Carpenter, Babb, Larson Take Dome Wins

  With the weather on our side, we made the trip to St. Louis for the Friday night portion of the Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome at Americas Center. With the format tweeked a bit, we hoped to be on the road home ahead of the midnight hour this year, even though we would be seeing only half of the invited modifieds and midgets along with the full compliment of late models. As it turned out, we did walk out of the facility about 11:30, but without seeing a single lap of modified action. After arriving in the Gateway City, we received a Facebook post stating that the format had again been changed, and that the complete mod program, including time trials, heats and feature would run after the completion of the midget and late model action. The reason given was that track officials hoped the track would be better packed in so that the high horsepower, narrow tired mods would be better able to navigate the choppy surface. Considering the constant reworking the 1/5 mile oval received throughout the night, I was not convinced it would make much of a difference, but Keagan, Fred, and I made the decision to not sit through time trial qualifying to find out.
  After hot laps for the midgets and late models and time trials for the eighteen midgets signed in, it was heat race time. The eighty five late models, who had held their time trials on Thursday, were split into two divisions, with six eight lap heats each. Heat number one for the " A " bracket was billed as a " Who's Who " of late models, but some of the intrigue ended quickly. On the third attempt at a green flag, outsider pole sitter Scott Bloomquist had his night end as his engine let loose in a cloud of smoke and spilled oil. Heat four was the best of the night, as Tyler Carpenter and Tanner English crossed the line in a photo finish, with Carpenter declared the winner, then entertaining the crowd with a celebratory declaration during his televised interview.  Heat five saw Quincy, Il. crate late model driver Vance Wilson take advantage of a last lap mixup to jump from one spot out of a transfer spot in fourth to finish in a redraw spot in second. The sixth qualifier found Buddy Isles Jr. upside down in the turn two catch fence, creating a lengthy delay for repairs. Two races later, Mike Epplet pounded head on into the catch fence near the end of the front stretch, and again a long delay resulted. It would be conservative to estimate these two stoppages at over an hour combined.
  A pair of midget heats clicked off in good time, with fast qualifier Tanner Thorson outrunning veteran Sammy Swindell , then NASCAR star Kyle Larson out dueling Michael Pickens to set the feature field.
  Late model C main two had an unexplained event, as a caution with five laps to go saw the checkered flag wave with six cars still running although only the top four were scheduled to transfer to the " B. " As it turned out, with one B main scratch, the top five moved on, and Michael Santangelo was left out.
   The first B main provided another thrilling moment. Jason Feger had dropped out of his heat race, then advanced to third in his C main. Starting in row eight of the ten lap " B, " he charged through the field, high and low, to cross the line in the second and final transfer spot behind Robbie Stuart. The final qualifier ended with another of the multitude of yellow flags on the final lap, with Duane Chamberlain taking the win and Eric Hickerson nosing out Mark Shipman to move on.
  Pickens and Larson sat on row one for the twenty lap $3,000 to win midget main event. Pickens charged to the lead with Larson falling back. A lap eleven restart, the result of a Swindell spin, saw Kyle make a dandy move forward, but it was negated by a double flip in turn two, the final of three cautions during the event. Pickens and Larson gained separation on the field as the laps clicked off and slower traffic came into play. With five circuits left on the scoreboard, Larson made his move to the lead. Pickens was able to stay close as lapped traffic cost the leader some momentum, but when Larson cleared the lapped car, he pulled away for the win. Cannon McIntosh found his way around Pickens late for second, while Thorson and Cole Bodine completed the top five in the star studded field.
  More track prep, then it was time for the first of the pair of twenty lap, $5,000 to win late model features. Heat winners Ryan Unzicker and Billy Moyer lined up in row one. A lap two caution saw Fegers' Cinderella run end with a broken radiator, while local favorite Rusty Griffaw, the heat five victor also retired from the action. Amazingly, that would be the only caution of the race! Heavy traffic came into play by lap eight, as Unzicker set a quick pace and heat two winner Mike Spatola came from row two to the runner up spot. Five laps from the finish, third starting Tyler Carpenter joined the party, racing Spatola for second. With Carpenter taking the spot, he pulled alongside the leader at lap sixteen. He then completed his charged to the front, hanging on for a popular win followed by a victory " speech. " Unzicker held on to second, followed by " Opie " Spatola, English, and Scott James. Moyer faded to sixth, leading Bobby Pierce, row seven starter Brandon Sheppard, heat one winner Chad Zobrist, and Jeremiah Hurst to complete the top ten.
    More track prep, then heat winners Patrick Daniel and Shannon Babb led the second group of twenty to the grid. Daniel and Babb were followed by tenth heat victor Rusty Schlenk before a lap two yellow saw heat eight winner Scott Ward pull to the infield. The caution waved again on lap four, then for a final time on the first restart. From their it was green until the checkers. Lap eight saw Babb take the lead, and begin his successful charge through slower traffic. Ricky Thornton Jr. had started twelfth and was already running third when his night ended just after the halfway mark. As the white flag was displayed, Schlenk powered to the runner up slot. Daniel crossed the line in third, while Jonathon Davenport held off Gordy Gundaker for fifth. Jason Wagner drove from fifteenth to sixth, followed by Kevin Smith, heat eleven winner Blair Nothdurft, Joey Coulter, and Jadon Frame. Heat twelve winner Matt Henderson started sixth, but was an early exit to finish eighteenth.
  The top three finishers from each feature are locked in to tonight's $30,000 to win main event.
  Nine and a half hours made for a full day and night, so we headed for the car and the two and a half hour drive home, finishing off an active 2019 season. In the coming days, I will do a recap of my fifty three night season.
  Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas to all!