The SuperClean Modified Racing Series rolls into Las Vegas for round three of their exciting 2009 season this Saturday night, May 16th. Their feature race will be 75 full green flag laps, caution laps will not be counted, on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's three eighths of a mile oval known as "The Bullring." The race sponsor for this special event is the Minnesota based Poly Dome Plastic Products.
This outstanding regional touring series is again enjoying a healthy car count and a full field of 24 cars will be lined up for the Poly Dome Plastic Products 75. This event will also feature some of the best open wheel driving talent from the western states area who will be charging hard to get to the front to claim the winner's check worth $1,000.
But to make it to the checkered flag they first have to make it through the qualifying session which very often is not that easy. In the past the lap time separation between the fastest and slowest car in the field has often been less than a second. The qualifying times will set the first 16 positions in the starting field for the feature. Positions 17 through 20 will be filled by a B main race which can often get just as intense as the 75 lap feature. The final four starting spots will be provisionals based on the decision of the series' promoter. Each driver in the A feature is guaranteed at least $250 just for starting the race.
The drivers in the SuperClean Modified Racing Series are also competing for championship points along with the big pay off in bonus money at the end of the season. With two races already on the books this year it's already becoming apparent that the championship run could get extremely dramatic.Going into Saturday's Las Vegas event the top two drivers are tied for the points lead, there are only 10 points separating the top four in the standings and 14 points between first and fifth.
Chris Gerchman is one of the drivers on top of the standings with 96 points. The Lake Havasu City-Arizona driver is from a very famous modified racing family. The Gerchmans have achieved success at the Las Vegas Bullring and, for that matter, every track they have visited over the years. Chris Gerchman won the March 28th season opener at his Havasu 95 Speedway home track and finished third in the second race at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway.
Also in championship form with 96 points, based on two second place finishes, is Burbank-California's Tim Morse. Many series observers have been saying that it's just a matter of time before this driver parks his modified in victory lane and Las Vegas could be where that happens.
Morse spent the last three weeks doing some major modifications to his car's body at the request of series officials. Explaining that he said "during the process of getting ready for Vegas we're going to have to change the body a little bit. I guess there were some complaints about the car (during the second series race in Blythe). The car is within the rules and I don't know why it has to be changed but I told the officials I would change because those changes won't really make a bit of difference. The series officials all said the car was legal but there were still some complaints about it so to make everyone happy I'll change the body a little bit. After that I'll be changing the motor for the Las Vegas race. We're coming to Vegas with some big thunder."
Simi Valley-California's Andrew Phipps heads towards Las Vegas third in the standings. His two top five finishes has him only eight points away from the top of the standings. Phipps is really excited about racing on the Las Vegas Bullring this Saturday night and even called it "a real race track." He noted that he needed more experience on the smaller quarter mile tracks that is on the series' schedule and added "those bigger tracks are more of what I know and what I'm used to. The Bullring race is really going to be a lot of fun. You get to put the pedal on the floor there, stand on the brakes and then go really fast down the straightaways. It just feels like the real racing I'm used to."
The emergence of Jim Mardis in the SuperClean Modified Racing Series has brought steady improvement to a team that didn't join the series until the final two races of the 2008 season. Mardis is third in the points standings, just ten points away from the leader, and is regarded as another driver that is very close to getting his first series win.
Making the commute from San Antonio-Texas is driver James Cole who is fifth in the standings and only 14 points away from the top position. Cole and his team arrived in Blythe, for the second race of the season, with a brand new car and scored a top five finish. "We need to work out just a few more bugs with this new car but we feel like we definitely have something for the competition. We have an extremely strong car now and I'm very much looking forward to the Las Vegas race, The Bullring is more along the lines of what I'm used to racing on. Back home I raced on big half mile, high banked, asphalt tracks. On that type of track you can pass more, get into the throttle a little bit more and you get use the bigger motors. I'm really excited about that," he said.
Greg Scheidecker, Promoter of the SuperClean Modified Racing Series, didn't seem to be surprised to hear that some of the teams were preparing to amp up their rides for the Bullring race. "I've already talked to quite a few of the series drivers and there seems to be two major issues. One, a lot of guys are changing their intake manifolds to put a lot of carburation in their cars. Some are also planning on using bigger four barrels without replacing their motors. However there are some of the guys who are placing higher compression, bigger, motors in their cars for Las Vegas. The second issue here involves rear end coolers. Last year, when we were in Las Vegas, there were four or five ring gear and pinions that were burned up because our guys normally do not use oil coolers on their car's rear end. You can expect that there will be guys stepping up and taking care of that this Saturday night," Schedecker said.
It's also highly suspected that the Poly Dom Plastic Products 75 is going to entice teams to make a visit to the SuperClean Modified Series event at the Bullring. Scheidecker acknowledged that fact and said "historically our Las Vegas events pulls in teams from the Nevada and Utah areas that runs races on the larger tracks. That again means that our series regulars are going to have to step up to the table in order to be competitive. Also remember that this race Saturday night, in order to protect our regular series teams from not making the main event, will have four provisional starting spots which will give us a 24 car main event. We very seriously support the people who support our racing series the year around and that's where the extra provisionals will come into play at Las Vegas."
Scheidecker noted that he has already received a telephone call from Tracy-California's Scott Winters regarding the Las Vegas race. Winters made one visit to the SuperClean Modified Racing Series last July and impressed everyone by winning the race at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino. Winters said that he loved the series but his one problem with was the logistics and expense of towing his car from his bay area home to the southern California and Arizona tracks that the series races on. This young driver will be one to watch Saturday night.
Another driver to watch Saturday night will be El Cajon-California's Jimmy Dickerson the reigning 2008 series champion. At the series' awards banquet last January Dickerson announced that he and team owner Eric Brucker had decided to pursue an opportunity in Super Late Model racing and would only be making an occasional visit to the SuperClean Series this year. They made one of those visits last month to the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway. Dickerson left town that night with the winner's check in his pocket. At the time Dickerson said "it's uncertain how many of the SuperClean modified races we'll be running this year due to available sponsorship money. But we are definitely planning on making all three of the series' races in Las Vegas."
Saturday night's race presenter, Poly Dome Plastic Products, is based in Litchfield-Minnesota and was created by Dick Johanneck in 1972. By 1977 the company was manufacturing calf nurseries, used by dairy farms, and soon expanded to a line of 200 products that offered shelter and protection to a wide variety and size of farm animals.
Commenting on his long standing personal and business relationship with Poly Dome Plastics, Scheidecker said "last year, and again this year, Dick Johanneck is the sponsor of the event. This is major for our series when someone outside of the immediate area supports our modified racing series."
While the SuperClean Modified Racing Series, and the Poly Dome Plastic Products 75, will be the feature event of the evening, the Las Vegas Bullring will also be treating its fans to some exciting racing from their Metro PCS Super Late Model, Bomber, Legends, Bandolero and Thunder Roadster divisions.
In addition to its title sponsor, the SuperClean Modified Racing Series is strongly supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas." Team members include Lucas Oil Products, E3 Spark Plugs, R&L Carriers, Dixie Chopper, General Tire and K&N Performance Filters.
There's also equally strong support from official series sponsors that includes SuperClean Products, Poly Dome Plastic Products, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort and Casino, Sunoco Fuel, Frank's Radio, DJ Safety and Steve Teets of STR-Short Track Race Cars.
