Saturday, November 15 Fred and I headed south to Jerry Hoffmans' Springfield Raceway for the final night of the 19th edition of his super popular Turkey Bowl. Complete with generous payouts and very unique trophies, the now four day (including a practice night) event continues to grow each year. With the late addition of Super Stocks, there are now nine divisions competing during three jammed packed nights of full on racing. Due to the time of year and the enormous car counts, three of those divisions, Front Wheel Drive, Pure Stock, and the Midwest Mod "B" class wrap up their turkey trophy pursuit earlier in the weekend. This leaves six classes for Saturday night. In a further nod to time and temperature concerns, only the Super Late Models and now the Super Stocks run full shows on the final night. Last chance B mains and features fill out the card for A Mods, B Mods, Midwest A Mods and Legends. And thankfully and wisely only the two full show classes run hot laps around the quick quarter mile, slated to roll off "about" 4:30. The atmosphere is pure country at this rustic facility and while the amenities are far from state of the art, the racing is always top shelf and even though it is a strong four hours plus from home, Turkey Bowl has become one of those " can't miss" events on the Racin' Down the Road calendar, cold weather and all.
Fortunately the weatherman was unusually kind this year, at least in the early going, with temps in the record breaking high70's in southwest Missouri, dropping to the low 50's by the time we made our premature exit.
The eight divisions that competed in 2024 turned out a record 500 cars on the nose, and the addition of twenty nine Super Stocks boosted that number even higher. By the time everyone was checked in for the six classes on Saturday, a whopping 366 cars were set to do battle!
The first qualifying event took the green flag at 5:08. Forty one races would be on the docket for Saturday, thirty five qualifying events clicking off with only slight delays for an occasional spritzing and rolling in of the water. But that many races just takes a considerable amount of time. Perhaps the passing points format from the heat races transferring only eight to the features could be adjusted upwards to save a race here and there, and perhaps the B mains might be formed into larger fields (or fewer laps), but I digress. An adjustment was made due to an odd circumstance with the Late Models, where a pair of the six heat winners did not make the top eight cut, so they were then added to the qualified cars.
As might be expected with so many cars, the racing for a spot in the main events was intense. The quick quarter mile offered two distinct lanes, with the high side perhaps only a tad quicker. A mind boggling seventy Super Late Models signed in, up twenty one from last year. Austin Howes was a couple laps from the first heat win when his #17A suddenly quit, turning the checkers over to Myles Moos. Scott Crigler, Dillon McCowen and Brandon Baldridge also transferred with their wins, while Brennon Willard and Tony Jackson Jr. were the two heat winners added to the starting grid.
Twenty four would start the Legends A Main, with all other classes qualifying twenty cars, then one provisional starter was added as I understand it based on social media participation? Of course with eight teams already qualified in several divisions, that meant that a handful of drivers waited until the wee hours of Sunday to hit the track!
Following a brief break, the twenty lap Legend turkey chase was up first. Preston Martin made a nearly one thousand mile tow from Lincoln, North Dakota to line up in row five for the event, quickly slicing and dicing his way to the front. He then held off eighth row starter Trenton Simon by less than a car length to take home the cash and trophy. After Simon dove under the leader off turn four on the final lap Martin had just enough momentum to grab the win.
Midwest A Mods would be next, twenty one strong for twenty laps. Following a pile up on the start, Trenton Brookshire opened a sizable advantage. A second caution came just before half way, and back to racing Brookshire moved to the inside line. A final stoppage came with eight laps remaining, and now Mark Simon began to pressure the leader running a high line. As the laps wound down, Brookshire slowly increased his margin all the way to the checkers. Unfortunately his flag to flag dominance turned to disappointment in the tech area, with an unknown violation turning the win over to Simon. The DQ moved Andy Aust up to second followed by Caden Bolin, Cory Johnson and Michael Maggard. James Lee also lost a top five finish in tech.
The official intermission now came at 10:50 as the decision was made to tear up, water and repack a pretty good track. To keep the large crowd entertained, announcer Jerry Vansickel conducted a football toss competition among the top eight A Mod qualifiers from Friday and the top four Late Model points earners to set the front of their respective features. This was followed by a fireworks display. Combined with the requisite repacking session, we were back to racing in about thirty minutes.
The star studded A Modified field was whittled down from seventy six to twenty one for a thirty lap $6,023 to win event. Osage, Iowa hot shoe Jim Chisholm shot from the outside pole to lead football toss winner Reece Solander to turn one. As the race stayed green, Chisholm searched the remade surface, looking for his sweet spot. Soon he and Solander had left the pack behind, catching slower traffic about lap twelve. Around the mid point, Sloander made a strong bid for the lead, running an inside line as Chisholm continued to move around. The #24 car of the leader was showing a bit of rear quarter damage apparently a battle scar from a lapped car skirmish, but the driver still maintained a one to two car length advantage over Solander. Thirty caution free circuits in just over seven minutes left Chisholm slightly breathless in victory lane, celebrating a flag to flag win. Solander held the runner up spot in front of Tanner Mullens, Kyle Steffens and Chris Spalding.
Perhaps still not happy with track conditions, another session of ripping, watering and packing preceded the Late Model headliner. Fortunately or unfortunately, the results were very similar. Twenty three cars would take the green flag for thirty laps. Shane DeMay was best at quarterbacking, but it was Scott Crigler jumping ahead from the outside front row. Cruising along, Crigler caught the back of the pack about lap eight. Ten circuits later, the only yellow flag came as contact from the rear sent seventh running Tony Jackson Jr. spinning in turn one. As Jackson ducked to the work area for a quick once over, Eli Ross did the same, giving up a top five run. They would then restart at the back of the lead lap cars, in sixteenth and seventeenth. Moos would power his #84 to second on the Delaware style restart. Working the top side Moos would make a run at the leader with four to go, but he bobbled on the turn two cushion, dropping him to fourth. Crigler would then sail home to the flag to flag victory. DeMay rebounded to second, chased by twelfth starting double duty Terry Phillips, Moos and 2024 winner McCowan, who finished where he started. Baldridge was solid gaining two spots to sixth and Tim Ward finished where he started in seventh. Scott Crigler advanced eight spots to eighth followed by McKenzie, Tennesee driver Matt Cooper and Joey Smith to round out the top ten.
The clock had now rolled past the midnight hour, so Fred and I headed for our hotel, more than satisfied with what we had seen. It seems as though the remaining two classes found the track surface to their liking as Donnie Miller came from row two to outrun row four starters Michael Muskrat and Aaron Poe for Street Stock honors. Finally Waylon Dimmitt came from fourth to collect the B Mod checkers over his row two mate Brayton Carter, eleventh starting Kris Jackson, J.C. Morton and Ryan Gilmore.
Thanks to Jerry Hoffman and his entire team for a great night of racing to most likely wind up our 2025 season. But be sure and check back often as there is plenty of "silly season" happenings to be confirmed in the coming weeks!
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