Night number two of the Summit USRA Nationals at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, showed us that there are two drivers who are the obvious favorites in their respective class and that for the best racing action you need look only for the uber-talented B-Mod division to provide the thrills needed to close out the night and make you ready to return the following day.
It was no surprise to me that the Lucas Oil track prep team had the dirt ready to race on right at the 6 p.m. scheduled start time after costing the boss a bet the night before and as I settled into my seat the first qualifying heat race for the Hobby Stocks had just taken the green. If you clicked that link in the sentence before you will get the description about how the qualifying process is taking place this week so I will not go through that again here.
This would be the first night of double heat race qualifying for the Hobby Stocks and Stock Cars while the B-Mods would complete their qualifying for Saturday's finale with their two rounds of heat races. Once those thirty-eight heat races were complete we were set for tonight's Summit Shootout for the Modifieds where just ten cars met the invitational standards and they would race for fifteen laps and the $1,000 top prize.
National points leader Tyler Davis would draw the pole position and he was gone at the drop of the green running away to a seven second advantage at the checkers in the non-stop event. There was some good action behind him though as Ryan Middaugh raced his way up from fifth to second and the driver currently ranked second in the USRA National point standings, Dillon McCowan came from tenth to third. Nic Bidinger and Tyler Hibner would wrap up the top half of the field.
Despite drivers running multiple lines in that race, the scheduled track prep session started at 9:39 p.m. and it would be 10:27 before the Hobby Stock main event would be ready to take the green. Northeast Iowa competitors Josh Ludeking and Dylan Clinton would start from the front row and after one trip around the Lucas Oil Speedway they were still side-by-side with Ludeking holding a slight advantage at the line. Clinton would take over on the second circuit with Jeremy Crimmins making some big early moves to go from fifth to second.
This one would go for fifteen laps non-stop on the freshly worked surface and while Crimmins could stay within four or five car lengths, there was no catching Clinton who added to his Summit Shootout win from Tuesday night. Crimmins would chase him in for second with Dustin Gulbrandson well back in third after starting eighth. Levi Vander Weide would finish in the fourth spot while Ludeking slipped to fifth.
The Stock Cars were up next and after dominating Tuesday's Summit Shootout, plus winning both of his heat races on this night, one from the front and the other from the back, was there any doubt that Dylan Thornton would be the man to beat starting from the front row in this 18-lap National points paying race? Multi-time National champion Mitch Hovden would line up next to Thornton, but even he was no match for the kid from California who walked away to a flag-to-flag victory. It such a good night for Thornton that it was also reported that his car owner, Shawn Ritter had won the 50/50 drawing.
It was pointed out that Thornton is perfect thus far with two more heat races and another 18-lap main event on tap for tonight (Thursday). Can he keep it going?
Hovden fought off the challenges from Myles Michehl to finish second, Dean Wille advanced from seventh to fourth and Chad Clancy completed the top five.
With 76 entries the talent assembled here this week in the B-Mod division is phenomenal and for the second night in a row the class would send the fans home with an entertaining main event that was slowed by three late cautions. Local favorites Colson Kirk and Ryan Gillmore would lead the way from the front row with northeast Iowa's Brandon Hare and Sedalia veteran Terry Schultz in hot pursuit. Kirk and Gillmore would swap a pair of sliders in the opening laps with Kirk officially the leader each time at the stripe before the caution waved on lap eleven.
While swapping some sliders of their own mid-pack, Shadren Turner had inadvertently clipped the right rear of Cody Brill's #96 just before the flagstand turning Brill hard into the front stretch wall. After a brief red flag period Brill emerged unscathed, although his car was done for the evening. On this restart with seven laps remaining it was noted that surprisingly the two National points provisionals, Kris Jackson and Joe Chisholm had made little if any progress as Jackson lined up fifteenth with Chisholm just behind him.
Once back to green the battle would continue up front with Gillmore making his runs at Kirk in the corners only to have Colson ward him off and the caution would wave again with two laps to go when Kyle Anderson spun in turn four. Gillmore would toss another slider at Kirk on this restart with the leader again executing the perfect crossover to get to the white flag first, but as the leaders entered turn one the caution would be needed again, this time for Cayden Stacye.
The field would be setup again for a green, white, checkers finale and, by the way, Kris Jackson was now up to sixth in the lineup. Gillmore would again drive deep into turn one and drift up the track in two and since he didn't have Kirk cleared, the leader may have flinched a little and drifted a little wider off the turn. This allowed Gillmore to race even with him down the back stretch and this time, in turns three and four, Ryan was able to make the slider stick to take the official white flag. Kirk would try to return the favor in turns one and two on the final lap, but he did not have the momentum as Gillmore posted the exciting victory. Kirk missed out on his first career win here at Lucas Oil by just over a lap and Schultz was right there ready to pounce in third. Brandon Hare finished fourth with J.C. Morton fifth while Jackson's late run ended there in sixth.
The final checkers waved at 11:05 p.m. on another fun night of racing and that means that the forty-eight minutes of track work produced three features that took a total of thirty-eight minutes to complete. That's a fair trade off, I guess.
Action continues tonight (Thursday) with the final night of double heat qualifying for the Modifieds, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks. The B-Mods will contest their Summit Shootout and there will be full shows for both the Tuners and the USRA Late Models. If you can't be here in person be sure to check out all of the action on RacinDirt.
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