DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Second straight week of insane dirt late model racing incidents | Daily 3-13-2023
What the hell is going on dirt late model racing right now?! We've got details today on another insane weekend, plus Thomas Meseraull being, well Thomas Meseraull. Let's go!
It's Monday, March 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I don't know what's in the water right now, but this is the second Monday in a row where we are diving into a dirt racing weekend that was completely wild.
We'll start first with the Southern All Stars at Southern Raceway in Florida. Saturday night in the feature it kicked off with Ashton Winger and GR Smith getting into it on track, and the night ended with Ashton, his dad Gary, and GR's merch guy Scottie Parker all being hauled away in handcuffs. And let me remind you that just one year ago, Ashton was driving for GR full time as a rookie out with Lucas. At the start of the main event, Smith muscled his way past Winger into turn one, and Ashton returned the favor in three and four with a sketchy slider. Then on the next lap, Smith again tried to get the elbows out, only this time it didn't work, and he ended up almost spun all the way around before he caught it. Under caution, Smith then drove back through the field and spun Winger out. Okay, at this point, you figure this thing is probably over. But oh no, GR was just getting started. He then hit Winger twice more just for good measure, effectively destroying his own car in the process. The whole thing was pretty unhinged and maybe GR needs to find another thing to do on his weekends that doesn't involve dirt late models. The madness continued though later, with Ashton's dad Gary getting into an altercation with Smith and eventually being arrested, and then Ashton himself trying to go after Smith and getting into a scuffle with GR's merch guy. The Santa Rosa County Sherriff's deputies booked all three into the local jail, and all three have since been released. I don't know what's going on right now in dirt late model racing, but as they say, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The two nights at Southern were won by Billy Franklin and Joseph Joiner.
A couple of states away on Friday night, the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series also had a wild and crazy night. We saw Ross Farmer roll out of the ballpark in turn three racing in the first B-Main. Tanner Kellick flipped in the second B-Main, and that was just the beginning. Just a handful of laps into the main event, the lap cars of Jarret Stuckey and Jamie Burford tangled right in front of the leaders, and the incident collected the entire top four, which was Dylan McCowan, Kyle Beard, Garrett Alberson, and Jonathan Davenport. Beard and Alberson were able to continue, Daveport and McCowan were done. Later on, we had Spencer Hughes and Morgan Bagley tangle while running second and third, and we had a firey finish. On the white flag lap, Logan Martin hip checked Neil Baggett into turn one for the lead, with Baggett ending up in the wall done for the night. Martin took the victory, but was really subdued in victory lane. No celebration, and you could tell he was not proud of the win. On Saturday night, Garrett Alberson slipped by race long leader Billy Moyer with five to go, and drove on to the $10,000 win. After the Friday night crash, Davenport and his 49 squad did not return for Saturday. I was honestly a little surprised to see JD in the field, as he's not a usual competitor with Comp Cams. His appearances in recent seasons with the series are usually the co-sanctioned Lucas events. I wonder if with some of the struggles they had down in Georgia and Florida if maybe they weren't in attendance to try and work on some stuff. Lucas is in action this weekend at Atomic and Brownstown, so we'll see if they have hit on anything.
The other late model show from the weekend was the Spring Nationals at 411 Motor Speedway on Saturday. Seventh starting Cory Hedgecock got to the lead around Dale McDowell past half way and stretched away at the end for the $15,000 win. Ricky Weiss and Jensen Ford completed the podium. Will Roland had a tire come off his machine during pace laps, and his guys had to scramble to get him back out for the feature start. Roland is sponsored by Roland Tire, a couple of tire shops in Georgia. Not exactly great marketing there for the business.
Before we move on, we did get over 15k subscribers this weekend, so I've picked two t-shirt winners. They are Amy Basham and Jeremy Wren. Thanks to everyone that jumped in for the shirts and for getting us across 15,000.
Indoors at DuQuoin on Friday and Saturday we got the first two races for the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series. Friday night it was Cannon McIntosh passing Shane Cottle late to get the victory. Shoutout to Mitchel Moles for not spinning Cottle during that feature when he easily could have. Nice fields both nights, with north of 40 midgets in the pits. Saturday night, Jade Avedisian led early from the pole, but fifth starting Thomas Meseraull took control on lap 11. He was able to keep Jade at bay until lap traffic slowed his progress late. With three to go, he tried to go around Mariah Ede on the high side into turn one, but slipped over the cushion opening the door for Jade. She filled the spot and TMez wheelied off the corner to try and cover his mistake. It didn't work though as the two made contact, and TMez ended up around and out of contention. Jade went on to the win, but she was apologetic after the race for the incident. I felt like it was just a racing deal though, with both drivers going hard for the lead. Later though, you know TMez had to be TMez. In an interview posted to Xtreme's social accounts, he said quote "Jade just shoved in it there, because that's what you do in midgets apparently." And then after catching some heat on Twitter, he posted today quote "The peanut gallery is in full force on Twitter! Guy sticks a camera in my face after running 16th to stir drama. I like jade she is good!I’m not thrilled about my paycheck though,I might have run everyone hard but I didn’t cause 1 yellow in 2 nights. She spun the leader!? Facts" unquote. Let me remind you this is the guy who is selling t-shirts right now on his website that say things like "send it til you bend it" and "slide or die." It's always okay for him to make those moves, but he gets upset when it happens to him. Typical stuff. With top fives both nights, Jade leads the series standings. Really nice opening weekend for her in the new Keith Kunz ride. We'll see Xtreme again in a few weeks at Farmer City. One side note here, the Xtreme Outlaw Series is now being tracked in the analytics section. All of last year's races, and these first two 2023 nights are in the database along with a full compliment of stats. You can find them at dirtrackr.com/analytics.
Before we close out today, sprint car driver Mark Dobmeier was burned in a crash in the ASCS regional show on Friday night at the Central Arizona Speedway. He posted to social media that he is doing okay, but he did suffer second and third degree burns on his legs. He will probably need some skin grafts in the coming days. We'll keep you updated as we know more.
Big shoutout today to channel member Thomas Soper. This is his pure stock that he runs in California, and he's sporting the DIRTRACKR logo there on the front fender. Appreciate the support my man. Thomas runs at Barona Speedway near San Diego.
It's a quiet day across the streaming services, not shocking for a Monday in March. Just FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now on tap. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Have a good Monday out there, we'll see you guys tomorrow.