Editor's Note - This blog is the first of a 10-part series that will appear over the course of the next several weeks. This series will count down the "Top 10 Craziest Things I Have Ever Seen At A Race Track".
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#10 –
Tyler County Speedway 7/7/01
What happened: In
a race that no one would soon forget, people to this day still believe that
Sonny Conley, who was credited with the win, was really a lap down in the
Firecracker 40.
Steve Davis and I were the co-announcers at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, WV at the time. The $3,000-to-win Firecracker 40 was one of the more prestigious events on the track's schedule.
In the Late Model A-Main, a caution with about 10 laps remaining brought the field to a halt in turns three
and four. Up front, leader Bill Childers
had been setting a torrid pace, lapping into the top 10. Just past the halfway point, Sonny Conley was
within just a few car lengths of going a lap down. Conley somehow found a groove on the high side of the track and immediately
began blistering around the competition. With an extremely dusty track surface, tons of two and three-wide racing, and 19 of the 20 starters still on the tight 1/4-mile bullring, Conley’s high side heroism went completely unnoticed by the crowd as he roared past both the lapped traffic and the frontrunners and
stormed into the lead just before the race’s only caution with about 10 laps
to go.
As
the field was realigning and preparing for the green, the late Bill Childers (who, again, everyone assumed was the race leader) stopped on the backstretch … not because of a
problem with his #03, but to inform track officials that he was not the leader
of the race. Much to the disbelief of
the fans and even the track staff, Childers continued to insist that Conley was the race leader. After scorers went back and checked their
score sheets, they indeed found that Conley was not a lapped car. Instead, the New Martinsville, WV native had
gone from nearly being lapped to leading the race in a matter of just a few
laps! Conley would go on to claim the
win, amid a showering of boos from the Tyler County Speedway fans, who were
certain that an error had been made and that Childers had actually won the
race.
Looking Back: Thank
God I have a video tape of this race because, to be very honest with you … I wasn’t convinced that Sonny Conley was on
the lead lap when that caution came out.
I distinctly remember sitting in the press box with the scorers, Gary
Marks and Jack Shutts, while the confusion was going on. NO ONE in the booth knew or realized that
Conley was the leader. He went from
nearly being lapped to being the leader of the race in about 8 laps.
