Richards vs. Roberts; All Settled Or A Feud To Continue?

We are just getting started with the 2015 racing season and there is already one new rivalry that is creating quite a buzz.

In this corner you have three-time World of Outlaws Late Model Champion Josh Richards, back to full-time racing after spending nearly all of 2014 on the sidelines with nerve damage to his hands from an earlier accident. Hungry to return to national prominence and ready to compete for the Outlaws' championship as if 2014 was just a break.

And in this corner you will find regional racer Casey Roberts, no personal website for him, just using a Facebook page to keep his fans updated on his exploits that have included several wins on the red clay tracks of Georgia and the Carolinas over the past few years with his biggest victory coming nearly one year ago when he won a World of Outlaws show at the Voluisa County Speedway in Florida. A show that Josh Richards was not a part of.

Our two contenders likely never had a negative thought about one another going into Thursday night's non-points WoO event at the Screven Motor Speedway in southern Georgia and each probably had a certain level of respect for the other's talents. Well, perhaps one knew of the other more due to past accomplishments, media coverage, etc., and that level of respect showed as Casey Roberts closed in on race long leader Josh Richards and began to challenge him for that top spot.

For several laps Roberts was able to put a nose to the inside of Richards entering the turns and he stayed in that low groove trying to find the bite that he needed to complete the pass. But each time the high line gave Richards the momentum to maintain the lead as he raced off of turns two and four. On lap twenty-nine, through a combination of Roberts finding that grip on the bottom in turn one and Richards drifting a little too high in turn two, Roberts completely cleared him down the back stretch to takeover the lead.

Entering turn three now in the preferred higher line, Roberts left the bottom open for Richards who dove in hard with the reckless abandon that a driver hungry for victory will so often do. Unable to hold his car on that low line, Richards came up the track making contact with Roberts and sending him over the cushion and nearly into the turn four wall. As Richards raced away with the lead once again, and would eventually go on for that first big win since his return, Roberts saw Frankie Heckenast go by him as well before he gathered it back in and finished third.

Roberts made his feelings known in the pits afterwards and then vowed to return the favor to "the professional driver" who had treated him like he was some regional guy who didn't belong up front.

That payback came just two nights later during an Outlaws show that was this time paying points at the same Screven Speedway. With nine laps remaining Richards and Roberts were racing for sixth and entering turn three, in the exact same place where the battle began, Roberts stuck his nose under the left rear quarter panel of Richards and flat out turned him around to cause a caution. The fans were gesturing wildly, some for and some against, and perhaps a bit surprisingly to me at least, only Richards was sent to the rear of the field for the restart.

Roberts would go on to finish fifth while Richards could only climb his way back to fifteenth over the final laps putting him just a bit behind schedule on that next Outlaws championship as he sits in a tie for sixth in points after two events, ironically with his arch rival Darrell Lanigan.

Some have been critical of Roberts and his retaliation. I even saw one post trying to tie together what happened on the dirt track in New York last August as to what could have happened here if things had gone wrong. I disagree. The precision that Casey Roberts showed in spinning out Josh Richards in a manner that did not create any greater havoc showed the same level of car control that he displayed when he raced "Kid Rocket" cleanly for several laps before the Thursday night incident.

Let's hope that the feud is now over and who knows, maybe Josh Richards will actually benefit from this exchange and realize that whether it is Lanigan, McCreadie, Clanton, Moyer or some regional racer who happens to be ahead of you, it is better to finish second than to drive through them like they don't deserve to be there. That kind of attitude will likely produce another championship.