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Quick Time: Lanigan, Simpson among Drivers of Week

August 3, 2011, 10:28 am

By Todd Turner

DirtonDirt.com managing editor

Take a quick lap around the proverbial dirt track with managing editor Todd Turner for roundup of Dirt Late Model racing through the latest weekend of action. Quick Time, one of the newest features of our website, will appear every Wednesday at DirtonDirt.com:

Frontstretch: Drivers of the Week

National: Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., ended a dry spell on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series with victories at Dog Hollow Speedway in Strongstown, Pa., and Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., over a six-day stretch. Honorable mention: Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., who was never worse than second in his last three Lucas Oil events in regaining the points lead.

Regional: Chad Simpson of Mount Vernon, Iowa, reeled off three consecutive midweek victories on the Dart Corn Belt Clash to maintain his dominance on the series. He has 16 career series victories on the 3-year-old tour while no other driver has more than two. Honorable mention: Nate Bueseling of Silvis, Ill., who notched his first two Deery Brother Summer Series victories back-to-back over an eight-day stretch; and Jon Henry of Ada, Ohio, who extended his Sunoco ALMS points lead Friday with his seventh victory at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park, then won the following night at Oakshade Raceway.

Weekly: Sam Epling of Perry, Mich., getting his own team up to speed after a split with a car owner earlier this season, reeled off back-to-back victories over the weekend at Mount Pleasant (Mich.) Speedway and Thunderbird Speedway in Muskegon, Mich. The Illinois transplant outran a host a champion drivers at Thunderbird, including Eric Spangler, Adam Thrush, Rich Neiser, John Grega and Kevin Nelson Jr.

Crate: Max Blair of Centerville, Pa., won Friday at Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio, to reach the maximum point total on the Fastrak Racing Series as he pursues his second $10,000 championship. Overall Blair has an impressive 17 victories in 34 starts this season.

Turn 1: An asphalt convert

Two-time World of Outlaws Late Model Series champion Josh Richards and other standout dirt racers have transitioned toward asphalt in the hope of carving out a NASCAR career, but one Florida driver is heading the other direction.

Austin Kirkpatrick, an 18-year-old mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida, quickly soured of the NASCAR rat race among young drivers while fielding asphalt Late Models the past three seasons. The Ocala, Fla., driver moved to Dirt Late Models this year, running as a teammate to UDLMCS champion Mark Whitener of Middleburg, Fla.

"I originally wanted to do the whole NASCAR deal like every little kid does," Kirkpatrick said, but he's a Dirt Late Model convert now. He won his first Dirt Late Model feature Saturday at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., and hopes to continue his success.

"I love the dirt," said the feisty Kirkpatrick, who had three career asphalt Late Model victories. "I love it, I love it. It's so much more fun."

Turn 2: Weekly racing tidbits

• Duane Chamberlain of Richmond, Ind., had an impressive weekend in Ohio with Friday's $2,500 victory at Moler Raceway Park near Cincinnati and a victory the following night at K-C Raceway near Chillicothe.

• Grabbing his first-ever Late Model victory, Jake Mayden of Chesire, Ore., outdueled Jimmy Whisler at Cottage Grove (Ore.) Speedway on Saturday to became the track's fifth winner in five Late Model races this season.

• Jacob Hawkins of Fairmont, W.Va., earned $2,000 Friday at Elkins (W.Va.) Speedway in snapping Butch McGill's four-race win streak.

• Terry Neal of Ely, Iowa, went on a Fair Race bonanza, capturing Thursday's event at Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa, Iowa, and Sunday's event Dubuque (Iowa) Speedway.

• One of the hottest racers in the West, Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, N.M., won back-to-back races July 29-30 at El Paso (Texas) Speedway Park and Southern New Mexico Speedway near his hometown. Alberson notched five victories in July, including his $2,500 CLMA victory July 3 at Aztec (N.M.) Speedway.

• Starting 12th, Chuck Schutz of Pottstown, Pa., led only the final lap Saturday at Grandview (Pa.) Speedway after frontrunners Mike Kellner and Danny Snyder tangled in turn one after taking the white flag.

Backstretch: It depends on what the meaning of is is ...

Five pet peeves about Dirt Late Model racing definitions and nomenclature (don't worry, I have more than this):

Slide job: Too frequently a simple pass is labeled a slide job. A slide job is specific maneuver of a driver entering turns one or three and sliding up in front of the driver(s) he's overtaken as they enter turns two or four. If he forces the overtaken driver to slow down — or clips that car's nosepiece — you know for sure it's a slide job.

B-main: Some tours run multiple B-mains in a single program, which is actually impossible. You can have a D-main, C-main and B-main, but you can't have two B-mains any more than you can have two first heats.

Dry-slick: Too many people, particularly at Southern tracks it seems, confuse this track condition with a surface that allows only single-file racing. A classic dry-slick track (think West Plains, Mo.) is slippery over the entire surface, allowing for multiple-groove racing. Some of us think it makes for the best racing.

Car lengths: Isn't it just lengths? When Secretariat clinched the Triple Crown, he didn't win by 31 "horse" lengths. Just lengths.

Wire-to-wire: This refers to horse racing, which uses a wire stretched above the track at the start-finish line. In auto racing, it's flag-to-flag. (OK, OK, I realize as more tracks use transponders, there's often a wire buried underneath the surface, but I'm still sticking with flag-to-flag).

Turn 3: Turning back the clock

Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:

Aug. 5, 1978: Hometown driver Bobby Thomas races to victory at East Alabama Motor Speedway in the first-ever National Dirt Racing Association event.

July 30, 1987: Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., captures a USAC victory at Santa Fe Speedway in Hinsdale, Ill., in an event shown live on ESPN.

Aug. 1, 1990: Ken Schrader of Fenton, Mo., won a NASCAR Busch All-Star Tour event at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill., the first of three career series victories.

Aug. 3, 1997: Marshall Green of Dalton, Ga., wins at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind., for his first career Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series victory.

Aug. 2, 2002: Phil Barrow of Camarillo, Calif., won at Watsonville (Calif.) Speedway Speedway for his first career victory on the CarQuest Dirt Late Model Tour.

Turn 4: Facebook status update of the week

We appreciated one of our valued subscribers rethinking his decision to share his account and password with this recent Facebook status update: "If you are on my dirt on dirt account GET OFF."