Winchester Speedway
WoO shocker: Hollidge nabs Winchester victory
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Dale Hollidge (0) goes by D.J. Myers (70). (pbase.com/cyberslash)
WINCHESTER, Va. (Aug. 24) — Dale Hollidge lived a dream on Saturday night at Winchester Speedway. Making his first World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature start, the 24-year-old driver from Mechanicsville, Md., drove to a stunning victory in the Raye Vest Memorial 50 Presented by Ernie D’s Enterprises.
Hollidge failed to grab the lead from the pole position at the initial green flag, but he relentlessly chased D.J. Myers of Greencastle, Pa., for more than half the caution-free race before finally grabbing the top spot on lap 39. He dominated the remainder of the distance, pulling away to score one of the biggest upsets in WoO history.
The $10,550 triumph completed an amazing sweep of the racing program for Hollidge, who also set fast time and won a heat race. It was also his first-ever Dirt Late Model win at the 3/8-mile oval — which his mother, Denise, manages for track owner Greg Gunter — and just his fourth career victory overall in the full-fender division.
“I’ve been racing my whole life with my dad and everybody,” said Hollidge, who is in his fifth season of Dirt Late Model racing. “But to win one of these races, you really don’t think about it, so when it happens it’s kind of a shock for you.”
Driving a car formerly of race sponsor Ernie Davis’s stable. Hollidge crossed the finish line 2.512 seconds ahead of Littlestown, Pa.’s Jeremy Miller, who slipped by Myers on the white-flag lap to place second.
Myers settled for a third-place finish after starting on the outside pole and leading 37 of the race’s first 39 laps. He fell one spot short of matching his career-best WoO finish, a runner-up placing he recorded in the tour’s only previous visit to Winchester on June 18, 2011.
Kenny Pettyjohn of Millsboro, Del., started and finished fourth, earning his best finish ever on the WoO. Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., completed the top five, slipping into fifth place on the final lap to cap a solid run forward from the 11th starting spot that extended his World of Outlaws points lead.
With his victory, Hollidge put his name on a select list of drivers to win on the WoO in their career-first feature start since the circuit’s modern era began in 2004. He joined Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., who won the inaugural WoO under the World Racing Group banner on Feb. 3, 2004, at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., and Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa (March 27, 2004, at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn.).
Prior to Saturday night’s breakthrough, Hollidge had entered just four WoO events over the past three years: the Commonwealth 100 at Virginia Motor Speedway in 2010 and ’11 and the World Finals doubleheader in 2012 at the Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C. He had never time-trialed better than 35th-fastest or finished higher that ninth in a consolation race previously.
But Hollidge looked like a savvy, experienced veteran at Winchester as he calmly ran behind Myers, waiting for the right opportunity to seize control of the race.
“I just didn’t want to slide the car too much and wear the tires out,” Hollidge said of his pursuit of Myers. “You just can’t make a mistake. That’s the hardest part of it. You want to overdrive yourself just to beat him, but you can’t do it. You gotta pace yourself enough to stay with him.
“I knew if I could stay with (Myers) eventually I could work on him and get around him.”
Hollidge nosed ahead of Myers to take the lead for the first time on lap 30, starting a frenetic stretch that saw the drivers swap the top spot five times. Myers was ahead at the flagstand on lap 31 and Hollidge led lap 32. Myers regained command on lap 33 and actually put a couple car lengths on Hollidge over the ensuing circuits, but Hollidge gathered himself and surged off the inside of turn four to seize the lead for good on lap 39.
“I think I must have overheated the tires or something because the car got real free there for a couple laps,” said Hollidge, describing how Myers momentarily opened some space. “I kind of settled back down and it picked back up.
“It looked like the longer (Myers) went he was catching a little push in the middle and he couldn’t hug the bottom like I could. Finally, I just decided I was gonna try all the way down against the (inside) wall. I could sure catch a little mud down there and that’s what did it.”
Hollidge wasn’t going to be denied the rest of the way. He wasn’t challenged over the final 11 laps as he completed his storybook march into the World of Outlaws spotlight.
A winner of just three Dirt Late Model features previously in his career — all at Potomac Speedway in Budds Creek, Md., where earlier this year he bagged a $2,500 triumph that represented his biggest payday prior to Saturday night — Hollidge was greeted in victory lane by loud cheers from the capacity crowd along with friends and family.
“We’ve been running good here all year and we’ve been working at it and getting closer,” said Hollidge. “We should’ve had a few, and lost a few. It’s sure nice to get the first one a big one.
“We ran second here two weeks ago and we knew we had a good car. We came here tonight and the track conditions were similar, and we thought we’d just work our notes and go with the same thing and it sure worked out.
“It’s great for us. We’re a low-budget team, but we’ve really stepped our program up this year with everybody’s help – guys like Ernie Davis and Greg Gunter. We’ve raced a lot more this year too and it definitely showed. It feels great to get a big one like this.”
The drivers Hollidge beat to the checkered flag hailed his performance.
“It’s pretty amazing watching Dale mature,” said Miller, who won a WoO feature in 2008 at Virginia Motor Speedway. “He’s got in some good equipment, a good car, and he drove an amazing race. He never made a mistake, and to beat these guys that’s what you gotta do.”
Myers, who is Miller’s brother-in-law (Miller is married to Myers’s sister), was disappointed to fall short in WoO action at Winchester once again, but he was proud to be part of a quartet of local and regional racers who turned back the mighty Outlaws.
“I knew Dale was coming — the boys were telling me,” said Myers, who drove a PPM Chassis machine he debuted earlier this summer. “I started getting loose into the corner, and when you race these boys you can’t be missing anything. Dale was very good — and I’m just tickled the local boys run good this evening.”
Finishing in positions 6-10 was Dan Stone of Thompson, Pa., who lost a spot in the final laps after spending most of the distance dogging Pettyjohn for fourth; Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., who reclaimed second place in the WoO points standings; Steve Shaver of Vienna, W.Va.; Tyler Hershey of Mercersburg, Pa.; and Mark Pettyjohn of Milton, Del., who thought his night might be over after discovering frame damage to his car following time trials but was able to fix the problem.
Notes: Hollidge’s Rocket Chassis has a Hershey Racing Engines and sponsorship from Three Mules Welding Supplies and Ernie D’s Enterprises. ... Rick Eckert, whose late car owner was honored with the event, drove a Paul Crowl-owned car instead of his� regular ride, finishing 11th; he’d driven Crowl’s car to a pair of victories earlier this season at Winchester. ... Among drivers failing to make the feature lineup: Travis Roach, Joey Leavell, Brad Omps, Ronnie DeHaven Jr., Tommy Armel, Kenny Moreland, J.T. Spence, David Watts, Tyler Castle, Tanner Kerr and Trever Feathers, who suffered a wrist injury in a heat race tangle. ... WoO competitors compete three times over Labor Day weekend starting Aug. 30 at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells before an Aug. 30-Sept. 1 doubleheader at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway.
Raye Vest Memorial: (1) Dale Hollidge, (2) Jeremy Miller, (3) D.J. Myers, (4) Kenny Pettyjohn, (5) Josh Richards, (6) Dan Stone, (7) Shane Clanton, (8) Steve Shaver, (9) Tyler Hershey, (10) Mark Pettyjohn, (11) Rick Eckert, (12) Gregg Satterlee, (13) Tim McCreadie, (14) Jamie Lathroum, (15) Darrell Lanigan, (16) C.S. Fitzgerald, (17) Keith Jackson, (18) Chub Frank, (19) David Williams, (20) Jason Miller, (21) Eric Wells, (22) Brad Ritter, (23) Stevie Long, (24) Tim Fuller, (25) Jason Covert, (26) Jonathan Davenport. Fast qualifier (among 45 cars): Hollidge, 14.942 seconds. Heat race winners: Hollidge, K. Pettyjohn, Stone, Jeremy Miller. Consolation winners: Williams, Frank. Provisional starters: Lanigan, McCreadie, Fuller, Wells.
