Racing season got underway with a couple of events in the southern portion of our region this past weekend and weather permitting there are some more scheduled for the coming weekend.
The Humboldt Speedway in southeast Kansas was blessed with some great weather for the first weekend in March and they were able to get in all three nights of their annual Battle of the Bullring B-Mod Nationals. There were 128 B-Mods on hand for Thursday's opener where two rounds of heat races were run where drivers accumulated points and then the same format was used on Friday night. In Saturday's finale it was Minnesota's Skeeter Estey going from the front row to collect the $8,500 top prize while Wisconsin's Michael Truscott had to come out of the B-Main and start 14th before finishing the feature race in second. Oklahoma's Kale Westover was third while Dustin Daniels was the best of the track's regulars in fourth after starting from the pole and North Dakota's Ryan Schroeder was fifth. Andrew Schroeder was the only Iowa driver to make the show and he finished 21st.
A-Mods were also in action with a full program all three nights. Wichita's Tanner Mullens had the best weekend with a win, a runner-up finish and a third-place run. Minnesota driver Dan Ebert had a second and third place finish while Mitch Keeter (2nd and 5th), Zack Vanderbeek (two 4ths) and Terry Schultz (a win and a 5th) also cracked the top-five twice. Darron Fuqua was the other winner.
For a full story on each of the three nights make sure to check in with my Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert and One Fan's Travels.
The Plumerville Speedway in Arkansas was able to get in the Saturday portion of their Winter Heat event before losing Sunday's finale to rain. A makeup date that will see the features for the Modifieds Factory Stocks and other divisions will be announced later today. A full program for the All Star Late Model Series was completed during Saturday's show with Memphis area driver Justin Glover taking the $2,000 victory over Cody Gentry and Josh Ray. There were fourteen Late Models signed in for the event.
Over in central Oklahoma the Red Dirt Speedway was forced to cancel the Red Dirt Revival special early due to heavy rains during the week, but the track in Meeker will come right back this weekend with a two-day Spring Nationals show on Saturday and Sunday.
In Late Model racing outside of the region there was a lot of follow the leader action going on as David Seibers went flag-to-flag to win Friday night at Clarksville and then Dennis Erb Jr. did the same there on Saturday night. Modified ace Cade Dillard won the series debut for the Louisiana Late Models at Chatham on Saturday night leading from green to checkers and Chris "Smokey" Madden captured the big money prize of the weekend winning $12,000 at the Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina on Sunday where he too went the distance out front. Michael Page seemed to be the only driver who had to pass someone to win this weekend although he did start from second in his Ultimate Southeast series win at the North Georgia Speedway.
Coming up this weekend in our region you have the Southern Outlaw Late Models and the All Star Modifieds at the Crawford County Speedway in northwest Arkansas. The Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore has two nights of IMCA racing on Friday and Saturday. The USAC National Midgets runs indoors at DuQuoin and the 42nd Annual Spring 50 is set for the Florece Speedway in Kentucky on Saturday.
I plan on catching the Iowa boys state basketball championship games on Friday night and then choosing between two racing events on Saturday. The IMCA Spring Nationals in Beatrice, Nebraska, has become a favorite of mine even after sitting out in 32 degree weather last year. As of now the forecast looks pretty good for southeast Nebraska for Thursday's practice along with full shows on Friday and Saturday. And if not, my backup plan is the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri where the Comp Cams Late Model Series will headline the March Madness event at Jerry Hoffman's quarter-mile oval.
There are also several car shows that are going on around the region this weekend so hopefully in one way or another you can whet your appetite with some early season racing activities! Thanks for checking out the Back Stretch.
No comments:
Post a Comment