The third season of the Castrol FloRacing Night in America began on Tuesday night, April 18th at Tony Stewart's palace of speed, the famed Eldora Speedway near Rossburg Ohio. For Tennessee driver Mike Marlar, he would be the dominant driver for most of the race but it still took some bad racing luck by Hudson O'Neal to guarantee that Marlar would find victory lane and earn $23,023 for his fifty lap win.
This would be the first night for the Castrol FloRacing Night in America and the combination of it being the first Castrol race of the year, plus the healthy purse and point fund provided and it being Eldora all combined to produce a power packed field on Tuesday night. Fifty four drivers would sign in for the Late Model field which produced some highly competitive racing. With only twenty two spots available for the feature race and guaranteed starters, it was inevitable the a considerable number of top flight drivers would watch the feature race from the infield and as usual with this type of racing, time trial qualifying would set the lineup order so that would be a very important part of the program.
Along with the Late Models, the UMP Modifieds and Stock Cars or Super Stocks, they were called both over the course of the evening, even by the track announcer so I don't know just what their official title is, were also in action. And a boosted purse for them would see big fields of both as everyone wants to race on tv with fifty Modifieds and twenty two Super Stock Cars racing. This would later lead to a longer than hoped for program as both classes qualified, much to the consternation of Flo officials and their lengthy qualifying session led to a starting time of the program at 8:30 pm, much too late for a Tuesday night in April.
However, while the other two classes struggled with their programs from time to time, the Late Models were "spot on" from start to finish and actually produced a program that saw them race in nine events with a total of only three yellow flags.
Qualifying would preview what the night would produce when Marlar, as the last driver out for group one, would set fast time at 15.223 seconds. Group two would see Nick Hoffman quickest at 15.470 seconds. The Late Model program would consist of six heats, two gigantic Jeff Broeg sized B Features which took only a pair of drivers out of each and the finale which was a fifty lap main.
Twenty two cars would start the main with Marlar, drawing the pole, shooting off into the early lead. Only four laps could be completed before the yellow waved as Earl Pearson Jr. slowed with motor problems. Back on green, Marlar would pull away as Hoffman fought to hold off Jonathan Davenport, Bobby Pierce and Tim McCreadie.
There would be a considerable length of green flag racing with the drivers going forty six laps before the yellow would wave once again. Marlar caught a lot of lapped traffic but he was great as he moved both high and low to get past the slower cars as only twelve drivers remained on the lead lap by the end.
Eventually, Davenport would drive into second with McCreadie third but neither could cut into Marlar's lead. Then it was Hudson O'Neal that caught fire as he started fifth and then languished back in the field for a number of laps. Suddenly he found a groove high up on the track near the wall and he picked up speed considerably. He caught and passed both McCreadie and Davenport and drove by them like they were standing still. Marlar still had a big lead but O"Neal began to cut into that also and he was soon in a challenging position.
On lap forty four he drove by Marlar for the lead, using that same high line and passing Mike easily. Then he pulled away and it looked like victory would be his. But you never know in racing and that high side line that had found him the lead then came back to bite him. O'Neal got into the wall hard that slowed his progress as Marlar closed in and then again, on the back chute, he hit even harder and this gave him a flat right front tire. He slowed, Marlar drove back past him for the lead and the yellow would wave.
Marlar would then just have to hold on for three laps which he did as he pulled away comfortably to take the win. However, Davenport faded at the end with McCreadie first getting past him and then Tanner English finding a good line right on the bottom of the track and he drove under Davenport also to get third. Brandon Sheppard would complete the top five. There was considerable passing under the long green with English, Brandon Overton and Ricky Weiss all gaining a number of positions. The win was Marlar's first ever FloRacing victory.
Race fans will likely remember that they watched the Modified feature on this night and the reason was that Kyle Larson established another memorable feat to add to his resume. On this night he made his first run in a UMP type Modified and lo and behold, he would also win his first ever. He started sixth and after a first lap yellow when Ethan Dotson hammered the wall, the race would go green to checkers, .
Larson started slow as Drake Troutman took the initial lead but would only hold the lead for two laps before Trevor Neville would drive under him and take over the top spot. The Illinois driver was running good on the low side of the track by this time Larson was picking up speed as he went to the banking ans started to pick off driver after driver, quickly moving into a challenging position.
After just a few laps, Larson had caught Neville and he blew past him on the outside to take over the lead, after which he quickly stretched his advantage. With the race staying under the green, Larson drove away from the field in a big way and lapped up to the ninth spot by the time the checkered flag flew.
Making a late charge was Tyler Nicely who started sixteenth on the grid. In the closing laps he drove under Neville to take second but no one had anything for Larson, who now has won feature races at Eldora in seven different divisions!
The Super Stock Cars had a nice main event also. Ernie Woodard would lead from green to checkered but it wasn't quite as easy as that would sound. The early laps found the drivers racing three wide for the lead but each lap, Woodard would edge back in front. The only yellow came at the halfway point when third running Jeff Matheny would spin as he pushed for the lead just a bit too hard.
The late going would see Woodard challenged hard by Kyle Moore but Woodard would hold off the challenges to take the win. Jarrod Klay would make a late drive up to finish third.
While the program moved along at a decent pace once we got qualifying out of the way, the long time it took to do that made for a late start that made for a late finish. If only we could somehow convince the powers that be that it isn't necessary to qualify every class every night and focus on what the highlight class is and make sure that on a week night the show gets done early, it would be a major breakthrough. However, don't hold your breath for that to happen.
The jumbotron was gone from the track, having been sold reportedly to Kokomo Speedway. A new one is slated for construction starting on Wednesday but in the meantime, there wasn't even a lap board available for us on Tuesday. However, that will soon be changed.
Thanks to all the track officials at Eldora and also the FloRacing officials for their help. To be in the infield is one of the awesome feelings in the world of short track racing for sure.
This blog is dedicated in memory to Allan Brown.
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