The Late Models of the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series were on the road again, this time making the short pull up I-75 from Ocala to the Lake City area where they settled in for what is hoped to be the first of three nights of racing at Wendell Durrance's All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville. Joining the Late Models on this night would be the local Street Stocks who will also be getting to run for three straight nights also and would prove to be a good support class for the Late Models with a very workable number of them and few issues when they were on the track.
The change from Bubba to All-Tech is quite a profound one as the racers would go from a tight, third mile that is oddly shaped to a big half mile with extra long straightaways. The racing surface would also be as different as night and day as the Bubba folks had that track "juiced up" for both nights while All-Tech gets as slippery as slippery can be and the way the drivers struggled on Thursday to get their cars to turn reminded me much of how the Modified drivers struggled to get their cars to turn at East Bay.
The faces in the pits did change also and while the Lucas Oil regulars, those that will be chasing the national points, were all in attendance, some of those that come and go with the tides did change. Tanner English, Jeff Mathews, Boom Briggs, Josh Richards, Ryan Gustin and Chase Junghans were among those that raced at Bubba and apparently decided to take the rest of the week off and retool for either East Bay or Volusia. None, by the way had done much previously earlier this week.
Among the replacement cars was the three car powerhouse of Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport and Chris Madden, any of which was certainly capable of taking home the big money. Forty three cars would sign in to race on Thursday for ten grand to the winner with that top money going on as we get deeper into the weekend. Seventeen Street Stocks would also be in the pits.
All-Tech started life as an asphalt track and the way it is laid out still bares a resemblance to that former life with a concrete pit road in the infield for pit stops in another era and the shape that many asphalt tracks have which is long chutes, fairly tight corners and jus a bit narrow down the straightaways. much has been done to improve it since it took on a new life with more banking in the corners and lots more bleaches brought in for the fans in recent years.
One thing that it is missing that would add to the fan experience is a scoreboard with a lap counter and a place to post time trials as the pa system is sketchy from time to time. Lighting and all the other things that make a track nice are in place.
Early on the drivers learned that the corners were slight and to miss your line through the corners by only inches would result in a badly pushing car up the track and problems. Drivers were trying a number of different lines during qualifying with some hugging the bottom while other ripped the top side up against the wall. Early on it was clear that Brandon Sheppard was going to be a big factor as he set quick time overall at just over seventeen seconds.
Larger heat races were run on this bigger track with four heats and a pair of B Features setting the stage for the forty lap main event that would start twenty six cars including provisional starts for four drivers.
Ricky Thornton Jr and Sheppard would start on the front row and after Thornton Jr would get the jump at the start, that green would be called back when a couple of cars got together briefly in turn four. The second attempt would see Sheppard take the lead and except for one lap when he was battling for the lead with Thornton Jr and Ricky would get scored the leader at the line, it would be Sheppard all the way for the win.
Early on the front row drivers would battle side by side with Thornton Jr getting beside Sheppard on a number of occasions but Brandon would use the high side to shoot back into the lead, time and time again. Eventually the top side would start to go away and all drivers would migrate to the low groove but by that time Sheppard had pulled away into the lead and his only challenge would be lapped traffic.
With the slower cars not wanting to give up the groove, getting around them would prove to be a challenge as the second lane was very tricky and Sheppard did get briefly into the turn two wall while trying to do exactly that. However, with a surgeon's touch, he deftly maneuvered past the slower cars while Thornton Jr had even more trouble and with a long green flag run between laps nine and thirty seven, Brandon opened up a big lead.
However, a spin late set up a three lap dash to the finish and things changed considerably in that three lap shootout. It was particularly bad for Thornton Jr who dropped from second to fifth in those three laps. Davenport, who had been working his way up after starting seventh, got by for second but then on the final lap he lost power, from an electrical gremlin he believed, and Devin Moran, who had done little wrong so far here during Speed Weeks, was able to drive past the halting Davenport off the final corner to finish second after starting fifteenth as a poor qualifying time put him behind the eight ball early. Shane Clanton would hover in the top five all race and would finish fourth ahead of Ricky. Eight cars would not finish the event, there would be no big wrecks and everyone should be back and ready to race on Friday night.
The only significant issue was when Daulton Wilson, a rookie contender, blew his motor on the first lap of his heat race and went to a back up car for the main event, unusual only because it wasn't just another car with the same livery but a totally different numbered car with different sponsors etc.
I was worried that we would go all the way through Florida Speed Weeks and not see a single "Bubba" driving a race car but that concern was taken care of on this night as included in the Street Stock field was Bubba Bodiford plus another unusual name in Robo Hutchinson.
The Street Stocks would draw for their heat race lineups(thankfully no time trials for this class) and then start the feature straight up off the heats. It would be brothers Mike Stalnaker and Jeff Stalnaker Jr battling it out for the win after they started side by side in the front row.
Jeff would lead the first nine laps with Mike close behind until he went to the top side and swept past his brother just at the halfway point of the race. A late yellow would set up a three laps sprint to the finish but there would be no change in leadership as Mike would drive on for the win over Jeff and Heath Walker, one of three Walkers racing on this night. Interestingly, while the Late Models used the Delaware restart method, the Street Stocks lined up side by side for their restarts, much like the Sprint Car series use.
When the Lucas Oil folks are given a track that is ready to race on, they put on one of the fastest shows around. On this night, when time trials started on time as the track was ready, they were racing before 7 pm and their whole portion of the event was done before 9 pm and the Streets wrapped things up before 9:30 pm, just as it should be for a week night event
Joining James Essex in the announcing booth on Thursday and doing the Street Stocks was track publicist Joe Kelly and they made a good pair calling the action, when they could be heard as the sound system was just a little on the cranky side from time to time.
A good sized crowd, probably the biggest of the events I have seen so far, and lots of campers across the road, were on hand with two straight nights featuring the same duo set to go.
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