DirtonDirt.com Dispatches
Dispatches: Rally unfulfilling for Owens
Port Royal Speedway (heathlawsonphotos.com)
The latest notes and quotes from Dirt Late Model events nationwide from April 8-10, including Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association action at 81 Speedway near Wichita, Kan., Ultimate Southeast action in the Carolina and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series racing at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway and Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway:
Unfulfilling rally
PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Jimmy Owens raced to a fourth-place finish from the 10th-starting spot Sunday at Port Royal Speedway for his third consecutive inside the top-six, a first for Owens since last September. But the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series result wasn't fulfilling for the Newport, Tenn., driver.
“We shot ourselves in the foot early (in) qualifying, got a late pill draw,” said Owens, who qualified fifth overall in Group B with a lap of 19.084 seconds, but nearly a half-second behind Kyle Larson’s quick mark. “Just missed the setup. We went back and looked at some things, redid some stuff, and had a super good car for the feature there.”
Owens was so good in the feature that he was posting faster lap times than eventual winner Gregg Satterlee down the stretch. Over the final nine laps of the 40-lap, $10,000-to-win main event, Owens shaved two seconds off Satterlee’s advantage. The four-time Lucas Oil Series champion ultimately finished 4.666 seconds off Satterlee’s race-winning pace, but at one point Owens slipped back to 12th and was playing catchup more than 12 seconds behind.
Sunday’s lone caution on lap 25 for Kyle Larson and Earl Pearson Jr. collision amid a fierce battle for the lead paved the way for Satterlee’s victory and helped Owens make up for lost time. But unlike Satterlee’s timely positioning, Owens restarted ninth with 15 laps remaining.
Any shot for win No. 3 of the season likely meant that another caution needed to land in Owens’s lap, and that ultimately never came to fruition.
“We found the high side there early,” said Owens, whose outing on Sunday builds on a fifth-place finish last weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Saturday’s sixth-place result at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway. “The long green-flag runs just got the field stretched out. I would have liked a few more cautions. Felt like we could have been able to capitalize and gain a few more spots possible.” — Kyle McFadden
Scott brother rights season
A weekend in Kansas just might have gotten Johnny Scott’s moribund 2022 season headed in the right direction. After backing up a fifth-place finish in Friday’s Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Association-sanctioned Heartland Hustle opener at 81 Speedway with a convincing $7,000 victory in Saturday’s 35-lap finale, the 32-year-old driver from Las Cruce, N.M., was equally happy and relieved during his postrace interview.
“Heck, I’m excited. This is awesome,” Scott said. “After the luck we’ve had to the start of this year, this definitely feels good to finally get a win.”
In his 20 starts this season preceding MLRA’s season-opening doubleheader, Scott’s ledger showed just a single top-five finish: fourth in Jan. 14’s Wild West Shootout action at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park. His best finish otherwise at Vado, during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks and the March 25-26 portion of the Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals was 11th — and making matters worse, he absorbed eight DNQs.
The struggles were at least temporarily put in Scott’s rearview mirror as he came off the outside pole to lead Saturday’s 35-lapper from flag-to-flag and defeat Gordy Gundaker of St. Charles, Mo., by a hefty margin of 5.087 seconds. Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, stuck with Scott throughout the race’s first half and actually nosed into the lead on the backstretch working lap 20, but the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series regular slowed with a flat tire in turns three and four before officially pacing a circuit.
“My car was really good,” Scott said of his Longhorn Race Car. “My signal guy told me when I got to lapped traffic that they were catching in on me, but heck, I couldn’t get around them guys when I once I got up to him. So I just tried to just stay there.
“I appreciate Ryan, he raced me really clean. He could have probably moved me a couple times … I know how Ryan races, and anybody in this Late Model class, you've gotta get going. And I felt like the pace, I was setting the fast pace, but I was keeping my tires under me. I don’t think I was really spinning them too bad or nothing.
“But I appreciate (Gustin) and just all my crew — Levi, little buddy, Ricky and my (twin) brother (and Rancho Milagro Racing teammate Stormy Scott, who finished 17th in Saturday’s feature) and their crew,” he continued. “Without them, I mean, they all have been helping us on the car get it going.”
The triumph was Scott’s first since a $10,000 World 100 preliminary score last Sept. 8 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and just the fourth of his short Dirt Late Model career, which he entered in June 2019 after previously focusing on open-wheel modified competition. His other victories were MLRA-sanctioned shows in 2020 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., and Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor Creek, Okla.
“There’s just a lot of factors that go into this,” Scott said. “I got to thank all my sponsors … I appreciate everybody that helps us, and maybe this is a turnaround for us. Maybe we can finish out the year strong. We'll see what happens.”
Ultimate tidbits
With his weekend sweep on the Ultimate Southeast Super Late Model Series, Zack Mitchell moved into the series points lead. He's a three-time series champion (2018-20). ... Mark Prince, a native of Port Chester, N.Y., finished 14th in his series debut despite the passing of his mother earlier in the week. Prince called her death “the hardest day of my 49 years.”. ... Dale Arnold of Fayetteville, N.C., scratched at Lake View after his engine threw a rod through the oilpan. ... Blake Sanderson of Dillon, S.C., broke a driveshaft in hot laps and missed time trials. He retired from the feature after 13 laps with a 16th-place finish. — Cole Perkins
Vandenbergh keeps cool
Losing a potential top-five finish due to a spin from a mid-race scrape was understandably frustrating for Kolby Vandenbergh on Friday night at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan. But he realized it wasn’t worth losing his temper as well.
Vandenbergh, 24, of Ashland, Ill., was running fourth just before the halfway point of the 30-lap Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Association feature when he went around in turn four following contact with eventual third-place finisher Chase Junghans of Manhattan, Kan. The incident forced him restart at the rear of the field and ultimately settle for a 14th-place finish.
“At the end of the day, we were just both racing hard,” Vandenbergh said before the start of Saturday’s $7,000-to-win Heartland Hustle finale at the Jayhawk State track. “It was unfortunate for us.”
Vandenbergh said he “went back and watched the video” and didn’t feel he was at fault, but he noted that “you just gotta keep your cool” in the wake of a costly tangle with another driver.
“It’s easy to get negative about stuff like that and get all caught up in the moment,” Vandenbergh said. “You just gotta put your head down and know it’s early in the season and it’s good to know you have a fast race car and to just try again the next night.”
Making his first start of 2022, Vandenbergh was hoping to kick off the new campaign like he ended the ’21 season. He registered only three top-five finishes in 27 starts last year, but one of them was a fifth-place run in his final race, a Sept. 25 MARS-sanctioned show at Spoon River Speedway in Banner, Ill.
“We time-trialed good, we had good heat finishes, and even after we got sent to the back I think in 12 laps we still came back up through there,” Vandenbergh said. “Anytime you get sent to the back and get back up through there, it helps you for the next night because you gotta look at the positive in the racing. There’s usually more lows than highs in racing.”
Pacing to victory
Knowing exactly how fast you should be around around a dirt track isn't as easy as it sounds. The simple answer is "as fast as you can," but lapped traffic, track conditions, tire wear and other factors sometimes make it tricky for Dirt Late Model racers.
So it was during Friday's Ultimate Southeast event at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, N.C., Zack Mitchell of Enoree, S.C., was tracking polesitter and race-long leader Brett Hamm.
“I noticed we got to slowing down a lot, kinda getting closer to the bottom and just kinda slowed down more and more and more," Mitchell said after his $4,000 victory. "When you're leading it’s hard to judge that, you know, how much you're actually slowing down. We finally got to lapped traffic and all, I know my spotter, Mike, was showing me I didn’t have a big lead on third place.
"But you know, I wanted to wait and wait and wait and I said to myself well I better take this opportunity, if I go in here I’ll look like a hero, and you know, if I mess it up, I’ll look like a zero.”
Mitchell's bold outside move on Hamm just before the halfway point sent him to his 10th career Ultimate victory and first since nearly one year earlier at Laurens County Speedway in Laurens, S.C. He totaled four victories in all in the 2021 season, the most recent in Carolina Clash action at Laurens County on Sept. 14, but he'd logged a single top-10 finish in 2022 in a handful of starts.
“I’m about out of breath ... I feel like that’s about the hardest 40 laps I’ve ever drove," Mitchell said. "We’ve struggled a little … from about the last time I won a race. I knew we had a good race car for this year, we just had some bad runs and some bad luck. But man … great race car tonight, everything was amazing. Hopefully we can do the same thing tomorrow night."
Tricky restarts at 81
Bobby Pierce's 30-lap, $5,000 victory in his debut at 81 Speedway on Friday in Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association competition was mostly uneventful. Mostly.
But when the Oakwood, Ill., driver entered turn one too high on an early restart, he left the door open for eventual fourth-place finisher Rodney Sanders of Happy, Texas, to slip past and grab the lead on the backstretch. Fortunately for Pierce, a quick Terry Phillips spin brought out another yellow flag, and Pierce protected the bottom groove on the next restart and resumed his path to victory.
Calling the track "challenging," the 81 Speedway surface "makes the restarts pretty hard, because I had great momentum. But (things were OK) once I nailed my restarts finally — that first one, Rodney got by me that was bad and it would have been hard to get back him, that's for sure. You have so much speed going in turn one, and turn one is such a tricky corner here. I know everyone's struggling with it. It's just really slick getting in."
Pierce said he simply made the wrong move on the initial restart.
"A lot of times, you might think something is what you got to do, but until (competitors) show you know their nose, then you're like, 'Oh yeah, I probably should have done that.' Most of the time there's no second chances, but luckily that caution came out," Pierce said. "I figured I would've needed to restart high and enter low, but you just never know when you're in the lead. That second-place car sometimes has a better advantage."
New car for Pospisil
Things couldn't have gone much better in prelims for Tad Pospisil of Norfolk, Neb., in Friday's action at Wichita's 81 Speedway. Driving a new Longhorn Chassis, Pospisil lowered the track record in time trials with a 16.402 and then clicked of a heat race victory to earn the the pole position for the main event.
Alas, the first lap of the 30-lap feature saw Pospisil get too high in turn one on the opening lap, and he quickly slipped from contention, eventually slipped back to an eighth place finish with a left-rear tire losing air late in the race won by Bobby Pierce.
Pospisil settled for the finish one week after the reigning Malvern Bank Super Late Model Series champion captured that tour's opener at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb.
"Bad Chad Motorsports owns the car, so he just gave me the opportunity to run some more open Late Model stuff. This is the first night in it," Pospisil said. "It's a pretty good piece. We've just gotta figure out what adjustments we need to do. We thought they were going to farm the track before we went out, and they didn't."
The surface slicked up "and we didn't adjust for it," said Pospisil, who will return to chase Saturday's $7,000 winner's purse in Wichita. "We'll keep trying."
Other notes from 81 Speedway:
• Kolby Vandenbergh of Ashland, Ill., held the fourth spot midrace when contact from eventual third-place finisher Chase Junghans of Manhattan, Kan., in turn three sent Vandenbergh for a spin. The eighth-starting Vandenbergh ended up 14th.
• Runner-up Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, battled for second early in the feature with fourth-place finisher Rodney Sanders of Happy, Texas, with Gustin saying the pair were "throwing Chili Bowl sliders on each other there, and that was fun. ... Once we finally broke away I felt like we're probably the fastest car on the track. But it just took us a little bit too long to get going and got a little tight there at the end, but we'll work on it."
• Junghans was the race's hard charger in advancing to third from his 13th starting spot.
• Reigning MLRA champion Tony Jackson Jr. of Lebanon, Mo., was an early retiree in finishing 24th.
Return to Wichita
Most tracks on the Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association schedule are well-known to current series drivers, but the Missouri-based tour opens the season at a track it hasn't been to since 2003, 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan.
The Wichita-area oval — formerly home base for the National Championship Racing Association when that rival tour ran full-fledged Super Late Models — hosts $5,000- and $7,000-to-win Heartland Hustle events on April 8-9 on the Ernie Leftwich-directed tour.
Track general manager John Allen, who has overseen upgrades at the 67-year-old facility including new aluminum grandstands along with new walls and catchfencing, is glad MLRA is back.
“FOE Enterprises purchased 81 Speedway in December of 2019 and since that time Ernie and I have been in discussion about how we could make it a great event. It’s just taken us a little while to be able to put a plan together to where we thought it would really shine and become one of those events that becomes a must see every year,” Allen said in a series release. "It’s absolutely exciting to bring the Late Models to Wichita. With us being the season opener, you know anybody that is even thinking about chasing the points will be here, and that just adds value to the show for everyone.”
Alan Vaughn of Belton, Mo., was MLRA's last winner at 81 Speedway on May 30, 2003. Other previous MLRA winners were Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo. (1993 and '97), Rex McCroskey of Springfield, Mo. ('93) and Bill Frye of Greenbrier, Ark. ('92).
The Kansas oval is also hosting the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series on Oct. 22, the second time the national tour will visit the track and first time since 2017.
Two other nationals tours have competed at 81 Speedway. The National Dirt Racing Association ran in Wichita in 1984 with Jeff Purvis of Clarksville, Tenn., grabbing the victory and in '85 with Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., winning. The Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series ran at 81 Speedway in 1998 with a Fourth of July weekend doubleheader as Wendell Wallace of Batesville, Ark., and Freddy Smith of Seymour, Tenn., took the checkered flags. — Series reports
Editor's note: Additional information gathered by Cole Perkins and Mike Ruefer.
