Lucas Oil Speedway
Notes: Oberkramer will debut car at Show-Me
Mason Oberkramer will debut a Capital Race Car. (Mike Musslin)
Armed with a new race car and an optimistic outlook, Mason Oberkramer rolls into Lucas Oil Speedway this weekend hoping to succeed in the 30th annual Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 presented by ProtecttheHarvest.com.
The 29-year-old Broseley, Mo., driver plans to debut a new Capital Race Car for Thursday night’s Cowboy Classic program that kicks off the three nights of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association action in Wheatland, Mo. He’s used a month-long break from regional competition due to rainouts to transition to the new ride from his Rocket. | Show-Me 100 Fast Facts
“We’ve had a few ups, but more in-betweens and downs than we’ve had good,” Oberkramer said of his 2022 season, which finds one feature win but only two top-five finishes in 21 starts. “Looking forward, we’re coming out with a new car for the Show-Me and maybe we’ll turn our luck around.”
Asked about the switch to Capital, he said company owner Marshall Green has a great reputation for helping those driving his cars. Included on the roster of Capital drivers is Payton Looney of Republic, Missouri, who won the 2020 Show-Me 100.
“I talked a little bit with Marshall Green and it seems like he’s gonna put in a lot of effort to help me,” Oberkramer said. “It’s what I feel I need to help me win. I don’t have a lot of time or money to go out and do all the testing and all that stuff.
“I have a family and a business. He can take care of the rest of that stuff and I can just show up, do a little bit of work on the car and hopefully go and win some races.”
No race would mean more to Oberkramer, the 2021 MLRA Rookie of the Year, than Saturday's Show-Me 100.
“It means a lot, especially watching one of our friends Payton Looney win it,” Oberkramer said. “It just gives you a little hope and belief that you don’t have to be a guy that runs a national-touring series to win it. If all the cards fall right, it can be your night too, just like it was his (in 2020). It just has to all play in to your hand.”
Oberkramer said he’s entered the Show-Me 100 six times and twice made the feature, including with his 24th-place finish last season after taking a provisional starting spot.
“Hopefully, with this new combination with me and Marshall, we’re sitting in the field ready for a top-10 finish,” Oberkramer said. “That’s what our goal is.”
Rather than being intimidated as some regional racers might be, Oberkramer said he enjoys the challenge of going against the best of the best in Dirt Late Model racing in a race that carries a race-record $50,000 winner's prize in 2022.
“It just makes you want to be that much better,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. They do it for a living because they’re good at it. When you get to go up against them, it makes you try that much harder. But they’re human, too. They can be beat. You just have to do everything right and make things work in your favor.”
Oberkramer said he feels confident on the Lucas Oil Speedway oval, where he won his first MLRA feature in 2020, Labor Day weekend's Ron Jenkins Memorial.
“We’ve had a lot of speed at Wheatland,” he said. “I feel it’s one of my better tracks. We just haven’t been up to par with the car we’ve been in lately, but hopefully me and Marshall work well together and we have a good season from here on out.” — Lyndal Scranton
Getting in position
Two-time MLRA champion Chad Simpson of Mount Vernon, Iowa, has seen drivers charge from the back at Lucas Oil Speedway. But if the nine-time Show-Me 100 starter is going to have a chance to improve on his career-best finish of fifth place in 2013, he knows starting close to the front of the starting field for the 100-lapper is key.
And that starts with having good performances in Thursday and Friday's $6,000-to-win preliminary programs at the state-of-the-art Lucas Oil Speedway oval.
"I like the multiple-day qualifying formats,” the 43-year-old Simpson said “It gets you some more time on the track and gives you the opportunity to try some more things. But at the end of the day you’re racing the best in the country down there and you’ve got to make sure you have your stuff all in line and be ready to go right away. If you want a shot at winning and being up front you need to qualify and get yourself out of the heat races the way you need to.”
While many of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competitors are accustomed to long-distance events, the 100-lap main event will be the longest on the MLRA schedule. But that doesn't mean Simpson will be taking it easy early in the feature.
“Track position is everything nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, 100 laps definitely gives you more time to try to get to the front if your starting in the back," he said. "But with the caliber of cars out here and the pace that the leaders are going to set at the start of the race, if you start in the back odds are you’re going to go a lap down before you even realize it.
“It really comes down to anymore, that it doesn’t matter if it’s a 40-lapper or a 100-lapper, track position is everything and you need to get yourself in the front four or five rows for sure to make sure you’re in contention there at the end.”
Lucas Oil Speedway hasn't been Simpson's best track, but he's uplifted by his runner-up finish in the MLRA Spring Nationals at Wheatland. He felt comfortable at the track during a stretch from 2008-10, so he's hoping last month's performance bodes well.
"Since then it just seems like we have been on that struggle bus down there again. So for us to unload for the Spring Nationals and run really good, second the last night, and have a car that steered really well around there it felt pretty good," he said. "We are hoping to go down there with that same car and just make some adjustments to get up there just a little bit closer.” — Billy Rock
Show-Me legacy
The Show-Me 100 has been a fixture at Lucas Oil Speedway since 2010, but West Plains, Mo., driver Logan Martin remembers when the 30-year-old crown jewel as a big deal at West Plains Motor Speedway each season. Not that he attended the event very often.
“At the time I was always racing go-karts, so I didn’t get to attend a ton of (Show-Me 100s) because we were always racing somewhere else on Memorial Day weekend,” the 26-year-old Martin said. “I remember the town always being packed and everybody coming in and it being the talk of the town and the campers being everywhere. It was a really big deal."
Martin also knows the important of Show-Me 100 founders Don and Billie Gibson, who are honored with a tribute race during Friday's preliminary program.
"It’s cool for what they are doing now for Don and Billie Gibson as part of the Show-Me," Martin said. "I would almost rather win the tribute on Friday night than I would the Saturday night portion because I know that would be so cool to win with the Gibsons being from West Plains. That would be super humbling for me.”
No matter what happens Thursday or Friday, Martin hopes he gets to strap in to start his third Show-Me 100 on Saturday. He finished 12th in 2017 and 20th last season.
“When there’s 40 or 50 cars in the pits and you’re sitting there out on the frontstretch and they're doing driver introductions," it's special, Martin said. "It’s a really cool and surreal feeling to watch that happen and definitely a memorable one every time you get to stand out there on the frontstretch.” — Billy Rock
