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Quick Time: Crown jewel outliers win, too
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, presented by PFC Brakes, appears throughout the regular season every Wednesday at DirtonDirt.com:
Frontstretch: Drivers of the Week
National: The generation’s best regional racer steps up nationally to capture his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory Aug. 18 at Batesville (Ark.) Motor Speedway, Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., picked up a career-high $40,000 payday in the Topless 100.
Regional: Justin Kay of Wheatland, Iowa, ripped off four victories in five nights Aug. 14-18, winning his first Corn Belt Clash race at Cedar County Raceway in Tipton, Iowa, along with weekly victories at Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa, Iowa, and double-feature victories at Dubuque (Iowa) Speedway. He also had a runner-up finish in Davenport, Iowa.
Weekly: Tim Buhler of Glenbeulah, Wis., scored a pair of Wisconsin Dirt Late Model Association victories, winning Aug. 16 at Manitowoc County Expo Speedway and Aug. 17 at Sheboygan County Fair Park.
Crate: Mark Crowe of Butler, Tenn., won his fourth feature in five starts Aug. 16 at Rolling Thunder Raceway in Ararat, Va.
Turn 1: Crown jewel outliers
Last weekend’s 21st annual Comp Cams Topless 100 victory by Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., was notable in that it marked his richest victory at $40,000. But it also marked a rare occasion with a relative “outsider” breaking through to win one of Dirt Late Model crown jewel events.
Since the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series got rolling in 2004, drivers on the national tours have captured the lion’s share of the crown jewel events.
If you count crown jewel victories by drivers who’ve primarily followed national tours over the last 10 years (or during the season they actually won their crown jewel) — and toss in non-touring national stars Billy Moyer, Jimmy Mars and Brian Birkhofer — fewer than 10 other drivers have cracked victory lane in that span. Check out the list below (while there might be debate about what races constitute crown jewel events, for our purposes we’ll include the Show-Me 100, Dream, USA Nationals, North-South 100, Topless 100, World 100, Knoxville Nationals and Dirt Track World Championship):
2004 - Steve Shaver, North-South 100, Florence Speedway, Union Ky.
Turn 2: Spotting successful drivers
Ever see an unfamiliar driver, but you notice something — driving that extra car length into the corner, making that clever move between cars, outfoxing another driver by switching grooves — that sets him apart? And even if that driver isn’t yet winning, and especially if he’s not in good equipment, you file that name away, remembering to keep an eye on him down the road.
That endlessly fascinates me. And while watching hundreds and hundreds of drivers take thousands and thousands of laps over the years, it’s always fun to see if those drivers that catch your eye early in their careers pan out.
The giveaway I’ve got my eye on someone? Usually a brief feature story trying to find out more about them. And while they don’t always pan out — and I suppose it’s easy enough to forget drivers you “missed” on — it’s fun when such drivers are Shannon Babb, Doug Drown and Justin Kay, drivers that, well before they were established, I saw that glimmer of something that was a harbinger of success.
It’s among the things that keep you coming back.
Backstretch: Don’t ask (please, don’t ask)
Questions you don’t want to ask at the dirt track, with an assist from DirtonDirt.com staffer Andy Savary:
• How many times has (insert driver’s name here) spun out? (One wasn’t his fault, though.)
Turn 3: Tweets of the Week
Posse Updates @Paposseupdates: And Donny Schatz now wins the @worldofoutlaws feature and the late model feature in the same night. One division is too easy for him now!
Nick Joos @NickJoos: Justin Kay wins on a last-lap, last corner pass on the outside of Andy Eckrich [at Dubuque]. A well-earned $2,000. @THsportsfeed
Jeremy Payne @JeremyPayne186:� Wish I could've drawn or redrawn or redrawn again a little better. Racing these days more like gambling.
Rich Allen @TennesseeRacer: Check out the shiny ride for Mark Martin here @TheGap_VolSpdwy. But not that Mark Martin. pic.twitter.com/35R41hxIGm
Turn 4: Turn back the clock
Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:
Aug. 25, 1984: En route to his first championship with the All Star Circuit of Champions, Donnie Moran of Frazeysburg, Ohio, won at Pennsylvania Motor Speedway for his second victory of the weekend on the tour. Moran won the previous night at Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway.
Aug. 24, 1996: Bill Frye of Greenbrier, Ark., earned $26,000 for a victory in the fourth annual Topless 100 at Batesville (Ark.) Speedway. After starting 16th and being forced to come from the back of the pack on four separate occasions, Frye took the lead from race-long leader Scott Bloomquist — whose crew mistakenly told the Mooresburg, Tenn. driver Frye was a lap down — with fewer than 15 laps remaining.
Aug. 27, 2003: Curtis Galbreath, a long-time champion dirt and asphalt racer from Florida, died Aug. 27 in a work-related accident. He was 37. Galbreath was electrocuted while working on a water well in his hometown of Chipley, Fla.
Aug. 26, 2008: Tyler Barker, the 21-month-old son of Missouri racer David Barker and his wife Trish, receives a liver transplant after more than a year of suffering from a rare disorder. Barker’s No. 88 race car carried graphics extolling the virtues of organ donations throughout the season.
Aug. 26, 2011: With Danny Wilson’s departure from the Steel Block Bandits tour, series flagger Butch Mayo and series technical inspector Greg Keister take over as a promoters and operators of the tour in anticipation of the 2012 season.
Checkered flag: Five fearless weekend predictions
• A home-state driver will win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Scorcher on Thursday at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn.
• Friday’s George Scheffler Memorial winner at Oshkosh, Wis., will earn a career-richest payday.
• At least three of the top 10 finishers in World of Outlaws action Saturday at Winchester (Va.) Speedway will be among the top 10 in points on the Three State Flyers circuit.
• At least two Kentucky drivers will win victories earning $5,000 or better.
• MARS points leader Tony Jackson Jr. will have his first back-to-back series finishes outside the top five since April.
(Last week: Two out of five Topless 100 predictions correct)
