It was a busy night of racing on Wednesday night, February 15th at the Volusia Speedway Park as participation awards were handed out for the first time. Everybody got to race in a Late Model feature on this night with all drivers qualifying for one of three feature races that were run to wrap up the short week of racing for the UMP DIRTcars at the DIRTcar Nationals. Brandon Overton, Tim McCreadie and Chris Madden would win the three, twenty lap main events that were held while the Big Block Modifieds also arrived on site to run the first of four straight nights of DIRTcar Nationals action for them and "Mad" Max McLaughlin would dominate their thirty lap main event.
Disregarding my snide comment about "participation awards", the multi feature format where everyone on hand would get to run a feature actually worked out quite well I thought, although opinions on the whole idea would vary wildly from fan to fan and from driver to driver, largely depending on what side of the fence you were located.
Sam Driggers, UMP Director, came up with this idea which was used by the Modifieds last week where fields of nearly one hundred drivers were on hand, many of which never got a sniff of feature race competition until this format was used for one night. Liking the ideas, he also added it to the last night of racing for the UMP cars before the World of Outlaws takes over management of this racing the last three days of the series.
All drivers would draw for one of the three features held and then all would qualify like normal. However, there was one twist in that there would be a possible inversion of one of one to four in the feature lineup, depending by the number pulled by the last driver to qualify in each group. Things were only shuffled in one of the three groups though, as 1,1 and 4 were draw.
Fifty two Late Models would sign in to race on Wednesday night under beautiful sunny skies and temperatures approaching the eighty degree mark. New entrants on Wednesday would include Ryan Gustin, Colton Flinner who just arrived, Johnny Scott and Gordy Gundaker. After taking one night off, Blake Spencer would run with a new motor under the hood. However, calling it a week and packing up were Stormy Scott, Reid Millard, Austin Kirkpatrick and Kyle Larson who had to get back to his NASCAR responsibilities. Daulton Wilson would roll out a different car to race on this night that would later prove to be very fast.
It was a two Gator night at the Gator pond as for the first time this week, multiple Gators were seen swimming the pond, eyeing the small animals and kids as they searched for a treat. Just kidding, as the Gators are prized here and are protected with anyone messing with them getting the heave-ho from the grounds immediately. In fact, as the Gator swam by, Wild West Shootout promoter Chris Kearns was fishing in the same area as the Gator as they battled for food.
Strolling through the Big Block pits is always quite the culture shock and again this year, there are quite a number of French speaking Quebec teams entered and that provides a unique experience for a Midwestern based person who has heard a lot of different lingo spoken in the pits at various tracks, but seldom in French!
Overton, McCreadie and Madden would be the three group fast qualifiers in the Late Models but while each would eventually win a main, their paths to victory were quite diverse. The track was blazing fast for qualifying with Madden within a tenth of a second of setting a new track record. The heavily watered track would eventually come around but would lead to a fifty minute late start for the night's racing.
The five thousand to win, five hundred to start three Late Model mains would start either eighteen or seventeen drivers, depending and run for a quick twenty laps. Overton would start on the pole for the first feature and would dominate, leading all twenty laps and never being challenged as the very fast track allowed him to pull away from the field easily. A good battle for second saw Max Blair hold the spot while battling with Ashton Winger for the position but by the halfway point of the race, Winger had gotten it and would hold on.
One late yellow with only five laps to go bunched the field but Overton again pulled away from Winger to win easily as Blair settled for third. It was an up and down race for Bobby Pierce who charged up early, then went too high in turn two losing several positions and then he climbed back up to fourth at the end, nipping Brian Shirley for the spot.
McCreadie would start on the pole for the second feature and would lead only the first lap before Daulton Wilson would go screaming by him on the outside to take over the top spot. McCreadie would then pick up the pace and chase Wilson for the first half of the race until Wilson got caught up in traffic, had his momentum broken and McCreadie would get back around him to take over the lead.
After that the two would fly around the track with Wilson making several attempts to retake the lead but just not having quite enough to get past McCreadie who knows how to use the track and make his car wide when necessary without being obvious.
The only yellow of the contest came with just two laps to and set up a sprint to the finish but Timmy was up to it, pulling away from Wilson to take the win. Devin Moran would run much of the race in third but would have nothing for those in front of him while Mason Zeigler and Michael Norris would complete the top five.
The third feature race of the night produced a real head scratcher with more twists and turns than a cheap novel. The issue was flat tires and what was causing most of the front running cars to eventually pit to replace flat tires, and in some cases, multiple tires at the same time. At first it was feared that some sort of enemy balloon had drifted over the area and was targeting the Hoosiers, sending supersonic rays at them to cause them to loose air, but it was eventually determined that some sharp metal pieces had become embedded in the track, causing the issues.
Blair Nothdurft, continuing to show that he has arrived as a nationally recognized driver, would take the early lead from the outside pole and zinging around the cushion, hold the lead through the first half of the race. Hudson O'Neal would move up to second, getting around Chris Madden for that spot and following a yellow on lap eleven when Ricky Thornton Jr got a flat, O'Neal would blast around the top and get past Nothdurft to take over the lead.
However, Kyle Bronson would slow with a flat tire and the race would go under yellow once again. Then the leaders starting falling like dominos as first O'Neal had to stop with a flat and then third running Jimmy Owens did the same. Just when it looked like Nothdurft had retaken the top spot and we might be seeing a huge upset, he also had to pit with a flat right front tire and give up his position.
At this time, a huge search party was sent out on the track with the offending objects finally found while those few drivers left on the track were holding their breath that their tires would continue to hold air. The last six laps would see Madden pull away to get the win after inheriting the top spot when all the challengers pitted and Boom Briggs, one of the few lucky ones along with Madden, would hold off a charging O'Neal for second. Dennis Erb and Chase Junghans would be the others not pitting and they finished behind O'Neal is a strange race indeed.
Forty one Big Block Modifieds signed in to race on Wednesday night, their first of four straight nights of action here at Volusia. Their format was a bit different this year as instead of drawing for heat races and then qualifying against those cars, the field was divided into two large groups, they qualified and then were divided into heats, so they qualified not knowing who they were going to race against. Stewart Friesen and Mat Williamson would be the quick qualifiers with Williamson fastest overall at 17.213 seconds.
They would race in four heats, a pair of Last Chance races and would open up with a forty lap main event on Wednesday night. It didn't take them long to produce the first flip of the week as during a heat race, Adam Pierson would clip a spinning car and tip over, ending his night early. Interestingly, the Big Block quick qualifiers for each heat are allowed to pick whether they want to start inside or outside for their heats and all four saw the pole sitter pick the outside, after which all four were winners.
Twenty six cars would start the Big Block feature and it would turn out to be the Max McLaughlin show. He would get the jump on Erick Rudolph to take the lead from the outside before the only yellow of the race would wave with only a lap completed. Michael Parent and Louden Reimert would make hard contact in turn one, heavily damaging both cars.
On the green, McLaughlin would pull away from the field once again with the driver on the move being Matt Sheppard who would hook up on the inside of the track and dive under driver after driver as he made a quick advance from seventh to second. Also battling hard for position was Friesen while Williamson, Rudolph and Demetrios Drellos moved to the front.
McLaughlin would build up a comfortable lead and by the halfway point would hold a half a straightaway over Sheppard with Friesen, Williamson and Rudolph chasing. The long green flag stretch gave Sheppard his best chance to catch McLaughlin but he wasn't able to cut the margin much with the distance between the two ebbing and flowing slightly. However, McLaughlin continued to be fully in control.
With no yellows to tighten up the pack, McLaughlin would drive on for the unchallenged with with Sheppard settling for second ahead of Friesen, Rudolph and Drellos. Only five drivers did not finish the contest.
On Thursday night, the World of Outlaws Late Models will take over the premises with their first point paying race of the week, leading up to Saturday night's twenty grand to win main. The Big Blocks will also be running another full program at thirty laps for five grand to win.
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