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.
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