It was another Big Block Modified and World of Outlaws Late Model doubleheader program on Friday night, February 16th at Volusia Speedway Park near Barberville as the week long series of races starts to wind down. On Friday night, Devin Moran would hold off a pair of the weeks' most consistent competitors in Chris Madden and Bobby Pierce for the Late Model win while Matt Sheppard was in the right place at the correct time to inherit what was the wildest feature race contested so far this week.
The weather forecast for the weekend has been consistently ominous all week and has never changed so many are thinking that Friday night's races will be the concluding event of the series, even if no announcements have as yet been made. East Bay even moved up their three day Sprint Car show by one day so that they wouldn't be racing on Saturday so it seems likely that something will happen here too. In fact, during the driver's meeting WoO Series Director Steve Francis announced the evacuation plan for the pits for later tonight so it's a given that they will pull the plug as soon as the first rain drops fall on Saturday.
However, what did catch my attention during the driver's meeting was something that Francis also had to say. And it was just by accident that I happened to hear the driver's meeting anyway as I usually don't even attend them, finding them boring and repetitive.
However, this one was different. Francis was mad and the reason was that some less then brilliant Late Model folks had been messing with the gators in the gator pond over night and had brought down the ire of the authorities on them since messing with the gators, who are protected, is a federal offense and authorities at first wanted to kick everyone out of the lower pit area which would have caused quite the problem. They apparently settled things down and were allowed to stay but as always, it only takes a few idiots to ruin things for everyone. The simpletons in question were supposed to speak at the driver's meeting but didn't show but it was not a surprise to hear who was involved.
Car counts would be at forty six Big Blocks and forty seven Late Models on Friday, numbers that had been very consistent all week and slightly up for the Mods and slightly down for the Late Models from last year.
More money would be on the line for Friday night's events as the last two night's purses were split evenly between the two nights in the event that there would be no Saturday night racing and both classes would ran a forty lap main event on Friday.
Race format would be the same with qualifying setting the running order with four heats and a pair of B Features in each class before the two main events. The two classes have alternated each night who runs first and on Friday it would be the Late Models that would go first. That also meant they would be first to pack the track as that is done by the competitors here . Madden and Pierce would eventually grab quick qualifier honors with Bobby fastest overall at 15.513 seconds. Demetrios Drellos and Mat Williamson would share Big Block honors with Drellos fastest at 17.093.
I believe the heat races on Friday night were the best of the entire week as with the format used passing is generally at a premium but there were some nice battles for position on Friday night, some close finishes and of course the finishes in the heats were super important. There were a pair of B Features for each class and then, following the doling out of the provisional starting spots, it would be feature time. Probably the most noteworthy observation of B Feature racing would be the fact that Tim McCreadie, who has really struggled in qualifying this week, would not be part of the main event while speedsters like Brent Larson, Todd Cooney, Dustin Walker and Parker Martin would because they are part of their WoO alliance.
As the track was being "tickled" before the Late Models took to the track for their main event following the redraw, it dawned on me how the marketing department of World Dirt had really dropped the ball here this week on their Late Model marketing partner. Except for the race cars themselves, what probably gets as much viewing time on tv during the week as anything else ? The tractors of course, as they circle the track and prepare it for the racing action. They are frequently seen on tv. And what color are the tractors? Green. Is that the color of Case IH, the series sponsor? I think not. A big oops there.
Thirty cars would take the green for the Late Model forty lapper with Cade Dillard, who has shown good speed this year already at several different tracks, jumping into the early lead. Devin Moran, who started outside Dillard in row one, would slip into second. The cars were flying around the cushion, finding that line to be the quickest one while others used a lower line as the track, while very fast, was wide and offered racing room. Pierce was a man on a mission on Friday as he raced up to third after starting seventh after he got "snookered" on a last lap pass in his heat race.
Back to back yellows on lap nineteen would pack the field up with four running Ricky Thornton Jr spinning one lap later and calling it a night. Chris Madden had fallen back to fifth but he worked his way past Hudson O'Neal into fourth as Dillard jumped the cushion and handed over the lead to Moran. As Moran opened up a slight advantage, the battle for second between Pierce, Madden and Dillard was a good one as they worked through lapped traffic.
Things fell apart for Dillard as he got tangled up with a slower car and spun out of contention with just seven laps to go. Moran would continue to lead with Pierce and Madden battling for second and O'Neal and Brandon Sheppard also in the top five.
Daulton Wilson got shoved into the wall by Mark Whitener with just two laps to go and that would set up a short sprint to the finish. Moran got over the cushion slightly and gave hope to Madden, who had taken over second from Pierce and Chris made a hard drive off the final corner but Moran had enough momentum to drive on for the win and the top prize of eighteen grand over Madden and Pierce. Max Blair came out of no where to forge his way up to fourth at the finish ahead of Sheppard.
There were five yellow flags in the forty lap finale and six drivers that failed to go the distance on a good and racy track surface.
The Big Blocks would then finish up the evening and provide a wild and unpredictable finish to their forty lap main.
Drellos would start on the pole and take the early lead over Matt Sheppard as Matt would push up the track and forfeit a couple more spots. Erick Rudolph would move into the second spot and gradually start to move in on Drellos as the slick track was giving some of the drivers problems getting through the corners. By lap ten or so, the leaders were starting to get into traffic and Drellos was having some problems getting through the field. Williamson jumped on this opportunity and on lap thirteen, he was able to slip past Drellos and take over the lead.
Just three laps later, the first yellow appeared for a stalled car and by this time, Williamson had moved into second ahead of Drellos with Sheppard and Larry Wight next in line. Most of the drivers were using the low line on the track but following that yellow, Wight moved to the cushion and he found immediate success, becoming the fastest car on the track as he passed Sheppard and then Drellos to move into third by the halfway point of the race.
He continued to charge and just two laps later he cleared by Williamson and Rudolph to take over the lead. He was very fast on the cushion and while some of the other drivers then moved up to that same line, he had things firmly in hand as the leader. Following a lap twenty four yellow for a stalled car, Larry would again pull away and despite the fact that the outside line held its challenges with a fine margin of error, he continued to pull away.
However, just when it looked like things were under control, lap thirty three would provide the wildest lap of the entire week. Wight was working through slower traffic and as he approached turn four, he would come up on the car of Brett Hearn and while Wight would later blame Hearn for chopping him off, to me it looked like Wight was in just a bit of a hurry and got into the side of Hearn's car, pushing him up the track. Wight continued to shove Hearn up the track and then suddenly came down back across the track.
Incredibly, the green flag remained out through all of this and when Wight came down the track, he slammed right into the side of second place Rudolph, slowing him as he tried to recover. Sheppard, running third, would pass Rudolph just before the line while Wight would continue to try and right himself, storming into turn one. However he hit the cushion wrong in turn one, the car dug in and off Larry would go for a couple of flips. The red light would come on and everyone would try to sort out what they had just seen.
Wight would be done with a damaged car and Sheppard would inherit the lead, having nipped Rudolph at the line for second on the lap that was scored just before the wreck. The last seven laps would see the top three battle for the win but Sheppard kept his cool and didn't allow Rudolph any openings as he would drive on for his second win in three nights with the surprising win falling into his lap, so to speak. Williamson would finish third with seventeenth starting Alex Payne finishing fourth ahead of Anthony Perrego.
I would have to say that the Big Blocks have put on some of their best racing that I have seen here in Florida this year withvbigt car counts and good competitive racing all nights.
Another immense crowd was on hand for the Friday night show as all the Late Model shows both here and at East Bay have been big winners when it comes to attendance. I was also told that the Outlaw Sprints set a record for fan attendance also this week so there were no lack of short track dirt fans on hand here in Florida.
We will now see whether or not there is a finale on Saturday night or we have already witnessed it.
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