Thursday night, February 17th, the DIRTcar Nationals continued at Volusia Speedway Park with a doubleheader program for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and the Big Block Modifieds. Dale McDowell would win the Late Model feature, marking his second win at VSP this year, having won the only Sunshine Series race to be completed back in January before a makeup feature from that weekend was won last night by Ashton Winger. The Modifieds continued to provide some very balanced racing and exciting finishes as Mat Williamson, the Canadian driver, would fight off several late race challenges for the win.
The weather is finally improving here in Florida with temperatures pushing 80 degrees and the sun showing for a goodly portion of the day. It figures that as the time here grows short, the weather would finally start to improve after quite a few days that were somewhat on the disappointing side.
I was wrong last night in my prediction that the car counts would start to fade as of today as exactly the same number of cars were on hand to compete as raced on Wednesday night, fifty eight Late Models and forty two of the Big Blocks. The race format would be exactly the same as the one used earlier this week except in the rotation, on Thursday the Modifieds would run first. And after some struggles, track officials are now figuring out how to move things along just a bit better as the first heat was presented to the fans as 7:30 pm, which was an improvement over some days. However, they continue to have a fascination with hot lap sessions as they continue to put lots of needless laps on the racing surface with lengthy hot lap sessions night after night which requires nearly two full hours by the time hot laps and qualifying has been completed.
The six heat races for the Late Models would produce a couple surprises with very strong runs by Kyle Hammer and Blair Nothdurft and Hammer was far from over with his heat race win. Ricky Thornton Jr also got the crowd on their feet with his last corner pass of Darrell Lanigan to steal a heat race victory. Three smoothly raced Last Chance races that all ran green to checkered would keep everyone intact while setting the grid for the forty lap feature race.
Once again WoO had to exceed their preseason declaration that they wouldn't run more than twenty eight cars in a main event because there were so many emergency provisional starters needed(translation, WoO regulars that couldn't make the show by racing their way in including Boom, Gustin, B1 Bomber, Gundaker, Kid Rocket and Blair) that thirty car would take the green flag for the main event. And even on this spacious track, thirty cars gets to be a lot of traffic, especially during the early laps when everyone has the desire to go to the front immediately and they are running three wide down the front chute which isn't that wide. but everyone navigated the situation well and while there were six yellows during the event, all were either for spinning cars or flat tires.
Rookie driver Kyle Hammer shocked nearly everyone on the grounds by getting the jump on Brandon Overton on lap one. We will never know whether Overton could have caught the young Illinois driver as Overton's night ended in another cloud of smoke on lap two, to the audible groans of many in the crowd. Two blown motors in two nights tests the patience and pocket books of even the best of teams and the long and thick trail of oil behind the car clearly showed that this was not some minor failure. It will be interesting to see if the Wells team has another bullet to drop in for Friday or if they call it a week.
Meanwhile, up front Hammer continued to dazzle. He fought off big attempts to take over the lead by Ricky Thornton Jr and Mark Whitener and actually stretched his lead over the next twelve laps or so. However, Chris Madden was starting to track him down when a slowing Mike Marlar from contact that gave him a flat, closed up the field once again.
And as we have seen over and over this week, most of the key passes for position have come directly after yellow flag slowdowns. And it happened once again as Hammer and Madden went side by side for the lead and Dale McDowell found a hole between them and drove into the lead. Hammer would get shuffled back a few positions and his night would eventually end after a turn four spin. The rookie appears to be picking things up quickly but unfortunately, he also has quickly learned the art of "the Whine", blaming someone else for crowding him out of the lead instead of "owning" the fact that he just flat got passed.
In any event, from that point on, McDowell would lead the rest of the contest to get his second win here at VSP this year. He would withstand the challenge of two more yellow flags and a storming Devin Moran at the end to hold on for the win.
Late in the race, McDowell caught the back of the field, and with the preferred line low on the track and the slower cars hanging out in that same line, McDowell was slowed and Moran was charging. On the final lap, McDowell again paused leaving turn two and actually got up the track a bit which gave Moran a good run at him. Devin went for broke, trying the outside in turn three but there was nothing on the top and he gave up several car lengths as McDowell drove home for the win. Darrell Lanigan would have a nice run as he moved from twelfth to complete the top three.
This kind of high speed track seems to be one that McDowell shines on, and he has had a number of big wins here. I do not know McDowell but he gives a nice and reasoned interview and seems like a genuine southern gentleman.
Twenty three drivers would complete the contest and all would still be on the lead lap. More troubles for Kyle Strickler, who remains fast but just can't complete a race.
I have not seen the Big Block Modifieds race a huge number of times before but I have caught them in action at several different tracks but I would have to say that to this point, they are producing the most impressive series of races I have even seen them complete in. They have raced for three nights now, have produced three different winners, had two terrific shows along with tonight's that was very good also but perhaps didn't have quite as much last lap drama as the previous two, and have run off events with very few yellow flag slowdowns, a perfect formula for entertainment.
There was drama tonight also as Stewart Friesen, a prohibitive favorite every time he hits the track, was late arriving because of his duties at the Daytona "Big Track" as he prepares for the Truck race on Friday night, which will require that he miss the Friday night show. Also, Matt Sheppard, as fast a driver as there is in Modified racing, has looked, quite frankly, terrible so far here this week and apparently, has had enough of it as he rolled out a second car and sent his other car packing in the rig of Dave Rauscher. Interestingly, despite being a multi time Mr. DIRT Big Block champion, Sheppard travels in a small trailer with room for only one race car, unlike many of his competitors.
However, both handled the issues at hand well as Friesen arrived in time to run his heat where he came from the back to make the redraw on a last lap pass of Mike Mahaney and Sheppard looked much better too, qualifying well and making the redraw of the top two finishers in each of the four heat races.
The Modified feature would be another excellent showing for the Big Blocks. Friesen would take the early lead but would only lead for one lap before being passed by Mat Williamson. The race was slowed early when Jeremiah Shingledecker slammed the fourth turn wall and badly damaged his car. However, this would be the only slowdown of the race and Jeremiah would be the only driver in the twenty six car field not to finish.
Williamson would continue to lead but Friesen was lucking close behind, nearly passing on each and every corner until Williamson would continue to edge ahead down the chutes. Just at the halfway point, Friesen would again edge into the lead but Williamson would fight back past him as both drivers executed clean and exciting slide jobs on each other.
As the drivers moved toward slower traffic, they got bunched up again while suddenly, Max McLaughlin, who started seventh, was closing fast. He drove around Friesen and set his sites on on Williamson, nearly edging past as they raced down the front chute. However, Williamson was up on the wheel himself, and he won the race with some brilliant driving through the slower traffic. Not afraid to move up off the bottom, he picked off five slower cars to strengthen his lead.
Meanwhile, last night's winner Peter Britten was on a rush, as he made it a five car wad going for the lead and in the last few laps, gained a couple of positions. Williamson would have a five lapped car cushion over McLaughlin at the finish with Britten charging up to third. Sheppard would have his best run for fourth and Friesen would fade back to fifth after his early challenge for the lead. Again, the Big Blocks would show me more than I had previously seen from them with only one non finisher, one yellow flag in thirty laps and plenty of good, close side by side racing as I think they have been the stars of the week to this point, edging out the Late Models so far.
Speaking of the Big Blocks, they have a great spokesman for their series doing some guest announcing as Brett "The Corporate Jet" Hearn, a Hall of Fame driver and now promoter at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown New York, has been providing color commentary for the races the last couple of nights. He is well spoken and provides insight for the fans in the stands, many of whom aren't Big Bock knowledgeable fans.
Head Starter Dave Farney had a fan in the stands to thank on Thursday as he avoided a potentially embarrassing moment. The checkered flag blew down off the flag stand and landed below him but a nice fan retrieved it for Farney and Dave was able to reach back and grab it when he needed it to complete a heat race. He acknowledged the fan and both received applause from the spectators.
I'm not sure how many people recognized him as he walked the grounds on Thursday night, but one of Iowa's many Dirt Late Model Hall of Famers, Ed Sanger, was in attendance at VSP.
Special thanks to My Race Pass's Josh Rosen for providing us with some tools that will go to great use as the racing season progresses. If you are a fan of racing or if you own a race track and aren't using My Race Pass, you need to update yourself and start using one of the most handy tools ever conceived for use at a race track.
No comments:
Post a Comment