Frankly I was skeptical about this weekend after the snowfall on February 18th, but I knew that if anybody could make it happen that it would be Hoffman. Even while the snow was piling up he was making Facebook posts promoting the event and a couple days after the skies had cleared, with a favorable weather forecast ahead of him, Hoffman even announced his schedule of snow removal and track work in the days ahead. So it was no surprise that after a Thursday night test session, the remaining kinks in the track surface were adjusted and we were treated to some February dirt track racing in the Midwest on this, the first of a two-day show.
Twenty-eight Super Late Models signed in and they were joined by drivers in the B-Mods, Legends and two divisions of the Midwest Modifieds to bring the total car count to ninety-one. While the Late Model count was just a couple cars lighter than I expected, I was really surprised at the low numbers in the support classes with the roster featuring mostly local drivers while Ken Schrader and Cole Campbell were two of the track's non-regulars in the B-Mod class. While the Late Models would be running a full show for $5,036-to-win, the twenty B-Mods would contest two rounds of heat races and the remaining three classes would run their heats to set Saturday night's feature lineups.
One of the things that I loved about the MLRA when I was first exposed to the series was that they would use a passing points system to qualify for most of their events and I think that I even whined about it here on the Back Stretch several years ago when the decision was made to go with the "I'm Fast, Start Me In Front" method of qualifying and then setting the heat race lineups straight up with the first heat race winner earning the pole for the main event. "Back in time" would have been a good excuse to go back to the passing points for this weekend, but instead we saw Brian Shirley set quick time in Group A, win from the pole in the first heat and then start the thirty lap feature from the pole where he was never seriously challenged on his way to victory. Don't pass a car all night and win $5,036, in this case a nice bit of redemption for a driver that struggled through SpeedWeeks.
Clayton Stuckey would chase Shirley early until the caution waved for Kylan Garner's spin on lap four and on the restart the young driver from Louisiana would yield second to the ageless veteran Billy Moyer. Moyer would then stay within striking distance of the leader over the next nine laps before the caution waved again, this time for Jon Kirby's spin in turn four and on the restart Stuckey would fight his way back into second.
The driver on the moved though was Dillon McCowan who was looking to repeat his win from November's Turkey Bowl here at Springfield. Pounding the cushion on both ends the fourth starting McCowan soon made his way into second and appeared to be closing in on Shirley, especially when the leader would leave the cushion from time to time. As the laps clicked away though, McCowan would not get close enough to challenge as Shirley would take the checkers as McCowan was exiting turn four to finish second. Tony Jackson Jr. would finish where he started, in third, Stuckey would slip to fourth and after making string move to the front early, Moyer would settle back in to the same position that he started from, fifth. The Gundakers, Trevor and Gordy would be next in line with Sawyer Crigler in eighth, Mason Oberkramer started nineteenth and finished ninth while sixteen-year-old Eli Ross would complete the top ten.
Night number two is scheduled to take the green this afternoon at 4 p.m. and if you can't make it to the trac, you can watch all the action at springfieldraceway.tv
No comments:
Post a Comment