Sunday night was the third running of the Weiner Nationals at Moberly Motorsports Park in Moberly, Missouri. The first of this special series came in July of 2021 and was the brainchild of businessman and Late Model racer Reid Millard. The non sanctioned event paid $10,000 to win the Late Model feature and drew twenty three cars with national touring standout Mike Marlar sweeping the program of time trials, his heat race, and the thirty lap feature. In 2022 the show was postponed by weather, and rescheduled over Labor Day weekend. With MLRA sanctioning, thirty seven Late Models turned out and Missouri driver Tony Jackson Jr. took home the $10,000 top prize. Staying with what works, Millard, now the owner of the super fast high banked track alternately referred to as a four tenths or half mile facility, partnered with MLRA for the holiday weekend. Since the beginning, this race has served as a fundraiser for special causes, and the 2023 recipient is Lizzy's Walk of Faith Foundation addressing childhood cancer. In addition to the $10,000 payoff for Late Models, the winner of the B Modified main event would take home $2,500. Proving himself to be the showman even with his Trophy Tuesday summer series, Millard included plenty of live music and special guests during the evening. And once again there was a hot dog eating contest paying $1,000 to the winner to go along with any indigestion, a pick up truck "burnout" contest, Tina Turner impersonator, fireworks, on track meetings between drivers and youngsters, all interspersed with music by a D.J. And we can't forget special guest Scott Bloomquist. The renamed Oscar Mayer Frankmobile was again on hand and served as the pace vehicle for the two division program. Oh, yeah, and every so often a race would take place!
But this blog is about the racing and racing is what we went there for, so let's get to it!
Twenty seven Late Models and twenty nine B Modifieds of the USRA, Power I, IMCA variety signed in for the evening. With very warm temps and a steady breeze, getting enough water on the wide racing surface proved a daunting task and required quite a bit of extra packing, mostly by the Late Models, pushing us past the advertised start time. Even with the extra water, dust was a bit of a problem, particularly during the features, as that steady breeze helped to cool things down, but unfortunately blew from turn four towards the packed grandstands. Never the less the racing surface was smooth and fast.
B Mods used the hot lap/time trial combo format, with standout racer Kris Jackson the fastest by nearly a half second with a lap of 19.944 seconds. To no ones surprise, Jackson also captured one of the four B Mod heats, then drove off following each yellow flag to dominate the feature event. Twenty six cars would start the twenty lap money race which was plagued by yellow flags. It took three tries to complete lap one, as first Jackson from row two, then outside pole sitter Kelly Smith fired off too soon. The next caution came with three laps down, and on the restart a fire erupted from the Glen Saville #53B, bringing first the yellow, then the red flag. Following the lengthy delay, Chris Spalding used the Delaware restart to slip past Smith for second behind Jackson, and Brandon Dale entered the top five after starting eighth. With two more caution periods by the end of lap eight, the field lined up single file. On the restart Dale moved to fourth and was making a strong move for third on lap twelve when he smacked the wall between turns three and four, dropping back, then bringing out another yellow with a flat tire. The caution came again on the next two attempts to restart, with now third running Cody Agee spinning in turn two on the second try. It was then decided to go green, white, checkers, giving us in essence a fourteen lap feature. It only delayed the inevitable, as once again Jackson drove away from the field to pick up his almost unbelievable forty first feature win of 2023! Spalding came home second followed by Smith, and the somewhat confusing duo of Preston Dawson and Dawson David. All five are at least part time competitors in the Tuesday night regular season program. While it is understandable that the race would be shortened with the excessive amount of cautions, by the same token in a night of so much off track activities, the drivers and some fans may have felt a bit shortchanged.
While Jackson was busy sweeping B Mod action, World of Outlaw hot shoe Bobby Pierce was also making short work of the Late Model program. His 16.975 lap would top the field of twenty five that tripped the clock. Kaeden Cornell failed to make a lap, pulling in with smoke coming from his #50, and Derek Fetter also exited the track early with a miss in his engine. While Derek was able to come back in his heat and feature, Cornell was done for the night. Series points leader and Saturday night feature winner at Lucas Oil Speedway Chad Simpson was second quick, but was docked four spots in his heat race lineup for a chain limiter violation. Pierce captured the opening heat race from the pole, while Jeff Herzog did the same in heat two. Mason Oberkramer started inside row two and grabbed the win in the third and final heat.
With the B Mod feature complete, the fireworks and meet and great over, it was finally time for the headline event. All but Cornell lined straight up for thirty laps and a shot at the $10,000 or at least the $750 start money. Oberkramer got behind the eight ball early when he spun in front of nearly the entire field in turn two on the opening lap, avoiding contact but restarting at the rear of the pack. Back under green, Pierce opened a sizable lead. He caught slower traffic on lap six, and as he thread the needle, second running Dillon McCowan was able to cut into his lead a bit. However Pierce was soon driving off in clean air ahead of a caution with thirteen laps scored for a Chad Walter spin. One more lap was complete when Matt Becker slowed out of turn four, driving slowly around to the backstretch exit, drawing another caution. Again one lap went in the books before the yellow waved when young Kayden Clatt smacked the turn two concrete. A final stop came with nineteen down for Jimmy Powell. Following this Delaware restart, Chris Simpson charged into second while Jeff Herzog rebounded to fourth after dropping back early. Pierce again caught the back of the pack about lap twenty five, but with his substitute stick man ( Dad went home to start World 100 prep) indicating his big lead, he cruised to the flag to flag win. Chris Simpson took the runner up spot trailed by rookie of the year leader McCowan, Chad Simpson, and eleventh starting Justin Duty. Herzog ran sixth, topping state of Louisiana youngster Clayton Stuckey, Aaron Marrant, Trevor Gundaker, and Daniel Hilsabeck.
The final checkers came a ways past the 11:00 hour, capping an interesting and varied evening of entertainment.
Millard and his team, including general manager Galen Hassler and former Quincy Raceways operator Jason Goble are working hard to put Moberly Motorsports Park on the racing map, and I expect to see more "big time" shows in the future, as there is lots of seating and the track is situated several miles out of town, making noise less of a concern. One thing they could use is a scoreboard. As race fans we are surely spoiled by them and a bit handicapped without!
No comments:
Post a Comment