Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

Stayed until 9:30 and they still hadn't made a decision. Did they cancel and if they did what time? If they canceled are they finishing today (Sunday), or did they split all the purse money among the late models and sprints?

You should have stayed, you miss what I thought was the best sprint car feature that I seen all summer long. Friday's nights feature was just as good.

I agree with you on that one Chuck! After the checkered fell I told my brother "Man, let's refuel em and run them another 20 laps!". AWSOME feature!

Brian

What time did they get done

I believe the sprint car feature ended around 11:30 or so. I know I was glancing at the computer clock several times up in the scoring tower off an on during the evening, but I cannot say for sure the exact time as the race was awesome fun to watch plus I had to jot down a few notes from time to time. I guess I should have paid more attention during the red flag when the two leaders crashed, but I was kind of busy assisting the scorers and our Race Director with getting the restart order lined up. Great two nights of racing in the UMSS sprint car division at Elko! It was worth the wait following the rain delay for sure. CBC late model feature also had some drama and a pass for the lead with two laps to go. Best dirt track surface so far I have seen there over the course of the two nights, since Elko started laying the dirt down there for some specials a couple years ago. I know the asphalt fans would not agree, but I wish it was dirt all the time.

The sprint car feature was by far the best race i've seen in several years. Especially the top cars weaving in & out of heavy traffic at times. Too bad that the 56 & 6 got together in turn 4 just as they were getting the white flag. Otherwise any of those 3 would have had a chance to win. Good job to all 26 drivers for keeping their cars pointed in the right direction by not spinning & crashing.

Thanks to the Elko Speedway staff in waiting out the rain delay. I'm with you Greg about the Elko track prep people giving the racers a d*mn good/racey track & wishing that it was a dirt track all the time.

Ginelmore: If you were wondering what time the final race was completed, because the CBC Late Models & B-Mod features were run after the UMSS sprint feature, it was 12:20 AM.

A few interesting stats from the UMSS portion of the Fall Dirt Nationals at Elko Speedway:

A total of 29 different sprint cars raced over the course of two nights. Car count was 27 on Friday and 28 on Saturday, as we lost the 20R of Robby Pribnow with an engine failure after the feature on Friday night and gained the 34W of Chad Cummings and the 14K of Tori Knutson on Saturday night.

The sprint cars ran three heats and a feature each night for a total of 125 racing laps. There were only two yellows on Friday night (in the feature) and two yellows (in one heat) and one red (in the feature) on Saturday night. The outcome of each feature race was in doubt in the closing laps each night, as the lead changed hand on lap 25 on Friday and swapped back around on the lap 18-19 crash when Gharst and Heskin, running 1st and 2nd, crashed in turn four. With 27 and 26 cars starting the feature each night, the amount of lapped traffic was incredible. Only four cars dropped out on Friday night with 15 still on the lead lap. On Saturday, two cars were unable to start while seven cars dropped out of the race. Nine cars ended up on the lead lap on Saturday night. Scott Winters led 17 feature laps, Scott Broty led 15 feature laps, Sye Anderson led 9 feature laps, and Kaley Gharst led 4 feature laps including the final one on Friday night.

Combining the top ten finishes both nights for each driver, here's the eight drivers who recorded top ten finishes each night:
1. Scott Broty #33 (2nd & 3rd) = 5
2. Scott Winters #23W (7th + 1st) = 8
3. Tony Norem #45 (3rd + 5th) = 8
4. Sye Anderson #37 (6th + 6th) = 12
... Jerry Richert, Jr. #14 (8th + 4th) = 12
6. Chris Graf #20G (4th + 10th) = 14
7. Brad Barickman #34 (10th + 7th) = 17
8. Cam Schafer #54 (9th + 9th) = 18

Hard chargers in the feature races each night are as follows.
Friday:
Gharst 12th to 1st
Graf 11th to 4th
Richert 15th to 8th

Saturday:
Tatnell 8th to 2nd
Richert 10th to 4th
Norem 16th to 5th
Schafer 22nd to 9th
Graf 21st to 10th

Hard Luck Award, should there have been one in effect, certainly could have gone to Cody Hahn #23 with two DNFs each night in 27th and 24th. Alan Gilbertson and Dean Brown would also have been in the running.

Friday night set a record for the number of cars starting a UMSS feature race (27) while the following night (26) would be the next highest. The over all car count record also came at Elko last summer (2010) when 29 sprints signed in for the first of four Summer Nationals shows in July.

Fastest lap turned in the feature on Saturday was recorded by Kaley Gharst at 13.153 seconds around the 3/8 mile semi-banked dirt oval. Fastest lap turned during the night however was also by Kaley Gharst in heat #2 with a 12.998. That proved to be the fastest lap of the two nights, and likely would be an unofficial Elko Speedway 360 sprint car track record (per Elko scorers in the tower).

Who is Cam Schafer? I don't recall hearing that name before? Thanks in advance.

He is a good kid that races Redwood. I talked to him and his dad alot at Redwood and again at Elko. Very nice couple of guys. And the kid is good. He raced some non-wing stuff down in Indiana. So the wing stuff is pretty new to him. He likes non-wing over the wing cars.

Sounds like the Elko staff did one hell of a job getting the show in for the fans and drivers. Definately nice to see a track do everything possible to get the show in. We will definately remember that for next year. I guess I am getting whimpy in my old age, I was doing fine until the rain started. I was very impressed with the quality of the track surface and the UMSS Sprints. It appears to me they are going in the right direction. I agree it would be nice if Elko was dirt all the time. It would be a great track for UMSS winged and non-winged sprints to run at weekly along with the Legend dirt modifieds that were sitting outside the grandstand.