The Comp Cams Super Dirt Car Series opened up its season on Friday night, March 10th at the Historic Boothill Speedway, located in Greenwood Louisiana which is just West of Shreveport. On a night that saw more strange things happen than might be expected with Late Model racing over a long period of time and marked by some of the worst and roughest driving seem by Late Model drivers in quite some time, Logan Martin slammed his way to victory in the thirty lap main event after he knocked race leader Neil Baggett out of the way and into the wall on the twenty ninth lap of the race. It was an inglorious end to a night of racing that saw many poor racing decisions made by drivers in the premier class here this weekend.
Included in the Late Model antics on this night were several instances of drivers running over other drivers, leaders being taken out more than once in racing action and two flips by Late Model drivers with both Ross Farmer and Tanner Kellick both taking wild rides which fortunately produced no injuries.
It was a big night for the Comp Cams Series as for the first time they ran their events sanctioned as a part of the DIRTcar sanctioning group and World of Outlaws Late Model Competition Director Steve Francis was on hand on Friday to help direct the show.
It was a most challenging start to the weekend for the series officials and the officials and track workers of the Boothill Speedway as over night thunderstorms dropped over two inches of rain on the facility, turning much of the grounds into a muddy mess. When I arrived the track had just been opened up to let it air, and while they went about their business of opening the gates and parking the rigs I still had my doubts about whether or not there would be racing on this night. As it turned out, the track itself was the least of the problems officials faced.
The tractors and scrapers got most of the early activity as numerous haulers got stuck trying to get into the pits which were mud covered and the scrapers were used to try and move some of that mud so that the pits would be usable. Some rigs were already in the pits, having arrived for practice on Thursday night and they proved to be the lucky ones. The track itself was blinding fast and never did really slow down much over the course of the night. However, it did stay smooth and with much effort made to widen out the groove, including moving the infamous infield tractor tires in and out to force the drivers to race different lines, the racing surface was not the problem as for some reason the drivers seemed to have buckled their helmets just a bit tight on Friday, cutting off flow of blood to their brains and producing some very poor decisions.
An excellent field of forty one Late Models would sign in for the show and they were split into two qualifying groups and four heats. Garrett Alberson would be fastest overall at 13.495 seconds for the quarter mile while Dillon McCowan would top the other group. Before hot laps were completed the wildness started as both Jon Kirby and Jarret Stuckey would hammer the wall in hot laps with both able to make repairs.
The four heat races were also very eventful with the yellow waving multiple times and one heat that saw six yellow flags in eight laps of racing! For whatever reason, wild driving was prevailing on this night and the track can't be blamed for the majority of the nonsense.
Eventually, twenty one cars would qualify for the Late Model main event but not before Farmer would vault over the third turn wall and Kellick would do a wild spinning flip down into the infield mud in the B Features.
Alberson would sit on the pole for the Late Model feature but it was McCowan that would get the jump from the outside pole and lead the early laps. Kyle Beard would race up into second with Alberson and Jonathan Davenport right behind. The top four drivers would pull away from the pack but be running in fight formation on the high speed track.
Bad things would happen, however, when they caught the back of the pack. Two cars were racing for position and one drove right up over the other and they sideways into turn one with the leaders right behind. The car that instigated this wreck was also guilty of slamming another car into the mud during a heat race as he somehow inherited a provisional to start the main.
The four leaders came roaring into the corner and despite their efforts to avoid the mess, all four slammed into the stalled cars with quite the collision the result. All four were affected with McCowan, Beard and Alberson all having to pit to either change tires or fix nose pieces with Davenport was done with extensive damage.
Suddenly the fifth place car of a lap before, Neil Baggett, found himself as the leader of the race. For the next few laps and at the halfway point, Baggett would continue to hold the lead with Morgan Bagley moving into second. Spencer Hughes benefitted when Tyler Stevens suddenly slowed as he vaulted up to second, working the high side of the track. While Baggett continued to lead, Hughes would challenge Bagley hard for second. However, another case of brain fade would take place as Hughes drove right over Bagley as he attempted to pass him going into turn one, wrecking Hughes' car and forcing Bagley into a tire change.
This moved Logan Martin into second after he and Hunter Rasdon had fought hard for that spot. There would be ten laps left and Martin was all over Baggett, trying to find a way by the leader. Baggett adjusted his line on the track, moving up to block the charging Martin. They were very close as the laps ran down with them nose to tail as the white waved. Things would go South once again on the final lap as Martin would make a wild dive low into turn one, trying to get under Baggett with a move that never would have worked. As it turned out, he slammed into the side of Baggett who slid all the way up the track and slammed into the wall, with front end damage the result.
The yellow waved and with apparently no fault called no matter how rough the move, Martin was handed the lead for the one lap restart after he took out the leader. The one lap race to the checkered would see Martin get a good jump and hold off Rasdon to take the win. Those surviving behind them included Rick Rickman, Alberson, from the back and B.J. Robinson that would complete the top five. Only eleven of the starting field of twenty one were still around at the finish and most showed plenty of damage, even though they were still running.
Martin was very restrained in victory lane, as well he should have been since his victory was not a deserved one and despite his remorse, he still collected the five grand check as the winner while Baggett put his front end back on his car.
There were two support classes on this night and they were both weak in number and performance. The USRA Tuners and Sportster classes both ran full programs but there were less than two dozen of them between the two classes. The Tuners feature would see Jackson Gallagher start on the pole and lead from start to finish while not being challenged. Justin Converse would finish second with Brandon Harrod next in line.
The Sportsters is a new class in this area, apparently being debuted at Boothill last year and now being run by some of the other area tracks. To me they looked like some strain of Pure Stocks but there was even one pick up truck running in the class.
Alex Williams would start on the pole and run away for an easy victory. That is, until the tech folks could have a look at the car. While he got his victory lane photo taken with half the pit area joining him on the track for the shoot, the tech folks found something they didn't like and he was disqualified. This turned the win over to Chad Porter with John McCune and Dusty Dupont completing the top five.
The wet track and heavy pit area, which caused much time to pass until they were ready to race, plus the time trials which never go smoothly, caused the show to be delayed by just over two hours as the first green of the night waved at 9:08 pm. And with all the wrecks in the premier class and all the time needed to pull the cars apart, make necessary pit stops etc., the final checkered of the night didn't wave until 1 am. Then we had the treat of slogging our way back to our vehicles and with the water again rising, it was one of the muddiest messes I have seen since the last time I was at Pennsboro. However, the events of the night would be the thing that most folks will remember as it was certainly a wild night at the races.
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