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1. Volusia continued to be THE track to hit during Speedweeks with the highest car counts and, seemingly, the best racing. Side-by-side battles and drivers rallying from midpack are almost the norm at the half-mile oval these days. When this happens, the fans are the real winners.
2. If you're a Late Model fan and you didn't stick around to watch Brett Hearn's run in Saturday night's Big Block Modified finale, you missed what was probably the best show of the week. Hearn's pit stop for a flat with just 15 laps remaining left most folks thinking he was done for the night. Instead, the veteran stormed back through the field and took the point as the white flag waved to capture the win.
3. The drivers who MOST impressed me at Volusia: Eric Wells, Stormy Scott, and Mason Zeigler.
4. The drivers who LEAST impressed me at Volusia: Jimmy Mars, Chub Frank, and Gregg Satterlee.
5. Finally, if you didn't get a chance to see it, the DirtonDirt live broadcast was an absolute smash. I'm talking, 100% total out-of-the-ballpark homerun. A huge hat-tip to those folks for putting together the best live internet broadcast I have ever seen. Job well done, fellas.
Some random thoughts from the last few days of racing in Florida...
1. Car counts everywhere have taken a huge hit. With Ocala averaging roughly 40 per night - and less than that at East Bay - is it time for these two tracks to put their egos aside and start working together? I think so but, as one twitter follower pointed out, the current situation does allow for more drivers to take home money.
2. Josh Richards is fast. Damn fast. And he will be the driver to beat on the WoO circuit this year.
3. DirtonDirt's broadcast last night at Volusia was absolutely off the chart. From the camera angles to the live driver interviews, they have raised an exceptionally high bar for the world of online PPV broadcasts. Kudos to everyone involved.
4. Nice to see Earl Pearson Jr. get back on the winning track.
5. Has anyone else noticed that Billy Moyer seems to be struggling right now? He has just one top five run in six starts and, while that may not be a big deal to most, it's down right shocking considering he's one of the winningest drivers in GA/FL Speedweeks history.
6. There were six features at East Bay and only three (official) lead changes.
7. Was anybody else surprised to see Vic Coffey stay at East Bay and not head to Ocala? I was.
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So, which driver had the best Speedweeks? Several come to mind, but my vote goes to Steve Francis. In 12 races (between East Bay and Volusia), he made 11 A-Mains. Out of those 11 features, he scored eight top five finishes, three of which were wins. While a debate could be made for Dennis Erb or Billy Moyer, I think Francis proved more than anyone else. But I'm always up for a good discussion, so I'm interested in hearing what others think.
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| Rick Schwallie photo |
In case you haven't seen it yet, better make your way over to DirtonDirt and check out last night's post-race interview from Volusia with Scott Bloomquist. It's another classic and I have a feeling the acronym P.F.R. will now be used quite a bit.
