With the exceptionally mild late season weather, first year track owner/promoter Josh Carroll decided to schedule one more event at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway near Pevely, Missouri. The three night extravaganza, dubbed the Fall Frost Classic featured nine different divisions, with a $5,000 to win, $500 to start Late Model headliner on Saturday. It had been four seasons since I had been to the one third mile high banked clay oval, and I was eager to see how Carroll had begun to put his stamp on the high speed one third mile facility.
So watching the ever changing forecast Jeff, Fred and I headed south on Saturday afternoon, never finding the predicted sunshine, but instead off and on sprinkles, persistent enough at one point to create an approximate fifteen minute delay in racing. Coupled with a steady breeze, the less than comfortable conditions no doubt held down the crowd that was spread throughout the large capacity facility.
Hot lap / qualifying had been moved up thirty minutes to 5:00 P.M. to better accommodate the anticipated large field of cars, which reached one hundred and sixty four. However what was eventually a super smooth and fast clay surface took quite a bit of extra packing which "ate up" the extra half hour. Between hot laps for all, including time trials for the twenty two Late Models, twenty UMP Modifieds and a whopping forty one B Mods, it was about 7:00 before the first of twenty one heat races hit the track. A pair of B mains for the B mods, plus one for the thirty one Mod Lites were also needed to set the feature fields! Just a personal observation here, I know time trial qualifying is deemed a necessity in UMP country, but perhaps after one night of practice and another full show for all but the Late Models, perhaps it might be wise to dispense with hot laps for the other six divisions on the final night? But I digress...
Popular local legend Kenny Wallace topped Mod qualifying with a lap of 15.129 seconds, and as the track worked in, Steve Meyer Jr. actually topped that for the B's at 15.105! Richmond, Missouri driver Aaron Marrant then paced the Super Late Models at 13.073 to round out the timed classes.
Once the heat races began, track officials tried their best to keep the show moving, but with so many events and many drivers unfamiliar with the facility, there were plenty of yellow flag periods to deal with. And there were a surprising number of problems negotiating the track exit off turn one, especially for the Mod Lites, some of which appeared to become high centered.
Finally it was feature time, with the eight Kid Modz up first, eight strong for twelve laps. It was obvious that despite their young age at least a couple of ten year olds may be ready to graduate to a higher class. With strong racing family roots, Cole Stolzer and Cruz Griffaw waged a tight nose to tail and side by side battle for the lead before Cruz nearly upset his #16 during contact with the outside concrete wall near the end of the backstretch. Stolzer then cruised to the win ahead of Brodix Burrows and another second generation driver, Cody Vanover Jr.
Twenty five laps of UMP Modifieds came next, with only Caleb Slaughter missing from the lineup. A roll of the dice had set a four car invert for I believe all of the features, and this put Chris Spalding and heat three winner Timmy Hill on row one. Six times the caution would come in the opening eight circuits before things settled down. Spalding was the early leader with heat one winner Wallace advancing from fourth to second following a lap four yellow. Stalking the leader, Wallace perfectly executed a slide job off turn four on lap seven to grab to top spot. Heat two winner Dylan Sharp was running third when he smacked the concrete in turn two one lap later, ending his run. As the race crossed the mid point it was Wallace and Hill pulling away from the pack with Hill running in the tire tracks of #36. They caught slower traffic on lap fifteen, and one lap later Hill bobbled on the backstretch, allowing Wallace to open a bit of a cushion. By lap twenty Hill was again at the rear bumper of the leader, but he smacked the turn one wall, heavily damaging his rear spoiler, effectively ending his chances. Meanwhile "Herman" worked the traffic smoothly, racing to the sweep of his events. Hill was second chased by Spalding, Chasten Boen and Friday winner Clint Young.
Cody Vanover failed to make the call for the forty lap Late Model headliner. Eventual hard charger Jeff Herzog had timed in tenth but was unable to start his heat race, putting him alone in row eleven for the feature before gaining eleven positions to finish eleventh. Following a caution flag on the start, pole sitter Marrant pulled ahead of heat winners Daryn Klein, Micheal Kloos and Mike Harrison. Marrant opened a commanding lead, catching the back of the pack on lap six. Two circuits later the caution came again as sixth starting Mark Voigt rolled to a stop, his night over. Harrison would line up in the outside lane for the restart, clearing Klein for the runner up position while Versailles, Kentucky hot shoe Tripp Gerrald powered to third. Harrison began to pressure the leader, using a successful slider to grab the lead off turn two on lap fourteen, taking Gerrald along in second. Those two then began to pull away, but it was Harrison disappearing from the pack.in the #33 machine. Marrant and Gerrald would swap positions back and forth as Harrison opened a half track advantage. A solid run for Rusty Griffaw would end with a yellow flag at lap thirty one, and back to racing it was Kloos now moving to second. Again Harrison drove away, but one final stop came just three laps from the checkers. The single file restart offered no challenges up front as Harrison cruised to the $5,000 win. Kloos was the in the bridesmaid spot, ahead of Gerrald, Klein and thirteenth starting Jose Parga in the T6 normally driven by Tommy Sheppard Jr. Bob Gardner paced the second five over Marrant and eighth starting and finishing Rich Bell. Austin Howes debuted a brand new ride in ninth while Myles Moos was tenth. The night should have been better for Moos, as he spun out of the heat two lead while avoiding a soon to be lapped car.
With a nearly four hour drive for the wheel man, we had hit our self imposed 10:30 curfew as the Mod Lite main came to the track, with five more features still on the docket, so we regretfully headed for the warmth of the car and the long trip home. Still it was fun to get back to one of my favorite long distance venues, and racing in November is always special!
At this time of year, I always treat each race as perhaps the last of the season, but Fred and I are once again watching the forecast for a possible trip to Jerry Hoffmans' Springfield Raceway next week for another favorite, the annual Turkey Bowl. Perhaps we will see you there!
No comments:
Post a Comment