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Quick Time: Caught in a Tennessee time warp

March 13, 2013, 1:04 pm

By Todd Turner

DirtonDirt.com managing editor

Take a quick lap around the proverbial dirt track with managing editor Todd Turner for a roundup of Dirt Late Model racing through the latest weekend of action along with some other quirks of racing (and the occasional ax-grinding). Quick Time appears throughout the regular season every Wednesday at DirtonDirt.com:

Frontstretch: Time warp

Time wasn’t kind to fans last weekend — including this reporter — who attended MARS DIRTcar Series action Friday at Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway before heading to Saturday's Southern All Star-sanctioned Shamrock at Cleveland (Tenn.) Speedway. Besides losing an hour going from Central to Eastern time, the overnight switch to Daylight Savings Time stole another hour, making it basically a 22-hour day.

It reminded me of another Tennessee racing trip when time was on my side. On a fall weekend the late 1990s, I covered a Saturday night race at Atomic Motor Speedway near Knoxville, Tenn., wrapping up late that night and heading west in the wee hours to stay at a Crossville, Tenn., hotel en route to a Sunday afternoon event at Baxter (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Bizarrely, I reached my destination much quicker than I anticipated — exactly one hour before I left.

It turned out Daylight Savings Time was ending, so the “fall forward” helped me gain an hour. And this time, I was going from Eastern time back to Central time, giving me yet another hour.

If only we had such a time machine for all the late-finishing races we attend.

Turn 1: Shoe’s on the other foot

During Florida Speedweeks, Hall of Fame driver Billy Moyer pulled me aside and showed me his iPhone, asking about a glitch that prevented him from watching DirtonDirt.com videos on the mobile device.

I took his phone, tried to diagnose the problems, and explained to him that some video codecs used to compress the MPEG-4 movies might not be compatible with different versions of the iOS that operates the iPhone, and that his phone appeared to be out of date. I think it was at the word “codec” that Moyer’s eyes began to glaze over, his face dissolving into a blank stare.

(I actually got a different, hardened stare from Moyer once when, following up accusations of competitors, I asked if his rear spoiler was 9 inches instead of the allowed 8. But I digress).

I didn’t blame Moyer for the blank stare. The explanation was technical gobbledygook about mobile devices that most people don’t care about when they just want their phone to do what they want.

Then I realized I recognized the blank look on Moyer’s face, because it’s the exact same look I give to Moyer when he talks about bump steer, aero push, siping tires or fifth coils. And for once, the driving shoe was on the other foot.

The good news? I solved his problem a few days later, and he’s back to watching racing video on his phone.

Turn 2: Top-fivin’ ‘em to death

When it comes to regional series that visit tracks with strong local drivers and draw talented fields, it’s not uncommon for the champions to go winless despite winning the points title.

When Knoxville, Tenn., driver John Llewellyn captured the 1999 Southern All Star Topless Bandits title, he would say he was “top fivin’ ‘em to death” in leading the series points despite not getting a checkered flag.

Talking with Dustin Walker of Peculiar, Mo., last week, he spoke of winning the 2011 Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association Rookie of the Year title merely by having a pulse and a race car. He was candid in admitting he had no business behind honored for such an accomplishment.

“We just stuck with it ... We had a horrible year,” Walker said. “I think we missed the first six shows — couldn’t even qualify. We were just too stupid and stubborn to quit is what won us that deal.”

Stupid and stubborn? It’s a description that sometimes fits racers when they make unwise decisions, although it’s rare for them to admit it themselves.

Backstretch: Five unrelated items

Five things barely worth mentioning, but perhaps all bunched together might be worthy of a Quick Time segment:

• When cars are going around the track during caution periods, I often go down the single-file lineup and ask myself if which drivers I’ve seen win a feature.

• Covering a race in the Eldora Speedway press box, I was inputting time-trial laps into a spreadsheet when I felt someone rubbing my bald head with both hands. It was Tony Stewart.

• Illinois driver Tim Lance has more entertaining stories than any driver since Bill Frye.

• Crew members giving hand signals to drivers to show the spread between the following car vary widely in how far they hold their hands apart for a 10-length lead.

• I’m not sure how it came up, but driver Mike Marlar once told me he had a urinal installed in a bathroom at his Winfield, Tenn., home.

Turn 3: Tweets of the week

Steve Casebolt ‏@caseboltc9: “It's 3 a.m. and I'm 4 hours from home. Too cheap to get a room and too embarrassed to sleep in this car in a Walmart parking lot. ... I'm driving the hell out of this rental car though. Good chance it'll need an engine freshen in a few hours.”

Turn 4: Turn back the clock

Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:

March 18, 1984: In the only Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series event held at Flomaton (Ala.) Speedway, Brian Leslie grabbed a victory, the first of three career series victories for the Tupelo, Miss., driver.

March 1997: Illinois driver Roger Long, who drove as a teammate to Kevin Weaver in 1995-96, joined Gary May's Colt 45 Motorsports team for the 1997 season.

March 12, 2000: Wellman S. M. Lehman, 73, an original investor and board member of Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio, died following a lengthy illness. Lehman was an early supporter of the All Star Circuit of Champions and STARS Late Model tours.

March 13, 2005: Inheriting the lead when Skip Arp’s engine gave up on the last lap, Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., earned $16,000 at Green Valley Speedway’s Bama Bash. His third victory over two weekends gave him an eight-day total of $34,000 in winnings.

March 13, 2008: Late Model pilot Kellen Chadwick of Oakley, Calif., returned home for rehabilitation after the 22-year-old suffered serious neck injuries in a Feb. 22 modified accident at Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande.