DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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They hot lapped, and then left a race paying $53,000 to win?! | Daily 9-15-2024
You ever hear of a team hot lapping, and then loading up and leaving the track on purpose? Well, you will today. I've got that story, plus everything you need to know from the dirt racing weekend, including a World of Outlaws championship that is suddenly much closer. Let's go!
It's Sunday, September 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Coming up later this week, the final big sprint car and open wheel event of the season takes place at Eldora Speedway with the 4-Crown Nationals on tap. High Limit sprint cars, plus all three USAC divisions race Friday and Saturday. If you're going to be in town, make sure to stop by The Whistle Stop and grab something good to eat. It's just a seven mile ride straight south of the race track to Ansonia. If you cross the train tracks, turn around you've gone too far. You can get breakfast, lunch, dinner, pizza, and they've got a full bar so you can enjoy a nice adult beverage. Andrew and his staff do a great job, so if you stop in, tell them DIRTRACKR sent you. If you want to ride a little further south, head to Sure Shot Tap House in Greenville, Ohio, a great place to eat, drink and play. They've got a full menu, plus all sorts of adult beverage options on tap, self pour, plus the Bullseye Game Lounge upstairs with duckpin bowling and 24 arcade games. When you're not at the track, keep yourself fed and entertained with these two establishments, the Whistle Stop and Sure Shot Tap House. Thanks to them for their support of Eldora, this show, and dirt racing.
So, I've got a weird one for you to start off this Sunday show. At Fonda the last few days, the Short Track Super Series was on hand for the Fonda 200. It's a modified race that pays $53,000 to win. Matt Sheppard went on the victory last night, over Jack Lehner and Marc Johnson. That show also featured most of the other big modified names... Stewart Friesen, Anthony Perrego, Mike Mahaney, Alex Yankowski, and even Max McLaughlin made an appearance with the World of Outlaws late models rained out. One driver curiously missing though, was Mat Williamson. When you look down the list of wins in 2024, and really each of the last several seasons, three guys are usually at the top there, and that's Williamson, Sheppard, and Friesen. Those guys dominate a lot, and have won all the championships and the big money shows. If you aren't aware, Williamson campaigns all season in really three different cars for three different teams. His Super DIRTcar Series campaign happens with the Buzz Chew team, he runs regularly in his own six car, and with the Short Track Super Series, he races Jeff Behrent's 3W car. In the STSS standings, Williamson is top three in both regional titles, and the overall standings. He's also a signed on full time driver. So you can imagine how weird it was when team owner Jeff Behrent announced in the leadup to the Fonda 200, that his three car and Williamson would be absent. He shared to social media that they regretted having to make the announcement, but that they would not be participating. He did say they would keep up their perfect attendance by participating in hot laps. But that was as far as his post went, giving no mention of a reason. Williamson though a few days later made his own post, explaining that they weren't going to race because of the costs associated with the Fonda event. They ended up racing Saturday at Land of Legends instead, and winning, picking up $10,000 in the Gerald Haers Memorial. Williamson said that race would cost $900 to $1100 to run, and he could cover expenses by finishing in the top 12. He obviously did better than that. On the flip side though, the Fonda race would cost $4000 to run, and he'd have to finish top four to have the owner break even after he paid the driver. That seems like a fairly reasonable, if odd explanation. These guys take this risk of losing money any time they show up, so why take a stand now? But, on Friday as Jeff Behrent said they'd do, the 3W rolled out of the trailer on Fonda Speedway, Williamson went quick time in his hot lap group and fifth overall, and his Fonda 200 weekend was over. They rolled the car back in the trailer and went home. I've been around racing my whole life, and I don't know that I've ever heard a story where a team purposely showed up just to hot lap, and then went home to save money. I get that they want to keep their attendance up, but it's tough to believe that there isn't more to this story than just worrying about the cost to race. Especially when you see they only had 33 cars for a race that paid that much to win. This would be like Tyler Courtney or Rico Abreu rolling into Lernerville this weekend with High Limit, hot lapping, loading up, and then instead racing at Lincoln on Saturday night. If that happened, people's heads would explode. There have certainly been plenty of crazy stories in the sport, and in recent seasons, but this one has to be right up there. If this was happening in sprint car or late model racing, it would be front page news. But because it's a regional modified situation, it's gotten less attention. Drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts on this one.
Alright, jumping into other weekend action. Kubota High Limit sprint cars at Lernerville for the Commonwealth Clash and $50,000 to win on Saturday night. Basically the same names in contention both nights, and we were likely not far from seeing a Corey Day weekend sweep. He led the final 18 on Friday for High Limit win number eight on the year, and was out front for the first 17 on Saturday night before disaster struck. Out of turn two, the right rear wheel detached from the 14 machine, and Day went tumbling off the backstretch. He was okay, but his weekend obviously over. It was tough to tell exactly what broke, but Day said it was the rear end itself. Tyler Courtney assumed the lead from there and he held off Sye Lynch down the stretch to earn a much needed victory. Entering the weekend, Sunshine had finished 17th or worse in eight of his last 11 High Limit starts since winning at Hanford in mid-August. A Friday podium, and a big payday Saturday were a big turnaround. That 7BC team is now back to second in the High Limit standings after Rico Abreu struggled both nights, finishing 15th and 23rd. Your five charter teams right now are the 49, 7BC, 24, 83, and 19. The 14 and 13 are outside looking in. Sye Lynch was impressive both nights finishing second, and James McFadden was a top five runner both races. As for Ricky Thornton Jr., he showed up to make his winged sprint car debut with Bernie Stuebgen and the Indy Race Parts 71 with most of the weekend's dirt late model shows sacked. He was a B-Main finisher on Friday and a C-Main finisher on Saturday. Clearly just a learning and fact-finding weekend, with RTJ just working on getting a feel for the cars. I thought he had respectable speed, and looked pretty solid out there. Hopefully we'll get more chances in the future to see him race. Up next for High Limit is two nights this coming weekend at Eldora during the 4-Crown Nationals.
In California, it was the Buddy Kofoid weekend with the World of Outlaws. He outdueled polesitter Gio Scelzi Friday night at Bakersfield, with those two putting on a show through lap traffic. And last night at Bakersfield, Kofoid dominated the 35 lapper, leading every lap from the pole. Since struggling at the Knoxville Nationals and during the opening night of the Jackson Nationals, Kofoid and the Roth 83 team have ten straight top six finishes, including eight podiums, and they've won four of the last five races. They've definitely hit on something in recent weeks, and Kofoid looks like a completely different guy than we saw earlier this summer. Tim Kaeding ended up second last night, his best Outlaw finish since a second place run at the Gold Cup at Silver Dollar in 2019. Leading into the west coast trip, I thought with Carson Macedo's momentum and his coming home to familiar California tracks, he could make up ground on David Gravel for the Outlaw title, and that's what's happened. Macedo was third both nights this weekend, with Gravel fifth Friday, and 13th Saturday. Headed to Tulare this coming weekend, the gap is down to 86 points from 114. Gravel is still very much in the driver's seat here, but 86 points over what I think is 14 races left, not impossible for Macedo. That's just a little over six points per night. Gravel not bad lately, just not as fast as they had been. He hasn't won or led laps in 15 straight races. The Dennis Roth Classic is set for Thunderbowl Raceway this coming Friday and Saturday.
Weekend USAC sprint car wins went to Kyle Cummins at Circle City, and Kevin Thomas Jr. took the Hustler at Haubstadt last night. Win number two for Cummins this season, and the fifth for KTJ. In the championship, Brady Bacon not able to make up any ground on Logan Seavey, so with five races still to go, it's 74 points between them. USAC joins High Limit at Eldora this week for 4-Crown.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Kalib Henry with FAST at Fremont, Danny Dietrich won at Williams Grove, Freddie Rahmer at Lincoln, Cole Duncan at Atomic, Jordan Goldesberry is winless no longer scoring with the IRA, and Cap Henry for the Ford at Fremont. ASCS wins went to Roger Crockett and Jason Martin, while Ryan Turner won the big money at Ohsweken. At the Hockett McMillin Memorial, Ayrton Gennetten and Jake Bubak won the winged prelims, while Bubak took down the big money on Saturday night as well. Ricky Lewis and Chase Howard won the WAR prelims, with Xavier Doney winning the Saturday finale. Hat tip as well to Van Gurley on the Butler track championship.
Weekend late model winners included Tyler Erb and Garrett Alberson with the MLRA, Dave Hess Jr was a ULMS winner at Outlaw, Brian Shirley took the MARS victory at Brownstown, and Devin Moran won $15,000 with the XR Super Series at Muskingum County.
That's it for the show today. Don't forget if you want to see race results, stats, and all sorts of racing data, hit up the analytics section at dirtrackr.com. You can dig through a lot of information there for free, no account or sign-up needed.
Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!