The same scenario played out two years ago and, for that one, we made the long drive down on Sunday morning and the return trip that night knowing that work would come early on Monday. On that trip we left without seeing any features and the consensus decision was that we would not do this again if the event were pushed back to a Sunday. Well "never say never" as the lure of sunny skies and temps in the 60's made me come up with a plan that I thought might work better as we left Iowa on Saturday afternoon and then spent the night at the Lake of the Ozarks thinking that by breaking up the trip I would be able to stay at the track until 8:00 or 8:30 and still have enough in me to make the five plus hour drive back to get enough sleep before going to work on Monday. And, with the start time moved up to 2:30 in the afternoon that plan appeared to be very realistic........until 200 cars signed in!!!
But hey, you will never hear me complain about that as this is what I love most about the early and late season events. The fact that you just never know who, or how many drivers will make the tow to compete and once again the mix of the driver roster at the Turkey Bowl was very intriguing!
Since we arrived at the track well before the start time I spent the extra twenty bucks for a pit pass allowing me to get acquainted with some of the cars as one improvement that is really needed at Springfield is a new p.a. system. Thankfully the track now uses MyRacePass so we had all of the driver's names and hometowns at our finger tips as actually hearing the announcer even when there was no engine noise at all is still a challenge. That extra twenty bucks was money well spent though as it also allowed me to experience promoter Jerry Hoffman's Drivers Meeting for the first time!
I don't know if I have ever seen a more upbeat and exuberant promoter at a driver's meeting. Of course he thanked everybody for making the trip and he then gave away three crisp, authentic one hundred dollar bills. Two of them for people who had traveled the farthest and the other, well let's just say that it would be for a future photo opp with the charismatic promoter. He also held up a counterfeit one hundred dollar bill, one that had been passed to the girls at the pit gate, and he asked who would like to step forward and accept responsibility for it. Of course no one did and he reminded everybody that the Lord was watching!
Hoffman urged all of the drivers to be ready for the upcoming 2:30 start and to keep the show moving, but I groaned when he stated that instead of the "one spin and you're in" rule that they would be going with two cautions for the day. Other than that, it was a great meeting and we were now ready to go racing.
So let me jump ahead for a moment and tell you that at 7:45 p.m., with the planned intermission and track prep session now getting underway we decided to hit the road missing four of the six main events including the three that I really wanted to see. No knock on Hoffman or his crew, they were keeping things moving as best as they could with the huge turnout of race cars and the decision to go with two unassisted cautions instead of one, but it was now obvious that we were not going to see another feature finished before our self-imposed curfew of 8:30 so we headed for the gates.
Frankly those of us from Iowa have been spoiled by how races are presented at the tracks close to home, especially if you have been to several events directed by Mike Van Genderen over the past few years. The one spin and you're in rule during heats and B-Mains is expected and there are no wasted laps under caution waiting for a start or a restart. The flagman doesn't need to, or more importantly doesn't get to give a "one to go" signal to the drivers because when the lineup is set, the caution light goes off and you go racing that first time around rather than the second, third, fourth or more.
I get it, that way of presenting races hasn't made it down this way as of yet. In fact, when that type of method was introduced at a mid-Missouri track a couple of years ago the promoter was upset with the Race Director because the heat races were completed "too early", but as a race fan I just don't see how that could ever be a bad thing.
On this day at least five drivers were sent to the pits for causing their second caution, so that is at least five of the forty-three race stoppages during the heats and B-Mains that would have been eliminated if the one spin rule were in effect and there were several times where the front row seemed to be confused as to whether or not they were bringing the field to a start causing even more trips around the quarter-mile at a slow speed. When you have thirty-three qualifying races to run, wasting just two minutes in each adds up to just over a full hour. And.....well, that is huge on a Sunday night for all of those who made any kind of a trip to take in this spectacular event. But I digress.....
The Legend Car feature was the first to be run and other than a couple of crashes early on, one involving usual Late Model favorite Jesse Stovall who was the 200th driver to sign in unloading his Legend Car from his big Late Model hauler, this was an entertaining race. Justin Comer was the early race leader, but it was North Dakota's Drew Papke who was on the move after starting sixth. On lap three Papke made a nifty fourth-to-first place charge, but before he could get back to the line the caution waved for the first two-car incident in turn one. Then, following the restart, Papke again passed Comer but the multi-car tangle involving Stovall brought out the caution before that lap could be scored as well. Finally, on lap seven, Papke would get one to count as he passed Comer and then drove away to score the win. Tim Brockhouse made the pull down from Shakopee, Minnesota, to finish fourth and the veteran driver from Kalona, Iowa, Warren Ropp was sixth.
The Midwest Modified feature had an interesting ending as Elijah Keeper was able to get past Casey Burnett in the final two laps to take the win despite the fact that Keeper had a role in one of the final cautions of the race just a few laps from the checkers. He was working on Trent Wynn for the third spot when contact in turn three sent Wynn for a spin while Keeper kept his car moving through the infield. After several laps circling the track under caution, Wynn was sent to the rear for the restart while Keeper kept his spot. There were a few in the stands who made their thoughts known on that decision as the winner was interviewed in victory lane.
Those were the two features that we did get to see and Danny kept us updated on the results of the remaining four through his MRP app on the drive home. Thanks to a Replay of the final green flag segment of the Late Model feature from the folks at RacinDirt.com I saw that we missed a good one with Logan Martin slipping past defending Turkey Bowl champion Scott Crigler with five laps remaining to take the win. Earlier Crigler had fought off the challenges of Ryan Gustin, but while racing through heavy lapped traffic both Martin and Payton Looney were able to get by him. Cole Wells and his father Justin completed the top five.
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| Shane DeMey - Chris Claunch photo with permission from RacinDirt.com |
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| Ethan Braaksma - Chris Claunch photo with permission from RacinDirt.com |
There was no shortage of talent in the 53-car field of B-Mods either with four of the best in the region leading the way at the checkers. Ryan Gillmore took the win ahead of J.C. Morton and Clint Johnson while Jackie Dalton charged from fourteenth to fourth. Missing from the feature field was one of the pre-race favorites Kris Jackson who spun into the inside berm in turn two of his heat race causing the car to roll over onto it's top. Then, in his B-Main, as he was making his way from the back to the front, the engine compartment burst into flames perhaps a lingering issue from sitting upside down earlier and after being extinguished the #65 was done for the evening.
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| It was a rough night for Kris Jackson - Chris Claunch photo with permission from RacinDirt.com |
When we first arrived at the track I had the pleasure of catching up with Trenton Berry as he was getting everything set up for the live streaming of the event on his website RacingDirt.com. Trenton noted that the live stream business is getting tougher each day with more and more competition in the market and he fears that we are at the point where the number of events now available on a Pay Per View basis is exceeding demand. I feel that we reached that point some time ago and my fear is that we will soon turn this sport into one where only a stubborn few of us are actually spending the money to make the drive, buy the ticket, sit in the stands and buy some concessions rather than lounging in our easy chair flipping back and fourth between multiple events that we are getting with our "cheap monthly subscriptions". Then again, looking at the crowd here at the Turkey Bowl on this beautiful Sunday, it would appear that my fears are unfounded.
Trenton was also excited to talk about the return of the USMTS Modifieds to the Dallas County Speedway in Urbana, Missouri, on Thursday August 20th of next year, an event that I am going to do my best to attend. And Dallas County also has a two-day show on their newly released 2020 schedule for October 16th and 17th that will be of interest with details to come. I then kept Trenton from doing what he needed to for another ten minutes as we talked about our shared hobby of buying and selling autographed sports cards. Don't forget that you can watch Trenton's spectacular work as a reporter during the upcoming PPV broadcast of the Gateway Dirt Nationals December 19th, 20th and 21st at DirtOnDirt.com and I want to thank him for granting me permission to use these great Turkey Bowl photos taken by Chris Claunch.
Once again, there were no regrets as our group made the long drive home as we had seen 200 race cars on a well prepared dirt track here in the Midwest on a Sunday in late November. That opportunity is not provided anywhere else! However, as we did two years ago, we came to the conclusion that should Mother Nature force this scenario again, where the Turkey Bowl would have to be run on a Sunday, we would not make the trip only heading to Springfield if the event is run on its originally scheduled date.
Unless we can bring MVG along and put him to work!
