I was not able to attend last year's three night show, but when the schedule expanded to five nights with a well thought out format to showcase all eight sanctioned divisions in 2022 I made my arrangements to spend the week at the Lake with a nightly one hour drive over to Lucas Oil. Arriving early enough on Tuesday to catch the drivers meeting, Staley noted that someone had bet him that the night's show could not be completed by 10:30 and, if you know Todd, he is never one to shy away from a good bet especially when the new five night format was put together in a manner to avoid the late night/early morning finishes from a year ago.
Tonight's card would consist of the following:
Hobby Stocks - An invitational field of 13 would run two heat races and a Summit Shootout feature
Modifieds - This would be the first night of qualifying for the 42 entries who would each run two heat races to accumulate passing points. For tonight the top sixteen in points, plus two National points provisionals, would advance to a feature race that would pay a purse plus National points, but would have no bearing on the qualification process for Saturday night's Nationals main event. There will be a second night of qualifying later in the week where drivers will again run two heats and they will use the total score of their best three of those four heat races that they have run this week to set the lineups for Saturday night.
Stock Cars - An invitational field of 24 would run three heats and a B-Main to set the twenty car field for their Summit Shootout feature.
B-Mods - A stout field of 76 would follow the same process as the Modifieds above with their second night of qualifying set for tonight (Wednesday).
The race track was still too greasy to get started at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, but after a few heat races the surface was wide, fast and multi-grooved allowing several drivers to post some great passing point totals moving from deep in the pack to the front.
The fifteen lap Summit Shootout for the Hobby Stocks would roll out immediately following the heat races with Carter Koop and Zac Smith bringing the field to green. Koop would set the pace early and after a couple of laps nearly the entire field had settled into the bottom groove. The leader, however was running one line higher and that allowed Dylan Clinton to poke a nose under Koop at the exits of turns two and four.
Smith would spin in turn four on lap four for the only caution of the race and once back to action it was again a line around the bottom with the leader teasingly leaving the door open through the turns. After lap six was scored Clinton was able to pull even with Koop down the back stretch and as they aimed for the bottom entering turn three, both drivers drifted up the track allowing Dustin Gulbrandson to fill the void and go from third to first.
Clinton was able to drop Koop to third and he would now set his sights on the seven-time USRA National champion while Koop started to work a much higher line around the black, slick surface. With five laps remaining Clinton was finally able to get to the front and the 2022 track champion at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union would pull away to the $500 victory. Koop was able to work that wider line to get back to second at the checkers while the eighth starting Steve Larson finished third ahead of Gulbrandson. Scott Dobel would fill out the top five.
About a half an hour of farming would follow and that, along with some yellow fever in his own race would cost Staley that bet, but he did come much closer than what most people expected!
The Modifieds would be up next for eighteen laps with outside front row starter, and local favorite Jason Pursley having to scratch due to motor issues. With the qualifying for Saturday's championship night based upon heat races only, this is not a killer for Pursley as long as those motor issues are not too serious. Arkansas driver Tyler Wolff would start from the pole and dominate this race that was stopped twice by an unlikely culprit. Matt Johnson who is always a threat to win here at Lucas Oil spun in turn two on the first try at a start and then did the same thing in basically the same spot on the track as lap two was being contested.
Ryan Middaugh had lined up next to Wolff and he would chase him the distance to finish second while Tyler Davis padded his National Points lead with a third place finish after starting from fourth. Brandon Givens was fourth while Dillon McCowan, who is the primary challenger to Davis in the National points chase, started sixth and finished fifth.
The Summit Shootout for the Stock Cars became a bit of a grind with several caution flags and the fact that, while under green, Dylan Thornton had the Shawn Ritter owned #38T at a level higher than everybody else. Not even multi-time National Champion Mitch Hovden could keep pace with the young Californian who eased on in for the $1,000 victory. Hovden was a distant second with "El Presidente" Todd Staley coming from eighth to finish third. Myles Michehl came from a seventh row starting spot to finish fourth while Decorah's Kevin Donlan came from twelfth to finish fifth.
A full field of eighty or more USRA Stock Cars are expected for tonight's qualifying action in that division.
With the best of the best in B-Mod class ready to close out the evening it came as no surprise that this eighteen lap race would run non-stop with no cautions and it would be a good one to wrap up the evening. Andy Bryant was scheduled to start from the pole, but when he needed the assistance of a push truck to get him started, by rule he was sent to the back. That would put Shadren Turner and Tyler Kidwell on the front row and fans from this region had to figure that one of those two drivers would add to their already impressive win totals for 2022.
Turner would set the pace with Kidwell giving chase while other top notch B-Mod drivers were working their way to the front. Kris Jackson was on the move from eighth and one of the hottest drivers in the division right now, Joe Chisholm was on the charge from the back of the field after using one of the National points provisionals. It was no surprise to see Jackson put himself into contention by mid-race, but there was the Nevada, Missouri veteran Jon Sheets riding the cushion and coming to the front as well after starting from tenth.
As Jackson was putting himself in a position to challenge Turner, there was Sheets sailing around them both in turns three and four to take the lead on lap twelve. Jackson would soon drop Turner to third and would close back in on the new leader with the laps winding down. On the final lap Jackson would attempt a big slide job on Sheets in turns three and four, but Jon would calmly cross him over and beat Kris to the checkers by two car lengths for the win. Turner would settle for third with Chisholm coming from sixteenth to fourth and Kidwell would complete the top five.
The final checkers would wave at 10:44 p.m. and we now look forward to night number two of five that will include Qualifying for the Stock Cars, B-Mods and Hobby Stocks while the Modifieds will contest their Summit Shootout on Wednesday night.
If you can make it down to Wheatland this week, I encourage you to do so and if not, make sure that you check out the live Pay Per View coverage by my friends at RacinDirt!
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