MANSFIELD — Suffice to say Mansfield Motor Speedway track president Cody Sommer is not a fan of Mother Nature right now.
With just the two main events left to race on Sunday at the All-Star Memorial Classic, a severe thunderstorm roared even louder than the cars, forcing a postponement.
“We had two more races and were ahead of schedule,” Sommer said later Sunday evening. “We probably could have been finished by 9:30. Unfortunately, you can’t predict when Mother Nature is going to open up on you.”
The rains, which came around 9 p.m., stopped what had been a great afternoon and evening of racing in front of a good crowd, featuring the Arctic Cat All-Star Circuit of Champions and the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series.
“The biggest thing for us was weather was really intense and there was more bad weather on the way,” Sommer said. “We didn’t want to keep people in bad weather or put them potentially in harm’s way.”
Sommer hopes to announce a reschedule day for the main events.
“It’s up in the air a little bit. We have two different sanctioning bodies there tonight. We have to make sure everyone is on the same page (before rescheduling),” he said,.
“Our whole team put in a lot of work for this event. The weather forecast has not looked good for the last several days. But we all rallied through and put on a good show until it finally hit,” Sommer said.
Sommer, in his first year of operation at the Mansfield facility, had returned the paved speedway back to dirt this season. The weather has not cooperated, with part of the Triple Crown Spring Series already postponed from April to August and other events hampered or threatened by weather.
“I’d by lying if I told you I was ecstatic tonight,” Sommer said. “I am a pretty thick-skinned person and I can handle quite a bit of abuse. But Mother Nature has been cracking the whip on me pretty hard.
“All we can do is keep charging on. This is a new facility for us and we have a new team. The fact we are making progress every time out is what is important to me.”
The next scheduled event at the track is the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series Freedom 50 on July 2 with fireworks after the race.
Here are the results recorded Sunday before the storms came, according to the Arctic All-Star Circuit of Champions website:
Contingency Awards/Results: Mansfield Motor Speedway – Sunday, May 28, 2017:
All Star Memorial Classic
EMi Driver’s Meeting: 31 entries
State Water Heaters Warm-Ups: Chad Kemenah – 15.742 seconds
Lincoln Electric Fast Qualifier: Brad Haudenschild – 15.303 seconds
Ford Performance Heat #1: Caleb Helms
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2: Carson Macedo
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3: Lee Jacobs
JE Pistons Dash #1: Brad Haudenschild
Classic Ink USA B-Main: T.J. Michael
Daido Engine Bearings Main Event Winner: N/A
MSD Performance Hard Charger Award: N/A
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 5th Place Finisher: N/A
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 10th Place Finisher: N/A
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 15th Place Finisher: N/A
(Lincoln Electric, Daido Engine Bearings, MSD Performance, Outback Steakhouse: Need decal to qualify for contingency award)
Qualifying:
Group (A)
1. 59-Ryan Smith, 15.332; 2. 17-Caleb Helms, 15.513; 3. 33M-Max Stambaugh, 15.696; 4. 22-Brandon Spithaler, 16.04; 5. 95-Hunter Mackison, 16.1; 6. 8M-TJ Michael, 16.146; 7. 16-Danny Mumaw, 16.259; 8. 9-Ryan Linder, 16.482; 9. 1080-Jordan Mackison, 16.564; 10. 51-John Garvin, 16.767; 11. 33-Brent Matus, 17.227
Group (B)
1. 38K-Brad Haudenschild, 15.303; 2. 49x-Tim Shaffer, 15.651; 3. 27Z-Sean Zemunik, 15.692; 4. 3G-Carson Macedo, 15.808; 5. 4K-Kody Kinser, 16.019; 6. 15H-Mitch Harble, 16.632; 7. 60K-Kory Crabtree, 16.69; 8. 45L-Brian Lay, 16.937; 9. 7-Troy Kingan, 18.014; 10. 7DK-Dylan Kingan, 18.617
Group (C)
1. 6M-Jac Haudenschild, 15.837; 2. 81-Lee Jacobs, 15.92; 3. 23-DJ Foos, 15.935; 4. 7C-Caleb Armstrong, 15.953; 5. 13-Brandon Matus, 16.181; 6. 9M-Jordan Ryan, 16.208; 7. 10H-Chad Kemenah, 16.285; 8. 35-Tyler Esh, 16.388; 9. 35s-Stuart Brubaker, 16.709; 10. 9C-Roger Campbell, 17.034
Heat #1 – Group (A) (8 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer
1. 17-Caleb Helms [3]; 2. 22-Brandon Spithaler [1]; 3. 33M-Max Stambaugh [2]; 4. 59-Ryan Smith [4]; 5. 16-Danny Mumaw [7]; 6. 95-Hunter Mackison [5]; 7. 8M-TJ Michael [6]; 8. 1080-Jordan Mackison [9]; 9. 9-Ryan Linder [8]; 10. 51-John Garvin [10]; 11. 33-Brent Matus [11]
Heat #2 – Group (B) (8 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer
1. 3G-Carson Macedo [1]; 2. 49X-Tim Shaffer [3]; 3. 27Z-Sean Zemunik [2]; 4. 38K-Brad Haudenschild [4]; 5. 4K-Kody Kinser [5]; 6. 15H-Mitch Harble [6]; 7. 60K-Kory Crabtree [7]; 8. 7-Troy Kingan [9]; 9. 7DK-Dylan Kingan [10]
Heat #3 – Group (C) (8 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer
1. 81-Lee Jacobs [3]; 2. 6M-Jac Haudenschild [4]; 3. 23-DJ Foos [2]; 4. 10H-Chad Kemenah [7]; 5. 13-Brandon Matus [5]; 6. 9M-Jordan Ryan [6]; 7. 7C-Caleb Armstrong [1]; 8. 35-Tyler Esh [8]; 9. 35S-Stuart Brubaker [9]; 10. 9C-Roger Campbell [10]
Dash #1 (6 Laps)
1. 38K-Brad Haudenschild [1]; 2. 49X-Tim Shaffer [3]; 3. 59-Ryan Smith [4]; 4. 6M-Jac Haudenschild [7]; 5. 3G-Carson Macedo [8]; 6. 17-Caleb Helms [6]; 7. 81-Lee Jacobs [5]; 8. 22-Brandon Spithaler [2]
B-Main (12 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer
1. 8M-TJ Michael [1]; 2. 35-Tyler Esh [2]; 3. 35S-Stuart Brubaker [6]; 4. 7C-Caleb Armstrong [12]; 5. 1080-Jordan Mackison [4]; 6. 51-John Garvin [7]; 7. 9C-Roger Campbell [8]; 8. 7DK-Dylan Kingan [11]; 9. 33-Brent Matus [9]; 10. 60K-Kory Crabtree [5]; 11. 7-Troy Kingan [10]; 12. 9-Ryan Linder [3]
