Weekly Notebook presented by FK Rod Ends
Notes: A resolve to race amid charred memories
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Jeff Watson (joshjamesartwork.com)
The winningest season of Jeff Watson’s 21-year racing career faced an unimaginable setback when his racing garage burned to the ground a week ago. But the 49-year-old Campbellsville, Ky., racer, daunted but unbowed, isn’t allowing the crushing loss of his Super Late Model, family racing memorabilia and more than half his racing equipment stop him.
“I ain’t gonna lie, this has really been hard on me,” Watson wrote on his Facebook page two days after the fire. “What I do know is God gives the hardest battles to his toughest soldiers. I will overcome this setback, not a single doubt in my mind.”
Watson took the first step by piloting his scorched Crate Late Model at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky., just two days after the fire, winning a heat race before rain halted the night’s feature event. He’s determined to carry on a season with 13 victories, 11 in his Crate Late Model and two in modified competition, and the driver atop DirtonDirt.com's Weekly Notebook presented by FK Rod Ends has received gratifying support.
“Since this happened, I’ve discovered there’s more people that are my fans than I ever dreamed of. People I didn’t even really know,” Watson said. “There’s been many people just walk up and hand me cash. That means the world to me.”
Watson’s racing world came crashing down when he got a phone call at 1:30 a.m. Thursday, July 29, with the frantic notice that his garage, 2 miles away from where he lives, was in flames.
The building Watson watched his father build nearly 40 years ago was destroyed, burning his Super Late Model, sheetmetal brake, pressure washer, welders, shocks, an array of other racing equipment — and the Watson family history of a building one friend once described as a museum. Firefighters spent two hours getting the fire under control, taking care to prevent the flames from reaching four drums of racing fuel.
“By the time I got there, it was a total loss. It was terrible,” said Watson, whose late father Finn Watson next week will receive a Lifetime Achievement award from the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame. “I had my Super car was the one that got damaged the most, it burned to the ground. Which I haven’t raced it much, but it had a tribute wrap on it that I had raced it at my dad’s memorial race at Richmond, and I was going to take it to the North-South because they’re inducting him into the Hall of Fame.”
Watson’s Crate Late Model was in an adjacent garage bay that received some damage, but the car was salvageable. And his modified was in another detached garage and unharmed.
The sentimental losses hit hard. Bizarrely, a 1976 clip from Campbellsville’s Central Kentucky News-Journal survived — it documented a $700 Finn Watson victory at Taylor County Speedway with 5-year-old Jeff Watson in the victory lane photo. But scores of other clippings, an old firesuit, helmet, trophies, souvenirs and a prized doorpanel from the elder Watson’s legendary Paul’s Pipeline car were lost, many of them items from Finn Watson’s 300-victory, championship-winning career. Some of the mementos were those Finn Watson saved of his son’s accomplishments.
“As I got older and started racing, when I would do something good and get a newspaper clipping or something, he would cut it out, and he would put it up in that garage, and he would have his own writing on it, like what the date was and what it was for,” said Watson, who crewed for his father from age 13 until he started racing at 29 upon Finn Watson’s retirement. “Stuff like that meant a lot to me because it showed what I meant to him. So it wasn’t just his memorabilia, it was partly mine that he had collected because he was proud of me.
“I heard somebody say it was like a museum when they walked in there, because that’s kind of like what it was. He would laminate the clippings and just put ’em everywhere, like on cabinets, he had ’em everywhere. You couldn’t open nothing up without there being a picture or a clipping somewhere.”
While virtually all the memorabilia was destroyed, Watson was surprised to discover his Crate Late Model — which already survived a rollover accident earlier this season — wasn’t as badly burned as it looked.
“I didn’t even have my mind on racing,” Watson said, “and Louis Brady, that’s actually who that Crate car belongs to, he came over and we was looking at it to see how bad it was, and he said, ‘You know, I don’t think it’s that bad. Let’s roll it out and try to wash it off and see if we can get part of this black (burned areas) off and see what’s hurt.’
“So we rolled it out. You couldn’t get that black off. It’s just burnt. We started it up, and it started fine, but it had some leaks, fuel leaks where the heat done damage to some fuel line. And it done damage to some plugwires. So we fixed everything that we saw that was wrong and, you know, I knew they were doing a benefit for me at Lake Cumberland, so I said, ‘Let’s take this car over there.’ To be honest with you, I’d feel better if I’m at the track than I would, knowing they was racing, and I was sitting at home with a burnt up race shop.
“So we took it over there. We had a little issue qualifying. We missed a plugwire that was damaged. So we changed it and we won our heat race and was really fast. It rained and we didn’t get to run the feature.”
Being at the track provided a salve, even if he was driving a Late Model scorched black over much of the car’s body.
“(When) I’m at the track, I’m not thinking about the fire,” Watson said. “When you’ve been racing as long as my family has, the track is your happy place. You just forget about all the troubles like normal stress during the week, your job, you just forget it all.”
Watson, who has Crate Late Model victories this season at Lake Cumberland, Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon, Ky., Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky., and Richmond (Ky.) Raceway, hopes to continue adding victories to his winningest season.
“I’ve got good people helping me. Everybody asks me, ‘What are you doing different this year? What’s the secret formula?’ We’ve just got good chemistry and I learned earlier this year, right before the season, they was putting my dad in the Hall of Fame,” Watson said. “And whenever you hear that, it makes you step up your game. So it’s just been a good year.”
Weekly highlights
• Sweeping a pair of $2,000 specials, Matt Lux of Franklin, Pa., won July 30-31 Super Late Model features at Thunder Mountain Speedway in Knox Dale, Pa., and Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway.
• Jared Bailey of Bedford, Ind., won Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway’s Paul Crockett Memorial for a $2,500 payday at the Jackson County Fair. Bailey led the last two laps after race-long leader Devin Gilpin’s left-rear tire was purposefully flattened by Mike Bechelli during a late caution period. Bechelli was disqualified from the 25-lapper.
• James Rice of Verona, Ky., on July 31 raced to his second straight Super Late Model victory at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky.
• Winning a Super Late Model race honoring his grandfather, hometown driver Steve Weigle captured July 31's ninth annual Bud Weigle Memorial at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va.
• Freddie Carpenter of Parkersburg, W.Va., scored a two-victory Super Late Model weekend on July 30-31 at I-77 Speedway in Ripley, W.Va., and Midway Speedway in Crooksville, Ohio.
• Reeling off two more victories, Kyle Hardy of Stephens City, Va., won July 30's Crate Late Model feature at Dog Hollow Speedway in Strongstown, Pa., and July 31's Limited Late Model feature at Winchester (Va.) Speedway. He’s got 20 victories among Super, Limited and Crate Late Models.
• Winning on Grady’s Decision Night at Hummingbird Speedway, Doug Eck of Corry, Pa., collected a $2,500 Super Late Model victory in the July 31 event, leading all 30 laps.
• Johnny Fennewald of Appleton City, Mo., notched his fifth consecutive Lucas Oil Speedway victory on July 31, adding another Late Model triumph at the Wheatland, Mo., oval.
First things first
Recent first-time occurrences at the dirt track:
• Blake Swenson of Watertown, S.D., captured his first career Late Model feature victory July 30 at Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo, Minn. The 25-year-old, who started racing at age 16 in the B-mod division, is in his fifth season of Late Model racing.
• Winning from the pole position at Dog Hollow Speedway, Joe Petyak of Gallitzin, Pa., scored his first career victory in the Super Late Model division at the Strongstown, Pa., oval. Petyak previously had two Crate Late Model victories and seven four-cylinder victories at Dog Hollow.
Weekly news briefs
• Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway raised $10,500 in donations July 31 for East Waterford, Pa., Limited Late Model driver Bob Dunn, who remains hospitalized after suffering extensive facial fractures, lacerations and a broken nose when he slammed the inside backstretch wall in a July 10 heat race. Path Valley Speedway in Spring Run, Pa., also gathered July 31 donations. According to family reports, Dunn has undergone surgeries including a 12-hour operation to put 10 plates in his face, mouth, nose and jaw. He’s expected to be sent to rehabilitation center this week. Dunn has difficulty talking and has little use of his right arm.
• Revolution Park in West Monroe, La., has banned Crate Late Model racer Greg Armstrong of Sterlington, La., for the remainder of the season after he drove the wrong way on the racetrack and into the infield in trying to retaliate against Lance Carroll of Bastrop, La., who made contact in spinning Armstrong on a restart. Carroll also faced undetermined penalties pending discussion with Crate Racin’ USA officials, according to co-promoter Nicholas Brown. In other news, the track that has seen its 2021 Super Late Model events rained out added a $3,000-to-win Super Late Model event for Aug. 14.
• Chad Walters, who joined Brad McCown as co-owner of Ohio's Atomic Speedway last spring to bolster the track's finances for several improvements, has bought McCown out and now leads a new ownership group that includes veteran sprint car driver Charlie Vest, according to a report today from Litter Media. Vest said the track hopes to "bring Atomic back to its heyday of the '70s and '80s" while adding that McCown has "done some good things in the track’s revival and we hope to take it to the next level.”
• Dale, Wis., Dirt Late Model racer Aaron Bennett died July 31 in a motorcycle accident, according to his obituary. He was 45. Bennett, a heavy equipment operator, raced from the age of 14 and competed in various Late Model divisions, including making a recent DiscountShopTowels.com Dirt Kings Tour start. He's survived by three children along with a stepdaugher and stepson.
• Luke Hoffner, last week’s Super Late Model winner at Hidden Valley Speedway in Clearfield, Pa., will pick up a $400 bonus if he can win Friday’s Super Late Model feature at Dog Hollow Speedway in Strongstown, Pa. Dog Hollow and Hidden Valley started a program in June with each track adding $100 each week with the total going to a driver with back-to-back victories at the tracks.
• Citing low car counts, Columbus (Miss.) Speedway has dropped the 604 Crate Late Model division starting with the Aug. 6 program. The division will be replaced by mini stocks.
• Legit Speedway Park is mourning the death of Calvin Tribble, who died at his West Plains, Mo., home on July 21 at the age of 70. He was a former track co-owner as well as racing and owning teams and founding the track’s annual Scrappin’ 40s event.
• Dixieland Speedway in Elizabeth City, N.C., paid first-place prize money and points to two drivers in the 30-lap Limited Late Model feature after a scoring error in the July 23 program. After a lap-26 caution, officials mistakenly put Tom Wilson out front for the restart, when Larry Jackson should’ve been on the point. Wilson went on to win the race with Jackson finishing second, but after reviewing video the next day, the track announced both drivers would receive first-place points and money.
• Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., has added a Nov. 2 unsanctioned event tabbed the Prelude to the World of Outlaw Finals for the Tuesday preceding the NGK NTK World of Outlaws World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C. Super Late Models ($7,500-to-win), 410 sprint cars ($5,000-to-win) and big-block modifieds ($5,000-to-win) are on the card with more details to be announced.
• Hummingbird Speedway in Reynoldsville, Pa., is mourning the July 15 passing of Tracy Graham, a former corner flagger at the racetrack. The Reynoldsville resident was 61.
Weekly points
DIRTcar (Supers): Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., has 2,303 points to lead Tanner English (2,242) and Rusty Schlenk (1,912).
IMCA (Limiteds): Justin Kay of Wheatland, Iowa, has 784 points to lead Cory Dumpert (782) and Matt Ryan (770).
ULMA (Limiteds): Cole Henson of Russellville, Mo., has 1,104 points to lead Tucker Cox (1,066) and Dalton Imhoff (1,026).
USRA (Limiteds): Lucas Peterson of Stockholm, Wis., has 3,739 points to lead Max Nelson (3,406) and Steven O’Brien Jr. (3,405).
WISSOTA (Limiteds): Cole Searing of Huron, S.D., has 3,170 points to lead Chad Becker (2,990) and Shane Edginton (2,769).
American All-Stars (Crates): Raymond Nichols of Jeremiah, Ky., has 534 points to lead T.J. Salango (526) and Shaun Wetzel (526).
Crate Racin’ USA (Crates): Oakley Johns of Hohenwald, Tenn., has 695 points to lead Tyler Wood (679) and Shannon Lee (673).
DIRTcar (Crates): Jose Parga of New Berlin, Ill., has 1,506 points to lead Brandon Eskew (1,371) and Bill Knippenberg Jr. (1,323).
Fastrak (Crates): Braeden Dillinger of Dawson, Pa., and Jim Moon of Grand Prairie, Texas, are tied with 637 points followed by Luke Hyre (620).
Sweeney Chevrolet RUSH (Crates): Jeremy Wonderling of Wellsville, N.Y., has 1,338 points to lead Kyle Hardy (1,337) and Chad Homan (1,313).
Upcoming weekly specials
Among non-touring and independent special events coming up for Late Models at dirt tracks around the country:
Williams Grove Speedway, Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Aug. 6): Super Late Models get a chance to tune up the Aug. 20 World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series visit with a $2,000-to-win 25-lapper.
Dixieland Speedway, Elizabeth City, N.C. (Aug. 6): The track’s East Coast Two-Barrel Championship pays $4,000 for the track’s Limited Late Models (a race postponed from last month).
Mountain Motorsports Park, Isom, Ky. (Aug. 6): In a double points race for American All-Stars weekly racers, the 35-lap feature pays $1,500 for Crate Late Models with regular divisions in action.
Jackson County Speedway, Jackson, Ohio (Aug. 6): Super Late Models are on the card (no details on purse released) with two other divisions and a 100-lap enduro capping the night.
Beckley (W.Va.) Motorsports Park (Aug. 7): The program's Super Late Model purse is $7,500-to-win with seven other divisions on the card.
Elkins Raceway, Kerens, W.Va. (Aug. 7): The recently added Jim Stout Memorial pays $5,037-to-win along with payouts for dash winner ($500), hard charger ($200) and fast qualifier ($100); Crates ($1,537-to-win) are among undercard divisions.
Lexington (Tenn.) 104 Speedway (Aug. 7): In a rare Super Late Model event at the track, a $3,000-to-win, $300-to-start purse is posted with Crates among four divisions on the undercard (the track announced Thursday that this event was postponed).
ECM Speedway, Bremen, Ala. (Aug. 7): The Wayne Cates Memorial pays $2,500-to-win for the Limited Late Model division with the track’s regular classes also in action.
Coos Bay (Ore.) Speedway (Aug. 7): The Tidal Wave 50 pays $1,000 for the track’s biggest event of the season for the America’s Mattress-sponsored Super Late Model division.
Thunderbird Raceway, Muskegon, Mich. (Aug. 7): A&A Manufacturing sponsors a $2,000-to-win event for the track’s Super Late Model division with six other classes on the undercard.
Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway (Aug. 7): The 602 Crate Late Model division pays $2,500-to-win and $300-to-start in a race sponsored by the Gutter Professionals. All weekly divisions also in action.
I-77 Speedway, Ripley, W.Va. (Aug. 7): The Quality Brothers Construction-sponsored Super Late Model division pays $2,000-to-win with mini wedges, modifieds, sport mods and enduros on the undercard.
Lake Cumberland Speedway, Burnside, Ky. (Aug. 7): In a race postponed a week by rain, Crate Late Models chase a $2,200-to-win purse in the Wayne Bowen Racing Supply-sponsored division.
Editor's note: Updates with postponement of Saturday's special at Lexington (Tenn.) 104 Speedway.
