It has been a long time since I have been to the Stuart International Speedway, perhaps as many as eighteen years ago when we would have run an NKF Tour event there, but after what I saw on Wednesday night I can virtually guarantee you that it will be eighteen weeks or less before I return!
Mike VanGenderen purchased the facility this past Thanksgiving weekend and since it has been so long since I have seen the place I really can't tell you how much had to be done to it, but I can say that it looked exactly like a track that I would expect MVG to be in charge of. The place is clean, well organized and of course the track preparation was spectacular with plenty of racing room from bottom to top come feature time.
For a long, long time Stuart was a Sunday night track, but when the State Fairgrounds closed down they moved to Friday's in hope to capture some of that Des Moines crowd and drivers. After running the numbers though, and considering the current lineup of other tracks in the area the decision was made to move to Wednesday nights and it will be interesting to see if the mid-week show will catch on. The weather was very nice, especially when compared to last week's opener although the car counts stayed pretty consistent from week one to week two.
Last week there were eleven IMCA Modifieds on hand while this week there were ten, but four of them were drivers that were making their first appearance including Dan Menk who took advantage of the nice weather to make the 242 mile drive down from Franklin, Minnesota. David Brown would race to the early lead in the twenty lap main event with Josh Gilman looking like the man to beat. Gilman picked off Tony Hilgenberg for second on lap five and then quickly reeled in Brown to mount a challenge for the lead. Brown was smooth on the top, but Gilman had his car working both high and low taking the lead on lap nine. A late caution for John Davis who had stopped at the exit of turn two bunched the field back together for a restart, but there would be no catching Gilman who posted the win. Brown would hold on to second as one of those newcomers Shane Demey would edge out Scott Bash for third. Hilgenberg and Menk would go fifth and sixth.
Buck Schafroth rolled his Stock Car here last Wednesday night, but the one positive to take away from that is with the IMCA average points inverted lineup it would place him on the pole position for this week's twenty-lap headliner. Fellow front row starter Chris Pruitt would get the jump though and set the pace with Schafroth racing in his tire tracks waiting for a mistake. Buck would take a peek to the inside of Pruitt with about five laps to go only to lose a little ground to the leader, so he went right back to the top and appeared to be destined to finish in second. When Pruitt pushed a bit high in turns one and two though on lap eighteen the challenger saw his chance and when Pruitt again slipped high in turn three, Schafroth dove low and took the lead as the green flag was held high. Pruitt tried his best to recover over the final two laps, but knew that this one had slipped away as Schafroth turned his luck around from a week ago in a big way with the win. Brandon Pruitt came from his fifth row start to finish third, Anthony Goldsberry was impressive in fourth and after scratching from his heat race Ricky Thornton Jr. started fourteenth and finished fifth.
The fifteen lap Sport Compact feature had a a good battle for the lead with last week's winner Denny Berghahn Jr. making it two in a row. Tyler Fiebelkorn would lead the opening lap before Ryan Bryant who had made the long pull down from Mason City for the second week in a row took over the point. On lap four top contender Mitchell Bunch was spun in turn two and Colton Garside had no time to react as he was racing for position making hard contact with Bunch. Both drivers were not hurt, but both cars were eliminated.
Once back to racing Berghahn would go to work on the leader looking to the low side with Bryant able to fight him off with the momentum off the banking. Working lap nine Berghahn would try an even higher line in three and four and after Bryant squeezed him back down the front stretch again the challenger went high into turn one. Trying to take away that line, the leader went in a bit too hot and it would be Bryant who would smack the outside barrier causing enough damage that he would slow down the back stretch to bring out the caution.
John Gill would stay within a few car lengths following the restart to take the runner-up title to Berghahn's second win of the young season. Des Moines area drivers Kory Sabin, Nathan Castellano and Bruce Hower would complete the top five.
The Hobby Stock main event would have a bit of drama involving two brothers and the many-time IMCA National Champion Shannon Anderson. Chuck Madden would take the lead from the pole before the caution waved on lap two for a synchronized spin involving Dylan Nelson and current All Iowa Points leader Adam Ayers. Cautions on lap four and lap five would again tighten the field and by now the two fourth row starters Anderson and Corey Madden were now side by side behind the leader for the restart. Racing out of turn two with Chuck out front, Shannon trying to come through the middle and Corey racing off the bottom, contact between Corey Madden and Anderson then caused Shannon to hook the left rear of Chuck's car send him spinning across the nose of each of them and creating a caution. You can do one of those "You Make The Call" deals here with Craig Allendar's video at the 8:39 mark. Anderson then expressed his point of view to Corey Madden under caution before heading to the pit area.
With Chuck now sent to rear for causing the caution, Corey Madden assumed the lead and he would hold it the rest of the distance to pick up the win. He did express some remorse for the incident during his victory lane interview, but is obvious that the brothers from Avoca are ready to race the King of the Hobby Stocks hard here at Stuart. Brandon Cox nipped Nick Foster at the stripe to finish in second, Dylan Nelson made a nice run back up to fourth and John Watson came from twelfth to fill out the top five.
By the time that the IMCA Sport Mod feature came to the track the wind had picked up and the temperature seemed to have dropped ten degrees, but with eighteen cars set to go for eighteen laps I was not about ready to leave despite the fact that I was nearly three hours from home on a weeknight. Brett Vanderheiden would lead the way for the first two trips around the quarter-mile before Tyler Inman powered to the front. Fifth row starters Kody Havens and Brayton Carter were putting on the show though as they often went three-wide with others who had started ahead of them as they raced their way to the front.
A series of four cautions between lap eight and lap fifteen made it pretty tempting to leave, but with Havens and Carter now restarting right behind Inman with just three laps to go I was here to stay especially since Carter had been using the extreme high side to get to the front. Brayton would go up there again as Havens catfished around the bottom with Inman doing his best to ward off the charge. As the white flag waved Carter had lost some ground while Havens was still digging on the bottom and when the leader slipped a bit wide off turn two Havens made his move.
Driving hard to the inside in turn three Havens and Inman banged wheels and as they started to push up the track Inman got a bit sideways in four. That would give Havens the win, his second in a row here at Stuart, while Carter zipped around Inman at the checkers to drop him to third at the pay window. Chase Rudolf who started eighth would take the fourth spot while Colton Nelson was fifth. It was pretty thrilling way to close out the evening and give me some good adrenaline for that long drive home.
Next week there will be no Wednesday night racing at Stuart, but you will want to be there on Thursday night May 2nd as the MLRA Late Models will be on hand along with Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. I am planning to pick up Morgan in Des Moines on my way and then, if we are running early enough, we will head out to Adair to finally try some of that famous Zipp's Pizzaria pizza!
Hopefully the weather will cooperate not only with that plan, but with the coming race weekend as well. I will be watching a different type of racing on the blue oval at Drake on Friday and Saturday with plans to spend my Sunday night in Dubuque for the rescheduled Deery Brothers Summer Series event. Keep an eye on the radar and get out to a track near you!
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
A Few More Observations From The 2019 Slocum 50
For the tenth time in eleven years I was honored to be a part of the announcing team for the Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway. Brent's personality always stood out to me as a driver who was a fierce competitor while being a true sportsman and at the end of the evening he was always ready to share a smile and a cold one with anybody else who just wanted to enjoy the moment. An outlook on life, and especially on this sport that I wish more of us involved in it would have, so for that reason it really means a lot to me to be able to participate by doing my bit of time on the microphone in memory, and in honor of Brent Slocum.The only Slocum 50 that I have missed came last year when I was honored to attend a friend's wedding and I nearly had to forgo this one as well when my wife and daughter scheduled the bridal shower for my soon to be daughter in law for the same day. Thankfully Brad and Jessi worked with me so that I could have both of my sons up to to watch as well and let's just say that when we got home later that night it was obvious that the girls had a pretty good time in our evening absence. The empty bottles were evidence of that.
Three of my Positively Racing colleagues have also filed their report from the Slocum 50 and I do hope that you will read Brian Neal's Midwest Racing News, Danny Rosencrans' Racin' Down The Road and Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels to get a full rundown of this event from three different points of view. I am so proud of the people that I associate with and there is no need for me to re-tell the tale of the night's action here since they each did such a fine job of doing so. Besides, as one of the announcers along with Tony Paris and MLRA's Billy Rock I left my notepad in the car for the evening so following are just some random observations from the event.
First of all, how about the weather?! It was sunny and in the seventies with a light wind, actually the first real "nice night" for racing in 2019 and I am sure that helped put more people in the stands here than perhaps even the first appearance of the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars several years ago. Only Brad & Jessi can confirm that assumption, but early on I started asking people to slide together and make friends with their neighbors due to the steady flow of traffic into the facility. And it was a "fun loving" crowd as well. Ed Reichert talks about the party atmosphere that he only sees at a couple of other events and readers, keep in mind that this man goes to more than 150 race nights a year so when something like this stands out to him, you know that it is something special. This crowd was here to enjoy the evening and cheer on their heroes, whether or not they were a hero to them before they bought the ticket and that is what makes for a great crowd. Even though the Stock Car feature was the last of the night, there was probably still a thousand people or more sticking around and as Abe Huls, David Brandies and John Oliver Jr. crossed the stripe three-wide for the lead with three laps to go they were going nuts just like they did a bit earlier when Bobby Pierce pounded the cushion on both ends to reel in Chad Simpson.
After Oliver prevailed for the Stock Car win I asked the crowd if that was worth sticking around for and the cheer was nearly as loud as when the place was still full. It was a special crowd and if you were one of them, pat yourself on the back because not only did you see a good show, but you also made it a great show.
Yes, Paul Nienhesier was a bit of a "ringer" in the Window World Winged Sprints as he drove Caleb Wankel's #5 to victory, but Harold Pohren made him work for it with Nienheiser taking the lead mid-race when Pohren hesitated for a split second when he closed in on the slower car of Noah Samuel. Earlier in the evening I had talked with Harold about his victory in this event two years ago. Let's just say that his wing dance that night did not go as planned and we talked about the lessons learned and how he should apply them on this night. He almost had that chance!
And speaking of Samuel, no ill will on him as the young man looked pretty darn good for his first night of racing a winged Sprint Car. He is getting some coaching from Justin Newberry who retired after scoring a track championship here at 34 Raceway back in 2015, so look for Noah to get faster on a steady basis.
Also a bit of a surprise early in the night was the heat race win by Nick Eastin who was driving Gary Bonar's #97x. I knew that Eastin was a good shoe back when he was doing this on a regular basis and we have seen this car go fast in the past, I just didn't expect it to be a winning combination on the first night out. With Scott Bonar turning the wrenches though, success should never come as a surprise.
The Late Model car count was phenomenal at 37 with big names up and down the line. With it being the Easter weekend this year neither of the National touring series were scheduled, and when the weather took out everything else to the east it truly made the Slocum the place to be this weekend. Or better said as now painted on the back stretch wall "The Premiere Place To Race". While it would be tempting to say that the Slocum should always be run on Easter weekend in order to avoid conflict with the National tours, keep in mind that Easter itself bounces around so next year it will be on April 12th and in 2021 it goes to April 4th, so that is not a likely scenario. But it sure worked out great this year with touring pros Hudson O'Neal, Tyler Erb, Chase Junghans, Dennis Erb Jr., Brandon Sheppard and Kyle Bronson in the house and while Junghans went flag-to-flag to win at Davenport Friday night, he had to race his way through a B-Main and then work hard to post a ninth-place finish on this night.
I can't believe that the appearance of Brian Birkhofer in a Jason Rauen owned car #OU812 did not get leaked pre-race. It even had the name Sammy Hagar on the roof of the car and while his first lap of qualifying was vintage Birkhofer, his contact with the wall in turn three on the second lap ended his evening.Rauen also had a tough night running in a qualifying position before slipping over the cushion in turns one and two putting him on the DNQ list.
The Group Qualifying format with a straight up start made the four heat races high speed parades, except for Hudson O'Neal who put on a show coming from the rear of a ten car field to finish third in the third heat.
Local favorite Jay Johnson had to advance a few positions to get qualified out of his heat race and he had a solid evening and perhaps the most spirited battle during the qualifying events came during the first B-Main when young drivers Jonathan Brauns and Logan Martin swapped slide jobs on three occasions while racing for the final transfer position with Martin prevailing at the checkers.
The track offered up three distinct lines during the fifty lap feature with the "faster way around" changing a time our two during the distance, exactly what you want for a big race like this. Chad Simpson was the first to get the bottom to work allowing him to drive past early leader Shannon Babb, but it was the late race assault on the precarious cushion by Bobby Pierce that had the fans going nuts. Pierce was on the edge of disaster at any moment even making a couple of saves when it looked liked he was going to nose into the wall in three and four, or go over the top of turns one and two. With seven laps remaining he would sweep around Simpson for the lead coming out of turn four, the move that would the propel him to his third victory in this event.
Perhaps lost in the moment was the great racing going on behind the leaders with Babb and Chris Simpson racing wheel to wheel for third in the closing laps, plus big runs by Garrett Alberson who came from twelfth to sixth and Junghans who moved from nineteenth to ninth at the checkers.
In victory lane Bob Pierce and another crew member quickly removed the roof from the winning ride so that Bobby could exit in style out of the top of the car and standing on the roll cage to celebrate.
I already touched on the Stock Cars who closed out the night in fashion and then the folks at J&M Displays fired off an impressive set of fireworks with the prevailing color being Brent Slocum's green, of course. Even the traffic out of the place flowed better than I have seen it on a lesser attended show, so what else can you say but "wow, that was a good one."
I hope that you were there to see it and if not, you have another chance to see some big time Late Model action at 34 in just a few weeks when the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series comes to town on Thursday night May 16th. I will look for you there!
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Bruening Closes The Deal For SLMR Win At Marshalltown
I had never been to a Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing (SLMR) series event before, so when Joe Kosiski and Toby Kruse agreed to bring them as far east as they had ever been before, I just had to make the trip to the Marshalltown Speedway Friday night. An added bonus was that I was able to get my son Morgan to make the trip up from West Des Moines as well and we joined our Positively Racing colleagues Joyce and Dick Eisele in the top row for an entertaining night of action on the high-banked quarter-mile oval.
With this being a long trip for the SLMR regulars I had set my car count expectations low, but with the series' rules that essentially allow several "types" of Late Models to race against each other on common ground, not only did a solid group of around eighteen series regulars make the tow, but the area's IMCA Late Models came out in force as well to add up to an impressive field of thirty-nine Late Models! Add that to the weekly racing series opener for the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Mod-Lites it made for a long, full night of racing.
The night got off to a rough start for one of the series' best when Tad Pospisil barrel rolled off the top of turns three and four during qualifying in an accident that looked pretty bad in the brief second that I was able to see the car twisting in the wind above the banking. Thankfully Pospisil was able to climb out of the car uninjured.
Qualifying times were used to set the four heat race lineups, and I assume that there was some level of invert as then the top fourteen in passing points were locked into the twenty-five lap main event. The top three from each of two B-Mains and then two SLMR provisionals would complete the field with the all-time winningest driver Kyle Berck on the pole and the current point leader after the first two nights of racing, series rookie Nick Deal on the outside of row one.
Deal who won twice on the opening weekend at the I-80 Speedway in early April would take the early lead with third starting Tyler Bruening quickly taking up the challenge. Earlier in the night Bruening had blown away the field in his heat race winning by more than half a lap and he was now sticking his nose to the inside of Deal looking for the lead. On lap seven Bruening was able to pull even with Deal only to have the young driver from Harlan come back on the outside to hold the point.
After scoring lap nine Bruening again mounted a challenge driving to the inside in turn one, but Deal was there as well and contact would send the leader for a spin as Bruening was able to drive away. During the caution it first appeared like both drivers would be allowed to restart up front, or perhaps Deal was just not heeding the call on the Raceceiver to go to the rear because he finally stopped on the front stretch to discuss the decision with Race Director Bill Baldwin. Baldwin who was a pretty good Late Model driver in his day as well was obviously convincing as Deal would then take his place at the back to get the race back to action.
Bruening would assume the lead, but Richie Gustin would now pick up the challenge using his knowledge of the track to go high, then low to take the lead from Bruening on lap fourteen. Tyler would come right back two laps later though to get back to the front and from there we would see that same domination as we did earlier in the evening driving away for the victory. Gustin would post a solid runner-up finish while the battle for third went right down to the stripe with Billy Leighton nipping Berck by a nose. Andy Eckrich finish fifth in his SLMR debut, Ryan Dolan was sixth, central Nebraska driver Josh Leonard was seventh with Joel Callahan, Andrew Kosiski and Darrel DeFrance filling out the top ten.
The first point that Bruening wanted to make in his victory lane interview was that he felt bad for getting into the leader stating that he was making the move into turn one and did everything that he could to stay off of him as he had come down the track. Deal was not able to make up much ground following the restart as he finished sixteenth. With some solid bonus money on the line for the first four SLMR races in Iowa this year it will now be interesting to see if Bruening makes the trip to Denison and Corning on May 3rd and 4th.
In weekly racing action Jake McBirnie started sixth and passed Austin Schrage on lap five before driving away for a convincing win in the 18-lap Northern Sport Mod main event. The division drew an impressive count of thirty-one cars as Thomas Egenberger finished second, Austin Kaplan was third, fourth went to Cory Rose and Cory Van Zante rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Stock Car feature had an entertaining three car battle for the front involving Jeff Mueller, Steve Meyer and Ricky Thornton Jr. who had left his Modified at home for the evening. Meyer would lead the first five laps of the eighteen lap distance before Mueller would dig his way around the bottom to the point on lap six, getting a bit of assistance from a lapped car that got a bit sideways in front of Meyer. On lap fourteen that same lapper would do a 360-degree spin in turn four and when Mueller had to check up momentarily to see how that would play out, both Meyer and Thornton would drive around him on the outside.
With three laps to go Thornton would throw a big slider at Meyer in three and four only to have the veteran drive back under him and as the white flag waved Thornton would again throw a "White Castle" (courtesy of flamboyant announcer Jerry Van Sickle) at the leader in turns one and two. Meyer again pulled off the perfect crossover so this time Thornton would try to stick it to the bottom in the final set of turns to no avail as Meyer would take the win. Mueller would be right behind Thornton at the checkers for third as Jay Schmidt and Damon Murty completed the top five.
Shannon Anderson was notably absent when I was here for the Frostbuster two weeks ago, but on this night it was back to normal in the Hobby Stock ranks as the two-time defending and six-time overall All Iowa Points champion picked his way to the front on lap six after starting eighth to take the win. David Rieks started next to Anderson in row four and finished second, early race leader Mike Kincaid settled for third, young Kaden Reynolds was fourth and Gary Pfantz finished in fifth.
Mike Morrill was another familiar face in victory lane taking the win over a ten car field of Mod Lites and with a long drive home ahead of me I left before the Modified feature that was won by Tim Ward.
I needed to get home for at least a few hours sleep before sharing the microphone tonight with MLRA announcer Billy Rock at the 11th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. With other Late Model events to the east rained out for tonight, what was already set to be a stellar field of Super Late Models could go off the chart for the $10,555-to-win event in memory of Brent Slocum who tragically lost his life at the track fourteen years ago in a pit area accident. IMCA Stock Cars and 34 Raceway's 305 Winged Sprint Cars will be in action with big money on the line for them as well.
Hope to see you there!
With this being a long trip for the SLMR regulars I had set my car count expectations low, but with the series' rules that essentially allow several "types" of Late Models to race against each other on common ground, not only did a solid group of around eighteen series regulars make the tow, but the area's IMCA Late Models came out in force as well to add up to an impressive field of thirty-nine Late Models! Add that to the weekly racing series opener for the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Mod-Lites it made for a long, full night of racing.
The night got off to a rough start for one of the series' best when Tad Pospisil barrel rolled off the top of turns three and four during qualifying in an accident that looked pretty bad in the brief second that I was able to see the car twisting in the wind above the banking. Thankfully Pospisil was able to climb out of the car uninjured.
Qualifying times were used to set the four heat race lineups, and I assume that there was some level of invert as then the top fourteen in passing points were locked into the twenty-five lap main event. The top three from each of two B-Mains and then two SLMR provisionals would complete the field with the all-time winningest driver Kyle Berck on the pole and the current point leader after the first two nights of racing, series rookie Nick Deal on the outside of row one.
Deal who won twice on the opening weekend at the I-80 Speedway in early April would take the early lead with third starting Tyler Bruening quickly taking up the challenge. Earlier in the night Bruening had blown away the field in his heat race winning by more than half a lap and he was now sticking his nose to the inside of Deal looking for the lead. On lap seven Bruening was able to pull even with Deal only to have the young driver from Harlan come back on the outside to hold the point.
After scoring lap nine Bruening again mounted a challenge driving to the inside in turn one, but Deal was there as well and contact would send the leader for a spin as Bruening was able to drive away. During the caution it first appeared like both drivers would be allowed to restart up front, or perhaps Deal was just not heeding the call on the Raceceiver to go to the rear because he finally stopped on the front stretch to discuss the decision with Race Director Bill Baldwin. Baldwin who was a pretty good Late Model driver in his day as well was obviously convincing as Deal would then take his place at the back to get the race back to action.
Bruening would assume the lead, but Richie Gustin would now pick up the challenge using his knowledge of the track to go high, then low to take the lead from Bruening on lap fourteen. Tyler would come right back two laps later though to get back to the front and from there we would see that same domination as we did earlier in the evening driving away for the victory. Gustin would post a solid runner-up finish while the battle for third went right down to the stripe with Billy Leighton nipping Berck by a nose. Andy Eckrich finish fifth in his SLMR debut, Ryan Dolan was sixth, central Nebraska driver Josh Leonard was seventh with Joel Callahan, Andrew Kosiski and Darrel DeFrance filling out the top ten.
The first point that Bruening wanted to make in his victory lane interview was that he felt bad for getting into the leader stating that he was making the move into turn one and did everything that he could to stay off of him as he had come down the track. Deal was not able to make up much ground following the restart as he finished sixteenth. With some solid bonus money on the line for the first four SLMR races in Iowa this year it will now be interesting to see if Bruening makes the trip to Denison and Corning on May 3rd and 4th.
In weekly racing action Jake McBirnie started sixth and passed Austin Schrage on lap five before driving away for a convincing win in the 18-lap Northern Sport Mod main event. The division drew an impressive count of thirty-one cars as Thomas Egenberger finished second, Austin Kaplan was third, fourth went to Cory Rose and Cory Van Zante rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Stock Car feature had an entertaining three car battle for the front involving Jeff Mueller, Steve Meyer and Ricky Thornton Jr. who had left his Modified at home for the evening. Meyer would lead the first five laps of the eighteen lap distance before Mueller would dig his way around the bottom to the point on lap six, getting a bit of assistance from a lapped car that got a bit sideways in front of Meyer. On lap fourteen that same lapper would do a 360-degree spin in turn four and when Mueller had to check up momentarily to see how that would play out, both Meyer and Thornton would drive around him on the outside.
With three laps to go Thornton would throw a big slider at Meyer in three and four only to have the veteran drive back under him and as the white flag waved Thornton would again throw a "White Castle" (courtesy of flamboyant announcer Jerry Van Sickle) at the leader in turns one and two. Meyer again pulled off the perfect crossover so this time Thornton would try to stick it to the bottom in the final set of turns to no avail as Meyer would take the win. Mueller would be right behind Thornton at the checkers for third as Jay Schmidt and Damon Murty completed the top five.
Shannon Anderson was notably absent when I was here for the Frostbuster two weeks ago, but on this night it was back to normal in the Hobby Stock ranks as the two-time defending and six-time overall All Iowa Points champion picked his way to the front on lap six after starting eighth to take the win. David Rieks started next to Anderson in row four and finished second, early race leader Mike Kincaid settled for third, young Kaden Reynolds was fourth and Gary Pfantz finished in fifth.
Mike Morrill was another familiar face in victory lane taking the win over a ten car field of Mod Lites and with a long drive home ahead of me I left before the Modified feature that was won by Tim Ward.
I needed to get home for at least a few hours sleep before sharing the microphone tonight with MLRA announcer Billy Rock at the 11th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. With other Late Model events to the east rained out for tonight, what was already set to be a stellar field of Super Late Models could go off the chart for the $10,555-to-win event in memory of Brent Slocum who tragically lost his life at the track fourteen years ago in a pit area accident. IMCA Stock Cars and 34 Raceway's 305 Winged Sprint Cars will be in action with big money on the line for them as well.
Hope to see you there!
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Paul, Carter, Griffiths and Housley Blow Into Victory Lane at Osky's Opener
It was cold, and with an easterly wind blowing in at 25 to 35 mph, I mean it was REALLY cold at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday night. Actually it was too cold for racing, but when you have the amount of support that this facility does from the community with sixty-two sponsor signs proving it (I counted) and with the race track in darn near perfect condition it was too hard to say "no" for the season opener. And despite the weather conditions, a pretty solid field of cars were on hand in front of a crowd that had more hearty souls in it than you would have expected.
A stout field of fifteen Sport Mods would be the first of four features to take to the track for sixteen laps of action and it was pole-sitter Austin Paul who raced out to the early lead. Multi-time track champion Curtis Van Der Wal quickly moved up from his third row starting spot to take second on lap two, but it did take him the next five laps to erase the lead that Paul had already built.
On lap eight Van Der Wal made a dive to the inside of Paul into turn one, but Austin held his ground and maintained the point, even rebuilding his advantage over the next five laps. With three to go the leader was going to have to deal with three lapped cars racing for position ahead of him, but when one of those, Jarrett Vandenberg slid up the track and tagged the guardrail, the caution waved for the only time in this race.
With the restart Van Der Wal was given new life to challenge the leader, but instead he had to fight off Logan Anderson just to hold on to second and that allowed Austin Paul to pull away for the impressive opening night win. Van Der Wal and Anderson were not far behind, Brayton Carter came from ninth to fourth and Colton Livezy filled out the top five. Carter Vandenberg had a top-five finish in sight until a flat tire sent him to the pits with five laps remaining.
The Stock Cars were up next for sixteen laps and with Cayden Carter drawing the pole position this one was pretty much decided at the drop of the green. Derrick Agee came from fourth to put a challenge on Carter in the opening laps, but Cayden would then drive away for a dominating win. Agee was the runner-up, Michael Petersen was behind him in third, Dustin Griffiths moved from eighth to fourth and the veteran Howard Gordon Jr. finished in fifth. Defending track champion Nathan Wood was racing in fourth when a fire under the hood sent him to the pits on lap six and it was good to see some new faces in the division with Jason McDaniel over from the Sport Mods, Kyle Boyd up from the Sport Compacts as well as Tyler Moore from Lockridge. All three Stock Car rookies looked good and will soon be challenging the division veterans for the checkers.
Defending Sport Compact track champion Brandon Housley did not go anywhere in his heat race, but after drawing the pole position for the ten lap finale he proved that he is still the man to beat in the four cylinders as he cruised to the flag-to-flag win. Trent Orwig chased him the entire distance to finish second and Mitchell Bunch appeared to have third locked up until a late restart saw him fail to come back up to speed. This allowed Billy Cain to claim that third place money with James Haring and Louie Winkelman completing the top five.
The Hobby Stocks would close out the night with this being the only class that had fewer cars than I had expected at nine. The pressure was on Nick Ulin to make it four straight winners from the pole, but when he drove it too hard into turn three on the opening lap he hit the guardrail and then limped to the pits as Derek Kirkland took the lead. I don't think anybody would have been able to beat Dustin Griffiths though as he stormed from the third row to take the lead away from Kirkland on lap three and then pulled away for the convincing win. Kirkland held on to second ahead of Clint Nelson, Christian Huffman and Craig Brown.
The racing action was wrapped up at 8:54 p.m. and that wasn't just because it was cold outside, as a mid-week race track the promoters know that they need to get you in and out of there in an efficient manner so you can expect that same type of performance every Wednesday night. A big thank you to announcer Jerry Mackey for the mention of Positively Racing, especially since my colleagues Dick and Joyce Eisele and Ed Reichert were also in attendance. Click on the links to get their frigid point of view and I can guarantee you that the weather for next Wednesday's racing at Osky will be better!
Next up for me, weather permitting, will be the Sprint Invaders opener at the Quincy Raceways on Sunday night. Hope to see you there!
A stout field of fifteen Sport Mods would be the first of four features to take to the track for sixteen laps of action and it was pole-sitter Austin Paul who raced out to the early lead. Multi-time track champion Curtis Van Der Wal quickly moved up from his third row starting spot to take second on lap two, but it did take him the next five laps to erase the lead that Paul had already built.
On lap eight Van Der Wal made a dive to the inside of Paul into turn one, but Austin held his ground and maintained the point, even rebuilding his advantage over the next five laps. With three to go the leader was going to have to deal with three lapped cars racing for position ahead of him, but when one of those, Jarrett Vandenberg slid up the track and tagged the guardrail, the caution waved for the only time in this race.
With the restart Van Der Wal was given new life to challenge the leader, but instead he had to fight off Logan Anderson just to hold on to second and that allowed Austin Paul to pull away for the impressive opening night win. Van Der Wal and Anderson were not far behind, Brayton Carter came from ninth to fourth and Colton Livezy filled out the top five. Carter Vandenberg had a top-five finish in sight until a flat tire sent him to the pits with five laps remaining.
The Stock Cars were up next for sixteen laps and with Cayden Carter drawing the pole position this one was pretty much decided at the drop of the green. Derrick Agee came from fourth to put a challenge on Carter in the opening laps, but Cayden would then drive away for a dominating win. Agee was the runner-up, Michael Petersen was behind him in third, Dustin Griffiths moved from eighth to fourth and the veteran Howard Gordon Jr. finished in fifth. Defending track champion Nathan Wood was racing in fourth when a fire under the hood sent him to the pits on lap six and it was good to see some new faces in the division with Jason McDaniel over from the Sport Mods, Kyle Boyd up from the Sport Compacts as well as Tyler Moore from Lockridge. All three Stock Car rookies looked good and will soon be challenging the division veterans for the checkers.
Defending Sport Compact track champion Brandon Housley did not go anywhere in his heat race, but after drawing the pole position for the ten lap finale he proved that he is still the man to beat in the four cylinders as he cruised to the flag-to-flag win. Trent Orwig chased him the entire distance to finish second and Mitchell Bunch appeared to have third locked up until a late restart saw him fail to come back up to speed. This allowed Billy Cain to claim that third place money with James Haring and Louie Winkelman completing the top five.
The Hobby Stocks would close out the night with this being the only class that had fewer cars than I had expected at nine. The pressure was on Nick Ulin to make it four straight winners from the pole, but when he drove it too hard into turn three on the opening lap he hit the guardrail and then limped to the pits as Derek Kirkland took the lead. I don't think anybody would have been able to beat Dustin Griffiths though as he stormed from the third row to take the lead away from Kirkland on lap three and then pulled away for the convincing win. Kirkland held on to second ahead of Clint Nelson, Christian Huffman and Craig Brown.
The racing action was wrapped up at 8:54 p.m. and that wasn't just because it was cold outside, as a mid-week race track the promoters know that they need to get you in and out of there in an efficient manner so you can expect that same type of performance every Wednesday night. A big thank you to announcer Jerry Mackey for the mention of Positively Racing, especially since my colleagues Dick and Joyce Eisele and Ed Reichert were also in attendance. Click on the links to get their frigid point of view and I can guarantee you that the weather for next Wednesday's racing at Osky will be better!
Next up for me, weather permitting, will be the Sprint Invaders opener at the Quincy Raceways on Sunday night. Hope to see you there!
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Prepping for Osky and Who Wants a Dollar?
I have been to five races so far in 2019 and at four of them I had to bundle up and slide down into my sleeping bag in order to stay warm. Make fun of me if you'd like, but I figured out a long time ago that this was more effective than wearing Carhart's and boots! The one race that I didn't take "the bag" in for was this past Saturday at 34 Raceway because the thermometer had reached the mid-70's during the day. But let me tell you, once the sun disappeared over the horizon and with the steady wind that was blowing from left to right as I was sitting in the stands, I was still wishing that I was huddled up in the bag!
So this brings us to tonight, Wednesday April 10th, where the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa will open its 2019 racing under less than ideal weather conditions. Hopefully you were not one who checked the forecast for Wednesday a couple of days ago when there was a 90% chance of rain listed and gave up on going......because the Southern Iowa Speedway did not give up. It is bizarre that the weather can be so bad in areas not so far away today and tonight, but still remain dry enough for racing in Oskaloosa and that just proves why you just need to be patient and see how things play out anytime that the weather forecast is not looking good for a race day that is still more than a day out.
At 4 p.m. it is cloudy and windy in Oskaloosa with a temperature of forty-five degrees. Not exactly ideal for racing, but at least the temperature is supposed to remain steady throughout the night so pack everything you have and come on out and see what happens on opening night. Take my advice, bring your sleeping bag to sit in as well.
It's quiz time here on the Back Stretch and if you have been a regular reader of my work for the past forty years you will have a better chance of winning the grand prize of one dollar, or "the standard bet" as my kids cringe about whenever they want to challenge me on something. On one of the racing forums a poster stated that in both of his incidents on Friday night at Marshalltown, Damon Murty had hit a hole just prior to getting contact from the other car. I didn't see it the same way, but that is what is great about racing, we can all see an incident in different ways. For example, if this fan was positioned more toward turn one than I was, he would have had a much better view of both incidents and could be absolutely correct in regard to what caused the contact. Honestly, that is why I was careful in writing my account of what happened because I didn't feel that I could place "blame" on either driver in either of the two incidents.
It was good hard racing and definitely very entertaining for the fans, but here is the "Back Stretch reader's quiz" portion of today's blog. Reading this story, what do you feel is the underlying point that I wanted to make? Send in your answers as a comment here on the blog page only, do not reply on the Facebook page, and the first correct answer will receive one well worn dollar bill the next time that I see you at the race track.
I will likely have more thoughts on the Cody Sommer/Scott Bloomquist announcement at some point, but my first thought is this. Won't this be a conflict of interest at the two major events promoted by Sommer? The young man certainly seems to be a marketing genius when it comes to dirt track racing right now.
Bundle up and I will see you tonight at Osky
So this brings us to tonight, Wednesday April 10th, where the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa will open its 2019 racing under less than ideal weather conditions. Hopefully you were not one who checked the forecast for Wednesday a couple of days ago when there was a 90% chance of rain listed and gave up on going......because the Southern Iowa Speedway did not give up. It is bizarre that the weather can be so bad in areas not so far away today and tonight, but still remain dry enough for racing in Oskaloosa and that just proves why you just need to be patient and see how things play out anytime that the weather forecast is not looking good for a race day that is still more than a day out.
At 4 p.m. it is cloudy and windy in Oskaloosa with a temperature of forty-five degrees. Not exactly ideal for racing, but at least the temperature is supposed to remain steady throughout the night so pack everything you have and come on out and see what happens on opening night. Take my advice, bring your sleeping bag to sit in as well.
It's quiz time here on the Back Stretch and if you have been a regular reader of my work for the past forty years you will have a better chance of winning the grand prize of one dollar, or "the standard bet" as my kids cringe about whenever they want to challenge me on something. On one of the racing forums a poster stated that in both of his incidents on Friday night at Marshalltown, Damon Murty had hit a hole just prior to getting contact from the other car. I didn't see it the same way, but that is what is great about racing, we can all see an incident in different ways. For example, if this fan was positioned more toward turn one than I was, he would have had a much better view of both incidents and could be absolutely correct in regard to what caused the contact. Honestly, that is why I was careful in writing my account of what happened because I didn't feel that I could place "blame" on either driver in either of the two incidents.
It was good hard racing and definitely very entertaining for the fans, but here is the "Back Stretch reader's quiz" portion of today's blog. Reading this story, what do you feel is the underlying point that I wanted to make? Send in your answers as a comment here on the blog page only, do not reply on the Facebook page, and the first correct answer will receive one well worn dollar bill the next time that I see you at the race track.
I will likely have more thoughts on the Cody Sommer/Scott Bloomquist announcement at some point, but my first thought is this. Won't this be a conflict of interest at the two major events promoted by Sommer? The young man certainly seems to be a marketing genius when it comes to dirt track racing right now.
Bundle up and I will see you tonight at Osky
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Short Sprints To IRA/MOWA Win At 34 Raceway
Carson Short is getting this wing thing figured out, and fast. One week after scoring a USCS sanctioned winged 360 Sprint car win in Lexington, Tennessee, the driver from Marion, Illinois, who is more known for his prowess without the wing picked up the win on the opening night for both the IRA and MOWA 410 series Saturday night at 34 Raceway.
A solid field of thirty-six drivers signed in on a sunny, but breezy late afternoon where the temperatures topped the seventy degree mark for the first time in 2019 and after four heats and a B-Main the twenty-four car starting field was set for the twenty-five lap finale. Scott Nietzel and Scotty Thiel would bring the field to green, but when the eight time IRA champion Bill Balog slipped over the top of turn one, a full start was needed with Balog having to drop to the back of the grid.
Once underway Thiel would lead the opening lap, but he went a bit too high in turn two the second time around and that allowed both Nietzel and Austin McCarl to get by him. McCarl would then put the heat on the new leader and as Austin charged under him in turn three on lap four, Neitzel would spin sideways on the cushion collecting Thiel who had no time to react before making contact.
It was announced that under series rules both drivers would be given two minutes to make repairs once they reached the work area and while Thiel was able to push off within that time limit, Neitzel and his crew took the longest "two minutes" ever with the car parked just off the track before they were finally encouraged to have a wrecker pick up the front end of the car and tow it to the pits. McCarl would now assume the lead for the restart with the sixth starting Carson Short in second and the defending IRA champion Jake Blackhurst would line up in fourth after originally starting the race from the outside of row seven.
Blackhurst would move to third shortly after the restart, but only five more laps would be scored before local favorite Josh Schneiderman slipped off the top of turn one. On this restart Blackhurst would make a run at Short into turn one with the two making contact allowing McCarl to open up a solid advantage. Short would cut into that lead quickly though and as the two leaders started to work lapped traffic he was ready to challenge. The red flag put a halt to that though as Jeremy Schultz did a wing bender in turn four with ten laps remaining.
McCarl was able to pull away from Short on the restart, but when the 2018 Knoxville Raceway track champion got into turn four a bit too hot he drifted up into the crumbs leaving the door open for Short to charge through. The caution waved one last time with seven laps remaining when Russell Borland spun in turn two and on the restart McCarl gave it his all trying to make up for the mistake.
Short was able to ward off the challenge though and with the laps running out before he would even catch the lapped traffic McCarl could not reel him in as Short captured the victory. McCarl would come home second with Brooke Tatnell coming from eighth to finish third. Blackhurst would get his title defense off to a good start as he was the best of the IRA regulars in fourth while "The Gladiator" Ben Schmidt finished where he started in fifth. Joey Moughan was the best of the MOWA regulars in sixth, Balog rallied from the rear of the field to seventh, Paul Nienheiser was eighth, ninth went to Mike Reinke and Lynton Jeffrey completed the top ten. Defending MOWA champion Jacob Patton watched the feature from his trailer after coming up one spot short of a transfer from the B-Main.
MOWA was scheduled to open up on Friday night at Jacksonville, but that race was postponed to Sunday April 7th with an afternoon start. The next event for the IRA Sprints will be on Saturday April 20th at the Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin.
IMCA Stock Cars and Sport Compacts were also on the schedule with twelve of the thirteen Stock Cars that signed in taking the green for a twenty-five lap main event. David Brandies would take the point with John Oliver Jr. working on him in second, but as both leaders dug around the bottom Jason See went to the top and swept past them both as lap number two was scored. With See now edging away from them, Brandies and Oliver continued their battle that was now for second, but when See slowed suddenly in turn four the caution had to come out as he limped to the pits with just ten laps remaining.
So now the Brandies vs. Oliver battle was for the lead once again and it was a good one with Oliver throwing the slider at him in turn one on lap nineteen. Brandies turned back under him though and they raced door-to-door into turn three. Oliver now had the preferred top line, but when he stumbled for a split second on the cushion that allowed Brandies to return to the front as the lap was being scored.
Two laps later the same scenario would play out with Oliver diving deep into turn one and then sliding up in front of Brandies in turn two, only to have Brandies cross him over and pull even with Oliver going down the back stretch, This time though in three and four Oliver was as smooth as he could be up on the cushion and his momentum off the top of turn four would officially make him the leader of lap twenty-one.
Brandies did everything he could to get back to Oliver over the final four laps, but there was no catching the defending All Iowa Points Stock Car champion from winning the season opener at his home track. Brandies finished just of Abe Huls for second while Kirk Kinsley and Jeremy Pundt rounded out the top five.
Twelve laps would be the distance for the sixteen Sport Compacts on hand and the hottest driver in the area right now is Jacob Houston. After winning both nights at Donnellson's Spring Extravaganza two weeks ago, Houston drove past two-time defending All Iowa Points champion Barry Taft on lap two and then held off a couple of late race charges by Taft to score his third straight feature win. Brandon Reu executed the "bump and run: to perfection to get around Taft in the closing laps to take second with Jason Ash and Larry Miller running fourth and fifth. This race was interrupted just once when Jarrod Nichols apparently lost a wheel exiting turn two on lap eight and put his "Pink Pig" #15 upside down on the back stretch.
The Mountain Dew Kick Start regular season opener will take place next Saturday April 13th at 34 Raceway and on the following Saturday night, April 20th, the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Model Series, and other big names in the world of Super Late Model racing will converge on 34 Raceway for the 11th Annual Slocum 50. We hope to see you there!
A solid field of thirty-six drivers signed in on a sunny, but breezy late afternoon where the temperatures topped the seventy degree mark for the first time in 2019 and after four heats and a B-Main the twenty-four car starting field was set for the twenty-five lap finale. Scott Nietzel and Scotty Thiel would bring the field to green, but when the eight time IRA champion Bill Balog slipped over the top of turn one, a full start was needed with Balog having to drop to the back of the grid.
Once underway Thiel would lead the opening lap, but he went a bit too high in turn two the second time around and that allowed both Nietzel and Austin McCarl to get by him. McCarl would then put the heat on the new leader and as Austin charged under him in turn three on lap four, Neitzel would spin sideways on the cushion collecting Thiel who had no time to react before making contact.
It was announced that under series rules both drivers would be given two minutes to make repairs once they reached the work area and while Thiel was able to push off within that time limit, Neitzel and his crew took the longest "two minutes" ever with the car parked just off the track before they were finally encouraged to have a wrecker pick up the front end of the car and tow it to the pits. McCarl would now assume the lead for the restart with the sixth starting Carson Short in second and the defending IRA champion Jake Blackhurst would line up in fourth after originally starting the race from the outside of row seven.
Blackhurst would move to third shortly after the restart, but only five more laps would be scored before local favorite Josh Schneiderman slipped off the top of turn one. On this restart Blackhurst would make a run at Short into turn one with the two making contact allowing McCarl to open up a solid advantage. Short would cut into that lead quickly though and as the two leaders started to work lapped traffic he was ready to challenge. The red flag put a halt to that though as Jeremy Schultz did a wing bender in turn four with ten laps remaining.
McCarl was able to pull away from Short on the restart, but when the 2018 Knoxville Raceway track champion got into turn four a bit too hot he drifted up into the crumbs leaving the door open for Short to charge through. The caution waved one last time with seven laps remaining when Russell Borland spun in turn two and on the restart McCarl gave it his all trying to make up for the mistake.
Short was able to ward off the challenge though and with the laps running out before he would even catch the lapped traffic McCarl could not reel him in as Short captured the victory. McCarl would come home second with Brooke Tatnell coming from eighth to finish third. Blackhurst would get his title defense off to a good start as he was the best of the IRA regulars in fourth while "The Gladiator" Ben Schmidt finished where he started in fifth. Joey Moughan was the best of the MOWA regulars in sixth, Balog rallied from the rear of the field to seventh, Paul Nienheiser was eighth, ninth went to Mike Reinke and Lynton Jeffrey completed the top ten. Defending MOWA champion Jacob Patton watched the feature from his trailer after coming up one spot short of a transfer from the B-Main.
MOWA was scheduled to open up on Friday night at Jacksonville, but that race was postponed to Sunday April 7th with an afternoon start. The next event for the IRA Sprints will be on Saturday April 20th at the Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin.
IMCA Stock Cars and Sport Compacts were also on the schedule with twelve of the thirteen Stock Cars that signed in taking the green for a twenty-five lap main event. David Brandies would take the point with John Oliver Jr. working on him in second, but as both leaders dug around the bottom Jason See went to the top and swept past them both as lap number two was scored. With See now edging away from them, Brandies and Oliver continued their battle that was now for second, but when See slowed suddenly in turn four the caution had to come out as he limped to the pits with just ten laps remaining.
So now the Brandies vs. Oliver battle was for the lead once again and it was a good one with Oliver throwing the slider at him in turn one on lap nineteen. Brandies turned back under him though and they raced door-to-door into turn three. Oliver now had the preferred top line, but when he stumbled for a split second on the cushion that allowed Brandies to return to the front as the lap was being scored.
Two laps later the same scenario would play out with Oliver diving deep into turn one and then sliding up in front of Brandies in turn two, only to have Brandies cross him over and pull even with Oliver going down the back stretch, This time though in three and four Oliver was as smooth as he could be up on the cushion and his momentum off the top of turn four would officially make him the leader of lap twenty-one.
Brandies did everything he could to get back to Oliver over the final four laps, but there was no catching the defending All Iowa Points Stock Car champion from winning the season opener at his home track. Brandies finished just of Abe Huls for second while Kirk Kinsley and Jeremy Pundt rounded out the top five.
Twelve laps would be the distance for the sixteen Sport Compacts on hand and the hottest driver in the area right now is Jacob Houston. After winning both nights at Donnellson's Spring Extravaganza two weeks ago, Houston drove past two-time defending All Iowa Points champion Barry Taft on lap two and then held off a couple of late race charges by Taft to score his third straight feature win. Brandon Reu executed the "bump and run: to perfection to get around Taft in the closing laps to take second with Jason Ash and Larry Miller running fourth and fifth. This race was interrupted just once when Jarrod Nichols apparently lost a wheel exiting turn two on lap eight and put his "Pink Pig" #15 upside down on the back stretch.
The Mountain Dew Kick Start regular season opener will take place next Saturday April 13th at 34 Raceway and on the following Saturday night, April 20th, the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Model Series, and other big names in the world of Super Late Model racing will converge on 34 Raceway for the 11th Annual Slocum 50. We hope to see you there!
Grabouski, Brown, Carter and Watson Break The Frost In Fashion At Marshalltown
If anybody had a concern about the car count for the IMCA Frostbusters given that the weather had reduced the schedule from four shows to two, that was blown out of the water when 173 drivers in four divisions made their way to the Marshalltown Speedway Friday night. In fact the rush of entries created a thirty minute delay in the start of racing as officials worked to get everybody entered on the electronic scoring system, but the wait was well worth it with multi-groove racing and sliders, or White Castles as announcer Jerry Van Sickle calls them, all night long around the high banked quarter-mile oval. Marshalltown continues to climb my list of favorite race tracks and it is now firmly in my top five.
With qualifying action for the four divisions in the books, the Hobby Stocks would be first up come feature time with the twenty-four car field lined up for fifteen laps. John Watson drew the outside of row one and he would set a quick pace with Corey Madden applying some pressure. Usually this would be the point of the story where I would tell you how Shannon Anderson quickly moved up from his sixth row start, but surprisingly Shannon wasn't here tonight and with Watson being the class of the field this became a fifteen lap parade around the top side.
Watson was dominant in the victory with Madden chasing him in second. Dylan Nelson started sixth and finished third, Minnesota's Trevor Holm quickly moved from eighth to fourth, but his run would stop there while third starting Adam Ayers would complete the top five.
The action would pick up again in the Sport Mod feature with pole sitter Nate Whitehurst taking the early lead and Brayton Carter working in second. Carter would throw a big slider in turns three and four on lap four, but when he caught a ripple in turn four it caused him to hesitate and allowed Whitehurst to sweep past him once again. The caution would wave on lap seven when Carter VanDenberg spun in turn and on the restart Carter would complete the slide job on Whitehurst in turn two. Whitehurst would fire back down the back straightaway diving deep into turn three. As he slid up the track in four though he caught that same lip and it turned his car hard right where he was able to get it stopped before hitting the wall head on.
With Whitehurst now restarting at the rear, Carter would assume the lead and Doug Smith would now pick up the challenge. The northwest Iowa driver took a look to the inside a couple of times, but could not complete the pass as Brayton Carter would secure the win. Smith was the runner-up with Keokuk's Daniel Fellows running an impressive third after starting from eighth. Former All Iowa Points and IMCA National champion Tony Olson came from the outside of the sixth row to finish fourth and Nebraska's Tyler Nerud filled out the top five.
The Stock Car action will be remembered for two incidents involving the area's most prolific winner over the past twenty seasons. The first try at a start for the twenty lap feature looked like rush hour on the Kennedy with the lead pack going five wide into turn three. Devin Smith would get pinched off exiting turn four and when he slowed for a split second that caused the back of the field to stack up with Buck Schafroth and Jay Schmidt making hard contact. The damage would require a hook for Schafroth while Schmidt would try it again from his twenty-fourth and final starting position as Andrew Borchardt wondered what might have been after he had found his way to the front from fifth only to have the lap not scored due to the incident at the back.
The second start to the race was just as incredible with Dan Mackenthun leading the opening lap while Kyle Brown split the middle to come from seventh to second. Two laps later Brown would put his Camaro bodied "show car" out front as several drivers continued to charge from deep in the pack. Brian Blessington had started twelfth and he was now in contention, Elijah Zevenbergen came from the ninth row to get into the top five, Schmidt proved that the damage from his opening lap contact was just cosmetic and Damon Murty was flat out flying after starting twenty-second.
Using a line where he would enter turn one a bit higher than everybody else and then dive to the bottom to exit turn two, Murty was picking off a car or two a lap and with just six to go he was now up to second and ready to challenge Brown. But first, let's go back to the B-Main where Murty ended up in the third and final transfer position. Using that same line into turn one, when Murty set the car and turned left late in the race Cody Frerichs was there and contact would spin Murty and send Frerichs up and over a couple of times to bring out the red. As Frerichs climbed out of his damaged Stock Car uninjured, Murty was given his position back in the lineup where he completed his third place run to make the main event.
Back to the feature now, it was Brown out front followed closely by Murty and Devin Smith and when the leaders entered turn one after scoring lap sixteen it was like a repeat of the B-Main incident except this time as Murty spun, Smith was able to continue as the caution flag waved. After circling the track a few times under caution I am assuming that both drivers were told to go to the rear or Smith was sent to the pits, I'm not sure, but this time Murty was sent to the back of the pack for his involvement in the incident.
Once back to green Blessington made a run at Brown that he could not complete allowing Schmidt to get to second and on the final lap Schmidt tried to pull off the amazing back to front run but came up just short as Kyle Brown took the win. Schmidt and Blessington were next in line, Donavon Smith came from sixteenth to fourth and defending All Iowa Points champion John Oliver Jr. took fifth after starting from the inside of the tenth row.
The clock struck midnight as the Modifieds came to the track to close out the show and with two-time IMCA National Champion Jordan Grabouski starting from the front row, he was the odds on favorite in this twenty-five lap event.Tim Ward and Jeremy Mills kept the heat on Grabouski in the opening laps until Mills slipped over the top of turn one to bring out the first caution. Three more laps would be scored before Karl Brewer slipped off the top of turn one where he would get upside down to bring out the red.
Grabouski would open up his lead when the green flag returned and the race for second was the one to watch as Arizona natives Ward and Ricky Thornton Jr. were joined by Cayden Carter to make it a three car battle. Thornton would establish himself in second with ten laps to go, but he could not reel in the leader as Grabouski navigated traffic like a pro to take the flag-to-flag victory. Thornton Jr., Ward and Carter were next in line while Joel Rust came from thirteenth to finish fifth.
It was another great way to start the IMCA season here in Iowa and I have to thank my Positively Racing colleagues and friends Dick and Joyce Eisele for saving me a prime seat as the stands were quite full when I arrived just before hot laps. Make sure that you check out their account of the evening in the 4dFan Report. The Frostbusters wrap up tonight at the Boone Speedway and don't be surprised if the car count in these four classes goes even higher, plus the IMCA Racesaver Sprints will join the card which should guarantee that more than 200 cars will fill the pits.
For me it will be the IRA/MOWA Sprint Car opener at 34 Raceway near Burlington tonight with the Stock Cars and Sport Compacts also in action. Perhaps I will see you there!
With qualifying action for the four divisions in the books, the Hobby Stocks would be first up come feature time with the twenty-four car field lined up for fifteen laps. John Watson drew the outside of row one and he would set a quick pace with Corey Madden applying some pressure. Usually this would be the point of the story where I would tell you how Shannon Anderson quickly moved up from his sixth row start, but surprisingly Shannon wasn't here tonight and with Watson being the class of the field this became a fifteen lap parade around the top side.
Watson was dominant in the victory with Madden chasing him in second. Dylan Nelson started sixth and finished third, Minnesota's Trevor Holm quickly moved from eighth to fourth, but his run would stop there while third starting Adam Ayers would complete the top five.
The action would pick up again in the Sport Mod feature with pole sitter Nate Whitehurst taking the early lead and Brayton Carter working in second. Carter would throw a big slider in turns three and four on lap four, but when he caught a ripple in turn four it caused him to hesitate and allowed Whitehurst to sweep past him once again. The caution would wave on lap seven when Carter VanDenberg spun in turn and on the restart Carter would complete the slide job on Whitehurst in turn two. Whitehurst would fire back down the back straightaway diving deep into turn three. As he slid up the track in four though he caught that same lip and it turned his car hard right where he was able to get it stopped before hitting the wall head on.
With Whitehurst now restarting at the rear, Carter would assume the lead and Doug Smith would now pick up the challenge. The northwest Iowa driver took a look to the inside a couple of times, but could not complete the pass as Brayton Carter would secure the win. Smith was the runner-up with Keokuk's Daniel Fellows running an impressive third after starting from eighth. Former All Iowa Points and IMCA National champion Tony Olson came from the outside of the sixth row to finish fourth and Nebraska's Tyler Nerud filled out the top five.
The Stock Car action will be remembered for two incidents involving the area's most prolific winner over the past twenty seasons. The first try at a start for the twenty lap feature looked like rush hour on the Kennedy with the lead pack going five wide into turn three. Devin Smith would get pinched off exiting turn four and when he slowed for a split second that caused the back of the field to stack up with Buck Schafroth and Jay Schmidt making hard contact. The damage would require a hook for Schafroth while Schmidt would try it again from his twenty-fourth and final starting position as Andrew Borchardt wondered what might have been after he had found his way to the front from fifth only to have the lap not scored due to the incident at the back.
The second start to the race was just as incredible with Dan Mackenthun leading the opening lap while Kyle Brown split the middle to come from seventh to second. Two laps later Brown would put his Camaro bodied "show car" out front as several drivers continued to charge from deep in the pack. Brian Blessington had started twelfth and he was now in contention, Elijah Zevenbergen came from the ninth row to get into the top five, Schmidt proved that the damage from his opening lap contact was just cosmetic and Damon Murty was flat out flying after starting twenty-second.
Using a line where he would enter turn one a bit higher than everybody else and then dive to the bottom to exit turn two, Murty was picking off a car or two a lap and with just six to go he was now up to second and ready to challenge Brown. But first, let's go back to the B-Main where Murty ended up in the third and final transfer position. Using that same line into turn one, when Murty set the car and turned left late in the race Cody Frerichs was there and contact would spin Murty and send Frerichs up and over a couple of times to bring out the red. As Frerichs climbed out of his damaged Stock Car uninjured, Murty was given his position back in the lineup where he completed his third place run to make the main event.
Back to the feature now, it was Brown out front followed closely by Murty and Devin Smith and when the leaders entered turn one after scoring lap sixteen it was like a repeat of the B-Main incident except this time as Murty spun, Smith was able to continue as the caution flag waved. After circling the track a few times under caution I am assuming that both drivers were told to go to the rear or Smith was sent to the pits, I'm not sure, but this time Murty was sent to the back of the pack for his involvement in the incident.
Once back to green Blessington made a run at Brown that he could not complete allowing Schmidt to get to second and on the final lap Schmidt tried to pull off the amazing back to front run but came up just short as Kyle Brown took the win. Schmidt and Blessington were next in line, Donavon Smith came from sixteenth to fourth and defending All Iowa Points champion John Oliver Jr. took fifth after starting from the inside of the tenth row.
The clock struck midnight as the Modifieds came to the track to close out the show and with two-time IMCA National Champion Jordan Grabouski starting from the front row, he was the odds on favorite in this twenty-five lap event.Tim Ward and Jeremy Mills kept the heat on Grabouski in the opening laps until Mills slipped over the top of turn one to bring out the first caution. Three more laps would be scored before Karl Brewer slipped off the top of turn one where he would get upside down to bring out the red.
Grabouski would open up his lead when the green flag returned and the race for second was the one to watch as Arizona natives Ward and Ricky Thornton Jr. were joined by Cayden Carter to make it a three car battle. Thornton would establish himself in second with ten laps to go, but he could not reel in the leader as Grabouski navigated traffic like a pro to take the flag-to-flag victory. Thornton Jr., Ward and Carter were next in line while Joel Rust came from thirteenth to finish fifth.
It was another great way to start the IMCA season here in Iowa and I have to thank my Positively Racing colleagues and friends Dick and Joyce Eisele for saving me a prime seat as the stands were quite full when I arrived just before hot laps. Make sure that you check out their account of the evening in the 4dFan Report. The Frostbusters wrap up tonight at the Boone Speedway and don't be surprised if the car count in these four classes goes even higher, plus the IMCA Racesaver Sprints will join the card which should guarantee that more than 200 cars will fill the pits.
For me it will be the IRA/MOWA Sprint Car opener at 34 Raceway near Burlington tonight with the Stock Cars and Sport Compacts also in action. Perhaps I will see you there!
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
And Then There Were Two
As the schedules for 2019 came out it was this week that would give the avid dirt track fan an opportunity to go racing six nights in a row, something that we do not typically see until on, or after the Memorial Day weekend. The IMCA Frostbusters were set for a four night run from Wednesday through Saturday, the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa scheduled the inaugural Caleb Hammond Memorial for Tuesday and with season openers at Sunday night tracks like Dubuque, East Moline and Quincy a real "Super Fan" could have easily made it a six-race-week.
That is until the dominoes started to fall late last week. First it was the announcement that the Frostbuster at the Benton County Speedway would not be able to happen due to the wet grounds that linger from the late winter snow and cold. This created a shuffle where Stuart would then take the Thursday slot so that the Frostbusters would run three nights in a row rather than starting on Wednesday in Stuart and then having a day off before going to Marshalltown and Boone. I was curious to see if this would move Osky to Wednesday so I reached out to my contact there and he told me that they had not even been able to get on the track yet as of last Thursday. Therefore it was no surprise that after it rained on Friday that the track announced that the Caleb Hammond Memorial will now be held during the Southern Iowa Fair on Tuesday July 16th. Oskaloosa will now try to open its 2019 season on Wednesday April 10th.
The title of this entry on the Back Stretch refers to the IMCA Frostbusters as yesterday track owner/promoter Mike VanGenderen announced that the Thursday show had been cancelled as not only was the weather forecast looking bleak mid-week, but he was experiencing water issues as a city line had broken meaning that there would be no water for the kitchen or the restrooms. Stuart will now open its season on Wednesday April 17th with the Tim Stevens Memorial.
So that now leaves us with two IMCA Frostbusters, weather permitting of course as Marshalltown probably can't take as much rain in the day or two before an event coming out of this winter as it normally can. While at Boone, well I think that they proved last September that if they make the decision to race, they will race as long as it isn't actually raining when it comes time to take the green flag. Given the prospects of their own hometown tracks opening as originally scheduled this year, I am guessing that you will still see several travelers make their way to Marshalltown and Boone for the Frostbusters this weekend, especially when you consider that the temperatures will be getting up into the sixties to near seventy.
Marshalltown is one of my options on Friday night along with Midwest Open Wheel Association or MOWA Sprints Cars at the Jacksonville Speedway. If they run though, Marshalltown would get the nod as I would hope to see those same MOWA competitors on Saturday night when they go head-to-head with the Interstate Racing Association or IRA Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway near Burlington. The aforementioned season openers on Sunday are all possibilities the next night, but if I wanted to get up early and make the road trip, the Icebreaker 100 at the Dells Raceway Park currently has a pre-entry list of 30 Super Late Models for the Sunday afternoon show on the pavement.
Looking out into next week I have the opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on my calendar as well as Thursday's Bill Davis Memorial at the Marshalltown Speedway.
The folks at the 300 Raceway in Farley are getting some kudos for re-thinking the dates of the Yankee Dirt Classic. Last week we were told to mark our calendars for September 20th and 21st, but after considering a couple of other events already on the schedule for that weekend in Darlington and Burlington, those dates were pulled back and they are now looking for a weekend that will fit. Yes, this was a very classy move on the part of the new ownership and those that are working with the 300 Raceway, however when you look at the calendar can you tell me when they can actually schedule the 42nd Annual YDC without stepping on somebody's toes? Can't go with the first weekend in September as that is Boone and the second weekend would be up against Marshalltown and Knoxville. The third weekend has been ruled out and the fourth weekend of September has the Deery finale at Davenport and the Rumble at Dubuque. The first weekend in October is the Darkside Fall Bash at Tipton, so maybe the second weekend in October might work?
Keep in mind that while finding a date for this event is a "problem" for the promoters, it just goes to show why I consider this to be the absolute best area to live in if you are a fan of dirt track racing!
One area that now faces some struggles that it didn't anticipate a month ago is the Kansas City area as the revival of the I-70 Speedway in Odessa is now in doubt for 2019 due to hurdles in getting the necessary permits. Add that to the major flooding at the Lakeside Speedway where they are now estimating a best case scenario of opening the first week in June and that will reduce the number of options for drivers and fans in the area. The ASCS Warrior Region Sprint Cars stand to lose all four of the events that they had scheduled at I-70 as well as the Thursday May 9th event at Lakeside that they run along with the National Tour during Kansas City's Cup weekend at the big track. Not to worry too much though as that would still leave the Warriors with twenty nights of racing on the 2019 schedule.
Speaking of the ASCS did you know that Harli White won her first ever sanctioned feature event last Friday night at the I-30 Speedway in Little Rock? This was a combination event for the Lone Star, Mid-South and Sooner Regions where the young lady started fourth and then held off former National Tour champions Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Wayne Johnson to take the win. One major addition to Harli's team this year is former championship driver Johnny Herrera who has stepped away from driving to serve as White's crew chief for 2019. It will be interesting to see if this new combination can get back to victory lane more often, perhaps even on the ASCS National Tour.
That's it for today, hopefully you have some racing plans for the coming weekend as well and maybe we will find you on the Back Stretch.
That is until the dominoes started to fall late last week. First it was the announcement that the Frostbuster at the Benton County Speedway would not be able to happen due to the wet grounds that linger from the late winter snow and cold. This created a shuffle where Stuart would then take the Thursday slot so that the Frostbusters would run three nights in a row rather than starting on Wednesday in Stuart and then having a day off before going to Marshalltown and Boone. I was curious to see if this would move Osky to Wednesday so I reached out to my contact there and he told me that they had not even been able to get on the track yet as of last Thursday. Therefore it was no surprise that after it rained on Friday that the track announced that the Caleb Hammond Memorial will now be held during the Southern Iowa Fair on Tuesday July 16th. Oskaloosa will now try to open its 2019 season on Wednesday April 10th.
The title of this entry on the Back Stretch refers to the IMCA Frostbusters as yesterday track owner/promoter Mike VanGenderen announced that the Thursday show had been cancelled as not only was the weather forecast looking bleak mid-week, but he was experiencing water issues as a city line had broken meaning that there would be no water for the kitchen or the restrooms. Stuart will now open its season on Wednesday April 17th with the Tim Stevens Memorial.
So that now leaves us with two IMCA Frostbusters, weather permitting of course as Marshalltown probably can't take as much rain in the day or two before an event coming out of this winter as it normally can. While at Boone, well I think that they proved last September that if they make the decision to race, they will race as long as it isn't actually raining when it comes time to take the green flag. Given the prospects of their own hometown tracks opening as originally scheduled this year, I am guessing that you will still see several travelers make their way to Marshalltown and Boone for the Frostbusters this weekend, especially when you consider that the temperatures will be getting up into the sixties to near seventy.
Marshalltown is one of my options on Friday night along with Midwest Open Wheel Association or MOWA Sprints Cars at the Jacksonville Speedway. If they run though, Marshalltown would get the nod as I would hope to see those same MOWA competitors on Saturday night when they go head-to-head with the Interstate Racing Association or IRA Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway near Burlington. The aforementioned season openers on Sunday are all possibilities the next night, but if I wanted to get up early and make the road trip, the Icebreaker 100 at the Dells Raceway Park currently has a pre-entry list of 30 Super Late Models for the Sunday afternoon show on the pavement.
Looking out into next week I have the opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on my calendar as well as Thursday's Bill Davis Memorial at the Marshalltown Speedway.
The folks at the 300 Raceway in Farley are getting some kudos for re-thinking the dates of the Yankee Dirt Classic. Last week we were told to mark our calendars for September 20th and 21st, but after considering a couple of other events already on the schedule for that weekend in Darlington and Burlington, those dates were pulled back and they are now looking for a weekend that will fit. Yes, this was a very classy move on the part of the new ownership and those that are working with the 300 Raceway, however when you look at the calendar can you tell me when they can actually schedule the 42nd Annual YDC without stepping on somebody's toes? Can't go with the first weekend in September as that is Boone and the second weekend would be up against Marshalltown and Knoxville. The third weekend has been ruled out and the fourth weekend of September has the Deery finale at Davenport and the Rumble at Dubuque. The first weekend in October is the Darkside Fall Bash at Tipton, so maybe the second weekend in October might work?
Keep in mind that while finding a date for this event is a "problem" for the promoters, it just goes to show why I consider this to be the absolute best area to live in if you are a fan of dirt track racing!
One area that now faces some struggles that it didn't anticipate a month ago is the Kansas City area as the revival of the I-70 Speedway in Odessa is now in doubt for 2019 due to hurdles in getting the necessary permits. Add that to the major flooding at the Lakeside Speedway where they are now estimating a best case scenario of opening the first week in June and that will reduce the number of options for drivers and fans in the area. The ASCS Warrior Region Sprint Cars stand to lose all four of the events that they had scheduled at I-70 as well as the Thursday May 9th event at Lakeside that they run along with the National Tour during Kansas City's Cup weekend at the big track. Not to worry too much though as that would still leave the Warriors with twenty nights of racing on the 2019 schedule.
Speaking of the ASCS did you know that Harli White won her first ever sanctioned feature event last Friday night at the I-30 Speedway in Little Rock? This was a combination event for the Lone Star, Mid-South and Sooner Regions where the young lady started fourth and then held off former National Tour champions Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Wayne Johnson to take the win. One major addition to Harli's team this year is former championship driver Johnny Herrera who has stepped away from driving to serve as White's crew chief for 2019. It will be interesting to see if this new combination can get back to victory lane more often, perhaps even on the ASCS National Tour.
That's it for today, hopefully you have some racing plans for the coming weekend as well and maybe we will find you on the Back Stretch.
Monday, April 1, 2019
Tyler Erb Takes A Thriller At LaSalle
It was colder than had been forecast. It was windier than had been forecast. But for those die-hard race fans that bundled up and made their way to the LaSalle Speedway on Sunday afternoon for the abbreviated 2019 version of the Thaw Brawl, it was well worth the chill as they were treated to a spectacular 75-lap Late Model main event that saw nine lead changes between five different drivers with the winner still in question until the final set of turns.
Originally scheduled to be a Friday and Saturday event, the track's annual season opener was pushed to a Saturday and Sunday plan based upon the rain that was in the forecast. A practice session was able to beat the rain on Friday evening, but when too much precipitation came overnight Saturday's event was postponed to July 20th with this one now being a big-paying one-day show on Sunday afternoon.
With a forecast for sunny skies and a high around 44 with just a light wind from the west, we decided to make the nearly three hour trip knowing that racing was scheduled to take the green at 3 p.m. When we arrived at the high-banked quarter-mile though, the temperature was still stuck at 37 with a brisk north wind. Thank goodness the sun was out bright though as that gave us hope and when the wind shifted more to the west that made viewing conditions much better, especially since the grandstands here face to the east.
With $15,000 on the line for the winner of the American Ethanol Late Model Tour opener the 31-car field was stacked with talent and the first qualifying heat race took the green around 3:15. The top five finishers from the three heats as well as the top five from the one B-Main would qualify for the 75-lap headliner and one provisional would be added based upon the final point standings in 2018.
Kyle Bronson and Jason Feger would bring the field to green with Bronson getting the edge to lead lap one, but third starting Brian Shirley was digging around the bottom and he would take the point as the second lap was scored. The next two circuits would prove that we had a two groove racetrack to work with as Bronson came back on the cushion to lead lap three only to have Shirley regain the advantage on lap four. Before Shirley could be the first to lead two consecutive laps though Scott Schmitt spun to the infield at the exit of turn two to require the first caution of the event.
Once back to action Shirley would take command leading the field through a lap thirteen caution for Hudson O'Neal's spin in turn two and Shirley would continue to set the pace until lapped traffic created a challenger for him on lap twenty-six. With Bronson still riding the topside he would again sweep around Shirley for the lead on lap twenty-eight only to give it right back to Shirley on the next circuit.
Traffic was still a concern for the leader though and on lap thirty-two when he clipped the right rear of Bob Gardner entering turn one it turned the lapped car a bit sideways. Gardner was able to make the save, but when the defending Ethanol Tour champion Brandon Thirlby had to check up to miss Gardner, he slid to a stop bringing out the next caution.
Only one more lap was scored following the restart as Shannon Babb slowed with an apparent flat tire and following that restart Bronson again went to the treacherous top to try to make his run at the leader. When Bronson jumped the cushion on lap thirty-eight though he broke a J-bar and limped to the pits with the race staying green. Shirley was now in command, but it did not last long as on lap forty-two the leader slowed coming out of turn four to bring out the next caution.
After pitting to change a flat, Shirley rejoined the field as the race went back to green with Chris Simpson the new leader in the Hoker Trucking car #32. After the demise of Bronson it looked like everybody had given up on the top as Simpson was the leader of the parade around the bottom until he caught the back of the field. Bob Gardner was also glued to the bottom and after following him for a couple of laps, Simpson tried to enter the turns one groove higher than the lapped car in hope of letting him know that a race was coming and that he was now in it.
Gardner did not yield though and Simpson settled back in behind the lapped car as his challengers Bobby Pierce and Tyler Erb closed in. Neither of the young chargers were content with just following the leader though and when they showed their nose up top Simpson knew that he had to go and get around the lapped car of Gardner. Simpson again tried to use the middle and even the cushion to dispatch Gardner and coming to lap sixty-three Gardner slipped a bit wide off turn four and Simpson tried to squeeze below him. Pierce was already there though and when those two leaders made contact at the flagstand not only did it allow Gardner to again shut the door into turn one, it also gave Erb the chance that he needed to make a run.
As Simpson and Pierce gathered their rides after the contact, Erb charged around the top of turns one and two to take the lead before tucking back down to the bottom still behind Gardner, but now ahead of both Simpson and Pierce. Not to be outdone Pierce now went to the top on both ends of the speedway and after getting around Simpson for second in one lap he then took the lead from Erb on lap sixty-six. All three contenders would finally get around Gardner on the following lap and the chase was now on.
The top was definitely fast, but it was now quite rough as well especially in turn two so Pierce went back to the bottom while Erb still tried to cowboy up around the rim. Lapped traffic would come back into play with just five laps to go though as Pierce closed in on Travis Stemler who had started the race as the series provisional. Pierce was able to squeeze under Stemler through three and four and with Erb catching the cushion just right they passed the flagstand three-wide with just four laps to go.
Pierce would be even with him exiting turn two, but Erb's momentum off the cushion allowed him to pull ahead and then shut the door on Pierce as they both raced low into turn three. Sticking with the cushion in turns one and two Erb wheel hopped the car three times nearly losing control so after the white flag waved he went to the bottom and was able to hold off Pierce to take the exciting win. Simpson was now several car lengths back in third, Dennis Erb Jr. finished fourth while B-Main winner Ricky Weiss came from sixteenth to fifth. Defending All Iowa Points champion Jeremiah Hurst was solid all day in the Roberts Racing #58 to finish in sixth, Thirlby is off to a good start in his title defense by finishing seventh ahead of Rich Bell, Spencer Diercks and Stemler.
Thaw Brawl Notes.....Tyler Erb's win came after starting eleventh on the 21-car grid......Kudos to the American Ethanol Tour's qualifying method that saw the top three cars in each heat inverted with the top five finishers transferring to the main event. Each heat race winner then drew for positions one, two and three in the feature lineup. Erb briefly panned the invert during his victory lane interview, but come on Tyler, isn't it more fun to win a race by actually having to pass some people? I know that this fan, and everybody else who paid $35 for a ticket on this cold and windy day sure appreciated your victory more under this format......I also want to thank the Tour for only running one B-Main for the sixteen cars that had still not made the show after the heats. This means that "the true" top-five from this race are making the show and it was a good battle with Frankie Heckenast edging out Eric Spangler by a nose for the final transfer spot. I see way too many events now that will take a field like this and split them into two eight-car B-Mains as if to say "sorry guys we don't trust that we can put all sixteen of you out there at once and not have you drive all over each other." Deery Brothers, Dirt Knights Tour, others, are you paying attention?,,,,,It was notable though that the Ethanol Tour only granted one series provisional with the 2018 points runner-up Travis Stemler getting the nod. With big money on the line drawing in a strong field, and with the Tour opener coming outside of its home base in Michigan, only seven projected "regulars" were in attendance. The defending champ Thirlby had the best finish in seventh, Sheffield, Illinois, driver Rich Bell who has made the trip into Michigan to follow the Ethanol Tour the past two seasons finished eighth. Stemler made the most of his provisional by running tenth while Logan Arntz finished twelfth. Eric Spangler just missed making the show leaving him in the trailer for the feature along with Chad Finley and Mike Vandermark......The next two events for the American Ethanol Late Model Tour will be on Friday April 19th at the I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan, and Saturday April 20th at the Plymouth Speedway in northwest Indiana.....There was a forty-five minute intermission to re-work the track before the features and then another fifteen minutes were needed when the pickup truck that had the mister tank in the back was parked at the top of turn four as the Late Models came onto the track. Parked on the banking water was flowing out of the tank and running down the track and once one of the infield workers noticed it he ran over to the truck to tell the driver to get it moved. The water continued to stream out of the bed of the truck as it was turned around and driven around the bottom of turns three and four before exiting the speedway. Promoter Tony Izzo then had to bring out more equipment to break up the now soaked portions of the track so that the drivers could then pack it in under their parade laps. All said, given the way the feature race played out, the one hour wait was well worth it......That wait though now put the end of the victory lane ceremonies for the Late Models past six o'clock so when there were three straight cautions at the start of the American Ethanol Tour Modified feature we made the choice to hit the road for home in our cozy sun-warmed vehicle..... Front row starters Allen Weisser and Frank Marshall finished one-two in the Ethanol Modified Tour feature while Ricky Thornton Jr. took the IMCA Modified honors and Skyler Woods bested a five car field of Sport Mods. For details on those three races along with another point of view on the Thaw Brawl check out Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels and for even more Positively Racing coverage of the Late Models check in with Danny Rosencrans on Racin' Down The Road.
Originally scheduled to be a Friday and Saturday event, the track's annual season opener was pushed to a Saturday and Sunday plan based upon the rain that was in the forecast. A practice session was able to beat the rain on Friday evening, but when too much precipitation came overnight Saturday's event was postponed to July 20th with this one now being a big-paying one-day show on Sunday afternoon.
With a forecast for sunny skies and a high around 44 with just a light wind from the west, we decided to make the nearly three hour trip knowing that racing was scheduled to take the green at 3 p.m. When we arrived at the high-banked quarter-mile though, the temperature was still stuck at 37 with a brisk north wind. Thank goodness the sun was out bright though as that gave us hope and when the wind shifted more to the west that made viewing conditions much better, especially since the grandstands here face to the east.
With $15,000 on the line for the winner of the American Ethanol Late Model Tour opener the 31-car field was stacked with talent and the first qualifying heat race took the green around 3:15. The top five finishers from the three heats as well as the top five from the one B-Main would qualify for the 75-lap headliner and one provisional would be added based upon the final point standings in 2018.
Kyle Bronson and Jason Feger would bring the field to green with Bronson getting the edge to lead lap one, but third starting Brian Shirley was digging around the bottom and he would take the point as the second lap was scored. The next two circuits would prove that we had a two groove racetrack to work with as Bronson came back on the cushion to lead lap three only to have Shirley regain the advantage on lap four. Before Shirley could be the first to lead two consecutive laps though Scott Schmitt spun to the infield at the exit of turn two to require the first caution of the event.
Once back to action Shirley would take command leading the field through a lap thirteen caution for Hudson O'Neal's spin in turn two and Shirley would continue to set the pace until lapped traffic created a challenger for him on lap twenty-six. With Bronson still riding the topside he would again sweep around Shirley for the lead on lap twenty-eight only to give it right back to Shirley on the next circuit.
Traffic was still a concern for the leader though and on lap thirty-two when he clipped the right rear of Bob Gardner entering turn one it turned the lapped car a bit sideways. Gardner was able to make the save, but when the defending Ethanol Tour champion Brandon Thirlby had to check up to miss Gardner, he slid to a stop bringing out the next caution.
Only one more lap was scored following the restart as Shannon Babb slowed with an apparent flat tire and following that restart Bronson again went to the treacherous top to try to make his run at the leader. When Bronson jumped the cushion on lap thirty-eight though he broke a J-bar and limped to the pits with the race staying green. Shirley was now in command, but it did not last long as on lap forty-two the leader slowed coming out of turn four to bring out the next caution.
After pitting to change a flat, Shirley rejoined the field as the race went back to green with Chris Simpson the new leader in the Hoker Trucking car #32. After the demise of Bronson it looked like everybody had given up on the top as Simpson was the leader of the parade around the bottom until he caught the back of the field. Bob Gardner was also glued to the bottom and after following him for a couple of laps, Simpson tried to enter the turns one groove higher than the lapped car in hope of letting him know that a race was coming and that he was now in it.
Gardner did not yield though and Simpson settled back in behind the lapped car as his challengers Bobby Pierce and Tyler Erb closed in. Neither of the young chargers were content with just following the leader though and when they showed their nose up top Simpson knew that he had to go and get around the lapped car of Gardner. Simpson again tried to use the middle and even the cushion to dispatch Gardner and coming to lap sixty-three Gardner slipped a bit wide off turn four and Simpson tried to squeeze below him. Pierce was already there though and when those two leaders made contact at the flagstand not only did it allow Gardner to again shut the door into turn one, it also gave Erb the chance that he needed to make a run.
As Simpson and Pierce gathered their rides after the contact, Erb charged around the top of turns one and two to take the lead before tucking back down to the bottom still behind Gardner, but now ahead of both Simpson and Pierce. Not to be outdone Pierce now went to the top on both ends of the speedway and after getting around Simpson for second in one lap he then took the lead from Erb on lap sixty-six. All three contenders would finally get around Gardner on the following lap and the chase was now on.
The top was definitely fast, but it was now quite rough as well especially in turn two so Pierce went back to the bottom while Erb still tried to cowboy up around the rim. Lapped traffic would come back into play with just five laps to go though as Pierce closed in on Travis Stemler who had started the race as the series provisional. Pierce was able to squeeze under Stemler through three and four and with Erb catching the cushion just right they passed the flagstand three-wide with just four laps to go.
Pierce would be even with him exiting turn two, but Erb's momentum off the cushion allowed him to pull ahead and then shut the door on Pierce as they both raced low into turn three. Sticking with the cushion in turns one and two Erb wheel hopped the car three times nearly losing control so after the white flag waved he went to the bottom and was able to hold off Pierce to take the exciting win. Simpson was now several car lengths back in third, Dennis Erb Jr. finished fourth while B-Main winner Ricky Weiss came from sixteenth to fifth. Defending All Iowa Points champion Jeremiah Hurst was solid all day in the Roberts Racing #58 to finish in sixth, Thirlby is off to a good start in his title defense by finishing seventh ahead of Rich Bell, Spencer Diercks and Stemler.
Thaw Brawl Notes.....Tyler Erb's win came after starting eleventh on the 21-car grid......Kudos to the American Ethanol Tour's qualifying method that saw the top three cars in each heat inverted with the top five finishers transferring to the main event. Each heat race winner then drew for positions one, two and three in the feature lineup. Erb briefly panned the invert during his victory lane interview, but come on Tyler, isn't it more fun to win a race by actually having to pass some people? I know that this fan, and everybody else who paid $35 for a ticket on this cold and windy day sure appreciated your victory more under this format......I also want to thank the Tour for only running one B-Main for the sixteen cars that had still not made the show after the heats. This means that "the true" top-five from this race are making the show and it was a good battle with Frankie Heckenast edging out Eric Spangler by a nose for the final transfer spot. I see way too many events now that will take a field like this and split them into two eight-car B-Mains as if to say "sorry guys we don't trust that we can put all sixteen of you out there at once and not have you drive all over each other." Deery Brothers, Dirt Knights Tour, others, are you paying attention?,,,,,It was notable though that the Ethanol Tour only granted one series provisional with the 2018 points runner-up Travis Stemler getting the nod. With big money on the line drawing in a strong field, and with the Tour opener coming outside of its home base in Michigan, only seven projected "regulars" were in attendance. The defending champ Thirlby had the best finish in seventh, Sheffield, Illinois, driver Rich Bell who has made the trip into Michigan to follow the Ethanol Tour the past two seasons finished eighth. Stemler made the most of his provisional by running tenth while Logan Arntz finished twelfth. Eric Spangler just missed making the show leaving him in the trailer for the feature along with Chad Finley and Mike Vandermark......The next two events for the American Ethanol Late Model Tour will be on Friday April 19th at the I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan, and Saturday April 20th at the Plymouth Speedway in northwest Indiana.....There was a forty-five minute intermission to re-work the track before the features and then another fifteen minutes were needed when the pickup truck that had the mister tank in the back was parked at the top of turn four as the Late Models came onto the track. Parked on the banking water was flowing out of the tank and running down the track and once one of the infield workers noticed it he ran over to the truck to tell the driver to get it moved. The water continued to stream out of the bed of the truck as it was turned around and driven around the bottom of turns three and four before exiting the speedway. Promoter Tony Izzo then had to bring out more equipment to break up the now soaked portions of the track so that the drivers could then pack it in under their parade laps. All said, given the way the feature race played out, the one hour wait was well worth it......That wait though now put the end of the victory lane ceremonies for the Late Models past six o'clock so when there were three straight cautions at the start of the American Ethanol Tour Modified feature we made the choice to hit the road for home in our cozy sun-warmed vehicle..... Front row starters Allen Weisser and Frank Marshall finished one-two in the Ethanol Modified Tour feature while Ricky Thornton Jr. took the IMCA Modified honors and Skyler Woods bested a five car field of Sport Mods. For details on those three races along with another point of view on the Thaw Brawl check out Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels and for even more Positively Racing coverage of the Late Models check in with Danny Rosencrans on Racin' Down The Road.
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