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Quick Time: Sometimes stories aren't forgotten
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: Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, W.Va., started the weekend with a victory in his native Kentucky on April 18 at 201 Speedway, then capped it with a $10,000 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory at West Virginia Motor Speedway in his adopted state.
Regional: Chad Simpson of Mount Vernon, Iowa, stretched a personal winning streak to three by sweeping the April 20-21 Clash for Cash events at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, and Quincy (Ill.) Raceway. Simpson, 34, pocketed $7,000 for the events tri-sanctioned by the Corn Belt Clash, MARS and ALMS.
Weekly: Christian Joyner of Castalia, N.C., led all 30 laps on April 20 at County Line Raceway in Elm City, N.C., for the 22-year-old’s third straight victory at the track and fourth overall in 2013.
Crate: Rick Singleton of Huntingdon, Pa., captured the first-ever Sweeney Chevrolet-Buick-GMC RUSH Tour victory on April 20 at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, then added a weekly victory April 21 at Allegany County Speedway in Cumberland, Md.
Turn 1: Turn the page
It’s difficult to explain, but sometimes as a writer, you can be taken aback when someone tells you they actually read one of your stories. It’s particularly startling when you hear of a crew chief who read one of your 1997 articles and still holds a grudge, but that’s a story for another day.
Sunday night in victory lane at West Virginia Motor Speedway, Eddie Carrier Jr. of Grover Motorsports was whooping it up with wife Jamie, crew members and supporters when car owner Carl Grover pulled me aside to ask if I recalled writing a story about his fledgling team a dozen years ago.
Indeed I remembered my first meeting with Grover in 2001 at the very same track, when veteran Tim Hitt was driving for the new team that would eventually connect with Carrier two years later.
Grover, chewing on a white golf tee the day I interviewed him, was a former drag racer who had dabbled in fielding asphalt Late Models before launching his dirt program. New team owners on the dirt racing scene come and go, and I couldn’t be sure Grover would be around as long, and as successful, as he’s been. But one thing stood out: He was proud of the team’s self-built Ford engines.
Now in his early 70s, that’s what Grover mentioned when he leaned in with his raspy voice Sunday night. He reminded me of what one team then said — indeed, one of the team’s Carrier outran at WVMS — about his powerplants.
“They said you can’t run that homemade junk out here,” said Grover, proud — all these years later — to still be proving them wrong with Carrier behind the wheel of his Ford-powered cars.
That’s a story still worth reading today.
Turn 2: That thing you do
While racers don’t always look cool — some driver’s suits mimic pajamas, and anyone climbing from a car wearing a helmet looks like space alien — there are brief observational moments that always intrigue:
• Dropping out of a race is surely a bummer, but being able to throw your left arm arm out the window to signal oncoming drivers surely cushions the blow.
• That moment when, just before mashing the throttle for a turn-four restart, a driver uses his left hand to flick the face shield back into place.
• During caution periods, drivers industriously performing their own form of track prep by spinning their wheels in all the right places.
• Before climbing behind the wheel on the concrete lineup grid in Eldora Speedway’s infield, drivers pause on the ledge of the driver’s door while a crew member scrapes mud off their shoes.
• That last-minute check of being sure the steering wheel is locked in the right place.
Backstretch: Tweets of the Week
A Dirt Late Model sampling from Twitter, compiled by DirtonDirt.com’s Andy Savary:
• After April 19’s rainout at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway, from @eckert24: “Rained out again ... Eckert Motorsports at a mall near you!”
• From Steve Casebolt (@caseboltc9) on a Spring Nationals rival: “I guess if I was gonna cheat tires I probably shouldn't take lessons from Chris Madden. Dude dopes more than Lance Armstrong.”
• Before the April 20 feature at Hagerstown from @hubbard11: “Landers and Hubbard food stamps ... I mean provisionals.”
Turn 3: Emptying the quirk collection
A few random, quirky items looking for a place to appear:
• After a near-miss Sunday at West Virginia Motor Speedway, Rocket Chassis house car driver Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., noted that he still hasn’t won a Dirt Late Model race in his home state. Let that sink in. Can you imagine Steve Francis not having won in Kentucky? Billy Moyer not having won in Arkansas (or even his native Iowa)? Rick Eckert not having won in Pennsylvania? Who’s the next highest-profile driver without a victory in his home state?
• Here’s something you don’t see every day: Three generations of one family competing in the same Dirt Late Model race. Hall of Famer and grandfather Ken Essary, his son Leslie Essary, and Leslie’s son Garret were part of a 12-car field April 21 at Monett (Mo.) Speedway (cousin Shane Essary was a fourth family member in the event, giving the Essary clan 33 percent of the starters). Leslie Essary, subbing for an ill Justin Wells in his No. 98, won the race followed by Ken and Shane. Garret finished eighth. The three-generation showing matches a feat pulled off in recent years by the Bartels family of Bill, Ron and Nick in California.
• The colloquial term for being sent to the rear for a restart — “tailback” (or is it “tail back” or “tail-back”?) — always amuses. Isn’t it bad enough to be sent to the tail? Or sent to the back? Tailback seems doubly punishing. It tends to be a favorite term in Arkansas and Missouri, although you’ll hear it just about anywhere there’s a dirt track.
Turn 4: Turn back the clock
Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:
April 29, 1984: Jeff Purvis of Clarksville, Tenn., won the National Dirt Racing Association season opener at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., the first of five victories en route to his first NDRA championship.
April 27, 1996: Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., winning his seventh race in 15 starts for GVS Racing, earned $7,000 in dominating the unsanctioned Thunder on the Coast at Sun Coast Speedway in Pass Christian, Miss. Robbie Starnes was second followed by Donnie Barnhart, Mike Boland and Johnny Stokes.
April 26, 2003: Skip Arp of Georgetown, Tenn., led all but four laps of the Peach State Classic at North Georgia Speedway for his first Xtreme DirtCar Series victory of the season. Arp fought off Dale McDowell and Ray Cook in the final laps while Steve Francis and Scott Bloomquist rounded out the top five.
April 26, 2008: Paul Wilmoth Jr. of Clarksburg, W.Va., became the first three-time winner of the Topless 50 at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va., outrunning Mike Balzano, Tim Dohm, Eddie Carrier Jr. and Doug Horton.
April 24, 2011: Sam Barley Sr., a long-time Dirt Late Model car owner, died at his Altoona, Pa., home at age 73. Barley fielded cars for Rick Singleton and other drivers.
Checkered flag: Five fearless weekend predictions
• The World of Outlaws Late Model Series tripleheader in Tennessee will have three different winners.
• Of the 15 spots in the top-five available during WoO’s Tennessee weekend, home-state drivers will fill at least six of them.
• At least one of the ALMS winners at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park and Winston Speedway in Rothbury, Mich., will be a former series champion.
• Home-state drivers will be shut out of the top 10 during the MARS-MLRA Oklahoma weekend at Muskogee’s Thunderbird Speedway and Pocola’s Tri-State Speedway.
• One driver will sweep the Three State Flyers weekend at Winchester and Potomac Speedways.
(Last week: One of two predictions correct; three rained out)
