The big money was on the line as the World of Outlaws Late Models and the Super Dirt Series Big Block Modifieds wrapped up the short track portion of Speedweeks on Saturday night, February 25th at the Volusia Speedway Park.
On a gorgeous Saturday night, another big crowd was on hand to witness both the Late Models and Modifieds slug it out as they hoped to wrap up their Florida campaigns with a win and give them momentum as racing begins farther North. While the crowd was very big, I have to say that it was not quite as large as Friday night's crowd was which was just monstrous
Both divisions were missing a few cars going into the finale as a few drivers opted out due to mechanical issues. The Late Models fielded forty four cars for the last night and interestingly, a couple of the cars that pulled out after Friday ended up running another race in Tennessee on Saturday with both ending up in the top ten in that event. They were Donald McIntosh and Stacy Boles. Surprisingly, Hudson O'Neal and Austin Hubbard did not race on Saturday and G.R. Smith loaded up and pulled out of the pits after having trouble in qualifying. Several of the Late Model teams also rolled out back up cars rather than fix some of the major mechanical issues that some of the top teams had faced on Friday.
In the Big Blocks, Joseph Watson, Randy Chrysler, Yan Bussiere and Vic Coffey all failed to return after they were either involved in wrecks or suffered major mechanical issues. However, the division gained a big name when Stewart Friesen, done with his duties in the Truck series at Daytona, rolled out his Halmar sponsored Modified for Saturday's show.
While track prep and racing conditions had not been much of an issue at the other tracks visited during February in Florida, Volusia Speedway Park continued to be the exception to the rule. The Late Models had been forced to run on "bad fast" tacky conditions all week which has produced some awesome speeds but not much passing or side by side racing and has been a strain on the racing equipment. Last night the track remained in the status quo as the Big Blocks also felt the wrath of the water truck and tiling operators. The complaints have been universal and vocal, to the point that most in the stands have been dreading driver interviews due to the expected "whining" that was sure to follow.
So, either the track prep people got tired of the complaints and decided to shut everyone up or they just had an honest misjudgement of the racing surface, but Saturday the track took a violent 180 degree turn, as the track was as dry as a popcorn fart, right from the start. Only a few laps into the heat races and both the Mods and Late Models were smoking their right rear tires and drivers were worried that their tires wouldn't last for the heat, much less the main event! So, perhaps rightly so, the litany of complaints from the drivers started once again; same song, different verse.
They did rework the track before each of the main events, digging the surface and then watering and rolling it in and it did help for about half the race. Still, the track was just not up to the standards that people expect to see at VSP and nothing compared to what last year provided. Series officials also made a move by cutting the mains from fifty to forty laps, something they felt needed to be done to help the tire situation but not a positive statement on the health of the track.
Dominating performances were put in by the two feature winners on Saturday. Don O'Neal had never won a main event at Volusia before Saturday but he put that chink in his armor to rest on Saturday. He came storming up from the thirteenth starting spot to quickly race into the top five and he then set about picking off driver after driver, finally passing Dennis Erb for the lead.
Once in front, he pulled out to a fairly comfortable advantage, and while Tim McCreadie looked like he might have something for the "Real Deal", after a lap twenty five yellow, O'Neal pulled back away. Things got a little dicey in lapped traffic with just a few laps to go and O'Neal had to throw a pretty wild slide on Jason Fitzgerald to secure the lead which ruffled up the quarter panel on the blue #5 but didn't damage the car significantly. Billy Moyer Jr, who had looked pretty bad through most of Speedweeks, came out of no where to secure a top three finish and point him in the right direction.
Brett Hearn was just as strong in the Big Block Mod main event. He had the advantage of starting in the front row and he led all forty laps. He was never seriously challenged either with Tim Fuller having a strong run for his new team in finishing second and the grizzled veteran, Danny Johnson, made the best charge up from fourteenth to third.
Both divisions highlighting some very professional driving in their mains with the Late Models only having two yellows and the Mods three. Even more impressive, twenty seven of the twenty eight starters in the Big Blocks were still around at the finish with only two having been lapped.
An interesting procedure used by the Big Blocks found them not using the "Delaware Double File" restarts but instead allowing the second place car to start wheel to wheel with the leader.
Darwin Greene is quite a unique guy. The Big Block veteran managed to maintain a cheerful disposition even though he tore his car apart on Friday night and endured a violent trip into the turn one railing. Full of enthusiasm, with the first heat race lined up on the front straightaway, Darwin climbed up on the roof of his race car to have a direct view of the American flag as the National Anthem was sung. It seemed like he was legitimately doing this and not to just put on a show but several photographers spotted him and some photos were taken which probably have showed up somewhere on the internet by now.
Wrapping up Speedweeks, I have to thank all three tracks that I worked with. Volusia, East Bay and North Florida all had excellent folks working in their offices and all were most cooperative and friendly. I saw Late Models, Modifieds, Big Blocks and two different divisions of Sprint Cars and all had strong fields featuring some of the best in the business behind the wheels. I think the best race of them all was the last lap pass by Brandon Sheppard at Bubba Raceway Park. The seventy five lap feature at East Bay that saw Jeff Mathews and Kevin Adams battling for the lead on the last lap was my second choice and the charge from deep in field, also at East Bay, by Tim McCreadie was rated third.
Twenty one hours later and I was back home in Wisconsin and guess what, our snow has all melted and all we have is brown ground! We could race tomorrow if some promoter would put a show together.
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