National notebook
Notes: Warrior hopes surge continues into autumn
Warrior's Sanford Goddard is pleased with 2010's success. (thesportswire.net)
With some of the biggest Dirt Late Model events coming up, drivers who wheel Warrior Race Cars have to be excited about the recent surge of the Knoxville, Tenn., chassis builder.
In mid-August, Warrior scored a major victory with Jared Landers earning $40,000 at the Comp Cams Topless 100 at Batesville (Ark.) Motor Speedway, and more recently, Dale McDowell chalked up two additional Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series wins for Warrior in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and Portsmouth, Ohio. Austin Dillon put Warrior atop time trials at the World 100 and McDowell was third at Eldora Speedway for his third straight third-place finish in major Eldora events.
Why the resurgence on the national level? Warrior's Sanford Goddard credits it to hard work, good timing and Warrior teams catching some breaks.
"The cars have been good," Goddard said. "In these series like Lucas Oil, the luck of the draw can make you or break you. Choosing the right tires and shocks and the other components on these cars means a lot."
Goddard also recently put the team's house car back into action with Hall of Famer Freddy Smith of Seymour, Tenn., behind the wheel.
"Freddy has raced these tracks and can tell us a lot about the feel of the car and what it needs," Goddard said. "This is a development car we've been running based on our latest design.
"We plan on running the car in some more of the bigger races. Our plans for (to run at the World 100) fell through but we'd like to go to some of the other races later this year like Charlotte, maybe with another driver."
Warrior's first burst of momentum in 2010 came at Eldora's Gillette Prelude to the Dream, which put NASCAR stars behind the wheel of Dirt Late Models. Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer finished first and second in that event driving Warriors.
"Having guys like that drive your cars does a lot for your business," Goddard said. "It puts you on a higher status level."
Continuing the recent string of success would be a boost, he added.
"Everybody comes into the shop on Monday morning with a gleam in their eye after our cars have run well. It just makes everybody feel better about what we're doing." — Richard Allen
DEERY TOUR WRAPS UP SEASON AT 34 RACEWAY: The final checkers of the Deery Brothers Summer Series season fly at 34 Raceway's $10,000-to-win Pepsi USA Nationals on Sept. 17-18 at West Burlington, Iowa. Among challengers to Ray Guss Jr., who has already clinched the series championship, are three-time winner Mark Burgtorf and Jeff Aikey, who has won a pair of Pepsi's since the event joined the Deery schedule in 1998. Besides other series regulars, Jack Sullivan of Greenbrier, Ark., is expected to field a Lynn Richard-owned car and former race winner Darren Miller is expected to continue his return to racing at West Burlington. As a bonus, series drivers with perfect attendance through the first 15 events compete in the opening-night J&J Steel Ironman Challenge. That race pays $750 to win and a minimum of $200 to start. Joining Guss and Aikey in the 12-car field are Terry Neal, Kevin Blum, Tyler Bruening, T.J. Criss, Andy Eckrich, Todd Malmstrom, Charlie McKenna, Jost Most, Mark Preston and Darrel DeFrance. DeFrance will extend his perfect attendance record this weekend, competing at his 368th consecutive event as the 24th annual series concludes. — Bill Martin
HALL OF FAMES TEAMING UP AGAIN: At the Sept. 30-Oct. 2 Knoxville Late Model Nationals, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame at Knoxville (Iowa) Speedway and the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame are teaming up again for the special event. The sprint museum will show stock-car-related films, a reunion of Knoxville's past Late Model winners, host a wine- and beer-tasting reception, memorabilia auctions and a forum titled Preserving Late Model Stock Car Racing History in the Upper Midwest. "We have partnered with Bill Holder, Bob Markos and the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame from Day One with our auction, with them receiving a portion of the proceeds, but this year we wanted to step up our other events," said Tom Schmeh, the sprint museum's curator. For information on events, visit www.sprintcarhof.com. — From track reports
VOLUNTEER RACE DIRECTOR LEAVES FOR RACE TEAM: David Bryant, who spent the past two seasons as facilities manager and race director at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., has announced he's leaving the post to serve as crew chief for Tommy Kerr's Blount Motorsports team. "Leaving Volunteer Speedway was a difficult decision to make, because I've come to really like owners Joe and Phyllis Loven a lot over the past couple of years working for them," the 45-year-old Bryant said. "While I truly enjoyed working on the management side of operating a racetrack, which was a totally new look at racing for me, deep down I'm a racer and I missed being hands-on working on race cars on a daily basis." — Robert Walden.
BIG BONUS POSSIBLE AT SUSQUEHANNA SHOWDOWN: The fifth annual Susquehanna Showdown for Limited Late Models on Oct. 2 at Susquehanna Speedway Park in Newberrytown, Pa., offers a potential $28,000 payday. The winner of the 50-lap feature is guaranteed $3,000, with the chance to win an additional $25,000 in victory lane through the "Lucky Envelope Promotion." If the winner of the race correctly picks the two matching envelopes marked "winner" on the inside from 20 envelopes, the driver will win the bonus. In order to be eligible, the driver must be pre-entered for the event by Sept. 27. Time trials and heat races for the event are scheduled for Oct. 1. Previous race winners: Scott Richwine, Tyler Hershey, Ashley Barrett and Jason Miller. — From track reports
ODDS AND ENDS: Elkins (W.Va.) Speedway has added one more event for the 2010 season. The Fall Festival 30 will be highlighted by a $2,000-to-win Super Late Model event on Oct. 2. ... Trak-Star Race Cars of Cuba, Ala., clinched the 2010 NeSmith Chevrolet Weekly Racing Series Chassis Manufacturers Challenge. ... Bryan Larimore, formerly a crew member for John Anderson, has joined the Omaha, Neb.-based team of Bill Koons and Billy Koons Jr.
