Three races in four nights this week gave me the full spectrum of enjoyment starting with one of the worst nights that I can remember at a race night thankfully followed up by two spectacular events that featured some different classes of open wheel action.
I know that I have a few critics who feel that I do not say enough "bad things" about promoters and drivers and honestly I could care less about what those critics say. Long time readers of the Back Stretch know how to find things that I might not have liked hidden discreetly in a story that might sound like "wine and roses" to others and I take pride in being able to do that as my goal is to always give a fair report of an event and do my best to promote the sport.
Wednesday's county fair race was a rough one and I am confident that the good people who tried to put it on know what they need to do differently if there is a "next time" and, well, that's all that I am going to say about that.
Thursday night the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders made their annual visit to the Cedar County Fair in Tipton and a full house witnessed a fantastic finish to the night. Seven-time IRA Sprint Car champion Bill Balog was a surprise entrant driving Scott Bonar's #50 and on a mid-race restart "The North Pole Nightmare" was in a perfect position to complete a sweep of the evening lined up in second behind 2015 series champion Jon Agan. Agan would block low going into turn one, but when the leader charged into turn three a bit too hot he would have to pitch the car sideways to keep from going over the top of turn four.
Balog was able to avoid, but two drivers racing in the top five Josh Schneiderman and Cody Wehrle, could not and they both went for a tumble off the banking. Balog would assume the lead for the restart and it is likely that most assumed that he would walk away from the field from there. Ben Wagoner had other ideas though and he would drive under Balog a lap later to steal the lead and Wagoner would maintain a two to three car advantage until the white flag waved. There were a couple of slower cars racing just ahead of Wagoner going down the back stretch and when he made the slightest of hesitation entering turn three Balog powered up to the high side. Wagoner's line was true and it looked like he would still take the win, but Balog stayed on the throttle and even though he nearly slipped off the top of the elevated racing surface he was able to get enough of a bite down the front stretch to nip Wagoner by a nose at the checkers sending the large Cedar County Fair crowd home with a buzz.
For the full story on the Sprint Invaders including results check out Bill Wright's story at OpenWheel101.com Another fun night of county fair action comes up on Tuesday June 25th at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway where the Invaders have thrilled the crowd each of the past two years.
The Sport Mods put one some good racing at Tipton as well with nearly thirty of them on hand looking for the $1,000 top prize. Current All Iowa Points leader Tyler Soppe drew the front row and was never seriously challenged as he captured his 22nd feature win of 2017 and we are only just past the halfway point of the season! Dalton Simonsen nipped the current Illinois state points leader Dustin Schram at the line for second while Matt Petrzelka and Jacob Ellithorpe completed the top five. And I see that Ellithorpe, who got his start driving in the Four Cylinder division, followed up that performance by winning his first feature in a Sport Mod at the Maquoketa Speedway on Saturday.
It is always a pleasure to work with Al and Kathy Dlouhy and their competent cast of characters including the two spotters in the field Chad and Bugsy at the Cedar County Fair. Hopefully the Sprint Invaders earned another trip back for 2018.
After living down south the past several years it is great to have my son Morgan back in Des Moines and I have been able to join him for three events already this season. Morgan is a big Sprint Car and Midget fan so on Saturday he proposed that we meet in Osceola and then drive down to Valley Speedway just east of Kansas City where the WAR non-wing Sprints and the Lucas Oil POWRi Midgets were running night number two of a doubleheader weekend.
We arrived just before the advertised start of hot laps at 6 p.m. and could see that the track had been heavily watered in an attempt to thwart the incredibly hot sun that was beating down on the wide 3/8th-mile banked speedway. Wheel packing took forever and I started having some flashbacks to Wednesday night thinking that this thing might never get rolled in early enough where on this night it would be an eleven o'clock curfew that was the threat rather than approaching thunderstorms.
By 8 p.m. we finally had a usable racing surface and the sun was starting to set relieving those of us who had been sitting in this sauna for the past two hours. Once underway the track and series officials did a great job of keeping the show moving and the resulting track conditions proved to be well worth the delay as both the Sprints and Midgets were able to race high, low and every place in between giving us a full night of action that joins the list of potential "race night of the year" candidates.
Car counts were solid with 27 Sprints and 39 Midgets and with both using the draw and passing points format the racing was great in the heats, B-Mains and both features. Why anybody would insist on having time trials and then starting straight up after seeing a show like this is just beyond me!
The 25-lap Sprint Car feature had three different leaders in the first five laps as Chris Parkinson paced the first two before Clinton Boyles put the slider on him in turn three. Sixth-starting Zach Daum found the low groove to his liking and he would drive under the leader on lap five just before Boyles pulled to the infield with mechanical issues. As Daum crept around the bottom Wyatt Burks closed in and tried to use the cushion to get by. The very top was just too much farther around though so Burks then started to work a line that was just one lane higher than Daum. This allowed him to get nearly even with the leader through the apex of the turns, but Daum's bite off the bottom at the exit would allow him to hold the lead lap after lap until lapped traffic finally came into play with just five laps remaining.
The first lapper or two did not pose a problem, but when Danny Thoman was parked right in the leader's preferred groove it allowed Burks to power by on the outside to take the lead with just two laps remaining. Daum did his best to make a comeback, but he now had Cody Baker charging at him off the cushion as well and, just after Burks took the checkers for the win, Daum nipped Baker at the stripe by inches for second. The pole-sitter Parkinson would hold down fourth at the checkers while Friday night's winner Joe B. Miller finished fifth. Starting at the back of his heat race earlier in the evening Miller struggled to a fifth place finish and had to win the B-Main to make the show so his top five finish had started from the inside of row nine.
Thirty laps of POWRi Midget racing would close out the evening and even though Spencer Bayston would lead every lap to take the win from the pole position, there was a notebook full of action going on behind him. First of all I need to point out that under the passing point system Bayston EARNED the pole by coming from eighth to finish second in the opening heat race finishing just behind Tucker Klaasmeyer so even though he went the distance in the feature Baytson actually had to pass six drivers for position earlier in the evening to collect the big money.
The first caution in the feature waved on lap three when Klaasmeyer hooked the the rear push bar of the third place car of Ryan Robinson spinning both drivers at the exit of turn four. It would be the start of a tough race for the young Californian Robinson.
Friday's winner Tanner Thorson tried to keep pace with Bayston, but it would be Zach Daum who was again working the bottom that made a big move up from tenth to second before Grady Chandler spun on lap eight. Daum looked like he might have something for the leader on the restart, but when the caution waved again on lap thirteen for Matt Moore's spin the focus was now on another California driver for the restart. Logan Seavey had started twelfth and was pounding the cushion on both ends to perfection to get into the top five and the fans were cheering him on to keep advancing once back to green.
Running the cushion can be treacherous though and after one stumble Seavey actually dropped out of the top five, but he soon found his rhythm once again and the charge was on. With nine laps remaining Seavey swept past both Daum and Thorson coming off of turn two and Bayston was directly in his sights but when Ryan Robinson spun behind him in turn two that lap was never scored and Seavey would have to go back to fourth for the restart.
Another stumble on the cushion had Seavey go completely sideways in turn two and he faded back to seventh or eighth as Thorson now tried to negotiate the line that he had just been shown before the caution. Tanner appeared to be getting it dialed in and was closing on Bayston when Ryan Robinson's tough night came to an abrupt end as he clipped the front stretch wall and flipped hard right in front of us. Thankfully Robinson was able to scramble out of his overturned car under his own power and we were soon set for four more laps of action.
Thorson would go right back to the cushion as Daum dug down low, but Spencer Bayston was just too strong to catch on this night taking the win ahead of Thorson and Daum. B-Main winner Kyle Schuett had a great run coming from the ninth row to finish fourth just ahead of Jonathan Beason while Seavey came back to sixth.
This was my second visit to Dennis Shrout's Valley Speedway, the first coming for a mid-October Modified show about ten years ago, and while the facility will never win a beauty contest the track itself definitely offered up some great racing on this night. And, as I knew he would, Morgan was already making plans for our next visit when the POWRi Midgets return to Valley.
I have three nights of racing on the calendar for this week with the Arnold Motor Supply Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds headlining two of them on Wednesday at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa and on Thursday at the world famous Knoxville Raceway. I'll start off the tripleheader on Tuesday night during the Southern Iowa Fair in Osky where promoter Mike Van Genderen has added the twist where the second place finisher will actually be paid slightly more than the winner.
Hope to see you at the races this week!
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