When our sport has coverage on ABC's Good Morning America it is never a good thing. Robin Roberts introduced the story including the video of Dale Blaney's Sprint Car vaulting the fence outside of turn two at Volusia Raceway Park and reporter Gio Benitez gave some details stating that three spectators in the area of the pit grandstand had been injured, two of them critically during Sunday night's World of Outlaws main event. Updates today have one of the injured still in critical condition, another in stable condition and the third has been treated and released. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved, including Blaney who was described as being very distraught.
Just a few days earlier disaster was avoided when Joey Saldana also flipped over and through the fencing off of turn two and down the back stretch as nobody was struck by the flipping car. Going back and watching Saldana's crash it would appear that the fencing down the back stretch at Volusia, and in front of the pit grandstands is a tall chain link fence meant more to serve as a boundary rather than a traditional catch fence. Not that it would have mattered in Saldana's crash as his car clipped the top of it on its way over, whether or not that was the case with Blaney's crash I do not know, nor do I want to look at it again.
The World Racing Group that owns both the Outlaws and the track itself has announced that this grandstand has been removed and that pit crews and spectators will not be allowed into this area as racing resumes this week for the Late Models and Modifieds and you can bet that new fencing will be in place down the back stretch at this high speed oval very soon.
As race fans we all must know that no matter how extensive the precautions a track takes there is still a level of danger that exists as I have seen many instances over the years of parts and pieces being thrown over the fence. Myself, I am very conscious of where I sit at every race taking into account the physics as to what the direction the momentum of any debris might be, but that is not fail proof by any means. Just last year at the Knoxville Nationals a woman sitting about twenty feet to my right, in a section midway down the front stretch and twenty rows up, was hit in the cheek by a bolt during a heat race. No wreck, no warning, just a metal missile smacking her in the face as she enjoyed the action. Thankfully her injury was minor and after being checked out by medical personnel she returned to her seat obviously a believer in the theory that lightning never strikes twice.
Be vigilant when you go to the track.
It was a long Sunday at Volusia as the Outlaws made up Saturday's rained out program during the afternoon followed by Sunday night's finale that concluded after an hour and fifteen minute delay to treat the injured. Donny Schatz won both feature races, the first during the day where surprisingly the racing was pretty good and then at night when he out dueled David Gravel in a thriller. No doubt that Schatz remains the man to beat with the Outlaws again this year and his early point lead is even bigger when you consider that All Stars regular Chad Kemenah ranks second in the standings as the Outlaws leave Florida.
Forty miles to the west the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series entertained a near capacity crowd at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala Sunday night and nearly everybody was on their feet as Brandon Sheppard swept around the outside of Scott Bloomquist on the final lap to steal the win. That battle may have been for third if not for the lapped car of Bob Gardner that had spun off of turn four collecting then leader Josh Richards and challenger Don O'Neal on lap twenty. O'Neal nearly turned over as he slammed into Richards ending his night while Richards was able to salvage a tenth place finish after a trip to the pit area for repairs.
With Richards coming over to Lucas from the Outlaws in 2017 his battle with Bloomquist for the championship is much anticipated even though there are so many other talented drivers and former National series champions on the roster. Leaving Florida it is Richards on top of Bloomquist by a mere fifteen points.
Several drivers from our region made the trip down to Abilene, Texas, this weekend to compete in the annual IMCA Icebreaker with a couple of them finding victory lane in the Hobby Stock features. Shannon Anderson of Des Moines was Friday's winner while Greg Gilbert of Osceola captured Saturday night's main event. William Gould of Calera, Oklahoma, swept the Modified features while Stanton, Iowa's Jeff James was the runner-up on Friday and finished fifth on Saturday. Nebraska native Adam Armstrong who went from the Hobby Stocks to the Sport Mods in 2016 has now advanced to the Modified ranks as he was third and sixth on the weekend. Other Iowa Modified competitors were Clint Luellen and Tad Reutzel who were both in the top ten on Saturday.
Super Late Models were also in action this past Saturday during the annual Winterfest at Tennessee's Winchester Speedway and there was an interesting bit of officiating that helped decide the winner of the $3,000 top prize. Defending champion of the event John Ownbey was the race leader, but under pressure from Jason Welshan when Welshan threw a slider at the leader in turns three and four. The two cars collided door-to-door and while it appeared that both were then trying to wreck the other as the thrird-place car raced by, the caution waved with both drivers allowed to return to their first and second positions for the restart. Welshan grabbed the lead at the drop of the green and then raced on to what would have been a controversial victory around here at least.
I am hoping to, weather permitting, get a look at some of the Tennessee talent when the MARS East and West tours convene at the Clarksville Speedway in a couple of weeks as the combination should make for an interesting driver roster.
There are still a few tracks in the region that have not yet released their schedule for 2017, but the majority have and our Specials calendar at Positively Racing has over 1,150 events listed as of the last update provided to the Webmistress. If this recent run of warm weather doesn't have you pumped up for racing yet, perhaps a check of that calendar will help.
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