This last weekend Dave Mass Racing went up to Fergus Falls Minnesota to compete in the Dick Johanneck “King of the Dirt” Memorial race at the I-94 Sure-Step Speedway. Dave brought both his Super Stock and his Late Model to the three-day show. Thursday and Friday night were qualifying races to set the stage for the big show on Saturday night.
Thursday night:
Dave started 7th with his super stock for a 20 lap qualifying race and would pick his way through the field and was forced to pass one of the best to get 1st place. Dave was successful and would take home the win.
In the Late Model he would start in the 6th position of the 25 lap qualifying race and would charge to the front to battle for the win. Dave would again come out on top with a win making it 2 for 2 on night one.
Friday night:
Dave would start in 6th place in the 20 laps Super Stock qualifying race and would get up to the front to battle with another one of the best in the business. Dave would come in second place and gather some important passing points which captured him the #1 qualifier in the Super Stock class for the big show on Sat night.
In the Late Model class Dave would start deep in the field in the 14th starting position of the 25 lap qualifying race. Dave methodically navigated his way through the extremely competitive field of some of the best to make his way up to 4th place, passing 10 cars, before he ran out of laps. This was again a great night for passing point, and that combined with his win the night before locked him in as the #1 qualifier for the big show on Saturday night out of all 40 of the Late Models running for that top spot. Dave teammate, Don Shaw would take 1st place.
The last race of the night was the Late Model Dash for Cash race. This was a race against the top 8 qualifiers. These 8 fastest cars would battle it out for 20 laps for bragging rights and a nice cash prize. This race would not affect the starting position for the big race on Saturday at all. It was checkers or bust. Dave would start on the front row in pole position for this race because he had earned the #1 spot from his previous two finishes. Dave would jump out to an early lead on the start and never look back. Dave would park the #2 in victory lane for the prestigious Dash for Cash amongst the top 8 out of 40 some cars gunning for that top spot. Way to go Dave and crew!!
Saturday night:
On the big night they took the top 8 drivers in each class and would do are draw to see where their fate lied for the start of the “King of the Dirt” main events. For the Super Stock redraw Dave pulled #3 and would start on the outside of row #1 as they were starting the field 3 wide at this unique event. In the Late Model Dave would also draw the #3 starting spot, again putting him on the outside of row #1 for the exciting 3 wide start in the biggest race that everyone was anticipating.
In the Super Stock feature Dave jumped out to the lead at the drop of the green flag and would continue to extend that lead putting some distance between him and the rest of the field. The second-place car would start to pull away from the rest of the field as well. But there was still a substantial gap between Dave and second place for the first 10 laps of the 35 lap main event. But on lap 10 that would change. Dave’s right rear flat tire would go flat as something out on the track seemed to have punctured his tire and he would have to pull off into the infield giving up his large lead and any chances of winning the Super Stock Feature event.
In the 40 lap late model race Dave would again jump out to an early lead. He would lead the race for about 10 laps before one of the very well respected and talented late model drivers would put together a strong move, diving underneath Dave to take over the top spot. Dave would continue to battle through lap traffic trying to track down the first-place car. As laps went by, Dave seemed to be gaining some ground and was in position to make a move, when all of a sudden the Caution Flag would come out with 20 laps to go. Although this was unfortunate because it looked as if Dave had the upper hand in that lap traffic, this restart was still very promising as now it was a pretty even starting point for a 20 lap sprint to the finish. When the green flag dropped Dave was trying to make some aggressive moves on the high side to take advantage of the restart to try to get a run on the leader. With about 10 laps to go, pushing it as hard as he could, Dave would into the wall with the right rear just enough to knock his spoiler off his car. With a portion of the spoiler being gone, that affected the down force on Dave’s car and would create the car to get a little bit loose. This would make it even more of a challenge to try to track down the leader who just wasn’t making any mistakes. With the car not handling quite as good as what it did before the contact with the wall, Dave was trying to hold onto the second position. He would do that right up until the last corner when the third-place car snuck underneath of him to take second place away at the last minute. David end up in third place for a podium finish among 40 of the greats at the biggest WISSOTA events of the year.
Congratulations to Dave Mass Racing on an unbelievably strong performance at the Dick Johanneck “King of the Dirt” Memorial Race.
