After the rainout of Friday night, February 27th for round four of the Winter Nationals at Ocala Speedway, everyone was chomping at the bit to race on Saturday for the finale. However, it proved to not be quite that easy.
Anywhere from two to third inches of rain had fallen on Friday afternoon and evening, turning the race track and pit area into a sea of mud. There was very little in the way of drying conditions on Saturday either as it remained cloudy and damp most of the day. It was not until after Lunch that the track officials determined that they would be able to get the track in proper racing shape and they gave the "go ahead" to start advertising for the program and start making refunds to those folks that had bought multi day armbands and needed a refund for the non show of Friday.
In the final analysis, they did a great job getting the track into racing shape. It had just a bit of "character" but nothing unforeseen and it really had no bearing on the racing. What the track was however, was "hammer down" and there was not much they could do about that. It made everybody fast and made it hard to pass but that was certainly better than the alternative and that was to send everyone home disappointed.
There were several drivers that did bail out after the rainout on Friday though as a mixture of the rain, anticipated racing conditions and poor performance on the part of some saw seven less drivers on hand for the Saturday night finale and only thirty four on hand, which is quite small given that the Saturday night show paid twenty five grand to win. Car counts have been smaller all week compared to last year and the finale was a full Baker's Dozen less competitors.
With the number of competitors on hand Saturday, the program was identical to that of the rest of the week with the lone exception that the main event would go fifty laps. Brandon Overton and Drake Troutman were the quickest drivers in their two groups, with Overton quickest overall at 14.338 seconds. As per normal, all six qualifying events saw the winner come off the front row. However, two nasty crashes in the first heat race saw Justin Weaver, Daulton Wilson and Cody Hedgecock all done for the night with major damage.
With three provisional starters, there would be twenty five drivers to take the green for the start of the fifty lapper. Quite often on Saturday, the inside row has been a bit slower, probably because the moisture bubbling up made the low groove just a big slick. Thus it was that Overton jumped into the early lead from the outside row. O'Neal started fourth but quickly picked off both Brandon Sheppard and Drake Troutman and the battle was on.
Two spaced out yellow on laps ten and twenty one broke up the race and allowed the number of back markers to be limited, although Overton was having some difficulty that allowed O'Neal to challenge him on two occasions.
The halfway point saw Troutman still running third with Brandon Sheppard and Devin Moran next in line. Brian Shirley slowed with a flat tire with thirty six laps complete when a shocking development changed the course of the race. Overton developed a flat rear tire and he was forced to pit under yellow, turning the lead over to O'Neal. Sheppard and Moran had worked their way up to second at this point.
A lap thirty eight yellow for a slowing car bunched the field once again with Moran pushing Sheppard for second as Tim McCreadie slipped into the top five.
A huge development occurred after just five more green flag laps were completed. Sheppard, still running second, slowed with a flat tire of his own and the running order was shuffled once again. This moved Moran up to second and it was up to O'Neal to hold him off.
O'Neal was plenty quick and he had no trouble keeping Moran behind him as he led the final fourteen laps to score the victory. McCreadie drove the smoothest of races, taking advantage of the opportunities offered him as he ended up with a podium finish. Jonathan Davenport came from ninth to finish fourth and Troutman completed the top five. The race did take its toll on the equipment and there were nine drivers that dropped out before the finish of the race.
Continuing a week of very promptly run racing programs, the final checkered once again flew before 9 pm and I believe the fans totally enjoyed the one division program that got done at an early hour. Again, I heard no one that complained that the races got done so early even as they were paying a rather premium price for their tickets. Clearly they came to see Late Models and nothing else, at least this week.
Despite a really gloomy day and evening, a very large crowd was on hand for the program and with the Ocala fan parking lot shrinking more each year, fans found some very inventive ways of parking their vehicles.
Thanks to the officials of the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series for all their help as well as Bubba and his crew of employees who put in some long hours working at the track. The LOLMS now moves up to Georgia for four more nights of racing next week before they finally get to take some time off.
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