One of the biggest challenges for a promoter is when you are presenting a special event that is being threatened by weather. It is usually a "no win" situation as first of all you will have drivers and fans who will stay at home based upon the forecast, thus damaging your bottom line, and then if it does rain at some point during the program you are virtually guaranteed that somebody is not going to be happy with how you handle the situation. Tough challenges to face for any promoter, but when it is your first ever event in that role? Well let's just say that Rick and Corey Dripps faced the fury Saturday night as they presented the finale for the 2019 Dirt Knights IMCA Modified Tour at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton under threatening conditions and, as far as I am concerned, they passed the test.
One hundred and thirty seven cars in six classes signed in to compete, the Sport Mods leading the way with 36, and racing action started just a few minutes past six o'clock. Checking forecasts all day, the rain was not predicted to arrive until after ten o'clock and the heat races were clicking along at a pretty good pace until an incident in the pit area required an ambulance transport forcing the action to shut down for about fifteen minutes. During this break I would say that everybody, including the promoters, who had their phone with them checked the radar and could see that the rain was going to make an earlier than expected arrival and once we were back to racing it was not long after that hometown driver Jeremy Wheeler lost a wheel on his Four Cylinder while leading the heat race field into turn three and went for a wild ride ending up on his top in turn four.
After it was confirmed that Wheeler was out of the car and uninjured, much to the relief of the solid crowd that had thumbed their nose to the weather for one last chance to see some racing in Vinton this year, it was announced that the B-Main for the twenty-seven car field of IMCA Modifieds would be scrapped and that their feature, the main attraction of the night, would be run first even before the two B-Mains for the Sport Mods with all twenty-seven to make the start.
That was an excellent decision!
With the rain now just one county away the big field of Modifieds came to the quarter-mile oval that was about ten feet wider tonight than we have seen it in the past as the big tires that mark the infield had been pulled all the way back to the grass. I might have missed the explanation of how the lineup was set, but I have to assume that the top twelve in passing points from the heats races must have then had a draw for position as Joel Rust who had won his heat after starting eighth was lined up in the ninth position while Cayden Carter, another heat race winner from fifth, and Tim Ward who had advanced from fifth to fourth in his heat race would start the twenty-five lap main event from the front row.
The first attempt at a start did not stick as Bill Roberts Jr. spun in turn one collecting Brennen Chipp and Eric Barnes, so on the second wave of the green flag it would be Ward, the Arizona transplant, taking the lead on the high side. Carter was committed to the bottom and on lap six he would ease ahead of Ward to take the lead as drivers raced two and three wide throughout the pack behind him. Some of that three-wide traffic loomed just ahead of the leaders at the mid-race mark, but before they had to deal with it the caution would wave for Patrick Flannagan who had spun in turn two.
Ward and Richie Gustin would pair up behind Carter on the restart, but once back to racing it would be Jeff Aikey who would make it a three car battle for second. With Carter pulling away that three car tussle thoroughly entertained the crowd with Aikey taking the spot, but now needing a caution to have any chance at catching and passing Carter. That caution would come with just six laps remaining when Scott Simatovich sailed off the top of turn three and we were now set for a shootout as the stiff wind blowing into the stands picked up even more with lightning also flashing in the night sky.
When the green flag waved it was Gustin and Ward who dropped Aikey back in the running order and Gustin had now found the high line to be working to perfection for his #19G. The Dirt Knights Tour point leader coming into the night, Gustin would drive around Carter on the top to take the lad on lap twenty-one and while Carter tried to battle back for a couple of laps it would be Gustin pulling away for the victory and the Tour championship as the checkers waved. Carter would finish in second while Ward nipped a fast closing Joel Rust by inches for third. Jeff Larson moved from eighth to fifth, young Kollin Hibdon was sixth just ahead of his mentor Aikey. Eighth went to Todd Shute, Brock Bauman advanced nine spots to finish ninth and Troy Cordes completed the top ten.
I took another look at the radar to see that the green blob was now on the doorstep and since there was no doubt that this one would be a soaker I headed for the car as the first of two B-Mains for the Sport Mods was hustled onto the track. Rain drops were hitting my windshield two blocks from the speedway so I doubt that they got much further than that and checking Facebook and the ISC forum this morning I do not see anything about how everything was handled once the rain came.
What I do know is that the promoters did their absolute best with the rain arriving about ninety minutes earlier than had been predicted and due to their smart decision to move the featured attraction up in the program I was able to see what I plunked my fifteen bucks down for, so thank you Rick and Corey, I will look forward to seeing you often at "The Bullring" in 2020.
Rain has washed away the Iowa Sprint League show at the Quincy Raceways tonight and after spending sixteen hours by myself in the car chasing races the past three nights I am going to resist the urge to add six more hours to that total by driving to Rockford today for the National Short Track Championships, so perhaps you can take my seat there instead.
No racing for me next weekend as Grandpa and Grandma will be on baby sitting duty, so it will be the second weekend of the month that will start my October swing of action. Get out and support the track in your area that is taking the risk and providing you with a chance to extend your racing season!
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Murray, Nichols, Weston, Ramsey and Hoover Take Qualifying Night Features at "The Tradition"
Keeping a close eye on the radar and checking forecasts during the day on Friday I determined that my best bet to see racing at the track with the least amount of travel for me would be the Adams County Speedway in Corning. It was the opening night of the track's annual season finale "The Tradition" and I was excited to return to a speedway that I have not been to for at least eighteen years.
I did not drive through any rain on the three hour trip straight west from home, but I did hear of the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings back home and I watched the beauty of Mother Nature as the thunder heads swelled to the south and west as I crossed over Interstate 35 in Osceola. Race fans were also treated to a pretty vivid light show as the stands face to the east at Corning and the rain was as close as Creston, just twenty miles to the east as I made my trip back home.
With the help of many, many sponsors including the title sponsor Napa, there is a lot of money on the line at The Tradition and I was surprised that there were not more cars from outside of the area in attendance, but with the threatening weather that also made sense. Still there was just over one hundred cars signed in and they were evenly distributed across the five divisions with the weekend's featured class, the Stock Cars, leading the way with twenty-five. Fifteen heat races would click off in fine fashion, taking just an hour and seventeen minutes to run, then after a twenty minute intermission let's just say that the wheels sort of fell off.
The B-Mod feature would be up first for fifteen laps and the red flag would be waving before the first lap was scored when Shae McGinnis had the steering wheel come off in her hands while heading down the back stretch sending her head on into the inside guardrail. Fortunately Shae was not injured as her first night at the track came to a scary ending. When the green flag waved again the battle for the lead was tight with Matt Webb and Tommy Hensley crossing the stripe in a virtual dead heat on the first lap. Webb would nose ahead on lap two, with Hensley coming back to the front on lap three.
The 2019 track champion Jerod Weston would then break up that party going to the front on lap four with Hensley and Kyle Tanner trying to keep pace. There were a few rolling speed bumps in this one and as the leaders entered turns three and four on lap six they encountered one of them and when the lapped car turned left in front of Hensley and Tanner, contact would send Hensley hard right up the track. The left side tires would dig in and Hensley would take a couple of hard rolls at the top of turn four. His car was badly damaged as the wreckers took their time to remove it from the track, but thankfully Hensley was okay and would even come back later in the night to race his Modified.
After the long delay four cars would spin on the restart and then on lap nine the caution would wave again when the fifth place car of Alan Worth spun in turn two collecting Bryce Allen. Tanner and Jake Sachau would line up behind Weston for the restart with Sachau moving to second, but when he pushed it too hard on lap twelve, Jake would drive off the top of turn two to bring out the final caution of the race.
Weston would go unchallenged over the final three laps to take the win in the thirty-seven minute marathon with Tanner taking second. Cody Olsen came from the fifth row to finish third with Cody Werner coming from twelfth to fourth and Dusty Masolini edged out David Schwarts by a bumper to take fifth. Schwartz was originally slated to start eleventh, but when it was noticed that he had a flat tire during the pace laps the start of the race was held up for a couple of laps while he changed a tire so he actually started scratch on the twenty car field.
After a race like that you can usually count on the Four Cylinder division to deliver a green to checker event and the eighteen Sport Compact drivers did just that with a non-stop twelve lapper that had plenty of action in it. Dustin Grout would lead the first seven laps before being overtaken by fourth row starters Tyler Hoover and Tyler Housley. Hoover would lead lap eight and Housley would keep the heat on him over the final four laps, but in the battle of the "Tylers" it would be the 2019 track champion Tyler Hoover taking the win. Housley wold finish second as Chris Vannausdale came from twelfth to third. Grout would hang on to fourth and Sean Bagby would finish in fifth.
The Modifieds would be up next for eighteen laps with the caution flying on lap one when Tyler Fudge drove off the track in turn two. On the restart Ryan Jenkins would spin in turn four before taking the green, but he would be put back into his position for the second try. On this one Garrett Wilson was shuffled out of the pack and into the wall exiting turn four ending his night in a disappointing fashion after he had dominated his heat race. Then, on lap three, the caution waved again for debris in turn one and it looked like we were headed for another long one.
Thankfully that would not be the case as the final fifteen laps would go non-stop with Jacob Murray leading the way until lap eleven when Ryan Schaffer charged by on the inside of turn three. Schaffer usually races under the USRA rules and with his spoiler removed tonight he still looked faster than anyone else and even though he took the checkers first I see this morning that he had been disqualified, something that I apparently missed if it was announced over the load speakers over the final two feature races. That would give the win to Jacob Murray with Jeff Wiggins second and Josh Most third. Tommy Hensley recovered from his B-Mod crash earlier to be credited with fourth, Ryan Jenkins was fifth and Mike VanGenderen in his first half-mile race in several years finished sixth.
The Hobby Stocks were up next and they too had their share of caution flags causing even the announcers to sound a bit frustrated with the stop and go racing. Jerid Lund had paced the field for the ten laps that had been scored around three cautions, but on that restart as the green was starting to wave the right rear tire would go flat on Lund's car and he would slow coming down the front stretch bringing out the fourth caution of the event. Bobby Key who was making the move from the Sport Compacts to the Hobby Stocks tonight stopped in turn two on the next try at a start and before the field could even get to turn three when the caution turned off they would stack up sending one car off the top of turn three for yet another caution.
Finally we would get back to green flag racing with Jason Fusselman assuming the lead, but Luke Ramsey had come from his fifth row starting spot looking to get one more and he would pass Fusselman with two laps to go to take the win. Fusselman would ward off Tom Myers for the runner-up spot with David Weeda recovering from a lap eight spin to finish fourth. Miciah Hidelbaugh, in his first race ever at Adams County was impressive in fifth.
I was still about fifteen minutes shy of my self-imposed eleven o'clock curfew so I would stay to watch the eighteen lap Stock Car finale and thank goodness that I did! Jason Rold would lead the way with Mike Albertson in hot pursuit as drivers shuffled for position throughout the field. The first caution would wave on lap ten when Mike Van Genderen, driving Jason Bilyeau's #98, spun down the front stretch after contact with Brad Derry as they raced for sixth.
On the restart Dave Carlisle would spin in turn two, but that would be the final caution of the race as Rold would go back to trying to hold off a growing number of challengers. Nick Woodard would join Albertson and Mike Nichols was now in contention after starting eleventh as the top four raced in tight formation. Rold was running a middle line that kept his challengers at bay, but over the final three laps Nichols would go from fourth to first passing Rold in the final pair of turns to take the exciting win. Rold, Albertson and Woodard were all close behind with Todd Van Eaton holding off his stepson Buck Schafroth to finish fifth.
The checkers waved right at 11 p.m. and I was on my way back home three hours down the road getting just enough rest to go racing again tonight. The show that I was supposed to announce at tonight, the Sprint Invaders Fall Haul at 34 Raceway has been washed away by the heavy rains and the Deery Brothers Summer Series show at Davenport has been canceled due to wet grounds as well. So my destination tonight will now be the Benton County Bullring in Vinton where new promoter Rick Dripps will host the 2019 finale for the IMCA Dirt Knights Modified Tour. Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks, Sport Compacts and the Micro Mods will also be in action and you can expect the pit area to be overflowing with races cars. Hot laps start at 5:30 with racing at 6 p.m. and I hope to see you there!
I did not drive through any rain on the three hour trip straight west from home, but I did hear of the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings back home and I watched the beauty of Mother Nature as the thunder heads swelled to the south and west as I crossed over Interstate 35 in Osceola. Race fans were also treated to a pretty vivid light show as the stands face to the east at Corning and the rain was as close as Creston, just twenty miles to the east as I made my trip back home.
With the help of many, many sponsors including the title sponsor Napa, there is a lot of money on the line at The Tradition and I was surprised that there were not more cars from outside of the area in attendance, but with the threatening weather that also made sense. Still there was just over one hundred cars signed in and they were evenly distributed across the five divisions with the weekend's featured class, the Stock Cars, leading the way with twenty-five. Fifteen heat races would click off in fine fashion, taking just an hour and seventeen minutes to run, then after a twenty minute intermission let's just say that the wheels sort of fell off.
The B-Mod feature would be up first for fifteen laps and the red flag would be waving before the first lap was scored when Shae McGinnis had the steering wheel come off in her hands while heading down the back stretch sending her head on into the inside guardrail. Fortunately Shae was not injured as her first night at the track came to a scary ending. When the green flag waved again the battle for the lead was tight with Matt Webb and Tommy Hensley crossing the stripe in a virtual dead heat on the first lap. Webb would nose ahead on lap two, with Hensley coming back to the front on lap three.
The 2019 track champion Jerod Weston would then break up that party going to the front on lap four with Hensley and Kyle Tanner trying to keep pace. There were a few rolling speed bumps in this one and as the leaders entered turns three and four on lap six they encountered one of them and when the lapped car turned left in front of Hensley and Tanner, contact would send Hensley hard right up the track. The left side tires would dig in and Hensley would take a couple of hard rolls at the top of turn four. His car was badly damaged as the wreckers took their time to remove it from the track, but thankfully Hensley was okay and would even come back later in the night to race his Modified.
After the long delay four cars would spin on the restart and then on lap nine the caution would wave again when the fifth place car of Alan Worth spun in turn two collecting Bryce Allen. Tanner and Jake Sachau would line up behind Weston for the restart with Sachau moving to second, but when he pushed it too hard on lap twelve, Jake would drive off the top of turn two to bring out the final caution of the race.
Weston would go unchallenged over the final three laps to take the win in the thirty-seven minute marathon with Tanner taking second. Cody Olsen came from the fifth row to finish third with Cody Werner coming from twelfth to fourth and Dusty Masolini edged out David Schwarts by a bumper to take fifth. Schwartz was originally slated to start eleventh, but when it was noticed that he had a flat tire during the pace laps the start of the race was held up for a couple of laps while he changed a tire so he actually started scratch on the twenty car field.
After a race like that you can usually count on the Four Cylinder division to deliver a green to checker event and the eighteen Sport Compact drivers did just that with a non-stop twelve lapper that had plenty of action in it. Dustin Grout would lead the first seven laps before being overtaken by fourth row starters Tyler Hoover and Tyler Housley. Hoover would lead lap eight and Housley would keep the heat on him over the final four laps, but in the battle of the "Tylers" it would be the 2019 track champion Tyler Hoover taking the win. Housley wold finish second as Chris Vannausdale came from twelfth to third. Grout would hang on to fourth and Sean Bagby would finish in fifth.
The Modifieds would be up next for eighteen laps with the caution flying on lap one when Tyler Fudge drove off the track in turn two. On the restart Ryan Jenkins would spin in turn four before taking the green, but he would be put back into his position for the second try. On this one Garrett Wilson was shuffled out of the pack and into the wall exiting turn four ending his night in a disappointing fashion after he had dominated his heat race. Then, on lap three, the caution waved again for debris in turn one and it looked like we were headed for another long one.
Thankfully that would not be the case as the final fifteen laps would go non-stop with Jacob Murray leading the way until lap eleven when Ryan Schaffer charged by on the inside of turn three. Schaffer usually races under the USRA rules and with his spoiler removed tonight he still looked faster than anyone else and even though he took the checkers first I see this morning that he had been disqualified, something that I apparently missed if it was announced over the load speakers over the final two feature races. That would give the win to Jacob Murray with Jeff Wiggins second and Josh Most third. Tommy Hensley recovered from his B-Mod crash earlier to be credited with fourth, Ryan Jenkins was fifth and Mike VanGenderen in his first half-mile race in several years finished sixth.
The Hobby Stocks were up next and they too had their share of caution flags causing even the announcers to sound a bit frustrated with the stop and go racing. Jerid Lund had paced the field for the ten laps that had been scored around three cautions, but on that restart as the green was starting to wave the right rear tire would go flat on Lund's car and he would slow coming down the front stretch bringing out the fourth caution of the event. Bobby Key who was making the move from the Sport Compacts to the Hobby Stocks tonight stopped in turn two on the next try at a start and before the field could even get to turn three when the caution turned off they would stack up sending one car off the top of turn three for yet another caution.
Finally we would get back to green flag racing with Jason Fusselman assuming the lead, but Luke Ramsey had come from his fifth row starting spot looking to get one more and he would pass Fusselman with two laps to go to take the win. Fusselman would ward off Tom Myers for the runner-up spot with David Weeda recovering from a lap eight spin to finish fourth. Miciah Hidelbaugh, in his first race ever at Adams County was impressive in fifth.
I was still about fifteen minutes shy of my self-imposed eleven o'clock curfew so I would stay to watch the eighteen lap Stock Car finale and thank goodness that I did! Jason Rold would lead the way with Mike Albertson in hot pursuit as drivers shuffled for position throughout the field. The first caution would wave on lap ten when Mike Van Genderen, driving Jason Bilyeau's #98, spun down the front stretch after contact with Brad Derry as they raced for sixth.
On the restart Dave Carlisle would spin in turn two, but that would be the final caution of the race as Rold would go back to trying to hold off a growing number of challengers. Nick Woodard would join Albertson and Mike Nichols was now in contention after starting eleventh as the top four raced in tight formation. Rold was running a middle line that kept his challengers at bay, but over the final three laps Nichols would go from fourth to first passing Rold in the final pair of turns to take the exciting win. Rold, Albertson and Woodard were all close behind with Todd Van Eaton holding off his stepson Buck Schafroth to finish fifth.
The checkers waved right at 11 p.m. and I was on my way back home three hours down the road getting just enough rest to go racing again tonight. The show that I was supposed to announce at tonight, the Sprint Invaders Fall Haul at 34 Raceway has been washed away by the heavy rains and the Deery Brothers Summer Series show at Davenport has been canceled due to wet grounds as well. So my destination tonight will now be the Benton County Bullring in Vinton where new promoter Rick Dripps will host the 2019 finale for the IMCA Dirt Knights Modified Tour. Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks, Sport Compacts and the Micro Mods will also be in action and you can expect the pit area to be overflowing with races cars. Hot laps start at 5:30 with racing at 6 p.m. and I hope to see you there!
Friday, September 27, 2019
National Point Leaders Have A Good Opening Night At USRA Nationals
In an event that started out at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, before moving to the I-35 Speedway in Winston, Missouri, the 6th Annual Summit Racing Equipment USRA Nationals has found a new home at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa. That only makes sense as that is also the hometown of the owners of the sanctioning body, Todd and Janet Staley, who also now promote the historic half-mile on a weekly basis and as this weekend's event opened on Thursday night the infield pit area was overflowing with more than 130 entries in the four divisions. With the USRA National point battles coming down to the wire, this was the only place to earn them this weekend and those at the top fared quite well on a cool and breezy night.
The Hobby Stocks would be up first for sixteen laps with the two drivers battling it out at the top of the standings, Dustin Gulbrandson and Eric Stanton earning the front row by virtue of accumulating the most passing points during the four heat races. This one would get off to a rough start as after Guldrandson led the field on lap one a pair of back markers would spin in turns one and two, but that would be nothing compared to the seven car pileup that was now taking place in turn three. Cory Yeigh nearly cleared the wall during the melee and the event was delayed for several minutes as while there were plenty of wreckers on hand, there were more cars that needed them than were present. In fact the last task for the wreckers was to carry just the rear axle assembly, I assume from Yeigh's car, back to the infield.
Once back to racing Gulbrandson, Stanton and Tyson Overton, who like Stanton is also from Carlisle, would make it a three car breakaway from the rest of the field running nose to tail around the top side of the big half-mile. Contact between the top two in turn two would allow Overton to go to the front on lap seven, but just one lap later when Stanton loosed him up a bit at the exit of turn four that would allow Stanton to drive by on the outside in turn one to take the lead on lap nine.
The caution would wave again on lap eleven when Trevor Kracht spun in turn four and the crowd cheered when Gulbrandson pulled alongside Stanton under caution to exchange pleasantries. Once back to green the top three again pulled away with Stanton out front, Overton in second and Gulbrandson following, but this time the leader was able to put some distance on the challengers as Stanton went on to take the win and not only increase his slim advantage over Gulbrandson in the USRA National points, but also add to his small lead in the All Iowa Points. Gulbrandson dove to the bottom exiting turn four to nip Overton for second at the checkers while Brandon Nielsen and Brady Link then came in to complete the top five.
Older race fans like me would be quick to notice the paint scheme and car number of the pole-sitter for the twenty lap main event for the B-Mods as the blue with orange numerals and yellow trimmed #56 of Ty Griffith definitely brings back memories of National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Gary Webb and Ty would do him proud by racing out to the early lead in this one. The first caution of the event would fly on lap six when Trevor Tesch spun in turn two and on the restart Griffith would have the southwest Missouri duo of Kris Jackson and Ryan Gillmore lined up behind him. These two, along with Decorah's Dan Hovden come into the weekend with less than 70 points separating them in the National points chase and Hovden was also on the move after starting thirteenth.
The hometown hero Griffith would fight them off until the caution waved again when Jeremiah Reed got stuck in the mud in the infield near turn three and on this restart Jackson would nose ahead to take the lead. Griffith was not about to give in though coming right back to regain the advantage on lap twelve only to have Jackson come right back at him in a fantastic race. The two would cross the stripe in a near dead heat on lap fourteen just before the caution waved for a Brock Hess spin in turn two.
A check of the scoring and timing showed that Jackson would be placed out front for the restart and the current National points leader would then pull away for the win. After fading out of the top five in the second half of the race, Gillmore battled back and sailed around the outside of Jared Boumeester in turn four on the final lap to take the second spot as Griffith and Hovden completed the top five.
The USRA National points leader in the Stock Cars, Mitch Hovden appeared to be on his way to another good night leading his heat race by a large margin, but with just two laps to go he slowed suddenly and pulled to the infield. With his car done for the night Hovden then found a seat in Todd Staley's backup car and after missing the transfer from the B-Main he would start as an Ironman Series provisional from the back of a 27-car field that would race for twenty laps.
A first lap caution would slow the field as Kyle Falck set a torrid pace after starting from the second position.On lap four the caution waved again as Cody Frerichs was putting out heavy smoke from the right side entering turn one and then fluid on the back stretch. On this restart the third place car of Reid Keller would go for a spin in turn one sending the field scrambling, but only Todd Staley would come to a stop with the right front of his car perched atop the short wall in turn one.
Once back to green only three more laps would be scored before Andy Jones tagged the wall in turn three and from there everybody settled down and this one then went the remaining distance green to checkers. This would also be a three car breakaway as Falck led fellow Decorah area drivers Dillon Anderson and Lynn Panos. With Falck working the bottom Anderson did his best to pound the cushion and on at least three occasions it looked like he would pull even with the leader in turn three only to have Falck power away again down the front stretch. That would be how they would finish with Falck taking the win over Anderson and Panos leaving me impressed with how versatile the Decorah area Stock Car drivers are as you could probably fit four Upper Iowa Speedways within the Hamilton County Speedway. These guys can do it on a short track or a big one, and they have been doing so for many years now.
Stefan Sybesma made a nice run from fourteenth up to fourth while pole-sitter Jesse Brown finished in fifth. Mitch Hovden, another of those Decorah Stock Car studs drove the borrowed car up fifteen spots to twelfth.
The high speed USRA Modifieds would close out the evening for twenty laps with National points leader Brandon Davis earning the pole position after winning from fourth in his heat race. Ryan Gustin would try to keep pace with Davis early before a lap nine restart saw USMTS Champion Rodney Sanders move to second. Sanders was able to keep the leader in his sights, even peeking to the inside of Davis on a couple of occasions, but there would be no beating the driver out of Medford, Minnesota, on this night as Davis went flag-to-flag for the win. Sanders would chase him in for second, Lucas Schott was third, Dustin Sorenson came from ninth to finish fourth while J.D. Auringer filled out the top five.
It was an entertaining night of racing enjoyed while sitting with my friends Warren & Carol Busse and Bob Litton and I want to thank Todd & Janet Staley as well as announcer Ryan Bergeson for their hospitality. You never know, with the weather affecting my plans I might just be right back in Webster City on Friday or Saturday.
And yes, the heavy rain of Friday morning in southeast Iowa has already changed my plans, and those of many others, as the Deery Brothers Summer Series and the Sprint Invaders Fall Haul at 34 Raceway for tonight has been canceled. They are hoping that they can still get the Saturday night portion of the Fall Haul in on Saturday, but any additional rain today and tonight will make that a tough chore. Expect a decision to be made before noon on Saturday.
That leaves me looking for a dry destination tonight and with several events on the calendar here for the final weekend in September you just never know where you might find me on the Back Stretch.
The Hobby Stocks would be up first for sixteen laps with the two drivers battling it out at the top of the standings, Dustin Gulbrandson and Eric Stanton earning the front row by virtue of accumulating the most passing points during the four heat races. This one would get off to a rough start as after Guldrandson led the field on lap one a pair of back markers would spin in turns one and two, but that would be nothing compared to the seven car pileup that was now taking place in turn three. Cory Yeigh nearly cleared the wall during the melee and the event was delayed for several minutes as while there were plenty of wreckers on hand, there were more cars that needed them than were present. In fact the last task for the wreckers was to carry just the rear axle assembly, I assume from Yeigh's car, back to the infield.
Once back to racing Gulbrandson, Stanton and Tyson Overton, who like Stanton is also from Carlisle, would make it a three car breakaway from the rest of the field running nose to tail around the top side of the big half-mile. Contact between the top two in turn two would allow Overton to go to the front on lap seven, but just one lap later when Stanton loosed him up a bit at the exit of turn four that would allow Stanton to drive by on the outside in turn one to take the lead on lap nine.
The caution would wave again on lap eleven when Trevor Kracht spun in turn four and the crowd cheered when Gulbrandson pulled alongside Stanton under caution to exchange pleasantries. Once back to green the top three again pulled away with Stanton out front, Overton in second and Gulbrandson following, but this time the leader was able to put some distance on the challengers as Stanton went on to take the win and not only increase his slim advantage over Gulbrandson in the USRA National points, but also add to his small lead in the All Iowa Points. Gulbrandson dove to the bottom exiting turn four to nip Overton for second at the checkers while Brandon Nielsen and Brady Link then came in to complete the top five.
Older race fans like me would be quick to notice the paint scheme and car number of the pole-sitter for the twenty lap main event for the B-Mods as the blue with orange numerals and yellow trimmed #56 of Ty Griffith definitely brings back memories of National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Gary Webb and Ty would do him proud by racing out to the early lead in this one. The first caution of the event would fly on lap six when Trevor Tesch spun in turn two and on the restart Griffith would have the southwest Missouri duo of Kris Jackson and Ryan Gillmore lined up behind him. These two, along with Decorah's Dan Hovden come into the weekend with less than 70 points separating them in the National points chase and Hovden was also on the move after starting thirteenth.
The hometown hero Griffith would fight them off until the caution waved again when Jeremiah Reed got stuck in the mud in the infield near turn three and on this restart Jackson would nose ahead to take the lead. Griffith was not about to give in though coming right back to regain the advantage on lap twelve only to have Jackson come right back at him in a fantastic race. The two would cross the stripe in a near dead heat on lap fourteen just before the caution waved for a Brock Hess spin in turn two.
A check of the scoring and timing showed that Jackson would be placed out front for the restart and the current National points leader would then pull away for the win. After fading out of the top five in the second half of the race, Gillmore battled back and sailed around the outside of Jared Boumeester in turn four on the final lap to take the second spot as Griffith and Hovden completed the top five.
The USRA National points leader in the Stock Cars, Mitch Hovden appeared to be on his way to another good night leading his heat race by a large margin, but with just two laps to go he slowed suddenly and pulled to the infield. With his car done for the night Hovden then found a seat in Todd Staley's backup car and after missing the transfer from the B-Main he would start as an Ironman Series provisional from the back of a 27-car field that would race for twenty laps.
A first lap caution would slow the field as Kyle Falck set a torrid pace after starting from the second position.On lap four the caution waved again as Cody Frerichs was putting out heavy smoke from the right side entering turn one and then fluid on the back stretch. On this restart the third place car of Reid Keller would go for a spin in turn one sending the field scrambling, but only Todd Staley would come to a stop with the right front of his car perched atop the short wall in turn one.
Once back to green only three more laps would be scored before Andy Jones tagged the wall in turn three and from there everybody settled down and this one then went the remaining distance green to checkers. This would also be a three car breakaway as Falck led fellow Decorah area drivers Dillon Anderson and Lynn Panos. With Falck working the bottom Anderson did his best to pound the cushion and on at least three occasions it looked like he would pull even with the leader in turn three only to have Falck power away again down the front stretch. That would be how they would finish with Falck taking the win over Anderson and Panos leaving me impressed with how versatile the Decorah area Stock Car drivers are as you could probably fit four Upper Iowa Speedways within the Hamilton County Speedway. These guys can do it on a short track or a big one, and they have been doing so for many years now.
Stefan Sybesma made a nice run from fourteenth up to fourth while pole-sitter Jesse Brown finished in fifth. Mitch Hovden, another of those Decorah Stock Car studs drove the borrowed car up fifteen spots to twelfth.
The high speed USRA Modifieds would close out the evening for twenty laps with National points leader Brandon Davis earning the pole position after winning from fourth in his heat race. Ryan Gustin would try to keep pace with Davis early before a lap nine restart saw USMTS Champion Rodney Sanders move to second. Sanders was able to keep the leader in his sights, even peeking to the inside of Davis on a couple of occasions, but there would be no beating the driver out of Medford, Minnesota, on this night as Davis went flag-to-flag for the win. Sanders would chase him in for second, Lucas Schott was third, Dustin Sorenson came from ninth to finish fourth while J.D. Auringer filled out the top five.
It was an entertaining night of racing enjoyed while sitting with my friends Warren & Carol Busse and Bob Litton and I want to thank Todd & Janet Staley as well as announcer Ryan Bergeson for their hospitality. You never know, with the weather affecting my plans I might just be right back in Webster City on Friday or Saturday.
And yes, the heavy rain of Friday morning in southeast Iowa has already changed my plans, and those of many others, as the Deery Brothers Summer Series and the Sprint Invaders Fall Haul at 34 Raceway for tonight has been canceled. They are hoping that they can still get the Saturday night portion of the Fall Haul in on Saturday, but any additional rain today and tonight will make that a tough chore. Expect a decision to be made before noon on Saturday.
That leaves me looking for a dry destination tonight and with several events on the calendar here for the final weekend in September you just never know where you might find me on the Back Stretch.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Fever Heat 100 Beats The Rain At Stuart
My original plans for Saturday included the 500th event of the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models that was scheduled to take place at 34 Raceway in nearby Burlington. But with rain imminent, after a check of the regional radar in the morning I identified four potential alternatives knowing that I would need to make a decision by one o'clock in order to make it to any of them on time.
Word came late morning that 34 Raceway had canceled, more on that at the end, and a couple of my options were also wiped out by rain so at one o'clock I loaded up and headed west for the Stuart Speedway where promoter Mike Van Genderen had moved up the start time to 4 p.m. in order to beat the rain that was in the forecast to move across Iowa later at night.
I picked up my colleague Barry Johnson in Pella and the prospect of seeing any racing looked bleak as we drove in a heavy mist through Des Moines as well as for the next twenty-five miles to the west with actual rain falling on us at the Dexter exit just five miles east of Stuart. Barry was checking Facebook though and track photographer Jim "Zipp" Zimmerline had just posted that it was dry in Stuart and that hot laps were about to begin so we continued on and to our amazement the rain stopped and the pavement was dry just as we pulled off the exit into Stuart.
Hot laps for the Mod Lites only, since they were the only class that had not raced here the night before in this two-day show called the Fever Heat 100 after the movie that was filmed here over fifty years ago, started right on time and we were into racing with four heats in the books before the mist became too heavy to continue. At this point it would have been real easy to throw in the towel, but Van Genderen checked the radar and put a tractor on the track to tear it up a bit as many of the drivers and fans headed for their cars to stay dry and to see how this would play out.
Sure enough about thirty minutes later the mist stopped and then the sun actually came out for a few minutes as all cars were called to the track to roll it back in. We were going racing after all!
The rest of the qualifying heats rolled along at a torrid pace, something that you can always expect at a show being run by MVG, and soon we were set for six feature races that would close out the 2019 season here at the quick little quarter mile with several of the state's top drivers in action.
The Mod Lites would be up first for their 25-lap $1,000-to-win main event and after running their heats first on the re-worked race track, here at feature time it was now much faster and that caused some issues early on. Michael Raffurty would take the lead on lap one, but on lap two as Joel Huggins and Jason Masengarb raced for third contact between the two would put Masengarb up and over in turn two.
Following the restart one more lap would be scored before Doug Pollock smacked the wall in turn one and then rolled his way into turn two. And, after that red flag period wrapped up, one more lap went in the book before Dave Nelson also got upside down in the same turn. All drivers involved would escape injury.
Thankfully things settled down from there and Joe Glick who had started eighth would chase down Raffurty to take the lead on lap nine. Glick would then build up a big lead and seemed to be headed for a certain win until Mike Kennedy spun on the front stretch to bunch the field back up for a restart with six laps remaining. Huggins would make a run at the leader in turns one and two only to have Glick shrug it off and again pull away to take the big win. Justin Kinderknecht from Salina, Kansas, would pick up the second spot after starting ninth dropping Huggins to third, Dillon Raffurty would charge from thirteenth to fourth with Michael Raffurty holding on for fifth. Kansas City area driver Ed Griggs also made a big run up from seventeenth to sixth.
The Sport Mods would be up next with the top three drivers in the current All Iowa Points, Tyler Soppe, Brayton Carter and Cody Thompson all in action. Twenty-two laps would be the distance with Dustin Lynch taking the lead from the outside of row one at the drop of the green. The caution would wave on lap seven when three cars at the back of the twenty-three car field tangled in turn one and on the restart Thompson was ready to go to work. The defending All Iowa Points champion from Sioux City was real close to loading up during the rain delay and heading back home to race at The New Raceway Park across the state line in South Dakota, but decided to stick it out here in Stuart instead and after starting seventh he would drive under Lynch to take the lead on the restart.
Dusty Masolini would put the heat on Thompson as Carter and the 2017 All Iowa Points champion Soppe tried to make their way to the front after starting together in the fifth row. Both were racing for fourth with just two laps remaining when the lapped car of Zach Hovell got into the wall on the front stretch and checked up right in front of Carter who could not avoid him. Debris from the two cars would cause the caution as Cater headed for the pits and in the green-white-checkers restart it would be the twelfth starter Tyler Inman who would apply the pressure for the lead. Thompson would fight him off though and take the win to confirm that he had made the correct decision to stay and wait out the rain. Inman was impressive in second, Soppe finished third, Nebraska's Cameron Meyer was fourth and Masolini filled out the top five.
Stock Cars were up next for twenty-two laps with two of the top three drivers in the current All Iowa Points in the field, Mike Nichols and four time champion Damon Murty, but it would be the driver who came into the weekend tied for sixth Jay Schmidt who would race out to the early lead. After getting a pair of cautions out of the way on laps five and nine, this one would be a good one with three drivers battling it out to the checkers.
Schmidt was committed to the cushion on both ends and would continue to lead as young Dallon Murty stayed glued to his bumper until Friday night's winner Elijah Zevenbergen was able to get to second. Zevenbergen would go to the bottom on both ends to try to take the lead and while he was able to exit the turns in front the high side momentum would allow Schmidt to sail back around him on the straightaways. This would happen lap after lap until Zevenbergen decided to try something different squeezing up in front of Murty in turn three to ride the cushion and then drive low into turns one and two.
Finally with just two laps remaining Zevenbergen would take the lead at the stripe, but Schmidt would try to rally off the top only to come up just short at the checkers as the northwest Iowa driver scored the weekend sweep. While his father was up to fourth for the lap nine restart, it would be the younger Murty, Dallon who would score three All Iowa Points tonight in third while Nichols who is a multi-time IMCA Stock Car National Champion added two more points to his total by finishing fourth tonight as he seeks his first All Iowa Points championship. Brandon Pruitt filled out the top five.
Two of the top six drivers in the state point standings were on hand in the Modifieds tonight with one of them, Jesse Dennis leading the field early. This would be twenty-five laps of non-stop action, outside of one brief caution for a track tire being pushed onto the surface, with drivers racing high, low and in between as Ethan Braaksma took the lead from Dennis with a slide job in turns three and four on lap thirteen. Joel Rust was on the move though after starting fifth and he would work under Braaksma with eight laps remaining and then ease away to take the win and pull himself even closer to defending All Iowa Points Champion Kelly Shryock as the season winds down. Braaksma, a rookie to the division in 2019 was impressive in second, Dennis held on for third, the 2008 All Iowa Points Champion Todd Shute backed up his Friday night win here with a fourth place run just nipping the 2009 Champion Jeremy Mills who finished fifth. The long pull award of the weekend though went to Casey Skyberg who headed home to Rapid City, South Dakota, after finishing in seventh.
Drivers coming into the weekend ranked third and fourth in the current All Iowa Points Hobby Stock standings were ready to compete for twenty laps as pole-sitter Brandon Cox set a quick pace around the bottom. One of those contenders, Jason Fusselman would bring out the only caution of the race as he spun in turn two with just three laps to go and that gave the other state contender, Corey Madden, the break that he needed. With Cox committed to the bottom on the restart, Madden went top shelf and had the momentum to take the lead as the white flag waved. Cox would try to battle back on the final lap, but he could not get it done as Madden scored the win and will move to second in the updated standings behind state point leader Eric Stanton. Jason Kohl finished in the third spot, Zach Hemmingson was fourth and Solomon Bennett moved from tenth at the start to fifth at the checkers.
The Sport Compacts would close out the evening, and the season with an exclamation point with fifteen laps of feature racing. After getting some cautions out of the way the battle for the lead was intense as Mitchell Bunch took it away from Jade Lange and then had to hold off a late charge from Curtis Miller to take the win by less than a car length.Tyler Fiebelkorn finished third, Lange dropped to fourth and Caine Mahlberg completed the top five.
With the final checkers falling around 8:15 we decided to head west, another twenty miles further from home to get our first taste of the food at Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair and move over Pagliai's, I have a new favorite pizza! Yes it is just over three hours away from Mt. Pleasant, but I am already planning a road trip to introduce some more of my friends to Zipp's and I know that Barry will be doing the same.
A big thanks to Mike Van Genderen and his crew not only for the hospitality, but for the spectacular way that they present a show, especially when you are racing the weather that, sure enough, saw the rain chase us out of Adair around ten o'clock. I will look forward to catching up with MVG again in mid-October at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri.
As for that 500th Deery Show, it has been rescheduled to run this Friday night along with the 360 Sprint Cars on the opening night of the Fall Haul at 34 Raceway in Burlington. This announcement was an exciting one for me as now the same guy who had announced the first Summer Series race at 34 back in 1987 will also be there to call #500 thirty-two years later.
Hope to see you there!
Word came late morning that 34 Raceway had canceled, more on that at the end, and a couple of my options were also wiped out by rain so at one o'clock I loaded up and headed west for the Stuart Speedway where promoter Mike Van Genderen had moved up the start time to 4 p.m. in order to beat the rain that was in the forecast to move across Iowa later at night.
I picked up my colleague Barry Johnson in Pella and the prospect of seeing any racing looked bleak as we drove in a heavy mist through Des Moines as well as for the next twenty-five miles to the west with actual rain falling on us at the Dexter exit just five miles east of Stuart. Barry was checking Facebook though and track photographer Jim "Zipp" Zimmerline had just posted that it was dry in Stuart and that hot laps were about to begin so we continued on and to our amazement the rain stopped and the pavement was dry just as we pulled off the exit into Stuart.
Hot laps for the Mod Lites only, since they were the only class that had not raced here the night before in this two-day show called the Fever Heat 100 after the movie that was filmed here over fifty years ago, started right on time and we were into racing with four heats in the books before the mist became too heavy to continue. At this point it would have been real easy to throw in the towel, but Van Genderen checked the radar and put a tractor on the track to tear it up a bit as many of the drivers and fans headed for their cars to stay dry and to see how this would play out.
Sure enough about thirty minutes later the mist stopped and then the sun actually came out for a few minutes as all cars were called to the track to roll it back in. We were going racing after all!
The rest of the qualifying heats rolled along at a torrid pace, something that you can always expect at a show being run by MVG, and soon we were set for six feature races that would close out the 2019 season here at the quick little quarter mile with several of the state's top drivers in action.
The Mod Lites would be up first for their 25-lap $1,000-to-win main event and after running their heats first on the re-worked race track, here at feature time it was now much faster and that caused some issues early on. Michael Raffurty would take the lead on lap one, but on lap two as Joel Huggins and Jason Masengarb raced for third contact between the two would put Masengarb up and over in turn two.
Following the restart one more lap would be scored before Doug Pollock smacked the wall in turn one and then rolled his way into turn two. And, after that red flag period wrapped up, one more lap went in the book before Dave Nelson also got upside down in the same turn. All drivers involved would escape injury.
Thankfully things settled down from there and Joe Glick who had started eighth would chase down Raffurty to take the lead on lap nine. Glick would then build up a big lead and seemed to be headed for a certain win until Mike Kennedy spun on the front stretch to bunch the field back up for a restart with six laps remaining. Huggins would make a run at the leader in turns one and two only to have Glick shrug it off and again pull away to take the big win. Justin Kinderknecht from Salina, Kansas, would pick up the second spot after starting ninth dropping Huggins to third, Dillon Raffurty would charge from thirteenth to fourth with Michael Raffurty holding on for fifth. Kansas City area driver Ed Griggs also made a big run up from seventeenth to sixth.
The Sport Mods would be up next with the top three drivers in the current All Iowa Points, Tyler Soppe, Brayton Carter and Cody Thompson all in action. Twenty-two laps would be the distance with Dustin Lynch taking the lead from the outside of row one at the drop of the green. The caution would wave on lap seven when three cars at the back of the twenty-three car field tangled in turn one and on the restart Thompson was ready to go to work. The defending All Iowa Points champion from Sioux City was real close to loading up during the rain delay and heading back home to race at The New Raceway Park across the state line in South Dakota, but decided to stick it out here in Stuart instead and after starting seventh he would drive under Lynch to take the lead on the restart.
Dusty Masolini would put the heat on Thompson as Carter and the 2017 All Iowa Points champion Soppe tried to make their way to the front after starting together in the fifth row. Both were racing for fourth with just two laps remaining when the lapped car of Zach Hovell got into the wall on the front stretch and checked up right in front of Carter who could not avoid him. Debris from the two cars would cause the caution as Cater headed for the pits and in the green-white-checkers restart it would be the twelfth starter Tyler Inman who would apply the pressure for the lead. Thompson would fight him off though and take the win to confirm that he had made the correct decision to stay and wait out the rain. Inman was impressive in second, Soppe finished third, Nebraska's Cameron Meyer was fourth and Masolini filled out the top five.
Stock Cars were up next for twenty-two laps with two of the top three drivers in the current All Iowa Points in the field, Mike Nichols and four time champion Damon Murty, but it would be the driver who came into the weekend tied for sixth Jay Schmidt who would race out to the early lead. After getting a pair of cautions out of the way on laps five and nine, this one would be a good one with three drivers battling it out to the checkers.
Schmidt was committed to the cushion on both ends and would continue to lead as young Dallon Murty stayed glued to his bumper until Friday night's winner Elijah Zevenbergen was able to get to second. Zevenbergen would go to the bottom on both ends to try to take the lead and while he was able to exit the turns in front the high side momentum would allow Schmidt to sail back around him on the straightaways. This would happen lap after lap until Zevenbergen decided to try something different squeezing up in front of Murty in turn three to ride the cushion and then drive low into turns one and two.
Finally with just two laps remaining Zevenbergen would take the lead at the stripe, but Schmidt would try to rally off the top only to come up just short at the checkers as the northwest Iowa driver scored the weekend sweep. While his father was up to fourth for the lap nine restart, it would be the younger Murty, Dallon who would score three All Iowa Points tonight in third while Nichols who is a multi-time IMCA Stock Car National Champion added two more points to his total by finishing fourth tonight as he seeks his first All Iowa Points championship. Brandon Pruitt filled out the top five.
Two of the top six drivers in the state point standings were on hand in the Modifieds tonight with one of them, Jesse Dennis leading the field early. This would be twenty-five laps of non-stop action, outside of one brief caution for a track tire being pushed onto the surface, with drivers racing high, low and in between as Ethan Braaksma took the lead from Dennis with a slide job in turns three and four on lap thirteen. Joel Rust was on the move though after starting fifth and he would work under Braaksma with eight laps remaining and then ease away to take the win and pull himself even closer to defending All Iowa Points Champion Kelly Shryock as the season winds down. Braaksma, a rookie to the division in 2019 was impressive in second, Dennis held on for third, the 2008 All Iowa Points Champion Todd Shute backed up his Friday night win here with a fourth place run just nipping the 2009 Champion Jeremy Mills who finished fifth. The long pull award of the weekend though went to Casey Skyberg who headed home to Rapid City, South Dakota, after finishing in seventh.
Drivers coming into the weekend ranked third and fourth in the current All Iowa Points Hobby Stock standings were ready to compete for twenty laps as pole-sitter Brandon Cox set a quick pace around the bottom. One of those contenders, Jason Fusselman would bring out the only caution of the race as he spun in turn two with just three laps to go and that gave the other state contender, Corey Madden, the break that he needed. With Cox committed to the bottom on the restart, Madden went top shelf and had the momentum to take the lead as the white flag waved. Cox would try to battle back on the final lap, but he could not get it done as Madden scored the win and will move to second in the updated standings behind state point leader Eric Stanton. Jason Kohl finished in the third spot, Zach Hemmingson was fourth and Solomon Bennett moved from tenth at the start to fifth at the checkers.
The Sport Compacts would close out the evening, and the season with an exclamation point with fifteen laps of feature racing. After getting some cautions out of the way the battle for the lead was intense as Mitchell Bunch took it away from Jade Lange and then had to hold off a late charge from Curtis Miller to take the win by less than a car length.Tyler Fiebelkorn finished third, Lange dropped to fourth and Caine Mahlberg completed the top five.
With the final checkers falling around 8:15 we decided to head west, another twenty miles further from home to get our first taste of the food at Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair and move over Pagliai's, I have a new favorite pizza! Yes it is just over three hours away from Mt. Pleasant, but I am already planning a road trip to introduce some more of my friends to Zipp's and I know that Barry will be doing the same.
A big thanks to Mike Van Genderen and his crew not only for the hospitality, but for the spectacular way that they present a show, especially when you are racing the weather that, sure enough, saw the rain chase us out of Adair around ten o'clock. I will look forward to catching up with MVG again in mid-October at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri.
As for that 500th Deery Show, it has been rescheduled to run this Friday night along with the 360 Sprint Cars on the opening night of the Fall Haul at 34 Raceway in Burlington. This announcement was an exciting one for me as now the same guy who had announced the first Summer Series race at 34 back in 1987 will also be there to call #500 thirty-two years later.
Hope to see you there!
Friday, September 13, 2019
Clanton Shows The Way At Knoxville's Late Model Nationals Opener
Opening night of the 16th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals was not going to happen as the forecast called for a line of strong thunderstorms to develop to the west and then march through the area between seven and nine o'clock on Thursday night, the absolutely worst time for rain to fall on a dirt track if you are going to try to get a show in. I know of at least two friends of mine who stayed home because of the predicted weather and when I saw the radar at 4:30 in the afternoon I called my colleague Danny Rosencrans, who was on his way up from Missouri to hop in with me for the trip, to question our own judgment.
By 5 p.m. one last look of the radar started to show some weakening of that line of storms so we decided to go ahead and make the drive and for at least once in this season that has seen so many rainouts at tracks in the Midwest, Mother Nature proved to be a race fan as this line of storms dissipated while a new line developed already east of Knoxville.
The crowd was good given the conditions, although I am sure that it would have been better if the weather was as good as it will be tonight, so hopefully the track can make up for any lost revenue during Friday night's qualifying action.
Fifty-five Late Models signed in for action this year, solid and loaded with talent but still not as many as one might expect for an event like this. Notably missing were former champions Mike Marlar and Brian Shirley, but again this field is deep and Late Model fans are treated to one of the most entertaining formats in the sport. The field is split into two groups for qualifying and points are earned in qualifying (200 for first in each group with two point increments), the heat races (100 points to the winner of each of the six with three point increments) and the feature (200 points to the winner with two point increments). What makes the show though is that the heat races use a six car invert with only the top three advancing, the B-Mains are lined straight up for those who didn't make the transfer and the feature lineup is then set using an eight car invert based upon the point totals from qualifying and the heats.
This makes for some great racing all night long and while there are always drivers who will grumble about the format, especially those who are well known for lobbying for straight up starts like Thursday night's winner, the cream always rises to the top and puts on one hell of a show doing so.
Heat race number one saw Brian Birkhofer start from the pole with Jimmy Mars, the only driver to qualify for all previous fifteen feature races here to his outside. But it would be the first time visitor to Knoxville, Lucas Oil series Rookie-of-the-Year contender Shanon Buckingham from Tennessee who would drive by those two to take the convincing win. Mars seemed locked in for second with Birkhofer at risk of losing third to fastest qualifier Shane Clanton, but both Birky and Clanton closed in on Mars and coming to the white flag Birkhofer threw a slider on his former chassis building partner to take the second spot. With Mars having to check up a bit that allowed Clanton to drive under him into turn one and take the final transfer on the closing lap. So looking back now you could say that slider from Birky was a big part in deciding tonight's feature winner.
The second heat race saw Jeremiah Hurst lead all but the final straightaway as fellow front row starter Bobby Pierce swept around the outside of Hurst in turn four to take the win. Chris Simpson who had started fifth was able to get past Billy Moyer Jr. with two to go to take the final transfer position.
Dustin Nobbe and Frank Heckenast Jr. started from the front row of heat three and when Nobbe went high in turn two on the opening lap that allowed third starting Chase Junghans to race to the lead down the back stretch. On lap five though Junghans would slow with transmission troubles and pull to the infield. This race had the intrigue of having Scott Bloomquist start from the rear of the nine car field as in what seems to be an annual occasion here in Knoxville on the first night of qualifying, Bloomquist was battling issues, this time reported as electrical problems. He was on the move early though and when he tried to squeeze under Nobbe for fifth a bit of contact sent the pole sitter for a spin and Bloomquist appeared to have a shot at making the transfer now restarting from fifth. That did not happen though as while Ricky Thornton Jr., driving a car owned by Indiana's Chad Stapleton, pulled away for the win, Bloomquist dropped nearly to last as the green flag came back out and while he recovered a bit in the closing laps he could not get around Charlie McKenna for fifth. Heckenast and sixth starting Darrell Lanigan transferred along with Thornton.
Shannon Babb would go from the pole to the win in the fourth heat race, but there was plenty of action behind him as Hudson O'Neal, Tyler Erb and Jonathan Davenport waged a three car battle for the final two transfer spots. Contact in turn four between Erb and O'Neal allowed Davenport to drop Hudson to fourth and on the final lap when Erb drifted wide in turn two the winner of last week's World 100 still in his Brewster Baker Six-Pack wrap said "thanks for the extra three points kid" as Davenport finished second.
With the low line showing the advantage so far, Tyler Bruening was the first to rip the top racing out to a solid lead in the fifth heat with pole-sitter Josh Richards trying to keep pace. As the laps wound down Richards was able to get back in contention and with three to go he would put a slider on Bruening to steal the lead and the win. Devin Moran, who was racing for the first time here at Knoxville bobbled a bit in turn one on the final lap, but Chris Madden could not take advantage to get to third.
The sixth and final heat was dominated by Driver-of-the-Year favorite Brandon Sheppard aided by the fact that Dennis Erb Jr. and Ricky Weiss raced side-by-side throughout the twelve laps for second and Don O'Neal and Kyle Bronson were a bit further back doing the same thing for fourth. At the checkers it was Sheppard, Erb and Weiss heading to the A-Main.
This format also allows for the first B-Main to be in staging and ready to follow that final heat race with the top three in each B-Main making the show. And, with the lineup going straight up it should be no surprise that the guys who start up front should hold their positions. That was the case in the first B as drivers who started in the top three finished in the top three with Stormy Scott taking the win over Earl Pearson Jr. and Billy Moyer Jr. Scott Bloomquist started ninth and advanced to fifth so if past history is any indication here look for Team Zero to be in the hunt for the win in tonight's second night of action.
Jimmy Owens took the win in the second B-Main as Chad Simpson drove Larry Moring's #1 to second and Kyle Bronson slipped past Hudson O'Neal with three to go to earn the 24th and final starting spot in the night's 25-lap feature.
Two young stars, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Devin Moran would bring the field to green with Thornton holding the edge on lap one before yielding to Moran on the second trip around the fabled half-mile. The only caution of the event would wave on lap four when Davenport slowed in turn two with front end damage and on the restart Tyler Erb charged to second into turn one. It has been a long time since the young driver from Texas has had a win after his blistering start to 2019 and he would throw caution to the wind driving deep into turn three and sliding right up across the nose of Moran to take the lead in turn four.
Just as he had in his heat race, Shane Clanton took advantage of Moran having to check up to pick up the second spot and on lap fourteen he would drive under Erb in turn one to take the lead. It was all over but the shouting from there as Clanton proved that his Capital Race Car was the fastest on this night driving away to a convincing win worth $7,000. Erb who was the winner here on opening night last year would settle for second while Darrell Lanigan nipped Ricky Weiss in a photo finish for third. Thornton would hold on for fifth just ahead of Clanton's Skyline Materials teammate Tyler Bruening in sixth. Brandon Sheppard moved from twelfth to seventh, Moran dropped to eighth, Bobby Pierce was ninth and Chris Simpson completed the top ten.
It was a very entertaining night of action that saw the final checkers wave at 9:41 p.m.!
They will do it all again in the same format tonight and on Saturday there will be a B-Main and the 100-lap finale supported by a full show for the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models where 32 drivers have been invited. If you are a big fan of Late Models, Knoxville is the place to be this weekend!
By 5 p.m. one last look of the radar started to show some weakening of that line of storms so we decided to go ahead and make the drive and for at least once in this season that has seen so many rainouts at tracks in the Midwest, Mother Nature proved to be a race fan as this line of storms dissipated while a new line developed already east of Knoxville.
The crowd was good given the conditions, although I am sure that it would have been better if the weather was as good as it will be tonight, so hopefully the track can make up for any lost revenue during Friday night's qualifying action.
Fifty-five Late Models signed in for action this year, solid and loaded with talent but still not as many as one might expect for an event like this. Notably missing were former champions Mike Marlar and Brian Shirley, but again this field is deep and Late Model fans are treated to one of the most entertaining formats in the sport. The field is split into two groups for qualifying and points are earned in qualifying (200 for first in each group with two point increments), the heat races (100 points to the winner of each of the six with three point increments) and the feature (200 points to the winner with two point increments). What makes the show though is that the heat races use a six car invert with only the top three advancing, the B-Mains are lined straight up for those who didn't make the transfer and the feature lineup is then set using an eight car invert based upon the point totals from qualifying and the heats.
This makes for some great racing all night long and while there are always drivers who will grumble about the format, especially those who are well known for lobbying for straight up starts like Thursday night's winner, the cream always rises to the top and puts on one hell of a show doing so.
Heat race number one saw Brian Birkhofer start from the pole with Jimmy Mars, the only driver to qualify for all previous fifteen feature races here to his outside. But it would be the first time visitor to Knoxville, Lucas Oil series Rookie-of-the-Year contender Shanon Buckingham from Tennessee who would drive by those two to take the convincing win. Mars seemed locked in for second with Birkhofer at risk of losing third to fastest qualifier Shane Clanton, but both Birky and Clanton closed in on Mars and coming to the white flag Birkhofer threw a slider on his former chassis building partner to take the second spot. With Mars having to check up a bit that allowed Clanton to drive under him into turn one and take the final transfer on the closing lap. So looking back now you could say that slider from Birky was a big part in deciding tonight's feature winner.
The second heat race saw Jeremiah Hurst lead all but the final straightaway as fellow front row starter Bobby Pierce swept around the outside of Hurst in turn four to take the win. Chris Simpson who had started fifth was able to get past Billy Moyer Jr. with two to go to take the final transfer position.
Dustin Nobbe and Frank Heckenast Jr. started from the front row of heat three and when Nobbe went high in turn two on the opening lap that allowed third starting Chase Junghans to race to the lead down the back stretch. On lap five though Junghans would slow with transmission troubles and pull to the infield. This race had the intrigue of having Scott Bloomquist start from the rear of the nine car field as in what seems to be an annual occasion here in Knoxville on the first night of qualifying, Bloomquist was battling issues, this time reported as electrical problems. He was on the move early though and when he tried to squeeze under Nobbe for fifth a bit of contact sent the pole sitter for a spin and Bloomquist appeared to have a shot at making the transfer now restarting from fifth. That did not happen though as while Ricky Thornton Jr., driving a car owned by Indiana's Chad Stapleton, pulled away for the win, Bloomquist dropped nearly to last as the green flag came back out and while he recovered a bit in the closing laps he could not get around Charlie McKenna for fifth. Heckenast and sixth starting Darrell Lanigan transferred along with Thornton.
Shannon Babb would go from the pole to the win in the fourth heat race, but there was plenty of action behind him as Hudson O'Neal, Tyler Erb and Jonathan Davenport waged a three car battle for the final two transfer spots. Contact in turn four between Erb and O'Neal allowed Davenport to drop Hudson to fourth and on the final lap when Erb drifted wide in turn two the winner of last week's World 100 still in his Brewster Baker Six-Pack wrap said "thanks for the extra three points kid" as Davenport finished second.
With the low line showing the advantage so far, Tyler Bruening was the first to rip the top racing out to a solid lead in the fifth heat with pole-sitter Josh Richards trying to keep pace. As the laps wound down Richards was able to get back in contention and with three to go he would put a slider on Bruening to steal the lead and the win. Devin Moran, who was racing for the first time here at Knoxville bobbled a bit in turn one on the final lap, but Chris Madden could not take advantage to get to third.
The sixth and final heat was dominated by Driver-of-the-Year favorite Brandon Sheppard aided by the fact that Dennis Erb Jr. and Ricky Weiss raced side-by-side throughout the twelve laps for second and Don O'Neal and Kyle Bronson were a bit further back doing the same thing for fourth. At the checkers it was Sheppard, Erb and Weiss heading to the A-Main.
This format also allows for the first B-Main to be in staging and ready to follow that final heat race with the top three in each B-Main making the show. And, with the lineup going straight up it should be no surprise that the guys who start up front should hold their positions. That was the case in the first B as drivers who started in the top three finished in the top three with Stormy Scott taking the win over Earl Pearson Jr. and Billy Moyer Jr. Scott Bloomquist started ninth and advanced to fifth so if past history is any indication here look for Team Zero to be in the hunt for the win in tonight's second night of action.
Jimmy Owens took the win in the second B-Main as Chad Simpson drove Larry Moring's #1 to second and Kyle Bronson slipped past Hudson O'Neal with three to go to earn the 24th and final starting spot in the night's 25-lap feature.
Two young stars, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Devin Moran would bring the field to green with Thornton holding the edge on lap one before yielding to Moran on the second trip around the fabled half-mile. The only caution of the event would wave on lap four when Davenport slowed in turn two with front end damage and on the restart Tyler Erb charged to second into turn one. It has been a long time since the young driver from Texas has had a win after his blistering start to 2019 and he would throw caution to the wind driving deep into turn three and sliding right up across the nose of Moran to take the lead in turn four.
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| Barry Johnson photo |
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| Barry Johnson photo |
They will do it all again in the same format tonight and on Saturday there will be a B-Main and the 100-lap finale supported by a full show for the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models where 32 drivers have been invited. If you are a big fan of Late Models, Knoxville is the place to be this weekend!
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Thursday Notebook: September 12, 2019
Waiting and watching the weather as I toss out this Notebook entry hoping to go to the opening night of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals. The qualifying nights at Knoxville are my favorite as it is the only event of the year where national tour drivers qualify and then have to run their heat races with an eight car invert. Yes, there are other shows like the Silver Dollar Nationals where two sets of heat races are run, but that first set is based upon a pill draw so as a fast car you have just as much of a chance to start on the front row as you do to start at the rear. At Knoxville the fastest qualifier starts sixth in the first heat race and then has to RACE his way into the top three just to make the night's A-Main. It makes for some incredible racing and the fans love it!
Just like the Sprint Car Nationals there are always people who want to gripe about the format and make suggestions on how to "improve" it. But the thing that I love about Knoxville is that they just shrug those off, likely because they realize that these are coming from the vocal minority and they stick with what they are doing. This is something that other promoters need to do as well because there is always going to be some ill-informed self-proclaimed expert on social media bitching about something.
I have made it my goal to try to avoid the stupidity on Facebook, but sometimes you just can't miss it so now I want to share it as well. With a cold front sweeping through Iowa later this afternoon the chance of rain is high, but there is also a chance that the storms will not build until the front is east of Knoxville. So on the Knoxville Raceway Facebook page one gentleman asks...
If they rain out Thursday will they run a double show on Friday?
To which another person replies...
I would think so
Really? Why would you think that sir? To run a double show would be hard on the drivers and the crews and would require the track to pay out both the Thursday night and Friday night purse all in one night, which of course would mean that these two gentlemen (and everybody else in attendance) would need to pay double the ticket price just to see this double show that they are apparently lobbying for. I doubt that they would like that and would then really go nuts with their Facebook posts. There was also a young lady who asked "So will $1 beers be on Friday then?" with a couple of stupid wondering face emojis included. I don't know the answer to that one sweetheart, but if you are going to base your decision on whether or not to attend the show on that, well then that's just dumb. Do these people ever stop to consider that the format is set up in a manner so that if it rains out on Thursday or Friday night, there is no need to do anything different since a driver uses the best of his two qualifying nights to establish himself in Saturday's lineups?
You see, I am again falling into the trap where you start to think that the stupid few represent the majority of the race fans out there, something that I KNOW is not true.
Of all things that seems to bring out the worst of the worst when it comes to morons on Facebook it is when weather forces a promoter to make alternative plans. Two cases of this came recently at the IMCA Super Nationals in Boone and following an early rainout of the WAR Sprint Car show at 34 Raceway. At Boone most of the whining came from fans of drivers who had their Last Chance races cut after a long rain delay on Saturday. "Those drivers deserve a chance to race their way in" was the general rallying cry when the schedule was altered so that the show could be completed at a reasonable time, apparently forgetting that those drivers had three chances earlier in the week to race their way in.
Sorry, Mother Nature intervened, get over it.
At 34 apparently a few people were so focused on the money that they had spent on the 50/50 drawing and what the track was doing with it that they even brought up state laws about gambling. Okay, so first of all, I was there and the rain that started to fall just as hot laps were starting was obviously on the horizon well before. So even buying a 50/50 ticket in those circumstances showed questionable judgment on behalf of the purchaser in the first place, but then to make such a big deal out of it on social media afterward is just moronic. As it turned out the huge prize of $21 was given away later in the week with a posting of the winning ticket on the track's Facebook page. So let me get this straight, the track was giving back full refunds for the cost of your ticket, but you were distressed over the buck or two that you dropped on the 50/50 drawing? Did you buy forty dollars worth of tickets or something? If yes, I hope that the winner was one of the other two buyers who bought one ticket each.
And yet there are still people out there that insist that social media does not have a negative impact on our sport.
I had another story to tell about time management when a track faces a curfew, but I will put that off when I can comment more "in general" rather than calling out a track that I really do enjoy attending from time to time.
I was surprised to see the announcement this week that FloSports had acquired Dirt On Dirt. Michael and Amber Rigsby started Dirt On Dirt twelve years ago and they, along with a talented staff who shares the same passion that the Rigsbys do for Dirt Late Model racing have built it into what I thought was the industry leader when it came to an online source for news, video and live coverage of dirt track racing. My son Morgan though tells me that his subscription to FloRacing has been the best money he has spent since moving to Dallas so it sounds like the strong are only getting stronger with this acquisition. With Michael now becoming the general manager of FloRacing I am confident that his passion for the sport will continue to shine through.
I am excited for Al Hejna, Ryne Staley and Todd Staley as construction of the remodeled Mason City Motor Speedway is now complete and they will hold their first race on the shortened track this Sunday September 15th. Normally I would make the trip up, but with commitments to our annual church auction I will have to delay my first trip to either the following week, or if they decide to continue with Sunday racing into the Fall. Either way I hope to make at least one Sunday trip to Mason City before the snow flies.
With the Modified World Nationals at the Marshalltown Speedway for this weekend being postponed to the final week of October that now makes for a very busy racing weekend for that late in the season around here. Two day shows now at Marshalltown, Webster City and Quincy are all on the weekend that Shiverfest used to own and was often two weeks later than any other racing in the tri-states. Oh yes, and the CJ Speedway will now double down on the following weekend, Saturday and Sunday November 2nd and 3rd with their 3rd Annual Turkey Dash. The first event was run under less than ideal conditions two years ago on the same day that the Hawkeyes embarrassed the Buckeyes at Kinnick keeping them out of the playoffs that year and last year a rain system barely clipped the speedway during the hot laps ending the show even though I drove back home to sunshine thirty miles to the south. Hopefully promoter Larry Richardson can get good weather for both days this year as I believe that this event can be an absolute home run and remember, if rain intervenes on one day or another, please don't be an idiot on Facebook (see above).
As is it stands right now the Turkey Dash will close out the 2019 All Iowa Points chase so for a look at where you, or your favorite driver currently ranks ans he head into the Fall click here.
Don't forget that the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson will be racing on Saturday night this weekend featuring the Iowa Sprint League non wing cars. Winged 305's racing for $1,000-to-win, the D-2 Midgets and IMCA Modifieds will also be in action and that might just be where you find me on Saturday.
As of noon the radar is looking good for Knoxville tonight, hopefully we will see you there on the Back Stretch!
Just like the Sprint Car Nationals there are always people who want to gripe about the format and make suggestions on how to "improve" it. But the thing that I love about Knoxville is that they just shrug those off, likely because they realize that these are coming from the vocal minority and they stick with what they are doing. This is something that other promoters need to do as well because there is always going to be some ill-informed self-proclaimed expert on social media bitching about something.
I have made it my goal to try to avoid the stupidity on Facebook, but sometimes you just can't miss it so now I want to share it as well. With a cold front sweeping through Iowa later this afternoon the chance of rain is high, but there is also a chance that the storms will not build until the front is east of Knoxville. So on the Knoxville Raceway Facebook page one gentleman asks...
If they rain out Thursday will they run a double show on Friday?
To which another person replies...
I would think so
Really? Why would you think that sir? To run a double show would be hard on the drivers and the crews and would require the track to pay out both the Thursday night and Friday night purse all in one night, which of course would mean that these two gentlemen (and everybody else in attendance) would need to pay double the ticket price just to see this double show that they are apparently lobbying for. I doubt that they would like that and would then really go nuts with their Facebook posts. There was also a young lady who asked "So will $1 beers be on Friday then?" with a couple of stupid wondering face emojis included. I don't know the answer to that one sweetheart, but if you are going to base your decision on whether or not to attend the show on that, well then that's just dumb. Do these people ever stop to consider that the format is set up in a manner so that if it rains out on Thursday or Friday night, there is no need to do anything different since a driver uses the best of his two qualifying nights to establish himself in Saturday's lineups?
You see, I am again falling into the trap where you start to think that the stupid few represent the majority of the race fans out there, something that I KNOW is not true.
Of all things that seems to bring out the worst of the worst when it comes to morons on Facebook it is when weather forces a promoter to make alternative plans. Two cases of this came recently at the IMCA Super Nationals in Boone and following an early rainout of the WAR Sprint Car show at 34 Raceway. At Boone most of the whining came from fans of drivers who had their Last Chance races cut after a long rain delay on Saturday. "Those drivers deserve a chance to race their way in" was the general rallying cry when the schedule was altered so that the show could be completed at a reasonable time, apparently forgetting that those drivers had three chances earlier in the week to race their way in.
Sorry, Mother Nature intervened, get over it.
At 34 apparently a few people were so focused on the money that they had spent on the 50/50 drawing and what the track was doing with it that they even brought up state laws about gambling. Okay, so first of all, I was there and the rain that started to fall just as hot laps were starting was obviously on the horizon well before. So even buying a 50/50 ticket in those circumstances showed questionable judgment on behalf of the purchaser in the first place, but then to make such a big deal out of it on social media afterward is just moronic. As it turned out the huge prize of $21 was given away later in the week with a posting of the winning ticket on the track's Facebook page. So let me get this straight, the track was giving back full refunds for the cost of your ticket, but you were distressed over the buck or two that you dropped on the 50/50 drawing? Did you buy forty dollars worth of tickets or something? If yes, I hope that the winner was one of the other two buyers who bought one ticket each.
And yet there are still people out there that insist that social media does not have a negative impact on our sport.
I had another story to tell about time management when a track faces a curfew, but I will put that off when I can comment more "in general" rather than calling out a track that I really do enjoy attending from time to time.
I was surprised to see the announcement this week that FloSports had acquired Dirt On Dirt. Michael and Amber Rigsby started Dirt On Dirt twelve years ago and they, along with a talented staff who shares the same passion that the Rigsbys do for Dirt Late Model racing have built it into what I thought was the industry leader when it came to an online source for news, video and live coverage of dirt track racing. My son Morgan though tells me that his subscription to FloRacing has been the best money he has spent since moving to Dallas so it sounds like the strong are only getting stronger with this acquisition. With Michael now becoming the general manager of FloRacing I am confident that his passion for the sport will continue to shine through.
I am excited for Al Hejna, Ryne Staley and Todd Staley as construction of the remodeled Mason City Motor Speedway is now complete and they will hold their first race on the shortened track this Sunday September 15th. Normally I would make the trip up, but with commitments to our annual church auction I will have to delay my first trip to either the following week, or if they decide to continue with Sunday racing into the Fall. Either way I hope to make at least one Sunday trip to Mason City before the snow flies.
With the Modified World Nationals at the Marshalltown Speedway for this weekend being postponed to the final week of October that now makes for a very busy racing weekend for that late in the season around here. Two day shows now at Marshalltown, Webster City and Quincy are all on the weekend that Shiverfest used to own and was often two weeks later than any other racing in the tri-states. Oh yes, and the CJ Speedway will now double down on the following weekend, Saturday and Sunday November 2nd and 3rd with their 3rd Annual Turkey Dash. The first event was run under less than ideal conditions two years ago on the same day that the Hawkeyes embarrassed the Buckeyes at Kinnick keeping them out of the playoffs that year and last year a rain system barely clipped the speedway during the hot laps ending the show even though I drove back home to sunshine thirty miles to the south. Hopefully promoter Larry Richardson can get good weather for both days this year as I believe that this event can be an absolute home run and remember, if rain intervenes on one day or another, please don't be an idiot on Facebook (see above).
As is it stands right now the Turkey Dash will close out the 2019 All Iowa Points chase so for a look at where you, or your favorite driver currently ranks ans he head into the Fall click here.
Don't forget that the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson will be racing on Saturday night this weekend featuring the Iowa Sprint League non wing cars. Winged 305's racing for $1,000-to-win, the D-2 Midgets and IMCA Modifieds will also be in action and that might just be where you find me on Saturday.
As of noon the radar is looking good for Knoxville tonight, hopefully we will see you there on the Back Stretch!
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Thornton Dominates Deery Series At Super Nationals
A late change of plans during the holiday weekend allowed me to make the trip up to Boone for the first of six straight days of racing during the annual IMCA Super Nationals on Labor Day Monday. A full program for the Deery Brothers Summer Series IMCA Late Models, the 499th event in the history of the series would crown the first champion of this year's extravaganza that draws racers and fans from near and far for what frankly is the most amazing event in short track racing.
I might be wrong, but somebody would need to show me where else you would see more cars and more racing in one event as you do here at Boone and every time that I am here I am amazed at how efficiently and well presented the entire program is. Yes, people will always find something to nit-pick about, but the growth of this event continues and since it has evolved here at this facility and with, for the most part the same crew from year to year, it just keeps getting better.
Anybody who would suggest that the Super Nationals needs to rotate locations has no concept of just what it takes to do this for what is essentially twenty-four hours a day and now, with the Prelude event on Saturday included, eight straight days.
IMCA, Boone Speedway and everybody who has a role in presenting this event, I tip my hat to you!
I will admit that I am a bit spoiled here by the VIP treatment allowing me to enjoy the racing even more with good friends Dick & Joyce Eisele, Paul & Vickie Vetter and David Schlise making each race even more entertaining plus we get an occasional visit from Batman & Robin, Jerry VanSickel and Ryan Clark who do a tremendous job on the microphone for the entire run.
On Monday, the day started right on time at 1 p.m. with hot laps and the first of fourteen Hobby Stock heat races took the green at two o'clock. Drivers were looking to race their way into one of two qualifying A-Mains today that would have eight drivers from each locking themselves in to Saturday night's "big dance" for the Hobby Stocks. Also in action today would be the IMCA Northern Sport Mods where twenty heats and one B-Main qualifier would set a field of thirty for tonight's chance to be the first eight drivers to make it to Saturday's Sport Mod Championship feature. Both divisions would also have B-Mains for points giving all 122 Hobby Stock and 144 Sport Mod drivers at least two opportunities to race today. Add to that the 35 Late Models that had signed in plus the countless Stock Cars, Modifieds and Sport Compacts that were each given one opportunity to hot lap and I would guess that I saw nearly 700 total race cars in my seven and a half hour stay, time that literally flew by with all of the action in front of me.
So many stories to tell, but I will stick with the two feature races that I saw before heading for home at 8:15 p.m.
The first Hobby Stock A-Main would start twenty-eight cars for twenty-five laps on the high-banked quarter-mile with the top eight locking in for Saturday's finale and the winner earning the pole position. Matt Brown would lead the first two circuits before Jacob Floyd squeezed past on the bottom to take the point on lap three. The action was fierce and surprisingly clean given what was at stake and on lap eleven the 2019 Hobby Stock track champion here at the Boone Speedway, Aaron Rudolph sailed around the top to take the lead from Floyd.
Green flag racing continued with drivers often going three and four wide until the first caution was needed on lap sixteen when Tony Fetterman slid off the back stretch entering turn three. Then reality set in as this would go from being a good clean race to what was essentially a demolition derby as drivers now realized that they only had nine laps remaining to crack the top eight.
The first casualty was fourteen-year-old Mike Smith who had made some progress after starting 28th only to end up being shoved into the back stretch wall and nearly getting upside down on lap nineteen. During the red flag period the third place car of IMCA National Rookie-of-the-Year point leader Kaden Reynolds had a fire erupt under the hood sending him scrambling out of the car and hustling to the infield for assistance.
On the restart Brady Larkins also caught the wall on the back stretch and he would end up on his top just before entering turn three calling for another red flag period. On this restart Matt Hanson, perhaps with a bit of help from behind, would spin out of the fourth position coming to green and early leaders Brown and Floyd tangled in turn one taking both of them out of the top eight, but the green light stayed on as all three quickly recovered.
The final caution would come just two laps shy of the finish when Jeremiah Wilson punted Josh VanCannon's used up car out the eighth position and perhaps from some of the debris from VanCannon's loose body work, top-five drivers Dylan Nelson and John Watson both had tires go flat sending them to the work area for a quick change.
Minnesota driver Trevor Holm would make one last bid for the win in the final two laps only to come up a car length short as Rudolph secured the win after starting sixth. Holm came from eighth for the runner-up spot, Jimmy Johnson started ninth and finished third, Brandon Nielsen finished where he started in fourth while New Mexico's Cory Stone started fifteenth and finished fifth. Also locking in for Saturday was Braxton Berry and Mike Kimm while Hanson recovered to take the final transfer in eighth.
After a round of track prep, a couple of Hobby Stock B-Mains and the B-Main qualifying race for the Sport Mods the fifty lap main event for the Deery Series Late Models came to a track that was in prefect shape for action with a beautiful sunset providing a backdrop. Terry Neal and Joe Zrostlik would sit on the front row following the Casey's Pizza redraw with Series newcomer Blair Kraus of Gretna, Nebraska, starting third. The young driver is a regular competitor at the Boone County Speedway in Albion, Nebraska, with his best feature finish there coming on August 16th when he was fourth, but in his first appearance ever with the Deery Series and on this big stage, Kraus had walked away with his heat race win this afternoon and was ready to back that up in the main event.
Zrostlik would race out to the lead at the drop of the green and looked smooth as he put some distance between himself and the competition that was now battling for position behind the leader. Ricky Thornton Jr. driving for Todd Cooney who is recovering from some health issues had started fifth and he was now picking off positions one at a time using some of the well timed slide jobs that fans here are used to seeing for "RT" when driving his Modified.
By lap eleven Thornton had moved to second and he would quickly reel in Zrostlik before driving under him in turns three and four to become the new pace setter on lap fifteen. Perhaps "pace setter" is not an accurate description though as Thornton would steadily pull away as the race to watch would now be for second as Zrostlik tried to fight off Neal, Nick Marolf, Justin Kay and a hard charging Tyler Bruening.
By the time that Kay cleared Marolf for second on lap thirty-nine Thornton was literally gone, a half-lap ahead of his contenders with count 'em eight lapped cars in between himself and Justin Kay. So with one eye watching Thornton negotiate traffic and another trying keep track of Bruening's bid for second, that would be how I watched the final ten laps with Thornton completing the dominating win for his first Late Model Super Nationals title and for the car's fourth after having been wheeled by owner Todd Cooney in the previous three victories here. The tenth starting Kay would hold off Bruening for second while Tyler posted a solid run coming from thirteenth to third. Nick Marolf would finish where he started in fourth while front row starters Neal and Zrostlik would go fifth and sixth. The Series point leader coming into the night, Andy Eckrich would finish in seventh just ahead of Jeff Aikey in eighth. John Emerson had a nice run up from the ninth row to finish ninth while the "Ironman" Darrel DeFrance filled out the top ten. Blair Kraus had his big night come to an end when he pulled to the infield mid-race while still running in the sixth position.
Next up for the Deery Brothers Summer Series will be the 500th event to be held since starting in 1987 and as luck would have it, given the multiple rainouts earlier in the 2019 schedule, that milestone event will be held where it all started at 34 Raceway in Burlington on Saturday September 21st. You can bet that the first race winner, Jay Johnson will be there and unless something changes in my schedule over the next eighteen days the guy who did the announcing of that first Summer Series race will be there as well!
A big thanks to Bill Martin, Tami and all of the staff at IMCA for the hospitality on Monday and I do hope that I can make it up for at least one day of the Super Nationals in the years ahead with a goal in retirement to find a camper and spend the whole week up here just once.
Next on the schedule for me will the Sprint Invaders return to the Quincy Raceways this coming Sunday night September 8th with perhaps a long awaited return to the Tom Knowles Memorial on Saturday at the Spoon River Speedway should the social calendar allow. The Special Events are upon us, so get out and enjoy as many as you can!
Hope to see you on the Back Stretch.
I might be wrong, but somebody would need to show me where else you would see more cars and more racing in one event as you do here at Boone and every time that I am here I am amazed at how efficiently and well presented the entire program is. Yes, people will always find something to nit-pick about, but the growth of this event continues and since it has evolved here at this facility and with, for the most part the same crew from year to year, it just keeps getting better.
Anybody who would suggest that the Super Nationals needs to rotate locations has no concept of just what it takes to do this for what is essentially twenty-four hours a day and now, with the Prelude event on Saturday included, eight straight days.
IMCA, Boone Speedway and everybody who has a role in presenting this event, I tip my hat to you!
I will admit that I am a bit spoiled here by the VIP treatment allowing me to enjoy the racing even more with good friends Dick & Joyce Eisele, Paul & Vickie Vetter and David Schlise making each race even more entertaining plus we get an occasional visit from Batman & Robin, Jerry VanSickel and Ryan Clark who do a tremendous job on the microphone for the entire run.
On Monday, the day started right on time at 1 p.m. with hot laps and the first of fourteen Hobby Stock heat races took the green at two o'clock. Drivers were looking to race their way into one of two qualifying A-Mains today that would have eight drivers from each locking themselves in to Saturday night's "big dance" for the Hobby Stocks. Also in action today would be the IMCA Northern Sport Mods where twenty heats and one B-Main qualifier would set a field of thirty for tonight's chance to be the first eight drivers to make it to Saturday's Sport Mod Championship feature. Both divisions would also have B-Mains for points giving all 122 Hobby Stock and 144 Sport Mod drivers at least two opportunities to race today. Add to that the 35 Late Models that had signed in plus the countless Stock Cars, Modifieds and Sport Compacts that were each given one opportunity to hot lap and I would guess that I saw nearly 700 total race cars in my seven and a half hour stay, time that literally flew by with all of the action in front of me.
So many stories to tell, but I will stick with the two feature races that I saw before heading for home at 8:15 p.m.
The first Hobby Stock A-Main would start twenty-eight cars for twenty-five laps on the high-banked quarter-mile with the top eight locking in for Saturday's finale and the winner earning the pole position. Matt Brown would lead the first two circuits before Jacob Floyd squeezed past on the bottom to take the point on lap three. The action was fierce and surprisingly clean given what was at stake and on lap eleven the 2019 Hobby Stock track champion here at the Boone Speedway, Aaron Rudolph sailed around the top to take the lead from Floyd.
Green flag racing continued with drivers often going three and four wide until the first caution was needed on lap sixteen when Tony Fetterman slid off the back stretch entering turn three. Then reality set in as this would go from being a good clean race to what was essentially a demolition derby as drivers now realized that they only had nine laps remaining to crack the top eight.
The first casualty was fourteen-year-old Mike Smith who had made some progress after starting 28th only to end up being shoved into the back stretch wall and nearly getting upside down on lap nineteen. During the red flag period the third place car of IMCA National Rookie-of-the-Year point leader Kaden Reynolds had a fire erupt under the hood sending him scrambling out of the car and hustling to the infield for assistance.
On the restart Brady Larkins also caught the wall on the back stretch and he would end up on his top just before entering turn three calling for another red flag period. On this restart Matt Hanson, perhaps with a bit of help from behind, would spin out of the fourth position coming to green and early leaders Brown and Floyd tangled in turn one taking both of them out of the top eight, but the green light stayed on as all three quickly recovered.
The final caution would come just two laps shy of the finish when Jeremiah Wilson punted Josh VanCannon's used up car out the eighth position and perhaps from some of the debris from VanCannon's loose body work, top-five drivers Dylan Nelson and John Watson both had tires go flat sending them to the work area for a quick change.
Minnesota driver Trevor Holm would make one last bid for the win in the final two laps only to come up a car length short as Rudolph secured the win after starting sixth. Holm came from eighth for the runner-up spot, Jimmy Johnson started ninth and finished third, Brandon Nielsen finished where he started in fourth while New Mexico's Cory Stone started fifteenth and finished fifth. Also locking in for Saturday was Braxton Berry and Mike Kimm while Hanson recovered to take the final transfer in eighth.
After a round of track prep, a couple of Hobby Stock B-Mains and the B-Main qualifying race for the Sport Mods the fifty lap main event for the Deery Series Late Models came to a track that was in prefect shape for action with a beautiful sunset providing a backdrop. Terry Neal and Joe Zrostlik would sit on the front row following the Casey's Pizza redraw with Series newcomer Blair Kraus of Gretna, Nebraska, starting third. The young driver is a regular competitor at the Boone County Speedway in Albion, Nebraska, with his best feature finish there coming on August 16th when he was fourth, but in his first appearance ever with the Deery Series and on this big stage, Kraus had walked away with his heat race win this afternoon and was ready to back that up in the main event.
Zrostlik would race out to the lead at the drop of the green and looked smooth as he put some distance between himself and the competition that was now battling for position behind the leader. Ricky Thornton Jr. driving for Todd Cooney who is recovering from some health issues had started fifth and he was now picking off positions one at a time using some of the well timed slide jobs that fans here are used to seeing for "RT" when driving his Modified.
By lap eleven Thornton had moved to second and he would quickly reel in Zrostlik before driving under him in turns three and four to become the new pace setter on lap fifteen. Perhaps "pace setter" is not an accurate description though as Thornton would steadily pull away as the race to watch would now be for second as Zrostlik tried to fight off Neal, Nick Marolf, Justin Kay and a hard charging Tyler Bruening.
By the time that Kay cleared Marolf for second on lap thirty-nine Thornton was literally gone, a half-lap ahead of his contenders with count 'em eight lapped cars in between himself and Justin Kay. So with one eye watching Thornton negotiate traffic and another trying keep track of Bruening's bid for second, that would be how I watched the final ten laps with Thornton completing the dominating win for his first Late Model Super Nationals title and for the car's fourth after having been wheeled by owner Todd Cooney in the previous three victories here. The tenth starting Kay would hold off Bruening for second while Tyler posted a solid run coming from thirteenth to third. Nick Marolf would finish where he started in fourth while front row starters Neal and Zrostlik would go fifth and sixth. The Series point leader coming into the night, Andy Eckrich would finish in seventh just ahead of Jeff Aikey in eighth. John Emerson had a nice run up from the ninth row to finish ninth while the "Ironman" Darrel DeFrance filled out the top ten. Blair Kraus had his big night come to an end when he pulled to the infield mid-race while still running in the sixth position.
Next up for the Deery Brothers Summer Series will be the 500th event to be held since starting in 1987 and as luck would have it, given the multiple rainouts earlier in the 2019 schedule, that milestone event will be held where it all started at 34 Raceway in Burlington on Saturday September 21st. You can bet that the first race winner, Jay Johnson will be there and unless something changes in my schedule over the next eighteen days the guy who did the announcing of that first Summer Series race will be there as well!
A big thanks to Bill Martin, Tami and all of the staff at IMCA for the hospitality on Monday and I do hope that I can make it up for at least one day of the Super Nationals in the years ahead with a goal in retirement to find a camper and spend the whole week up here just once.
Next on the schedule for me will the Sprint Invaders return to the Quincy Raceways this coming Sunday night September 8th with perhaps a long awaited return to the Tom Knowles Memorial on Saturday at the Spoon River Speedway should the social calendar allow. The Special Events are upon us, so get out and enjoy as many as you can!
Hope to see you on the Back Stretch.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
The Answer is NO!!!!
After twenty minutes of steady rain at 34 Raceway my Saturday night plans suddenly changed as the Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Sprint Car series was rained out just before hot laps started. A good field of twenty non-winged warriors were ready to tackle the high banks in the first visit of this series, but Mother Nature had other plans and those in attendance were now heading for home just before seven o'clock.
The timing was perfect for me to hustle home, put on my walking shoes and head on over to the Old Settlers and Threshers Reunion here in Mount Pleasant where Joe Diffie was set to take the stage at 8 p.m. The attendance was amazing as I do not think I have ever seen more people here for a show, but I managed to find a spot down front and thoroughly enjoyed an hour and a half of country music from an artist who has had ten number one hits during his career.
Waking up this Sunday morning my goal was to get some yard work done knowing that I did not have a story to write from last night's racing, but one quick check of Facebook before heading outside posed this question to me. "Should Major Dirt Track Racing Events Be Televised?"
Reading this story irritated me so much that I just had to respond, so the yard work can wait for a few minutes. So first click the link and then come back to me here.
Don't fall into the trap and think what would be the most convenient for you, the race fan, because just like the others who have commented so far on the Facebook post your easy answer would be "yes".
All you need to do is to go back about ten years ago when the Knoxville Nationals had become so big that they were selling out all of the tickets on Friday and Saturday night, and the logical step was now "let's put this on live television so that all can enjoy it."
Dirt track racing does not translate well to live television, period, end of sentence.
First of all it cannot be boxed into a time frame that network television would want from it. There was nothing more annoying than to be sitting in the stands at Knoxville on Saturday night, with the E and the D Mains already completed and having to wait until nine o'clock for the live telecast to begin so that we could finally bring the C-Main to the track. Of course before that would happen though we were all told that we needed to be making noise like trained monkeys so that everybody watching from home would "see how much fun it was to be here in person".
Caution flags would take longer because we would have to wait for the broadcast to come back from commercials, the start of the next race would be delayed so that the interview of the driver who just won could to be completed and heaven forbid that weather might be approaching because we sure wouldn't want to speed things up or start earlier and have the folks watching from home be robbed of what they were expecting to see!
This is the line of the story though that really pissed me off in reference to the availability of live streaming events today. The problem with these services is they can add up quickly and take-a-hit to your pocketbook, from some events costing over $100 for a week of racing at the Knoxville Nationals to a monthly subscription being over $40.00 in other cases can be tough for the average American family to take-in all the racing there is to take-in.
Wow, cry me a freaking river!
How much would it have cost that average American family of four to have actually attended the Knoxville Nationals? My tickets for all four nights totaled $190 just for me and with my wife and son joining me on Friday and Saturday that was another $194, so I was at $384. Assuming that little Buffy and Jody were young enough for the "average American family" to get the children's half-price tickets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, by my calculations their total ticket costs for the week would have been $605, plus concessions, fuel to get there and back and hotels or camping fees. Do you really have anything to bitch about paying $100 to watch all four nights from your easy chair?
Not one bit!
And a $40 monthly subscription to some of these streaming services has to be the deal of the century as it would cost the "average American family" that much just to go to one weekly show at their local track, something that Mom, Dad, Buffy and Jody aren't doing enough of anyway these days due to the fact that they now have all of these opportunities "to take in all of the racing there is to take in" on all of the streaming services available to them.
Oh yes, and since Buffy and Jody are no longer actually at the track enjoying the sights, the sounds, the battle for sixth that you aren't seeing on the live stream as the leader who is ten car lengths in front of everybody else is the only car in the shot right now, they will NOT become race fans and neither the tracks or the streaming services will get their money ten years from now when they are young adults.
So where does that leave the future of our sport?
Can you imagine if this year's Knoxville Nationals had been televised live? All of the focus would have been on David Gravel who was never seriously challenged and the struggle for Donny Schatz trying to make his way through the field after starting near the back. You would have missed the early charge by Daryn Pittman and the persistent drive by Logan Schuchart who came from twenty-second to finish second, the drive that the TV producers were expecting from Schatz.
Yes, as a fan in the stands you could have missed those as well, but at least you would have had the opportunity to see it if you were paying attention. When you watch on television, or live streaming you get what the camera is currently focused on and that is a big reason why DIRT TRACK RACING DOES NOT TRANSLATE WELL TO LIVE TELEVISION!
So let's go back to our example of the Knoxville Nationals being broadcast live on television. Attendance at the actual event dropped off noticeably over the next couple of years, so much so that that Knoxville made the decision to stop giving it away for free. And, while it has taken several years to build back up, the Saturday night show has returned to being a sell out for each of the last two years.
Should major dirt track racing events be televised? If you are truly a fan of the sport, the answer is NO!
I have a commitment to work the dinner line at out church tent at Old Threshers this evening so I will have to miss the return of the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models to the Quincy Raceways tonight, but hopefully you will go and fill my seat. Tomorrow I plan on making the trip up to Boone for the Deery Brothers Summer Series race as the IMCA Super Nationals get underway for another huge week of racing.
Hope to see you there!
The timing was perfect for me to hustle home, put on my walking shoes and head on over to the Old Settlers and Threshers Reunion here in Mount Pleasant where Joe Diffie was set to take the stage at 8 p.m. The attendance was amazing as I do not think I have ever seen more people here for a show, but I managed to find a spot down front and thoroughly enjoyed an hour and a half of country music from an artist who has had ten number one hits during his career.
Waking up this Sunday morning my goal was to get some yard work done knowing that I did not have a story to write from last night's racing, but one quick check of Facebook before heading outside posed this question to me. "Should Major Dirt Track Racing Events Be Televised?"
Reading this story irritated me so much that I just had to respond, so the yard work can wait for a few minutes. So first click the link and then come back to me here.
Don't fall into the trap and think what would be the most convenient for you, the race fan, because just like the others who have commented so far on the Facebook post your easy answer would be "yes".
All you need to do is to go back about ten years ago when the Knoxville Nationals had become so big that they were selling out all of the tickets on Friday and Saturday night, and the logical step was now "let's put this on live television so that all can enjoy it."
Dirt track racing does not translate well to live television, period, end of sentence.
First of all it cannot be boxed into a time frame that network television would want from it. There was nothing more annoying than to be sitting in the stands at Knoxville on Saturday night, with the E and the D Mains already completed and having to wait until nine o'clock for the live telecast to begin so that we could finally bring the C-Main to the track. Of course before that would happen though we were all told that we needed to be making noise like trained monkeys so that everybody watching from home would "see how much fun it was to be here in person".
Caution flags would take longer because we would have to wait for the broadcast to come back from commercials, the start of the next race would be delayed so that the interview of the driver who just won could to be completed and heaven forbid that weather might be approaching because we sure wouldn't want to speed things up or start earlier and have the folks watching from home be robbed of what they were expecting to see!
This is the line of the story though that really pissed me off in reference to the availability of live streaming events today. The problem with these services is they can add up quickly and take-a-hit to your pocketbook, from some events costing over $100 for a week of racing at the Knoxville Nationals to a monthly subscription being over $40.00 in other cases can be tough for the average American family to take-in all the racing there is to take-in.
Wow, cry me a freaking river!
How much would it have cost that average American family of four to have actually attended the Knoxville Nationals? My tickets for all four nights totaled $190 just for me and with my wife and son joining me on Friday and Saturday that was another $194, so I was at $384. Assuming that little Buffy and Jody were young enough for the "average American family" to get the children's half-price tickets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, by my calculations their total ticket costs for the week would have been $605, plus concessions, fuel to get there and back and hotels or camping fees. Do you really have anything to bitch about paying $100 to watch all four nights from your easy chair?
Not one bit!
And a $40 monthly subscription to some of these streaming services has to be the deal of the century as it would cost the "average American family" that much just to go to one weekly show at their local track, something that Mom, Dad, Buffy and Jody aren't doing enough of anyway these days due to the fact that they now have all of these opportunities "to take in all of the racing there is to take in" on all of the streaming services available to them.
Oh yes, and since Buffy and Jody are no longer actually at the track enjoying the sights, the sounds, the battle for sixth that you aren't seeing on the live stream as the leader who is ten car lengths in front of everybody else is the only car in the shot right now, they will NOT become race fans and neither the tracks or the streaming services will get their money ten years from now when they are young adults.
So where does that leave the future of our sport?
Can you imagine if this year's Knoxville Nationals had been televised live? All of the focus would have been on David Gravel who was never seriously challenged and the struggle for Donny Schatz trying to make his way through the field after starting near the back. You would have missed the early charge by Daryn Pittman and the persistent drive by Logan Schuchart who came from twenty-second to finish second, the drive that the TV producers were expecting from Schatz.
Yes, as a fan in the stands you could have missed those as well, but at least you would have had the opportunity to see it if you were paying attention. When you watch on television, or live streaming you get what the camera is currently focused on and that is a big reason why DIRT TRACK RACING DOES NOT TRANSLATE WELL TO LIVE TELEVISION!
So let's go back to our example of the Knoxville Nationals being broadcast live on television. Attendance at the actual event dropped off noticeably over the next couple of years, so much so that that Knoxville made the decision to stop giving it away for free. And, while it has taken several years to build back up, the Saturday night show has returned to being a sell out for each of the last two years.
Should major dirt track racing events be televised? If you are truly a fan of the sport, the answer is NO!
I have a commitment to work the dinner line at out church tent at Old Threshers this evening so I will have to miss the return of the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models to the Quincy Raceways tonight, but hopefully you will go and fill my seat. Tomorrow I plan on making the trip up to Boone for the Deery Brothers Summer Series race as the IMCA Super Nationals get underway for another huge week of racing.
Hope to see you there!
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