Friday night, March 19th I made my first visit ever to the Old No. 1 Speedway between Harrisburg and Jonesboro Arkansas. They were running the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series Late Models in race number three of their 2021 point season and since I had been to both their previous races, I figured why not break a perfect string, even if it meant quite a road trip for me. The weather looked good and with the race at Bristol not really piquing my interest, this seemed like a logical time to finally catch a race at this Northeastern Arkansas oval.
And what better time than for one of their biggest races of the year, the revival of the Cow Patty 40 which was marked by advertisement that featured the South end of a North bound cow as their theme. And with a whole herd of cattle grazing right next to the pit area, this logo was more than appropriate for this race.
Old No. 1 Speedway, to put it kindly, is flat out in the middle of no where! A winding road takes one from Jonesboro near the track but the last mile or so is on an even more winding lane and half wide dirt road that seems to be heading no where. Suddenly one bursts through a clearing in the woods and there is Old No. 1, tucked into the side of some rolling hills.
The track itself is a D shaped quarter mile with a couple of really tight corners entering and leaving the front stretch with the bow of the D shape down the back chute. They have some very adequate bleachers and a nice lap counter board approaching turn one that can be seen by both the fans and drivers as they race. The Tribble family owns and operates the track and they have made a series of nice improvements to the facility over the past few years. By the way, the name of the track refers not to some special blend of local "shine" but instead that the track is off Old No. 1 highway although somehow I came on a different route that didn't even include that road.
The track is covered in brown dirt and not the red clay that most tracks in Arkansas are and it slicks off quickly but produces better Late Model racing than I would have thought at first glance. I thought that the track might be a little too tight for the wide Late Models but that proved not to be the case, especially after the track crew cleaned off some of the loose material lying in the top groove. There is a recently added wall in turns one and two but none on the other end of the track and a creek runs parallel to the back chute, thus splitting the pits into one part off the three and four corner and the upper pits on the back chute on the hill overlooking the entire grounds.
The featured item on the track concession menu on Friday was the Cow Patty Burger but I must confess that I didn't have the adventurous nature to try one and perhaps that was my loss.
Twenty six Comp Cams Late Models signed in to race with Brian Rickman being the overall fast qualifier at 13,754 seconds. Three heats started straight up and a B Feature plus two provisional starters would set the twenty two car feature grid. B.J. Robinson would lead the first lap of the feature before he was passed on the high side by Kyle Beard. Beard would then go on to lead the rest of the way and take a very popular win since his home town of Trumann is just a stone's throw down the road from this track and the very facility where Beard started out his racing career. It was quite plain to see that he knew the track well as he drove harder into turns three and four than anyone, seemingly defying the laws of gravity lap after lap but always smoothly missing the walls and completing another successful circuit.
And he really turned up the wick when Hunter Rasdon raced up to second. From just up the road in Jonesboro, he would probably be another driver that could race the track blindfolded. He began to close slightly on Beard until Kyle picked up the pace and after that the two ran away from the field to produced a top two sweep for the local drivers. Scott Crigler would finish an impressive third.
As for Hall of Famer Terry Phillips, it was another crazy night for him. After finally qualifying well, he got up on the wall on the front chute at the start of his heat and did significant damage. The crew did get the car fixed so he could qualify out of the B Feature but that forced him to start nineteenth. He did put on a show though, as virtually every lap he scraped the wall down the front chute, sending the sparks flying as he raced all the way up to eighth.
Also racing on Friday were two other divisions, the Factory Stocks and Modifieds. Both classes had enough cars for two heats and a main event with the Modifieds saved to be the last race of the night. This had a side benefit as it spread out the traffic flow out of the facility which was single file with everyone having to leave, toters and racers alike up and down the dirt road.
The Factory Stock feature saw eight cars take the green for the main with Taylor Huffman taking the early lead and going on for the win, start to finish. Only two yellow flags slowed the contest with Devon Andrews finishing second ahead of Greg Meilke
The Modifieds, which were running IMCA rules but not sanctioned, started a dozen cars in their main which produced the closest finish of the night. Veteran driver Mark Norris led the first lap until he lost power and was passed by his son Clay as both were sporting new Lethal chassis. Clay led until lap eleven when he was overtaken by Andrew Moreno.
Moreno would continue to hold the top spot but Landon Meilke was closing on him and as Moreno blocked the low line, Meilke gave it a go on the top side. He got a great run on the final lap, shot past Moreno down the back chute and drove home for a very exciting win. Clay Norris would settle for third.
It was a good night of racing and well organized with the show being run off at a good clip. Once again though, the time trials that were run off put the show about forty five minutes late taking the green flag based on the advertised time, but that is old news for virtually every place that using this method. About the only tracks that can budget time correctly with qualifying appear to be the Speed Week tracks in Florida and that is because they deliberately start the show early with the track packing and qualifying.
Thanks to the folks from the Comp Cams series and all the helpful track personal too.
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