Sunday, March 3, 2019

Seibers Sits on the Biggest Stool at the Toilet Bowl

Technically speaking, I believe all the colorfully decorated commodes given to the winners of Saturday night's fifteenth annual Toilet Bowl at the Clarksville Speedway were probably the same diameter, but David Seibers' highly unusual trophy gave him special meaning as the winner of the Late Model feature. Only the top four classes receive these special awards so the Late Model, Modified, Crate Late Model and Street Stock winners all receive probably one of the most sought after awards in dirt track racing. And while no TP(not Terry Phillips) was given to the winners, in Seibers' case he received five thousand crisp dollar bills that could be used in an emergency.

Saturday night was another cold, cloudy and damp night at the speedway but Willliam Scogin was rewarded for his weekend persistence as a great crowd was on hand to see the second full night of racing. The decision to move the starting time up by three hours was a very good one with the final checkered flag waving just at 10 pm which would have made for a very late night otherwise.

Of course, the main reason that the program ran as late as it did was due to the  fact that after a very abbreviated four class program on Friday night, the gates swung wide on Saturday and virtually anything on four wheels was found to have a class that it could compete in. And rather than belabor you fine followers of this page with a blow by blow account of every single class and the winner, let me wind up the weekend by just throwing out some random observations and thoughts.

They were very lucky to have gotten the show completed as when I got up very early on Sunday morning to head back home, rain had fallen and i wasn't far down the road before the rain turned into snow. To say that the trip home was an adventure would be an understatement with the most harrowing part of the journey navigating a multi car pileup just South of I-74 on I-57. But I made it with all wheels still on the car.

The pit area was jammed to the limit for Saturday night's show and the reason was that the number of classes literally exploded overnight. From four classes, plus Mod Lites racing on Friday night, the number increased to a mind boggling ten classes racing on Saturday night! And apparently one class of small cars wasn't enough as along with the Mod Lites, they also raced the Dwarf car too. Among the other additions were the Mini Modifieds, Pure Mini Stocks, 602 Crate Late Models(apparently one Crate class isn't enough) and Pure Street Stocks. One hundred and fifty three "big cars" raced along with about twenty more of the "small cars."

The format also changed for some of the classes too. While the Late Models still just did a B Feature after the quickest eight of each of two groups were automatically locked in, the Mods, Streets and Crates(big engine crates that is), ran heat races to set their running order. While they were only six and eight laps in length, hardly enough time to do much passing, their finishes did set the running order for the mains so they were of importance.

And with eight classes of cars running group time trials, you can imagine that would take some time. And yes, you would be correct in that assumption. While starting a half hour late with the timed hot laps due to the fact they had to have multiple driver's meetings for so many different classes running under different procedures and it took a while to sign in so many last minute arrivals, it was two and a half hours after the first hot lap session before the first real race hit the track. However, no one in the grandstands seemed the least bit upset so I guess it's just what you're used to that matters. I've got to believe, though, that a first time fan who would have arrived just when things were advertised to start and then had to sit there through one hundred and fifty minutes of two to six car groups of cars making a few laps at at time would have walked out the gates long before the first real race started. In my part of the world, if a show started that far behind schedule the promoter would probably be hanging by his thumbs from the flag stand, but again, it's what you're used to that matters.

However, don't read into my comments about the organization of the program. Other than the delay with taking the first green flag, the rest of the program was moved along at a rapid pace with one race immediately following the previous one. It's just that it takes a certain amount of time to run off that many classes and as long as everyone has to qualify, it is going to take some time.

The Mini Mods were a most diverse group of cars. Abut half the field looked like Pro Stocks with full bodies and the other half of the field looked like open wheel Modifieds that had been freeze dried. But they were fast and put on a good shop. My word, there were also three drivers that towed all the way down from Canada to race in this class.

All four of the potty class winners started on the front row with three of the four starting on the pole. However, with the format that is used and a race track that was worn out from who knows how many hundred laps on it, the results were not surprising.

There were two double winners for the weekend. Ashley Johns won the Crate Late Model feature both nights and both nights he started on the pole. T.J. Herndon was also a double winner and again he started right up front both nights. He had a fright on Saturday though. After jumping into the lead, a quick yellow slowed the field and his car burst into flames as he dove into the infield. Apparently the motor back fired and caused a quick "flame out" that was quickly extinguished. He jumped back into his car and then proceeded to dominate for the win. The quicksilver Street Stocks are an impressive class with many nice looking and sanitary rigs.

On what was a cool, cool weekend, many tracks would have pulled the plug by midweek and the staff at Clarksville deserves a round of applause for sticking to their guns and getting in the entire programs.

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