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.
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