DirtonDirt.com Dispatches
Dispatches: Brownstown pileup eliminates O'Neal
Hudson O'Neal (71) was in the middle of the mess. (schaefer11.smugmug.com)
The latest notes and quotes from Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events from Aug. 5-7, including the Valvoline Iron-Man Racing Series event at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, Comp Cams Super Dirt Series competition in Harrisburg, Ark., and Hoker Trucking Series action in Iowa (find coverage of Cedar Lake’s USA Nationals and Merritt Speedway’s Wood Tic elsewhere):
Brownstown tangle
Eventual $10,000 winner Devin Gilpin of Columbus, Ind., definitely didn’t want to start deep in Saturday’s Hall of Fame Classic field at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, but it might’ve helped him stay out of a crash that collected a half-dozen frontrunners, including early leader Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind.
The incident in turns one and two was triggered when Michael Chilton clipped the rear of O’Neal’s car heading into turn one, sending O’Neal’s car around to collect polesitter Kent Robinson and several other competitors and require a lengthy cleanup.
While the 18th-starting Gilpin gained several spots and eventually took the lead on the 20th laps, O’Neal’s race was over early while Chilton soldiered on to a third-place finish at the quarter-mile oval.
“I hate it for all my guys, mainly. We’ve just got a lot of work to do now before Florence,” O’Neal said of his Tennessee-based Double Down Motorsports team, adding he hoped the car didn’t need a new front clip. “We’ll just go back to the shop, get her apart and see what the damage is.”
Chilton, who started behind O’Neal on the outside lane of the double-file restart, said the contact was accidental.
“I don’t know if he was going to go in there and diamond the corner. I don’t know,” Chilton said. “I mean, I did hit him. I’m not going to say I didn’t. Did I go in there intentionally to wreck him? No, I mean, why am I going to wreck somebody on lap three?”
O’Neal wasn’t happy with the result.
“I didn’t really do anything different than I’d done the first three laps. I got the lead and I ran the same line every lap,” he said. “I don’t know ... (Chilton) just drove off in there over his head, I guess. I watched the video and he's a ways behind me and he just drove off in there, like five car lengths too deep. He’d probably have ended up over the banking if he wouldn’t have hit me. I don’t know, man. It’s just part of it. I hate it. We had the car to beat. Man, it was just so effortless. I was pretty good in the heat race and then we just seemed to make all the right adjustments for that feature. We were so good.”
O’Neal, a regular on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series who heads to Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., on Thursday for the Sunoco North-South 100 weekend, said the team had made progress on its Rocket Chassis at Brownstown.
“We’ve been working really hard trying to get our race car better,” he said. “Maybe we stumbled upon a couple of things. We still have a long way to go, but but I feel like we made a huge, huge step in the right direction this weekend. We had a lot of new stuff coming into this week and we didn’t really know what to expect, but it ended up being pretty good.” — Bryan Ault
Milliken injured
Veteran dirt racer Willie Milliken of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., is recovering at home with painful rib contusions after an overnight trip to the hospital when his Late Model slipped off the jack and fell on him at Lake View (S.C.) Motor Speedway, according to his wife and a report from the racetrack.
Milliken had retired after completing seven laps in Saturday’s fourth annual Larry Long Memorial at Lake View, a $4,000-to-win Limited Late Model event won by Daniel Tucker of Greensboro, N.C.
Bridgett Milliken told DirtonDirt.com that he crawled under the car to check his stagger and a tire his team had put on after he had a flat tire. After the car fell on him, an ambulance took Milliken to a nearby hospital for a CT scan, she said. Doctors couldn’t rule out hairline fractures but the scans didn’t show any breaks. He returned home early Sunday, still in pain.
“We wish Willie a speedy recovery and thank you to all the friends, fans, teams, and drivers reaching out to us and checking on Willie,” the track posted on Facebook.
Tucker’s victory was his first at Lake View in a race that honored the late track announcer. The track also inducted Hall of Fame inductees Mutt Powell, the track’s first champion; multiple-race winner Tim Bryant; and former track and Carolina Clash Series champion Ed Gibbons.
Martin’s rebound
When Logan Martin found himself in a middle of a pileup July 29 at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, he couldn’t have imagined being in victory lane any time soon. His No. 36 suffered significant damaged in the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series semifeature, sending him home early from the Prairie Dirt Classic.
But fast forward nine days and the West Plains, Mo., driver had the car whipped into shape and back in victory lane Saturday at Old No. 1 Speedway in Harrisburg, Ark., in the Cow Patty 40 on the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series.
“I want to say a huge thanks to (crew members) Dustin Tiger and Jesse Tackitt,” Martin said in victory lane. “We were at Fairbury last weekend and we wadded this thing up in a ball. We brought it home and they basically put a whole new body on this thing and got it ready to go for tonight. Just a big shoutout to them. (It’s big) to come out here and win the first night back.”
Martin lost the early lead to Dane Dacus but regained it on a lap-13 restart and led the rest of the way.
“We took off on that start, and I don’t know if (Dacus) spun his tires or how he got going there, but we had a good run,” Martin said. "I got underneath him and (was able) to clear him coming down the backstretch. Once you’re out front, you can just dictate the race, dictate your line, and it’s just a huge advantage.”
His only hiccup thereafter? A caution with two laps remaining in the Cow Patty 40.
“My stick guy, he’s sitting there giving me a good lead. I’m comfortable. We’re in lapped traffic, or approaching lapped traffic, and I’m counting down the laps in my head and you see that (caution) come out with two to go and your stomach sinks in your chest,” Martin said. “Then you’ve gotta make two perfect laps because it puts the field back up on you. Luckily for me, this car was good enough to get it done. It was a lot better than the driver was tonight. Just super-thankful we had a good hot rod."
Special race
While rain postponed the event twice, Friday’s Dale DeFrance Memorial at Marshalltown (Iowa) Speedway turned out to be a successful event with 39 Late Models packing the pits for the Hoker Trucking Series event won by Jake Neal of Omaha, Neb.
While former IMCA champion and veteran racer Darrel DeFrance of Marshalltown finished 15th, he was still smiling about the race that celebrated his late father, the former racer who died at the age of 81 in 2017. The elder DeFrance was among entries for the track’s opening at the Central Iowa Fairgrounds in 1965.
"It's pretty neat,” DeFrance said. “You know, dad raced here when they had the very first race so it's pretty cool.”
DeFrance added that his father “got me started in this and he raced for a long time before me, and yeah, we ain’t been the same since he’s been gone, for sure. We miss him … a great turnout. I think it was a heck of a race and pretty proud of the show tonight. It was a lot of fun.” — Mike Ruefer
