The Dome at America's Center
Gateway fans soak up amenities, historic event
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Juanita Bryant watches Gateway Nationals action. (DirtonDirt.com)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Juanita Bryant loves Dirt Late Model racing. The Calhoun, Ga., race fan spends many summer evenings watching the elite division at Southeastern tracks like Boyd’s Speedway, Dixie Speedway, Talladega Short Track and East Alabama Motor Speedway.
So when Bryant heard about plans for the inaugural VP Racing Fuels Gateway Dirt Nationals, there was little doubt where she was going to be in mid-December — on a plane heading for the the Dome at America's Center to witness Dirt Late Model racing’s first indoor event in 34 years.
“I couldn’t miss it because it’s history,” said Bryant, decked out in a Riley Hickman racing T-shirt and a toboggan she barely needed because of a slight chill in the Dome. “That’s all I do is go to dirt track races — or my grandson’s baseball games.”
Bryant was among a couple of thousands fans enjoying Thursday’s Late Model and modified preliminaries at the Cody Sommer-promoted Gateway Nationals, fans that not only enjoyed the rare chance to watch a December race but the rare dirt-track amenities afforded by an indoor arena in the heart of a large metropolitan area.
“The temperature’s comfortable, it’s not dusty … I usually have a heater and a quilt — or you’re burning up,” Bryant said with a smile. Not only that, but the bathrooms were modern and clean, “and there’s plenty of them.”
(Bryant took a break from an interview to point out a rough spot between turns one and two at the fifth-mile oval recently built on the stadium floor. “They’re going to have some flats right there,” she said with authority.)
Modified racer Cory Mahder and his girlfriend Lindsay Olson of Eau Claire, Wis., were among fans trying to wrap their heads around such a venue for dirt racing. When he was outside near the ticket booth, a friend texted him that hot laps had started, but unlike the average fairgrounds racetrack, he couldn’t hear any noise or feel any vibrations.
But that didn’t mean the Dome, which formerly hosted the NFL's St. Louis Rams, didn’t provide most of racing’s sensations. “As soon as you hit the turnstiles,” Olson said, “you can smell the racing fuel.”
They enjoyed being in the middle of St. Louis with a two-block walk to the track that’s “normal city living, but not normal at all for racers,” said the 30-year-old Mahder, who also enjoyed the broad array of concessions of a major arena. “And bucket seats at a dirt track? Pretty incredible.”
J.R. Mason of Paducah, Ky., is also a modified racer, and he’d registered to compete in the Dome. But those plans were scrapped when an accident at Eldora Speedway’s DIRTcar Fall Nationals left his car with heavy damage. Watching the action with his buddies, including crew member Cameron Stewart, Mason was asked if he could see himself in the action. “I wish,” he said.
Added Stewart with a laugh: “If he didn’t tear up so much stuff, he would be racing.”
“It’s weird being inside instead of outside,” Mason said. “Racing in December? You just don’t hear of that. You just don’t get to do that.”
Nick DiNardi of Pontiac, Ill., was operating a race-car simulator along with slipping away to the stands to watch action of some of Dirt Late Model racing’s top drivers including Scott Bloomquist, Don O’Neal, Darrell Lanigan and Bobby Pierce.
“It’s incredible,” the 28-year-old DiNardi said, giving his theories about how the temporary track was shaping up ahead of Friday and Saturday’s action that concludes with a $20,000-to-win event. “It’s mind-blowing. Every racer’s dream is to come win an indoor race like this.”
The last time Dirt Late Models ran an indoor event was in 1982 at Michigan’s Pontiac Silverdome, a race won by Jack Boggs. That was a fact not lost on Gateway Nationals fan Johnny Ray, 55, a friend of the late Boggs and his son Jackie from “Grayson-by-god-Kentucky,” he said with a toothy smile.
“There was a lot of effort put into this race, and a lot of good racers here too,” said Ray, declaring the entire event “awesome.”
Tammy Kennedy of Palestine, Ill., was rushing through the outer concourse at the Dome trying to find how her son Wyatt’s qualifying time stacked up in the modified division. She was excited about him wrapping up his first season in the division at such an event.
“We signed up the minute we heard about it,” Kennedy said, saying the “accommodations are wonderful” with a state-of-the-art arena with huge TV screens and nearby hotels just a few steps from the venue.
When Bloomquist — a driver whose flowing locks have been part of his Hall of Fame career — was on the track posting a solid qualifying time, that got a fist pump from Hal Davis of Sheridan, Ill., who competes in the Late Model division each summer at Sycamore (Ill.) Speedway.
“Everybody says I have the long hair and a ponytail, so I’m kind of like Bloomquist Jr.,” the 60-year-old Davis said with a laugh, so he’s adopted Bloomquist as one of his favorite racers.
And it appears, the Gateway Nationals is already becoming one of his favorite events.
“It’s just nice to be able to see racing in December …. getting to see a (winter) race without going all the way to Florida,” he said. “I’m really excited.”
