Hard to believe that on November 20th this dirt track fan based in southeast Iowa had TWO shows to choose from and a difficult choice it was. Do I make my annual trip on this weekend before Thanksgiving to an event that I look forward to that is scheduled on this weekend each year? Or do I stay close to home and go to an event that I had a part in creating that had been rescheduled from a rainout on October 30th? It was a tough call and I considered several factors that I won't go into detail on here, but when the day arrived and the weather for both events looked great for such a late season race, I stuck with tradition and made the trip to Springfield, Missouri, for the 15th Annual Turkey Bowl.
Promoter Jerry Hoffman took the microphone just before opening ceremonies to greet the large crowd on hand and said, "the first Turkey Bowl was a good idea, but I didn't make a dime on it." He then motioned to the expanded pit area that had 297 race cars waiting to compete, turned back to the crowd and said, "but thanks to all of you we might just make enough money to open up again next year, or at least have a good turkey dinner next week."
 |
| A festive Victory Lane at Springfield |
Hoffman is a character and one hell of a businessman who has built this show up over the years to make it the mega event that it now is. This year saw a Practice Night on Thursday and on Friday the qualifying heat races were run for the B-Mods, Legend Cars and the two Midwest Mod classes, plus for the first time a full program of Pure Stocks was added. That meant that on Saturday, fans like me were not only treated to a full program of Modifieds that were 69 cars strong, and Super Late Models with an entry list of 36 drivers, I also saw the B-Mains and features for four other classes. It was a long afternoon and evening of racing, but when we got into the car to leave with just one feature remaining I was surprised that it was 11:19 as the nearly eight hours of racing held my interest throughout.
The Legend Cars would be the first feature to hit the track with pole-sitter Justin Comer taking the early lead. Drew Papke who makes this trip each year from Bismarck, North Dakota, was in hot pursuit and he would drive by Comer to take the point on lap three. Fifteen of the twenty-lap distance would be scored until Trenton Simon and Minnesota's Tommie Quenzer tangled in turn four and on the restart Comer would take the lead back from Papke as contenders fanned out five-wide just behind them. Lap sixteen would be scored before two cars collided on the front stretch and that would set the field for a four lap scramble to the checkers.
Dave Comer would make it a three way battle for the lead and as the trio exited turn two on the final lap Papke found himself the meat in a Comer sandwich with Dave down low and Justin up top. They stayed three-wide through turn three but on the exit of turn four Justin would spin sending the field behind him scrambling as Papke nosed out Dave Comer by inches to take the thrilling victory. North Carolina visitor Daniel Adam would cross the line in third, Grasyn Cox would finish fourth and fifth went to Wisconsin driver Jordan Miklas who had started fourteenth on the field.
Here at Springfield the Midwest Mod class is split into an "A" and "B" field based upon driver experience and past success and combined there were 80 entries back for today's action. The "A" class feature would run next and they would struggle through two cautions in the first two laps of racing. On the restart pole-sitter Jeff Douty would again lead the field back to green, but as they raced into turn three the second place car of Darren Bennett tagged Douty and sent him for a spin that would see both drivers sent to the rear.
Anthony Farrara would assume the lead from there and when Bennett coasted to a halt on the back stretch with six laps remaining that would be the final caution of the race. Casey Burnett and Pete Richardson would be able to keep pace with the leader, but there would be no catching Farrara who would hold on for the win. Burnett and Richardson were next in line with Andy Aust and Gage Garoutte filling out the top five.
Twenty-five laps of Modified action would be up next and only the first would be scored before Drake Findlay stopped on the front stretch. Peyton Taylor would bring the field back to green only to have the caution fly again on lap five when the fourth place car of Darron Fuqua slipped over the top of turn three. Once back to racing Sawyer Crigler would sail around the outside of Taylor to take the lead and defending Turkey Bowl champion Steven Bowers Jr. was now in contention after starting twelfth. I have to admit that my attention was on some action at the back of the field on lap eleven when the caution waved again with Taylor facing the wrong way at the end of the back stretch and Bowers headed to the work area putting Iowa's Shane DeMey in the runner-up position for the restart.
One more caution would wave for debris on lap seventeen as Crigler had this one well in hand to take the win. DeMey fought off a hard charging Steve Picou who had started thirteenth to finish second, young Dillon McCowan was impressive in fourth and Fuqua passed California driver Trevor Fitz on the final lap to rally back to fifth. Fitz was the big mover of the race though having started from the inside of the tenth and final row.
The thirty lap Late Model headliner got off to an interesting start with Matt Becker and Kaeden Cornell bringing the field to green. Third starting Tony Jackson Jr. made a bonsai move into turn three diving under Becker and with his momentum now bringing him up the banking perhaps his right rear caught the left front of Becker's car. While trying to recover from his car now pointing to the top of turn four, Jackson was then clipped by Scott Crigler who was committed to the cushion sending Jackson for a spin in the middle of the track. Fortunately everybody was able to miss him and as the field reassembled Jackson drew some catcalls from the crowd for showing his displeasure to Becker for the incident.
Jackson was given his spot back for the restart though and once underway it would be Becker who would set the quick early pace. As Jackson faded, Crigler applied the heat to Becker and the former Turkey Bowl champion would take the point on lap four. One lap later, and after losing a few more positions the pre-race favorite Jackson would pull to the infield and the race would stay green until lap nine when Trevor Gundaker coasted to a halt in turn four. One more lap would go in the books before Carl Murphy and Eddie Martin tangled in turn four with enough damage to sideline both entries.
After starting eighth Cole Wells was now in contention and he would take the lead away from Crigler on lap twelve only to have the caution wave again four laps later when Joe Godsey slowed with a flat tire. This restart would give the fans some great racing action as Justin Zeitner pulled even with the leader only to have Wells hold him off, and Will Vaught was now in contention as well after starting from the sixth row.
As the laps clicked away the middle line had rubbered up and was lightning fast, but there would be two lapped cars that would have to be dealt with for Wells to get to the checkers. As the white flag waved Wells checked up just a bit and it was good that he did as the lappers made contact in turn one and spun right in front of him. This would setup a green, white, checkers sprint to the finish and when Zeitner went to the bottom in turn one to make a run at the leader, that allowed Vaught to take the second spot as Wells cruised to the $5,000 victory. Payton Looney would finish in the fourth position while Godsey rallied to take fifth.
With about half of the large crowd now heading to the parking lot we decided to stay for the twenty-five lap B-Mod main event and I am glad that we did! Despite a couple of cautions this would be a classic three car battle between Cole Campbell, Ryan Gillmore and Kris Jackson with the trio going three-wide on at least three occasions. Officially Campbell would lead the first two laps before yielding to Gillmore and if not for the transponder fed scoreboard you would not have known who the leader was on several laps as I was almost sure that Jackson had nosed ahead a couple of times, but the #65 never did light up the #1 position. They would cross the line three-wide with ten laps to go and that would be when Campbell regained a lead that he would not relinquish.
Jackson was there to take advantage of any mistake as Campbell took the win with Gillmore close behind in third. Jaren Martin charged from the inside of row eight to finish in the fourth spot while Stetson Johnson finished fifth despite the fact that his left side sheet metal would rise up in the wind limiting his visibility.
 |
| The expanded pit area at the Springfield Raceway was full with 297 cars on hand |
With the Midwest Mod "B" class set to provide "a nightcap" we made our way to the warmth of a Springfield hotel with full intentions of returning to this event again in 2022. I don't know if Hoffman is one to take suggestions or not, but since it appears that he is always looking for how to improve his shows I have a couple of requests. With the huge number of cars on hand now this is always going to be a "long show", but perhaps implementing the "one and done" rule during the heat races and B-Mains it just might speed things up a bit. There were several cautions where a driver would spin and come to a halt with the caution waving immediately and that driver would then restart at the rear. Let those drivers know that they are done for that race if the caution waves from them and watch how quickly they get the car back in gear and headed in the right direction.
The other request that I would have is for an improved speaker system. Jerry Van Sickle came down as a guest announcer but even during the quiet times it was hard to understand what he and the other announcers were saying. Thank goodness for MyRacePass or I would have gone crazy not knowing who the drivers were and where they were from. I know that JVan provides that information, but if you can't hear him, then you don't get it. I would think that he served up at least one White Castle last night, but only the Pay Per View crowd would have heard it.
With the short week ahead I will put up the final Kansas Points and then during the week after Thanksgiving we will run down the final five classes in the All Iowa Points where one championship was decided last night at Lee County's Shiverfest.
Thanks for stopping by the Back Stretch and have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment