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Quick Time: NDRL's first winners stack up well
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: Drivers of the Week
National: Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., scored a victory and runner-up finish in inaugural National Dirt Racing League weekend action at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 and Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway, pocketing $30,000 on the weekend.
Regional: Tommy Kerr of Maryville, Tenn., who cut back on racing to spend more time with family, came out on top Saturday for Blount Motorsports at his hometown Smoky Mountain Speedway for a $6,000 Spring Nationals victory.
Weekly: Jeremy Hines of Seymour, Ind., scored his third straight victory at Twin City Raceway Park in North Vernon, Ind., on Saturday and has four victories so far in 2013.
Crate: Donald Bradsher of Burlington, N.C., notched his first Fastrak touring victory with a City Chevrolet Tour triumph at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, N.C.
Turn 1: Inaugurating a series
The National Dirt Racing League had some heavy-hitting winners on its inaugural weekend with Josh Richards of the World of Outlaws and Jimmy Owens of the Lucas Oil Series — both two-time national touring champs — snagging $20,000 victories in Paducah, Ky., and Pevely, Mo.
Not a bad way to start a list of winners for the John Kennedy-founded tour that plans three more races this season before considering where to take the NDRL next year.
You never know how history will judge, but the Richards-Owens combo stacks pretty well when you look at first-time series winners for other national tours and long-running series over the years. Here’s a listing of winners of the first two events with several tours, along with the first series season:
National Dirt Racing Association: Bobby Thomas and C.L. Pritchett (1978)
Turn 2: Bringing good news
People often blame the media for only bringing bad news. And it seems that, in the dirt racing world, racetrack closures seem to stick in the memory more than tracks that open. But while the Great Recession has seen some dirt tracks shuttered, there's plenty of good news with tracks adding weekly or regular Late Model events in 2013.
There’s Moulton (Ala.) Speedway, where promoter Jaradda Sparks has returned Super Late Models to the car with $1,500-to-win weekly events. Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., plans weekly racing for the first time since 2011 and drew 32 Late Models for its regular-season opener. Boothill Speedway in Greenwood, La., plans more than a dozen Late Model events at a track that hasn’t regularly run the division in years.
And even two tracks in Indiana, a state with many talented Dirt Late Model drivers but few weekly tracks in recent seasons, have jumped on the Late Model bandwagon with Twin Cities Raceway Park in North Vernon, Ind., and Union County Speedway in Liberty, Ind., bringing the division back.
Among others is America’s Motorsports Park in Clearfield, Pa., which formerly operated as Hidden Valley Speedway and Gambler’s Speedway. New Jersey sprint car driver Jeff Taylor is reopening the track and plans to run Late Model and Semi-Late Model divisions.
More tracks running weekly Late Models means more drivers in the division, more fans and more sites to host touring specials. Yes, some good news for a change.
Backstretch: Tweet of the Week
Clint Smith Racing before heading to Saturday’s Spring Nationals event in Maryville, Tenn. @clintsmith44: “Headed to Smoky Mountain to support Ray Cook; if not for him, wouldn't run a series that doesn't race back to checkers.”
Turn 3: Returning the favor
Two Australian dirt racers with ties to U.S. drivers who’ve competed Down Under are stateside for some racing action beginning this weekend. New South Wales drivers Ross Nicastri of Goulburn and Bruce MacKenzie of Sydney will be hosted by Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., and his wife Amanda during their racing vacations.
Nicastri will be driving a car he bought from Francis while MacKenzie will be piloting a MasterSbilt he purchased from Ronnie Stuckey that Francis finished up. Francis has made off-season racing trips to Australia several times, including capturing 2012’s Australian Late Model Sedan Championship in MacKenzie’s Time Target-sponsored car.
The Aussie duo plan the first of several events with Spring Nationals action Thursday and Friday at 201 Speedway in Sitka, Ky., and Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky.
Turn 4: Turn back the clock
Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:
April 24, 1992: John Jones of Rock Springs, Ga., won in Southern All Star action at Crossville (Tenn.) Speedway for the first of 11 career victories on the series.
April 20, 1996: Kevin Claycomb of Vincennes, Ind., survived a crash-filled race in which fewer than 10 of the 22 starters finished to win Florence's Spring 50. He earned $5,000 for outrunning Troy Green, Mike Jewell, John Gill and Randy Boggs.
April 25, 2002: Chuck Hamilton, long-time owner and promoter of Peoria (Ill.) Speedway, died 10 days after undergoing multiple-bypass heart surgery. He was 50.
April 19, 2008: Long-time Sunoco American Late Model Series driver Hillard Miller, 57, suffered serious facial injuries when a piece of debris struck his helmet in series-opening action at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. He was released from a Fort Wayne, Ind., hospital the following day.
April 18, 2011: Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., and long-time car owner John Wight parted ways after a feud between Wight and the World Racing Group threatened to prevent Fuller from competing with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
Checkered flag: Five fearless weekend predictions
• One driver will win at least two of three Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at Roaring Knob, Hagerstown and WVMS.
• No home-state drivers will crack the top five in World of Outlaws Late Model Series action at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway and 311 Motor Speedway near Madison, N.C.
• The top five finishers at three Spring Nationals races at 201, Ponderosa and Cleveland will be made up of at least a dozen different drivers.
• Winners of the MARS-ALMS-Corn Belt Clash events at Tri-City, 34 Raceway and Quincy won't be previous champs on any of the tours.
• The Comp Cams Super Dirt Series will have a first-time winner at either Batesville (Ark.) Motor Speedway or I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark.
(Last week: One of two predictions correct; three rained out)
