With a favorable weather forecast for the mid-south on Saturday I made a couple of phone calls to friends Bill and Scott Vantiger and we made the nine hour road trip to Duck River Speedway near Wheel Tennessee for the second event on the 2010 schedule for the Southern Regional Racing Series. We were pleased to find thirty-one Super Late Models ready to qualify as we pulled into this rustic little quarter mile about an hour south of Nashville and there were plenty of race fans on hand as well bundled up and ready for action.
The SRRS uses a unique qualifying method where they split the field into three groups and the drivers with the fastest three times in each group automatically advanced to the forty-lap main event. After that they ran ran three "heat races" which were really last chance events as the top four advanced and the rest went home unless they were awarded a provisional to make the twenty-four car starting field.
A pair of Alabama drivers Ronnie Lee Hollingsworth and Anthony Burroughs qualified for the front row and it was Hollingsworth who jumped to the lead at the drop of the green. Burroughs tried to keep pace, but had no luck even as the leader started working lapped traffic. The first caution waved on lap fifteen when Caleb Ashby slowed to a stop in turn two and on the restart the man to watch was Eric Hickerson. Up until then the track appeared to be locked down on the bottom, but Hickerson went to the top and found a new groove as he tried to move forward from his seventh starting spot. Drivers went three wide on a couple of occasions as they tried to slow the charge of Hickerson who moved up to third and appeared to be reeling in Burroughs before the caution waved again with five laps remaining for debris in turn two.
It seemed to take forever to get the field ready to go for the restart as drivers stopped to consult with track officials and, with the temperatures hovering near forty degrees, it must have taken a toll on Hickerson's tires. When the green waved again he tried that same groove but slipped back to fifth as both Daniel Miller and Ronnie Johnson drove by him. At the checkers it was Hollingsworth taking the dominating $3,000 victory ahead of Burroughs, Miller, Johnson and Hickerson. Craig Smith made the long pull down from Godfrey, Illinois, and finished eleventh.
There were five other divisions yet to run their features, but when the two-barrel Late Models crashed on their first two attempts at a start we decided to head for the warmth of our Nashville motel room. Kudos to the promoters for running the Super Late Model feature second on the schedule allowing us to be on the road by 8:30 p.m.
Duck River Speedway or "Ducktona" as the sign says is a quick little high-banked quarter-mile with new bleachers and bright Musco lighting. It is not one of those new immaculate facilities, but was a nice place to start what we hope will be a great 2010 racing schedule!
Riding with "Brother Bill" made me hungry for some great food at the Finish Line Restaurant in New London, a racing themed establishment run by his daughter Megan. Take a look at their ad on the front page of www.PositivelyRacing.com and maybe I'll see you there soon!
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