth Modified feature of the season Saturday night when he captured the Mark Robinson Memorial at the Brill Motor Speedway. Davis has been virtually unbeatable at his weekly Friday night home track, the Creek County Speedway, and he also won an NCRA sanctioned show recently at the Salina Highbanks Speedway.
I don't have to tell you that the racing season is winding down and that you might have to do some traveling to get to a show this weekend. Luckily I can stay close to home with at least one trip down to Donnellson for the Fall Extravaganza, perhaps I will see you there!
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