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Open Wheel Nationals Format ReleasedBy: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director (6-18-13)
St. Croix Valley Raceway, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin

With the 2nd Annual Open Wheel Nationals fast approaching, details on the racing format for the weekend have been released. The Friday night June 28 program will see feature races in all four divisions, as the mighty modifieds take to the track for a full program along with the WISSOTA Midwest Mods and UMSS Traditional Sprints. The UMSS Winged 360 sprints will also run a full preliminary program with the exact format determined by car count. The modifieds and Midwest mods will use a draw/redraw format with 24 cars qualifying for their feature races. The UMSS Traditional Sprints will run their usual race program consisting of heat races, with the lineup determined by draw, and then the feature race lineup will be determined by passing/finishing points from the heat races with the high point driver pulling the invert pill.

For the UMSS winged sprints, the format for the Friday night premlinary program will be determined by car count as indicated below.

40 cars or more: Cars will be randomly placed into two groups. Draw for heat races. (2) Heats will be run for each group unless 48 or more cars are on hand, then (3) heats will be run for each group. Passing/finishing points will be earned in the heat races. The top (20) cars in points in each group will run a feature race with the lineup determined by heat race points (straight-up start). Each feature race will be 20 laps in distance and pay $1,000 to win. Standard UMSS points will be earned in the feature races. Feature race points will be added to the heat race points to determine a drivers total point score for the night. The top (6) drivers in over all points at the end of the night will automatically transfer to the pole dash and championship feature races on Saturday night.

33-39 cars: Draw for heat races. (4) heats will be run with passing/finishing points earned. The top (16) cars in passing/finishing points after the heat races will be locked into the "A" Feature (straight-up start). The remaining cars will run one or two "B" Features depending on car count with the top four or top two cars transferring to the back of the "A" Feature. Cars not transferring to the "A" Feature (non-qualifiers) will earn "B" Feature points. The "A" Feature race will be 25 laps in distance and pay $1,500 to win. Standard UMSS points will be earned in the feature race. Feature race points (or non-qualifier points) will be added to the heat race points to determine a drivers total point score for the night. The top (6) drivers in over all points at the end of the night will automatically transfer to the pole dash and championship feature races on Saturday night.

32 cars or less: Draw for heat races. Number of heats will be determined by car count (3 or 4 heats). Drivers will earn passing/finishing points in their heat races. All cars will transfer to (2) Challenge Races. The invert for Challenge Race starting positions is determined by finishing positions in each heat race. Typically, the last two finishing positions in each heat race do not make the invert. Passing/finishing points will be awarded in each Challenge Race. Heat race and Challenge race points will be combined with the top (20) cars in points transferring to the feature. The high point driver will draw for the feature race invert (0, 4 or 6) with the remainder of the field lining straight-up. The feature race will be 25 laps in distance and pay $1,500 to win. Standard UMSS points will be earned in the feature race. Feature race points will be added to the heat and Challenge race points to determine a drivers total point score for the night. The top (6) drivers in over all points at the end of the night will automatically transfer to the pole dash and championship feature races on Saturday night.

On Saturday June 29, the UMSS Traditional Sprints and unsanctioned Midwest mods will run full programs with the same race format as they did on Friday night. The UMSS Winged sprints will run heat races for all but the top (6) cars in points from Friday night. Draw for heat races. The number of heats will be determined by the number of cars on hand. Passing/finishing points will be earned in the heat races and those points will be added to a drivers Friday night point score. The top (4) drivers in combined points after the heats will start the championship feature race in positions 7 - 10. The top (6) drivers in points from Friday night will run a six lap Pole Dash with starting positions determined by draw. The order of finish in the Pole Dash will determine the first six starting positions in the championship feature. The remaining drivers will run (2) Last Chance Races with the top five finishers in each race transferring to the championship feature straight-up in positions 11 - 20. The lineup for the Last Chance Races will be straight-up by total points. The championship feature race will be 35 laps in distance and pay $5,000 to win.

The UMSS winged sprints certainly have an entertaining race format based on the car count. Should the Friday night show rain out, the Saturday night program will have the scheduled classes of cars. The UMSS winged sprints would then utilize their standard one night race format based on number of cars (32 or less or 33 or more). If the Saturday night show rains out, there is no rain date due to the World of Outlaws show at CLS on Sunday night. The Minnesota Mafia will be participating both nights at the Open Wheel Nationals with Hard Charger and Tough Luck Awards. The Minnesota Mafia is a premier race fan group based in Jackson, MN providing outstanding support to the sprint car racing community here in the Upper Midwest. GRP Motorsports has also added some money to both the Traditional and UMSS winged sprint purses.

Pit gates open at 2:00 PM on both Friday and Saturday with the stands opening at 4:00 PM each day. Draw cut-off will be 6:20 PM. The UMSS drivers meeting will be held at 6:00 PM each night. Hot laps are scheduled for 6:40 with racing action to follow. There will be an open practice session on Thurday night June 27 for all classes of cars. The Thursday night practice will be held from 6:00-9:00 PM with pit gates opening at 4:00 PM. The cost for practice is $30.00 per car (includes driver). All others in the pits will be $5 each on Thursday. Stands are free Thursday night.

Free camping will be available at the track (no hook-ups). The race will be broadcast on XSAN.tv one of the premier video internet broadcasting companies in the nation. Pit passes each night are $35 for adults. The UMSS winged sprints ONLY have a $125 entry fee that covers both Friday and Saturday night. If the success of the inaugural Open Wheel Nationals last year is any indication, the second edition of this event should be an outstanding two nights of racing at the 1/4 mile dirt oval located near St. Croix Falls, WI. Racers and fans will certainly want to make plans to attend the 2nd Annual Open Wheel Nationals on June 28-29.

Less than a week away

Drivers that have said they will be making the trip to St. Croix Valley Raceway

24 Terry McCarl, 27 Carson McCarl, 93 Derick Lusk, 20k Thomas Kennedy, 21k Lou Kennedy, B1st Tony Norem, 20G Chris Graf, 64 Scotty Thiel, 91 Davey Heskins, 45c Russ Hall, 63 Jerry Richert Jr, 35 Ben Schmidt, 5m Troy Manteufel, 6x Kurt Davis, 9 Jared Goerges, 10 Jenni Eriksen, 20 Jordan Wilmes, 31 James Broty, 33 Scott Broty, 5 Anna Kouba, 23 Cody Hahn, 34 Rick Kobs, 36 Jason Tostenson, 14k Victoria Knutson, 64 Greg Gunderson, 5 Cam Schafer, 91a Reed Allex, 55 Joseph Kouba, 34tw Gunner Cummings, 37 Sye Anderson, 48 Neal Matuska, 7x Dave Becker, 29 Leigh Thomas. Also could see 4j Lee Grosz if motor is fixed in time, and 25 Brooke Tatnell if able to drive with broken toes.

Terry McCarl???? not racing knoxville this weekend? Same with Brooke Tatnell and Heskins? sounds like a good field of cars though if those Knoxville guys stay. If they do end up going to knoxville Saturday its really anyones race!

In the past McCarl has raced up here for some Friday shows then hustled home to run Knoxville. Don't know if that is the case this weekend or if he'll stick around. Same with Heskin, he drives a #91 at some of the Friday 360 shows but I would expect them to head to Knoxville. Brook Tatnell broke four toes and is scheduled for surgery Tuesday to insert pins. It wasn't a racing deal, I heard he had a run in with a board and the lumber won. Don't know what the prognosis is for a return to racing but they have been having a rough time lately. They blew a transmission out on one of their personal vehicles, hit a deer with the motor home and now the toe deal.

Stan Meissner

That is some bad luck! I am sure Brooke will race even with those injuries. Hes a racer through and through. Jack Dover?? According to his website hes racing in MO and NE this weekend.

I know a gal who had one toe done a year ago and the pin bent so they want her to go back under the knife. She her doctor to hell with that, just cut the damn thing off and that kinda freaked him out. There is three straight days of Sprint Car racing about 30 miles from his house so if he can find a way I'm sure he'll do it. I think the biggest thing is that they make them wear a boot for over a month and I doubt he's going to be able to pull something fireproof over it this soon after surgery. I'll get the lowdown on Friday.

Stan Meissner

Nickel trashed a car at Princeton so not sure if he's got it back together yet. I stuck with these guys like glue three years ago and only missed one of their races all season. Circumstances have changed and I've only been to four races so far this season and nothing since June 1st. I'm totally out of the loop for the first time in fifteen years. It's kind of odd to have to check HH's to find out what's going on at a track a half hour from the end of the driveway.

Stan Meissner

Brooke posted this on his Facebook page. He mentions four races, I forgot about Jackson so he's referring to Jackson, SCVR and CLS WoO:

Thank you to everyone on the well wishes and speedy recovery. Despite all the broken bones over the years this surgery rates right up there on the pain scale for first couple days of recovery. The toes that are just pinned are fine but the two that have what looks like skewers exposed out the end of each toe hurt like hell along with my foot. What hurts more is the fact that we will miss out on racing four races this week and all four were good paying races and especially the outlaws being at Cedar Lake on Sunday. RJ Johnson did a job last week and will again drive the 55 car at Knoxville on Saturday and tomorrow we will know more on our plans for the Tats Chariot #25.

Stan Meissner

Looks like Brooke went to the wrong foot doctor But seriously if he has k-wires through the toes, those have to stay in for a minimum of 4 weeks so if I were his surgeon he would have to let me drive his car as I wouldn't let him race for at least 4 weeks Those pins have to come out the same way they went in and I guarantee they come out much easier if they are straight vs being bent. Had a pt a few years back we had the pins in all of the small toes, he's riding to his post op appointment and his wife rear ends a car. He comes in and all 4 toes are pointing straight up. X-rays show a perfect 90 degree bend of the wires. Numbed him up and bent the toes back straight and that fixed the bent pins. His wife is going to be a lot more careful from now on as he wasn't real happy with her.

If everyone on this board hasn't guessed already they call you RaceDoc for a reason.

Stan Meissner