One would think that with over one hundred of the finest teams in the country in the pits for World of Outlaw Late Model and Super DIRTcar Big Block Modified racing that it would be quite difficult to repeat as a feature winner. However, such was not the case on Friday the 13th of February at Volusia Speedway Park as both Nick Hoffman in the Late Models and Mat Williamson in the Big Block would repeat their Thursday night wins by going to victory lane once again. And in Hoffman's case, it was actually his third straight win, having won one of the three twenty lappers on Wednesday as a part of the final night of the UMP action at the same track.
And neither would be a close run either as both dominated the final laps of their respective mains, leaving no question as to who was the fastest car on the track. However, the Friday the 13th stigma did play out somewhat as there were some strange goings on over the course of the night, a bit of controversy and certainly some new faces playing a part in the night's action.
Fifty seven Late Models and forty six Big Blocks signed in to race on Friday on a night when the Florida weather was again sub part, producing some cold wins that found most fans bundled up like they were witnessing racing up North. Nevertheless, a large crowd was on hand for the action as it builds towards its conclusion on Saturday night.
Both classes would use the format that they ran on Thursday night with the exception that the Late Models would run first with the Big Blocks wrapping up the action. Tyler Erb, who has been showing good speed this week was the quickest overall qualifier at 15.467 seconds with Ricky Thornton Jr topping the second half of the field at 15.493 seconds.
If you have been keeping track this week, you know how important qualifying is, especially with straight up starts in the heats and only the heat race winners redrawing for feature spots. So it was again that all six heats were won off the front row. However, there were some different faces in heat race victory lane with Michael Leach, Austin Smith and Dan Ebert winning heats, which did give the front rows a different look for the feature.
With some different drivers up front, at least early, it did leave some of the old steady faces on the outside looking in and as a result there were more point provisional and emergency provisional starters than normal with thirty drivers taking the green for the feature. Some of these same faces have been having nightly emergencies for the past several years! Actually make that twenty nine drivers for the green as Dallon Murty hurt his motor getting qualified and he opted not to start the main, not a good way to get his open motor season started.
I was at the driver's meeting where series officials gave specific new directions about starts and restarts to avoid some of the jumps and unseemly starts that have been happening. Those directions apparently went in one ear and out the other for the drivers as the Late Model feature started with a big stack up before half the drivers even got to the starting line, something you would more expect to see in Bomber racing. Several cars were damaged and hopes for Brandon Sheppard, Chris Madden and a couple others were flushed.
Leach redrew the pole and it was interesting to see a new face lead the pack as he was able to fend off the challengers for the first ten laps of the thirty five lapper. However, eventually the masters of the sport were able to track him down with Thornton Jr taking over the lead on lap eleven.
Hoffman was moving quick after starting fourth and he got by Leach for second and then, two laps later, blew past Thornton Jr for the lead. This was a race marked by fits and spurts as the yellow waved way too often for slowing cars and flat tires with six slowdowns needed. The battle for second was interesting though, as Thornton Jr and Brandon Overton exchanged that position a couple times.
The last yellow, with twenty six laps down was for Ryan Gustin who had charged up to fourth with a battered up car before the motor let go. The final restart saw Hoffman drive off from the field once again, with Thornton sacrificing second when he plunked the turn two wall, giving Overton that spot for the duration of the race.
Bobby Pierce made a successful drive, passing a number of cars and also inheriting a number of spots when others dropped out or back and he came home third, his best finish of the week. Tyler Erb and Drake Troutman, both with used up looking cars, completed the top five. There were not a huge number of drivers that didn't finish the race (7), but there were quite a few that looked as if they had lost a war.
The Big Block feature saw another dominating performance that was also sparked with just a bit of controversy. At least that's how one driver saw it.
Things started out very strangely when as they were ready to take the green, Matt Caprara lost a rear wheel on the front chute before the race event started. A wrecker quickly whisked him to the work area where the wheel was replaced and the crew man assigned to that task likely sent packing for another job.
Matt Sheppard, who has not been himself so far in his Florida visits, started on the outside pole and got the jump to take the early lead. Mat Williamson quickly moved to second and the race was on between two of the "king pins" of Big Block racing. They were putting on a good battle for the lead, interspersed among the two yellows that flew early for other drivers parking on the track as the pace in this race was no better than for the Late Models.
Sheppard was running a line right through the middle of the track that seemed to work for him as he was able to hold off Williamson. However, the yellow flew once again with twelve laps complete and this is when things got spicy.
The side by side restart used by the Big Blocks saw Sheppard and Williamson door to door and when they fired off turn four, Williamson got a great jump and immediately took over the lead. Sheppard believed that he got "jumped" by Williamson I believe, and I was also looking for the yellow to fly and bring back the field because I also thought that Williamson jumped.
However, no such action was taken and Williamson then pulled away from the field. It appeared the Sheppard let his emotions get away from him at this point as he started driving a bit wild and he lost several positions because of that.
When the yellow flew again with twenty laps complete, Sheppard drove by the front stretch several times with his arm in the air out his window, either appealing the previous non ruling, or checking to see if it was raining. It turns out that neither happened and he had to settle back in line.
Williamson then pulled away once again over the final ten laps to drive away for a relatively easy win, with Alex Payne making a nice drive up to second and Jack Lehner recovering from a smoking car in his heat to race home third. Alex Yankowski and Justin Haers completed the top five but it was too bad that Sheppard didn't finish on the podium as his post race interview might have been quite interesting.
Only four drivers failed to finish the race but because of the frequent yellow flags, Williamson was not forced to lap a single car.
Quite frankly, neither class shined on this night with too many yellows for slowing and stopped cars really bogging down both features and not producing much attractive racing for the fans. It was also the longest night of the week with racing getting done much later than it should have. Hopefully everyone gets back on their "A" game and produces a better show for the Saturday night finale.
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