Zeitner and Wyman Split SLMR Qualifiers, Martin Dominates Sprints at Harlan's Opener

With nice weather for early April and an intriguing lineup of just three divisions we decided to make the long trip west on Friday night to the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan. It has been well over twenty-five years since I last attended a race here and I knew that it wouldn't be anything like I remembered since the fairgrounds facility took the big step a year ago and shortened the big half-mile down to a high banked one-third mile surface. I had heard that the change received rave reviews after a late start to their 2022 season and I can see why as the wide short track still serves up plenty of speed while providing the short track action that you just don't get on the half miles.

This would be the first of two nights of racing here this weekend dubbed The Awakening Part II (Part 1 was washed out last weekend) and it would feature a unique format for the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models and two full shows for both the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Cars and the IMCA Northern Sport Mods. The lure of seeing Late Models, the chance to see the new track configuration for the first time and knowing that one of our young competitors with the Sprint Invaders was going to be in action is what sealed the deal as far as my decision to make this trip.

As a race fan there has been a lot to love abut Joe Kosiski through both his racing career and now in his promotional duties, and one of those is that he still uses inverts after qualifying. On this night the twenty-nine Late Models on hand would qualify and would then be split into two twenty-lap preliminary features each paying $1,000-to-win. The top eight in each feature would then participate in a "knockout" round of qualifying where the top ten would lock themselves in to Saturday's $4,000-to-win main event with the top four to be inverted for that race. I have seen a lot of different formats over the years, but I must admit that this was the first time that I have seen or heard about this one!

A five-time winner with the SLMR last year, Jake Neal would land on the outside of row one next to Andrew Kosiski for the first qualifier, but it would be the third starting Justin Zeitner that would charge to the lead on the opening lap. With Zeitner working the bottom, Neal was pounding the cushion and after a few laps of nearly side-by-side action Jake would sail to the lead on lap four.

Justin Zeitner works the low line early with Jake Neal up top - Barry Johnson photo

After losing some ground on the leader, Zeitner would also move to the top and as Neal started to deal with traffic mid-race Justin would close back in on the leader. Exiting turn two on lap fourteen Zeitner would get a big run and then dive to the bottom in turn three to throw a slider and when Neal had to stand on the brakes to avoid contact he would spin the car in turn four to bring out the caution.

The crowd was abuzz as Neal first went to the front of the realignment to express his thoughts to Zeitner and he was then placed in the tenth position, ahead of the cars that had been lapped for the restart. Once back to racing Bill Leighton Jr. would apply the pressure to Zeitner with Kosiski close behind, but Justin was too strong to be challenged as he picked up the victory ahead those two. Eastern Iowa driver Derrick Stewart came from seventh to finish fourth, Curt Schroeder had a nice run from tenth to fifth while Neal was able to advance two spots and make the round of knockout qualifying coming up later in the evening.

J.C. Wyman - Barry Johnson photo

J.C. Wyman and Todd Cooney would bring the field to green for the second twenty-lap qualifier and as Wyman jetted to the lead, Cooney's race would come to an early end when he would suffer a flat left rear tire on the third lap. On the restart Jesse Sobbing would go to work on Wyman as the Late Models were flying around the highbanks with sixth starting Tad Pospisil soon joining the chase as well. As the race for second heated up that allowed Wyman to open up a more comfortable advantage and once Pospisil was able to clear Sobbing for second, he could not run down Wyman before the checkers waved. Corey Zeitner would come from row five to take the fourth spot while promising rookie Dylan Sillman, a graduate from the Modified ranks filled out the top five. 

The 360 Sprint Cars would be up next for twenty laps and I will be frank with you. As a Sprint Car advocate who had three Late Model fans riding along with me on this trip, this division had an embarrassing evening. Let me be clear though that when the green light was on, the racing was spectacular. It was just interrupted way too often throughout the night. The first heat race had three cautions and a red flag with two of those cautions caused by the same driver who was still allowed to continue despite the two solo spins. The second heat also saw three cautions while the third heat went green to checkers only after several laps were spent before the green flag waved in order to correct the lineup.

It was as if some of the drivers did not have an operational Raceceiver in their ear as when the driver who was supposed to start tenth in the main event either came to the track late and was penalized, or had opted to start at the rear, it took numerous laps to get the cars into the proper alignment. Since the use of Raceceivers I can't remember a flagman ever having to come down out of the flagstand to give hand signals to drivers as to where they were supposed to lineup, but this one had to do it twice tonight. Once during the third heat and again prior to the start of the feature. The weird part about that though was that the final move that satisfied the officials saw Kade Higday moved up to the ninth starting spot despite the fact that he was scheduled to go from thirteenth.

Once the green flag waved, yellow fever would again set in. North Carolina native Lance Moss would spin in turn two with two laps scored and after one more lap was completed, Moss would again loop it at the exit of turn four. He would then head for the pits.

Dusty Ballenger would spin in turn two with five laps completed and then two laps later the third place car of Ryan Roberts would slow to a halt on the back stretch after tagging the outside barriers in turn two. Two more laps would be scored before Joe Beaver clipped an infield tire in turn four sending it out onto the track as he spun to the infield and this would lead to another Delaware double-file restart.

Now I know that more and more Sprint Car series are going to the double-wide restarts, but to do so you must have very strict rules about staying nose to tail without anybody stepping out of line until the green flag waves. And, at least I believe, that you have to give the leader the opportunity to hit the throttle somewhere in turn four to start the race rather than at a cone, otherwise drivers behind him can time the start and get a jump.

The four restarts prior to this one had all been pretty ragged with drivers mid-pack on back flaring out of line with nobody getting a noticeable jump, but that would not be the case with this one. As race long leader Jason Martin brought the field to green it was as if the whole back half of the field stepped out of line and hit the gas first with Tasker Phillips coming from mid-pack to charge all the way up to second using the cushion in turns one and two. I was looking for the caution to call the start back, but it did not appear to be coming until Phillips, perhaps unbelieving of his own good fortune, spun at the top of turns three and four to necessitate the caution that should have been waving earlier.

At the very least I am guessing that a race official gave the field a good talking to, at least to those who could hear their Raceceiver, as the next start was much cleaner and the final eleven laps would then be completed under green. 

Jason Martin dominated the Sprint Car A-Main - Barry Johnson photo

After being challenged early by both Cody Ledger and Ryan Roberts, Jason Martin would dominate this one to take the victory, but my eyes were on seventeen-year-old Tyler Lee who had made the trip over from Cedar Rapids. The runner-up in the 2022 Rookie-of-the-Year chase with the Sprint Invaders, Lee was the fastest Sprint Car during hot laps with a lap of 11.908 seconds, but had drawn the eighth and final starting spot in the second heat race.

In his qualifier, Tyler had worked up to fourth through the three early cautions only to slip wide in turn four with two laps to go where he then faded to seventh at the checkers. With passing points in use this would start him nineteenth for the main event and while other drivers would go drifting from low to high in turns one and two on each restart, Tyler would pin the bottom and pick up three or four positions each time. He was in the top ten by lap seven and for the final restart he lined up fifth before moving to second behind Martin.

Tyler Lee - Barry Johnson photo

With those final eleven laps going green, Cody Ledger, Joey Danley and Brendan Mullen were able to build their momentum back up while riding the ridge and in the closing laps they would drop the youngster back to fifth only to have Tyler fight back on the final lap to edge Mullen out for fourth at the checkers. Nineteenth to fourth was an impressive run for a young driver that you will want to keep your eyes on in the years to come.

Once again, while under green, the Sprint Car action was phenomenal with drivers racing four wide down the back stretch on that final restart and they were able to use the racing surface from top to bottom. Hopefully the division will be much better behaved for tonight's finale of The Awakening Part II.

With a long drive home ahead of us, we chose to skip the "knockout" qualifying for the Late Models as well as the feature event for the fourteen Sport Mods on hand (Corey Madden took the win) and head for the exits already checking the schedule for when we can return to the new and improved Shelby County Speedway in Harlan.

Sport Mod feature winner Corey Madden - Barry Johnson photo

It was fun to check MyRacePass for results of other races during the trip home and it is noteworthy that on this opening night for racing in Iowa, four of the now defending All Iowa Points champions were feature winners on Friday night. Austen Becerra topped the Modifieds at 34 Raceway while at Tipton Randy Lamar won the Hobby Stocks, Logan Anderson began his quest for a third straight AIP title with a win in the Sport Mods and three-time defending champion Dallon Murty was the Stock Car feature winner.

Finally, since I commented on women's basketball in this week's Notebook, I have to follow up on the story that I saw in Yahoo this morning involving Angel Reese. It is obvious that the media cannot seem to let this go as today's news was that while she was still "hurt" by the fact that Dr. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (Markley, VanCamp and Robbins Show listeners will understand) had initially invited the Iowa Hawkeyes for a visit as well, Angel Reese said that she will still go to the White House since it would be the best for her team. It certainly does seem that Reese is milking this now for all it's worth, but what caught my eye on the scroll below her while she was being interviewed on ESPN was this never before seen "sports statistic":

Reached 1M followers on social media. Last year had around 70 thousand followers

I'm an old-timer, so I am not a fan of the fact that the Chicago Cubs now want to use OSP as the primary batting statistic when showing the starting lineup for today's game. What the hell is OSP anyway? Can't we just use the player's batting average like we have for the past one hundred years?

And now I have to start learning how many followers a college basketball player has on social media? What world are we living in??

I am looking forward to sticking close to home tonight with a trip to 34 Raceway for night number two of the IRA and MOWA 410 Sprint Car season opening doubleheader. The pits were jammed with an amazing field of forty-eight Winged Sprint Cars on Friday night with Hunter Schuerenberg edging out Parker Price-Miller to take the win. Perhaps I will see you there tonight!