For the first time in 2009, the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri hosted a racing event. According to some local people, the track looked more like a hay field earlier in the year. But a group of people were able to turn that "hay field" into a lightning-fast, smooth race track for Friday night's action. 116 race teams packed the pits on Friday night.
Up first would be the USRA hobby stock feature. Nathan Wood, the 2007 USRA national champion, would grab the lead on lap one while 2009 USRA national champion Chris Hovden was making his way through the field. After starting twelfth, Hovden found himself in third at the completion of the second circuit. Hovden used a restart to get inside of 2008 USRA national champion Jason McDaniel to take over the runner up spot and set his sights on the leader Wood. McDaniel would continue to falter as Scott Spilde and Todd Reitzler both got by him, along with Clayton Crump a few laps later. Wood's good run would come up short as he suffered a right rear flat tire as he exited turn two, handing the reigns over to Chris Hovden. Among the turn of events, Crump made his way to the second spot. Several cautions plagued the finish to the race, including an incident that involved Crump, Spilde, and McDaniel (2nd, 3rd, and 4th place drivers). Hovden would take advantage of that and take home the win followed by Andrew Hustead, Todd Reitzler, Scott Spilde, and Clayton Crump. Only eight of the twenty-one cars finished the race.
1. 70 Chris Hovden
2. 20 Andrew Hustead
3. 22R Todd Reitzler
4. 18x Scott Spilde
5. 3c Clayton Crump
6. 27 Clint Nelson
7. 62 T.J. Henderson
8. Big O Jordan O'Haver
Next up would be the USRA bmods. A field of over thirty cars were narrowed down to a starting field of twenty-four, with Bobby Penney and Geoff Olson up front early. Olson would solidify the lead on lap two while Ellsworth, Minnesota driver Colter Deutsch was working his way through the field. Deutsch started twelfth and was up to sixth by lap four. Bert McDaniel drove his machine to the inside of Penney to snare the second position away from Penney, but Brad Iverson would slip under McDaniel a lap later. Deutsch climbed his way to third by McDaniel before a caution flag waved. On the restart, Deutsch took command of the race by powering his machine to the inside of Geoff Olson and sprinting away from the rest of the field. Olson would come home second, Brad Iverson third, Bert McDaniel fourth, and Bobby Penney in fifth.
1. 5 Colter Deutsch
2. 2G Geoff Olson
3. 8 Brad Iverson
4. 98 Bert McDaniel
5. 16P Bobby Penney
6. 1 Paul Underwood
7. 16 Mike Shelton
8. 0 Mike Wanders
9. 62 Bill Gibson
10. 85 Jason McDaniel
A field of twenty-three USRA stock cars took to the track next for their twenty-lap feature. Front row starters Mike VanGenderen and Matt Greiner were side by side on lap one before Greiner took the slight edge the following lap. Following an early caution, VanGenderen and Kurt Krauskopf engaged in a side-by-side battle for the runner up spot. This would be the theme of the race as there were four rows of two-wide racing behind the leader. Nathan Wood used a late restart to get under Krauskopf for the runner up spot and closed in on Greiner. On the final circuit Wood shot off turn two and pulled even going into turn three. Wood was able to gas it up in the corner and take home an exciting win. Greiner finished second, Krauskopf third, a 3w car was fourth (sorry, didn't catch name; it was not Jeff Wollam), and Mike VanGenderen rounded out the top five.
1. 52 Nathan Wood
2. 29 Matt Greiner
3. 60 Kurt Krauskopf
4. 3w Werth ??
5. 57v Mike VanGenderen
6. 27J Jason Cook
Twenty-five laps was the distance for the USRA modifieds. After starting tail of the field in his heat race and picking up the win, Michael Long was almost a sure bet to win the feature after redrawing the outside front row. Long would grab the lead ahead of pole-sitter Mark Schulte at the drop of the green flag, while Ryan Gustin quickly moved into third. After a lap four caution, Gustin powered his machine to the outside of Schulte to snare the second position while Scott Dickey would also get by Schulte a bit later. The field would spread out in the middle part of the race before another caution would wave. Gustin would challenge Long for a couple laps, but Long was able to distance himself from the youngster and the rest of the field. Long took home the win followed by Gustin, Zack VanderBeek, Scott Dickey, and Donovan Lodge. VanderBeek was the one to watch late in the race as he used the high line to work his way from his 18th starting spot to finish third in his brand new 2010 Skyrocket car.
Racing action was concluded by 10:35, a respectable time considering racing action didn't get started until shortly after 7:00. The temperatures were very comfortable throughout the night, especially considering it is the first part of November. Temperatures were still hovering around 60* when I left the track.
One thing that I must note that makes the Memphis track a very unique one. It was nice to see that the "Missouri catwalk" was still in place. When I first visited this facility several years ago, I rode down with Positivelyracing.com's webmaster Sue McDaniel. When we got to the track, she pointed out this tall mound of dirt located on the pitside of turn one. When I asked her what that was for, she replied "that's the Missouri catwalk." Crew members stand on the dirt pile to watch their driver.
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, a lot of kudos must be mentioned to the people that worked on the track. I heard several people comment on how smooth the track was for practice Thursday night. While I did notice a bump or two in turn one during the modified feature, that was well beyond my expectations of a great surface to run on after the track had been shut down for almost a year.
The announcer also introduced the crowd to the promoter for next year. Wayne Messamaker will be the man in charge next year and is looking forward to hosting five classes of cars. After seeing the track surface and the multiple-groove racing last night, I hope he has hired the guys in charge of track prep for this weekend.
For more information regarding last night's races, including full results, check out the USRA website at www.usraracing.com and click on news and results.
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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