Lincoln Speedway
Notes: Interloper can’t deny miniseries champ
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt.com staff reporterABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. (June 17) — Not much has stood in Tyler Emory’s path to success this Appalachian Mountain Speedweek, but Saturday at Lincoln Speedway, southern interloper Cody Overton tried his best to twist that very plot.
Overton crossed the checkers as one of the few cars to have been faster than Emory on select occasion five races through miniseries competition — until he failed postrace tech and the $4,000 victory was stripped from his possession.
The Evans, Ga., driver was found to have an illegal rear suspension limiter and miniseries director Jim Bernheisel had no choice but to disqualify the apparent winner, therefore declaring Emory as the night’s victor.
“We have three rear suspension rules and Rule C is you have to have an open droop limiter — it must be visible and can’t be covered — and the droop limiter must be a 1-inch puck only,” Bernheisel said. “Actually, that car had a covered droop limiter and it was a spring that was more than one inch; that was a not a puck because it was a spring.
“Hated to do it, but unfortunately we were left with no choice but to disqualify him. I told him I felt bad about it. But it wouldn’t be fair to my other guys to not follow our rules.”
Overton, who would have picked up his second career Super Late Model victory and first since last February at Lavonia (Ga.) Speedway, could not be reached in the overnight hours, but his girlfriend Ahnna Parkhurst posted an explanation on Facebook on behalf of the Bruce Kane Racing No. 15K team.
“We just didn’t read the rules over and dropped the ball,” she said. “Thank you to everyone in our corner. We have a bad fast car and can’t wait for the next weekend.”
Appalachian Mountain Speedweek’s rules that govern the rear suspension coincide with the same regulations seen on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series.
“That’s why we adopted that because it’s so universal,” Bernheisel said. “We thought it’d be easier for everyone. Really, we didn’t expect to have a problem. I was stunned when (our tech) guy said, 'Hey, you need to get down here, we have a problem.' So I got our rulebook out … I had it with us; it’s only a few pages and as I said, we only have three rear suspension rules.
“I showed them, and they said, 'Hey, we didn’t know.' I’ll take them for their word that they weren’t trying to cheat. They perhaps didn’t think of it or didn’t realize of it. I’ll give them the benefit of that doubt.”
For Bernheisel, it’s the first time he’s had to disqualify a driver as either the promoter to the event under his name or, in this week’s case, the series director.
“I don’t like it at all, right? I don’t want to be in that position,” Bernheisel said. “Unfortunately it’s what I get paid to do, I guess how I would put it. It’s my job as the head of the sanctioning body to make sure the rules are followed and everything is done fairly and evenly. I take that role very seriously.”
Emory’s dream week
Tyler Emory’s shortcoming at the hands of apparent winner Cody Overton on Saturday at Lincoln was still good enough for the the second-year Super Late Model driver to virtually clinch the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek title.
Then, the up-and-comer of King George, Va., got the news Overton failed postrace race and that he was declared the winner of a race he accepted fair and square defeat. Emory’s miniseries lead, which had been 165 points over Gregg Satterlee upon crossing the checkers, was already insurmountable because the maximum a driver can total in single-race competition is 155 points.
The win swells that margin to 180 points ahead of Sunday’s finale at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway, where Emory’s registration will officially crown himself as the miniseries champion.
"Definitely not how we wanted to win it," Emory said. "I don't even know what to say (about virtually clinching the miniseries title). When Jim put this deal together, we wanted to run good, but this is a tough deal. I’ve put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself because we have been running well. We ran well last year. I just didn’t make good choices. This year, I’ve made better choices and … I’m comfortable. It shows.”
Emory entered the 10-day miniseries with a single Super Late Model victory to his credit, a win that came amid weekly competition last month at Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway. Last Sunday at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, Gregg Satterlee looked every bit as the emerging miniseries champion, rolling to victory and cutting Emory’s lead to 32 points while Emory stewed over costly mistakes.
Emory’s since locked up the title and tripled his Super Late Model career win total. On Thursday, Emory finished strong in a 2.5-second victory over Michael Norris for the $4,000 victory at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway.
“Ten years ago when I first started racing a Limited, I had no chance to even try and do this, much less run this … much less win it,” Emory said. "Just to show up, it’s tough. … This is a tough field. It’s awesome for the series. It’s awesome publicity. I’m really excited for Jim and everybody. It’s a lot of work to put this together. I can’t even imagine, right? I’m glad he did it. It’s really cool.
“I mean, Satterlee … (Rick) Eckert. There’s 20 top-notch cars here every night that could win. It’s just amazing. I don’t know what else to say.”
With the feat, Emory cements himself alongside Josh Richards, Tim McCreadie, Rick Eckert, Gregg Satterlee and Jeff Rine as drivers to win an Appalachian Mountain Speedweek championship.
“It's unbelievable,” Emory said. “I don't know what to say. I just have to thank everybody that helps me do this.
“It’s been a grind. It’s been fun. It definitely puts it in perspective the guys that do this for a living. I definitely have quite a bit of respect for them to be able to do that. It has to be tough. Everyone wants to live the dream, right? It’s a grind. It’s a big grind.”
Satterlee’s praise
If there’s any driver capable of building a large enough lead to become the virtual Appalachian Mountain Speedweek champion with a race to spare, it’s Gregg Satterlee. That thesis, as it turned out, did not come to pass this miniseries.
Instead it was Emory reaching unmatched measures to thoroughly defeat Satterlee, the nearest competitor in the virtual champion’s race to the miniseries title. Satterlee acknowledged Emory's impressive accomplishment.
“He’s been very good,” Satterlee said. “I don’t think anyone would have thought he was going to have it wrapped up by the end of the week. That’s good. They’ve been running well. He’s been racing smart. The car’s good. So, yeah, it’s good for them.”
Ten years ago, Satterlee was an up-and-comer himself who benefitted from winning the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek title. When he stares down the pits and sees Emory blossoming in his sight, there’s some resemblance to Satterlee’s formative years where each accomplishment amplified the next.
“It gives you confidence: driving, racing, making changes on the car,” Satterlee said. “Obviously they’re making good calls on their car. I think that gives them a lot of confidence to do better when they show up to the racetrack. For sure, that’ll help them out. Congratulations to them. They’ve had a really good week. Good for them.”
For Satterlee to have stayed mathematically eligible for the championship, he needed to stay within three positions of Emory and not have Emory win. Satterlee did that for that longest time Saturday, running fourth while Emory ran second. But Satterlee got overzealous in the final laps and lost two positions nearing the checkers.
“Probably the best I was going to run was, like, fourth before that guy got DQ’ed,” Satterlee said. “I tried moving wide there in all that lapped traffic to see if I can sneak by a guy or two. It’s just too one-landed on the bottom. I knew better to not have even attempted to pass anyone. Just kind of got a little impatient and tried that top a couple laps and lost some spots. I don’t know. Just needed to be better in that feature. Just been struggling here to be good. Once again tonight just not near good enough.
“We’ve been racing a little less, kind of going to the races that make sense. Just not going to races just to do it. We have more night. We’re going to do it tomorrow and try to win the race, see if we can’t end on a bright spot.”
Dylan Yoder’s steadiness
Dylan Yoder’s been steady this Appalachian Mountain Speedweek. He hasn’t had the flashy speed or a specific race that belongs in a must-see highlight reel, but he’s fourth in miniseries points with a legitimate chance to finish the 10-day trail second in the standings if all goes well at his home track Sunday at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway.
On Saturday at Lincoln, the Selinsgrove native came away with third, his best finish of the week on a night where he qualified for the dash for the third time this week. In fact, all three dash appearances were at the smallest tracks of the miniseries: third-mile Clinton County Speedway, quarter-mile Path Valley Speedway Park and 3/8-mile Lincoln.
“Yeah, definitely a pretty good week so far,” Yoder said. “It’s worked out that the smaller tracks are more to my liking. I haven’t quite started in the front, front yet. … (Emory) has been really, really good.”
Yoder is 19 points behind Satterlee in the race for second in the standings, which pays $2,500 in the point fund as opposed to $1,200 should he receive for placing where he’s at in fourth. A win on Sunday would propel Yoder into second no matter where Satterlee finishes.
“We’ve had two seconds this year (at Selinsgrove), so maybe we’ll do the same thing or maybe better,” Yoder said.
Yoder wasn’t sure if he’d make all the races this week, especially at first when the miniseries saw some kind of on-track action in four of its first five days. Asked if he feels like he’s tight-roping through Speedweeks because of a limited budget, Yoder said: “Kind of. We weren’t sure about Path Valley and stuff. Once we ran good the first weekend there — had a sixth and a fifth at Hagerstown … Port we did OK, but we were still up there in the top-10 in points — we figured we might as well keep going, try to make the top-five in points, which we’re there right now.”
Yoder now has miniseries finishes of sixth, fifth, 18th, sixth and third.
“Finishing top-10, top-five with these cars — 40 cars — almost every night is tough to even make it,” Yoder said. "We’ve finished top-five a couple times … it’s pretty good. I’d like to get a win, but we don’t have quite the equipment these guys have that qualify on the front row on the bigger tracks. The smaller tracks we do. Still, it’s been fun. We didn’t have a lot of help on Tuesday, me and my dad. We had fun, running good … had some tires to burn up while we can still run the old tires. We figured we might as well use them up before we can’t use them anymore.”
The Pennsylvania driver is in the market for an engine, though, and hopes to get his hands on a new powerplant at some point in the no so distant future.
“We ordered a new one like two years ago and still didn’t get one. It’s supposed to be like six months, but it’s been two years. I’m not sure why we get put down the list behind the Outlaw guys and Lucas guys. Hopefully before too long we can get one. It’s a little bit of a struggle on bigger tracks in time trials and such.”
Odds and ends
York, Pa.’s Rick Eckert started from the pole of Saturday’s feature but failed to lead a lap in the runner-up finish after Overton’s disqualification. “We’re getting better, but it’s taking us a long time,” said Eckert, who has an average of 7.8 in five miniseries features. “We still have a long way to go. … Tonight the racetrack wasn’t the greatest. … The best part about tonight was that we had a good pill draw when we came in the gate. That probably made our whole night. We’ll see if we’re any good tomorrow night.” … Danville, Pa.’s Jeff Rine failed to qualify for the first time this Speedweek; he entered Saturday third in miniseries standings, 140 points behind Emory, and left Abbottstown seventh in the title race. … Kyle Lee of Mercersburg, Pa., was again the highest finisher among non full-week competitors Saturday at Lincoln, starting 11th and finishing eighth; Lee’s average of 398 points per race this week is third most behind Michael Norris (437.5) and Tyler Emory (423.5). … Nineteen drivers have perfect attendance heading into Sunday’s finale. … Nathan Long and R.J. Dallape are the lone drivers with perfect miniseries attendance who have yet to qualify for a Speedweek feature; Long nearly changed those fortunes Saturday but fell one spot shy of a transfer spot in the B-main.
