Thunderous Finale: The Final Race at Mississippi Thunder Speedway

One+of+the+many+cars+at+the+Mississippi+Motor+Speedway

Zach Bailey

One of the many cars at the Mississippi Motor Speedway

With the checkered flag flying for the final time of the season, the last days of Mississippi Thunder Speedway’s Fall Festival finished with a bang!

After an exciting double night event at the Fountain City stock car track, it would ultimately be the 50III of Brandon Davis out of Medford, MN who took home the $1,000 payday in the top class at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, the A-Mod Division. After starting on the inside of row 5, he slowly climbed to the lead, before eventually passing the leader on lap 22 of the 25 lap feature. Unfortunately for Davis though, this would not be the ending of the race.

On lap 23 Brandon Davis and Josh Angst, who Davis had just passed for the lead, caught a two-car battle between the 59X of former Track Champion Bob Sammann and the 29H of Joe Horgdal who were racing for position at the tail end of the lead lap. As the four cars raced into turn three, Horgdal dropped to the extreme bottom of the banked turn, while Sammann slid to the upper middle groove of the wide sweeping turn. Angst saw the tight opening as a way to race away from Davis’ challenge, Davis, however, saw the opening as a last opportunity to battle for the win. Both leaders entered the rapidly closing space which originally was barely wide enough to accommodate two cars – and was quickly diminishing. As the racers slid into the fourth turn of the fast 1/3-mile oval, they morphed into an astounding four-wide beast making contact inevitable.

Angst’s 99 and Sammann’s 59x came together at the same time as Davis’ 50III connected with Angst. Both leaders spun to the left, clipping Horgdal and eventually spinning, still side-by-side, into the infield! The caution flag waved to slow the race and reset the field for a shootout to the finish, eventually ending with Davis on the top step of the podium.

It seems improbable to have a more tense and cheer evoking ending to the season at Mississippi Thunder Speedway. This finish bodes well for MTS’s success heading into it’s sixth year in business.