Honoring The Pioneers

After two straight weeks of chasing my tail from track to track every night in Florida, I have to admit that it was nice to have a quiet weekend and with no tracks racing this weekend within reasonable driving distance, it was an easy choice to take a weekend off. Of course, a weekend for me is almost impossible to handle without some kind of racing related involvement, and such was the case yesterday.

I made the three hour trip to Rochester Minnesota to be a part of the second annual Old Timers get together hosted by the Steve and Jordan Yaggy Racing Team. For the second straight year, they made their expansive race shop available as a meeting place for drivers and fans of the "old time" racing to gather for a day of comradeship and story telling.

The idea for this event first took route last year with southern Minnesota Modified icon Mark Noble heading up the activity. Mark's father, the legendary Dave Noble, had often talked about doing something like this, and with his father(as well as many others who raced during this time) not getting any younger, Mark thought the time was ripe for such an event. With very little advertising or advance notice, the turnout last year was remarkable and the event was even bigger this year. With old racing videos playing, picture albums all over the place and with several old restored race cars on hand in their shop, Yaggy's were even forced to move their transporter and Late Model outside where it was on display! There were so many people on hand for the event that they were forced to have parking attendants on "mules" roaming to find available parking spots on the expansive Yaggy property to properly park all the visitors. With the huge number of cars parked all over their property and on both sides of their long driveway to the county road, neighbors and passers by must have thought that someone either got married or passed away, the number of visitors the family appeared to be receiving!

Mark Noble again headed up the organizing of the event but he received much assistance from Todd Narveson, the "voice" of the Deer Creek Speedway and someone who has become very interested in the history of southeastern Minnesota racing. Todd has researched the history of racing at the Olmstead County Fairgrounds in Rochester along with the other tracks of the area and I believe his goal is to eventually write a book, something that I strongly hope he achieves.

Speaking of books, Bill Haglund from Waukee Iowa was on hand so I finally got my chance to get an autographed copy of his book "Racing Through Time." I've known Bill since back in the early eighties when he was traveling the country, spreading the news about IMCA and trying to see the concept of their "Modified" division and it was great to see him again.

I was had the opportunity to view another great book that I didn't even know existed and that is the two volume set detailing the drivers from the now closed Tunis Speedway between Waterloo and Cedar Falls. Compiled by Bob Dixon, there are a huge number of fascinating pictures detailing the drivers from an era gone by at that northern Iowa speedway and I will be acting to get a copy of that book too. I did get to Tunis a couple of times before they closed it for good and a lot of the Waterloo area drivers were ones from the Hawkeye state that I was first introduced to many years ago. Bob can be reached at 319-233-2322.

While some of the drivers on hand raced before I was very acquainted with southern Minnesota racing, some drivers like Wendell Kuehn, Dick Sorenson, Mert Williams, LeRoy Scharkey and Paul Fitzpatrick among others that attended were racers I was very familiar with and whether I knew them or not, their stories of racing "back in the day" were priceless.

Also on hand was Elmer Duellman, who ran what is now the Mississippi Thunder Speedway for many years when it was known as the Tri-Oval Speedway just across the river from Minnesota in Fountain City Wisconsin. For those that don't know, Elmer, among his many exploits, has built a huge museum on his property  that houses a collection of over one hundred antique, classic and muscle cars as well as motor cycles, scooters and the world's largest display of pedal cars, airplanes and tractors. The museum is generally open only on weekends so check out it's schedule at www.elmersautoandtoymuseum.com for more information.

It was a great afternoon of reflection into the history of dirt racing in southern Minnesota and the huge gathering showed just how much interest there still is for the history of the sport. The Yaggys did a great job of hosting the event and thanks to everyone else that put so much work into the event, one that is appreciated by those of us that still think the '57 Chevy or the '78 Camaro was the greatest race car ever invented by man!

Wrapping Up Speed Weeks at VSP

After a grinding near twenty four drive home on Sunday after the last checkered flag was waved Saturday evening,  I now feel refreshed enough to complete the final Speed Weeks report with a few thoughts on the final Saturday night show plus some overall thoughts from an intense two week racing vacation.

The final night of the six evening run at VSP saw the car count dip slightly which was not surprising given the tough outing by many on Friday night plus some, especially those that have struggled, are more than ready to hit the road early and get home before the weekend ends.

Freddie Carpenter, who hadn't missed a show at East Bay, Ocala or VSP, finally put his Kryptonite house car in the trailer and watched on Saturday night, ending what was probably a valuable learning experience for him for the rest of the season but a tough two weeks of racing. Big names Jared Landers and Darrell Lanigan both parked their cars on Saturday as both struggled mightily during the week. Landers had some mechanical issues a couple of times while showing some speed while Lanigan was been inexplicably slow all week. Even though he and Bowyer team mates Don O'Neal took a couple on nights off to refresh, neither has come close to setting the world on fire and they have a lot of homework to do before the Lucas schedule resumes next month. Tyler Clem's rig was on hand on Saturday but they never dropped the back door as perhaps Clem stayed in Ocala to watch the USAC Sprints at Dad's track. Boom Briggs was in one of Chub Frank's back up cars after Boom wrecked his car on Friday night. All told, there will be a lot of teams having to do a lot of work to refresh and rebuild cars for the northern openers upcoming. Perhaps that is why more racers don't appear in Florida. A spate of bad luck and you could blow your racing budget before ever hitting any of the tracks come Spring.

Saturday's Late Model feature was another good one, with the fendered stars running fifty laps nonstop with only three dropouts during the race. This made lapped traffic a major concern and issue for the front runners and it played out in Shane Clanton's favor and not to that of Josh Richards. Richards had led the entire race until near the end and while he was slowing, he made have had enough of a margin to hold on if not for the lapped traffic.

Josh failed to attack the slower cars in front of him aggressively enough as the laps ran down, and Clanton used this to his advantage to drive around Richards and hold off a last lap charge from Scott Bloomquist for the win. For Clanton, it was a good way to leave Florida after a spotty performance on many nights previously this week. His greatest triumph of the week came directly after his worst night, when he lost one car due to mechanical issues and then wrecked a second car in a multi car accident in the main event. Of course Bloomquist had a "beef", claiming he was told that the race was a sixty lapper and that he was just laying back, waiting for the right moment to attack until he was surprised to see the white flag come out and he didn't have enough time to make a winning pass. Even as he gets older, Bloomquist hasn't changed one important part of his being, he's a poor winner and an even poorer loser!

I felt really sorry for local racer Chuck Julien who races weekly at VSP. He was on hand for all the shows at East Bay and VSP, trying hard and working hard along with his small pit crew, but he never made a single feature. What an expense it must be to race that many nights and never make a show, spending good money for tires and fuel and never being rewarded for his efforts. On top of that, he blew his motor early on Saturday and finished his week on a really sour note.

Iowa's entry, Tyler Bruening, ended what was a promising Speed Weeks for himself on a "downer" too, as he got into the third turn wall in hot laps and wrecked his car to the point that he was unable to race on Saturday.

On the big block side of things, the "Corporate Jet", Brett Hearn took advantage of the yellow flags in the main to work his way up from the twenty first starting spot, move to the second groove of the track when most were hugging the bottom and drive by Stewart Friesen for the win. Hearn's charge was by far the biggest move forward of the week to win a main event as with the format used, it's tough to come from too far back. It would appear that Matt Sheppard is in good shape for the eastern big block season even though his ride was pulled from under him at the last minute during the off season. He put in another solid performance on Saturday and ran out of laps as he battled with Friesen for second at the finish.

The big blocks are totally different than anything we see in the Midwest and I enjoyed watching them race this week. Clearly, they are big buck operations and wildly popular in the northeast. The cars are very sanitary and they put on a good show and it was interesting to see in person many of the top stars from their part of the sport.

A FEW OVERALL THOUGHTS FROM MY TRIP

Most of the drivers really missed the boat during this race adventure. There were a score of race fans looking to buy driver's t-shirts with money hot in their hands but virtually no drivers had new shirts to offer. To me, that is poor business planning and a missed opportunity. You would not believe the number of people that mentioned to me that they were looking to buy shirts but couldn't even find any. So they settled for event shirts and both East Bay and VSP made a killing on them.

The promoters all seemed to do well at the gates for the shows I attended. Crowds at East Bay for the four nights I was there were very good. VSP also had really good crowds with the last two nights being especially large. Ocala had a very big crowd for their Lucas show. At Screven, the crowd was just so-so for the Friday night show, but much larger for Saturday's finale.

VSP has a really good set up for their racing and they provide a good experience for the fans. One thing I would say though is that they could use a better scoreboard as trying to read the time trials is near to impossible with the tiny numbers on the scoreboard they use.

While the racing for the most part was good at all the tracks I visited, I'm more than ready to not have to endure time trials again for awhile along with straight up starts. But these series are really set in their ways when it comes to that and I don't see it changing anytime soon as long as the fans keep showing up. But thank God for series like the MLRA, Deery Bros and WISSOTA'S Challenge Series that don't feel the need to start the fast cars up front every night.

Two weeks of racing reaffirmed that Richards(and his Rocket) is back, and that Bloomquist and Davenport are just as fast as ever also. Clanton looks like he will be one to deal with again. On the other hand, some drivers will be thankful when they get back to series events where there are only a dozen or so travelers so they can start running better. Drivers such as Junghans, Heckenast Jr., Erb, Bagley, Feger, Landers, Francis, O'Neal, Lanigan and Owens among others all failed to show very much when grouped with the best drivers in both traveling series.

Six straight nights at any one race track in a row, no matter how many and good the cars are, is a stretch for me. That is one reason I left East Bay after four nights just to see a different track and different racers at Screven.

Both of the traveling series, Lucas and WoO, put on prompt and well organized shows. Both had good announcers and staff and ran things in a professional manner. The downside was at Screven where too many support classes made the evenings too long. If I was running either series, I'd make a rule that only one other support class would be allowed to race with the main show.

By the narrowest of margins, I'd vote for East Bay for having the best racing. However, their fields were a little small for what they were paying and VSP by far offered the best variety and most interesting field of racers. VSP races much  better than most half mile tracks I know but it is brutally hard on the motors.

The Late Models raced very well on a real "elbows up" track at Screven but the support classes dimmed the show, making it last way too late on cold February nights.

An accidental stumbling on to All-Tech found it to be a very nice track that is surely going to get even better. Management there was "over the top" in terms of being friendly and I hope to see them join the schedules of some of the traveling series for next February. One hint though for the fans, bring a lawn chair for best viewing.

Ocala produced some disappointing racing on the night I was there. Perhaps my timing was just bad and for sure the stiff breeze blowing right into the stands didn't help. However, it was by far the dirtiest show of the entire time and the "flat tire derby" for the Lucas cars produced a race that wasn't very appealing. People tell me that the blacktop under the dirt at this facility hurts the racing and for the amount of water they threw on the track, it sure didn't help much. The track seemed to have the potential to race well on the oddly shaped racing surface(I never thought I'd see another track shaped like the Eagle River Speedway, but I did), but all the yellows and the "rubbered up" feature didn't produce much action.

Due to the rainout, I can't comment on North Florida other than to say I saw the track and I now know where it is, should I choose to come back on a sunny day to find the program cancelled.

Overall It was a great racing experience, with the opportunity to see new tracks and many of the top drivers in the country in action. Special thanks need to go out to the staffs at East Bay Raceway Park, Volusia Speedway Park and Screven Motor Speedway along with World Racing Group.

Richards Leaves Everyone in Awe at VSP on Friday

Fifty three Late Models along with thirty five big block Modifieds signed in to race for the second to the last Speed Weeks program of 2016 at Volusia Speedway Park and after some good Late Model racing all week, Friday proved to be one that people will be talking about for quite some time. Once again the #1 blue Rocket chassis car from Shinnston West Virginia was the one to watch and Josh Richards drove what was one of the most outstanding races seen in quite some time to overhaul Jonathan Davenport for the fifty lap win.

With Richards qualifying poorly and Davenport sitting on the front row and Scott Bloomquist seeming just a bit off in early evening action, it seems like the set up was in place for Davenport to drive off into the night for an easy win. And such was the case in the early going as Davenport jumped off the pole and moved to a considerable lead. Richards, meanwhile, was making a steady charge from his fourteenth starting position and he was aided by a couple of early yellow flags that helped to pack up the field and make gaining positions easier.

While Davenport continued to lead, Florida's Ivedent Lloyd Jr. was having a strong run of his own as he eventually worked his way into second and put the pressure on Davenport. Mason Zeigler took himself out of contention early by jumping the cushion and Greg Satterlee lost a good run when he broke a front right and slowed badly at the end, but Lloyd continued to press Davenport while Richards moved into third.

Lloyd made a run at the leader and did take over the top spot briefly but then Davenport fought back to the lead. Richards also made a big run and tried to get past both leaders and very nearly did so. However, he couldn't quite pull off the move and he then fell back by a number of car lengths and it appeared that his charge was over.

However, Richards refused to be defeated. He moved up one lane on the track and with some unbelievably hard driving, was able to climb back into contention. He drove around Lloyd for second and then caught Davenport with just a few laps left. Jonathan was dealing with some lapped traffic and seemed unwilling to get off the bottom lane, and Richards closed up beside him and as both drivers slalomed through the slower cars, Richards found an opening and was able to take over the lead with just a couple laps left.

However, both were still in heavy traffic and it was left to the final lap to decide the outcome with Richards finding an opening off turn four that was clear while Davenport had to brake for a lapped car that came across his front end, and Richards was home free. Josh was able to find a lane on the top side of the track that no one else could make work, and that was the difference on Friday night. Richards drove his car unbelievably hard and refused to give up and he wowed the big crowd on hand with a statement race if there ever was one. The #1 car is back in 2016 and for the time being at least, it would seem that everyone else will be chasing him.

After taking away the spotlight on Thursday night, the big block Modifieds had a good feature of their own, but they would be playing second fiddle in terms of main event drama on this night as Rick Laubach, who perhaps let one slip away last night, led all the way for a dominating win on Friday. Matt Sheppard moved up well after starting in the third row, but he had nothing for the winner at the end. Alan Johnson came from tenth to third at the finish in a race that was slowed four times by yellow flags.

The track crew has really been pouring on the water the last couple of nights, perhaps as a result of the fairly strong winds that have been blowing into the grandstand. As a result of this, the track speeds have been very high and the motors have been taxed to the limit. The moisture has also produced some bumps in the corners and Friday they seemed a bit more severe; to the extant that a couple of cars have suffered suspension failures from hitting the bumps.

All the watering has produced one other situation for the drivers as well. With an inside wall all around the track, some of the water has been sitting up against the wall and on occasion, if someone goes too low in the corner, they tend to kick up the water into the groove. Last night the Modifieds were skating a little in turn four when that happened and Tonight, Donny Schatz hit some of that water in the main which shot him up into the wall and out of the race.

One of the biggest crashes of the week happening during the feature tonight, a six car calamity in turn four that tore up some cars, most notably Boom Briggs and Shane Clanton. For the first time all week, after the races were over, the process of stripping off body parts and making wholesale repairs was underway in the pits with the sound of hammers and power tools filling the air, something that had not been seen much so far. Back up cars in wholesale numbers will be pulled out for the first time for Saturday night's finale.

Austin Rettig was missing for Friday night action after they exhausted their supply of motors and Canada's Ricky Weiss also sat out the action. Their Rocket was destroyed in a contact with the front stretch wall on Thursday and rather than roll out a back up car with an under powered for this monster horsepower needed track 430 cubic inch engine, they opted instead to watch and save their equipment for their next appearance in La Salle IL next month.

I would expect that a few more cars will head home early but most should be back on Saturday for one more shot at making a Florida statement before their all head back to their home areas and prepare for the rest of the racing season which will see some racing as soon as next weekend again while others may sit for a month or more before they again compete.

Richards Flexes Muscles Again at Volusia

While the car count continues to climb at Volusia Speedway Park, it's still the same three drivers in the Late Models that continue to dominate the action. Thursday night it was Josh Richards again who dominated, leading all fifty laps to win the initial point race for the World of Outlaws Late Models series. Richards, who is leading the way in Speed Weeks action with victories, added to his total with another strong performance. His lead was of various amounts throughout the race but even a few yellow flags that brought the field back to him failed to give the rest of the drivers a fighting chance to pass him.

The other two drivers who have been outstanding so far this year, Jonathan Davenport and Scott Bloomquist, where both a part of the lead group but neither had anything for Richards on this night. Davenport settled for third while Bloomquist moved up and then faded slightly as he settled for fourth.

The one driver not of this "big three" who seems capable of racing for a win is Dale McDowell. While McDowell doesn't race a whole lot any more and indeed has sat out several of the early shows at this track, for the second straight night put on a strong performance as he ran a strong second the entire fifty laps. A late yellow with only nine laps left closed up the field a last time and with Richards running out of tires, he wasn't able to pull away to the extant he had earlier as he carefully maneuvered around the track so as not to give McDowell any opening.

Fifty eight cars signed in to race on Thursday night and this will likely be the high water mark of the week as a few cars suffered what were likely week ending mechanical issues and several rolled out of the pits following Thursday night's racing .New entrants included Dillon Wood, Chris Ferguson, Tim Lance, who's car has sat in Jason Fegers' trailer all week and Maryland's Matt Sponaugle. Back after taking Wednesday night off were Kenny Pettyjohn and the Tennessee duo of Stacy Boles and Billy Ogle Jr. Later, after the show concluded, the Tennessee pair left the pits, apparently on their way back home.

After having a very smooth track early in the week, for some reason the track has been developing some bumps the last couple of nights which have caused the drivers to start altering their lines in the corners. Whether the long period of racing is starting to get to the track and causing this, I can't say, but it hasn't been due to lack of effort as the track prep crew is on the track as soon as the racing program is over and works on it into the wee hours of the morning. Perhaps the additional abuse by the big block Modifieds and their wide tires has been a factor. And the track crew seems focused on getting as much moisture in the track as possible, as for the last couple of nights a Northeast breeze has brought the dust right into the grandstands.

I guess I shouldn't have mentioned anything about the consistency of Canada's Ricky Weiss, as now, after opening my mouth, he missed the main for the second straight night. Ricky didn't qualify well and had to start sixth in his heat race. However, early in the race he was making one of the big moves of the entire week as he moved to the cushion and shot all the way up into the lead as the crowd cheered him on. After slipping back into second a yellow bunched the field and on the green, he rubbed wheels with Rick Eckert, broke something and ended up hard into the inside wall, ending his night.

On this night, the big blocks far outdid their fendered friends as the Modified feature was a good one, with plenty of passing and lots of close racing, whereas for the most part, the Late Models lined up and then rode in the same positions for most of their main.

Matt Sheppard, the defending Mr. DIRT Motorsports Champion, moved up from sixth to win the thirty lap main event. Sheppard, after winning the point title, had his ride pulled out from under him this off season when his former car owner scaled back his operation at a late date that left Sheppard scrambling to field a car. Relying on many of his sponsors and contacts within the sport, he quickly put together a team and was vindicated with what was a big win for him over a quality field of cars. Rick Laubach led a number of laps before Sheppard passed him and ended up third and Tim Fuller, who won last night, had charged up to second, only to fade at the end to seventh.

Once again, the Modifieds put on an interesting feature that saw only one yellow flag and only two cars failed to go the distance.

A "shout out" should go to DIRT starter Dave Varney who has proven to be one of the best flagman that I have seen in quite some time. Not only does he do his job competently, but he also puts on a show, something that many starters have gotten away from. With his "herky jerky" animated  movements on the flagstand, he reminds me somewhat of the legendary Engle DeKock.

On the other side of the coin, Blake Anderson has disappointed me as the pit announcer for the broadcasts. He seems to be fixated on tires and tire choice and while 95% of the spectators could care less whether the drivers are using 20's or 30's, he spends most of his time talking about just that. This isn't NASCAR Blake, and don't you dare try to make it that.

Dave Eckrich is down here in Florida helping Dennis Erb Jr. this week and Iowa race fans might be interested to learn that all three of the Eckrich brothers will be racing Black Diamond/Club 29 cars in 2016.

"Black Sunshine" Reigns Down at Volusia County

Apparently taking umbrage to the fact that he could indeed be human after he suffered what he claimed was his first motor failure in four years Tuesday night, Scott Bloomquist came back with a vengeance on Wednesday night to dominate the final UMP sanctioned Late Model main of the Winter Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park on Wednesday night.  The big block Modifieds made their first appearance of the week and a former Late Model driver as well as accomplished Modified driver Tim Fuller was the winner of that feature event.

The biggest field of Late Models to date signed in to race on Wednesday night with former truck racer Joey Coulter and Jimmy Owens, both who's car had been sitting in the pits all week, finally decided to join the action. Also towing in on Wednesday to join the action were Tyler Erb and last year's rookie of the year Brandon Overton. Kenny Pettyjohn, on the other hand, opted to take the night off while Brandon Sheppard ran out of motors and sat out the night. After the show, the Best Motorsports team rolled out of their pits and headed home, making Sheppard's first major race appearance a big disappointment and causing one to wonder just how long Sheppard will be staying with this arrangement.

The heat races provided a couple of major surprises, one of which involved Iowa driver Tyler Breuning. Not only did Tyler qualify well enough to earn the pole for a heat, he then fought off all challenges from Rick Eckert and Donny Schatz to win a heat and make the redraw at center stage. Breuning redrew the second row for the main event but he couldn't have cared less as he was on cloud nine just to be at center stage against a field of the best drivers in the sport.

He also raced quite well in the feature, finishing just out of the top ten at the finish in what has been the longest Late Model race so far this week at forty laps on the big half mile. The track really dried out Wednesday, partially due to the extra laps that the big blocks put on the track and the track raced different than it has to date this week.

Also surprising and winning a heat was young Pennsylvania driver Michael Norris who fought off Shane Clanton for eight laps in what was a scintillating event. Norris started fifth in the main but he couldn't maintain the pace and eventually was lapped late in the event.

Bloomquist didn't mess around on Wednesday and as the second car out for time trials, set the fast time of the night and followed it up with a heat race win. He redrew fourth for the main and then took his time, moving past Dale McDowell for the lead near the ten lap mark. After that, his major challenge was working through the heavy traffic, although Jonathan Davenport  made things interesting for awhile. Davenport, who started ninth, moved into second and was closing the gap on Bloomquist. However, "Bloomer" was able to gain an advantage in traffic and rebuilt his lead to a comfortable level near the end of the race as McDowell actually cut the distance on Jonathan. Josh Richards also moved up a lot, starting thirteenth and racing all the way up to fourth at the end. He appeared to be closing the gap even more but ran out of laps. Despite all off season moves and developments among drivers changing chassis and motor builders, as the week moves along it seems to be boiling down to the "big three" once again as it appears that Bloomquist, Davenport and Richards are still the class of the field.

WISSOTA national champion Ricky Weiss had his enviable record finally broken on Wednesday when he missed his first feature since Florida action started as he made every show at East Bay and had done the same here. However, they misjudged the gear for time trials and didn't qualify well and then missed the main by one position twice. He drove the wheels off his car in a B feature, running the cushion like few others, but he just couldn't get by Jason Feger and had to watch the finale with the provisionals snatched up by the top two in UMP points for the weeks' action plus the top two in 2015 UMP points not in the show. Those two went to Michigan's Nick Kurtz and "The Hammer", Mike Hammerlee who were rewarded for their attendance at races last year.

The big blocks fielded thirty five cars for their action and while I get to see these cars very seldom, they provide some interesting racing action also. Clearly not a cheap race car by any standards, they are the class that eastern race fans love to see and some of the personalities of these drivers among the biggest in the sport. Fuller also showed his strength over the field as he was the quick qualifier of the night, won a heat and then after starting third in the main, moved to the cushion and took the lead. Billy Dunn stayed reasonably close to Fuller and a couple of restarts made things close, but Fuller never faltered. Billy Pauch threw a couple nasty sliders to spark the action and after "Lightning" Larry Wight ran Tyler Siri into the wall, Siri responded by throwing a mudball at Wight. DIRT titans Matt Sheppard and Stewart Friesen also had a pitched battle for most of their thirty lap feature. Look for things to just get more spirited as the week progresses. The big blocks started twenty six cars in their main with only one DNF and not a single lapped car in their main, impressive indeed.

Starting Thursday, the Late Models will be running under the World of Outlaws rules which means the line up procedures and provisionals will be determined in a different manner than earlier this week. 

Crowds continue to get bigger and bigger each night for the racing action and pretty soon the folks at VSP will run out of seats for the spectators.   

Richards Continues to Shine in February

Night number two of the Late Model portion of the  Winter Nationals at Volusia Raceway Park was held on Tuesday night, with an increased car count for the Late Models while the UMP Modifieds wrapped up their long stand at the track.

Before we move on to cover Tuesday night's happenings, I forgot to mention a couple of extra thoughts formed from Monday night's action. VSP has got it right when it comes to being "fan friendly" for this Winter experience. They allow the spectators to come into the pits until 3 p.m. each day without charge and wander all they want until that time at which they clear the pits and everyone must have an armband. But by doing so, it gives plenty of time for anyone who wants to see the race cars and talk to the drivers before they have to pay an extra charge for the pit pass. It already costs plenty to see these shows, but at least this way it allows people to see the cars up close and watch the crews in action while perhaps meeting a driver or two that they wouldn't get the chance to otherwise until after the races are over, when many people have to leave or don't want to hang around until a late hour to get the same chance. To me, it's just smart business sense to allow the fans the opportunity to mingle with the drivers and form a "bond" with them, something they can't do if all they ever see is the cars on the track. Plus, I'll bet it sure helps the T-Shirt sales for the drivers!

The real cool thing I forgot to mention from my opening night experience was the action at the "Gator Pond" in the lower pit area. For those that haven't been to VSP, there is a pit area that rings corners one and two and a lower pit set back behind and below the back chute. The pit surrounds a pond that indeed does hold two alligators, one of which I did see several times on Monday. He's a big one too, reported to be in the seven foot range and I saw some pictures of him lounging along the edge of the pond and he, indeed, looks at least that long. It is quite entertaining watching the gator as he glides around the pond, looking for a meal. There is a posted sign reminding folks not to feed the gator, as if anyone would be so foolish to do so. You can bet the race teams keep an eye out for him though, as they frequently use water from the pond to clean tires etc. I'm told that five to seven pound Bass have also been pulled from the pond and while I thought the people fishing in the pond were wasting their time, I did see one fisherman pull out a Bass while I was watching.

A few more drivers in the Late Model class rolled out their cars on Tuesday as they chose to get some laps in as the prepared for the bigger money shows as the week progresses. Fifty one Late Models signed in for Tuesday, the largest car count of the Late Model action so far with a couple more still expected. Jimmy Owens and Joey Coulter still haven't hit the track while Vic Coffey chose not to race while focusing on his big block Modified which ran some practice laps Tuesday night.

Chase Junghans wrecked his car on Monday, and with only one car left and him chasing World of Outlaws points, he will probably not run until their points start on Thursday night.

Richards dominated as he was both fast and lucky as he drew the pole and stepped away from the field quickly. The only potential challenge appeared to be when Jonathan Davenport used the high side to move into second and then was on Richards' bumper for a restart. However, on this night at least, Davenport had nothing for Josh and indeed fell back a spot to Tim McCreadie while still trying to work the top side of the track. Greg Satterlee ran second for a long time and looked to be ready for his best finish when he shockingly dropped like a rock following a couple of late yellows, eventually limping home well back in the field.

The starting lineup was a real mixture of drivers like Billy Ogle Jr, Steve Casebolt, Mark Whitener, Austin Rettig and Dale McDowell starting in the top five rows when none had shown much strength earlier. Rick Eckert probably got the Hard Charger award if one were offered as he started twenty fourth and finished fifth, a combination of hard charging and cars dropping out of the race.

The Modifieds have been on hand here racing every night since the Sprints started Winter Nationals way last week and many are starting to look a little used up. A number left after last night's big finale that paid five grand to win, but for those that chose to stick around for one more night, they were rewarded with an interesting final night of racing. Everyone on hand was divided into three groups with everyone allowed to run a feature race. The groups were bunched by points earned over the course of the week with all the high point cars in one race, the lower point cars in anotherj and  the final feature was the lowest in points, with all being bunched together rather than being staggered. And to top it off, the top ten in each feature were inverted, so the top point driver in each race started tenth. The novel idea resulted in the three Modified winners starting eighth, tenth and fourth, not like the Late Models were the winners since I have been down here are mostly coming from the front two rows in their "heads up" starts. Kind of makes you wonder, right?

Illinois's Ray Bollinger, who has been running down here in Florida since the Sunshine State Mod Tour started what seems like months ago, concluded his racing in grand fashion, winning the feature for the high point cars.

As you might expect, Ken Schrader topped off the night with the quote of the week so far. Schrader drove Austin Dillon's car tonight when Dillon wasn't available and after having an awful racing week where Schrader didn't get a single top five finish, he finished third in one of the features Tuesday. When asked about it, Schrader responded by saying, "when you run like shit like I have all week, eventually someone will give you a fast car to drive." Leave it to racing's best ambassador to call a spade a spade.

The University of Northwestern Ohio has an awesome presence here at VSP with three semi trucks and four race cars, cared for by a flotilla of students outfitted in bright orange that nearly blinds you as you pass through their area of the pits. Unfortunately, in the two days I have seen them in action, they aren't racing near as well as they look.

After heavy over night rains, the track has some nasty bumps in the corners tonight as they rolled the track with the stream roller several times to try and smooth things out.

The biggest cheer(or groan) of the night, depending on your point of view,  occurred early in the evening when only one lap into his heat race, Scott Bloomquist slowed with a cloud of smoke trailing from his car and his evening was done. I can't say for sure but I believe I saw Bloomquist exiting the grounds later after the program was concluded, perhaps heading home or possibly looking for a private place to change a motor away from interested eyes.

With the Modified program concluded Tuesday, big block Modifieds practiced several times over the course of the evening and the "ground pounders" already have thirty five cars on hand.

Volusia Begins

We are now in the stretch run of Florida Speed Weeks as the action moved East across highway 40 to Volusia Speedway Park for the final six nights of racing. Late Models will be the featured attraction for all six nights while the UMP Modifieds wrap up their long run at Volusia with their championship race on Monday night followed by a night of feature racing Tuesday, with every car on hand eligible to run one of several feature races. After that, the Northeast Big Block Modifieds of DIRT move in for a four night stand in concert with the Late Models.

Volusia is one of the few tracks in Florida that I have been to previously but it's been so long that the track they are running on wasn't even the track that they were using back then. At that time, they actually had two tracks on the site, one dirt and one asphalt and both were running on the same night! You could buy one ticket and walk back and forth between the two tracks. In fact, the track that is now dirt was the asphalt track back then and the dirt track back then is no longer operational.

Volusia has a very nice set up for both the racers and the fans and seems to be a fitting place to wrap up the Speed Week activities. Its close proximity to the "big" track down the road probably also helps bring some extra notoriety to the dirt track activities, especially if some of the "name" drivers and car owners happen on in to watch the dirt racing.

Car counts are generally the biggest for this concluding event and such is the case again this year. However, it remain perplexing the number of drivers that pull into the pits and then sit and watch for the opening rounds of the racing action. Forty four cars actually signed in to race on Monday but there were another eight haulers that didn't open up Monday plus a couple of others not even on the grounds that are expected also. Once everyone decided to open the trailers and race the field will be well above fifty. Jordan Yaggy had no intentions of racing on Monday but they still signed in to race so I'm not sure if just drawing a number entitles them to start money or what but there must be some benefit for them or they wouldn't bother to go through the ceremony. Actually, they planned to spend the day changing a motor but in a surprise move, car owner Steve Yaggy ended up swapping the motor they were going to use to Bill Schliepper for a brand new motor which they then installed.

There was an increasing threat of rain after dark after the day was cloudy and murky, but it felt good just to have it warm back up after some cool weather earlier. With only three races scheduled for the Modifieds and no qualifying plus the Late Model program, DIRT officials showed that they can move things along too if the mood strikes them. The racing started right on the dot at the advertised time and they kept the show hustling along throughout the evening. A couple of times it started to mist lightly and one time just at the start of the Modified feature it almost got heavy enough to start to affect the track, but fortunately it stopped at this point and the rest of the show went on without any problems.

The Late Model feature went nonstop for thirty laps and to look at the start and finishing positions of the event, it would look like absolutely nothing happened as there was virtually no changes of position. However, I can tell you that this was one race that raced better than the stats would show. Moyer Jr. took off like he was shot out of a cannon and built up a big lead. This was the same thing that happened up at Screven but after some laps, he faded badly up there and when Dennis Erb Jr. started to reel him in, it looked like the same thing might happen once again. However, Moyer Jr. stood his ground and after Erb Jr. got to within a few car lengths of him, Moyer Jr. fought off every advance to win what was a slightly surprising win to me.

There was much celebrating in victory lane between father and son and I think we might have been witnessing some dynamics going on much more powerful than we may never know. Needless to say, the win was some vindication for a driver who from time to time, fairly or not, gets his credibility questioned by many.

Perhaps the best run was turned in by Heckenast Jr (lots of Jr's turning up in the results on Monday) who came from the fourth row to third and might have gotten even higher if not for a momentum killing move to the top of the track off turn two that really slowed him down. For a half mile track, Volusia actually races like a much smaller one as it seems like short track momentum plays a bigger part than brute horsepower, at least when it slicks up like it did Monday. Josh Richards was decidedly quiet Monday and Shane Clanton didn't gain any ground from his starting position; in fact he actually gave up a couple spots as he moved around the track trying to find the fast line which appeared to be mostly on the bottom except for a few drivers that were able to work higher on the track.

Tyler Breuning had by far his best run since he first showed last weekend at Screven as he made the show solidly and raced competitively which is something the team can build on as they shake down their new Capital car.

Racing in a light mist, the Modifieds also did a good job as they had only one yellow flag in their thirty lap main event. The top ten drivers in the main events on the previous two nights that served as qualifiers for Monday's Modified finale drew for their starting spots and when the hottest driver of the week, Nick Hoffman, drew the pole it looked like problems for the field. As it turned out, it was indeed as Hoffman led all the way in a race that didn't feature much passing. The Dillon brothers tried to stay with Hoffman but they couldn't provide any kind of serious challenge. The one driver that moved up decisively was British Columbia's Jason Beaulieu who started twelfth and raced into the top three late in the contest. If there would have been one more late yellow, it could have gotten interesting but at this point most fans were just hoping for a clean finish so that the Late Models could hit the track before it rained again. Thirty cars started the main for the Modifieds and only four dropped out, so Hoffman's biggest challenge was getting through lapped traffic while not giving an opening to the Dillons.

For those that haven't been to Volusia, while it is a half mile track, it is more of a circle than the traditional paper clip fairgrounds half mile. It has very wide corners that are sweeping and long and the chutes aren't particularly long for a half mile. And when it slicks up like it did on Monday, it races much different than many half miles do. The track is prepared for racing with no packing needed and the track is actually packed in by a huge roller machine, much the same as they would roll in freshly laid blacktop. I don't recall ever seeing a track prepared quite that way before.

The track is well lit although the grandstands are just a bit dark and the scoreboard that flashes the qualifying times has about the tiniest numbers on it of any scoreboard I've ever seen, or perhaps it's time to visit the optometrist.

Opening night was a well run show and orchestrated well, but one would expect that from DIRT Motorsports, who are one of the premier groups at running races right now.

Wrapping Things Up in Screven

Once again a quick turnaround time to hit the highway has left my reports in arrears so we'll once again do some catching up on night two of the World of Outlaws Late Models opening weekend at Redd Griffin's Screven Motor Speedway Complex.

The crowd was much better for Saturday's action as the parking lot filled early and on this night, all the official presence was needed to  get everyone parked in an orderly manner and in the facility which doesn't have a huge parking lot and borders on a sixty five mile per hour highway where one wouldn't dare park along the edge of the road.

The activity was booming from all parks of the complex on Saturday as drag racing was going on at the eighth mile strip on the North end of the property, the karts were racing on the little dirt track that borders the pits while the circle track boys(and girls) were preparing their machines for another show on Saturday night.

While no new Late Models pulled in on Saturday, all forty six returned from Friday night's show so a solid field of cars was on hand again. The three support classes fielded a total of thirty six cars split almost evenly between the three groups. Then there were the Renegade Fours, which were parked in every nook and cranny of the grounds with a total of around ninety of them. They held first round qualifying(which I didn't see) after the rest of the show on Friday night and then had another qualifying session at mid afternoon on a dry track that sent the red dust flying in all directions. The track was then prepared for the evening show and just like Friday night, it was over watered and as the sun set and the evening cooled down, it took quite a while to get the track in any kind of racing shape.

They had a very nice detailed schedule broken down to the minute for all on track activities prepared and posted for both nights. Unfortunately, it didn't take long either night for the schedule to get blown to heck and while the first race was an hour and a half late starting on Friday, that was improved slightly on Saturday as they were only an hour late getting the first race on the track.

It was interesting talking to some of the Late Model teams before the racing began on Saturday. Some of them were telling me about the practice night on Thursday where some of the high financed, very technical teams were attaching some kind of information collecting equipment on each wheel of their Late Models and then, after each practice session was complete, they would collect the data and do adjusting on shocks, springs, etc. It will not be that long before it will be necessary to have an engineer on staff to for every top Late Model team, just like NASCAR. And since most people in the pits understand how this process makes their cars faster but don't have the knowledge personally to carry this type of information gathering out themselves, they will have to be hiring high priced engineers for their teams. Who would have thought short track racing in the mud would come to this! This is a very slippery slope that that Late Model racing is clearly on and no one seems ready to do anything about it. And the expensive alone will go a long way in killing the sport for many.

As far as the Late Model program itself, there was an unpredictable flavor to the program Saturday with some surprise drivers qualifying and racing well and a couple of the big names not doing so well in time trials. And since qualifying is by far the biggest determining factor in how a night goes with the straight up starts, the night found drivers like Richards and Clanton digging all night to make up for poor qualifying efforts. After a solid dose of straight up starts over the course of this trip in all classes,  I can hardly wait to see some kind of handicapping being used again, whether it be point invert, redraw, whatever.

North Carolina's Chris Ferguson was blinding fast at the beginning of the night but he wore out his tires(I hate that tire management has become a part of a fifty lap feature race!) and old pro Rick Eckert was able to make a pass on him and take the win as shortly after, Ferguson got a flat tire and called it a night. Boom Briggs was running great Saturday, maybe the best I've ever seen him run and he finished a solid second with Jason Covert wrapping up a great weekend in third place at the finish. Richards came from sixteenth to seventh while Clanton didn't fare too well and was much farther behind.

The support divisions had one close feature race but far too many yellow flags than the number of cars in each class should warrant.  And as for the Renegade Fours, their program was quite interesting to same the least. After two rounds of qualifying, they were split into two qualifying races of around forty cars apiece that ran between preliminary events for the Late Models. At fifteen laps or fifteen minutes, neither made it more than a handful of laps due to a multitude of crashes. Their feature race was held as the last event of the evening, and with it already being 11:30 p.m. and the temperature having fallen to thirty three degrees, only a handful of people were left to watch their one hundred lap main event. I was not one of those that remained. As I headed out of the parking lot, I heard the racing begin to be followed almost immediately by the first yellow flag slow down. They did announce that due to the cold and the late hour, the first eighty laps would count yellow flag laps and then they would race the last twenty, if that's how it worked out. I did hear later that the pole sitter did win the race but I found out no other specifics. Among the few familiar names in the class racing were Iowa's Joe Zrostlik and one of the Thompson's from Sioux City along with  Minnesota's Nate and Jerry Coopman.

I found the Late Model racing at Screven to be very entertaining as Screven is a fast track and the action is very intense. However, especially being spoiled by the one class, quick programs at East Bay, the evenings at Screven were long, delay filled and cold. I thought the Outlaws did a good job with their part of the program including running things off quickly and their new announcer did a fine job. However, I would suggest that they take stronger control over what else is presented with their shows as a long, dragged out program with too many support classes does nothing to help their presentation  or leave a positive memory in the mind of the fans on hand.

Catching Up with the Southern Racing

I apologize for getting a little behind here on my reports from the Southern racing action of this week. After Thursday night's Lucas Oil race at East Bay, it was a very quick turnaround time before hitting the road for Georgia and there was no time to report on Thursday night's show.

For those that haven't heard yet, I'll do a quick review from East Bay and then we'll move on to Georgia for some red clay racing. Thursday night's Lucas Oil action at East Bay featured another battle between two of the sports titans in the form of Scott Bloomquist and Jonathan Davenport. On Thursday night, the round went to Bloomquist in what will likely become a reoccurring scenario carried out over the rest of the year at tracks across America.

Bloomquist started in front on Thursday and despite Davenport's best efforts, he was never able to overtake "Black Sunshine" for the lead. Several times he came close but Bloomquist was just strong enough to fight him off.

A few drivers pulled out of East Bay after Wednesday night's show including Josh Richards, Brian Shirley and Billy Moyer who all headed up to Georgia to practice for the World of Outlaws opener scheduled for this coming weekend. Mike Marlar apparently headed home as he was likely out of race cars after a tough week for him. Tim McCreadie was forced to roll out his back up car after his wall punching incident of Wednesday night which left the integrity of the front end of his Longhorn chassis in doubt.

Once again the track was just a little bit different than it had been for any previous night as the surface sure keeps the drivers guessing and monitoring the race conditions. It got black over the course of the night but didn't take rubber. However, it didn't seem to get that icy slick look to it that it did on Wednesday night. One thing for sure, the track has been very racy all night every night and even on the Tuesday "rubber night", it still wasn't that bad.

One thing that continued as a constant through the whole week was the fact that once the show began, it moved along at a high rate of speed with few breaks. Even with a little more packing needed on the surface Thursday, the final checkered flag flew just after 9 p.m. I could get spoiled by this!

Thursday would mark my last night at East Bay and I must say that my first visit here was a very pleasant one. The racing has been top notch all week and the prompt, speedy shows have been appreciated. I has also been a real pleasure to visit with the first lady of racing, Ms. Jean Lynch each night when I have signed in. I would certainly recommend a visit to East Bay for the Winter nationals to any race fan on the fence about making the long trip South. If you like Late Model racing on the short track style, this would definitely be one place to go for sure.

With that being said, it was time to find another venue for racing so I headed Northeast and up in Georgia to the Screven Motor Speedway for some more Late Model action, this being the kind offered by the World of Outlaws. I'm trying to visit as many tracks as I can that are offering quality racing action during this month of February so I felt it was worth the effort to catch a different track and some different drivers in action.

The clay doesn't get any redder than it does at Screven and I think that the surface there rivals the red clay at AMSOIL Speedway in Superior and ABC Raceway in Ashland for those honors. Screven is about a third mile high banked track with fairly long chutes and tight corners but with the surface as tacky as it was on Friday night, the cars were flying around the  track with veteran Pennsylvania driver Jason Covert setting fast time at just over fourteen seconds.

Screven has an interesting set up with the complex containing the dirt track, both an asphalt and clay kart track as well as an eighth mile drag strip, all of which are going to be in action simultaneously on Saturday, which should be quite the show. Along with the WoO Late Models, four other classes were also in action, which would be one of the few rubs of the trip. Only three yellows and five drivers fall out made for an exciting feature race.

After enjoying the quick East Bay shows, reality returned at Screven as the four support classes pulled down the evening's festivities by making the night much later than it should have been. Even though they only ran feature races in the other classes, on a chilly night all their spins drove the crowd to the gates and their warm vehicles.

It seems like this time of year brings out the worst in me personally. The only time I ever walked out on a race was many, many years ago when I made my only visit to New Smyrna Speedway in Florida and on a bone chilling night walked out on the Mods when the evening got way too long. I'm not proud to say that I did the same thing tonight. After diligently trying to keep track of all the four cylinders on hand, when they announced that all ninety two would time trial at the end of the program to gain spots for their one hundred lap feature tomorrow, I threw in the towel myself and headed to the warm car. And I don't plan to stick around on Saturday for their one hundred lap marathon either.

The Late Model racing was clearly the highlight of the show on Friday and they more than made up for the rest of things that didn't go quite as well. We shall see what Saturday brings.

One observation that I might like to make is that I never saw as many security guards on the grounds and in the pits as I observed at Screven. Literally, I think the entire Sheriff's Department is on hand here. Why, I'm not quite sure as the crowd seemed very laid back on Friday and the biggest hazard I could see was trying to avoid the constant patrolling by security in the pits, a danger for those walking around so they didn't get run over themselves. 

Davenport Restores Order at East Bay

After two nights of chasing Josh Richards, the Lucas Oil Late Model Series regulars restored a little order on Wednesday night, Feb. 10th when "Superman" Jonathan Davenport led all the way to win the main event. However, the win was not an easy one as a late charge saw Tim McCreadie nearly make an exciting last lap pass for the win. McCreadie went for broke on the last lap but his high side charge failed when he hooked the berm going into palm tree III (corner three) and stuck his car head on hard into the wall, triggering a yellow flag and forcing a one lap sprint to the finish.

Davenport seemed to have been slowing before the last lap yellow but on the final green he got a strong charge and pulled away from Don O'Neal and there proved to be no last lap drama.

By the third straight night of racing action, the nonstop racing is starting to take its toll. Chad Hollenbeck was in his back up car tonight after several days of rough luck including a soft roll over last weekend and after stuffing his car into the wall last night, Mike Marlar also rolled out another car which he promptly qualified as quickest of the night. Unfortunately, he was one of many that later would bite the wall and become a non finisher.

Missing the show tonight while still trying to straighten out his MasterSilt car from a hard contact with the wall last night was Michigan's Jim McKeown. Jim is "living the dream" this week, having towed his car down from Michigan in an open trailer pulled by a vintage motor home as he is clearly the lowest financed team here. With a lot of volunteer help, he was bending and pounding and twisting on his car all afternoon but they just didn't get it put back together in time to race on this night.

On Monday, some of the brighter minds that follow Late Model racing were saying that a forty car field would probably be about what would enter the pits for this week's racing at East Bay. Last night that number was topped by one and with McKeown's absence Wednesday, that is exactly what the field was. It seems unlikely that many, if any, new cars would show up this late in the week, so that would seem to be the number of the WinterNationals. Ending speculation, after the show on Wednesday, Richards announced that he was heading out for Screven for practice on Thursday and there may be another car or so that would follow him, so it would seem that the field has peaked for this week. It will be interesting to see if Richards continues to sport the orange spoiler on his car that he earned from last weekend's victories that gave him the Lucas point lead.

For the third straight night, the track was just a little different again on Wednesday. Early on, it was wetter than Tuesday but not as much as Monday. It did black off again tonight but instead of taking rubber like it did last night, it turned icy slick with drivers fighting for traction on the inside and the berm being dangerously close to the wall. However, it proved to be easy on tires, even with the extra ten laps of feature racing tonight. It's a good thing too, as tires was a major concern after Tuesday night's affair when twenty five laps nearly burned off a whole set of tires. If that trend had continued, drivers would have been sorely pressed to figure out a strategy for the weekend's longer distance races, and that still might be a worry, depending on what kind of track is offered to them.

One of the rougher nights was endured by defending WISSOTA champion Ricky Weiss, who didn't back down in his heat race when a couple of nasty "sliders" were thrown his direction and the end result was that he got stuffed into the wall and wrecked his car. J.R. Haley rolled out their back up car, the machine that Ricky Thornton Jr. raced so successfully with in Arizona and Weiss drove that the rest of the night as he got into the main on the fast timer provisional and made some laps before pulling off.

I expect the pits will be a "beehive" of activity on Thursday as besides McCreadie, Brian Shirley, Bobby Pierce, Jared Landers and several others all got into the wall at various points of the evening with plenty of work to be done on several of the cars.

Despite what was a very chilly night, the crowds have continued to grow each night of the series and I would expect a packed house all weekend. I figured out what the incoming crowd reminds me of, and it's the crowd that fills the Tulsa Expo for the Chili Bowl each year. It seems like many people sit in the same seats at this race year after year and as they come in, they greet people from all over the country that they only see once a year, and that is at this race week. It's a very interesting concept but one thing I have noted that is concerning is what an old crowd it is, with very few young people to be seen anywhere. At some point, this does not bode well for the future but that is a topic for an entirely different discussion.

Once again, series and track officials did a great job of running off the program with the final checkered flag of the night waving before 9 p.m. I am going to be so spoiled with this that when I get back to the "real world" of racing, a normal program is going to feel like it's lasting all night!

Richards Continues to Roll at East Bay

Night two of the annual Winternationals for Lucas Oil Late Models at East Bay Raceway Park looked much like night one, with the blue #1 of Josh Richards nestled in victory lane at the end of a quick night of racing. Even though the track was one hundred percent different than on Monday night, the result was still the same as the field continued to chase the Rocket house car.

Forty one cars signed in to race on Tuesday with the addition of Lucas Oil big names Bloomquist, O'Neal and Lanigan who all decided after a night off to partake in the action along with Florida drivers Kirkpatrick and Whitener who also took a night off to freshen up their equipment after a weekend of Georgia racing.

After a great night of racing on Monday on a track that everyone raved about, things made a complete change on Tuesday, proving that even a renowned track like East Bay can drop the ball from time to time. From the start of the night it was clearer that  the track was much dryer than it had been on Monday, but it seemed to surprise even the veteran drivers how quickly it blacked off and then even more surprisingly, how fast in the feature it took rubber. Perhaps the tide didn't come in as expected but very early in the main event the tires were already squealing in the corners and the smell of burning Hoosiers was in the air. Those that caught the rubber strip early made the most of it and some blocking resulted as faster cars ran up the back of those slower but then couldn't get by. It was clearly not the night of racing that Monday provided.

Richards didn't need the benefit of the rubber however, as he has shown to be one of the few drivers able to move around the track and pass people. He has been perceptibly quicker driving through the corners than anyone else and that is where he has been able to gain much time. I'm no technical guy(and don't pretend to be one) but I'm told by some of the other Rocket chassis owners that the new XR-1 has a completely different front end on it from any other race car on the track and the boys in Shinnston appear to have hit on something, at least for the present until the rest of the field figures out what they have going for them. If the goal to sell more cars was the plan, than goal one has been reached by Rocket, as I'm sure the phone is ringing off the wall at the shop as one of the benefits of running well in Florida is that the rest of the whole country is watching what goes on down here in the Sunshine state.

Richards added the bright orange spoiler to the back of his race car Tuesday, which is indicative of the series point leader. Rumors are running wild that with his good start, Richards will jump ship and run the Lucas Oil series rather than with the Outlaws but I doubt that will happen. Perhaps instead he is just trying to get a "dig" in against his Lucas foes.

The first couple nights of racing have been relatively calm but the first "big one" occurred tonight during one of the B mains  when Mike Marlar went head on into the turn one wall and took several cars with him. Surprisingly, most were able to drive away and Marlar even started the main as the fast time provisional but he quickly pulled off as the car had just been cobbled together to take the green and receive a check.

Expenses are starting to mount up early and Steve Francis was seen changing a motor in his car already before the show tonight. As the days go by, the bills will start to mount for many of the teams and the amount of spare parts and tires that some are carrying with them is mind blowing. Even the mid level teams are towing extra trailers that are completely filled with parts and tires! While we all long for huge fields of cars every night, some common sense thinking for just a few minutes can easily explain why there are no more cars on hand than there are.

The first controversy of the week developed during the main event tonight as Bloomquist tried and tried to get past a slowing Jared Landers who was clearly holding back several cars. When Bloomquist misjudged his pass in turn two when he pulled out to pass, he clipped Landers and sent him spinning out of second. Since the two are team mates of a sort and Landers is driving one of several Bloomquist cars that he owns, it probably wasn't the best thing to do, accident or not. While Bloomquist's explanation was rather matter of fact, behind closed doors things might have been just a bit higher key. Such is the way things work in the often explosive and political world of short track racing.

Lucas and track officials continue to run off a very quick paced program, something that was much appreciated on a blustery night. The final checkered flag flew even earlier than on Monday night with it being before 9 p.m. when all racing was complete.  However, for the amount of money the drivers are racing for, I would be just as happy if they would add a few more laps to the feature with twenty five seeming to be awful short on this smallish track.

Richards Flexs Power in East Bay Opener

Continuing my swing of the Florida region, on Monday Feb. 8th I attended the opening night of the 40th annual Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park for the Lucas Oil Series Late Models.

This was the first time I had ever been to East Bay and as I have often discovered over the years, some preconceived ideas one forms about a race track proved to be true while others were not so much.

I had been told that East Bay was in kind of a rough part of the Tampa Bay area and that proved to be more than true. Actually, I can't remember seeing so many junky looking buildings and what appeared to be some subsistence businesses as I saw on the way to East Bay. The truth be told though, the track is probably in a good area of the metro as there didn't appear to be many people living within complaining distance of the track; mostly heavy industry and swamp. The track is rimmed on three sides by what I called Mt. Gypsum, the huge slag piles from the by products of the gypsum mining industry that appears to be going full throttle. I was told by some people that attend the races at East Bay on a regular basis that the mountain East of the track had grown by thirty five feet in the last year and the second mountain Southeast of the track was brand new while the third one Southwest of the track is overgrown with grass and apparently not used any longer. Fans of the Hibbing Raceway in Minnesota(and I did see a few of them in attendance Monday) must feel right at home at East Bay as the scenery, or lack thereof, looks just the t aconite tailings piles that dwarf the back chute of that track.

East Bay Raceway Park is an old race track and it is showing its age. Despite an attempt to keep everything freshly painted and spruced up, the facility is showing its age. In many ways it reminded me of some of the Illinois bullrings I have visited with concession buildings, maintenance buildings and ticket offices all cobbled together with no apparent orderly pattern to them.

East Bay is listed as a third mile track and that seems like just a bit of a stretch to me; perhaps if one rode the wall all the way around it might be a third mile. However, the track is very wide which allows for good racing and while the banking doesn't seem near as steep in person as it looks like on TV, it is still one racy joint, and after all, that's what keeps the fans coming, right? And what other track has Palm trees on the wheel fence to number the corners of the track?

The surface at East Bay has long been talked about so I won't go into any specifics of that, other than to say that it started out the evening as quite slimy but quickly widened out and provided an excellent racing surface for the majority of the night. The groove was wide, the racing intense and the drivers even sang the praises of the track, something that is oh so rare.

Thirty five cars signed in to race on the opening night of the six night series here at East Bay. While Don O'Neal and Darrell Lanigan were on hand and had their cars unloaded, they apparently felt no need to race on this night while Jonathan Davenport kept his car parked and instead made laps for Mason Zeigler in his new car. Apparently the contracts of some of these "stars" are just too good if they can afford to sit and watch a $5,000 to win show when they are on the grounds. As for Scott Bloomquist, as series announcer James Essex stated, "Scott must be playing the penny slots somewhere else tonight."

It was pointed out to me by a fan that since the race fans on hand were paying top dollar admission prices expecting to see all the stars of the series in action, that perhaps the sanctioning body should take steps to make sure all their advertised drivers were on hand. Whether it be to make all six nights full point nights or perhaps award "show up" points for all shows, there would seem to be some rationale is his thinking. But I guess that as long as the spectators continue to buy tickets, nothing will probably ever change.

In the early going of this race season, Pennsylvania"s Chad Hollenbeck seems to be one driver hit with more than his share of bad luck. After a roll over at New Brunswick earlier, when I walked through the pits on Monday they had every piece of the body removed from the car and were completely going through the whole car as they checked for damage. Hollenbeck won the Strawberry Dash to make the main but was the first car out, as his problems continued.

Josh Richards appears to be a man on a mission this year as he looks to regain his foothold as the number one Late Model driver on the planet and push the Rocket chassis back to the top in the brand name wars. If so, he is definitely on the right track as his performance Monday was nothing short of spectacular. Coming from ninth in a short, twenty five lap main event and passing the cars that he did to take the win was very impressive. A couple of his passes were scintillating, especially the move past Jared Landers, one that Landers did not complain about later either. Jimmy Owens and Tim McCreadie both had solid runs as they both try to reestablish themselves after a rough 2015 campaign.

Lucas Oil and track officials did an excellent job of running off a quick program in the face of falling temperatures and gale force winds. Truly, a one class program with a total of  eight events should not take hours to run off, but many places would do just that. On Monday the first green flag came just minutes after the advertised 7 p.m. start and the final checkered waved just over two hours later. On a week night, that is exactly the kind of show that will keep people returning.

The racing at East Bay was just what I was hoping for and one of the highlights of the evening was my chance to meet the legendary Jean Lynch.

Psst! There Is Another Race Track Just Down the Road

Hello from Florida where so far, it has been only periodically sunny and darn cold. It's been over thirty years since I was last to a race in the Sunshine State, and I guess the decision has been made that 2016 will be the year to do some things that had sat in the "bucket list" for quite some time.

With the push to do this coming from the other side of the family, I went along somewhat hesitantly to join in on the fun and take in some February action in Florida. However, the only caveat was that I was going to have to drive down and provide a ride when the other half of the family arrived on the "big bird" early next week.

The trip down was less than pleasant with driving on some of the southern states' highways a nightmare. I cannot believe how rudely and down right stupid that some people drive. There are no relaxing parts of the journey and it was frequently "elbows up" for mere self protection. My observations were that the worst drivers were those sporting Georgia plates with Florida running a close second. I even had residents of the Sunshine State apologizing to me for the ridiculous way that some of their fellow citizens drove, particularly on I-75. However, the good news was that I indeed made it in one piece even though I'm not looking forward to retracing my steps next week.

But let's talk racing which is what this post is supposed to be about. Unfortunately, things at the track started out pretty poorly too and except for a fortuitous interaction with a man named "Sam", my first weekend of Florida racing would have been a complete washout.

Making better time on the way down than I had planned, I found that I might be able to squeeze in a race on Saturday the 6th if I hustled. With some friends racing Modifieds on the Sunshine State Mod Tour, I made the decision that I could make it to Bubba Raceway Park and catch the second half of the Modified show there along with the All Star Sprints. I got there early in the afternoon and was able to talk to a few people and check out the place. Unfortunately, as I was arriving the weather forecast was changing dramatically and for the worse. A few sprinkles kept most teams from unloading their race cars and the few already out of the trailers were quickly covered up. The rain stopped but the conditions were grim looking and by mid afternoon, the rains started again, this time to not stop and gradually get heavier. Bubba pulled the plug and I was zero for one.

The Modifieds were scheduled to move up the road to Lake City where they would be joined by the UMP Late Models for an afternoon show on Sunday, so I drove up there through the rain which continued most of the night.

Sunday dawned sunny but cool but it seemed like a good day for racing and I fully expected that North Florida would be racing. I arrived at the track to find many haulers already in the pits and others waiting to pull in. The track didn't look bad and it seemed like with a little packing the track would be fine. The pits had some muddy spots but was overall decent. However, about the time that the gates should have opened, a few cars were instead pulling out of the pits. I asked and was told that the race had been cancelled due to wet grounds. My feeling was that after a bad week of racing at North Florida where a couple of previous shows during the week featuring some other classes were rained out and a third show drew only a handful of spectators track management wanted to cut their losses, particularly when they felt that some of the Late Model competitors that they had counted on were still in Georgia running a rain delayed event at Golden Isles.

In any event, it looked like I was going to be "skunked" for the second straight day and I was not feeling very happy as I stood in the parking lot and watched a procession of haulers heading out and down the road.

Here is where things got really interesting and one of the most fortuitous occurrences that ever has happened to me at a race track took place. As I was putting my things back in my car and getting ready to go somewhere, of which I had no idea where, another vehicle pulled up beside me and asked if the races were still on. The gentlemen, who's name I later learned as "Sam", seemed really knowledgeable about racing in the north Florida area and when I told him the races had been cancelled, he promptly told me that if I wanted to go to the races on Sunday, he knew of a race track that was only ten miles away and was racing! I was skeptical since it seemed unlikely to me that there would be two tracks that close together both racing on this day so early in the racing season, even by Florida standards. So I quizzed him closely to make sure it was "real racing" and not maybe karts or some such thing.

However, he told me that the show was featuring winged sprint cars and the racing was on dirt and if I wanted to go, he would even lead me to the track as he was on his way there, using his backup plan! I liked the way this Sam thought, as in my own realm of the world, I always have a back up plan too. So if he was willing to show me the way, I'd be willing to tag along and see just exactly what this other track was. So I followed him down the highway and sure enough, within fifteen minutes we were at the other race track and I confess, I was absolutely stunned.

Where Sam had taken me to was All-Tech Raceway, South of Lake City and near the burg of Ellisville. When I came down the service road and got my first look at the track, I was shocked as it was much better looking than either of the other two tracks I had been at so far over the weekend. Sam knew everybody at the track (clearly he was an insider and I couldn't help but marvel over my pure luck at stumbling into meeting him). He introduced me to the promoter, the promoter's father and wife and virtually everyone else that worked at the track. I also learned some of the inside stories of this track, how it came to be founded and also about some of the things going on at the other region tracks.

All-Tech Speedway was a half mile asphalt track and has been racing in this area for over forty years under a variety of different names.  Racing there dates back to the All Pro days and some of the famous names in southern asphalt racing have raced at the track. However, in recent years the track has met with hard times and has been siting dormant for the last year or so with just one or two races there in the last year before it closed down permanently.

Wendell Durrance is the General and Track Manager of the track. The story of how this track rose from the ashes is interesting. Wendell owned a machine shop and built racing engines and last year fielded a call from an individual who was looking to buy a race car and have him build him a motor and teach him how to drive. Wendell said that this person should just buy his own race track and then he could practice all he wanted. When the other person asked Wendell if he knew of such a track, Wendell said he did but that the asphalt would have to be removed from the track and clay added. One thing led to another, business contacts were made, checks were written and this person bought the track!

As it turns out, this individual was raised just a few miles from the track and now lives in New Jersey where he is a ranking official at a fiber optics business. He hired Wendell who began the process of converting the blacktop track to a dirt track. They purchased the fifty acre property, removed the blacktop surface and laid down fourteen inches of yellow clay, which they found just over the hill and traded the dirt for the farm storage ponds the removed dirt created for the farmer that owned the land.  While the remodeling of the track continues as an ongoing project, they held their first race late last Fall and have a full schedule of races for 2016. They still have many plans on further improvements including another expansion of the pits and tiered parking on the back chute for spectators' vehicles. However, the place already looks very nice and quite frankly, far superior to either of the tracks I saw previously this week. It is a full half mile, wide enough to race on, with good lighting and sound system and cement slabs the length of the front chute for lawn chairs. One of the things not working yet was the track scoreboard.

The featured attraction on this day was the Top Gun Series of sprints out of the Tampa area. This is a club trying to restore sprint car racing to Florida with a twenty or so race schedule and they run restricted 360 engines, some with injection and some with carburetors. It is clearly a budget series with both veterans and young drivers just starting out in sprints. This was their first visit to All-Tech and the furthest North their series had traveled. Sam told me that this was the first time in at least forty years that sprint cars had raced on dirt at this track.

The racing was decent on this day. Wendell said that they had three inches of rain on Saturday so the track took longer than planned to roll in and it did get a bit bumpy in the corners, which caused him to do a few rounds of track prep during the show, as Wendell is clearly a perfectionist when it comes to his track surface. The sprints were a little under powered for this big track but they put on a decent show and the two local divisions, the Hobby Stocks and Pure Stocks, both put on entertaining shows even though neither class had a huge field.

Once they got racing, they moved the show along well and the actual race program took a little over two hours to complete. I was very impressed with how friendly the whole staff was and they all thanked me for coming, even though I was the thankful one for finding the track. I was shocked when the announcer started and I thought I recognized his voice and sure enough, announcing was the legendary Ozzie Altman of all people, assisted by local announcer Chuck Strickland.

As surprised as I was to find Ozzie working here, I was even more surprised when at intermission the legendary editor of the National Speedway Directory, Allen Brown, stopped by to say hello. I used to run into Allen all over the place when he was seriously chasing racing, but this was the first time I had seen him in years. What a pleasant surprise!

I told Wendell that I was very impressed with the facility which will get nothing but better in the coming days and months and I told him that the touring Modifieds and Late Models should be racing at his track, not at some of the ones I saw earlier this weekend that didn't do much to impress me, although in all honesty I did not see a wheel turn at either track.

In any event, I was able to make a memorable race day out of one that looked to be a nightmare to start with and it all resulted simply as a result of a chance meeting. I can't believe how lucky I was as I had absolutely no knowledge of this track and would have driven right past it and down to Tampa. Sam, I am(indebted).