Five Weekend Afterthoughts 9/4/12

UMP Modifieds prepare to take the green flag at Limaland Motorsports Park.

1.  Mike Marlar's historic last-to-first run at I-77 Speedway's Hillbilly Hundred will certainly go down as one of the greatest accomplishments in recent Dirt Late Model history.  I try hard not to play favorites, but two things need to be said.  One, great for Mikey.  He's one of the good guys in this sport and it's always encouraging to see him get a big win.  Two, good for the guys at I-77.  I know Kenney Newhouse, Shon Parsons, and crew have worked unbelievably hard to get their 3/8-mile oval prepared for the Hillbilly.  Glad to see them reap the benefits of a huge crowd and an outstanding race.  

2.  It may have flown under the radar during a weekend full of rain outs, but crew chief Austin Hargrove has parted ways with driver Frank Heckenast Jr.  Hargrove, who helped crew Bart Hartman to a World 100 win in 2009, was turning wrenches for the returning Jon Henry Saturday night at Attica.  There's a chance Hargrove could be heading to Pennsylvania to begin crewing for a young up-and-coming.  Stay tuned for more info.

3.  For the third week in a row, I went to nearby Limaland Motorsports Park for what was yet another OUTSTANDING show.  Two of the three A-Mains featured last lap passes for the win and all three main events were completed by 9:45pm.  After the features, Limaland held the annual, season-ending King of the Quarter Miles.  The 10-lap "winner-take-all" races are for the feature winners this season with the Stock winner getting $1000, the UMP Modified winner taking home $2000, and the Sprint winner pocketing a cool $3000.  The Mod King of the Quarter Mile came down to a photo finish in which Jerry Bowersock inched out a win over track champion Todd Sherman. Week in and week out, Limaland continues to offer fans one of the absolute best weekly racing programs in the entire country.

4.  The announcement has been made that Eldora's 42nd Annual World 100 will be televised live on internet PPV.  With this past weekend's Baltes Classic getting rained out, the World will be the maiden voyage for Eldora's PPV broadcasts, which will go into "full swing" next season.  It's a big step for the Big E, but they have the equipment and personnel to pull it off with an astounding eight cameras as well as two announcers (Rick Eshelman & James Essex), a pit reporter (Ozzie Altman), and a broadcast host (Yours Truly).  I have a pretty good hunch this live broadcast is a historic event for Eldora that will only get better with time.

5.  Hard to believe but, it was ten years ago this week that Brian Birkhofer made the "pass heard 'round the world" at Eldora Speedway.  To help us all relive that magical moment, check out the awesome video (link in previous sentence) and report that Michael Rigby of Dirtondirt.com put together.

Southern Swing Day 3

With another full day of conferencing on the schedule, including lunch at the Mellow Mushroom, I was out the door shortly after 4:00pm and on my way to Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN for the second night of the Schaeffer Oil Southern Nationals, and my fifth straight day of racing.

This would mark my first ever trip to the 4/10-mile speedplant, making it track #162 on my list.  I arrived at Smoky Mountain in plenty of time despite a small traffic jam on I-40 on the drive over.

Smoky Mountain has long straightaways and two very different corners.  Turns one and two are slightly tighter than turns three and four and, in speaking with of the drivers, that adds a whole new element into the set-up of one's race car at the track. The pits are located back off turn one allowing cars to both enter and exit the speedway at the end of the frontstretch.  The track itself is completely surrounded by a concrete wall on the outside and the majority of the inside is lined with either concrete or a guardrail.  A scoreboard sits right outside turns one and two displaying laps, times, and the top car car numbers.  

A look at the 4/10-mile Smoky Mountain Speedway, located just south of Maryville, TN.

The general admission section at The Mountain has both wooden grandstands as well as terraced concrete seating, giving folks the option to bring a lawn chair or, as I did, just planting your fanny on some splinters.  The food is averaged priced, the lighting is decent, and the speaking system is fair.

It was dubbed "Late Model Mania" at Smoky Mountain with 27 drivers signed in for the Southern Nationals race as well as 15 Crates and 15 Limited Lates.  With "Racing" advertised to start at 8:00pm, things were a tad behind schedule but, once the program got started, it kept moving fairly quickly.  That's good considering it was a Tuesday night and nearly everyone had somewhere to be the next morning.

A car rolls through turns one and two at Smoky Mountain.

On a very heavy racing surface, Chris "Smoky" Madden (and two others) blistered the tacky surface to lower the track record during Time Trials which locked the top eight qualifiers into the A-Main and sent the rest of the field to one of the two Last Chance Qualifiers.

The prelim racing at Smoky Mountain was so-so, with a few good races mixed in with a few not-as-good ones.  The first A-Main of the night was the Crate feature and, after lap two, there were no green flag passes for position within the top ten.  Adam Beeler would notch the win in that event which was followed by the 35-lap Southern Nationals A-Main.

Ty Dillon entered his second straight Southern Nationals race.

Madden and Mike Marlar led the field to the green and, much like the night before at Wythe, Madden rocketed out to the early race lead.  Somewhere around lap ten, I noticed Marlar had changed his line ever so slightly and was running about half a car length higher than Madden was.  The small change made a big difference as the Winfield, TN driver was able to chase down the race leader and work his way into the top spot right around the halfway point.  From there, Madden hung with Marlar for a few laps as they sliced through the back of the field, but the driver of the Bryson Motorsports #5B proved to be just too strong as Marlar held on for the $3500 payday.

I'm not sure what time the feature ended, but it had to be somewhere around 10:30pm or a little after.  Again, not terrible for a weeknight.  Once the victory lane ceremonies were finished, I was in my car and, with my a 5 Hour Energy in hand, was making my way back to Asheville, NC. 

#9 - Top 10 Craziest Things...

Editor's Note - This blog is the second of a 10-part series that will appear over the course of the next several weeks.  This series counts down the "Top 10 Craziest Things I Have Ever Seen At A Race Track".

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#9  –  Lake Cumberland Speedway 7/22/06

What Happened:  In a truly bizarre final five laps, the top three cars took each other out on lap 36 (of 40).  16th-starting Scotty Earl then found himself on the point, despite having a broken control arm on the left front.  Meanwhile David Webb, who went to the tail of the field for bringing out a caution on lap 18, was charging his way back to the front of the field.

At Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, KY on July 26, 2006, a stellar field of 36 O’Reilly NARA Battle of the Bluegrass competitors was trimmed down to 24 cars with Chris Combs and Victor Lee on the front row of the “Rumble on the Lake 40” with Combs getting the early race advantage.  Lee wasted no time showing his strength as he stormed to point on lap 3 with Combs, David Webb, Timmy Yeager, and Justin Rattliff in tow.  Rattliff took fourth from Yeager on lap 4 as the caution flew one circuit later for a slowing Aaron Hatton.

Webb took advantage of the Delaware double-file restart and nabbed second spot away from Combs.  As Rattliff and Yeager continued to duel, that duo would surpass Combs shortly thereafter, dropping him to fifth.  With Webb hounding Lee for the lead, 7th-starting Mike Marlar became a factor moving himself into fourth on lap 10.  A lap 12 caution for Johnny Wheeler kept the field tight with Lee showing the way ahead of Webb, Rattliff, Marlar, and Yeager.

On the restart, Webb raced side-by-side with Lee for the top spot as Marlar moved to the outside of Rattliff and stole third momentarily as that pair ran door-to-door as well.  Behind them, 16th-starting Scotty Earl was quietly picking his way through the field as he grabbed the 6th position on lap 15.  On lap 18, Webb raced hard into turns one and two in a bid for the lead, but quickly stabbed the brakes and spun his car to a stop in an effort to keep from taking out race leader Victor Lee.

With fast qualifier Webb now at the tail of the field, Lee would have Rattliff, Marlar, Earl, and Combs in his rear view mirror for the lap 18 restart.  When racing resumed, Marlar shot the outside of Lee while Rattliff went to the inside.  The three-wide battle for the top spot would see Marlar credited with leading lap 19 and Rattliff at the helm one circuit later.  Lee would be shuffled back to fourth as early race leader Chris Combs found a new breath of life and roared into the third position just after the halfway point.  Just a few circuits later, Earl would power his mount into fourth as Lee faded to fifth.

Rattliff, who was showing left front suspension damage to his ride, somehow managed to stay on the point and maneuver his way through the back of the pack.  With 10 laps to go, Marlar and Combs closed the gap on race-leader Rattliff while Scotty Earl, who was also showing severe damage to his left front, held down the fourth spot with Dustin Neat now in fifth.  Behind them, 17th-starting Larry Gray used the ultra racey surface to move into 7th while both David Webb and Johnny Wheeler cracked the top 10 after their spins earlier in the race.

As the final 10 laps ticked away, Marlar and Combs swapped the bridesmaid honors back and fourth as they continued to close back in on Rattliff.  With just four laps remaining, 5th and 6th-running Dustin Neat and Bobby Carrier Jr. would be caught up in an accident eliminating both drivers from the race.  On the restart, Rattliff led Marlar, Combs, Earl, and Gray to the Delaware double-file restart with David Webb, Mike Jewell, Victor Lee, Johnny Wheeler, and Anthony Adams now rounding out the top 10.

When racing resumed on lap 36, Marlar went high in a bid for the lead with Combs applying the pressure on the bottom.  The complexion of the race would change one lap later when Marlar and Rattliff made contact coming off turn four and collected the third place car of Combs.  Marlar would be black flagged for working on his car outside the designated “hot pit” as Rattliff fell to the tail of the field and Combs retired from the event.

With his left front suspension damage, 16th-starting Scotty Earl suddenly found himself at the front of the pack.  David Webb had worked his way back through the field after his lap 18 spin to inherit second with Larry Gray now third, Victor Lee fourth, and Mike Jewell fifth.

Earl brought the field to the green and led the pack into one and two as Webb darted to the inside and Gray shot to the outside in a three-way bid for the lead.  With two laps to go, Webb motored ahead of Earl bringing Lee with him.  As teammates Earl and Wheeler contested in a fierce battle for third, Webb received the white flag with Lee glued to his rear decklid.  Lee would take a look inside of Webb on the final circuit, but Webb’s momentum carried him back in front of Lee and onto to the win.  In a wild dash to the finish, Lee would cross in second with Wheeler third, Jewell fourth, Earl fifth.

Looking Back:  Nothing that happened at “Hardgrove’s House of Hell” ever surprised me, but this race certainly threw me for a loop.  According to my notes, this race actually had three different leaders on lap 36 (due to cautions and restarts and whatnot).  The fact that Webb was able to pull off the win is somewhat amazing.  It’s also worth noting that this was the second race that my wife (then girlfriend) Jayme had ever been to.