Friday night, March 1st, found me at the opening night action of the fifteenth annual Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic at William Scogin's Clarksville Speedway just across the state line in Tennessee after passing through Kentucky. Hard to believe that this is the fifteenth annual version of this race as I distinctly remember being here for the first annual Classic and it does not seem like it was that many years agao.
I have not been to Clarksville for a few seasons now but have been to a number of these races over the years with this race often being the first outdoor event for most of the drivers and many of the fans. Tonight the drivers were racing for trophies with tomorrow night's big winners getting the "thrones."
In action on Friday were four classes of racing cars, headed by the MARS/Schaeffer's Oil Iron Man Late Models running under UMP rules, along with the UMP Mods, the UMP Pro Crate Late Models and the Quicksilver Street Stocks, a new traveling series for this class in the South. Tomorrow the Iron Man Series will also co-sponsor the Modified class too. Mod Lites also raced on Friday but, forgive me Mod Lite fans, I did not do any "homework" on that class.
As I said, I have not been to Clarksville for probably three years at least, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some nice improvements to the track. The Clarksville track has been at its present location for quite some time, and was truthfully starting to look a little "long in the tooth." and with so many new, high dollar homes popping up all around the track, It seemed likely that Scogin would just continue to race with his track like it has always been until an offer to buy was just so good that it couldn't be passed on, and at that point the track would cease to exist and another housing project would pop up, eliminating the dirt track drag strip and other wheel event activities on the grounds. I couldn't help but notice that another housing project is under construction right next door to the track with the bulldozers on site already, laying down the groundwork for more new homes in this seemingly booming area where traffic everywhere has turned into a nightmare.
And while the eventual loss of the track is probably still an option at some point, that possibility hasn't stopped Scogin from making some nice improvements to the track. A new concession building has been built in turn one to service both the pits and grandstand spectators and on the other side of the nice sized building are new restrooms that were badly needed. A new high rise aluminum grandstand is now in turn three, replacing the old board grandstand that was getting mighty rickety. And aluminum grandstands now line the entire front stretch. These might have been in place the last time I was at Clarksville, but my poor memory fails to offer a definitive answer to that question. n any regard, they are a nice improvement over the old wooden grandstand that offered a back view of the pit area.
Car counts for opening night were twenty seven Late Models, twenty three Crates, twenty nine Modifieds and twenty six of the Streets, a class that more resembles a cross between Stock Cars and Pro Stocks with some nicely appointed cars with some rather slab sided looking bodies on them.
Track management and the sanctioning body threw a last minute surprise to the race teams and fans both when they highly modified the race program at the last minute. The posted order of events in the pits at the MARS trailer showed group qualifying for all four classes, followed by heats and B Features if necessary and then the main events. However, at the last minute they changed their mind and dropped all heat races. After the group qualifying they ran a B Feature for the Late Models and Mods and then went directly in the feature races, thus speeding up the show considerably.
At first I was a little "peeved" but as the evening wore on and it got down right cold and damp out, suddenly it didn't seem like a bad thing at all. Especially when it was 11 pm before the final checkered waved at it was, and it would have been much later given the likely yellow flag slowdowns that would have marked a number of features.
As it was, it was still 8:30 before the first race hit the track after the group qualifying was completed for the four classes. The first feature race of the season at Clarksville, the Mod Lites, quickly brought on the first protest of 2019 as a pit crew member stormed the flag stand after his driver was put to the back on a restart for spinning out. It didn't take long to get back to the "happy days" at all!
Crate Late Models then hit the track with the main lined up with the quick qualifier on the pole. No surprise there. This event featured a twenty minute time limit but the drivers surprised and did a good job of racing, with there being just two yellow flags.
Of course, one of them featured more controversy as leader Evan Taylor, who had overtaken pole starter Ashley Johns and was leading a close battle as they fought through traffic, was clipped by a lapped car that refused to yield and Taylor spun, triggering a yellow. Taylor was eliminated with front end damage but for some reason the lapped car, feeling he had been abused by Johns, pulled up beside him under yellow and then slammed right into the side of his car, inexplicably.
Fortunately, Johns' car was OK and he was able to continue while the mindless back marker went to the tail, but only after he was "dressed down" in front of the crowd by promoter Scogin. The rest of the race went smoothly with Johns holding off Matt Cooper and Chase Walls.
Following next were the Modifieds with twenty two of them taking the green flag for their main. This one was pretty "cut and dried" as pole starter Allen Weisser led from start to finish with Tyler Nicely following pretty close, particularly in the last five laps after a late yellow. The Mods behaved themselves with only three minor yellows to slow the action. However, a pattern that was set early by the Crates was followed pretty much the rest of the night with after a lap of so to shuffle out things, everyone dove to the bottom of the wide red clay track and lined up. Fortunately, there was one "renegade" that chose to try the outside. Lucas Lee had started tenth and he went to the top right from the start, intending to live or die by running higher on the track. He was occasionally joined by Ray Bollinger Jr, who was driving a second car for Hunt Gossom instead of his own machine. Lee was able to gain ground on the high side in turn one but the other end of the track was slow on the top side and gaining ground was a slow process. However, he kept it up and eventually was able to gain some positions, particularly when the cars in front of him got bottled up with their tailgating.
At the end, Weisser led to the finish with Nicely's last lap attempt to go around him coming up short. Trent Young finished third with Lee making it all the way up to fourth and he was still gaining ground at the end.
Late Models were up next with twenty three of them taking the green, including at least three provisional starters having earned their way in through some process that was unexplained. This race proved to be the most interesting of the night, largely because it went green for the vast majority of its thirty laps which allowed the leaders to catch the back of the field, and with everyone hugging the bottom, the cars in front started to have to make some choices on where and when to try and pass and that made the show much more interesting.
Allen Weisser led the majority of the first twenty six laps of the Late Model race as he was hunting a spectacular doubleheader win, having already taken the Modified feature. However, he was receiving heavy pressure from Robby Moses and a smooth running Brian Shirley was exhibiting much patience as he gradually worked his way to the front. The back cars were causing much trouble and it was exciting watching the top three as they tried to negotiate the track and get by the slower cars while still protecting their line.
Michael Despain was on hand to call the Late Model racing action but due to a pa system that was not too powerful, about the only thing that could be heard that he had to say was the post race interviews of the top three finishers.
Things broke Moses' way as the Red Seas parted and he walked into the lead but Shirley was all over him. Then in more lapped traffic, Shirley made his move and dove to the front but Moses and Weisser were still battling for second in tight formation. Action, things got a little too tight and as Weisser tried to dive under Moses, he clipped Robby and spun him out. A displeased Moses went to the back and the last four laps of the race were finished.
Shirley held of Weisser, whose second place finish was severely tainted by the late race altercation and quick qualifier Josh Putnam finished third.
The Street Stocks wrapped up the evening with their fifteen laps main. Sponsored by Quicksilver, they had a bit more trouble than the other classes with more wrecks, more yellows and more DNF's than the other classes. However, T.J. Herndon, who started on the pole, led all the way and fought off Tony Cruse and Dale Nelson for the win. With Herndon's win off the pole, that marked four of the five feature races won from that position if you're keeping score, but no surprise due to the system used to set the fields and a track that was very much inside "hub" strong and very few willing to step to the top and work on that lane. Perhaps on Saturday with longer races set, this might happen.
In this part of the country, any fears to the contrary were quickly alleviated when Bubba Vandygriff was announced as the driver of the #116 Street Stock as I just knew there had to be at least one "Bubba" in the pits racing.
The previously announced format for Saturday night's show included heat races but we will have to see if that actually happens. Truthfully, with four more classes scheduled to join the show on Saturday, I wouldn't be adverse to eliminating the heats from the program for another night since they're all about qualifying here anyway. Also, the program will be moved up four hours from the scheduled time, ostensibly due to cold conditions but more than likely trying to beat the rain which is supposed to arrive around Midnight. They didn't announce this change much and it was hard to hear the announcer anyway, so I hope that everyone is aware of this this and doesn't show up to find the program mostly over by the time they arrive.
Speaking of the crowd, it was surprisingly good considering just how cold and dismal the day had been. And track officials did their best to hustle the program off, staring the timed warmups just when advertised and keeping the show moving as best they could.
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