Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Thornton Jr Performs Massacre on Valentine's Day at Volusia

 The Late Model group moved East across the state of Florida for their last week of the month of speed in the Sunshine State with them settling in at Volusia Speedway Park for the "DIRTcar Nationals" with the Late Models being the featured division for this week. However, it would also be the opening night for the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car series, a new series developed for the non winged Sprint Cars by DIRT Motorsports this year to be either a competitor or in compliment to the USAC Sprint Car group, depending on your take on the situation and what might develop in the coming years. 

In any event, on Monday night, February 14th, the field would consist of the UMP Late Models(the World of Outlaws doesn't start here until Wednesday night) and for the first time in over thirty years, the non winged Sprints. 

Track issues had been the number one topic of conversation among racers and fans alike in reference to Volusia after their "Sunshine Nationals" for WoO Late Models and a variety of other types of Late Models last month turned into a disaster when the combination of wet weather and a new racing surface turned the track into a high speed off road course, tearing up much equipment and sending the consternation level of the Late Model teams through the roof. However, much work has been put into the track since that debacle and the racing surface would prove to be much better on Monday night. Even as late as Sunday night, they were still scraping a whole layer of racing surface off the track and the huge piles of dirt inside and around the inside of the corners were testament to the amount of dirt taken off the track. It looks by now that they are pretty much back down to the old surface with none of the new dirt still left on the track. 

In fact, the track got packed down so hard on Monday, likely with the wide tires of the Sprints helping, that they had to take a pause before the feature races and water and scape a little as the track was taking rubber and that would have been a bad thing for the two mains. So they fixed that and the track seemed good for the two mains with no complaints voiced from the racers as it appeared fast, could be raced in various grooves and had a few bumps but nothing severe. 

We were informed that under the WoO method of measuring a race track, that Volusia isn't really a half mile but instead a .425 mile track so now it's claim to be the "World's Fastest Half Mile" track is false on two fronts because not only is it not the world's fastest, it isn't truly a half mile either! However, that is all just semantics anyway. 

With three classes on hand for the first two nights of racing this week(the Big Blocks were on hand for practice before they start racing tomorrow for real) the pits were crowded so all the Sprint Cars were pitted in the infield. This made for less than perfect viewing for the fans, even with the new high rise grandstands that were erected recently that make for a much  better view overall. Still, there is too much stuff in the middle when a full class of cars and their big trailers are in the infield. 

Remember last week when we were begging for a replay scoreboard at East Bay when the MAV TV announcers kept referring the viewing customers to watch the replays while we schmucks in the stands had nothing to see while they talked to the TV audience?

Well, this week we have two giant screens in the in field to watch replays and to see the time trials on. However, they are placed so that virtually everyone in the stands has two blind spots on the track, coming out of corner two and going into corner three. So now we have to watch the replay screens to see what we missed because the screens were obstructing our view of those same areas! Sometimes you just can't win. 

Because this is not an Outlaw race and doesn't pay as much money as some of the races later this week, there are typically some drivers that arrive, unload, do their maintenance on their Late Models but then load back up and don't race. That was again the case this year as there were actually ten drivers in the pits that opted not to run on Monday including Johnny and Stormy Scott, Chase Junghans, Josh Richards, Gordy Gundaker, Tim McCreadie, Ross Robinson, Earl Pearson Jr and Ulrich. Tanner English didn't run his own car but instead raced the car of Dylan Thompson and may do so again on Tuesday until the Outlaw points start. Jason Miller switched cars from what he was running at East Bay as he pulled out in Pierce car for this night. 

In addition, Jeff Mathews and Mikey Kopka drew but didn't race and Brian Shirley had trouble in hot laps and didn't run further. So, because of all the opt outs, the format was a bit different on Monday. The scheduled six heat races were combined into four big heats and a pair of B Features to set the grid for the thirty lap feature race. With no provisional starters for this event, it would be a twenty four car starting field. 

Ricky Thornton Jr would start on the outside pole and he would dominate, leading from start to finish and never being challenged for the top spot. He was very fast right from the start, moving to the high side and pulling away from Brandon Overton and the rest of the field. His biggest challenge would be lapped traffic as there was plenty of that and with the race going green to checkered, the leaders got strung out quite a bit. 

There were, however, some good battles for position behind Thornton Jr. Early on, it was Overton, Brandon Sheppard and Dale McDowell fighting for spots along with Darrell Lanigan. As the race wore on, Overton, Sheppard and Lanigan would all fade back some while Chris Madden and Devin Moran were the big chargers. Madden came from the fourth row and would make a determined run to the front, passing Overton for second with just a  few laps to go and then Moran did the same to Overton late in the contest. 

However, they had nothing for Thornton Jr who continued to ride the cushion, scramble through the traffic and not allow anyone to get too close as he drove on for the win in a real quick main. Overton and McDowell would close out the top five in a race that would see twenty two of twenty four starters still running at the end with six a lap down. Generally in these early week races, drivers would pull off quickly to save tires etc. if not doing well, but everyone apparently wanted laps on this night. 

Thirty seven non winged Sprints would sign in for this historic first ever Xtreme Outlaw Series Sprint Car event with the nonwinged strongholds of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Phoenix and California strongly represented. Their format would be an interesting one and much different than their winged counterparts. They would qualify by groups with the top four in each group inverted. Then they would race heats but passing points would be used to set the top sixteen drivers. Everyone else would race two B Features lined up by points earned in the heats. The top driver of the sixteen locked in would pull a pill to determine the invert and on this night, Robert Ballou would pull an "eight", the highest invert possible. 

They would start twenty two cars for twenty five laps with the winner earning five grand. The laps will be raised by five tomorrow night and the top prize by five grand. Carson Short would lead off the pole for just one lap before he was passed on the high side by C.J. Leary and once in front, Leary would lead the rest of the race for the win. 

The non winged cars would be all over the slippery track and would put on a good and clean show. Only one lap in, Brady Bacon would take a wild ride in turn one that saw him nearly vault over the fence but fortunately, that did not happen. Bacon, who has taken a series of epic wild rides this year alluded to the fact in this interview that he wished that pattern would end. He was OK but out with frame damage. 

Leary would take the lead on the restart and with only one other slow down for a minor spin, Leary would maintain his lead the rest of the race. A strong charge was put on by Justin Grant who would race into second but it would be too late for him to cut into the leader's margin as Leary would drive on for the win. Short, Chase Stocken and Ballou would complete the top five so you can see that there was a strong influence of USAC regulars on hand. How this will all play out in the future remains to be seen but series officials seemed very pleased with the opening night entry list. Of course, it comes right before the USAC cars race this coming weekend at Bubba, so that was a nice tie in. 

The Big Block Modifieds were also on hand for a series of practice sessions with over forty of them taking laps on this night. There was a lot of French being spoken in the Big Block pits as the visitors from Quebec have returned with their cars as the border is apparently now easier to cross. One minor complaint from me as the Big Blocks practiced in three sessions interspersed during the program. However, on a night when a rubbered up track was developing, I thought it could have been better to wait and have them practice after the other two classes had completed their program. Also, it was dang cold out on Monday on a very un Florida type night and with the racing running late and us freezing, just running the practice sessions during the program made it last longer than it needed to. I thought it would have been better to let the Big Blocks run at the end and then they could have practiced as long as they wanted, not for three quick sessions like they got. All three classes run full programs on Tuesday night, and everybody better be on their "A" game if we are to get the show done in a timely manner. Do you sense that I'm feeling that we are running too many classes? 


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