Race Report and other random thoughts
by Stan Meissner
May 12, 2013
Forest Lake, Minnesota
World of Outlaws and UMSS Traditional Sprints at the Elko Speedway Friday May 10, 2013
World of Outlaws Elko results: http://www.woosprint.com/results/2111-5102013-elko-speedway
UMSS Traditional Sprint Cars race report: http://traditional.umsprints.com/news/?i=15434&clk=featureNews
Direct Link to Stan Meissner Elko photos: http://www.gotomn.com/Photos/2013%20photos/05102013_Elko-WoO/05102013_Elko-WoO.htm
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| Donny Schatz fires up his engine in the paved Elko pit area |
Welcome to my first race report blog post of the 2013 season. There is no hard and fast deadline for when my blog posts will come out but my goal is to write a report on each weekend of racing as time permits. If you live in the upper Midwest you know that our weather turned cold on Saturday, the day after Elko. Seeing as conditions still aren't very suitable for yard work I've got plenty of time to work on this post today. That won't always be the case as the summer progresses so article length will vary according to circumstance. I'll announce the blog posts at all the usual places whenever I post a new article. This isn't meant to be a stats page so if that's what you're looking for I'll try to always provide some handy links for you to find those details. For the most part my blog posts will consist of observations about the event and hopefully I'll catch some nice shots to illustrate my points as well. I thought I'd try to catch some video clips at Elko too but I was so busy getting up-to-speed taking photos that I forgot to take the video camera out of the bag. I shot without flash during hot laps and tt's then switched to a faster lens and flash but was having trouble getting adequate light from my flash during the Heats. After the Heats I realized that I had used the diffuser during the holidays and left it in the down position. Duhhh!!! Overall the photos turned out pretty decent considering that I jumped right into the frying pan and was shooting the fastest dirt track rockets on the planet my first night out. Most years I get to spend a few weeks finding my photo groove by shooting Stock Car and Modified classes before taking on 410 Sprints. After a month of weather delays Elko ended up being the first race of the year for a lot of people and not just myself. It went pretty good for the first time out and I was able to get some good shots.
Ma Nature finally let up on us enough for pretty much every track in the region to get a show in on Friday May 10 then slammed us with cold and wind the following day. Originally I didn't expect to be able to attend Elko but I caught a break. I want to thank Larry Hillerud of SLS Promotions for coming to my rescue and making this night of racing possible for me. It was a great evening of racing and I'm grateful to have been able to attend and be a part of it. As mentioned in earlier blog posts I am submitting content to several publications as well as helping out the tracks and sanctions so along with this blog I'm still pretty busy. You just won't be seeing my column in the Midwest Racing Connection this season but my agent is in talks with MRC about the possibility of me coming out of retirement to write a couple previews. The asking price my agent is pushing for me is a couple beers so I think there's a chance we might be able to work something out.
The photo at the beginning of this post is of Donny Schatz getting pushed off to put heat in the engine at Elko prior to hot laps. In spite of my teaser subject line I'm pretty sure this is as close as he'll get to driving a Sprint Car on pavement. From the lower end of Elko's paved pit area back to his pit stall. Racing at Elko was very good and I don't think it would have mattered much if they had been able to go another six laps, the winner still would have been Tim Kaeding. My sources tell me that both Madsen and Dollansky were having motor issues in the late stages of the race so if they had run another six laps the results could have been different.
Overall Elko was a great way to kick off the season in grand fashion. I talked to Dan Shearen from the Davey Heskin crew (Dan is my second cousin's husband) while crossing the track after the B and he said there were small rocks getting kicked up into the stands. I mentioned it later to my son Les and he confirmed what Dan told me. The track looked great from the infield but the cars fling everything out towards the fence so we didn't see anything that looked problematic from our vantage point. I'm sure if there was a problem that's something that the Elko Speedway will address going forward and will correct any problems. Elko's dirt shows have shown steady improvement since their first year. As far as having multi grooves and not slicking over I would give them an A+ because it was a very racey track all night long.
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| UMSS Traditional Sprint Car Series is a growing class |
Which leads me to my point. One class that is bucking the trend and growing is the UMSS Traditional Sprints. As can be seen in the above photo, a competitive car and motor comes in at around $6500. People tell me that the cars are a blast to drive (got that straight from HoosiersUp), the smaller motors for the most part keep them Hoosiers down and total costs are low compared to other classes. Since the majority of their races are currently taking place at the Saint Croix Valley Raceway that's probably going to discourage some people on the other side of the Metro from getting involved due to Friday traffic getting to Wisconsin but I could see this class eventually expanding to other tracks.
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| Former Modified and MW Modified driver Mike Mueller has made the switch to a Traditional Sprint |
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| Johnny Parsons III (JP3) won the night's Feature with the help of crewmen Erik and Steve Steinkraus (Steiny X 2) |
The UMSS TSCS Feature was a pretty good one. I didn't get an exact count but I think about 15 or so cars showed up and 11 or 12 started the Feature. I'm not a stats man so you can read GRP's full writeup on the UMSS website at http://traditional.umsprints.com/ I understand that there are cars that were not ready for Elko or there could potentially have been 20 or more. I think that's the kind of deal we're going to see with this class where a few shows will draw most of the cars and the average will hover around 15 or so week in and week out. Obviously these teams aren't going to have spare motors and cars in their trailers like the guys we'll be talking about later in this post so it's going to take them a little longer to recover from blown motors and crashes. Those are still good numbers considering that just about every other class is losing and not gaining cars. Anytime a new class is started it takes a few years to build up the numbers. I'm sure that more potential racers are keeping an eye on this class to be sure they're here to stay before taking the plunge and putting a car together.
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| Craig Dollansky scored a podium finish coming home in third |
Hopefully you had the patience to hang in there while I made a few observations about this blog and the support class. Your patience has been rewarded, the UMSS Heats are over so now it's time to talk about the World of Outlaws. I was a little bummed out that Craig Dollansky couldn't hang in there until the end and win one in his home state. I didn't get a chance to visit with Craig but we exchanged nods while he was sitting in the car in the infield waiting for the Dash to push off. I went by his hauler after the races but it was pretty crowded so I'll catch up with him at CLS where I usually arrive earlier. Craig had an exciting run going and it had the home crowd buzzing.
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| Davey Heskin at Elko |
I asked Dan Shearen how their night was going after the B and he replied with a list of problems including a cracked frame the first night out with a new short track car. Shearan is a former Sprint Car driver that competed at the North Starr Speedway in Blaine. As a matter of fact Dan ran sixth in the May 6, 1979 North Starr Sprint Car Feature behind John Stevensen, Darryl Dawley, Jerry Richert Sr., Cole (don't recall the first name) and Bill Dollansky. Meanwhile former Sprint Car owner and current push truck driver Chuck Priefer ran seventh in the Sportsman Feature on that same night in 1979. Chuck spent the night of May 10, 2013, pushing World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at Elko.
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| The Motter 71 is raised up from the ashes |
I started taking action photos during hot laps back in 1999 so I never got a photo of the Motter car it's first time around. From a photography standpoint I guess you could say that I lucked out because a new Motter team is back on the dirt tracks of America with Joey Saldana turning the wheel. I was introduced to Dan Motter at the Superior Speedway a number of years back but do not recall the circumstances that led to the brief introduction. That was after Dan had stepped down as an owner the first time around. Motter is from up around the iron range, I think it's Hibbing, but I don't suppose the team would actually be based that far north. Nevertheless, it's interesting to me that Minnesota would be the source of three WoO teams and the home of series announcer Johnny Gibson. There is no 410 racing within our borders and it has been a struggle just to keep Sprint Car racing alive in Minnesota. Joey Saldana, Sammy Swindell and Craig Dollansky are all depending on Minnesota money to keep them on the road this season.
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| Terry McCarl came into the night as one of the few drivers with Elko IRA experience |
Terry McCarl came into the night as one of several drivers with Elko experience. The drivers in the field that I can recall off the top of my head as having IRA 410 starts at Elko include Davey Heskin, Brooke Tatnell, Terry McCarl, Bill Balog, Austin Johnson, Travis Whitney and I think Brian Brown has been up here before too. McCarl finished 16th in the A, Tatnell turned over and brought out the rainy red, Heskin, Johnson and Balog couldn't transfer out of the B Main and Whitney broke in hot laps and scratched for the night. If you can think of any others let me know. Brown finished 21st in the A. Other drivers that have raced quite a bit in our area include Danny Lasoski 22nd place and Mark Dobeieir who flipped in the B Main ending his evening. Brooke Tatnell had a decent run going until he flipped between 1&2 bringing out the red. Rain showers hit during the cleanup ending the action for the evening.
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| Danny Lasoski at Elko |
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| Mark Dobmeier at Elko |
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| World of Outlaws do a four wide salute to a packed house at the Elko Speedway |
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| Three wide Feature action at the Elko Speedway. Brooke Tatnell (25), Kraig Kinser (11k), Kody Darah (4) |
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| Brian Brown (21) and Skylar Prochaska (35) with his wheels up in the A Main |
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| Here's a classic shot of Steve and Sammy dicing it up at Elko |
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| Natalie Sather interviews Tim Kaeding in Victory Lane |
| I hope you enjoyed my Elko recap and photos. Be sure to follow the link at the beginning of this post to view the complete photo gallery. My original plan was to attend the Cedar Lake School Bus night to sub taking photos but when Saint Croix Valley cancelled I got a reprieve from the wind and cold. I plan on getting back out to the races on May 24 for round #2 of UMSS Thunder/the Dave Tabor Memorial race. Next up the following night I'll be taking photos at Cedar Lake's "Pack the Track night". If you're in the area on Saturday the 25th of May you can follow the UMSS up to Rice Lake or pack the car and get the whole family into the Cedar Lake Speedway. The following weekend will see two nights of IRA action starting at Saint Croix Valley on June 1 and the Cedar Lake Triple on June 1. See you at the races! |
