Saturday, November 5, 2022

Schatz and Desjardins Are Winners at Charlotte on Friday Night

 It was night number three of the World Racing Group's World of Outlaws World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The combination on Friday night would see the Sprint Cars back after one night off and they would be paired with the Big Block Modifieds with the Late Models having Friday night off. Full shows including time trials, heats, Last Chance races and main events would be held for both classes with big money on the line and perhaps just as importantly, the opportunity to earn points that will set the lineups for Saturday night's finale. 

All forty two Big Blocks would be back for their second night in a row of racing although Keith Flach would have to roll out a back up car after badly wrecking his car on his trip into the third turn wall on Thursday night. 

All fifty two Sprint Cars would also return although Gray Leadbetter would move to a different ride for the Friday night show. 

The very first Sprint Car on the track to qualify produced the quick time of the night as Spencer Bayston would turn a 12,645 second lap with Anthony Macri second quick. The Sprint Cars were split into two qualifying groups and the two quickest times would sit on the pole for their respective heats. The second group found Cory Eliason quickest at 12.741 with Donny Schatz second fastest and they would also start on the pole for their heat races. The Sprints would run four heats, a C  Feature and Last Chance race before the thirty lap main event. Also, because of the size of the field, they would run a Non Qualifier race first on the program with the top cars in that event tagging the back of the heat races with the rest relegated to the back of the C Feature. 

The Big Blocks were divided into four groups with drivers qualifying against those that would run against them in their heat races. Again, all starts in heats would be straight up off qualifying with Billy Decker being the only driver under sixteen seconds at 15, 957. 

As this track produces blinding fast speeds, passing is always at a premium here  and with the concluding of the last of the qualifying heat races, we can declare that not a single driver in the three nights farther back than the first row of a heat race could take a win. That emphasizing just how important qualifying is as it takes a super human effort and a lot of luck to overcome any kind of gaff or mechanical issue during time trials. 

This night would produce one of the most interesting contrasts of all time for this event in terms of who the winners would be. One class would produce a winner who has been a ten time champion in his series while the other winner would be racing in this division for the first time in his career!

Twenty seven Sprint Cars would take the green for the thirty lap main event with an impressive front row featuring current series point champion Brad Sweet and Donny Schatz beside him. Sweet would get the jump from the outside and lead the opening lap with Schatz and Anthony Macri trailing him. Logan Schuchart would roll to a halt with four laps complete and be done for the night, putting a dent on his chances for Saturday night. 

There would be trouble on the restart as the second row cars would get together, launching Macri backwards into the first turn wall where he would get smacked several times, once when he was lying sideways on the track. He would be OK though, it a rather scary looking crash. 

Sweet would again grab the lead on the restart but Schatz, looking as racy as he has all season, went blasting by Sweet down the front stretch to take over the lead. Sweet would settle into second and try to track down Schatz with Cole Macedo and then Spencer Bayston taking over third. Schatz was very fast running the low line and getting a great launch off the turns and no matter what Sweet did, he wasn't able to cut into Schatz's lead. 

A late yellow would set up a two lap dash to the finish but there would be no stopping Schatz who got a great start and comfortably pulled away from the field to take the win. There was a scramble behind him though, as Cory Eliason, who had worked his way up to third, would get past Sweet in the two lap dash to the finish. Macedo and Tyler Courtney would complete the top five. Only six drivers would not go the distance and all were on the lead lap at the checkered. 

While a forty five year old veteran of many wars would win the Sprint feature, a first weekend driver in the Big Blocks would surprise everyone in the house by taking the feature race in that class. For the second straight night, a big field of thirty drivers would take the green for the Big Block feature and Matthew Desjardins, driving in only his second Big Block event, would take the early lead by out accelerating Billy Decker. While many in the crowd were consulting their programs to try and figure out who the leader was, Desjardins would continue to hold the top sport for the first thirteen laps of the main. 

However, Matt Sheppard was on the move, getting to second and then putting the pressure on Desjardins for the top spot. Sheppard would continue to push the issue and finally would get under Desjardins to take over the lead, one lap before the yellow flew for the first time for a slowing Ryan Godown. 

Sheppard would continue to hold the lead but Desjardins would continue to run tough as he remained in second. On the move was Tim Fuller who had started twelfth but got past Peter Britten to take third by the halfway point of the race. 

Another yellow flew with nineteen laps in the book when Marcus Dinkins slowed. Then, under yellow, the complexion of the entire race changed as Sheppard rolled to a halt on the front chute and took a push back to the pits, done for the night with some sort of mechanical issue. This gave the lead back to Desjardins with Fuller moving into second. 

The last eleven laps of the race would see a great battle between Desjardins and Fuller with Tim trying lap after lap to get under Desjardins in the turns. However, Matthew would never falter and slip out of the groove and despite Fuller pushing the issue, Desjardins refused to blink. Fuller had the opportunity several times to try a "dirty" slider but he instead chose to hold his line and Desjardins was quick enough to stay in front. 

A last lap attempt came up short and Desjardins would score a shocking win in one of the biggest races of the year over Fuller and a charging Demetrios Drellos who moved up late from ninth spot. Desjardins, a French speaking Quebec driver, gave a broken victory lane speech that included some English and a lot of French but he got his point across that he was pretty excited! A Small Block racer, this was his first weekend in a big motor under the hood but he was smooth and unflappable as he held off the veteran Fuller. 

For the second straight night, the show moved along at a much crisper pace than opening night and track officials were even able to get the poky Sprint Cars to pick up the pace. All racing was complete by around 10:30 pm and when the analysis of the two class programs is broken down, one thing that can be said is that it definitely helped eliminate some of the very long nights that have plagued this event in the past. 

Saturday night all three classes will be in action and that will put a test to this format, especially with extra distance races for two of the classes. The program, however, is scheduled to start two full hours early and in a blessing from above, there will be no time trials on Saturday with all lineups based on points earned for the first two nights. This should produce some interesting looking heat races and likely provide us with the best heats of the week as so far, they have been pretty predictable to this point. We are also likely to hear more about tires on Saturday as drivers have been talking about saving tires already this week in what have been truly pretty short feature races. Apparently the red clay surface here in Cabarrus County is extremely abrasive as well as being gritty and sure doesn't rival the Red Clay found in Douglas and Ashland Counties in Wisconsin.  

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