I am
one of the fortunate Midwesterners who is usually able to sneak in at least one
race each year before the snow is off the ground at home. Lately it has been
the January Ice Bowl in Alabama and, before that I was usually able to get away
for at least a couple of Speedweek shows in Florida. Neither of these trips fit
into my schedule for 2005 though and so as the first weekend of March
approached I frenetically watched the weather forecasts in hope that I would
get to open this season with something different. One thing is for sure,
especially at this time of the year, the weather experts should just keep their
forecasts for more than twenty-four hours out in their pocket to avoid the
embarrassment of having to dramatically change them constantly!
Despite
snow on the radar in central Kentucky and one weather forecast calling for a
60% chance of thunderstorms with possible hail (something the weather guys
decided to throw in at the last minute) editor Barry made the decision on
Friday morning to make the trip and picked up my son Morgan and I and we headed
south for the Northern All Star Late Model twinbill at Kentucky Lake and
Clarksville. More than just because it would be my first race of the season, I was
really looking forward to this trip due to the contrast in the two tracks that
we would be visiting. Kentucky Lake is a very wide and high banked
three-eighths mile that allows for throttle-to-the-floor high-speed action.
This would be my fourth visit to the fairly new facility and, while I enjoyed
the racing at the first three, the manner in which the program was presented
left a lot to be desired. In fact the last time that I left KLMS, both Mo and I
swore that we would never come back. After all the heat races had just ended at
12:30 a.m. and I later heard that, had we stayed, we would have seen the Late
Model checkers after 3:00 a.m. It was no surprise to me that the track went up
for auction last summer and I was pleasantly surprised that Sherri Heckenast
wanted to get into the race promotion business. Being a racer herself, and
growing up in a racing family that has also been very successful in business, I
figured that she would be able to turn the place around. The NALMS opener at
KLMS on March 4th proved me right.
The
weather was pretty darn nice with temperatures in the mid-sixties, about
fifteen degrees warmer than forecasted just the day before, when we pulled into
the speedway. Qualifying for the Late Models was in progress making it obvious
that it had started pretty close to 5:00 p.m. as scheduled, a very good sign
given my past experience here. The sixty-three Late Models, and a lighter than
expected field of twenty-one Modifieds, tripped the clock and qualifying was
concluded shortly after six. Racing wasn’t supposed to start until seven, but
with lightning flashing in the night sky both to the east and the west the
first Late Model heat race rolled out about fifteen minutes early. Local driver
Phil Walker snared the first checkered flag of the year with Ray Cook and Randy
Korte taking heats two and three. The first incident of the night occurred in
turn one on the first lap of heat four. Local driver Tim Brown charged to the
inside of Steve Francis and when Francis drifted high he collected another
local star Randy Sellars. Sellars’ night was through after contact with the
wall and somehow Francis was able to muscle his damaged mount to a second place
finish behind Scott James. Dennis Erb Jr., who started tenth due to being light
at the scales during qualifying, showed signs of things to come by finishing
fourth. Rodney Melvin and Dale McDowell completed the list of heat winners.
The
three B-Mains transferred the winner only and the racing was exciting with
Timmy Yeager, Dennis Erb Jr. and Jeremy Williams making the show. Defending
NALMS champion Brian Shirley finished second to Williams and had a provisional
for the feature, but he was unable to start and Steve Barnett quickly unloaded
his car to take the young Illinois driver’s place. Shirley was a no-show the
following night at Clarksville perhaps quickly ending any chance that he would
have of repeating his title.
Ray
Cook jumped to the early lead in the fifty-lap main event and looked very
strong until his right rear tire exploded in turn two on the ninth circuit.
Cook pulled to the pits outside of the track to change the tire and, by track
rule, would not be able to restart the event. Just before the field was set to
go back to action, Cook reappeared on the speedway and went from official to
official to plead his case. After a lengthy delay it was announced that, by a
promoter’s decision, Cook would be allowed to restart at the rear of the field.
The large crowd seemed to take all of this in stride likely due to Cook’s
reputation as one of the sport’s nice guys, but I can only imagine what kind of
reaction this would have drawn had someone more flamboyant such as Don O’Neal
or Scott Bloomquist been the point of discussion. Cook pulled to the infield
four laps later.
Randy
Korte assumed the lead on the restart with the “Silver Shark” Scott James hot
in pursuit. Morgan had predicted a James victory early in the evening and so it
seemed like I had the young Indiana driver’s biggest fan sitting next to me as
he made several attempts on Korte for the point. On lap thirty-one it appeared
that Korte suffered an ignition problem as he slowed momentarily allowing James
to fly by down the back straightaway. Korte quickly recovered and kept pace
with the leader for the next ten laps before the problem reappeared and he
retired to the pits. Dale McDowell was now the challenger for the lead, but he
soon had his hands full with Don O’Neal. The two nationally known drivers
swapped the second spot a couple of times and you could sense that the crowd
expected one of them to muscle by James late in the race for the win. It was
not to be however as James, who emerged from Florida with a share of the World
of Outlaws Late Model point lead, held strong for the biggest payday of his
career with the $10,000 victory. Perhaps James’ biggest challenge came at the
scales where he reportedly weighed in right at the 2300 pound minimum. Three of
the four drivers who finished behind him, O’Neal, Brad Neat and Wendell Wallace
were not as fortunate as they were disqualified for being light. The official
top five would be James, McDowell, Whitney McQueary, Steve Barnett and Michael
England.
KLMS
Notes….O’Neal and Billy Moyer made contact coming off of turn two mid-race with
Moyer ending up hard in the backstretch wall…..Two top contenders, Rodney
Melvin and Terry English both pulled to the infield with flat tires on lap
thirty-seven….One lap later Dennis Erb Jr., who had advanced to fifth from
twentieth, had his left front tie-rod break and seconds later the sixth place
car of Steve Francis coasted to a halt….A look at the radar at the motel later
that night revealed that we lucked out on this night as small storms passed
from north to south on either side of the track…..Central Illinois drivers
Aaron Ricketts and Nick Neville finished one-two in the UMP Modified feature.
Very impressive for two drivers who are more accustomed to the quarter-mile
bullrings…..Tim Walker, who started outside row one, finished third despite
spinning in turn one on the first lap and collecting five cars. With the “free
restart” rule in effect he restarted the race from the front once again. For
thoughts on the “free restart” rule, see my column in the December 2004 issue
of HRN….Lucas Lee and Jared Wagster, one of the first-lap-wreck victims,
completed the top five….The entire show was completed by 10:30 p.m. and we left
very pleased with what we had witnessed. Never say “never”, as with the new
promoter at the helm I will be back to Kentucky Lake, and often.
I
talked about the contrast in the two tracks for the weekend earlier and, while
KLMS is a brand new high-dollar modern facility, my first visit to Clarksville
was just what I had hoped for. This north Tennessee track is a tight and racy
quarter-mile that has been providing fans with great fender-rubbing action for
thirty years. The facilities can be described as “rustic” yet comfortable with
a good speaker system and a promoter in William Scogin who is full of
personality and enthusiasm. Shortly after the pit gates opened on this cool,
cloudy and breezy Saturday, he told us that he must be crazy for putting this
show on. But with fifty Late Models eventually filling the pits and a large
crowd bundled up and ready for action, I hope that he is crazy enough to do it
again next year.
Barnett,
Moyer, McDowell and east Tennessee driver Randy Weaver picked up heat race wins
on a track that looked like it might lock down, but stayed multi-grooved for
the remainder of the event. Tim Hamburg and Kevin Cole transferred from the
first B-Main with seventeen-year-old Kyle Roderick just missing the show. Jeep
VanWormer cruised to the win in the second “B”, but things heated up on the
final lap for the other transfer position. Patrick Duggan, driving as a
teammate to Weaver, and Tripp City, Ohio driver Wayne Chinn tried to get to the
same spot in turn one at the same time with Chinn losing out and spinning to a
halt. Matt Taylor passed two cars and nearly beat Duggan after the restart but
came up just short.
The
fifty-lap feature at Clarksville didn’t include near the drama that KY Lake
did, but the racing through the field was still good and kept the fans as warm
as they could be with temperatures dipping into the low forties. Weaver, who is
known more for showing the way around high-speed showplaces such as Atomic Speedway,
was impressive leading the field for the first seventeen laps before yielding
to Moyer. Billy began to pull away, but Weaver gained ground in traffic and may
have been able to mount a charge to regain the lead had he not had to deal with
the challenges of Dale McDowell. There were plenty of challenges in the top
five over the final laps but no position changes as Moyer cashed in on a
$10,000 payday. Weaver was the runner-up ahead of McDowell, Barnett and Steve
Francis who had started the race from the sixth row in the Mooring machine.
Clarksville
Notes…..Scott James had another decent run going until late in the race when he
ran into the back of Don O’Neal under the caution. It appeared that O’Neal had
decided to exit the track on the top side of turn two and had stopped to make
the hard right turn and James, who was trying to return to his running
position, couldn’t avoid him and punched a hole in the radiator…..The event was
dubbed the Tuckassee Toilet Bowl Classic in honor of the event sponsor Lester
Ellis Plumbing. Their motto is a classic that I must share with you as painted
on the side of the truck was “Our Plumbers Show Up On Time And They Smell
Good”. The trophy was a toilet bowl fixture with the name of the event decaled
on the lid and I’m sure that Mr. Moyer will have fun finding a place to put it
in his ever-growing trophy room!…..Oskaloosa Iowa’s John VanDenBerg made the
show and finished a respectable 14th, one spot ahead of multi-time
Clarksville track champion Tony Albright…..The UMP Modified feature was a
thriller as former track champ David Flowers stumbled on a late restart falling
from first to fourth. He quickly fought back though and as the field negotiated
the final two turns he dove low and swept past leader Rob Fuqua. Not to be
denied, Fuqua made a nifty move back to the inside and was able to nip Flowers
by inches in the drag race to the checkers making it a weekend sweep for
Modified drivers from Illinois. Flowers, who was very personable earlier in the
day when Barry and I talked to him, had to settle for second followed by
defending track champion Clayton Martin. Trent Young and another Illini, Todd
Kirkland, completed the top five…..If not for the Pro Street drivers bringing
back grudges from the previous season in a very long and very frustrating
preliminary feature, this show would have been completed in a very timely
fashion on the chilly evening…..With some interesting mid-week shows on the
2005 schedule, don’t be surprised if you see me reporting from Clarksville again
this year. Check the place out if you get the chance!
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