The Summit Racing Equipment USRA Nationals kicked off its three-night run at the I-35 Speedway near Winston, Missouri, Thursday night with solid car counts and plenty of side-by-side racing action. Unfortunately there was also an abundance of caution flags and even a few red flag periods making for a long night as drivers tried to get a feel for the unique track with long straights and tight turns, considerably different than the Lakeside Speedway where this event has been held the past few years.
The track's local E-Mod division was also on the card for this night only and they did not endear themselves to the crowd as they were the first of five feature races to be contested. Six cautions, one per lap through the first six laps, were needed as drivers in the back continued to over drive and spin disrupting what could have been a pretty good race. After several drivers were eliminated the field was able to run the final six laps under green with Matt Dorsom making a late race pass to take the win.
Twenty-one USRA Hobby Stocks were on hand, most of them from way up north and it would be Nashua, Iowa, diver Matt White who grabbed the lead from the fourth starting position at the drop of the green. Weston Koop would take up the chase until mid-race when Eric Stanton made his way into the second spot. Stanton, who used to make the long tow down from Carlisle, Iowa, to race here every Saturday looked like he had a "home track" advantage as he tried several different lines and on two occasions he was able to pull even with the leader. The second time was as the lead duo took the white flag, but White had the preferred line up top and he was able to ride the momentum to the flag-to-flag victory. Stanton's runner-up finish came after starting eighth, Koop finished third, Scott Spilde was fourth and Steve Larson made it an all Iowa top five in fifth.
Both the B-Mods and the Stock Cars boasted car counts in the forties and drivers had to work just to make their respective A-Mains.
Ryan Gillmore who currently ranks second in the USRA B-Mod National Points was one of those as he won the first B-Main to start thirteenth in twenty-lap feature. A lap one red flag for a multi-car pileup at the back of the field was the only interruption early as Tim Eaton raced out to a comfortable lead while Gillmore found a bite on the bottom to pick his way toward the front. With five laps remaining Ryan was up to third still a full straightaway behind the leader, but that was wiped when Bud Wilson and Gene Claxton tangled in turn one on lap sixteen.
Gillmore would take second away from Jake Richards on the restart and then set his sights on the leader, but Eaton was too strong on this night and he would hold on for the victory. Gillmore, who seems to win every night at both Springfield and Monett had to settle for second tonight with Richards in third. Shadren Turner finished in the fourth position and Ben Moudry came from tenth to fifth.
Three separate cautions after lap one was scored put a serious delay on the twenty-lap Stock Car main event. One of those was for Derek Green who then had to restart at the tail of the twenty-four car field. When we were able to get to some racing Gary Donaldson would lead early before yielding to Chad Clancy on lap three. Donaldson fought back in three-wide fashion to retake the lead on lap four and that great racing was again interrupted on lap seven when two of the best from this area, Brett Heeter and Dean Wray tangled in turn four.
Heeter and Roger Ver Doorn caused a caution on lap eight and after that restart it would be Elijah Zevenbergen storming to the lead at the mid-race point. After giving up the lead Donaldson nearly spun in turn two losing several positions and Zevenbergen then had a big lead until Ver Doorn spun again on lap thirteen. Now racing mid-pack Donaldson would cause the next caution a lap later by going over the top of turn three and a three car pileup in turn one slowed the race one last time with two laps remaining. This one had been decided though as Zevenbergen pulled away on the final restart to take the win ahead of Dillon Anderson, Derek Green from the back of the pack, Dan Mackenthun and Cory Yeigh.
With a talented field of Modifieds set to round out the night I expected the yellow fever to end there, but it did not as the first one flew on lap eight when Joe Horgdahl spun in turn one. An orange cone marking the inside of the track was kicked onto the speedway to cause a yellow on lap fourteen and Darron Fuqua went over the top of turn one with three laps remaining. As the field came back to green in double-wide formation the fifth-place car of Steven Bowers Jr. was turned sideways and nearly everybody behind him piled in to necessitate a red flag to get everybody untangled. Once the field came back to green Rodney Sanders completed his flag-to-flag victory. Southern Oklahoma's C.A. Nix and local favorite Derrick Hicks waged a great battle throughout for second with Nix over Hicks at the finish. Stormy Scott finished fourth and Chad Clancy completed the top five.
With a show that ran even longer than the longest nine-inning game in Major League Baseball post-season history you can bet that USRA President Todd Staley will have plenty to say at tonight's drivers meeting and race fans attending Friday's show will likely see a much smoother program.
A big Thank You goes to Todd and Janet Staley for their hospitality and to USRA Media Pro Jeff Nun as well as RacinDirt.com's Trenton Berry and Stick for allowing us to join them in the booth where the live internet broadcast was being engineered. And race fans, if you are coming to the I-35 Speedway this weekend, or anytime in the future, make sure that you have one of the tenderloins. Spectacular!
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