Arizona Points Following Winter Extreme

		Arizona
		Late Model
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Jimmy Mars	Elk Mound WI	14
2	.	Billy Moyer	Batesville AR	12
3	.	Ryan Gustin	Marshalltown IA	11
4	.	Bill Moyer Jr.	Batesville AR	8
5	.	John Blankenship	Williamson WV	7
6	.	R.C. Whitwell	Tucson	6
7	.	Shane Clanton	Fayetteville GA	6
8	.	Tim Fuller	Watertown NY	5
9	.	Brandon Sheppard	New Berlin IL	4
10	.	Tony Toste	Arroyo Grande CA	4
11	.	Chase Junghans	Manhattan KS	3
12	.	Will Vaught	Crane MO	3
13	.	A.J. Diemel	Elk Mound WI	2
14	.	Clay Daly	Watsonville CA	2
15	.	Chris Simpson	Marion IA	1
16	.	Kent Robinson	Bloomington IN	1
17	.	Tony Jackson Jr.	Lebanon MO	1

Ryan Gustin Breaks Through for $10,000 Late Model Win

Ryan Gustin has won higher paying Modified races, but in victory lane at the Tucson International Raceway this Sunday evening the young driver from Marshalltown, Iowa, proclaimed his domination of the NDRL Late Model Winter Extreme finale and the $10,000 top prize as his biggest victory ever. This win was not a surprise if you had been at Tucson the last two nights as Gustin had the fastest car on the track late in the feature both nights only to come up short finishing second to Tim Fuller on Friday and fourth on Saturday. And while this win was essentially a runaway it did not come without a bit of drama that was nearly a flashback to last year's Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 Speedway when Gustin got into a lapped car while leading costing him a victory that would have been unbelievable after starting 34th.

Here in the desert they choose to run the finale of this six race series under the mid-afternoon Arizona sun and after an hour long re-work of the track following the heat races it appeared that the track had a couple of grooves available for the 50-lap Late Model main event. It was an all Iowa front row with Chris Simpson and Gustin bringing the field to green and Ryan wasted no time opening up a lead. As the top eight to ten cars settled into single-file formation, the rest of the field raced hard for position running two and even three wide for the first several laps. Gustin started to work lapped traffic on lap eleven allowing Simpson and the other contenders to close, but when Simpson slipped high out of turn two three laps later it allowed Shane Clanton and John Blankenship to get by just before the caution waved a lap later for a stalled Mike Balcaen.

His new challengers could not keep pace with Gustin following the restart as the track now became locked down, fast and one grooved. When the leader caught Garrett Alberson, the final car in the running order on lap twenty-seven, it took Gustin seven laps before he found an opening to make the pass although Clanton and Blankenship really didn't close the gap at all. After clearing Alberson, Gustin then treated Justin Kay like a speed bump as he hooked and spun his fellow Iowan while going down the back stretch.  When Gustin got into the lapped car of Kyle Berck at I-80 last year he suffered damage and could not hold onto the lead from there on. That would not be the case here at Tucson as Gustin again drove away from the competition on the restart and over the final fifteen laps he built a full straightaway lead to win in a convincing fashion. Clanton and Blankenship would go second and third, Wisconsin's A.J. Diemel was fourth and Kent Robinson filled out the top five.

Sunny Sunday Notes......The track locked down early and that, combined with the format where the fastest qualifiers in each heat group start up front, it was no surprise that there was very little passing during the heats. Four were won by the pole-sitter while Blankenship and Diemel won from the outside front row....For Diemel it would put him in the show for all six of the Winter Extreme features, something that only he, Billy Moyer and Tony Jackson Jr. were able to accomplish.....Following his win in the second heat race Chris Simpson gave to credit to Brian Birkhofer whom he had spent nearly an hour with on the phone this morning discussing changes to be made to the car.....Justin Kay muscled under William Thomas to take the third and final transfer in the third heat. The winner of the Ice Bowl two weeks ago, Thomas was unable to qualify for any of the six features in Tucson......Chris Simpson was restarting fourth with 15 laps to go in the main even when his right ear tire went flat.....Given the track conditions and the fact that the NFC Championship game was close and just getting into the second half I decided to pass on the Factory Stock and Modified features.

The fact that I was even here for today's show was due my mistake in booking my flights a month ago as I thought that I would be pulling back into my driveway by now instead of watching the Seahawks close out a win on my hotel television. This is my second year in a row of catching a portion of the Winter Extreme in Tucson and I would definitely recommend it. The car counts are strong, the ticket prices are very reasonable,the view is picturesque, the night races are very competitive and the local hotels actually lower their rates for race fans rather than raise them like they do in that other sunny state. Next time though I will make absolutely sure that my flight does leave on Sunday.

Mr. Consistency At Tucson Gets A Win On Saturday

After posting top-five finishes in each of the first four Winter Extreme events Jimmy Mars broke through for a victory Saturday evening in the NDRL Late Model main event at the Tucson International Raceway.

After dominating his heat race Mars drew the pole position for the 40-lap main event and easily outran Justin Asplin into turn one for the lead. The veteran driver out of Wisconsin wasted no time in building an advantage until the first of four cautions in the event waved for Billy Moyer on lap ten. On the restart Tony Jackson Jr. and Billy Moyer Jr. jockeyed for the runner-up psition again allowing Mars to sprint out to a big lead until Kent Robinson's spin in turn two brought the field back to him. A lap twenty-four caution for Jason Papich again caused a restart and this two new payers joined the discussion as Ryan Gustin soon moved to second and John Blankenship who had started tenth was now running third. Gustin was noticeably closing in on Mars and was within five car lengths when Justin Kay slowed in turn two with six laps remaining. Gustin chose the high side for the double file restart and Blankenship took advantage racing into second as Gustin slipped high in turn two dropping all the way back to fifth going down the back straightaway.

Blankenship had been fast all night, but he would not be fast enough to catch Mars who would earn the $5,000 victory. Billy Moyer Jr, followed Blankenship in for third, Ryan Gustin recovered to finish fourth and when Justin Asplin slipped high off turn four on the final lap Tony Jackson Jr. stole away the fifth position.

For the second night in a row Brad Dierks would start from the pole of the 20-lap Modified feature and he would lead the fist two laps before caution slowed the field on lap two. On the restart Stormy Scott tookover the lead as a pair of northerners Blake Jegtvig and Cody Skytland moved into second third to challenge. Jegtvig was keeping pace with the leader until he slowed on lap twelve and while Skytland could stay within striking distance the rest of the way he could not run down Stormy Scott who collected $1,000 for the victory. Skytland finished second for the second night in a row, Fito Gallardo charged from thirteenth to third, Austin Arneson finished in the fourth position while Dereck Ramirez. Local driver Jake O'Neil had moved from the tenth row into the top five only to break on the lap twelve restart.

TIR WE Notes......Anybody from around Iowa who is watching the fantastic pay-per-view coverage on Dirt on Dirt may have caught a glimpse of the car that Jason Rauen drove last year running near the back. Dr. Dave Deetz out of New Mexico has purchased the car from Rauen and has yet to change the wrap.....Nebraska's Travis Dickes has had rough weekend so far. On Friday night he was leading his heat before smacking the wall and tonight he was penalized for jumping the start of the second heat race moving him off the pole and back to third. Dickes recovered nicely though finishing second to Pat Doar, but was then the first to retire from the main event to finish 24th......It looked like the track was going to be one groove around the bottom until the fifth heat race when Missouri's Justin Asplin went to the high line and drove away from Californians Jason Papich and Tony Toste. A MARS and MLRA regular, Asplin looked good during the main event as well and it was unfortunate that a top five finish slipped away from him on the final turn......After winning last Sunday Billy Moyer Jr. had failed to qualify on Wednesday and Friday while fighting flu-like symptons. His voice still sounded a bit rough when he was interviewed tonight, but his on-track performance definitely ad to make "The Future" feel better......Jason Hughes and Garrett Alberson appeared to have the two transfer spots locked up in the first B-Main before Alberson's right rear tire went flat. This allowed A.J. Diemel to keep his streak of qualifying for all five Winter Extreme feature events alive as he passed the Modified ace Hughes for the win…..The green flag was still to wave for the second B-Main as the left rear wheel came off of Kyle Beard’s #86 car. Iowa’s Justin Kay would win this one with Will Vaught also making the transfer…..While his son would start near the front of the main event Billy Moyer would earn the 21^stposition on the starting grid by winning the third B-Main……Friday night’s Modified feature winner Ricky Thornton Jr. was an early casualty with motor problems before his heat race.

In a bit of a senior moment I realized this morning when I went to check in for my flight that I had actually booked my return for Monday. With the cost of changing to today being a bit over a thousand dollars I decided instead to rent a car for another day and book one more night of a hotel for about $150. What a bummer to be stuck in sunny and warm Tucson for another day with the grand finale of the Winter Extreme also on the schedule! My boss is skeptical and you are likely skeptical as well……oh well, it’s tough getting old out here on the Back Stretch J

Fuller and Thornton Friday Winners at Winter Extreme

After busting my misconception last year that dirt track racing in the desert of Arizona would be like watching off road racing in a sandstorm, I returned to Tucson International Raceway to kickoff my 2014 racing season with two nights of the Winter Extreme featuring the NDRL Late Models and CDM Modifieds. And Friday night's Late Model main event has set a rather high bar for the rest of the season to be compared to!

Billy Moyer, who has won more Winter Extreme events over the years than any other driver, and local favorite R.C. Whitwell who won last Saturday's opener of the six-race series would bring the field to green for thirty-laps with a $3,000 top prize awaiting tonight's winner. Riding the cushion on a three-grooved race track Whitwell moved to the front with Moyer giving chase until the first caution of the event waved when Sprint Car ace Donny Schatz spun in turn three on lap four. On the restart Tim Fuller moved to second and applied the pressure to Whitwell who now worked the top line through three and four before closing the door on Fuller down low in turn one. Moyer was stalking the lead duo in third while Iowa native Ryan Gustin moved past Shane Clanton for fourth to continue his march forward after starting seventh.

Fuller was able to stick his nose under the leader a couple of times and with heavy slower traffic just ahead this one was about to heat up before the caution waved again on lap thirteen for Mason Ziegler. While it looked like Fuller was faster before the caution, Whitwell changed that perception by pulling away from his challengers when the green flag returned opening up a comfortable lead with ten laps remaining. The race now appeared to be for second as the Arizona driver continued to build his lead, but with just seven laps to go and riding the cushion strong through turns three and four Whitwell's car suddenly jerked to the right and slowed to a halt at the start of the frontstretch.

Fuller would now assume the point for the restart with Gustin and Moyer paired up behind him and Gustin immediately went to the top to challenge for the lead. One lap he would make progress on Fuller, and the next lap he would lose ground, but with two circuits remaining Gustin found a bite off four and had a run on the leader entering turn one after taking the white flag. The top two were wheel-to-wheel off of turn two and Gustin nosed ahead down the back stretch and into turn three, but as Fuller found his perfect line around the bottom of the final two turns, Gustin slipped a little higher than before allowing the driver from New York to take the checkered flag in a thriller. Moyer would race in for the third spot, Jimmy Mars made a solid run coming from the seventh row to fourth as Shane Clanton completed the top five.

Iowa drivers Justin Kay and Chris Simpson each found themselves in one of the three Last Chance races for the night as 56 Late Models tried to make the 24-car field. Kay started at the back of the thirteen-car lineup for the second B-Main and despite an early race brush up with Rick Ortega he was able to race his way up to fifth, three spots shy of making the show. Simpson had the pole for the third Last Chance qualifier, but when he was called for jumping the original start officials moved him back to row two behind Jason Papich. NASCAR Truck Series competitor Matt Crafton started next to his teammate Papich, but went for a spin down the back stretch on the opening lap collecting another of Arizona's top drivers Lonnie Parker Jr. On the third try at a start Papich, obviously forgetting how he had been awarded the pole in the first place, fired too early and Simpson was put back on the pole. When the race was finally able to stay green Chris ran away for the win, then later started twenty-first in the feature and made a strong run up to tenth.

The twenty-lap Modified feature would close out the evening with Clarence, Iowa's Brad Dierks going from the pole position. Fellow front row starter Johnny Scott used a high-to-low move to take the lead on the opening lap, but Dierks came back strong to drive around him on the high side in turn one to take the lead on the second trip around. Ricky Thornton Jr. was on the move from his third row start and he powered by Dierks in turn two to take the lead at the mid-race point. Austin Arneson slowed with a flat tire with six laps remaining pulling the only caution of the event with Dierks and North Dakota's Cody Skytland lining up behind the leader for the restart. Dierks slid back to fifth as Skytland picked up the chase of the leader, but there would be no catching Thornton on this night as the Arizona driver kept the $1,000 top prize in state. Skytland was impressive taking the runner-up spot after starting thirteenth, Dierks fought back late to finish in third while Jake O'Neal and Stormy Scott completed the top five.

Action continues both Saturday and Sunday in Tucson with the first of those two on my schedule.

I'm Fast, Start Me Up Front!

Believe it or not the 2014 outdoor racing season got underway this past weekend with the annual running of the Ice Bowl at the Talladega Short Track with the checkered flag waving just before the Polar Vortex blasted Alabama. I love the Ice Bowl having attended four or five times in the past. I love the uniqueness of the off-season event and especially the folks that put it on as it was a great way for this “Yankee” to go see a lot of names that I usually only read about. And back then, about fifteen or twenty years ago, drivers from up this way would even make the trip down when IMCA Modifieds and Stock Cars were also on the card.

It has been ten years now since the last time I went to the Ice Bowl and after the watching the “highlights” online the past several years I hate to say it, but I am not very motivated to go back. Yes, it still draws more than 200 cars for the weekend including more than 150 across the three different Late Model divisions, Super, Limited and Crate. And yes, I believe that most of the same great people are involved in presenting the show, but in order for me to make the long trip once again I have to feel like I am going to see some actual “racing” and the format, at least in the Super Late Models, is just not conducive to that.

The field was split into four groups for qualifying and the drivers were then lined up straight up by time for the four heat races. Then the feature was lined up based upon where the drivers finished their heat races. So Eric Cooley set quick time in group one and then ran away with his heat race and William Thomas, the fastest qualifier in group two, won the second heat race and started on the outside of the front row in the feature. Cooley raced to the lead in the 50-lap main event with Thomas chasing until lap 44 when Tim Roszell drove Cooley into the wall protecting the infield on the front stretch rather than being lapped.

Officials allowed Cooley to repair his damaged nose piece as much as possible and then rightfully put him back at the point for the restart where he first pulled away from Thomas. But as the laps wound down Thomas closed the gap and on the final circuit Cooley pushed high exiting turn four and Thomas zipped by to steal the win. Some may walk away from this and say that it was a great race, but take away the last turn pass and it would have been another Super Late Model chase around a one-grooved dirt track. Yes, this may sound a little harsh to the Ice Bowl, but I am using this as only the latest example of how this type of format is going to continue to erode the fan base, especially when it is broadcast out over the internet for all to see.

A lot of fans want to blame this scenario on track conditions. Not me. Even on a perfectly prepared dirt track when you have qualifying nearly all of the drivers will use the same line around the race track. Then, when you start the fastest guys up front for the heat races, once again you have the majority of the drivers all running the same line. So what happens? You end up with a one-groove racetrack for the feature. What happens when you draw, or heaven forbid actually do some inverted starts for the heat races? Some of the faster guys have to use other lines around the track to make their way to the front resulting in a wider, more usable surface leading to two, three or maybe more grooves come feature time. Sounds simple doesn’t it? So why doesn’t every event qualify and invert, or just draw for starting positions? Because “the drivers don’t want to”, or at least that’s what a promoter or series organizer will tell you.

But let’s be smart about this, it is the fast drivers, the outspoken ones who feel this way. I have to believe that if given the opportunity to vote in a completely anonymous manner the majority would be for some kind of race procedure that includes some sort of handicapping of the lineups whether by actual (inversion) or random (by draw). In April of 2013 two tracks in our area hosted back-to-back nights of Open Late Model racing with one using a draw and passing points format and the other using the group qualifying method. I was told that one “star” driver actually called the promoters of each event to ask in advance of the qualifying format and that he told the track that was using the passing points system that he would not attend because of it. They used it anyway and the winning driver came from the twelfth starting position and at least three drivers advanced as many as ten positions during the main event that was run on a track that was wide and racy…..perhaps due to the fact that drivers had to use more than one line during the heat race?

The next night, the same driver that had won the night before, was the fastest qualifier in group one, started the first heat from the pole and won it to start on the pole of the main event that he then led flag-to-flag. The driver who started second finished second, the third starter finished third, the hard charger of the night came from ninth to fourth while the fifth-place driver finished where he had started. Was the track poorly prepared? No, and in fact the crew had done an amazing job of getting the place in shape to race after heavy rains earlier in the week. It’s just that preliminary competition, and how the track is used during it, plays such a big role in how the track will be come feature time and this format does not help that process at all.

So what can be done to make the racers (at least the outspoken fast guys) happy and produce a track surface that is going to allow for some two and three wide action at feature time? I would suggest using a modified version of the point system that is used at the Knoxville Late Model Nationals. Something that would reward drivers well for qualifying, but would still make them do some racing during the heat in order to widen out the race track and……oh yes, to give the fans a show! Go ahead and split the field into groups so that you don’t have the factor of a track slowing down in qualifying from the first car out until the last car out. Within each group the fastest qualifier earns 50 points, second earns 48, third 46, etc. Invert six in each heat race with the winner earning 20 points, 19 for second, 18 for third, etc. Then line up the top point earners from all groups straight up by points for the main event. This way your fastest qualifiers are still virtually guaranteed of making the A-Main unless they drop out of the heat, but now they have to race a bit to make sure that they start ahead of the fast qualifiers from the other groups in the main event. And, by only inverting six, it should take away the arrogant argument that drivers who can’t control their cars and cause problems are going to start in front of them, even though some of the “fast” guys who would make that argument are often involved in skirmishes of their own doing.

The benefit? Some actual passing during the heat races that will likely lead to a better racetrack and more passing during the feature! This way when your event is seen live, or even the next day on the computer screen of anybody who feels like pulling it up they might think “yah, I want to go to that show next year and fill one of those empty seats.” Seats that were not empty ten years ago.

So why harp on this again today? Perhaps to make this a personal plea to Jeff & Amy Laue at 34 Raceway and the folks behind the Slocum 50. The MARS/ALMS/CBC race at 34 drew 43 Late Models for $4,000-to-win using a passing point format last year and the racing was spectacular. This year it will be run as the Slocum 50 on April 19^th paying $10,555-to-win and you can bet that there will be some “name” drivers checking in to see what the qualifying format will be and lobbying for the “I’m fast, start me up front” method.  Don’t let them sway you with threats of not appearing if you do not give in. The purse is solid and the event is being held in honor of a driver who loved competition. Brent was a Racer, not a Chaser……