Thursday night, February 16th would be a spectacular night for racing as the DIRTcar Nationals rolled on at the Volusia Speedway Park near Barberton Florida. On tap Thursday would be the first night for the sanctioned World of Outlaws Late Model series to visit during the Nationals while the Big Block Modifieds of the Super DIRTcar Series would make their second straight appearance.
The weather was spectacular on Thursday as the great streak of weather this week has continued with sunny skies and gradually warming temperatures. For the Late Models, they would see their biggest car count of the week as fifty six drivers signed in to race on Thursday. Jonathan Davenport finally made his debut along with the two car Florida team of Jason Garver and Nevin Gainey while a surprising appearance on this big track was made by short track stalwart Freddie Carpenter. The fifty six car field moved the total compared to last year's event to within a couple of cars, continuing a pattern that goes way back to East Bay's shows.
One more Big Block entry signed in as Kyle Dingwall drove a second car out of the Corbin Millar team which allowed the Big Blocks to have exactly the same number of drivers on hand that raced in 2022.
Alternating the running order for these two classes as they always do here at Volusia, it would be the Modifieds that would run first with the Late Models following them. On a track that was just a bit drier than on Wednesday night, something that many of the drivers apparently hoped for, the two flights of Big Blocks would see Mat Williamson and Erick Rudolph set quick times. Williamson would be quickest overall at 17.217 seconds.
Four heats and a pair of Last Chance races would set the field for the Big Block feature with five coming out of each heat and two out of each Last Chance. A pair of DIRTcar provisional starters would make up the twenty six car field, racing for thirty laps on this night.
Demetrios Drellos would get the jump on fellow front row starter Rudolph and take the early lead. As Rudolph would settle into second, a great battle for third would see Williamson, Jack Lehner and Matt Sheppard battle for the position as they traded the spot amongst the three of them. Drellos was setting a blistering pace as he pulled away from the field and soon put Rudolph nearly a full straightaway behind him.
Williamson would settle into third and then gradually start to track down Rudolph for second as the midpoint of the race drew close. Last night's winner Max McLaughlin would start to march forward after starting ninth and moved up to challenge Sheppard for a top five spot. By the halfway point, McLaughlin had passed Sheppard for fourth.
With the race continuing under the green, leader Drellos got into some heavy traffic but he was doing a great job getting by them as he was passing nearly a car a lap as his hot pace continued. Williamson was on the move too as he got by Rudolph and set off after the leader. With ten laps to go, the lead was about a half a straightaway and it seemed unlikely that Williamson could provide a challenge.
But suddenly the lead started to shorten up, slowly at first but then more dramatically as the laps evaporated. With five to go, Williamson was just a few car lengths behind and still charging at it appeared that Drellos was starting to slip up in the corners and lose momentum. With two laps to go, Williamson was in a challenging position for the win and he looked for an opening. As the drivers took the white flag from starter Dave Farney, Williamson dove low into turn one and got under Drellos. Drellos tried to fight back but his car just slid up the banking as he lost traction and Williamson came out of the corner the clear leader. Drellos tried to fight back but he had nothing to offer as Williamson extended his lead through the final corner and drove home for the win. Drellos would finish second with Rudolph third.
Larry Wight would make quite a drive as after starting twenty second on the field, and with zero yellow flags to aid him, he would make a final straightaway pass on McLaughlin to get fourth, crossing the line with Hoosier rubber flying in the air as he blew a tire right in front of Farney.
With this race going nonstop for thirty laps, there were a lot of lapped cars with ten drivers finishing one lap in arrears. However, only three drivers did not finish the race in what was a smooth running affair. In fact, the whole Modified program was completed with the yellow flag waving only twice.
The Late Models would be split into two groups of twenty eight drivers, qualifying for one of six heat races on the card. Brandon Overton and Brian Shirley would be the two quick qualifiers with Overton quickest overall at 15.902 seconds. Those six heats would qualify three drivers each, plus two each out of three B Features. Because this was an Outlaw sanctioned program, the provisional and emergency provisional starters would then mount for all those not fast enough to make the show the old fashioned way but being part of the protected Outlaw fleet. Thus, twenty nine drivers would take the green for the thirty lap main event.
And who could have predicted that just like the Big Block feature, this race would go nonstop also and the winning pass for the lead would come on the final tour. Overton would get the lead as he would beat Chase Junghans into turn one and grab the top spot. Pierce, Tim McCreadie and Dale McDowell would soon provide plenty of action as they battled for third. Pierce would take that spot eventually after trading lines on the track with Tim M. and then he would drive into second with McCreadie following him.
That was the running order at the halfway point of the race with Junghans continuing in the top five while Hudson O'Neal worked higher on the track as he looked for a faster line to move up. The top three would run with just about the same distance between them for a number of laps, with no one seemingly gaining much of an advantage as they varied slightly from lap to lap but never was there a concerted charge put on.
This changed, however, in the last ten laps of the race when Overton caught the back of the pack. There were not a lot of lapped cars but there was a pair that were running side by side, very evenly spaced and Overton just couldn't get past them. He appeared to hope that the race would end before he would have to make a move as the outside line hadn't produced much success and trying to jump out there might prove risky.
However, this gave Pierce his chance as he quickly closed up on Overton in the waning laps of the race and looked for a line around the leader. As they took the white flag, Overton was feeling the heat and he apparently decided that riding the low groove behind the slower cars wasn't going to work so as he rolled into turn one, he tried to slide around the slower cars. The result was the front end pushed up the track while at the same time Pierce found an opening next to the rail, was able to drive under both Overton and the slower cars and take the lead. Overton made one last push in turn four to regain the lead but his cross over move came up a car length short and Pierce would drive home for the win. It was a surprising conclusion to what looked like a pretty pat race. McCreadie would stay with the leaders for third while Junghans would have a nice run for fourth and O'Neal would complete the top five. Only two cars in the big field were not running at the completion of the race.
A mammoth crowd was on hand even though there was plenty going on at the "Big Track" down the road and as there has been for most of the January and February racing action, the crowds have been large, hopefully a good sign for the coming racing season.
Two feature races both decided with thrilling passes on the last lap and a show completed before 10 pm. What more could a race fan ask for?
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