Maresca and Overton On Top at VSP

 The 2021 DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park West of Daytona Beach is winding down. After nearly a month of nonstop short track racing, we are down to our last two events here at VSP with just one more show after the Friday night, February 12th event that once again featured two of DIRTcar's more popular divisions, the Late Models and Big Block Modifieds. 

Friday would be the third night for the Late Models to run under the World of Outlaws banner along with two nights with UMP in charge while it would also be the fourth night for DIRTcar to sanction the Big Blocks .

It has been a frantic week of racing for all concerned with both the race teams, track officials and fans starting to show just how much work even being a spectator is at such a long series. The teams are getting tired, understandably so, with perhaps a record number of motor changes, car changes and repairs already executed this week and last night's 2 am rain delayed event was such that it sent several teams "over the top", deciding that it was time to call a halt to the fun and head back home to reality. 

After last night's conclusion, a number of teams decided to head out and the pit area had some significant holes in it on Friday night. We went from a car count of fifty one to just thirty eight Late Models which is quite a small number for this series. Among the teams not mentioned in previous posts that had endured significant problems, after Friday night the Finley, Willard, Stone, Collins, Thornton Jr and Owens teams all headed out. One other team was asked to leave after an altercation following Friday night's long show. 

Joe Godsey was driving the car of team owner Jeff Roth after his own car was sidelined and Scott Bloomquist rolled out a different car that had a slightly different look to it. Brandon Sheppard would have changed a motor for Friday and that is only the ones that I am aware of; there may have been others also. 

The driver's meeting was a short but stern one on Friday with all drivers required to attend. It was led by Head Tech person Ken Kenneda and he was not happy. Apparently a whole series of issues having to do with tech issues came to a head on Thursday night and he made it clear at the meeting that it was time for everyone to start following the rules and giving his tech people the respect that they deserve. It was one of those "come to Jesus meetings" that no one had better have any smart comments to make. It was brief and was professionally delivered but it was clear that Kenneda and his crew had taken all they were going to. 

With the smaller field, they ran just four heats and two Last Chance races before getting into their forty lap main event. 

Over in the Big Block pits, they had lost a few cars too and were down to twenty seven so their program would again be just three heats and a main event with no Last Chance race needed.  

This smaller agenda would likely lead to a quicker program and that is what would be needed on this night as the weather forecasts were all pretty threatening with a high chance of rain just about race time. Fortunately, this didn't happen and other than some lightning to the North of the track, the evening remained dry but the track officials pushed things along anyway with the final race being done by around 9:30 pm , which felt really good after last night's very long evening. 

Devin Moran and Bobby Pierce seem like magnets drawn to each other with a number of spectacular encounters between the two of them having already taken place this week, it happened once again as they were in the same heat race and they went at it again, with Pierce making a pass for the win as the crowd held their breath. 

Pierce had also somehow managed to be the center of several "soap opera" moments this week from his win racing for a dear family member that they lost the day of his win, his drama with tech over his deck height which then manifested itself into the drama of blowing a tire while leading what would have been his first WoO Late Model win and once again it happened on Friday. His spirited duel with Moran in his heat resulted in a win but also a hurt motor that they discovered would need to be replaced. He got to see on tv as his crew struggled to replace the power plant before the main event where he was scheduled to start on the outside pole. But they didn't have enough time to change the motor and Pierce was forced to borrow Reid Millard's car for the main. He had to start in the back of the pack and only made a couple laps before pulling off, so he still hasn't won that first WoO main. 

And to show just how balanced and even the Late Model field is here this year, another new winner emerged when Brandon Overton led all forty laps to take the win and ten grand on Friday night. Kyle Bronson got the lead but Overton passed him before a lap was completed and would lead the rest of the race. He built up a big lead running the low line as Bronson, Brent Larson and Rick Eckert battled behind him. 

Moran went to the high side and was on the move until he knocked off half his spoiler on the wall which slowed him down. It was heart break for Larson who was firmly on his way to his best finish ever with the WoO when contact between himself and Chris Madden resulted in a flat tire and a stall on the track. 

Yellows breed yellows and the restart saw Ricky Weiss hit the front stretch wall hard and take Ryan Gustin and Blake Spencer for a ride also, resulting in much damage to all three. 

Moran had fallen back to fourth but in the brief five lap sprint to the finish he powered back to the top and into second and it looked like he might provide a late race challenge. But Overton was hooked up on an open track after he fought through lots of lapped traffic which was giving him problems and he pulled away at the end. Bronson hung on for third ahead of Madden and Eckert in a race that had only the two yellows and eight out of twenty eight not making the checkered. 

The Big Blocks did even better than the Late Models with only one yellow in their thirty lap finale. The first half of the race was pretty entertaining until the track suddenly took rubber and then it quickly turned into a "train" race with the lapped cars holding back the front runners and no one able to gain a spot. 

Mike Maresca led right off the pole with Matt Sheppard trailing him. Sheppard moved up the track and started to have success as he challenged Maresca several times for the lead but just couldn't quite pull off the pass. However, he continued to press and it seemed that he would have more opportunities as the field caught the back of the pack. 

However, just about then the track changed rapidly and everyone quickly migrated to the inside where they lined up in single file order as the track had taken all the racing it could handle. Maresca actually won the race when he made tricky second lane passes on three lapped cars while Sheppard got hung up behind the same cars and couldn't get by, thus giving Maresca the buffer he needed. 

The late yellow with five laps left gave Sheppard one more chance but he was more concerned with holding off Billy Decker for second than focusing on trying to catch Maresca. Behind Decker, it was Billy VanInwegen and Peter Britten in the top five. Stewart Friesen was away from the track for the second straight night, running the trucks at Daytona International which meant that for the second straight night a new winner was likely to emerge. Only three of the starting field failed to finish the event. 

It was a very smooth if not the most spectacular of nights at the track and it seemed like the relative calming effect of the quick and mostly clean program had a beneficial effect on all involved including those in the pits and those that had put in a very long night on Thursday, either those working or those that stuck it out for the many hours to finally see racing. 

Moran and McLaughlin Top Rainy Night at VSP

 Thursday night, February 11th the presiding two divisions at Volusia Speedway Park this week, the World of Outlaw Late Models and the Big Block Modifieds, were back in action once again. Conditions were aligned for a fast race track on this night as sit was humid, the track had been watered generously and the skies clouded over, making for oppressively muggy conditions that would hold the moisture in the racing surface. 

After several hard nights of running on this high speed and somewhat bumpy track this year, mechanical issues and failures are starting to be more prevalent. Bomb Briggs, Jeff Mathews and Mark Whitener for sure have all switched cars for this Thursday night show and they may well have been others that I was not aware of. Also, the first defections of the week started to appear as Spencer Hughes, Josh Rice, Donnie Chappell and Clay Harris, who had all raced previously here this week, left and headed home. And before the night was over there would be a number that would follow that lead. 

In the Big Blocks, Jeremy Smith headed home while Tim Fuller, who had problems with his own car, was able to step into a back up car provided by Mike Maresca so he could continue to race. Of course, the biggest news was that Stewart Friesen, winner of both of the Big Block shows so far, would be committed to his NASCAR duties on this night and wouldn't be available to race, thus ensuring that a new winner will be crowned in this class. 

The "hammer down" qualifying saw Devin Moran turn the quickest lap at 16,054 seconds to ensure the pole for a heat race. It also saw Tim McCreadie hurt his motor and Ashton Winger, who hurt his in hot laps, would both join the parade of drivers heading out the pit gate. 

The skies would get increasingly angry looking as the sun set and three laps into the third Late MOdel heat, it began to rain. And it did rain for quite some time, hard at certain points and then backing off. Eventually the rain would stop and the track crew would get back on the racing surface and make the long hard task of getting the racing surface decent to race on again. It was a slow process but surprisingly, a good number of tough race fans stuck it out and after three hours of waiting, the racing continued again well after 11 pm with still most of the show to be completed. 

Three remaining heat races and thee Last Chance races still had to be run in the Late Models while the Big Blocks had their four heat races to run also. A number of teams loaded up after they saw the very heavy conditions they would have to run in and the rest of the preliminaries saw some diminished fields take the green. However, track officials kept things moving along and those left to race continued to battle. 

The way the order of events played out, even though the Late Models were scheduled to be the first main on this night, it was more convenient and helped expedite the show to have the Big Blocks run their feature first. All the cars in this class were eligible to run the main but due to attrition and some opting to park, there were twenty seven that took the green flag and they couldn't get through the first corner before producing a big wreck. 

Two of the biggest names in the sport, Matt Sheppard and Peter Britten, were both turned around into the wall when "Mad Max" McLaughlin, slid up the track and clobbered Sheppard who in turn drilled Britten. Sheppard clearly expressed his feelings when he pulled up and parked nose to nose with McLaughlin during the yellow flag before both He and Britten headed for pit lane for repairs. Later Sheppard would make his point even more apparent and McLaughlin showed up at the track the following night with a "shiner" and a fat lip. 

Jimmy Phelps would lead briefly before McLaughlin, not penalized although he clearly caused the wreck, would drive into the lead. After that he maintained the top spot through a series of four more yellows with the last coming on lap twenty three. 

Suddenly however, a serious contender emerged when Billy Decker, running fifth, opted to try the high side of the track, a lane that others were not using. It took him a bit to build up some momentum there but once he got it figured out, he started to move forward quickly. Turns three and four were particularly beneficial to him as he clearly was gaining big chunks of ground there. With just a couple of laps left, he appeared primed to make the outside pass on McLaughlin that would give him the lead. 

Unfortunately however, Max got the sign somewhere that he had better move up the track and as Decker raced down the back chute, McLaughlin moved up the track just in the nick of time to cut Decker off and while Billy tried to make a cross over move on the last lap, it was too late and McLaughlin would take the win, one that didn't quite feel right to some of us. Maresca would made the charge of the night as he would march forward from nineteenth to third with Mat Williamson next in line. Sheppard would fight his way from the back of the pack to complete the top five. 

Late Models would then wrap up the program as their forty lapper was conducted in the wee hours of the morning with a surprisingly good crowd still on hand. Dale McDowell would lead the early laps in his best run so far of the week and after taking last night off. However, the two most consistently fast drivers of the week, Devin Moran and Bobby Pierce, were soon dominating the action. Moran was able to drive into the lead with Pierce moving into second and it looked like another epic battle between the two might break out once again. 

However, following a lap thirty yellow when Scott Bloomquist hit the wall, Moran was able to power away and open up the biggest lead he had held through the race as he drove home untouched for the win, the first of the week despite consistent runs. Pierce would finish a solid second ahead of McLaughlin, a hard charging Strickler and Dennis Erb with his first top five of the week. 

It was an eventful night for Pierce as he had to make six time trial laps before his transponder would finally record a speed and then he failed tech when his deck height was too high and he was penalized one row for the start of his heat race because of that. That was not much of a penalty in my eyes but that is the way that the WoO handles this. 

The heavy track conditions, a long week of bumpy track conditions, natural mechanical failure and a weather forecast not the most positive caused a number of drivers to pack up early on Thursday and McCreadie, O'Neal, Ashton Winger and Moyer all headed home early with perhaps others to follow.

In the Gator Pond, the tally there continued to be three, all looking hungry and on the prowl for a delicious meal. 

Strickler Wins Wild WoO Late Model Feature at VSP; Friesen Repeats in Big Blocks

 The nights of the 50th annual DIRTcar Nationals here at Volusia Speedway Park are starting to wind down. On Wednesday, February 10th, the final segment of the racing schedule began as for the final four nights of Late Model racing, the World of Outlaws Late Model series will be in charge of running the program while the Big Blocks of the DIRT Car series would run their second of five nights of scheduled action. 

While the cars that would run the Late Model series are pretty much the same ones that have been running earlier this week(there was actually only one new entrant on Wednesday) some of the technical standards and rules of administration have been changed with the Outlaws in change. The so called "droop rule" returns again and while their wasn't too much in the way of inspections the last two nights as UMP ran the show, a formal inspection of each car was required on this night before that car could hit the track. I did not hear that anyone failed tech and let's hope that this is the last we hear about the "droop rule" all week. Fifty one Late Models would sign in to race on Wednesday with Jason Fitzgerald and Dale McDowell still on the grounds but opting not to race while Reid Millard flew back to Missouri to attend to business and young Trevor Gundaker would drive his car on this night with hopes of also getting the ride on Thursday. 

The Big Blocks would again field thirty two cars with no new ones showing up with was not surprising while everyone that had trouble on Tuesday night would reappear. I talked to twelve year old Derrick McGrew as he and crew worked on fixing their car which he had on its lid the night before. They were able to get the car fixed but to cover their bases, they had called someone to deliver their back up car just in case and it was sitting in their pit area on an open trailer if needed, which would turn out not to be necessary. 

The program on Wednesday, despite it being under different administration, would mirror the Late Model show from Tuesday. Six heats would qualify three cars a piece and then three Last Chance races would add another six cars. The real only difference was when it came to provisional starters. There were few with UMP while half the field seemingly  took an emergency provisional on Wednesday to start the main, as we are again counting points. In fact, a gigantic field of thirty five cars was scheduled to start the main event with two unable to make the call. Still, it was one of the biggest fields of Late Models that I have seen in quite some time, probably back to the WISSOTA 100's where they start thirty three cars, three wide as eleven provisional entrants were allowed by WoO officials.  

Drivers are also remaining on the track when they go a lap down or perhaps have to make a pit stop and under ordinary circumstances would just park for the night. They are now point racing and every lap counts so they stay on the track which adds to the congestion and sometimes the excitement as the fast cars weave through the traffic. On this night, twenty nine cars would still be running at the finish with six a lap down and only four that didn't finish and only one of them likely a WoO point chaser. 

The track was very interesting on this night. The big dip in turn one that had seen cars go airborne across several racing divisions earlier this week was gone but it was replaced by a couple of rather significant holes in turn three that had not been there before. Where they suddenly materialized from, I can not say but they certainly were a point of emphasis from the drivers. Also, the track itself was very tricky on Wednesday. It was black and slick but because it was so humid, in spots it almost made the track drive like it was wet slick and driver after driver would comment on how tricky and technical it was and that how each lap it could change drastically. While this made it a chore for the drivers, it made it fun for us fans as we saw by far the most entertaining Late Model race so far here this year. 

And there was also plenty of drama with late race problems eliminating three of the top five contenders. Bobby Pierce led early as he looked to be the first repeat winner in the Late Models. However, Ricky Thornton Jr then took over the top spot and led for a number of laps. Pierce and Devin Moran put on an extraordinary battle for second as they traded slide jobs and cross over maneuvers, often times just missing each other by inches in a hair raising high speed game of chance. 

Pierce would regain the lead following a yellow flag when Kyle Bronson blew a tire and the last seven laps would be filled with drama. First, Moran would lose power following a restart and stack up the field behind him. He was rear ended by Brandon Overton at high speed and while both cars would be eliminated, it could have been a lot worse. Then Pierce would jump the cushion, hit the wall and be done also. 

Suddenly, Kyle Strickler, who started fourth but slumped back at the start, came back on a charge to the front and shot into the lead as the changing through the field continued. Brandon Sheppard got cut off by Mike Norris in turn three, giving B-Shepp a flat tire but before Sheppard slowed, he managed to retaliate and dump Norris in turn one, triggering the final yellow of the event. It was a very un-Sheppard like move but perhaps the long time down here in Florida without a win and with this being a point race has led to some frustration in the Rocket pit. 

After all kinds of wildness, the last two laps was pretty mellow as Strickler pulled away to what would have been a seemingly impossible win at the halfway point of the race. Hudson O'Neal would keep his nose clean and gradually work his way up to second with a frustrated Thornton Jr settling for third in what was a highly entertaining, if just a bit lengthy, main event. 

In the interest of brevity, the Big Blocks eliminated their Last Chance race and just used their four qualifying heats to set their field for the main event. However, unlike the Late Models where only the heat race winners would redraw, the top two in each Big Block heat would redraw for their starting positions with defending Big Block Super Dirt Series champion Mat Williamson drawing the pole. 

However, he didn't dominate despite the good starting spot as he was run up the track early by Max McLaughlin who was then passed by Erick Rudolph who would lead the next eighteen laps until the lone yellow would slow the action. Slowly inching his way into contention was last night's winner Stewart Friesen who had earlier been quick qualifier. 

He worked his way into position and when the lone yellow flew on lap eighteen, he was ready to make his move. Showing superiority over the field, he was able to jump to the outside of Rudolph on the restart and make a rare outside pass. After that he pulled away as he drove on for his second straight win of the week. 

The other drivers will likely be happy to see him move on to his Truck series ride at Daytona but I am told that he plans to race on Thursday night here before missing Friday night's events. Mike Maresca, who gave up his Late Model ride to focus on the Big Blocks this week, made a nice drive up late in the contest to complete the top three. 

The running tally on the gators found another one slipping in over night and there were three in the Gator Pond for the Thursday night show. One of the security guards was monitored their activities and told me that there was a missing person report from that area of the track and was checking to see if one of the gators had a particularly satisfying smile on his face, but I think the security guard was pulling my leg. Better he than the gators though. 

Among the people I visited with in the pits on this night was Davenport Speedway promoter and car owner Ricky Kay. He told me that he is ready for a big season at Davenport for 2021 and that they have a number of special events on their schedule including a co-promotion with Cody Sommer. He has been attending the Racing Promotion Monthly seminars the last couple of days as he is really committed to learning more about the promoting aspect of racing, not just the track prep but all the other things that go with making a racing program successful. 

He also did mention that son Justin will have two Late Models for 2021, one for IMCA racing and one for the Kosiski Series plus open shows. 

Thursday night the same two divisions will be in action once again at VSP as the rest of the week looks like a race against Mother Nature to get shows in. 

Pierce and Friesen Winners on Tuesday at VSP

 The Winter Nationals continued on Tuesday night February 9th at the Volusia Speedway Park west of Daytona Beach and near Barberville Florida. On Tuesday night the UMP Late Models would wrap up their quick two night stand before the World of Outlaws Late Models will take over. Also on Tuesday, the DIRT Series Big Block Modifieds were welcomed to Florida as they arrived for the first of five consecutive nights of racing for this high popular in the Northeast but little seen elsewhere division of racing.

It was a sunny then cloudy and back again sunny day in central Florida and we even had just a few sprinkles during the evening as it doesn't seen like we can get any day completed without just a bit of precipitation although no shows have been rained out so far. 

Fifty one Late Models signed in to race on Tuesday which was the same as Monday although we gained three new drivers while losing that same number. Hudson O'Neal opted to unload and race on Tuesday after having spectated on Monday while both Spencer Hughes and Kyle Strickler ended their UMP Modified duties on Monday and thus turned full attention to their Late Model programs. 

Nick Allen and Ryan Scott aborted their Late Model efforts while Mike Maresca parked his Late Model to focus on his Big Block effort. Thus there turned out to be zero drivers that would try to race in more than one class on the same day which I found to be just a bit surprising. 

The drivers may have been requesting just a bit more moisture in the track surface to make it more resemble the VSP that it usually is as opposed to the slicker and slower track presented earlier during Speed Weeks. In any event, it was a faster track for the second straight day and one where the drivers could use their horsepower more. Brandon Overton was the quickest qualifier at 15,982, the only driver to crack the sixteen second  barrier. Somewhat surprisingly, the other bracket was led by Indiana's Joe Godsey who turned a 16,214 second lap. Godsey did not race quite as well as he qualified and failed to make the main but this team is finally showing some real increases in performance after laboring for over a year at the least driving for Jeff Roth, who by the way, is not racing her this week as this has been the first time that they have been running just the one car for their team out of Arkansas. 

Tuesday night's format would mirror that of Monday with six heats and three Last Chance races setting the grid for the main event. The only change saw two provisional starters added to the field as Ross Bailes and Dennis Erb made it a twenty six car field for the thirty  lap finale. 

Bobby Pierce would lead all thirty laps to go on and win the Late Model feature. While he did lead all laps, things got a bit interesting on several occasions as Devin Moran was able to race his way up to second and put the pressure on Pierce. They had an exciting exchange near the end of the race when Moran slid up past Pierce in turn two to take over the lead but Pierce then crossed him over with inches to spare to regain the top spot. Moran had visions of trying that move one more time in the waning laps as he gained his momentum to make a run but he jumped the cushion and as long as it takes to build up momentum on this big track, his opportunity was sunk and he would settle for second over the happy but somber winner, who had lost a dear family friend earlier in the day. O'Neal would finish a strong third ahead of Brandon Sheppard and Darrell Lanigan who did start all the way back in eighteenth but was helped by several cars that started in front of him and didn't finish the race.

The fast way around the speedway was up against the wall for the second straight night and while that promoted some interesting slide jobs, passing has been a challenging undertaking. Actually, the best racing so far in the Late Models were the three Last Chance races run tonight that were all entertaining. 

If you are keeping score, this is what the format used for the UMP races these last two nights produced. Using a system that starts the fast cars up front and then lines up the features based on heat race finishes except the heat winners redrew, there have been twenty Late Model races(Heat, Last Chance and features) run over the last two nights and nineteen of the twenty races were won right off the front row with only a Last Chance on Monday night being the exception. Could the format use some updating? You be the judge. However, as long as drivers and fans continue to attend the races, the odds of any changes seem slight indeed. 

It was the opening night of five for the Big Blocks and the "Monsters from the East" produces a field of thirty two cars, mostly from New York and environs. It would seen to me that with five straight nights of racing that more than just thirty two cars would show up but to be fair the weather has been miserable in the Northeast which could have affected the number of teams able to attend. Also, it seemed to me that there were more small trailers and pick up trucks towing race cars than the mega bucks gigantic haulers that used to be seen in the Modified pits so maybe things are a little tighter economy wise than they used to be. 

Super star of the Big Blocks Stewart Friesen would lead all thirty laps to win the first feature for this class this week. While he maintained a comfortable lead most of the race, he did have one strong challenge by Peter Britten when Friesen had to fight through lapped traffic and Britten almost got by with a slide job but Friesen was able to cross him over and continue to hold the top spot. 

This race was slowed by six yellow flags, mostly for minor issues. However, the youngest driver in the field, twelve year old Derrick  McGrew, got into the wall and toppled over on his roof, drawing a red flag. He was fine and hopefully the car can be repaired as they need all the cars to be running to fill out fields for four more nights. 

DIRT officials opted to run everyone in the feature so all thirty two started the main and they said they would do this all week as long as a bunch more cars didn't show up, a most unlikely thing to have happen. Big Block officials decided to mimic the Late Models' starting procedures and actually one upped them by not even redrawing the heat race winners. It was simply straight up for the heats and straight up from the heats to line up the feature. This produced a six race program that saw all six winners start in the front row of their respective events. Sound familiar?

I had a chance to talk briefly with Chief Starter Dave Varney who's work is perhaps the most spectacular of anyone here at Speed Weeks. I don't believe I have ever seen a more accomplished and showman like starter than Mr. Varney and it is a pleasure to watch him in action, particularly when you are saddled with mostly lifeless and unexciting starters like we have back home. Mr. Varney gets it right. He told me that he "has the best seat in the house and to keep it, he needs to put on a good show." and believe me, he does. Varney had to block off a couple of weeks from his high school Football refereeing schedule in March and April(this is when New York is going to play their games this year) because he will have the privilege of flagging the Outlaws for two weekends at Bristol and what an exciting honor that must be. 

I'm not sure what is going on but the crowds for the first two nights of Late Model action have been considerably down from the attendance last week. I'm not sure if perhaps folks are waiting until the World of Outlaws Late Models take over or not, perhaps unknowing that it will be the same drivers that have performed earlier in the week. 

But I saved the best moment of Speed Weeks so far for last. On Tuesday there were two Gators swimming in the "Gator Pond" lower pit area. The crew from Dirt Vision, in town to film the races, had an idea. They took their drone, which they use to shoot overhead shots during the races, and tied a long cord on it. They attached a piece of meat to the end of the cord and guess what, they went "Gator hunting." 

Dangling the piece of meat that was carefully placed right in front of the gator out in the middle of the pond by the skilled drone flyer drew just disgust from the gator, who slowly submerged and refused to represent himself. 

So the crew switched their attention to the smaller gator, who was lying by the edge of the weeds closer to shore. They used the same procedure to try and get the gator's attention and after some "sizing up" of the situation by the gator, he quickly moved, leaping forward and snatching the piece of meat right off the cord and chomping it down, to the cheers of a rapidly increasing crowd, most of who were filming the event for posterity on their phones etc. It was a "Kodak Moment" that I was just lucky enough to stumble onto. 

The last four days of racing here at Volusia will involve the same program featuring both Big Block Mods and WoO Late Models with increasing distance races and larger purses as the week winds to a close. 

Things finally worked out as had been planned with a quicker running program that featured more manageable fields of cars and less yellow flags and crashes and the final checkered waved just before 10 pm Eastern. 

Allgaier Takes the Big "Gator", McCreadie Tops Late Model Opener

 Another racing week at Volusia Speedway Park began on Monday night, February 8th under cloudy to party cloudy skies with the threat of showers also. For the Modifieds, it was their big night of the week as they would wrap up their grueling stretch of racing here at VSP with the battle for the big "Gator" trophy and their highest pay of the week while the Late Models would make their debut here for 2021 with a full show highlighted by the thirty lap main event. 

Twenty cars were already qualified for the Modified feature through the double feature races held on Sunday night with another forty sticking around in the muddy Gator pits for one last shot to make the main event. Two cars each would come out of four Last Chance Features along with two provisional starters to set the thirty car starting field for the main. 

The four Last Chance races were predictably chaotic with one calm race and three that saw the yellow wave at least three times for various spins and crashes as some of the racers seemed to feel compelled to engage in at last one last spin or collision before they called it a Speed Week. Also, during these four races the sprinkles would start and a couple of times there was a minor delay for rain that required just a few laps to repack the track. With these factors in play, Race Director Sam Driggers called for the evening's schedule to be rearranged as with this being the last night for the Modifieds, it was imperative that their feature race be completed. So they only race three Late Model heats after the Mods were done with their Last Chance races and then moved directly into the Modified feature with the rest of the Late Model program being put on hold. The redraw for the Mods and the driver's introductions, scheduled to be a part of the festivities on this night, were done away with which was a smart choice since the most important thing was getting the Mod feature in the books. 

The heaviest and fastest track of the week was served up to the drivers on Monday night, likely the result of the humid and increasingly cloudy afternoon so it was a "hammer down" track for most of the night. 

As stated above, thirty cars would start the thirty lapper for the Mods and this race would see only two different leaders as Nick Hoffman would lead the first ten laps and would build up a sizable lead in the early going with Justin Allgaier, Mike Altobelli and Lucas Lee chasing him. 

Hoffman would look to be in control until he approached the back of the pack which was having their own wild fight for positions. Just in front of Hoffman was a swarm of about six or more cars and he was forced to back off as he looked for an opening. Just then, one of the cars got out of shape which further wadded things up. Allgaier, Altobelli and Lee all caught him and a back of the pack car got turned around by one of the surging cars fighting for the lead and that triggered the yellow. 

The restart saw Allgaier get the jump on Hoffman and take over the lead and he quickly put some distance on the pack. Altobelli also got by Hoffman for second but a series of yellows within the next few laps would keep the pack bunched. 

However, each time the green would fly, Allgaier would again pull in front and even though Hoffman would eventually get back to second, he had nothing for the leader. One final yellow set a four lap sprint to the finish but Allgaier would again edge away with a comfortable margin at Dave Forney's checkered flag over Hoffman and a changing Mike McKinney would come from twelfth to complete the podium finishers. 

Nineteen cars would compete the distance with mechanical issues eliminating such challengers as Steve Arpin, Michael Long, Tyler Nicely,  Lee, Will Krup, David Stremme and Nick Allen. The track had a muddy lower groove where most of the drivers were racing and by races' end many were so covered in mud the car numbers were undistinguishable. In the "factory wars" which were in effect all week, it would be Elite chassis one and two over a Longhorn in a war that will be carried out over the Summer in various sanctioning bodies across America. 

Fifty one Late Models would sign in for night number one of their six night engagement here at VSP. The heavy track produced some blinding speeds but also made passing tough. Bobby Pierce, somewhat surprisingly since he is more of a "short track" guy, would set the pace in qualifying with a blistering time of 16.139 seconds. 

Six Late Model heats and two Last Chance races set the field for the main event which would start twenty four cars with no provisional starters due to the fact that the first two nights of this six night outing for the Late Models are under the direction of UMP with the last four night being World of Outlaw shows. 

Somewhat regretfully, all six qualifying races saw the winner come from right in the front row, so time trials were super important on Monday. This pattern would be completed during the main event when McCreadie would get the jump from the outside pole and then drive away from the field for thirty laps to take the win. 

The track was fastest right up against the wall so the driving style of this night was bury the throttle, rim ride the cushion and keep the car off the wall. The only driver that was able to make some progress was Mark Whitener who with hard work was able to pass both Kyle Bronson and Devin Moran to take the second spot and he was gaining on McCreadie for a time as he halved the lead that McCreadie had. 

However, as Whitener would later say, the track where he was running in a lower groove than most were, seemed to give out at some point and while Whitener would close up the gap, he was never able to provide a serious challenge. Moran would roll on for third ahead of Bronson and Pierce. There was only a single yellow flag in the main event and only Moyer and Dale McDowell were not on the track at the finish. 

Several drivers, most notably Ricky Weiss, Jimmy Owens and Scott Bloomquist continued their early season struggles with only Owens even making the main.

UMP sanctioned Late Models will be in action one more night before the WoO takes over and they will be joined by the east coast Big Block Modifieds as they start their five night stand. 

Schuchart Inherits Outlaw Win at Volusia; Hoffman and Arpin Top Modified Qualifiers

 Sunday, February 7th would produce a busy day and night of racing at Volusia Speedway Park with both the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and UMP Modifieds in action. 

The weather was a part of producing a long race program as with the Saturday night show rained out after time trials, two sets of Modified qualifying would have to be held to set the starting lineup for the "Gator" race on Monday night. Also, the Outlaws would be running a full show but not the doubleheader as some anticipated as their Saturday night show would be ruled a complete washout and not be rescheduled. Thus the Sprints made the long pull to Florida just to race twice. 

The Sprint field continued to shrink with only thirty one cars taking time trial laps on Sunday afternoon with Pennsylvania's Danny Dietrich turned the quick time over that thirty one car field. They combined the heats into just three taking the top six and then did the same with the Last Chance race which set a field of twenty four cars for the main event. 

Donny Schatz, who was impressive in the dash, coming from sixth to win it and earn the pole position, pulled away quickly at the start and built up a comfortable lead early. Two red flag periods occurred during the first half of the race for flips involving Sheldon Haudenschild and Gio Scelzi. Both were fine and in fact, Haudenschild was able to make repairs and restart the race, eventually just finishing out of the top ten. 

The Scelzi flip was triggered when Kasey Kahne, running in the top five, lost a motor down the back chute and slowed suddenly, not allowing Gio time to take evasive action. For Kahne, that was his second motor issue of the weekend and it was also reported the Kraig Kinser and Brock Zearfoss had both changed motors also so that makes about at least half a dozen engines having trouble this weekend at a price of around three hundred grand of so, give or take. 

Schatz continued to lead and in fact was strengthening his advantage until the bitter end of the race. I say bitter because it must have been for Donny as he was running alone up front when suddenly his motor starting popping very badly and he lost power, slowing significantly and when the popping continued on the next lap, he slowed and brought out the yellow. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the whole place was ready to celebrate his three hundredth WoO victory until the unfortunate engine issue, which was some sort of electrical problem. 

A quick pit stop fixed the problem but with only two laps left in the race, the best he could do was fifteenth Logan Schuchart inherited the lead and held off Dietrich for the win, padding his WoO early season point lead. Cory Eliason had a strong run to finish third ahead of David Gravel and Brad Sweet. 

This race was originally scheduled to be a night show but was changed to an afternoon contest because of the Super Bowl just down the road in Tampa. Of course, by the time the extended show was completed the Super Bowl was done, but that was just bad luck with the weather. 

Starting racing at 4 pm is always a challenge to keep the track racy and the VSP track crew did an excellent job of doing so. They tilled and watered the track right after time time trials were done and then again just before the Sprint Car feature. This allowed for good racing in the main event and quite frankly, the track raced just as good throughout the whole program as it would on a normal night of racing. There didn't seem to be any difference to me in how the drivers were able to run and where on the track, despite the early start. Racing was scheduled to begin about an hour earlier than it did but extra time was needed to pack in the track from the over night rains. I did not see them add any water to the track until the first time they tilled it. 

After the Sprint Car feature was done, over half the crowd bailed for the parking lot, either to catch the end of the football game or because they were narrowly focused race fans. The rest of us stayed to watch a two full Modified programs, minus one set of time trials that was completed before the rain hit on Saturday night. 

The Modified field had been divided with half the field set to try and make the "Gator" feature through Saturday night racing and the other half on Sunday. So we got to see both halves in action. Four heats for the Sunday group and two Last Chance races would set the twenty nine car starting field as Hunt Gossum would not make the call. And it would be Nick Hoffman would dominated the first feature, leading from start to finish and not having anyone even challenge him. Tyler Nicely would try to stay with him but he couldn't finishing nearly a full straightaway behind at the checkered. Six yellows slowed the event but none were of the serious nature. The best drive was made by local racer Garret Steward who started who started eleventh and worked his way up to a podium finish, which pleased him no end as he got an interview on tv and everything. 

The top ten finishers would automatically move into the "Gator" race on Monday night while any others that chose to remain will run Last Chance races to try and get into the finale. Ken Schrader missed by one spot making the main while Kyle Strickler finished right behind Schrader. Strickler, who didn't attempt to qualify his own car on Sunday, was running the car that Joey Logano had raced the previous night but there was no explanation why he was running that car and why he didn't try to qualify his own machine.    Interestingly, Logano would later try to qualify the same car for the  left over Saturday night show, as apparently UMP has no rules about driver's sharing the same car. 

After the Sunday portion of the Modified show was completed, those Saturday night drivers that chose to stick around then came to the track to run their races. They also ran four heats but some of them were diminished as apparently some drivers had enough and headed for home. Because of that, they were able to eliminate the Last Chance races and run thirty one cars in the main event as everyone got a shot at making the "Gator". 

The second feature race was much like the first with one driver dominating. This time it was Canadian turned North Carolina resident Steve Arpin who started on the pole and blew the field away. Arpin was struggling a bit in the early part of the week but now appears to have things dialed in as he drove away from the field in an impressive performance. As perhaps just as impressive was Mike Altobelli, the Pennsylvania driver who drove much like Stewart in the first race. He started seventh, wasn't flashy but gradually moved up and as other drivers faltered, he just took their spots over and he ended up second with Nick Allen completing the top three. Kyle Hammer and Lucas Lee completed the top five. Last Chance races on Monday night will likely be brutal with many good cars left sitting on the sidelines when the finale starts. UMP Late Models will join the Mods on Monday night for their first action of the Speed Weeks. 

Speaking of gators, the first real live one was spotted today in the lower level "gator pit" where the Mods have been spending the week and the Big Blocks will take over that area starting on Tuesday. The gator didn't look too big hanging out in the pond but I was shown a picture of him(or her?) sunning earlier in the week before all the race teams arrived and was told it was about a twelve footer! Yikes, any thoughts of going for a swim have been ended for this week. 

Crate Racin' USA Five Grand to Kyle Hardy at East Bay

 Saturday night, February 6th saw storms move in the central Florida. Several tracks were scheduled to host events but it was a crapshoot just who, if any track, might be lucky enough to get a show completed as the forecast was dire for all the tracks.

I took a "flyer" that East Bay Raceway Park, located near Tampa, would have the best chance of getting their show in and for once in a lifetime, perhaps, I actually made the right call! While they did get a couple of small showers around noon that dampened things down a bit and made for a little mud in the pits, overall they remained high and dry despite my hitting a few sprinkles on the way West. Meanwhile, all the other tracks I considered would be stormed out. 

On the docket at East Bay on Saturday was the finale of the three night run for the Crate Racin' USA series for Crate Late Models along with the Top Gun 360 Sprints running a full program. The Crates had a huge car count early in the weekend for their three night series and while a number of cars had either expired in earlier action or had left due to the rain(they thought it was going to rain out too!) or because of challenging travel conditions expected on the trip back North, there were still fifty four Late Models in the pits, plenty to put on a good show. There were also twenty three of the Sprints with the Top Gun series based out of the Tampa area. 

I did miss out on visiting with most of the Iowa delegation on hand as all but Andy Nezworski had left to head back home and I also missed seeing Minnesota's Jeff Provinzino in action too. I did get to talk to Nezworski who was enjoying his racing weekend away from the cold in Iowa. He was debuting a new Rocket chassis and after quizzing him I found out that his  IMCA legal car had to just change tires and make some very minor changes to be legal for the Crate Racin' so in essence he was getting some practice laps on his new car if nothing else. Bad luck had kept him out of the first two nights' features and unfortunately I wasn't able to help him in that regard as he would come up two positions short of making the show both through his heat and a B Feature. However, he was still upbeat about the trip and his wife got a nice happy birthday announcement over the pa system!

The Late Models group qualified and than ran six heats, straight up unfortunately, which resulted in all six heats being won from the front row as passing was at a premium on the tricky East Bay surface with many of the drivers in still third night of racing here still trying to figure out how to make their cars turn in the corners. Three B Features wrapped up the qualifying  with twenty six cars starting the main event with local driver Kyle Bronson getting the final provisional. 

The fifty lap feature would see track owner Al Varnadore's son Travis lead the opening three laps before he was overtaken by quick qualifier Phillip Cobb. Meanwhile, Hardy and the opening two night's winner Mark Whitener were both on the move. Hardy moved in to challenge Cobb quickly while Whitener, who had not qualified well, was working his way up from the eighth starting spot. 

Hardy was finally able to get under Cobb on lap fourteen to take over the lead as the front running cars started to hit lapped traffic. Whitener continued to charge and he got under Cobb for second and started to pressure Hardy for the lead. With the first thirty two laps going green, the event started to get close to the end with Whitener increasing putting the pressure on Hardy. He tried several times to get under the leader but just couldn't quite get the job done. 

The last five laps would prove to be significant though as Whitener made one last all out charge for the lead. He got under Hardy and the lapped car that both were trying to get past down the back stretch and all three pushed up the track in turn three. Whitener and Hardy made some contact and then Whitener also collected the slower car who spun, triggering the yellow. 

The lapped car would go to the tail for the restart but Whitener came out the big loser as the contact messed up the right front on his car and although he tried to restart, the problem with steering saw him fade in the last four laps. 

Hardy would go on for the win over Cobb and Bronson, who started twenty fourth, would edge out Whitener for the third spot. Hardy would take home five grand for his win. 

Top Gun Sprints would draw for their starting positions and then use passing points to line up their main event(what a novel idea!). However, on this night that format didn't help improve the show as pole sitter Justin Webster would lead all twenty five laps in a nonstop main event. He disappeared into the East Bay mist and his only challenges were the plethora of lapped cars he had to deal with as with eighteen cars still running at the end, there were only five on the lead lap!

To say that he dominated would be a mild understatement. Shane Butler would start sixth and finish second as he had a good battle for that sport with third finishing Robby Hoffman. Garrett Green and Kyle Connery would round out the top five after apparent fifth place finisher A.J. Maddox was DQ'd for a technical issue. 

East Bay staff should be congratulated for both running off the show when they probably could have easily pulled the plug early in the afternoon and then when the racing actually began, right on time by the way, they really pushed the program along to beat the weather. A familiar voice to me, Chris Stepan from FYE Motorsports Promotions, was brought in at the last minute to call the Late Model action when the local track announcer came down with COVID and he did his usual stout job. 

Thanks to all the staff at EBRP for welcoming me as a last minute visitor.  

Sweet Tops Outlaws Opener; Michael Jr Leads Plethora of Modified Winners

 Friday night, February 5th, the Volusia Speedway Park near Barberville Florida was back in action. On this night, half the program was the same while a new sanctioning body rolled in to orchestrate the other half of the acion. 

UMP Modifieds were again on the card on Friday with one of their most unique nights of their campaign here while the Sprint Cars returned for the third night in a row, but this time they were sanctioned by the World of Outlaws who were making their first appearance of the year and the opening round of their 2021 point season.

 A huge crowd was on hand for the Friday night show. In fact, they made an announcement that all reserved seats had been sold out as spectators crammed the facility on a balmy night with just an occasional spritz of rain in the air just to remind us that showers were not that far North of our location. 

The opening few races of the Outlaw season are important ones for those teams chasing points as they want to get off to a good start for the long season ahead. Perhaps my expectations were too high but I must confess that I was disappointed that only thirty cars would sign in to race with the Outlaws and a couple of that number were having troubles and laboring to just get their machines to run. I would have thought that with all the "hype" for the start of the season and the abundance of media coverage given to all Speed Weeks events that this would have led to more cars being on hand. It leaves me to wonder just how many cars they will have when their high flying tour heads into areas where there are no local Sprint teams to help them fill out numbers. 

But no matter. On this night everyone seemed to be perfectly happy with the field assembled and it made for a nice tidy program with four heats, a dash and B Main and the thirty lap feature race. 

Sam Hafertepe Jr surprised some likely by setting fast time at 13.268 and then also winning a heat race which set him up for the unlikely task of pulling off a clean sweep. However, even though he started on the pole, he was quickly overtaken by a group of other drivers and would eventually end up thirteenth. 

The track had more bite in it than the last couple of nights and the Sprints were really flying around the track, most using the middle to high lines to make passes. Jacob Allen led the early laps until he was overtaken by Sweet who would lead the majority of the contest. Logan Schuchart and David Gravel would work their way up and would have a nice battle for second with them exchanging the position several times as they tried to catch Sweet. There were only two minor yellows and the last eighteen laps ran off nonstop. 

The driver making the moves was Donny Schatz who started eighteenth after a poor time trial run but he was quickly on the move. Running the low line that was not clogged, he was able to pass many cars as he worked his way to the front. He closed in on Schuchart for second as both started to catch Sweet but some bad luck in traffic broke Schatz's momentum and he would have to settle for third between Sweet and Schuchart. 

It was a smooth contest with only the two minor yellows and all but two of the twenty six starters were around at the checkered flag. It was not a good night for Kraig Kinser and Wayne Johnson as both had to use series provisionals to make the main and it is awful early in the season to have to be relying on those to race. 

The Modifieds run a unique program on Friday that is an apparent "thank you" to all the teams that haul all the way to Florida to race for relatively low pay all week. On this night everyone gets to run a feature race as they divide the cars up and this year ran five instead of the normal four features, given the record breaking car counts that they have had this week. For example, ninety six Modifieds signed in to race on Friday which produced five feature races of between twenty and eighteen cars in each. The unique thing is that on this night the Mods do not qualify but are instead lined up by points. However, they group the races unusually with the low point cars having their own race, the next twenty in the next race etc until the last feature of the night features the highest point cars, all racing together instead of being interspersed out. It is different but it is designed to produce different winner by using this method and apparently the "gator" trophy is more important to many than the top prize, which was also boosted by a hundred bucks to pay $700 to win each feature. Oh, and did I mention also that the top ten in points in each race were inverted so it took a Philadelphia lawyer to figure out just where everyone would start their main. 

And it was quickly apparent to even the most casual of fans why and how the drivers managed to earn their way into the races they ran. They started out with the low point cars race first and gradually worked they way toward the top point cars and the first three features were full of wrecks, spins and yellow flags. There were a couple of huge multi car wrecks and all three of the first features couldn't complete just a single lap before the yellow waved. Starter Dave Varney was getting a sore arm, waving the yellow so much. 

Contrast that with the final two feature races for the high point cars which saw the yellow waved only a total of three times between the two contests and only three starters total that didn't go the distance while in the first three features more cars than that were eliminated in crashes just getting off pit road!

I want to focus on the final Modified feature of the night which was for the top twenty in points and my "A Feature" for the class. Kyle Strickler drew the benefit of the ten invert to start on the pole and it seemed that this should seal the race for him. However, little did we know as he took off into turn one on the opening lap like it was a mile track, not a half mile, and he flew high and hit the wall, eliminating himself immediately. 

On the restart, Rich Michael Jr used the outside to take the lead and surprisingly, he would pull away and lead the entire fifteen laps for the win. He was running very strongly in his brand new Elite chassis and no one had anything for him. New York is not a hot bed for the type of Modified that Michael Jr races but I have seen him travel to races from coast to coast as he has always been one that liked to travel and race against the best, rather than stay home and race local competition. In any event, he was bad fast as he pulled away to win by nearly a full straightaway. There was a good battle for second with Just Allgaier passing Mike McKinney for the spot with Nick Hoffman and Tyler Nicely completing the top five. All but Strickler completed the race. 

Early in the evening during the first feature, we all got to see the dirt debut at Volusia of NASCAR super star Joey Logano who put on quite a show for the fans and received surprisingly warm applause. He started seventeenth in the ultimate "hooligan" race as he had no points but showed that he had the touch on dirt, driving up to third at the finish and making the podium even though the car was pretty battered up after not totally avoiding some of the mayhem on the track. 

One nice thing about the VSP format was that they ran the Sprint feature relatively early in the program; I'm guessing for a variety of reasons that included giving them a good track and making it not too late for the premier show of the night. A large side benefit to fans like me was that as soon as the Sprint feature was over, the mast majority of the winged fans bailed for the gates. This left us much more room in the stands for the real fans and we watched the last three Modified features in relative peace. Then we walk out to the parking lot, jump in our vehicles and drive right out of the place. Nice!

Saturday night they will be at it again, hoping to outfox the weather which is not looking good at this time. The Outlaws will race number two of their season while the Modifieds will see half of the total field racing to see if they can qualify for the inside row for the big "gator" finale on Monday night. Only the top ten finishers in the Saturday night main are guaranteed starting spots with everyone else left to run a "hooligan"  on Monday to try and get in. 

Macedo Tops All Stars; Hughes and Strickler Mod Masters

 Thursday night, February 4th, the Volusia Speedway Park was in action once again and on this night the All Star Circuit of Champions would wrap up their two night stand here at VSP while the Modifieds would begin night number three with another full racing program. 

It was another sunny day in central Florida and the temperatures are slowly but surely warming up as the effects of the latest Northern blast are gradually wearing away. However, once the sun goes down it is still heavy coat weather in the damp swampland West of Daytona Beach. 

Thirty two Sprint Cars signed in for a repeat of last night's program with the class wrapping up their stay with a quick twenty five lap feature. Both Kraig Kinser and Jason Sides were on the grounds but opted not to race on this night while Carson Short left seeking more speed. The lone new entrant was "The Steel City Outlaw" Tim Shaffer driving the #72 car this year. 

On the other hand, the Modified class keeps breaking car count records each night. Thursday night a new record ninety six cars signed in to race. New entrants included two generations of the famous Reutimann family with both Buzzy and Dave racing along with Brian Foy while Craig Shaw jumped back into his own car after having Ricky Thorton Jr race it last night. All these cars racing in twin feature races again on this night and again for just a grand to win. 

Sprint car qualifying would see David Gravel once again top the charts with a lap of 13.234 seconds while the early going for the Sprints would produce some drama. Donny Schatz shut down quickly after turning the fastest lap in practice with smoke coming off the left bank of the engine and they raced back to the pits to make repairs. He was kind of vague later in his explanation of what happened so I don't know whether or not a motor change was necessary but he managed to get back to the track as qualifier number thirty and produce a lap which is most important for lineups.

Danny Dietrich blew a motor in time trials and he had to change that power plant but made it out for his heat. Not a good start to the night with probably one hundred grand worth of equipment ruined before the first cash paying race would start!

Once again in this night, the Sprint Car portion of the program would be inserted early in the show with the Sprints wrapping up their feature before the Mods would finish their last change qualifying and run their main events. 

The track was very smooth once again with this new clay they have again being very slick. The to side was the way to go and from the start of the feature, that is where just about everyone would run. Carson Macedo would get the jump from the outside and take the early lead in a race that would be a three car contest between Macedo, Logan Schuchart and Brad Sweet. They were tearing around the upper cushion and about the only way to make a pass was with either a slide job or to catch someone in traffic who was bottled up. 

Sweet tried a couple times to get past Schuchart but couldn't quite pull off the move and late in the race, Logan pressured Macedo for the lead. It was close at one point but Macedo worked the lapped traffic beautifully and didn't allow Schuchart to get the run at him he needed. The top three crossed the line close together but Macedo didn't make any mistakes which is what Schuchart would have needed. The Sprints ran off their main event nonstop and the twenty five laps was accomplished very quickly. Twenty of the starters were still on the track at the finish with five a lap down. 

There was plenty of action also before the races in the Modified pit area. Todd Neiheiser was changing a motor while Shawn Reiss, who has been beating away on his car for two days, continued his work. For the second straight night also, he was entered in the action but his car never saw the track. 

Four sets of qualifying took place and Jason Hughes and Mike McKinney tied for quick time in group A, Justin Haley topped group B, David Stremme topped group C as well as setting quick time at 18.298 and Justin Allgaier  topped group D. There were eight heat races and four Last Chance qualifiers that set the field for the features and just like last night, they ran twin features to give more drivers a chance to run a main. And while there might have been ninety six cars in the pits, the same few drivers seem to run up front and do the winning as the "super teams" from the various chassis builders dominate the action. It almost reminds me of the old days in snowmobile racing when the factory teams would beat up on everyone and the "independents" struggled to keep up. 

The first feature race saw previous night winner Tyler Nicely take the early lead with Jason Hughes moving up from the second row to take over the runner up slot. Nicely moved out to a good lead but was soon slowed by a pair of early yellows. The restart following yellow number two would prove to be costly to the Kentucky driver as he would push out coming out of turn four and Hughes would drive under him and take over the top spot. 

After that it was just a matter of Jason running smooth laps while Nicely drove hard to try and catch back up. However, Hughes would make no mistakes and would cover the lower groove on a blackened up track that saw most everyone running on the bottom after the Sprints laid down plenty of rubber. Steve Arpin would continue to improve on his return to dirt racing as he would drive into the third and final podium spot. Only three minor yellows would slow the action. 

The second Modified main would see of the heavy weights battle for the win. David Stremme would take the early lead with Kyle Strickler and Nick Hoffman chasing him. They were setting a torrid pace as they pulled away from the pack and ran their own battle for the win. 

Stremme might have set just too fast a pace as he was really leaning on his car in the turns and eventually that would hurt him as he started to push out in the corners with both Strickler and Hoffman driving under him. There was only one yellow flag in the second main and that set a five lap dash to the finish. 

Strickler would pull away on the green with the top three once again pulling away from the field. They would run in the same order to the checkered. Both feature races were run off smoothly with no big wrecks and only a few cars that didn't finish the distance as cars nearly surrounded the oval at VSP during the Modified mains. 

On Friday night the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars will replace the All Stars with many of the same drivers anticipated to remain while the Modifieds will participate in their night of feature races with the drivers lined up by points accumulated so far this week and then divided into five feature events with everyone getting to run a main. 

 

Schuchart, Nicely and Hoffman Sit In VSP Victory Lanes

 Wednesday night, February 3rd was the second round of racing for the UMP Modifieds and the opening night for the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars to take to the track at Volusia Speedway Park near Barberville Florida. A big field of cars was entered in both divisions with UMP Modified drivers on hand from many parts of the country while the All Star regulars were joined by many of the World of Outlaw Sprint stars, looking to get extra laps on the Volusia track before their point season opens up on Friday night. 

Thirty four Sprint Cars were on hand while ninety four UMP Modifieds joined the field in what was a monstrously big night of racing. Both divisions would run full programs including everything from time trials all the way through feature events. It would be the third straight night of bone chillingly cold temperatures in central Florida but a hearty crowd of fans was on hand, although not anywhere near to the size that warmer temperatures promise as the weekend arrives. 

The Sprint Cars qualified incredibly close together in time with Brad Sweet the quickest while the Mods were broken down into four groups of qualifying, of which it was done with five or six cars per group for their group qualifying. Nick Hoffman, Jason Hughes, Nick Allen and Curt Spaulding would all start in the front of heat races after leading their qualifying sessions. 

The track seemed very different than what I remember from visiting Volusia in years past and much was made of the new material they hauled in to resurface the track with this year as it seemed to make the track quite different. It was not nearly as much of a heavy, hammer down surface as it previously had been and instead was slick and smooth and required the drivers to attack with a much different style of driving. Once the track was ready for qualifying, they didn't touch it at all and "what you see was what you got" as the surface didn't seem to change much through the night. The Sprints did widen it out some both other than that, it remained pretty much the same all night. 

Whether it was because of the coolness of the night or because the Sprints are the featured division on this night, the program was set up to showcase them on this night with most of their races run off first, perhaps in an effort to get those Sprint fans in the stands on their way home if they chose before it got too late. 

Anyway, after qualifying, the Sprints ran their heats followed by the Modified heats. They then ran the two Sprint dashes, the Last Chance qualifier and the main event before the Modifieds would get back on the track. This did allow the entire Sprint program to be completed well before 10 pm, after which a mass exodus from the grounds was done by the majority in the crowd. 

Anyone who knows me well knows that Sprint Cars do not rank at the top of my "favorites" list. However, I do see them race a few times each year and both understand the skill and bravery that it takes to drive one of these cars and also the number of fans that swear by this class. And I thought their feature race was a good one on Wednesday. 

The track had moved right to the extreme upper cushion for their main and it was a thin edge that they were racing on. The track was smooth and slick but there was some cushion up against the wall and that is where most of the drivers ran.

Brian Brown and Sheldon Haudenschild battled for the lead early before Brown took the spot. Both Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet were on the move to the front and they joined the action that saw quite a few slide jobs being thrown as the track favored that type of pass. Schatz would eventually drive by for the top spot and he looked pretty comfortable in the lead. However, Logan Schuchart really flying up from the thirteenth starting spot and was soon in the top five and continuing to move. 

A couple of yellow flags for minor issues helped him gain some ground and soon he was up to third. He got by Sweet for second and was closing in on Schatz when a last yellow set up a six lap finish to the race. 

Schuchart swept low into turn one, beat Schatz to the third corner and took over the top spot and then pulled away in the final laps as no one had anything for him. He won by a comfortable margin over Schatz, Sweet, David Gravel and Brent Marks. Only four minor yellows slowed the event and only a half dozen cars didn't finish although with the late yellow there were no lapped cars to deal with. 

After Tuesday night's show with so many cars and only one main event which left a huge number of cars sitting on the sidelines come feature time, track and sanctioning body officials opted to change the program and run twin feature races for the Modifieds. This seemed to be very well received as of course, more drivers would get a check, more would get the extra laps on the track and thus with more cars qualifying through the heats, the Last Chance races were not nearly as large and cumbersome. 

Twenty four drivers started each main event which were contested over twenty laps. This series of races, tied in as it is with the big races going on over at Daytona itself, draws the heavy hitters of the sport and the technology displayed at the big track is seeping into the world of open wheel Modified racing. Some of equipment and technology they use hasn't been seen before in Modified racing and while it is very successful, it also is very expensive and creates a new worry for a sport that normally doesn't pay huge figures to the winners but the expenses seem to be skyrocketing. The battles between the chassis builders like Longhorn, Elite and Lethal don't seem much different than the manufacturers' battles over at the "big track" in Daytona and are taken just as seriously, even though the top prize in both the features on Wednesday was only a grand. These drivers, given the expense incurred and the number on hand, are probably the most unpaid racers of the entire Speed Weeks. 

The first feature on Wednesday was dominated by Kentucky's Tyler Nicely who took over the lead early from Lucas Lee and then just pulled away from the field. The last half of the race went off nonstop and he built up nearly a full straightaway over the field. Curt Spaulding, from Michigan, eventually drove into second but he had nothing for Nicely. The show in this race was produced by Kyle Strickler. He injured his hand in the pits before the program started and missed qualifying and a heat race as he had to go to the hospital for stitches for a bad cut on his finger. 

He returned to start eleventh in a Last Chance race and raced up to second to second to make the main. He then started tail back in the twenty four car feature race and charged up to second and was still gaining when the checkered flag waved. And this was the first time he had sat in that car he drove, having spent his recent time working and racing his Late Model. It was an impressive run. 

The second Modified feature saw Nick Hoffman get the jump on David Stremme and he would then lead the rest of the way for the win. He had a bunch of lapped cars to work through as the race progressed and Mike McKinney would play some catch up, closing in the late laps but not really able to make a serious challenge. Justin Allgaier would race up to edge Stremme for third as the so called "factory teams" were well represented in the final running order. An impressive twenty one different states were represented in the Modified pit area. 

Track officials did a nice job of keeping the show moving but it did get quite late before the last checkered flag waved, simply because they had so many cars and so many races to complete. The same classes and format are scheduled to be raced on Thursday night before the World of Outlaw Sprints replace the All Stars while the Modifieds will keep racing for several more nights.  

Clanton Tops Bubba As New Winners Continue

 Tuesday night, February 2nd, the Lucas Oil portion of the 2021 Speed Weeks wrapped up at Bubba Raceway Park on the outskirts of Ocala Florida.  And the ninth successfully completed event of Speed Weeks saw the eighth different winner sitting in victory lane at the conclusion of the forty lapper as Shane Clanton drove a strong race to dominate the last half of the main to take the win. It is quite remarkable to see that many different winners so early in the season but just illustrates both the strength and depth of the fields that have been racing together for about the last two weeks. 

Car counts have remained strong and the races themselves have all be hard fought contests. Tonight forty six drivers signed in to race which resulted in the normal program of qualifying, four heats and two B Features leading up the finale. Both Chris Nash and Doug Drown remained on the grounds while opting not to compete while Spencer Hughes pulled up and left to go Modified racing and his pit spot was quickly gobbled up by Bobby Pierce so they could move out of the mud. Jaden Frame drove the back up car of Joe Denby rather than his own machine tonight and while Ray Cook didn't have much success with the car at East Bay, Frame both qualifies well and then raced well also and made the main event while Denby has yet to start a main. 

Time trials were torrid once again as Jimmy Owens set fast time but was only one thousand of a second quicker than Pierce. I guess the closeness of the qualifying illustrates just how hard it has been to become a repeat winner in this southern swing. 

Twenty eight cars started the main event on Tuesday with Owens leading the first handful of laps until he was overtaken by Pierce who then enjoyed a lengthy time as the leader. The track, which was good but not as spectacularly good as it had been on Monday night, had been "farmed" before the feature and it took some laps for it to clean off. When it did, Pierce would build up some momentum and then drove past Owens. But the driver on the move was Clanton who had started outside row one, fallen back some and then climbed back into contention. He used the second of only two restarts during the feature to move up to the high side of Pierce and when the green flew, the battle was on. They raced side by side for a couple of laps with Clanton gradually establishing his authority and then finally breaking into the lead down the back chute. Once in front, with no yellow flags to slow him down and no lapped traffic to contend with, it was a relatively easy drive after that as he maintained a comfortable lead over Pierce and drive on for the win. 

Tanner English had a nice run for third with Tim McCreadie and a frustrated Owens completing the top five. Jimmy hammered the guard rail on the back chute at one point and this led to him blowing a tire as he crossed the finish line but at least he did get the finish, even though it wasn't what he was hoping for, given that he started on the pole and then led laps. 

Twenty four of the starters were around at the finish with all on the lead lap and while the first half of the race had much side by side racing and passing, at just shortly after the halfway point the outside wore out and everyone matriculated to the bottom of the track where passing was then tough. There was however, not much crashing etc. so the teams will be doing more fine tuning than major repair work for their next race. 

Some of the teams will now head home, having had enough racing to last them for awhile. Others were on their way to Volusia Speedway Park to catch some other classes racing, do a little relaxing and fine tuning on their cars while still others will head up to North Florida Speedway for the Iron Man Late Model Series and the Florida Frostbuster for eight and ten grand to win races next weekend. In any event, the teams were quickly dispersing in various directions as soon as the last checkered flag waved. 

It was not quite as cold as it had been on Monday but it was still very much on the miserable side and Lucas Oil officials kept their nose to the grindstone, even though it was the last race of the series and they pushed through another program in impressive fashion. The whole show, from first green to the final checkered took just two hours and the quick program was widely appreciated and lauded by the fans in attendance. 

Yesterday there was much noise going on all day besides the race cars as the track is right next to the local cattle auction house and there was an auction in progress with lots of disgruntled cattle bellowing as they were apparently not getting paid the price they thought they were worth. However, they had moved on by Tuesday and the only sounds were the mellow roars of the nine hundred horsepower dirt throwing machines and the howl of the constant winds. I thank Lucas and Bubba for putting on this event under far less than satisfactory conditions. I have no idea what kind of financial arrangements were made between Bubba and Lucas but with the weather, the crowd was again small on Tuesday and this was not the week for anyone to be making a fortune but the races did go on as scheduled. 

The Waters Part and Thornton Jr Drives on to Lucas Oil Late Model Win at Bubba

 After one day off to patch up their equipment and try and ease the ruffled feathers between some of the various drivers, the traveling circus of the Lucas Oil Late Model series moved on to Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala for the first of two nights of Lucas Oil points racing that will wrap up Lucas' portion of Florida Speed Weeks. 

The rains on Sunday that wiped out the Modified show at Lake City also visited this facility located on the North side of Ocala as there was plenty of mud to be found everywhere, making both the pits and spectator parking a bit of a challenge. Some of the pit parking is on black top but for those not among the "chosen few", it was necessary to do some fancy parking to get their big rigs sandwiched in the restricted and quite small area that is the pits at Bubba. As for the spectators, if you didn't have a handicapped sticker or plate that gave you prime parking, it was up to your imagination to try and find a space not likely to produce a landslide and plant your vehicle there. 

As mentioned above, the pit area was crammed with race cars as the forty nine that signed in to race was one of the largest fields of Lucas Late Models to ever race at Bubba, where by the way, Lucas was making their first appearance in several years, having been rained out and off Bubba's schedule the last couple of years. 

Three new entries not at East Bay joined the field on Monday including Michigan's Chris Nash, Florida's Clay Harris and Jimmy Sharpe Jr from Georgia. Ross Robinson gritted his teeth and returned from back issues and the rest of the Lucas regulars were all on hand. Bobby Pierce was spotted working on his race car in a parking lot several miles from the track and was the last to appear as he apparently needed hard ground to work on his car and by the time he got to the track all that was left was a muddy driveway. 

While the rains had made some things unhandy, I think it was hugely beneficial to the race track. A quick look at upon arrival and you could see that it had plenty of moisture in it and the water truck  was still adding more liquid. They didn't make it a muddy mess but it was plenty wet and when we later had by far the best track of the last seven race nights I hope that some track prep people paid attention to that. Quite frankly, I thought East Bay was rather disappointing this year and for me it seemed the basic problem was that they just didn't have enough water in the racing surface and every night it would dry out quickly, producing one lane and often rubbered up racing while at the same time dusting out the fans. 

And it was quickly apparent on Monday night that neither would be the case at Bubba. While it was very fast on the inside line early, when that dried out just a bit, a heathy cushion developed and instantly there was multi groove and exciting racing action. And not a hint of dust either, although to be fair it must be said that the twenty mile per hour winds blowing West to East certainly would have taken any dust around and blown it quickly to the East Coast and away from us. And while the surface had grip, it was also smoother than the "Track by the Bay" had been at any time during the week there. 

Unfortunately for all, it was a brutal night weather wise for racing. Even us from the North would have complained if this was the kind of weather we were having to deal with for the opener at Memphis, Beatrice, Humboldt or any of the Northern openers. It was cold and the wind was howling. And the cold down here seems to be of the damp and penetrating variety for those of you who haven't been subjected to it. It seems to bite right through you. So I felt sorry for whoever was footing the bill for this event as it was by far the smallest crowd I have ever seen for a Lucas event and much fewer people were on hand than for the last race I was at here. Excellent seats were available right up to race time and the "walk up" crowd was small indeed. I think the vast majority of spectators on hand were those from the North following the series with few locals on hand to watch. 

I give all the credit in the world to the Lucas Oil officials on hand for responding to the conditions as they were and running off a very quick program. Granted, with only one class in action and with the car count they had, the program only had seven events but there are certainly some tracks and sanctioning bodies that still would have made this a many hour marathon. Fortunately, Lucas was not one of them. After they called the cars out for hot laps, there was never a break of more than a very few minutes and that was between the last B Feature and the main and they tore through the entire program and were able to complete the entire show in less than two hours, something that was deeply appreciated by all those in attendance. But not only was it quick, it was also by far the best Late Model show I have seen since I hit Florida. 

With fast qualifier Kyle Bronson only one one thousandth of a second quicker than two other drivers, you knew that the competition level would be high. And the uniquely shaped Bubba Raceway Park, with its dog leg on the back chute and both corners being total different in radius, it makes for interesting racing, especially when it is wet enough to support a high side cushion. The track that races the most like Bubba was the old Tri Oval Speedway in Fountain City Wisconsin before Bob Timm took over the place and turned it into a true oval as opposed to the three cornered track it was previously. 

Twenty eight cars started the forty lap main event after the preliminary events weeded down the field. Brian Shirley would lead the opening laps but it wasn't long before Brandon Sheppard, Devin Moran, Hudson O'Neal and Bobby Pierce found the high side and all bets were off as they were racing all over the track in some very interesting action. Jonathan Davenport was also on the move as positions shuffled constantly and Davenport soon found himself with a tenuous lead. 

Before the race I off handedly said to my traveling partner this week that I was picking Ricky Thornton Jr from the tenth spot and damned it that wasn't just the way it worked out, although my selection of him had little to do with his win.

Thornton Jr got a huge break on a restart when leader Davenport stalled his car with both Sheppard and Jimmy Owens running into him and all three had to go to the back. Previous to that, Sheppard seemed to be the fastest car on the track.  Thornton Jr, who had carefully worked his way up through the field, then inherited the lead but he had to work very hard to maintain that top spot. O'Neal was all over him, trying to get by and then on a late restart, Mike Marlar drove to the top side of the track in turn one to take over second and then, inexplicably, went back to the bottom instead of pressing the advantage he seemed to have on the top side.   

Marlar did try the top side on the last lap but it was a little too late for that and Thornton Jr held on for a great win for his team. Earlier, following one of the restarts, Pierce was flying forward using the cushion and it appeared like he would drive by anybody But the curious nature of race tracks and perhaps even more the tires that are used, after another yellow that advantage went away and despite still pounding the cushion, Pierce had the "reverse rotors" on and barely held on for a top ten finish.

With the show done very early, we were back in Orlando by just after 10 pm and very grateful and happy because we knew we had seen an excellent show, run just the way it should have been and providing maximum entertainment value and all at the same time not forcing us to spend any extra time sitting out in the cold. Kudos to all involved. Unfortunately however, conditions aren't supposed to be any better for Tuesday night so it looks like I will be wearing the "long johns" for the second straight night in Florida, a concept that I am having great difficulty wrapping my head around. That's just not the way its supposed to be!