Mansfield Speedway
Instant reaction, analysis of Erb's Mansfield score
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Tyler Erb leads a Mansfield heat. (Emily Schwanke/woolms.com)
MANSFIELD, Ohio (May 29) — Instant reaction and analysis from Friday’s Blaster 57 Special preliminary at Mansfield Speedway, a $100,000-to-win World of Outlaws Late Model Series event captured by Tyler Erb (RaceWire):
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Let’s start with the positive impressions of Mansfield. First off, it absolutely passes the eyeball test. That starts with any initial race-day experience — parking. Arrival was seamless and easy to navigate. There were a number of parking attendants directing traffic every step of the way. I can't speak much to the exit traffic — I was among the last to leave — but getting into the facility was about as smooth as you could ask for. The entrance and ticket booth area is as professionally constructed as you'll find, making an easy transition from the parking lot into the midway. Speaking of the midway, there's ample room for vendors and T-shirt trailers, and the layout flows naturally. The entrance sits outside turn four, with the midway stretching from turn four to turn three and continuing along the frontstretch, in the shape of L. The facility itself checks all the boxes. There are two sizable restrooms — one near the turn-four entrance and another toward turn one. The video board is one of the first things that grabs your attention, and I'm hard-pressed to think of a larger or nicer one in dirt-track racing. Another nice feature is the paved pit area. There aren't many dirt tracks that can say that, and Mansfield is one of them. What stood out just as much as the infrastructure, though, was the staffing. It seemed like there were staffers stationed in every corner of the facility. Security presence was noticeably stronger than what you'd find at a typical dirt track, and staff members in red Mansfield Speedway shirts were readily available throughout the grounds. The overall feel honestly reminded me some of the World Finals — there was a level of organization, signage and visibility from track personnel that you don't often see. The facility I think instantly belongs in the top-10 of dirt tracks nationwide. There’s a lot to like.
THE GROWING PAINS: Obviously there are some growing pains for Mansfield Speedway and new owner Matt Tifft to work through. I could tell the 29-year-old was feeling some of the heat and strain from the night when I interviewed him afterward. It had been a long, tedious evening where two intermissions bogged down the program for track prep — a 30-minute wheel-packing session that pushed 6:30 hot laps to 7 p.m., and another delay that lasted more than 45 minutes between qualifying and the heat races. The racing surface was rough, miserably dusty (see Pollen Patrol below) and made it difficult on drivers to pass. Tifft knows there's a lot of work that needs done to get it right. I believe he and his team will figure it out. If there's reason for optimism, it's that Tifft has already shown a vigor to invest heavily in the property. Someone willing to pour $8 million into reviving a racetrack isn't going to sit idle when these issues arise. The facility already looks the part. Now, it’s putting the pieces together. A proper perspective, though, must be held when dissecting Mansfield's immediate flaws. This is only the second race on a racetrack that sat dormant for seven years. These things don't get fixed overnight. As they say, time is of the essence. Mansfield's flaws are real, but they're also the kind of flaws that can be fixed. And for only the second event of a comeback seven years in the making, patience is warranted.
TERBO’S TIME: Let’s finally talk about Tyler Erb, shall we? It kind of stinks for Terbo that all the chatter surrounding Mansfield has overshadowed what he's definitively calling the biggest victory of his career. Just minutes before the feature went green, the Niss family — prominent business owners in the Mansfield area — posted a whopping $88,000 bonus for the winner, turning the race into a $100,000-to-win affair. Sure, the racetrack was difficult for drivers to make moves on, but Erb still had to hit his marks. There was no safe place to be on the racetrack as danger seemed to lurk in every corner. Restarts made him just as vulnerable as lapped traffic because one bobble could've opened the door for Brandon Overton to strike. Erb had been due for a monumental victory to fall his way, and it finally did Friday.
POLLEN PATROL: I just want to give a shoutout to Ryan Montgomery and Brandon Overton for helping me survive Thursday's dusty affair. My eyes were so irritated and bloodshot Montgomery lent me some eyedrops before the feature. Even afterward, they still weren't much better, so Overton offered me some sinus relief medicine because he could tell I was struggling. My allergies had me looking like I'd gotten into some sketchy stuff (which, for the record, is very much not my lifestyle). At one point, Tyler Erb even asked if I'd been into something. Nah. We shared a laugh about it. Anyways, I appreciated the acts of kindness from Montgomery and Overton. It’s easy to think of drivers and reporters as operating in separate worlds, so it's always nice when drivers take notice and look out for a reporter who was definitely struggling. Appreciate the help, fellas.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: An impressive 20 drivers from DirtonDirt’s latest Top 25 poll are entered in this weekend’s Blaster 57 at Mansfield — the most of any Dirt Late Model event so far this season. Ocala (Fla.) Speedway’s Wieland Winternationals previously held the high mark with 18 ranked drivers entered for its Feb. 26 and 28 programs. Those ranked drivers entered at Mansfield: No. 1 Bobby Pierce, No. 2 Hudson O'Neal, No. 3 Brandon Sheppard, No. 5 Nick Hoffman, T-No. 6 Devin Moran, T-No. 6 Ricky Thornton Jr., No. 8 Brandon Overton, No. 9 Ryan Gustin, T-No. 10 Max Blair, T-No. 10 Tim McCreadie, No. 12 Garrett Alberson, No. 13 Tyler Erb, No. 14 Drake Troutman, No. 15 Daulton Wilson, No. 16 Josh Rice, No. 17 Mike Marlar, No. 18 Chris Madden, No. 19 Ethan Dotson, T-No. 20 Mason Zeigler and No. 25 Chris Ferguson.
