The best racing of the night was seen in the four qualifying heats as Brandon Sheppard made a mid-race pass of Jim Moon using the high side to win the first Late Model heat race. The second heat was a classic between two crowd favorites as Ray Guss Jr. running the cushion and Shannon Babb riding a lower line went at it throughout the ten lap distance. Babb would pull even at times, but Guss maintained the edge until the final lap when Babb had the momentum entering turn three. As Shannon drifted up a bit to shut the door in four, Ray used a crossover move off the cushion to drive back under Babb and win the drag race back to the line by a mere inches. The crowd was hushed as they waited for Scott Shults to announce the official results and frankly, with these two, I think you would have heard cheers no matter who was the winner.
Bobby Pierce dominated the third heat race, but it was fun to watch Jason Jaggers use the high line to move from fifth to second over the final five laps. Many in the big crowd, including myself, would have thought that it would be another "Jason", Jason Feger who would have been making that move but the "Highside Hustler" stayed low and his fifth-place run would send him to the B-Main. Finally the fourth heat saw Brian Shirley walk away from Hell Tour point leader Ryan Unzicker and Billy Drake.
Two heats for the Summit Modified Summer Nationals and two Hornet heats were then contested before action shut down for forty minutes and the track was graded, watered and packed. That forty minute break was plenty of time for one gentleman who was sometimes seated in the front row near the entrance of turn one to continue to patronize the beer stand and when racing resumed he was primed for action.
The Late Model B-Main was another good race as local driver Bo Brockway and Feger pulled away from the rest of the pack and waged a side-by-side battle throughout with Brockway up high and Feger down low. Only the top two would transfer, so that took a little of the drama out of the race up front and even more from the multi-car tussle for third that often went three-wide with Steve Thorsten, Rich Bell, Evan Fink, Dennis Vandermeersch, Todd Bennett and Scott Schmitt all involved. But it was all still very entertaining to watch and the drinking man was now standing halfway between the bleachers and the fence cheering them all on. Brockway, a driver that I was not familiar with at all, held off Feger for the win and it was monumental enough that they brought him back out to the front stretch, got him out of the car and even interviewed him in victory lane as he posed for pictures. Something that I have not seen for the winner of a B-Main since like the 1970's, but hey it was impressive that he fought off the persistent challenges of the much better known Feger. Fink would prevail in that great battle for third, but that would only get him a seat atop his trailer to watch the feature race from. At least he was seated.
It was now feature time and the drunk fan was being asked by those behind him if he would kindly sit down as, after all, if you paid twenty-five dollars to get in the last thing that you want to do is have to look through some dumbass who has decided that he personally has the power to will whomever it is that he is rooting for to victory by simply standing at the fence and pumping his fist. Finally, just as the twenty-five lap UMP Modified feature was set to take the green, one of his buddies got up, put his arm around him and somehow convinced him to sit down so that everyone could see.
Jeff Curl and David Wietholder would bring the field of twenty to the green and like a moth to a flame the special fan hopped up out of his seat and reclaimed his position standing near the fence, much to the amusement of myself and those around me as we really weren't that effected by his presence, but you could see the frustration level growing for those who were. Curl would lead the first three laps before Wietholder would drive around him on the outside to take the point. Curl stayed close though and as the leaders started to work lapped traffic mid-race he closed the gap to a car length, but on lap thirteen disaster struck for the challenger as he got into the back of a lapped car causing it to spin in front of him and Curl stopped as well in turn two to bring out the caution.
With Curl now headed to the rear for the restart, drunk guy's friend again convinced him to sit down for a bit and it was now Mike Harrison who was putting the pressure on Wietholder. The leader was working the middle groove, while Harrison was kicking off the cushion and while the challenger was able to stay close over the final laps he could not mount a serious challenge as Wietholder celebrated the $1,000 win. Erik Bruce finished in the third spot, Charley Hess was fourth and Matt Goulden completed the top five while Curl fought his way back up to tenth at the checkers.
Conversations became more heated and there was some definite posturing going on with our turn one bleachers sideshow as the Late Model feature field took shape for their forty-lapper and as Shirley and Sheppard brought the field to the green it was Sheppard who rode the middle groove in turns one and two to take the advantage. With the front of the field starting to spread out and the dust flying I found my attention being pulled to the escalating situation to my right where we now had drunk guy standing, quite wobbly, in his now normal position and drunk guy's friend was now laying on his stomach just a couple of feet away from the frontstretch fence, perhaps in an effort to get his friend to also lay down and stop blocking the view of those behind him? If so, it was a gallant effort! However, laying on the ground near the fence must not be acceptable as a very large security guy was soon on the scene and was telling the friend to get back into the bleachers as the caution flag waved for a slowing Scott Schmitt on lap twenty.
Everybody was seated for the restart, but when drunk guy again came to his feet at the drop of the green somebody had finally had enough and punches started flying. Surprisingly though it was the drunk guy's friend who was involved in the fracas while his buddy stood and cheered for whomever, completely oblivious to what was going on behind him. Fortunately the caution waved again a lap later for a spin in turn four as that way I could watch this without the guilt of missing the race. The fight was short-lived though as the security guy rushed in, picked up the drunk guy's friend and carried him toward the exit. The comedic finale of this all came though when drunk guy finally realized that his friend was being forcibly removed and somehow got his wobbly legs to execute a hilarious "sprint" in front of the crowd that had my entire section cracking up, something that you would have had to have seen in order to appreciate. The security guy was soon back and I was pleased to see that he just checked with the others involved to make sure that they were alright rather than removing them as well. They would now get to watch the rest of the race without the distraction.
There would be no catching Sheppard on this night as for the sixth time in eight races on the 2014 Tour the winner would come from the front row. Tonight though it wasn't because the track wasn't wide and racy as drivers often went two and sometimes three-wide, once right in front of the leader that allowed the second place car of Brian Shirley to close the gap for a moment before Sheppard found an opening and powered through. With nine laps remaining Shirley clipped the turn three wall and that allowed Bobby Pierce to slip under him for second and despite a caution with just two laps remaining the order would not change as Sheppard scored the flag-to-flag win over Pierce, Shirley, Ryan Unzicker and Shannon Babb.
Despite the forty minute intermission, and thanks to running the Hornet feature last on the schedule, we were on our way home at 9:22 on a Monday night making for a pretty decent trip to the heart of UMP country for a Summer Nationals event. Depending upon some other factors I might catch up with the Hell Tour one more time this go around when they visit 34 Raceway in Burlington on Saturday July 12th.
And race fans always remember, when everybody sits, everybody sees!
See you again soon on the Back Stretch!
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