Whenever the weather cooperates and allows the Turkey Bowl to be run on its traditional weekend before Thanksgiving date, we make a point to trek to the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri to close out our racing calendar. It seems like we catch a good weekend about every other year and, after the event had to be pushed back three times last year and was finally completed on the first Sunday of March in 2023, this weekend saw three days of seasonably cool weather with no rain.
Promoter Jerry Hoffman does a great job of hyping this event and he has managed the steady growth of it very well in this fan's opinion. This year the traditional practice night of Thursday also included the qualifying heat races for the Pure Stocks, the Legend cars and the B division on the Midwest Modifieds. That would then put the B-Mains and feature races for two of those three classes on Friday night, while the Legends will complete their Turkey Bowl on Saturday. Also moved to Friday was the qualifying heat races for the A-Modifieds and the B-Mods and that is what pulled our group in for a second night and it was obvious that we were not the only ones as the grandstands filled in steadily as race time approached at 7 p.m.
Perhaps the slow and steady growth of the crowd came from the fact that they first had to search for a usable parking space. When we arrived at the track at 5:30 the parking lot was nearly full and I immediately became concerned about finding a good seat. It didn't even cross my mind that with over two hundred cars in the pits, nearly all of these cars in the parking lot belonged to those who were already in the pit area preparing for the second night of racing. As that grandstand crowd then showed up, apparently several people made a poor choice of space and the entrance road to the pits became totally blocked. This would later result in about a fifteen minute delay as the announcers first asked the crowd to please move their cars, and then later started ridiculing those who were still parked on the entrance road. That, along with a threat of either being towed, or picked up with a front loader and moved, the road was finally cleared and we were able to go back to racing. This was very important in that if there would have been a need to get an ambulance out, or a fire truck in, that road had to be clear.
There were two other delays in the Friday program as well. These two nights would bring me to 62 events on the season and thankfully, I rarely see a fire that doesn't go out on its own. The third race of the night was the third B-Main for the Pure Stocks and when Chris Diamond was unable to avoid a car that had spun in front of him exiting turn four, the impact ignited and big fire in the front end of his car. Thankfully he was able hustle out of the car and as one of the infield workers tried to use a small extinguisher, both Diamond and the other officials were waving for the fire crew that was parked in the pits off the back stretch.
Perhaps it was because the driver was already safely out of the flames, but the fire track seemed rather nonchalant as they made their way over to the front stretch and, as Diamond fumed over the slow response, they calmly climbed out of the truck and then took another minute or so to unwind the hose and prepare their equipment. Once the flow of water started, the fire was quickly doused and we could hear the frustrated driver expressing his thoughts on the slow response.
Just two races later, during the Midwest Mod "A" class second heat race, James Redus got squeezed up the track while running the cushion and he made some pretty hard contact with the front stretch wall. He stayed on the throttle though going right back to the cushion in one and two, but as he raced down the back stretch the under side of his car burst into flames and he would slow in turns three and four before coming to a halt in nearly the same spot on the infield where the Pure Stock had burned.
Once again the fire crew was up in the pit area, perhaps replenishing their water supply (?) and this time they were a bit faster on the move as Redus unbuckled and got out of his flaming car uninjured. They were very quick in getting the hose unfurled and the water flowing, but this time they were faced with a difficult challenge as the fuel had likely been knocked loose and the nearly full fuel cells was continuously feeding the fire. The crowd watched in awe as the flames continued despite the valiant efforts of the firefighters and soon a brave push truck driver shoved the car forward to try to get it out of the pool of fuel.
This helped for a few seconds, but the fuel was still pumping out and the fire came right back to its previous intensity in a new position. After another minute or two the car was shoved backwards and finally the flames were doused. The crowd gave a sarcastic cheer and while it did seem like they could have handled the first fire better, the only thing they could have done on this second incident would have been to have something other than water to use. I'm sure that the Willard fire crew will take a lot of heat online, but as long as they learned from these two experiences in order to "do it better" next times, drivers and fans need to remember that, without them, we would not be able to race. And yes, that snowman appears to be waving the fire crew down from the back pits.
The qualifying races were entertaining on the multi-grooved surface and we stayed for one of the two main events that would be presented on this Friday night. In the past I have seen James Redus win here in the station wagon Pure Stock and I don't know if this is that same ride or not, but it would be a flag-to-flag victory for Allen Thompson in the Ghostbusters themed wagon adorned with flashing Christmas lights that he switched on while taking the checkers. Trenton Houston and Jody Tillman would each come from the fifth row to finish second and third, while Robbie Jones and Chris Tonoli filled out the top five.
A second round of A-Mod heats and the Turkey Bowl race for the Midwest Mod "B" class were still to be run, but with the temperature now ready to dip into the thirties and knowing that we had another full evening of racing ahead of us on Saturday, we headed for the gate.
It was a near perfect day for November racing in southwest Missouri on Saturday with sunny skies and light winds and the fans flocked to the Springfield Raceway for the finale of Turkey Bowl XVII. The parking lo issued was eased a bit by allowing passenger cars into the pits since two classes that had around 100 cars had completed their program on Friday, although one pour gentleman from Arkansas was paged several times to go to his vehicle where a sheriff's deputy was waiting for him.
A minimal amount of hot laps were on the itinerary, but when drivers who "had issues on Friday" were allowed to get on the track as well, apparently more than 100 of them had "problems". The extra laps under the setting sun dried out the track more than Friday and the slicker surface was an obvious challenge for several drivers who were racing and sinning at the back of their B-Mains. That, along with a first heat race crash in the Late Models that saw Carl Murphy go for a roll and had Tony Jackson Jr.'s car end up on top him made for a longer than expected set of qualifying races as the show struggled to get into a groove.
Finally it was feature time with the Legend Cars up first for twenty laps and twenty-seven of them, including three that were not ere for qualifying on Thursday, making the start. The top three starters raced in tight formation for the first ten laps before the first caution waved, and they continued to race each other hard through three more cautions. In the end it would be Jay Reynolds leading from start to finish to take the win over Tyler Garretson and Trenton Simon. Steve Harshbarger was the big mover coming from twelfth to fourth while Braxton Rupp finished where he started in fifth.
The B-Mods were up next for twenty-five laps and with one of the hottest drivers in the division, Damian Kiefer, starting from the front row the second generation driver from southeast Missouri had to be one of the favorites. The young driver had the cagey veteran Ken Schrader starting to his outside though and they would swap the lead in the opening laps until Kiefer gained control on lap four. A flat tire caused Trevor Fitz to slow on lap eleven and on the restart arguably the top driver in this class over the past several years, Kris Jackson took the lead from Kiefer.
Another caution lap thirteen gave us the final restart and as Jackson pulled away over the second half of the race to take the win it would be Schrader that would take the race for second. Ryan Gillmore battled his way toward the font coming from eleventh to finish third, Kiefer slipped back to fourth at the checkers while Dalton Keith closed out the top five.
With $7,575 going to the winner, technically the Modifieds were the headliners on this weekend that paid tribute to the legendary Larry Phillips and with his son Terry starting sixth many of the hometown fans were pulling for him to take the win in the fifty lap event. Quincy's own Mark Burgtorf would set the pace early though until pole-sitter Sawyer Crigler took the point on lap eight. The caution would wave two laps later when Tanner Mullens slowed at the top of turn four and while Crigler maintained lead after the restart it was the seventh starting Tom Berry Jr. that was clearly on the move working the low line around the banked quarter-mile.
Berry would take the lead on lap twenty-two, but just three laps later as Dakota Sproul slowed in front of him in turn four, the leader made contact and spun Sproul to the infield. Crigler would cross the stripe ahead of Berry before the caution waved, so it would be Sawyer that would again set a slow and unsteady pace back to green. Not pashed by the incident, Berry went right back by him going down the backstretch to get back to the point on lap twenty-six and he would then drive away from the field over the second half of the race to take a convincing victory.
Crigler held off Dylan Thornton to cross the line in second, but it was later announced that he had not passed tech. That moved Thornton to the runner-up pay while Phillips officially finished third. Ken Schrader rounded out an impressive night in fourth while Shawn Knuckles was credited with fifth after starting from fourteenth.
An impressive field of fifty-one Open Late Models had been whittled down to twenty for thirty laps with Arkansas driver Tyler Stevens bringing the field to green. Dillon McCowan would quickly get to second and this one would be a chase between the top two drivers in the MLRA rookie-of-the-year chase, an honored secured by McCowan. On this night though, Stevens would prevail in a race that went non-stop as Tyler collected the $5,000 winner's check.
Stevens lost McCowan after putting aside a pair of lapped cars early, but as the laps wound not only Dillon, but the cars of Logan Martin, Ryan Gustin and Justin Zeitner were all cutting into the lead. That was how they would finish, second through fifth with Martin coming from tenth, and Gustin from ninth.
It was now just past 10:30 on a show that had started with hot laps just past four, so we headed for the warmth of our hotel room ahead of the finale for the Midwest Mod "A" class. We love our annual trip to the Turkey Bowl as long as it can be run on the original date of the weekend prior to Thanksgiving and it will once again be on my schedule as the likely finale for 2024. As always it is fun to travel with friends Danny Rosencrans and Fred Peters, although we missed having Daryl Voth and Barry Johnson with us this year, and it was great to spend a couple of race nights with Wisconsin's David Schlise and his friends Derek and Nick. I also want to thank guest announcer Jerry Vansickel for the Positively Racing mention!
This will wrap it up for race recaps in 2023, but keep checking in on the Back Stretch during the offseason as we still have the state points for Missouri, Arkansas and Texas to complete followed by our Best of the Midwest standings. Then, over the Holidays, we will again present our updated Cumulative All Iowa Points standings for all nine divisions. Plus you never know when I might express my opinion on some of the interesting things going on in dirt track racing right now!
Thanks for checking in and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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