Tuesday night, February 1st , the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series wrapped up their two night stand at Bubba Raceway Park next to the Ocala Livestock Market in Ocala Florida. Amidst the barking dogs, clucking chickens and bellowing cattle, the Late Models would wrap up their stay here at Bubba before heading up the road for three nights at the big half mile at All- Tech Speedway South of Lake City.
After letting a likely victory split away on the last lap Monday night, Devin Moran was not in a giving mood as he would totally dominate the proceeding on this night. He set quick time, won his heat and then, after starting on the outside pole for the forty lap main event, he would lead from start to finish to take the victory and the ten grand that accompanied the win. And the race itself would not be close with no one even able to offer any kind of stiff resistance to his run.
We are now just weeks into the 2022 dirt racing season and already the two most preeminent series have managed to "step on it" before their seasons have hardly started. The debacle at Volusia for the Sunshine Nationals where they served up a track that even the most ardent off road racer would probably shutter at was a less than stellar way to start the World of Outlaws season.
However, the Lucas Oil Series came back with their version of the infamous "cluster" themselves when they managed to start last night's program nearly an hour late due to the fact that they overwatered the track and without a lot of packing vehicles, the Late Models had to hot lap until they used up a set of tires before the track would be decent to race on. As it was, the outside lane never did open up on Monday night.
But the most disappointing thing was that after they saw their mistake, not only did they repeat it, but they actually managed to make it even worse with a much soupier track for Tuesday night's show. The first green flag waved two hours after the advertised starting time and by hustling things through, the did manage to complete the one class program just past 11 pm. I suspect that the Lucas folks weren't pleased either as they didn't have anything to do with the track prep as I believe that was within the realm of responsibility of the track owner and his people. But whoever had the task to prepare a racy but not muddy race track dropped the ball.
And on this night, some of the drivers decided it was too much as about a half dozen pulled out and did not race after signing in which ultimately made for several pretty lean, six car heat races after six were already counted on. Of course the Lucas Oil regulars did run but some of the others just felt it to be not worth it.
With this happens during a local show, there are always a few people that have the answers and make sure they let everyone know what should have been done. However, with a national event like this, "experts" from all parts of the country were in the stands, offering their "sage advise" on what the track prep people either did wrong or should have done instead. It proved to be a toss up as to what was most annoying, watching the pack vehicles circle the track for two hours or listening to all the "experts" in the stands bestow on us their sage advise.
Finally, just before I was ready to either leave screaming or punch one of the "experts" in the yap, thankfully the race cars started up and the actually racing program was a quick one for the second straight night.
Preliminary action saw all six heats won off the pole and frustrations start to mount as heat number four featured four yellows in the first four laps and the drivers were making plenty of contact with each other. For Mark Whitener it was a bad night as he qualifier well but failed the "droop rule" after ward. And then he became perhaps the first of the year to fail for a second time as he slammed his way up to second, only to not pass muster once again as he "drooped" too much still. And the only driver in his heat that hit more cars than Whitener was Tyler Erb as he continues to add to that list of other drivers that would just as soon put him into the weeds as say hello.
As far as the forty lap feature was concerned, it was a walk in the park for Moran who took the lead from the outside pole and would remain in front for all forty laps. Tyler Erb would elbow a few drivers out of the way while also making some clean passes as he moved from eighth into second but with several restarts giving him a clean shot at the leader, he had nothing to offer in the way of a challenge.
Ricky Thornton Jr seems to have a thing for this oddly shaped track as he made another strong run, coming from fifteenth to finish third. Brandon Sheppard has spent two nights here trying to make the outside groove work, along with a couple others and finally tonight they all gave up and dove to the bottom too, as for whatever reason, that part of the track never came in in the two nights of racing. Kyle Bronson had a good starting spot but had to go to a back up car and after starting on the tail, he finished sixteenth as the last car running on the track.
There will be plenty of frustrated drivers leaving the grounds here as several contenders expected to do well have yet to get untracked. Next up for Bubba in the open wheel cars of the USAC Midgets and Sprints and I suspect they will be much more welcoming to the big berms and heavy cushions that the track prep crew has developed so far during this early racing season for "Bubba's Army."
Meanwhile, the Lucas Late Model crew moves up I-75 toward Late City and the big half mile at All-Tech where clean air and keeping your car straight are all part of a winning formula while we all hope for more side by side action with passing.
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