Bristol Motor Speedway
Notebook: Clash adds Chase-style playoffs
From series reports
Jerry Inmon is the newest SAS Hall of Famer. (Brian McLeod)
The Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series has taken a page from the NASCAR rulebook and added a chase-style playoff at the end of the 23-race 2008 season. The stretch of Championship Series events is made up of five races paying at least $5,000 to the winner, including the season-ending Carolina Clash Bash on Sept. 27 at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
"The Championship Series is our own form of NASCAR's Chase," said Larry Lee, founder of the 9-year-old tour. "It is going to be very exciting and should add plenty of drama to our series as our racers battle all year long.”
The champion will earn a minimum $12,000 following the five-race stretch from Aug. 22-Sept. 27. Drivers must compete in 14 of the 16 regular-season events to qualify for the playoff.
The Carolina Clash schedule includes first-time series visits to three Georgia tracks: Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania and Hartwell Motor Speedway and Lavonia Speedway.
The 2008 slate also includes two of the richest events in series history. The ninth annual Skyler Trull Memorial is scheduled for May 2-3 at Cleveland County Speedway in Lawndale, N.C. (formerly Thunder Valley Speedway) with a pair of feature events paying $5,000 and $10,000 to the winners. And the 29th annual USA 100 at Virginia Motor Speedway will pay $10,000 to the winner and be co-sanctioned by the Mid-Atlantic Championship Series, the first-ever MACS-Clash showdown.
Neither the Skyler Trull Memorial or USA 100 will be included among the 16 regular-season events, but drivers can receive bonus points to position themselves for the championship stretch.
The championship series events are Aug. 22 at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, N.C., Aug. 30 at Fayetteville, Sept. 6 at Lancaster (S.C.) Motor Speedway, Sept. 13 at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Va., and Sept. 27 at Fayetteville. — From series reports
Southern All Stars induct Inmon
Jerry Inmon of Bruce, Miss., the 1984 O'Reilly Southern All Stars champion, was inducted into the series Hall of Fame at the Jan. 12 series banquet in Cleveland, Tenn. Inmon, nicknamed "the Mississippi Flyer," is among Mississippi's all-time winningest Dirt Late Model racers while piling up hundreds of victories in the late 1970s and early '80s.
Because of a recent shoulder surgery, Inmon wasn't able to attend the event, but series founder B.J. Parker accepted the award on Inmon's behalf.
Others honored at the banquet included 2007 series champion Ivedent Lloyd Jr. of Ocala, Fla., who topped Mark Vineyard of Knoxville, Tenn., for his first series championship. Other awards:
• Stacy Holmes, Cleveland (Tenn.) Speedway Driving School Rookie of the year
• Shorty Bearden of Bearden Oil Company, Sponsor of the Year
• Grady and Frankie Lloyd (owners of Ivedent Lloyd's car), Car Owners of the Year
• J.B. Harris (of Ivedent Lloyd's team), Mechanix Wear Crew Chief of the Year
The Southern All Stars kick off their season with a tripleheader of $10,000-to-win races at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga. The Jan. 30-Feb. 1 events are part of the track's Super Bowl of Racing IV. — Kelley Carlton
Odds and ends
The Southern All Stars have shifted a Dixie Speedway date to June 28, opening up the June 20-21 weekend with SAS and other O'Reilly Auto Parts-sponsored tours are expected to gather at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., for a joint showdown. ... The 2008 National 100 at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City, Ala., is scheduled for Nov. 6-9, meaning it won't conflict with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series finale at Lowe's Motor Speedway as it did in 2007. The EAMS event is now scheduled for the same weekend as the $30,000-to-win Jambalaya 100 at Pike County Speedway in Magnolia, Miss., about 500 miles to the Southeast.
