Saturday the high powered Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models rolled into Scotland County Speedway, the fairgrounds three eighths mile oval on the west edge of Memphis, Missouri. The Nebraska based Super Late Model Racing Series - the brainchild of National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Joe Kosiski - boasts both east and west division events plus several multi division races. While some drivers may focus on "points racing" in one or the other division, there is much cross over among the competitors. This east division race would pay a cool $3,000 to win the feature winner. Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and B Modifieds racing for a strong purse would fill out the Saturday night card.
Like everywhere in the mid west, Memphis has experienced more than their share of rainfall, but through the hard work of promoter Mike Van Genderen and many volunteers, the race track and pit area were transformed in to race shape. The huge berm of mud surrounding the inside of the racing surface was a testimony as to how much work was needed. And although the track had a bit of "character" early, it was hammer down all night and relatively smooth and multi groove by feature time.
South Dakota driver Blair Nothdurft topped time trial efforts with a fast lap of 17.019 seconds, breaking a three race fast qualifier string by Jason Hahne. SLMR uses a somewhat complicated qualifying procedure involving descending points for time trials with a six car heat race invert where passing points are accumulated. This combination ( along with a top car redraw?) sets the starting order for the feature which also offers a challenge to the top point man to drop to the sixth starting spot for a shot at bonus money. On this night it was number two points earner Tad Pospisil who accepted the Skyline Materials challenge after Jake Neal passed. As it turned out Tad was "only" able to move up to third at the checkers, increasing the bonus money for the next event.
Heat two winner Jacob Hobscheidt and Charlie McKenna sat on row one for the twenty five lap main event. "Chargin" Charlie powered to the early lead followed by Hobscheidt and Neal. A quick yellow came as Ron Boyse came up lame with both right side tires down. Neal took second on the Delaware Style restart before the caution flag waved again on lap two for a four car mix up in turn four. From there the race would stay clean and green. McKenna and Neal gradually pulled away from the pack, running nose to tail, building a nearly straightaway advantage. Around the mid point of the race, the leaders began to catch slower traffic, with several pulling to the infield before going a lap down. Eventually McKenna closed in on a car running in his preferred lane, and Neal took advantage to close up what little margin the leader had. After a few laps, McKenna was able to make a dandy move in turns one and two to put a pair of cars between himself and his challenger. He then built what looked like an insurmountable lead of more than three seconds. But Neal finally cleared the lapped cars and with two laps remaining he was once again at the back bumper of the #22. However McKenna continued to hit his marks, and came away with a flag to flag win of less than one second! Neal was runner up with Pospisil in third ahead of Hobscheidt and Nothdurft. Jesse Sobbing would top the second five in front of Dylan Silman, Jeff Tharp, Hahne, and Andrew Kosiski. Fourteen of the eighteen starters were around at the finish, while Troy Morris III was well down the road after heat race woes put him in the toter.
Feature racing began with all twenty four B Mods lining up for sixteen laps. As the green flag waved, Austen Becerra made hard contact with the turn two fence, putting him and his Bobby Six #6 out of contention early. Pole sitter Brandon Lambert charged to the lead with the yellow coming again on lap two as possible contact sent ninth starting Daniel Fellows in the Jim Gillenwater #10 for a spin. Another top contender, Brandon Dale drove to the infield at this time, ending his run. Back to racing, Lambert pulled away along with second running Cole Gillenwater as they opened about a five car length advantage before encountering heavy traffic at about the mid point. With just five laps remaining, the caution flag bunched the field as Dylan Heidenwith took a ride off turn three. Twelfth starting Dylan VanWyk had been steadily advancing through the pack, and he now jumped from fifth to third in a battle with Cody Agee. Just as the white flag flew, it was replaced by a final yellow and as the cars waited to realign, VanWyk had his night end with an engine fire in the #117. It would be a green, white, checkers to determine the finish, and Lambert would hold on for a popular victory. Agee jumped to second on the final restart as Gillenwater fell back to eighth with obvious issues. Lucas Eddy was the hard charger, moving up twelve spots to third chased by Jordon Jones and Chris Leathers.
Thirteen Stock Cars signed in, with all taking the green for fifteen laps. As has been a trend lately, the class was not particularly well behaved, as four yellow flags marred the action. Thor Anderson sat on the pole and he powered to the front ahead of Randy Rindom, Derrick Agee, and Leremy Jackson. As Anderson stretched his lead Rindom and Jackson survived contact, but the yellow would come soon after for more contact between Jackson and Jason See. See was awarded his spot back with Jackson charged with the caution. However when another quick caution came for debris, See retired to the infield with a flat tire. Another quick caution followed the restart and now Jackson flew off turn three before reentering the track off turn four! Soon he would head to the infield along with Kevin Koontz while track workers removed the hood from the #14 of Agee who had already given up his front nose piece. A final yellow came for a Jathan Fuller spin with six laps to go. Finally, Thor Anderson would drive away to a convincing flag to flag win. Agee held on for second while Rindom and Fuller recovered to take third and fourth. Only six cars completed the fifteen laps.
Hobby Stocks would wrap up the night, racing for a dozen circuits. Pole sitter Mason Rush would lead the first half of the event followed by a four car scramble for second, finally taken by Spenscer Hopwood. Rush stayed in control before the caution came at the lap six mark. Hopwood would then grab the top spot and go on to collect the win. Rush settled for runner up honors ahead of Garrett Porter, and the Wenigs, Tristan and Dan.
Thanks as always to MVG and his cracker jack crew for a much needed night of racing action. Scotland County will host a few more events throughout the season, check the website for more info.
Our next planned event is the rescheduled and highly anticipated Laveine Sanitation extravaganza this coming Thursday, July 2 at 34 Raceway in West Burlington. There are lots of giveaways for fans and drivers, serious extra money for the racers including $1,500 to win in all classes, and to top things off, all DRIVERS AND FANS GET IN FREE! No excuses on this one, so we will see you there!
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