The Grant Junghans Memorial Race was the highlight event of the night on Saturday, November 16th and the cap to a weekend of racing at Park City Kansas' 81 Speedway. Forty nine Modifieds were on hand to fight for a season high ten thousand and two dollar top prize and it was Minnesota driver Jacob Bleess who led all fifty laps to win the big prize. The B Mods also were in action and their main event, worth one thousand and two dollars went to Ethan Isaacs.
It was also a huge night for the management team at 81 Speedway as promoter C. Ray Hall and his staff shut the gates for the last time as the track has been sold and will be under new management starting next Spring. C. Ray took over management of the track from his parents and has been running the track continuously since 1971 along with starting and running the NCRA sanctioning body. The seventy seven year old Hall had an emotional day as earlier in the afternoon all the family members were on hand at the track for photo taking and they then followed that up by being involved in an emotion opening ceremony before the first green flag of the evening was waved by C. Ray.
He said that he will now focus more energy on his other promotions in Hutchinson Kansas along with Belleville and the NCRA series.
I made a point of seeking out USMTS head Todd Staley to find out what was in his plan for the 2020 racing season. He said while the schedule is not yet finalized, he expects to run somewhere between forty and forty five races next year. He also plans to have just one region and crown just one champion in 2020. He also won't require drivers to attend every race with their best thirty five or so races being counted toward the points title. he hopes to beef up the point fund for next year and also increase the travel allowance for those drivers in the top ten.
He rated the 2019 racing season as a good but not great one. He said that he felt the competition was among some of the best years he has had but the car counts were down this year also. He lost track of the number of rain outs suffered in 2019 but said it really hurt his early season plans and then they never fully recovered. He plans to open the 2020 season in Vado N.M. in early March but has not ruled out an earlier opening in either Arizona, California or even perhaps Florida.
He sees no significant rule changes on the horizon and is very excite about what the 2020 racing season will be at both his weekly tracks, Webster City and Mason City.
I also had the chance to speak with another high profile promoter briefly and that was Ryan Whitworth of the Humboldt Speedway. He said that the date for his B Mod race in March had been changed by one week due to the unusual calendar that falls in 2020. While it probably won't affect either event, it will be a problem for some race fans as the Spring races at Humboldt and Beatrice fall on the same weekend for 2020.
Ryan was a little coy about saying much more about his plans for the coming year. He did say that he was waiting to work with new 81 promoter John Allen and some things and hoping for some ways to get cars traveling back and forth from Humboldt to 81 and he wouldn't commit to which sanctioning body he would be working with in 2020 with much left to be decided before wheels turned next year.
Even with hit being their last race ever at 81, the unique method of selling concessions in the pits continued, with a golf cart making the rounds in the pits and selling items out of the back of the cart since there is no concession stand in the pits. I would think that the new management group would take a look at that situation as well as the one where pit passes are sold on the front chute and there is really no security keeping people from just entering the pits on a whim. I would guess they lose some revenue over the course of a racing year.
Along with the forty nine Modifieds on hand, there were also twenty two B Mods as ten different Mods and four B Mods showed for the first time on Saturday. These helped replace some that were wrecked on Friday night as Modified drivers Cory Crapser, Paden Phillips, Beau Davis, Cody Schniepp, Brian Franz, JD Choate and Dan Powers did not return after most were involved in the big feature wreck last night.
Additionally, Ryan Gustin drove for Chris Kratzer and Josh Lanterman for Bobby Bills on this night as those two cars were also damaged in that big pileup.
Keeping to the race schedule was not a big item this weekend as for the second straight night the program started considerably later than advertised with Saturday night's show almost an hour late in starting. However, due to only two classes racing, the program was done just a few minutes after 9 pm, making it the second straight night that the racing was done early and appreciated by the wind swept fans in attendance, of which there were many on Saturday night after the grandstands were quite empty on Friday night.
The program was nearly identical to Friday night's show with five heats, two B Features and the main in the Modifieds while the B Mods ran three heats and a feature. The only significant difference was that the Mods ran an extra ten laps tonight.
Early on, the track was quite similar to Friday night's with it being heavy and having a big cushion which is why extra packing was needed and delayed the start of the show. However, the track was starting to widen out and take shape just like it did on Friday night when it provided some great side by side racing in the mains and most particularly, in the Modified main.
However, after the heat races, they did the unthinkable thing and forgive me if I'm not maintaining our positive attitude here, but the appearance of the grader wrecked the rest of the show with out a doubt. Whoever was operating that machine totally ruined the track for the rest of the show and a wide, rapidly developing racy surface became a one lane track right on the bottom with outside passing nearly impossible. Seldom if ever have I seen the character of a track changed so rapidly and unfortunately, not for the better.
The Modifieds had two follow the leader, hug the bottom events before the features came out with the B Mods first on the agenda. Mike Striegel had the pole and it seemed that he would run away with the show but he was having to pinch his car so hard in the corners that he killed his momentum and got passed by Ethan Isaacs. Isaacs then ran away from the pack with the only driver able to make any significant being Dustin Daniels.
Daniels found a way to pass in the middle lane of the track and he drove by car after car, coming from fourteenth to get to second. It looked like he might have something for Isaacs but Ethan picked up the pace and pulled away for the impressive win. Isaacs was one driver that was not on hand on Friday so he made his one day trip very worthwhile.
Twenty four cars would start the Modified main that with extra bonus money would pay twelve hundred bucks just to take the green flag. The redraw would prove to be even more important than normal with Bleess drawing the pole and then leading all the way. Brandon Sheppard drew the outside pole and he stayed there for fifty laps, sometimes closing in on Bleess some but never in a position to really challenge for the lead. In fact, after the first couple of laps there was no change among at least the ten ten cars in the running order. Even the lapped cars were strung out such that they never really caused Bleess any consternation.
There was only one yellow in the fifty laps and that was for a lapped car, running dead last that still felt it was important for him to stop on the track for his flat tire so that he could go change it , return to the tail of the pack and stay right there. A wise choice by the race director saw the restart done single file as a double file restart on such a one lane track would have been grossly unfair.
Bleess pulled away again over the last six laps and drove to an impressive win and certainly one of the biggest of his career. Sheppard finished a solid second with Lucas Schott, Tyler Wolff and Rodney Sanders completing the top five.
Again forgive me for saying so, but it was very disappointing to go from one of the best features of,the year on Friday night to one of the very worst on Saturday, simply because they couldn't leave well enough alone and let the track develop and instead over thought and out engineered themselves.
The announcing trio of Chris Stepan, Warren Hardy and infield announcer Scott Stiles was as good as any group I have heard from all year. After sitting dark on Friday night, it was also good to see the scoreboard up and operating on Saturday as the lap count, if nothing else, is a valuable and appreciated thing by the spectators.
However, let it also be said that it has been great to be attending racing in mid November and for that fact I am appreciative to both 81 Speedway and its officials and the folks from the USMTS that put this event together. An ordinary night at the races still beats just about all the other alternatives.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Sanders Edges Mullins in 81 Dandy
The last weekend of USMTS Modified racing for the 2019 racing season kicked off at C. Ray Hall's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas on Friday night, November 15th. This was the Chisholm Trail Showdown, paying three grand to win as the opening night event of the Grant Junghans Memorial that is scheduled for Saturday night. USMTS Modifieds would be sharing the card with the B Mods with both classes running a full program of heats and features using the typical passing points method employed by the USMTS.
This is a very late show for the Midwest and even a region farther South such as Kansas can get some cool weather this time of year. However, the forecasts did moderate for this weekend and while it still did get cool on Friday night, it was by no means intolerable and quite frankly, not as cold as it was in the grand stands last weekend in Charlotte!
I was able to track down a few items of interest to me before the show began as I scoured the pit area, but some questions still remain to be answered, hopefully on Saturday.
This is the last weekend for the ownership of 81 Speedway by C. Ray Hall and his family. He has been in racing in the Wichita area for something like sixty years and certainly must rank as one of the longest standing consistent owners and operators of a race track in this country.
About six weeks ago I spoke to John Allen at a race at Lucas Oil Speedway and he told me that he was contacted by an unnamed party that was trying to either buy a racetrack in the Wichita area or build one of their own. They had made overtures to Hall about 81 Speedway but they were at that time unable to reach an agreement and were instead looking for a piece of land near Wichita to buy and build a race track. In fact, Allen was going from Wheatland to Wichita to check out a piece of property.
However, something changed since we last spoke and it is indeed this group that has purchased 81 and John Allen will be the new promoter of the track starting next year. John was in the crowd on Friday but I did not get to speak with him but hopefully will before the racing is concluded on Saturday. In any event, it will be interesting to see when their 2020 schedule is revealed.
C. Ray Hall is retaining ownership of the NCRA(National Championship Racing Assn) and is moving their headquarters to an office in Wichita. It sounds like long time announcer Warren Hardy and the rest of the employees of 81 will be out of work after Saturday night but full details on the transition have not been revealed as of yet.
Jimmy Mars was supposed to be on hand this weekend to race one of Rodney Sanders' cars but an emergency at home kept him in Wisconsin this weekend . I did see a "secret" design of his new race car which will be bright yellow with bright orange numbers but will still carry the #28 Mars has made famous. For those that haven't heard, Mars signed on with the Veit Companies to sponsor him in a multi year arrangement as his lead sponsor. Veit sponsored Jeff Wildung for over twenty years but when Jeff announced his retirement this Fall, Veit went shopping to keep their name aligned with the racing public. Wildung has driven Mars built cars the last few years and is also an upper Midwest racer so the connection was a natural. Mars will likely now travel to more national events while still maintaining his lucrative chassis business for both Mods and Late Models as well as furthering the career of his son Sam, who won his first Limited Late Model features in 2019 and will likely soon be moving up the ladder to the WISSOTA Late Models.
One Late Model driver who did show up this weekend was World of Outlaw 2019 champion Brandon Sheppard. Driving one of Dereck Ramirez's cars, it didn't take B-Shepp many laps before he figured out the Modified. Really good race car drivers can fit in behind the wheel of any race car, no matter its type, and it was only a few laps before Brandon was slinging dirt with the best of them. Despite the fact that he hadn't sat behind the wheel of a Modified for nine years. Sheppard made one of the best drives of the night, coming from seventeenth to fourth in the forty lap main event and I would say he is one of the legitimate favorites to win on Saturday night.
Sheppard was on hand to support his buddy Chase Junghans, who was also driving a Modified on this weekend as a part of the Junghans Memorial. Chase did well too, finishing second in a heat race and coming home eighth in the main event.
A strong field of forty eight Modifieds representing twelve different states signed in for night one of the weekend and the Chisholm Trail forty. Even though the car count was a good one, it was odd in that seven of the top twelve drivers in year long USMTS points opted to go to Vegas to race this weekend, even though this show paid much more money. Five heat races and two B Features set the field of twenty four with no provisional entries this weekend except for previous winners due to it being a non point race. This weekend would be a match up between the USMTS cars and the Modified stars of the NCRA. All were allowed to run their own rules on this night, including tires but on Saturday night the rear tires on all cars must be the USMTS approved American Racers. I believe that NCRA runs the IMCA type Hoosier so I don't see that as being much of an advantage anyway, if at all.
The drivers were presented with a heavy, hammer down type of track as the cool weather and low sun angle didn't dry out the track as much as it would have during a hot July Kansas day. Therefore the groove was narrow and passing hard early on as everyone screamed around the high speed three eighth mile oval. Gradually the groove widened out and the racing moved around some although the top side was still dominant on the cushion, as it has been virtually every time I have been to this track in recent years.
However, the feature race turned out to be a classic duel between the USMTS champ, Rodney Sanders, and the NCRA champ in Tanner Mullins. It was a great, side by side, two groove racing exhibition that could not be beat.
Early in the contest, Cody Jolly, last seen by me running a B Mod, was the early leader with Tyler Wolff, Bobby Bills, Mullins and Sanders trailing. Following a restart, Jolly jumped the cushion and Mullins was right there to take over the lead with Sanders tracking him down from the second spot.
Most everyone was still pounding the cushion but it was showing signs of giving out some in turns one and two and Sanders started experimenting with running the low side on that end of the track. He made several attempts that were fought off by Mullins but Rodney was persistent.
Eventually he got up beside Mullins, was able to beat him to turn three and took over the lead. Sanders did got back to the top again but Mullins wouldn't give up and he started to close back up on Rodney. After showing himself low in turn one and nearly getting by, Rodney also dropped to the inside on turn one and still pounded the cushion in turn three and then began to draw away in the late laps of the race. However, for most of the forty laps, it was a very good race indeed. Dereck Ramirez likes the low side on any race track and he made that work as he came from thirteenth to third and was still moving forward at the checkered. Sheppard and Darren Fuqua completed the top five. It was Sanders' ninety seventh USMTS career feature win.
There were two bad crashes during the course of the evening that tempered the action. Brandon Givens went end over end in the Gressel Motorsports car during a heat race and while the car was pushed back to the pits, it did not return further.
And in the main event, Dan Powers spun across the track at the end of the front chute following a restart(he may or may not have received some help) and the tightly bunched field bearing down on him had no where to go with many very hard hits throughout the field. The cars of Powers, Ryan Gustin, Cory Crapser, Cody Schneipp, Paden Phillips and Josh Lanterman all received significant damage and were down for the night with Lanterman reported having some ill effects that required medical attention. Hopefully all will be able to make repairs and race on Saturday but it was a very bad crash.
B Mods also raced a full program with their feature paying five hundred dollars to win on Friday. Eighteen drivers from four states signed in to race on this night. The number was not expected to be high for this class as 81 Speedway does not run any kind of a B Mod class so all the drivers had to come a distance to run with no home court advantage of any kind for this event.
Most were USRA B Mods that raced and came from other tracks in Kansas and Oklahoma while there were a few IMCA Northern Sport Mods that also attended. The USRA cars were allowed to run a spoiler on this weekend, apparently to help them be competitive with the Sport Mods. I thought this a bit odd as in open shows the USRA cars have shown to be very competitive even when they haven't run a spoiler. Hopefully this is not an attempted experiment for a rule change for next year as with the B Mods running the same tires and also using the quick change rear ends, about the only way to tell the cars apart is by the size or lack thereof of a spoiler. If they give them a big spoiler too, there will be no distinguishing the two classes from one another which is a bad thing in my judgement. We really didn't learn anything about the relative performance as the B Mods on hand were far superior to the Sport Mods present, spoiler or no spoiler.
Tim VanGotten and Josh Everhart battled in the early going but it was mostly a matter of waiting for Andy Bryant to get through the traffic from seventh before he was challenging for the lead. He threw a slider on VanGotten, took the top spot and then was gone. He was much faster than his competition and drove on to an easy win, with the only complications being when three yellows bunched the field. However, each time he again pulled away to comfortable margins.
Dustin Daniels came on for the second spot while Mike Striegel, who had a terrible night overall with more spins and wrecks than he would normally be involved in for a whole year, coming from seventeenth to finish third. Hard charging cushion pounding Dustin Leatherman was next in line with VanGotten rounding out the top five.
Even though the show got started almost forty five minutes late due to the extra wheel packing required on the slick track, once they got rolling there were few breaks and for just a few minutes to get cars lined up. I always support having a limited number of classes in action during special event nights but way too many tracks are guilty of trying to pack the pits with umpteen classes on night like this.
I guarantee you that the fans on hand were grateful that the show moved along at a crisp pace and that with only two feature races to watch, those that were getting cold could head for their vehicles early, knowing that they had gotten their money's worth of racing and action and not having to camp out all night to do so. Thanks to the USMTS and 81 Speedway officials for keeping things moving.
This is a very late show for the Midwest and even a region farther South such as Kansas can get some cool weather this time of year. However, the forecasts did moderate for this weekend and while it still did get cool on Friday night, it was by no means intolerable and quite frankly, not as cold as it was in the grand stands last weekend in Charlotte!
I was able to track down a few items of interest to me before the show began as I scoured the pit area, but some questions still remain to be answered, hopefully on Saturday.
This is the last weekend for the ownership of 81 Speedway by C. Ray Hall and his family. He has been in racing in the Wichita area for something like sixty years and certainly must rank as one of the longest standing consistent owners and operators of a race track in this country.
About six weeks ago I spoke to John Allen at a race at Lucas Oil Speedway and he told me that he was contacted by an unnamed party that was trying to either buy a racetrack in the Wichita area or build one of their own. They had made overtures to Hall about 81 Speedway but they were at that time unable to reach an agreement and were instead looking for a piece of land near Wichita to buy and build a race track. In fact, Allen was going from Wheatland to Wichita to check out a piece of property.
However, something changed since we last spoke and it is indeed this group that has purchased 81 and John Allen will be the new promoter of the track starting next year. John was in the crowd on Friday but I did not get to speak with him but hopefully will before the racing is concluded on Saturday. In any event, it will be interesting to see when their 2020 schedule is revealed.
C. Ray Hall is retaining ownership of the NCRA(National Championship Racing Assn) and is moving their headquarters to an office in Wichita. It sounds like long time announcer Warren Hardy and the rest of the employees of 81 will be out of work after Saturday night but full details on the transition have not been revealed as of yet.
Jimmy Mars was supposed to be on hand this weekend to race one of Rodney Sanders' cars but an emergency at home kept him in Wisconsin this weekend . I did see a "secret" design of his new race car which will be bright yellow with bright orange numbers but will still carry the #28 Mars has made famous. For those that haven't heard, Mars signed on with the Veit Companies to sponsor him in a multi year arrangement as his lead sponsor. Veit sponsored Jeff Wildung for over twenty years but when Jeff announced his retirement this Fall, Veit went shopping to keep their name aligned with the racing public. Wildung has driven Mars built cars the last few years and is also an upper Midwest racer so the connection was a natural. Mars will likely now travel to more national events while still maintaining his lucrative chassis business for both Mods and Late Models as well as furthering the career of his son Sam, who won his first Limited Late Model features in 2019 and will likely soon be moving up the ladder to the WISSOTA Late Models.
One Late Model driver who did show up this weekend was World of Outlaw 2019 champion Brandon Sheppard. Driving one of Dereck Ramirez's cars, it didn't take B-Shepp many laps before he figured out the Modified. Really good race car drivers can fit in behind the wheel of any race car, no matter its type, and it was only a few laps before Brandon was slinging dirt with the best of them. Despite the fact that he hadn't sat behind the wheel of a Modified for nine years. Sheppard made one of the best drives of the night, coming from seventeenth to fourth in the forty lap main event and I would say he is one of the legitimate favorites to win on Saturday night.
Sheppard was on hand to support his buddy Chase Junghans, who was also driving a Modified on this weekend as a part of the Junghans Memorial. Chase did well too, finishing second in a heat race and coming home eighth in the main event.
A strong field of forty eight Modifieds representing twelve different states signed in for night one of the weekend and the Chisholm Trail forty. Even though the car count was a good one, it was odd in that seven of the top twelve drivers in year long USMTS points opted to go to Vegas to race this weekend, even though this show paid much more money. Five heat races and two B Features set the field of twenty four with no provisional entries this weekend except for previous winners due to it being a non point race. This weekend would be a match up between the USMTS cars and the Modified stars of the NCRA. All were allowed to run their own rules on this night, including tires but on Saturday night the rear tires on all cars must be the USMTS approved American Racers. I believe that NCRA runs the IMCA type Hoosier so I don't see that as being much of an advantage anyway, if at all.
The drivers were presented with a heavy, hammer down type of track as the cool weather and low sun angle didn't dry out the track as much as it would have during a hot July Kansas day. Therefore the groove was narrow and passing hard early on as everyone screamed around the high speed three eighth mile oval. Gradually the groove widened out and the racing moved around some although the top side was still dominant on the cushion, as it has been virtually every time I have been to this track in recent years.
However, the feature race turned out to be a classic duel between the USMTS champ, Rodney Sanders, and the NCRA champ in Tanner Mullins. It was a great, side by side, two groove racing exhibition that could not be beat.
Early in the contest, Cody Jolly, last seen by me running a B Mod, was the early leader with Tyler Wolff, Bobby Bills, Mullins and Sanders trailing. Following a restart, Jolly jumped the cushion and Mullins was right there to take over the lead with Sanders tracking him down from the second spot.
Most everyone was still pounding the cushion but it was showing signs of giving out some in turns one and two and Sanders started experimenting with running the low side on that end of the track. He made several attempts that were fought off by Mullins but Rodney was persistent.
Eventually he got up beside Mullins, was able to beat him to turn three and took over the lead. Sanders did got back to the top again but Mullins wouldn't give up and he started to close back up on Rodney. After showing himself low in turn one and nearly getting by, Rodney also dropped to the inside on turn one and still pounded the cushion in turn three and then began to draw away in the late laps of the race. However, for most of the forty laps, it was a very good race indeed. Dereck Ramirez likes the low side on any race track and he made that work as he came from thirteenth to third and was still moving forward at the checkered. Sheppard and Darren Fuqua completed the top five. It was Sanders' ninety seventh USMTS career feature win.
There were two bad crashes during the course of the evening that tempered the action. Brandon Givens went end over end in the Gressel Motorsports car during a heat race and while the car was pushed back to the pits, it did not return further.
And in the main event, Dan Powers spun across the track at the end of the front chute following a restart(he may or may not have received some help) and the tightly bunched field bearing down on him had no where to go with many very hard hits throughout the field. The cars of Powers, Ryan Gustin, Cory Crapser, Cody Schneipp, Paden Phillips and Josh Lanterman all received significant damage and were down for the night with Lanterman reported having some ill effects that required medical attention. Hopefully all will be able to make repairs and race on Saturday but it was a very bad crash.
B Mods also raced a full program with their feature paying five hundred dollars to win on Friday. Eighteen drivers from four states signed in to race on this night. The number was not expected to be high for this class as 81 Speedway does not run any kind of a B Mod class so all the drivers had to come a distance to run with no home court advantage of any kind for this event.
Most were USRA B Mods that raced and came from other tracks in Kansas and Oklahoma while there were a few IMCA Northern Sport Mods that also attended. The USRA cars were allowed to run a spoiler on this weekend, apparently to help them be competitive with the Sport Mods. I thought this a bit odd as in open shows the USRA cars have shown to be very competitive even when they haven't run a spoiler. Hopefully this is not an attempted experiment for a rule change for next year as with the B Mods running the same tires and also using the quick change rear ends, about the only way to tell the cars apart is by the size or lack thereof of a spoiler. If they give them a big spoiler too, there will be no distinguishing the two classes from one another which is a bad thing in my judgement. We really didn't learn anything about the relative performance as the B Mods on hand were far superior to the Sport Mods present, spoiler or no spoiler.
Tim VanGotten and Josh Everhart battled in the early going but it was mostly a matter of waiting for Andy Bryant to get through the traffic from seventh before he was challenging for the lead. He threw a slider on VanGotten, took the top spot and then was gone. He was much faster than his competition and drove on to an easy win, with the only complications being when three yellows bunched the field. However, each time he again pulled away to comfortable margins.
Dustin Daniels came on for the second spot while Mike Striegel, who had a terrible night overall with more spins and wrecks than he would normally be involved in for a whole year, coming from seventeenth to finish third. Hard charging cushion pounding Dustin Leatherman was next in line with VanGotten rounding out the top five.
Even though the show got started almost forty five minutes late due to the extra wheel packing required on the slick track, once they got rolling there were few breaks and for just a few minutes to get cars lined up. I always support having a limited number of classes in action during special event nights but way too many tracks are guilty of trying to pack the pits with umpteen classes on night like this.
I guarantee you that the fans on hand were grateful that the show moved along at a crisp pace and that with only two feature races to watch, those that were getting cold could head for their vehicles early, knowing that they had gotten their money's worth of racing and action and not having to camp out all night to do so. Thanks to the USMTS and 81 Speedway officials for keeping things moving.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Sweet and Williamson Win First WoO Titles, Sheppard Cruises to Late Model Honors
Saturday night, November 9th, the three night run that wrapped up the World of Outlaws Can-Am Finals at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway was held under sunny skies and extremely cool conditions.
While the individual feature races carried their usual amount of tension and pressure, there was high drama in both the Sprint Car and Big Block Modified pits with point titles hanging in the balance and the closest battle in WoO Sprint history set to be decided. It was one of those rare nights when the actual feature races themselves seemed to take the back stage with most people having their eyes on a few cars to see how the points titles would play out.
If you were a Big Block fan, it was eyes on Matt Williamson and Matt Sheppard while the Sprint Car folks were checking on every move made by Brad Sweet and Donny Schatz while the Late Model title had been cinched long ago by Brandon Sheppard so all the Late Model folks could just worry about racing for the win. However, that was not totally true as the second through fifth position in points was very much in flux as the weekend finished up.
There must have been some whining after Friday night's Big Block feature which allowed all thirty eight cars on hand to start the main. After announcing that there would be no Last Chance races for this class on either night, the format was altered and two Last Chance races led off the Saturday night racing card.
Both Williamson and Sheppard were already safely in the show and in fact, they redrew the front row so they would start side by side for forty laps to settle the issue. After his mistake on Friday night that cost him dearly, Sheppard would need some help as well as pull off a major win in order to overtake Williamson and despite the outside pole, he simply didn't have what it took on this weekend to pull it off.
Sheppard did get the jump on Williamson to lead the early laps but then Billy Decker came charging up and took over the lead. Sheppard desperately needed the win and he drove very hard to try and get back to the top spot and that ultimately may have been his downfall as he may have worn out his tires on this very abrasive surface as he gradually started to fade back. Sheppard would later report after the race that his motor had dropped a cylinder and he was just "floor matting" the car the whole race with the hopes that something good might break his way.
Williamson proved to be just a bit more consistent as he raced on to a second place finish and became the first Canadian driver to win the Super Dirt Car series title. Mike Maresca came charging up on the second half of the race to get the third spot ahead of Sheppard. If not for bad luck with a flat tire on Friday night, Decker could have very well swept the weekend proceedings.
David Gravel would end up sweeping the weekend doubleheader in the Sprint Cars but hardly anyone would even know that he did this as everyone was focused on Sweet and Schatz. The draw bit Schatz for the dash as he drew dead last in one of the dashes and was only able to work his way up to fourth, which gave him a two row disadvantage to Sweet at the start of their main event, which did go the full thirty laps on this night.
Gravel would check out on the field early so there was no battle for the lead, but Sweet and Schatz did have a dandy for second. Schatz worked his way up into contention and with a strong move, pulled past Sweet into second and gave the appearance that he might indeed come from behind to win yet another title.
However, just like Sheppard in the race before him, Schatz may have used up too much of his car early and when passed, Sweet turned right around and blew back past Schatz with a wicked slider for second.
A late yellow set up a ten lap dash to the finish with the title contention directly behind Gravel. Schatz pushed as hard as he could but Sweet was simply just a little bit faster at the end on on this night and he remained comfortably in second to guarantee his first WoO title.
The Late Models were just racing for fun as Sheppard had long ago guaranteed the title in that class. It was not the best of weekends for him as he got an flat tire near the midpoint in this night's show and spent the rest of the event just driving hard to try and get back up into the top ten.
John Blackenship in the "Coal Car" returned to major racing this weekend and surprisingly got the jump on Shane Clanton to lead the early laps. Jimmy Owens quickly came up along with Jonathan Davenport to challenge with Davenport moving into the lead. However, those that thought that Davenport would then just walk away were surprised by the strength that Owens showed as in lapped traffic he blew past Davenport to take over the lead and then build on that.
Owens opened up a considerable advantage before Ricky Weiss and Dale McDowell moved to the front. Weiss desperately wanted to get that first sanctioned win and he pushed hard as he fought his way into second and seemed to be narrowing the gap on Owens. However, Jimmy did a great job in lapped traffic to again build his lead while Weiss had has hands full with McDowell for second. They would finish in that order with a late charging Mike Marlar in the "General Lee" car next in line.
All racing was completed by shortly after 10 pm as the temperatures dipped into the low thirties on a very brisk night. If you want to see many of the best drivers in multiple divisions in action at a track that is one of the premier facilities on the country in action, then the World Finals at Charlotte is certainly an event that you should consider attending. However, be prepared to battle with lots of people for seating, parking etc as the crowds are enormous for this event.
Our thanks go out especially to Shaun Johnson of the staff of the Charlotte Motor Speedway for his help once again this year getting us all squared away for this big event at perhaps the biggest motor racing mecca in the country now.
While the individual feature races carried their usual amount of tension and pressure, there was high drama in both the Sprint Car and Big Block Modified pits with point titles hanging in the balance and the closest battle in WoO Sprint history set to be decided. It was one of those rare nights when the actual feature races themselves seemed to take the back stage with most people having their eyes on a few cars to see how the points titles would play out.
If you were a Big Block fan, it was eyes on Matt Williamson and Matt Sheppard while the Sprint Car folks were checking on every move made by Brad Sweet and Donny Schatz while the Late Model title had been cinched long ago by Brandon Sheppard so all the Late Model folks could just worry about racing for the win. However, that was not totally true as the second through fifth position in points was very much in flux as the weekend finished up.
There must have been some whining after Friday night's Big Block feature which allowed all thirty eight cars on hand to start the main. After announcing that there would be no Last Chance races for this class on either night, the format was altered and two Last Chance races led off the Saturday night racing card.
Both Williamson and Sheppard were already safely in the show and in fact, they redrew the front row so they would start side by side for forty laps to settle the issue. After his mistake on Friday night that cost him dearly, Sheppard would need some help as well as pull off a major win in order to overtake Williamson and despite the outside pole, he simply didn't have what it took on this weekend to pull it off.
Sheppard did get the jump on Williamson to lead the early laps but then Billy Decker came charging up and took over the lead. Sheppard desperately needed the win and he drove very hard to try and get back to the top spot and that ultimately may have been his downfall as he may have worn out his tires on this very abrasive surface as he gradually started to fade back. Sheppard would later report after the race that his motor had dropped a cylinder and he was just "floor matting" the car the whole race with the hopes that something good might break his way.
Williamson proved to be just a bit more consistent as he raced on to a second place finish and became the first Canadian driver to win the Super Dirt Car series title. Mike Maresca came charging up on the second half of the race to get the third spot ahead of Sheppard. If not for bad luck with a flat tire on Friday night, Decker could have very well swept the weekend proceedings.
David Gravel would end up sweeping the weekend doubleheader in the Sprint Cars but hardly anyone would even know that he did this as everyone was focused on Sweet and Schatz. The draw bit Schatz for the dash as he drew dead last in one of the dashes and was only able to work his way up to fourth, which gave him a two row disadvantage to Sweet at the start of their main event, which did go the full thirty laps on this night.
Gravel would check out on the field early so there was no battle for the lead, but Sweet and Schatz did have a dandy for second. Schatz worked his way up into contention and with a strong move, pulled past Sweet into second and gave the appearance that he might indeed come from behind to win yet another title.
However, just like Sheppard in the race before him, Schatz may have used up too much of his car early and when passed, Sweet turned right around and blew back past Schatz with a wicked slider for second.
A late yellow set up a ten lap dash to the finish with the title contention directly behind Gravel. Schatz pushed as hard as he could but Sweet was simply just a little bit faster at the end on on this night and he remained comfortably in second to guarantee his first WoO title.
The Late Models were just racing for fun as Sheppard had long ago guaranteed the title in that class. It was not the best of weekends for him as he got an flat tire near the midpoint in this night's show and spent the rest of the event just driving hard to try and get back up into the top ten.
John Blackenship in the "Coal Car" returned to major racing this weekend and surprisingly got the jump on Shane Clanton to lead the early laps. Jimmy Owens quickly came up along with Jonathan Davenport to challenge with Davenport moving into the lead. However, those that thought that Davenport would then just walk away were surprised by the strength that Owens showed as in lapped traffic he blew past Davenport to take over the lead and then build on that.
Owens opened up a considerable advantage before Ricky Weiss and Dale McDowell moved to the front. Weiss desperately wanted to get that first sanctioned win and he pushed hard as he fought his way into second and seemed to be narrowing the gap on Owens. However, Jimmy did a great job in lapped traffic to again build his lead while Weiss had has hands full with McDowell for second. They would finish in that order with a late charging Mike Marlar in the "General Lee" car next in line.
All racing was completed by shortly after 10 pm as the temperatures dipped into the low thirties on a very brisk night. If you want to see many of the best drivers in multiple divisions in action at a track that is one of the premier facilities on the country in action, then the World Finals at Charlotte is certainly an event that you should consider attending. However, be prepared to battle with lots of people for seating, parking etc as the crowds are enormous for this event.
Our thanks go out especially to Shaun Johnson of the staff of the Charlotte Motor Speedway for his help once again this year getting us all squared away for this big event at perhaps the biggest motor racing mecca in the country now.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Phelps, Madden and Gravel Win, Point Titles a Scramble at Can-Am Finals
Friday night the racers got down to business at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the first of two full programs that will wrap up the season for DIRT Motorsports and their three major series, the World of Outlaws Sprints and Late Models and the Super Dirt Car series for the Big Block Modifieds. Of course, with two of the three series featuring very close point races, the points battles contain just as much drama to them as the feature races themselves.
Friday night's program would consist of heat races for the Big Blocks that were rained out on Thursday night along with their feature race along with full programs for the Late Models and Sprint Cars.
Every car that was on hand to qualify on Thursday night returned, with the lone exception being the Big Block of Marcus Dinkins who blew his motor on Thursday night and rolled out a back up car belonging to another driver that Dinkins raced on Friday night so all one hundred and sixty drivers again raced the four tenths mile oval.
Controversy started early in the Modified heats which were first on the agenda when long time fan favorite Brett Hearn, who announced this week that he would drastically cut back on his racing program for next year to get into track management at a New York track, was scheduled to start on the pole for the third heat. However, he was called for some kind of an unauthorized work done to his car as the race was waiting to be called on to the track and he was sent to the back of the pack. He instead, pulled off the track and went to speak to management. Later in the same heat, point contender Matt Williamson was also called for a jump and set back a row, allowing Matt Sheppard to win this race and pull out to a small lead in the Modified point battle as they award points in heats for this class.
Later, during the Sprint heats, points leader Brad Sweet was set back on row for jumping the start of a heat while in the previous heat race Donny Schatz was moved to the pole when Kerry Madsen was also called for a jump. This was too much for the conspiracy theorists in the crowd who were set to howling about how they were trying to just give the title to Schatz. However, the "black helicopters" flew away and the races were allowed to continue.
While there were certainly some hard fought and intense battles for some of the qualifying positions with only three from each of the Late Model and Sprint heats moving on, starting positions were of the ultimate importance based on time trials. Shockingly, of the sixteen heat races run over the three divisions, all SIXTEEN were won off the front row. A fan of a typical Saturday night point invert race program would probably wonder when the excitement was starting as one would probably see more passes in a one class program than was demonstrated here all night. But what you sow, so shall you reap and as long as you sell out fourteen thousand seats plus thousands more in the pits, there is no urgency to change anything.
The Big Block feature was first up on the race order on Friday night and to save time, all B Features for this class were cancelled. Thus, all thirty eight cars would start the forty lap main event. While this would seem to be a recipe for disaster, this class is more used to starting huge fields of cars and the large number of cars in this main didn't affect the number of yellow flags. What did was the apparent poor lasting qualities of the tires on the cars as all six yellows were the result of flat tires by the racers.
Things started out with a stunning development when Sheppard, holding the slimmest of leads in the points, got sideways in turn two on the first lap. A near disaster was avoided when another car straightened him out but the damage was done when he slowed with a flat tire on lap three. The exact cause of him getting sideways can't be reported as a group of rude Modified fans chose to stand during the start of this race so whether Sheppard just "stepped on it" couldn't be determined. The Big Block fans stand out by far as one of the rudest crowds seen anywhere at standing in front of other people and "hogging" seats but perhaps that is just my East Coast bias.
Billy Decker led the first twenty two laps of the main until he rolled to a halt with a flat tire and gave up the lead to Jimmy Phelps. This yellow was the fourth of the event, all for flat tires.
Phelps led the rest of the way to record the win. Late in the race Erik Rudolph looked like he might challenge for the lead but Phelps remained strong following the last two restarts to record the win. Rudolph finished a strong second with Larry Wight third. Williamson finished fifth while Sheppard did a good job of racing back to tenth from the back of the pack to minimize the damage to his points battle. However, he will go into Saturday night's finale down eighteen points to Williamson.
It was a "Bloomer" night in the Late Models with the tandem of Chris Madden and Scott Bloomquist finishing first and second in their fifty lap main event. Jonathan Davenport led the first thirty one laps of the feature race, but following a yellow flag for a slowing car, Madden drove past Davenport to take over the lead. After that, he just motored away from the pack and in a seemingly balanced field, he didn't even have to lap a car in the final nineteen laps.
Brandon Sheppard made the biggest charge of the race as he started thirteenth and motored up to sixth as he was one of the few to use the banking and pass cars on the high side. Unfortunately, soon after the last yellow, the track started to take rubber and everyone quickly migrated to the bottom of the track and hung out there.
On the last lap, Davenport made a bold move to run up the banking as he stated that second and third didn't make any difference as he wasn't chasing points and was just there to win. However, the move just gave the second spot to Bloomquist as there was just nothing to be had on the top side of the track. The World of Outlaws regulars were embarrassed as they have been most times in open shows this year with Cade Dillard getting fifth to top the WoO drivers.
With the track taking rubber for the end of the Late Model race, I was worried that the Sprint feature would be a farce. In fact, the laps for this race were cut from thirty to twenty five with my assumption being that they were worried about track conditions destroying tires. However, it was not in any way as the Sprint drivers found a way to race the whole track, with many settling for the bottom in three in four and the top side in the first corner.
David Gravel did lead the entire race to take the win but he was challenged at one point by Aaron Reutzel until Dave Blaney broke right in front of the leaders and sent them all scrambling with Reutzel being the big loser.
Schatz and Sweet were interesting to watch as they fought their way to the front, with Schatz getting up to second and Sweet fifth. They will go into Saturday night's finale to the season with a two point margin between the two so essentially whoever beats the other to the line on Saturday will be the point winner. Heat races and making the dash so as to garner an up front starting spot will be key.
Unlike some years where the racing would continue into the wee hours, the show was completed by 10 pm on Friday night. This place is notorious for its dust problem and that was a major focus by World Dirt officials in the weeks before the race. I'm not sure if they got everything right but I can say that we did not get blanketed in dirt like some years. However, a stiff wind at our back might have been the real cause of us not getting pelted with dust as there was still plenty of it in the air. In fact, it was so heavy that at one point it was impossible to see the front stretch during the Modified feature. The gritty red clay is also apparently still very abrasive as I assume this is the reason for all the flat tires.
It was also the coldest finale that I can remember in the years that I have been attending this event. With temperatures dipping into the low thirties, it was a cold, cold night and the wind chill did not help in that regard.
Friday night's program would consist of heat races for the Big Blocks that were rained out on Thursday night along with their feature race along with full programs for the Late Models and Sprint Cars.
Every car that was on hand to qualify on Thursday night returned, with the lone exception being the Big Block of Marcus Dinkins who blew his motor on Thursday night and rolled out a back up car belonging to another driver that Dinkins raced on Friday night so all one hundred and sixty drivers again raced the four tenths mile oval.
Controversy started early in the Modified heats which were first on the agenda when long time fan favorite Brett Hearn, who announced this week that he would drastically cut back on his racing program for next year to get into track management at a New York track, was scheduled to start on the pole for the third heat. However, he was called for some kind of an unauthorized work done to his car as the race was waiting to be called on to the track and he was sent to the back of the pack. He instead, pulled off the track and went to speak to management. Later in the same heat, point contender Matt Williamson was also called for a jump and set back a row, allowing Matt Sheppard to win this race and pull out to a small lead in the Modified point battle as they award points in heats for this class.
Later, during the Sprint heats, points leader Brad Sweet was set back on row for jumping the start of a heat while in the previous heat race Donny Schatz was moved to the pole when Kerry Madsen was also called for a jump. This was too much for the conspiracy theorists in the crowd who were set to howling about how they were trying to just give the title to Schatz. However, the "black helicopters" flew away and the races were allowed to continue.
While there were certainly some hard fought and intense battles for some of the qualifying positions with only three from each of the Late Model and Sprint heats moving on, starting positions were of the ultimate importance based on time trials. Shockingly, of the sixteen heat races run over the three divisions, all SIXTEEN were won off the front row. A fan of a typical Saturday night point invert race program would probably wonder when the excitement was starting as one would probably see more passes in a one class program than was demonstrated here all night. But what you sow, so shall you reap and as long as you sell out fourteen thousand seats plus thousands more in the pits, there is no urgency to change anything.
The Big Block feature was first up on the race order on Friday night and to save time, all B Features for this class were cancelled. Thus, all thirty eight cars would start the forty lap main event. While this would seem to be a recipe for disaster, this class is more used to starting huge fields of cars and the large number of cars in this main didn't affect the number of yellow flags. What did was the apparent poor lasting qualities of the tires on the cars as all six yellows were the result of flat tires by the racers.
Things started out with a stunning development when Sheppard, holding the slimmest of leads in the points, got sideways in turn two on the first lap. A near disaster was avoided when another car straightened him out but the damage was done when he slowed with a flat tire on lap three. The exact cause of him getting sideways can't be reported as a group of rude Modified fans chose to stand during the start of this race so whether Sheppard just "stepped on it" couldn't be determined. The Big Block fans stand out by far as one of the rudest crowds seen anywhere at standing in front of other people and "hogging" seats but perhaps that is just my East Coast bias.
Billy Decker led the first twenty two laps of the main until he rolled to a halt with a flat tire and gave up the lead to Jimmy Phelps. This yellow was the fourth of the event, all for flat tires.
Phelps led the rest of the way to record the win. Late in the race Erik Rudolph looked like he might challenge for the lead but Phelps remained strong following the last two restarts to record the win. Rudolph finished a strong second with Larry Wight third. Williamson finished fifth while Sheppard did a good job of racing back to tenth from the back of the pack to minimize the damage to his points battle. However, he will go into Saturday night's finale down eighteen points to Williamson.
It was a "Bloomer" night in the Late Models with the tandem of Chris Madden and Scott Bloomquist finishing first and second in their fifty lap main event. Jonathan Davenport led the first thirty one laps of the feature race, but following a yellow flag for a slowing car, Madden drove past Davenport to take over the lead. After that, he just motored away from the pack and in a seemingly balanced field, he didn't even have to lap a car in the final nineteen laps.
Brandon Sheppard made the biggest charge of the race as he started thirteenth and motored up to sixth as he was one of the few to use the banking and pass cars on the high side. Unfortunately, soon after the last yellow, the track started to take rubber and everyone quickly migrated to the bottom of the track and hung out there.
On the last lap, Davenport made a bold move to run up the banking as he stated that second and third didn't make any difference as he wasn't chasing points and was just there to win. However, the move just gave the second spot to Bloomquist as there was just nothing to be had on the top side of the track. The World of Outlaws regulars were embarrassed as they have been most times in open shows this year with Cade Dillard getting fifth to top the WoO drivers.
With the track taking rubber for the end of the Late Model race, I was worried that the Sprint feature would be a farce. In fact, the laps for this race were cut from thirty to twenty five with my assumption being that they were worried about track conditions destroying tires. However, it was not in any way as the Sprint drivers found a way to race the whole track, with many settling for the bottom in three in four and the top side in the first corner.
David Gravel did lead the entire race to take the win but he was challenged at one point by Aaron Reutzel until Dave Blaney broke right in front of the leaders and sent them all scrambling with Reutzel being the big loser.
Schatz and Sweet were interesting to watch as they fought their way to the front, with Schatz getting up to second and Sweet fifth. They will go into Saturday night's finale to the season with a two point margin between the two so essentially whoever beats the other to the line on Saturday will be the point winner. Heat races and making the dash so as to garner an up front starting spot will be key.
Unlike some years where the racing would continue into the wee hours, the show was completed by 10 pm on Friday night. This place is notorious for its dust problem and that was a major focus by World Dirt officials in the weeks before the race. I'm not sure if they got everything right but I can say that we did not get blanketed in dirt like some years. However, a stiff wind at our back might have been the real cause of us not getting pelted with dust as there was still plenty of it in the air. In fact, it was so heavy that at one point it was impossible to see the front stretch during the Modified feature. The gritty red clay is also apparently still very abrasive as I assume this is the reason for all the flat tires.
It was also the coldest finale that I can remember in the years that I have been attending this event. With temperatures dipping into the low thirties, it was a cold, cold night and the wind chill did not help in that regard.
Friday, November 8, 2019
Night One of Can-Am Finals Features Lots of Time Trial Laps and a Little Rain to Wrap Things Up
The Can-Am World Finals for the World Racing Group's top three divisions kicked off on Thursday night, Nov. 7th at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The center steer Big Block Modifieds, Late Models and Sprint Cars would all be participating in their last two full shows of the 2019 racing season. New this year, and I think the first time that this has happened for a number of years, two of the three divisions are so close that the final point standings have yet to be tallied and only Brandon Sheppard, in the Late Models, has a comfortable enough advantage over his competition that his World of Outlaw Late Model title has already been guaranteed. Both the Big Blocks and Sprint Cars are going to go right down to the wire and some fast Math will be done on Saturday night to determine just who the national champions will be. Matt Sheppard and Matt Williamson are fighting it out in the Big Blocks while it is defending champion Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet racing for the title in the Sprint Cars.
Thursday turns into a mad scramble for all the teams that didn't get to the track in time on Wednesday before they locked the pit gate and made the rest wait until Thursday morning. When the gates finally open, it is a wild scene as transporter after transporter barrels into the pits to find their assigned parking spot, unload their race car and get everything situated and their cars through tech so they are ready to roll for the hot lap sessions that start the action.
Even more urgency than normal was required as the racing programs for all three nights had been moved up to an earlier time. Thursday night's show was facing the prospect of rain while the rest of the weekend was predicted to promise below freezing temperatures and miserable cold conditions. A fine state of affairs that is! I could have stayed home and froze to death if I had wanted. I was hoping for something much better down here. So all three days the programs will start an hour early, hoping to beat the rain on this night while trying to wrap up things just a little bit earlier on the other two nights and beat the worst of the cold and wind. It doesn't sound pleasant.
By the way, the trip down to Charlotte was the worst ever with a major road closing due to a chemical spill in a tunnel at the Virginia border causing a reported three hour delay for those that chose to wait it out. We did some "snake trail" exploring through the back roads of Virginia and eventually got to where we wanted to go, but it was not a great way to end a long trip with frayed nerves.
Car counts were down slightly for the 2019 edition of this event, perhaps due to the expected less than pleasant weather. Big Blocks had four less cars than last year, Late Models had seven less while the Sprint Cars actually had one more car than last year. In total, one hundred and sixty cars were on hand to take to the four tenth mile, red clay oval that sits across the street from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The grandstands here hold fourteen thousand people with the pit area adding thousands more and everything but a few obstructed view seats having been sold out for Saturday night's finale although I've got to believe that the cold weather will keep a few people home.
World Racing Group qualifies all classes of cars so the program on Thursday, once the fun of seeing just who is on hand has been answered, is to endure time trial laps like you have never seen before. Patience is definitely a virtue on this night.
The Modifieds and Late Models qualify four or five cars at a time on this track while the Sprint Cars run single laps against the clock. So you get to see one hundred and sixty cars run a pair of timed laps to determine their starting positions for the first night of racing. However, we aren't quite done yet. They all come back out again and all one sixty go through another set of timed laps for the second night of the program. The only true racing seen on this Thursday night is that the Big Blocks then run two sets of heat races which determines their starting order for the main events on Friday night and Saturday night. On the bright side, Friday and Saturday will be race only nights with the time trials finally all completed.
As stated previously, rain was on the way for Thursday night and to the credit of the World Racing Group, they recognized this and tried to move things along as quickly as possible. Some years it seemed like they did an inordinate amount of "dinging around" before they got the time trials all done ,but this year they really moved the show along. The Big Blocks qualified first and then the Sprints and Late Models had hot laps followed by their two sets of time trial laps. Interspersed among all this, the Big Blocks also ran off their first set of four heat races with this setting the running order for the Friday night feature race.
Rain was on the radar and officials were racing through things as fast as they could. It was announced that if the Late Models didn't get fully through their second round of time trials that their first set of laps would set the running order for both Friday and Saturday night shows, with their first and second laps used for different nights. And with the first rain scheduled to arrive by 7 pm, it was within minutes of that points when the rain did indeed start to fall. There were still eleven cars left to qualify so the second round of times was scrubbed and all Late Model lineups would come from the first set of qualifying. The second set of Modified heat races was also washed out and will be run the first thing on Friday night. Super Dirt Car officials have also decided to forgo all the Last Chance races on both Friday and Saturday so it is possible that up to thirty eight cars would start each feature race!
Of course, much attention was paid to how the point battling Modified drivers and Sprint Car drivers qualified as the starting positions for the features are of paramount importance based on the archaic way that the cars are lined up.
Sweet has an eight point lead over Schatz in the Sprint Cars and while Donny will start on the front row of his heat both nights, Sweet had a bad lap and will start farther back on I believe Friday night. They are all racing to make the top two in the heats so they can make the redraw for their mains, all that is important.
Interestingly, the Big Blocks apparently give points for their heats and qualifying while I don't believe the other two classes do. This allowed Williamson to tie Sheppard as he finished one spot farther up in his heat, although both made the redraw and Williamson was also the fast qualifier in his group which awarded him an extra five points. They will start heats on Friday in a flat out tie.
Josh Richards caught a bit of a break with the rain. He was quick qualifier for the first round of time trials and with the second round not completed, they reverted back to the first lap on the first round to determine the second round lineups and he was fastest for that too, so he will start up front in a heat both nights.
Demetrios Drellos and Billy Decker will start Modified heats from up front for both their nights. It should be pointed out also that all four Big Block heats were won right off the pole, again the product of their starting the fast cars right in front, just as their brethren in the other classes do. Hopefully some heavier racing will take place the rest of the weekend.
With the rain pounding down and all the race cars scrambling to load up, it didn't take officials long to decide that all activity was done for the night so everything was wrapped up at the track by shortly after 7 pm, which was a boon for the local establishments in the area. For tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, it will be swapping the rain coats for the long johns.
B
Thursday turns into a mad scramble for all the teams that didn't get to the track in time on Wednesday before they locked the pit gate and made the rest wait until Thursday morning. When the gates finally open, it is a wild scene as transporter after transporter barrels into the pits to find their assigned parking spot, unload their race car and get everything situated and their cars through tech so they are ready to roll for the hot lap sessions that start the action.
Even more urgency than normal was required as the racing programs for all three nights had been moved up to an earlier time. Thursday night's show was facing the prospect of rain while the rest of the weekend was predicted to promise below freezing temperatures and miserable cold conditions. A fine state of affairs that is! I could have stayed home and froze to death if I had wanted. I was hoping for something much better down here. So all three days the programs will start an hour early, hoping to beat the rain on this night while trying to wrap up things just a little bit earlier on the other two nights and beat the worst of the cold and wind. It doesn't sound pleasant.
By the way, the trip down to Charlotte was the worst ever with a major road closing due to a chemical spill in a tunnel at the Virginia border causing a reported three hour delay for those that chose to wait it out. We did some "snake trail" exploring through the back roads of Virginia and eventually got to where we wanted to go, but it was not a great way to end a long trip with frayed nerves.
Car counts were down slightly for the 2019 edition of this event, perhaps due to the expected less than pleasant weather. Big Blocks had four less cars than last year, Late Models had seven less while the Sprint Cars actually had one more car than last year. In total, one hundred and sixty cars were on hand to take to the four tenth mile, red clay oval that sits across the street from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The grandstands here hold fourteen thousand people with the pit area adding thousands more and everything but a few obstructed view seats having been sold out for Saturday night's finale although I've got to believe that the cold weather will keep a few people home.
World Racing Group qualifies all classes of cars so the program on Thursday, once the fun of seeing just who is on hand has been answered, is to endure time trial laps like you have never seen before. Patience is definitely a virtue on this night.
The Modifieds and Late Models qualify four or five cars at a time on this track while the Sprint Cars run single laps against the clock. So you get to see one hundred and sixty cars run a pair of timed laps to determine their starting positions for the first night of racing. However, we aren't quite done yet. They all come back out again and all one sixty go through another set of timed laps for the second night of the program. The only true racing seen on this Thursday night is that the Big Blocks then run two sets of heat races which determines their starting order for the main events on Friday night and Saturday night. On the bright side, Friday and Saturday will be race only nights with the time trials finally all completed.
As stated previously, rain was on the way for Thursday night and to the credit of the World Racing Group, they recognized this and tried to move things along as quickly as possible. Some years it seemed like they did an inordinate amount of "dinging around" before they got the time trials all done ,but this year they really moved the show along. The Big Blocks qualified first and then the Sprints and Late Models had hot laps followed by their two sets of time trial laps. Interspersed among all this, the Big Blocks also ran off their first set of four heat races with this setting the running order for the Friday night feature race.
Rain was on the radar and officials were racing through things as fast as they could. It was announced that if the Late Models didn't get fully through their second round of time trials that their first set of laps would set the running order for both Friday and Saturday night shows, with their first and second laps used for different nights. And with the first rain scheduled to arrive by 7 pm, it was within minutes of that points when the rain did indeed start to fall. There were still eleven cars left to qualify so the second round of times was scrubbed and all Late Model lineups would come from the first set of qualifying. The second set of Modified heat races was also washed out and will be run the first thing on Friday night. Super Dirt Car officials have also decided to forgo all the Last Chance races on both Friday and Saturday so it is possible that up to thirty eight cars would start each feature race!
Of course, much attention was paid to how the point battling Modified drivers and Sprint Car drivers qualified as the starting positions for the features are of paramount importance based on the archaic way that the cars are lined up.
Sweet has an eight point lead over Schatz in the Sprint Cars and while Donny will start on the front row of his heat both nights, Sweet had a bad lap and will start farther back on I believe Friday night. They are all racing to make the top two in the heats so they can make the redraw for their mains, all that is important.
Interestingly, the Big Blocks apparently give points for their heats and qualifying while I don't believe the other two classes do. This allowed Williamson to tie Sheppard as he finished one spot farther up in his heat, although both made the redraw and Williamson was also the fast qualifier in his group which awarded him an extra five points. They will start heats on Friday in a flat out tie.
Josh Richards caught a bit of a break with the rain. He was quick qualifier for the first round of time trials and with the second round not completed, they reverted back to the first lap on the first round to determine the second round lineups and he was fastest for that too, so he will start up front in a heat both nights.
Demetrios Drellos and Billy Decker will start Modified heats from up front for both their nights. It should be pointed out also that all four Big Block heats were won right off the pole, again the product of their starting the fast cars right in front, just as their brethren in the other classes do. Hopefully some heavier racing will take place the rest of the weekend.
With the rain pounding down and all the race cars scrambling to load up, it didn't take officials long to decide that all activity was done for the night so everything was wrapped up at the track by shortly after 7 pm, which was a boon for the local establishments in the area. For tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, it will be swapping the rain coats for the long johns.
B
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