stephenrjking
Well-Known Member
The last two race weekends have been off-road racing at its finest.
No real thoughts to add on the facility, as I haven't been able to attend since the first year, but crowds seemed about the same as last year. They got good weather on both days, for once, which helps a lot. I think Dirt City is a valuable track to have in the portfolio, a purpose-built track that is tight and narrow, almost all visible (albeit at a very low angle) from the spectator hill, producing races that are all about track position with a dash of chaos that punishes drivers for running just a little bit wide out of key corners. I actually enjoyed how track degredation, properly managed, played a role in the racing. It's fun. The one thing that still needs work is the split lane, which still has a right and a wrong answer. It took ERX a couple of years to balance the split lane so that both sides could become viable options for the high-powered pro races, and Dirt City isn't there yet.
The tightness of the track does shine a big light on the starting draw. This is particularly notable in Pro-2, both because Jerrett Brooks is willing to complain publicly about a bad draw and because the reality that there are so many good trucks and drivers in the class means that you can easily get an ultra-fast truck stuck in 8th and barely able to move up.
And no time more so than at Dirt City. It's not to say that there isn't passing--in fact, the work it can take to make a pass makes the passes on track thrilling--but it *does* take some time and often some planning, which means that charging your way through the entire field is impossible.
Well, almost impossible, but let's save discussion of the Pro-4 race Sunday for last.
Thoughts on the races
Not a lot to say about Pro Stock and Pro Spec; the Greaves team appears to be improving rapidly in the Polaris UTVs, and that made for some good on-track action between Brock and CJ on Sunday, but Pro Stock remains basically what it has been. Which is a credit to Heger, but still. Pro Spec is capable of producing some good on-track action, but it really needs more trucks. Of note: A field that size or only slightly larger used to be a common thing in Pro-2 and Pro-4, it says very good things about the series that a field size of 4 looks really out of place.
Pro Turbo
Pick a name out of the hat and they might win. Hamish Kelsey, not someone I had on my "pay close attention" list at the beginning of the year, gets a win after a string of good results. And Robert Loire somehow netted his second on Sunday; absolutely crushing loss for Andrew Carlson on Sunday, who would have won if he had crossed the finish line 8 seconds later on his previous lap instead of breaking as he approached the white flag.
*Stream note: My flo sports stream broke and was inoperable for a half hour, inaccessible from any device. I missed the pro turbo race as a result and had to review it later. At least it came back on in time for me to watch Pro-2. Several messages sent to various social media and email accounts weren't really addressed promptly.
Pro Lite
It's not the Heger show anymore. The astonishing run of results continues, and it was Trey Gibbs following up a brilliant drive at ERX with a stunning weekend where he appeared to be the fastest driver in the class. He was the fastest guy on Saturday, rising to first by passing Kyle Greaves and Brock Heger *on track* with some magnificent driving. His arcs through turn one, finding grip and speed where no one else could, were eye-opening.
Of course, one small hang-up and he didn't win Saturday. So he won Sunday instead, in an excellent race. His exceptional second-place at ERX wasn't a fluke; Gibbs has arrived. Great drives from Eggleston and Wood, too, and really something to see Wood tearing up on the podium.
Pro-2
What a class.
We haven't had a really brilliant down-to-the-wire battle for the win yet, but we've had everything else.
As I wrote above, no class is affected by the random start draw than this one. You can qualify first and wind up 8th or worse, queued up behind Kyle Kleiman, Ryan Beat, Mickey Thomas, Cory Winner, Doug Mittag... these are race-winning drivers with fast trucks.
Starting with good track position is a huge asset. It also isn't something to apologize for, because a guy that wins from the first row has also spent a whole race in an electric battle with a former series champion for sixth place because they got a tough draw.
Here are three stars of the series who are fast and have great trucks: Jerrett Brooks, Ryan Beat, and Keegan Kincaid. What do they have in common? They haven't won a race this year.
Mickey Thomas won Saturday, and it was great to see Mittag get his first win since coming back to the midwest Sunday. The best racing action happened behind them, and it was *really* good action. Both days, but the racing behind Mittag Sunday was as good as it gets. There was also drama, with Kincaid biffing a turn out of the lead early on Saturday and Mittag's truck leaking water Sunday (which, I should add, was very well covered by the production crew; great camera work to zoom in on the leak, and a good job by Cheyne and Brent to discuss it, and then periodically check back on it without getting repetitive).
Keegan's season continues to be awful. It seems like it's random and bizarre, no one thing to point to, just a bad year. He's an excellent driver and generally fields a great truck. Ryan Beat hasn't really had a good season, either, but it's not as acute and he's been a lot closer to winning than Keegan has. On the other hand, it should be noted that Kyle Kleiman has risen to the challenge and improved a lot this year, his race win being only one data point.
Pro-4
Kyle Leduc is back! He beat an encouragingly fast Cole Mamer Saturday, and CJ had some issues that kept him midfield. Of note: Lena's size and relatively low prominence means that it's one of those tracks that part-time Pro-4s are probably going to skip, and they did... and there were still 9 trucks in the field. That's a *great* field.
So, Sunday: The start was pretty crazy, and Kyle Leduc managed to push wide in the first turn and bang hard into the wall, costing a lot of track position, into fifth. Then he hit the gas and clawed back most of what he lost in the rest of the lap, and it looked like he was set up to get to second by the comp yellow and then have a shootout with CJ for the lead... and then he carried too much speed into turn one, went wide again, crashed, and then tried to climb straight over the outside wall. Hard to win if you crash every time you go through turn one. The yellow flew and the race looked like it was another Greaves win, with Leduc's truck sitting on the wall like a beached whale, tires spinning uselessly.
Still, they pulled him off, and he was at the back of the lead lap. And you never know...
It wasn't going to be simple, either. He did some work before the comp yellow, but he wasn't in second and track position is everything in Lena. Jimmy Henderson has really grown and is a competitive driver, and Andrew Carlson had a *great* race and put together a couple of laps where I thought he might be able to challenge CJ for the lead.
But Kyle would not be denied. He had a good restart, set up and passed Carlson, and then set out After CJ with a couple of seconds to make up without the benefit of a yellow.
And so he did. A good sign of how exciting a race has become is when I find myself involuntarily moving forward in my seat or standing up. That's what the Saturday Pro-4 race was at ERX, and that's what the Sunday Pro-4 was here. In this instance it was Leduc coming from behind, getting closer every lap, just barely getting to a workable position on the last lap, and CJ making the wrong move on the treacherously slick infield turn...
And Leduc took the win with a last-lap pass. Excellent. Really a perfect build of action all day, ramping up the excitement with every race to a satisfying conclusion.
An outstanding weekend of racing.
No real thoughts to add on the facility, as I haven't been able to attend since the first year, but crowds seemed about the same as last year. They got good weather on both days, for once, which helps a lot. I think Dirt City is a valuable track to have in the portfolio, a purpose-built track that is tight and narrow, almost all visible (albeit at a very low angle) from the spectator hill, producing races that are all about track position with a dash of chaos that punishes drivers for running just a little bit wide out of key corners. I actually enjoyed how track degredation, properly managed, played a role in the racing. It's fun. The one thing that still needs work is the split lane, which still has a right and a wrong answer. It took ERX a couple of years to balance the split lane so that both sides could become viable options for the high-powered pro races, and Dirt City isn't there yet.
The tightness of the track does shine a big light on the starting draw. This is particularly notable in Pro-2, both because Jerrett Brooks is willing to complain publicly about a bad draw and because the reality that there are so many good trucks and drivers in the class means that you can easily get an ultra-fast truck stuck in 8th and barely able to move up.
And no time more so than at Dirt City. It's not to say that there isn't passing--in fact, the work it can take to make a pass makes the passes on track thrilling--but it *does* take some time and often some planning, which means that charging your way through the entire field is impossible.
Well, almost impossible, but let's save discussion of the Pro-4 race Sunday for last.
Thoughts on the races
Not a lot to say about Pro Stock and Pro Spec; the Greaves team appears to be improving rapidly in the Polaris UTVs, and that made for some good on-track action between Brock and CJ on Sunday, but Pro Stock remains basically what it has been. Which is a credit to Heger, but still. Pro Spec is capable of producing some good on-track action, but it really needs more trucks. Of note: A field that size or only slightly larger used to be a common thing in Pro-2 and Pro-4, it says very good things about the series that a field size of 4 looks really out of place.
Pro Turbo
Pick a name out of the hat and they might win. Hamish Kelsey, not someone I had on my "pay close attention" list at the beginning of the year, gets a win after a string of good results. And Robert Loire somehow netted his second on Sunday; absolutely crushing loss for Andrew Carlson on Sunday, who would have won if he had crossed the finish line 8 seconds later on his previous lap instead of breaking as he approached the white flag.
*Stream note: My flo sports stream broke and was inoperable for a half hour, inaccessible from any device. I missed the pro turbo race as a result and had to review it later. At least it came back on in time for me to watch Pro-2. Several messages sent to various social media and email accounts weren't really addressed promptly.
Pro Lite
It's not the Heger show anymore. The astonishing run of results continues, and it was Trey Gibbs following up a brilliant drive at ERX with a stunning weekend where he appeared to be the fastest driver in the class. He was the fastest guy on Saturday, rising to first by passing Kyle Greaves and Brock Heger *on track* with some magnificent driving. His arcs through turn one, finding grip and speed where no one else could, were eye-opening.
Of course, one small hang-up and he didn't win Saturday. So he won Sunday instead, in an excellent race. His exceptional second-place at ERX wasn't a fluke; Gibbs has arrived. Great drives from Eggleston and Wood, too, and really something to see Wood tearing up on the podium.
Pro-2
What a class.
We haven't had a really brilliant down-to-the-wire battle for the win yet, but we've had everything else.
As I wrote above, no class is affected by the random start draw than this one. You can qualify first and wind up 8th or worse, queued up behind Kyle Kleiman, Ryan Beat, Mickey Thomas, Cory Winner, Doug Mittag... these are race-winning drivers with fast trucks.
Starting with good track position is a huge asset. It also isn't something to apologize for, because a guy that wins from the first row has also spent a whole race in an electric battle with a former series champion for sixth place because they got a tough draw.
Here are three stars of the series who are fast and have great trucks: Jerrett Brooks, Ryan Beat, and Keegan Kincaid. What do they have in common? They haven't won a race this year.
Mickey Thomas won Saturday, and it was great to see Mittag get his first win since coming back to the midwest Sunday. The best racing action happened behind them, and it was *really* good action. Both days, but the racing behind Mittag Sunday was as good as it gets. There was also drama, with Kincaid biffing a turn out of the lead early on Saturday and Mittag's truck leaking water Sunday (which, I should add, was very well covered by the production crew; great camera work to zoom in on the leak, and a good job by Cheyne and Brent to discuss it, and then periodically check back on it without getting repetitive).
Keegan's season continues to be awful. It seems like it's random and bizarre, no one thing to point to, just a bad year. He's an excellent driver and generally fields a great truck. Ryan Beat hasn't really had a good season, either, but it's not as acute and he's been a lot closer to winning than Keegan has. On the other hand, it should be noted that Kyle Kleiman has risen to the challenge and improved a lot this year, his race win being only one data point.
Pro-4
Kyle Leduc is back! He beat an encouragingly fast Cole Mamer Saturday, and CJ had some issues that kept him midfield. Of note: Lena's size and relatively low prominence means that it's one of those tracks that part-time Pro-4s are probably going to skip, and they did... and there were still 9 trucks in the field. That's a *great* field.
So, Sunday: The start was pretty crazy, and Kyle Leduc managed to push wide in the first turn and bang hard into the wall, costing a lot of track position, into fifth. Then he hit the gas and clawed back most of what he lost in the rest of the lap, and it looked like he was set up to get to second by the comp yellow and then have a shootout with CJ for the lead... and then he carried too much speed into turn one, went wide again, crashed, and then tried to climb straight over the outside wall. Hard to win if you crash every time you go through turn one. The yellow flew and the race looked like it was another Greaves win, with Leduc's truck sitting on the wall like a beached whale, tires spinning uselessly.
Still, they pulled him off, and he was at the back of the lead lap. And you never know...
It wasn't going to be simple, either. He did some work before the comp yellow, but he wasn't in second and track position is everything in Lena. Jimmy Henderson has really grown and is a competitive driver, and Andrew Carlson had a *great* race and put together a couple of laps where I thought he might be able to challenge CJ for the lead.
But Kyle would not be denied. He had a good restart, set up and passed Carlson, and then set out After CJ with a couple of seconds to make up without the benefit of a yellow.
And so he did. A good sign of how exciting a race has become is when I find myself involuntarily moving forward in my seat or standing up. That's what the Saturday Pro-4 race was at ERX, and that's what the Sunday Pro-4 was here. In this instance it was Leduc coming from behind, getting closer every lap, just barely getting to a workable position on the last lap, and CJ making the wrong move on the treacherously slick infield turn...
And Leduc took the win with a last-lap pass. Excellent. Really a perfect build of action all day, ramping up the excitement with every race to a satisfying conclusion.
An outstanding weekend of racing.
