Southern Swing Day 2

Monday, July 16th was the first day of my conference in Asheville, NC.  After an entire day's worth of sessions, lectures, and presentations, I was ready to throw on something casual and make my first ever trip to Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, VA.

Having read a lot about and having seen several pictures/videos of Wythe, I was more than ready to grab a race at the giant 1/2-mile track.  When I got there, my jaw dropped.  "Awesome" would an understatement in describing this place.  It's more like putting West Virginia Motor Speedway and Tazewell in a blender - turning the blender on - and this is what spits out.  

The 1/2-mile Wythe Raceway is nestled in the hills of western Virginia.

With its long straightaways and very high banked turns, Wythe is undoubtly one-of-a-kind and certainly a track everyone should put on their bucket list.  To give you an idea of the speeds they turn at this place, Chris Madden's quick time was under 16 seconds.  For lack of better words, this place is badass.

The track itself sits well below the fans viewing areas, as the climb to get from the infield pit area back up to the general admission section would wear out even the healthiest of hikers.  A steady flow of mountains serve as the backstretch backdrop while a small scoreboard - displaying lap times and the top five car numbers - is located about halfway down the backchute.

Defending race winner Austin Dillon was back to defend his title.

The Schaeffer Oil Southern Nationals Series was on hand for this early-week special with 25 drivers signed into the pits.  A handful of competitors in two different support classes completed the evening's lineup.  The Southern Nationals field was small but stout with Chris Madden, Austin & Ty Dillon, Mike Marlar, Vic Hill, and others ready to tackle this half-mile beast.

One thing I found out about the south during this trip - and I knew this before my Southern Swing, I guess I had just forgotten - is that when a southern track advertises "Racing" to start at a certain time, "Racing" typically means either Hot Laps or Time Trials.  Such was the case Monday at Wythe when SoNats qualifications rolled out shortly after 8:00pm.

The sun sets on the evening's action at Wythe.

Fortunately for me, who was hoping for a quick program, the SoNats format locks the top eight qualifiers into the A-Main.  The remaining drivers run Last Chance Qualifiers to determine the remainder of the starting line-up.

Wythe's LCQs were decent, and they were immediately followed by the Super Streets who put on an phenomenal race, highlighted by an aggressive nip-and-tuck battle among the top three cars.

The 35-lap Southern Nationals A-Main was next and Chris Madden immediately grabbed the early race lead and seemed to be a shoe-in for the win.  After wrestling with lapped traffic, Madden slowed his pace just a little while second-place Vic Hill found a groove to his liking which allowed him to reel in the race-long leader at the halfway point.  Hill motored by Madden in turns three and four and powered on to the win, his third career victory with the series.

Mike Marlar broadslides around the high-banked corners at Wythe.

The Late Model feature was over somewhere around 10:30pm or so, which wasn't too terribly bad for a weeknight.  With my 5 Hour Energy shot in hand, I was ready to make the trip back to Asheville and get ready for day two of the conference ... as well as race number two on the Southern Nationals tour, the Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN.  Be sure to check back in tomorrow for a recap of that event!