Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Sheppard Follows Advise to VSP Victory

Night number two of the Late Model events at Volusia Speedway Park took place on Tuesday, February 21st. It was scheduled to be one of he busiest nights of the racing series with triple features for the UMP Modifieds plus a full show for the UMP Late Models and extended practice sessions for the Super Dirt Big Block Modifieds.

It was another excellent night for racing with more cloud cover keeping it just a little bit cooler than Monday night but still an excellent night for February racing.

Most of the Late Models that had opted to watch Monday night's racing unloaded and ran on Tuesday. Joining the show were the two Bowyer cars driven by Don O'Neal and Darrell Lanigan plus entries by Dennis Franklin, Austin Hubbard, Kenny Pettyjohn who rolled a new car out of the trailer and Ivedent Lloyd Jr. The only driver not running on Tuesday was Brian Ruhlman who had driven the car of Zeke McKenzie on Monday. McKenzie had left the grounds as he did not race his Modified either. Cars for Larry Baer and Ray Cook Jr. have been packed away and it appears those two machines won't hit the track while the car of Colton Flinner remains in the pits but as yet hasn't been unloaded from its trailer.

With the forty eight car field now on hand, DIRT Motorsports officials responded by giving the Late Models an extensive program on Tuesday. The field was divided into six heat races with the top three from each heat moving on. Three B features set the rest of the field, there were no provisional starters and twenty four took the green.

Brian Shirley continues to be lucky on the redraw as for the second straight night he started right up front and led the first laps of the main. However, while he has shone plenty of speed, he still has been unable to seal the deal as again on Tuesday he got tracked down from behind and passed. Tuesday it was Brandon Sheppard who charged past him and then opened up a healthy margin on the field.

There was only one yellow in the main when Kyle Bronson stuck his car into the turn four guardrail and following the slow down, the driver on the move was Shane Clanton. It took him quite a while to get past Shirley but after he did, he quickly reeled in Sheppard and suddenly we had a race for the lead. Clanton showed his nose under Sheppard in turn one and almost made the pass but couldn't quite get it done. That was his best opportunity as the next time they charged into turn one, Brandon dropped lower on the track and kept Clanton behind him. Brandon no doubt figured this out himself but if he didn't, the sight of Mark Richards hanging out over the inside wall with a signal to go lower certainly would have helped!

After that, Sheppard maintained his lead over the last few laps to get his first ever win at VSP over Clanton, Shirley and Lanigan. Two drivers really picked up the pace on Tuesday and that was Rodney Sanders and Donny Schatz. They finished fifth and sixth respectively while Tyler Erb faded back in the field after starting on row one. The key to Sanders' and Schatz's improved finishes was the fact that they qualified much better as laying down a good qualifying effort is the biggest part of the battle for the whole night.

Lloyd and Michael Norris both "smoked" motors badly in heat race action and it remains to be seen if either has a backup power plant to continue their racing efforts this week. Other than that, it was a remarkably clean night for the Late Models with the yellow flag only waving three times in a total of ten racing events for the class. The track was a little bit dryer on Tuesday night and I think that had something to do with the lack of wrecks and attrition as even though they were still flying around the half mile, they were having to ease off, if just a little, for the dryer corners.

The UMP Modifieds run a marathon schedule here at VSP with them running eight straight nights with everything from the Sprint Cars to the Late Models running as a companion class to one night when they run a "stand alone" program with other cars just practicing. Tuesday, they wrap up their portion of Speedweeks with a "features only" format. In a clever concept, with well over seventy different Modifieds racing during that time period, there are plenty of drivers that never qualify for a main event. Tuesday, who ever is left on the grounds and wants to race, is allowed to run a main event with the field evenly divided into three groups. Interestingly, the groups are not staggered by point totals but instead divided into the low point totals, the medium point totals and the highest point totals. What is especially interesting is that all three features pay the same purse and even more interesting, for the first and only time during Speedweeks, the races are not run "straight up" but inverted with the first ten in points in each race inverted! What a concept!

Most years only about thirty or so cars stick around for the final night of racing as their big money event has already been held but this year, there were still forty drivers left around to race on their final night. However, points are still tabulated for the final night, and with the big "gator" trophy for the point champion to be decided, there was plenty of drama in the final race of the night.

Nick Hoffman maintained a slight lead over Jacob Hawkins but the point title was still very much in doubt. As it turned out, Hawkins won the battle but Hoffman won the war. Hawkins jumped to the cushion as he likes to do and went motoring to the front, where he started to run away. Meanwhile, Hoffman was running a little more conservatively but when he saw Hawkins started to check out, he got up on the wheel himself and used both the high and low groove to drive up to second.

Hoffman tried to run down the leader, but unlike Monday night when the top side gave up on Hawkins, Jacob remained strong on the berm and drove home for the win. Hoffman remained firmly in second and the title would go to him by the slimmest of margins. Hawkins did the most passing by anyone seen in this class here, as he started ninth in the fifteen lap finale.

In an interesting turn of events on Tuesday, the Late Model feature was the first main event run and I thought there would be a mass exodus from the grandstands after their driver interviews were completed, but surprisingly, most of the crowd stuck around for the Modified feature too.

Interspersed during the evening's activities, the Big Block Modifieds ran off three practice sessions and they had well over forty cars take to the track for testing and tuning. Their events which are scheduled to start on Wednesday promise to be very exciting also. I must admit that while I don't get to see this class race very often, I have developed an affinity for these huge horsepower, oddly handling cars that seem to lurch and bounce all over the track but always put on an interesting show and they certainly have some interesting personalities among their drivers too.   

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