After a drippy Friday night that forced the action to conclude prematurely, Saturday, February 18th would produce a sunny but very windy and unseasonably cold day for racing as the DIRTcar Nationals wrapped up at Volusia Speedway Park. However, while the temperatures may have been cool, the racing was plenty hot with two memorable feature races to leave the fans and competitors talking.
Hudson O'Neal, after having to run a Last Chance race and starting twenty third in the World of Outlaws Late Model feature, would pass Devin Moran with five laps to go and then hold off a Moran re attack on the last lap to earn a $20,000 victory while in the Big Block Modifieds, for the second straight night Mat Williamson would make a final lap pass, this time on Jack Lehner, to get the win and take home his second Gator trophy of the week.
The final night of racing would produce some spectacular action in both classes and highly entertaining races that had the huge crowd on their feet cheering
Fifty three Late Models would sign in to race on Saturday night with most notable absentees being Hunt Gossum and Donny Schatz after both blew up motors during the abbreviated Friday night action. The program would see the standard six heats for the Late Models, followed by three Last Chance races and the longest race for the Late Models this week at fifty laps. The track would slow down quickly during time trials with Brandon Overton and Chris Madden topping the two flights with Overton quickest overall at 15.886 seconds.
The six heats and three Last Chance mains would produce a few surprises and a number if the WoO regulars would find themselves on the outside looking in and having to rely on provisionals of some sort to get into the fifty lapper. There were owner provisional starters, driver provisional starters and series provisional starters and by the time the green flag waved, there were thirty cars to start the fifty lapper.
Tim McCreadie would start on the pole for the twenty grand to win race and would hold that spot for the first forty one laps of the feature with a variety of drivers chasing him for the lead. Chris Madden was strong early as was Brian Shirley and both following closely with them dicing for that runner up spot as well. Devin Moran was also moving up after starting eighth as he was producing his best run of the week.
Meanwhile, O'Neal was making steady progress as he drove to the front, mostly pounding the high side of the track and being dogged by Brandon Sheppard who followed him in that line around the track. With only one yellow in the first half of the race, there was plenty of time for the drivers to work around the track and find their best line unimpeded.
By the halfway point of the race, O'Neal had cracked the top five as he followed Moran with McCreadie still showing the way. They made four more laps before Mike Spatola stalled, bringing out the second and final yellow of the race,at which time O'Neal was now up to fourth.
Very hard racing would mark the latter stages of the race. Madden and Shirley, who had really challenged earlier, started to slip back in the field as O'Neal and Moran continued to hunt the front. McCreadie got into some very heavy traffic and it really started to bother him. He seemed unable to drive around the slower cars that were riding the low groove which was also his line and his times dropped.
Moran was really invigorated and he jumped on the opportunity by driving by McCreadie on the outside to take over the lead on lap forty two. O'Neal threw caution to the wind though and was flying on the high side. Moran, after making the pass for the lead, fell into the same trap that McCreadie had and hung just a bit too long on the bottom and with just five laps to go, O'Neal blasted past him to take over the lead.
However, the race wasn't over quite yet as O'Neal then dropped back to the bottom and Moran rallied, making one last all out effort to get the lead back. He threw a couple of slliders at O'Neal but just couldn't quite get the job done and came up just short as O'Neal's bold charge using all the track paid off in victory.
Very quietly, Ricky Thornton Jr would make another big charge as he had done a couple of times this week as he came from twentieth to nip McCreadie for third with Overton completing the top five.
Only seven drivers wouldn't be running at the finish and with just the two yellows, there was plenty of passing from front to back in the field on a track that held up very well to the pounding it took all week. A somewhat chagrined McCreadie would accept the Big Gator as the point champion for the week but he clearly was looking for bigger rewards, not the participation trophy.
Forty Big Block Modified drivers would sign in to race on Saturday which would produce four heats, a pair of Last Chance races and then their longest feature of the week by twenty laps as they would also go fifty for seventy five hundred dollars to win.
H.J. Bunting and Jack Lahner would be the quick drivers of their groups with Lehner quickest overall at 17.404 seconds. Plenty of extra provisional starters would also grace the Modified field as twenty eigh tof them would take the green with Justin Stone borrowing a car from Russ Morseman after his own pulled up lame.
Lehner would draw the pole for the Modified feature and he would take the early lead with Rick Laubach close behind. Erick Rudolph, Max McLaughlin and Jimmy Phelps would be in the top five for the opening laps. A slowing car would stop the action with thirteen laps complete and the restart produced the first lead change of the race when Pennsylvania veteran Laubach would drive around Lehner and take over the top spot.
And once in front, Laubach would then begin to drive away from the field as he opened up a lead that would balloon to nearly a full straightaway at one point. Even yellows on lap sixteen and twenty six would not bother Laubach who would pull away from the pack each time. Meanwhile, Williamson was starting to climb to the front after starting ninth on the grid. By the halfway point, Williamson was up to fourth as he passed McLaughlin and was putting pressure on Rudolph for third.
After having such a magnificant run through the lap thirty point, Laubach suddenly began to lose time and his lead was quickly trimmed by Lehner. It seemed that perhaps Lauback had run out of tires as he lap speeds really started to drop quickly and markedly. Lehner continued his march and on laps thirty eight he drove under Laubach for the lead, with Rick offering little resistance. He would then continue t to slide back, eventually ending up seventh.
However, Williamson was closing in and as Lehner got into lapped traffic, he had the same problem that was seen quite often all week, and that was for the leaders to get by the slower cars at the back of the field. Lehner chose to tail gate a couple of slower cars and on lap forty, Williamson blew past him on the top side for the lead.
Lehner saw his error and he moved up the track and he got a great run on Williamson, retaking him for the lead just two laps later. It appeared the Lehner had fought off the storm as he continued to hold off Williamson as the laps ran down. However, there was still lapped traffic to be handled and while Jack got by one of he slower cars, as he took the white flag, he chose to duck low and follow the other tail end car. This gave Williamson and opportunity and he moved to the top side of the track, raced past both the slower car and Lehner on the final lap and for the second straight feature, stole a win on the final tour. This race had some periods where not too much was happening but the last dozen or so laps really got interesting.
It was another great win for Williamson and Lehner joined the increasing number of drivers that got foiled by slower traffic at the end of their events. Rudolph, McLaughlin and Peter Britten would complete the top five with a half dozen drivers not on the track at the end.
Despite a really cold night, particularly after a warm week, the crowd was huge for the finale on Saturday. And really, crowds at the all the venues for these special events have been very good which must provide promoters of upcoming events some high expectations and hope.
As this DIRTcar series wraps up, I want to thank all the officials of the World Racing Group for their help. All the workers at Volusia Speedway Park really deserve a pat on the back as this series for them is quite the marathon from Sprints to Modifieds, Late Models and Big Blocks and lasts for several weeks. Especially a nod should go to the track prep crew. It's had to say how many hours they have spent circling the track, watering, grading etc. but the surface stayed good for the whole time and provided good racing conditions for all groups.
Personally, the wrap up here at Volusia brings and end to the longest racing adventure that we have ever partaken in. From Arizona to New Mexico and then various parts of Florida, we have been lucky enough to catch great racing at a variety of tracks and having been on the road for the better part of two months, we had only one full rain out! Now we migrate back to the Midwest where there is a Winter storm waiting and snow shoveling skills to break back out. However, Spring can't be that far away and it won't be too long before dirt flies in our part of the racing world.
Thanks again to all the promoters, drivers, crew members, track workers and fans that have made this a memorable experience.
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