The Can-Am World Finals for the World Racing Group's top three divisions kicked off on Thursday night, Nov. 7th at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The center steer Big Block Modifieds, Late Models and Sprint Cars would all be participating in their last two full shows of the 2019 racing season. New this year, and I think the first time that this has happened for a number of years, two of the three divisions are so close that the final point standings have yet to be tallied and only Brandon Sheppard, in the Late Models, has a comfortable enough advantage over his competition that his World of Outlaw Late Model title has already been guaranteed. Both the Big Blocks and Sprint Cars are going to go right down to the wire and some fast Math will be done on Saturday night to determine just who the national champions will be. Matt Sheppard and Matt Williamson are fighting it out in the Big Blocks while it is defending champion Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet racing for the title in the Sprint Cars.
Thursday turns into a mad scramble for all the teams that didn't get to the track in time on Wednesday before they locked the pit gate and made the rest wait until Thursday morning. When the gates finally open, it is a wild scene as transporter after transporter barrels into the pits to find their assigned parking spot, unload their race car and get everything situated and their cars through tech so they are ready to roll for the hot lap sessions that start the action.
Even more urgency than normal was required as the racing programs for all three nights had been moved up to an earlier time. Thursday night's show was facing the prospect of rain while the rest of the weekend was predicted to promise below freezing temperatures and miserable cold conditions. A fine state of affairs that is! I could have stayed home and froze to death if I had wanted. I was hoping for something much better down here. So all three days the programs will start an hour early, hoping to beat the rain on this night while trying to wrap up things just a little bit earlier on the other two nights and beat the worst of the cold and wind. It doesn't sound pleasant.
By the way, the trip down to Charlotte was the worst ever with a major road closing due to a chemical spill in a tunnel at the Virginia border causing a reported three hour delay for those that chose to wait it out. We did some "snake trail" exploring through the back roads of Virginia and eventually got to where we wanted to go, but it was not a great way to end a long trip with frayed nerves.
Car counts were down slightly for the 2019 edition of this event, perhaps due to the expected less than pleasant weather. Big Blocks had four less cars than last year, Late Models had seven less while the Sprint Cars actually had one more car than last year. In total, one hundred and sixty cars were on hand to take to the four tenth mile, red clay oval that sits across the street from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The grandstands here hold fourteen thousand people with the pit area adding thousands more and everything but a few obstructed view seats having been sold out for Saturday night's finale although I've got to believe that the cold weather will keep a few people home.
World Racing Group qualifies all classes of cars so the program on Thursday, once the fun of seeing just who is on hand has been answered, is to endure time trial laps like you have never seen before. Patience is definitely a virtue on this night.
The Modifieds and Late Models qualify four or five cars at a time on this track while the Sprint Cars run single laps against the clock. So you get to see one hundred and sixty cars run a pair of timed laps to determine their starting positions for the first night of racing. However, we aren't quite done yet. They all come back out again and all one sixty go through another set of timed laps for the second night of the program. The only true racing seen on this Thursday night is that the Big Blocks then run two sets of heat races which determines their starting order for the main events on Friday night and Saturday night. On the bright side, Friday and Saturday will be race only nights with the time trials finally all completed.
As stated previously, rain was on the way for Thursday night and to the credit of the World Racing Group, they recognized this and tried to move things along as quickly as possible. Some years it seemed like they did an inordinate amount of "dinging around" before they got the time trials all done ,but this year they really moved the show along. The Big Blocks qualified first and then the Sprints and Late Models had hot laps followed by their two sets of time trial laps. Interspersed among all this, the Big Blocks also ran off their first set of four heat races with this setting the running order for the Friday night feature race.
Rain was on the radar and officials were racing through things as fast as they could. It was announced that if the Late Models didn't get fully through their second round of time trials that their first set of laps would set the running order for both Friday and Saturday night shows, with their first and second laps used for different nights. And with the first rain scheduled to arrive by 7 pm, it was within minutes of that points when the rain did indeed start to fall. There were still eleven cars left to qualify so the second round of times was scrubbed and all Late Model lineups would come from the first set of qualifying. The second set of Modified heat races was also washed out and will be run the first thing on Friday night. Super Dirt Car officials have also decided to forgo all the Last Chance races on both Friday and Saturday so it is possible that up to thirty eight cars would start each feature race!
Of course, much attention was paid to how the point battling Modified drivers and Sprint Car drivers qualified as the starting positions for the features are of paramount importance based on the archaic way that the cars are lined up.
Sweet has an eight point lead over Schatz in the Sprint Cars and while Donny will start on the front row of his heat both nights, Sweet had a bad lap and will start farther back on I believe Friday night. They are all racing to make the top two in the heats so they can make the redraw for their mains, all that is important.
Interestingly, the Big Blocks apparently give points for their heats and qualifying while I don't believe the other two classes do. This allowed Williamson to tie Sheppard as he finished one spot farther up in his heat, although both made the redraw and Williamson was also the fast qualifier in his group which awarded him an extra five points. They will start heats on Friday in a flat out tie.
Josh Richards caught a bit of a break with the rain. He was quick qualifier for the first round of time trials and with the second round not completed, they reverted back to the first lap on the first round to determine the second round lineups and he was fastest for that too, so he will start up front in a heat both nights.
Demetrios Drellos and Billy Decker will start Modified heats from up front for both their nights. It should be pointed out also that all four Big Block heats were won right off the pole, again the product of their starting the fast cars right in front, just as their brethren in the other classes do. Hopefully some heavier racing will take place the rest of the weekend.
With the rain pounding down and all the race cars scrambling to load up, it didn't take officials long to decide that all activity was done for the night so everything was wrapped up at the track by shortly after 7 pm, which was a boon for the local establishments in the area. For tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, it will be swapping the rain coats for the long johns.
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