At the end of my blog last Thursday I mentioned that I had plans to visit a track that I had not been to for fourteen years on Sunday night. That, along with a Facebook message to the Mason City Motor Speedway asking what time hot laps would get underway soon prompted a text message from Todd Staley asking if I was coming to the Ironman Series event at the track and if so he was going to put me to work for the evening. Let's just say that track announcer Lon Oelke had "an assignment" to take care of so it would be my job to attempt to fill in for one of the most entertaining announcers that you will find anywhere.
I enjoyed working my way through the pit area to familiarize myself with the seventy-three cars in four divisions and it was good to see several people who were regular competitors on the old NKF Tour that I had not seen face to face now for some seventeen years. It was hot, but with a steady breeze blowing from the south it was actually a comfortable evening and the racing was clicking off in fine fashion. A check of the radar as the show was starting showed one cell that was quickly moving from southwest to northeast, but I figured that it would miss us to the east and all would be fine.
As the heat races ended the sun was still shining brightly to the west, however the storm clouds had now gathered behind the grandstand to the south and the Hobby Stock feature came to the track with no time wasted. Dustin Gulbrandson emerged from an early battle with Chance Hollatz to take the lead and he would then pull away to capture the twelve-lap race in non-stop fashion and as the winner pulled to the infield for tech the raindrops started to fall.
It was an unusual scene as the sun was still shining brightly beyond turns three and four, but the rain picked up in intensity and soon it was obvious that there would be no chance to continue racing on this night as a huge rainbow developed to the east of the track. And just like that my night of announcing at Mason City for the first time since 2001 ended as I informed those that were still huddled under the grandstand that tonight's show was complete and that double features for the Tuners, Stock Cars and B-Mods would be held on Sunday July 15th.
The USRA Ironman Series for the Out-Pace B-Modifieds and the Holley Stock Cars presented by Medieval Chassis will continue this Tuesday and Wednesday night with the Boone River Bayou Dirt Track Championships at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City. There will be full shows both nights for the B-Mods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks with some big money on the line while the four cylinder Tuner division will race on Tuesday night only. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate as this event was rained out last summer and then was "wintered out" last October. Will the third try be the charm?
This past weekend was HOT and that combined with the fact that we have seen car counts drop off in June annually over the past several years resulted in some downright scary numbers at some tracks. Before anybody goes into panic mode though let's remember that the yearly trend has been to see car counts come back up once we get into mid-July and August and hopefully that will continue in 2018. Otherwise we could sadly see a few more tracks fall by the wayside.
It was great to see Brett Moffitt win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the Iowa Speedway Saturday night. The Grimes, Iowa, native was the 2007 All Iowa Points champion in the Limited Modified division when he was just fifteen and he later went on to earn the NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 2015 before losing his ride to Chris Buescher. This was his second victory in the Trucks this season.
A couple of observations after watching the UMP Summer Nationals highlights on Dirt On Dirt. First of all it was fantastic to see the crowd that packed the Sycamore Speedway on Friday night. From both the video and some pictures taken from the infield it looked like a standing room only affair, something that we hope more tracks will experience once again soon. There were however a couple of questionable calls, or rule interpretations made over the weekend. The first came on Friday when Brian Shirley got completely sideways in turn three while running third forcing Frank Heckenast Jr. to spin to avoid. The caution waved, but since Shirley did not completely stop he was given his spot back for the restart while Heckenast was sent to the rear.
Then on Sunday night in Plymouth, Indiana, Timothy Culp was leading the feature mid-race when he just missed the cushion in turn three and pitched the car completely sideways to keep from smacking the wall. Two drivers passed him as he coasted down the track before you could see the engine re-fire and the caution waved however Culp was put right back out front for the restart. Now given that the highlight video is edited I don't know if an explanation was given for this call, but my guess was that it was considered "an inadvertent yellow" since Culp never completely stopped and that is why no driver was penalized for causing the caution. If so then I suggest that UMP adopt the same rule that is now in place at Knoxville where if a driver spins and the caution waves, but the spinning driver is able to keep moving, that driver is then placed in the position that he or she would have then been running in had the caution not been displayed. So in this case Culp would have restarted the race in third.
As it turned out Billy Moyer completed the pass of Culp following the restart and went on to take the win with Culp hanging on to second. Free restarts on the opening lap and rules that take any and all judgment out of cautions doesn't make any sense for a high profile series like the Summer Nationals.
The weather will determine if and when I go racing during the week ahead and it may just shut me down until the following week when I have the final Wednesday night weekly show of the season at Osky targeted for the 27th followed by the Deery Brothers Summer series show at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton on Thursday the 28th. Get out and support the track of your choice!
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