Like many sports are experiencing during this unusual time of the COVID-19, things constantly change from one day to the next. With disappointment running rampant, everyone is just trying to keep some sense of normalcy.
So when the World Racing Group announced the cancellation of the popular 49th annual Super Dirt Week event, which was scheduled at Oswego Speedway from Oct. 6-11, they were quick to come out with another option for race teams.
A six-day run on some of DIRTcar’s most popular sanctioned racetracks. They called it ‘OktoberFAST.' Instead of staying planted at Oswego Speedway for the entire traditional event, teams traveled to different speedways in upstate New York.
It even got modified sensation Brett Hearn back behind the wheel for the six-day tour. Hearn hasn’t race much since taking the role as director of motorsports at Orange County Fair Speedway.
“This will be a little different for me,” said Hearn going into the events. “I will be running a car owned by the Madsens but prepared by Four-Star. I’m not involved in the preparation as much as I’m used to being part of it but it will be great to be back out there.”
He finished 20th, 27th, 7th, 12th and 8th in the events, with one rainout.
Race car driver Marc Johnson. (Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography)
Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography
Race car driver Anthony Perrego. (Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography)
Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography
Race car driver Mat Williamson. (Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography)
Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography
Race car driver Stewart Friesen. (Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography)
Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography
Race car driver Andy Bachetti. (Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography)
Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography
Race car driver Rob Yetman. (Courtesy of Mark Brown Photography)
Courtesy of Mark Brown PhotographyIt started last Tuesday and was completed on Sunday evening. It was a huge hit.
“We really like how it all turned out,” said Dean Reynolds, Director of DIRTcar Northeast. “The response by the race teams left us breathless. We had 368 race teams race with us and Utica-Rome was canceled so those numbers would have been even higher.”
Race teams poured into these ovals (at Fulton Speedway on Thursday more than 70 sportsman cars did not qualify for the feature event), which accounted for earlier start times and longer nights than promised. But the World Racing Group kept the shows constantly moving despite the overwhelming turnout.
“The cooperation of the teams was wonderful,” Reynolds said. “We had them parked all over the place because there was just so many cars. Some of these teams were parked a quarter-mile from the track and we never had to wait for a single car. We saw some really good racing and we even had some new winners (Anthony Perrago and Max McLaughlin) so that was pretty cool. For something that got put together in five weeks I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
It all began at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Tuesday (modified, sportsman and pro stocks) and unfortunately on Wednesday promoters Bill and Kim Shay saw rain cancel their efforts at Utica-Rome Speedway (modified, 358-modified and pro stocks). The series resumed on Thursday at Fulton Speedway (modified, 358-modified and sportsman) before spending the weekend at Cam-Am Speedway (modified, 358-modified and sportsman), the Land of Legends Raceway (modified and sportsman), and Weedsport Speedway (modified, sportsman and pro stocks) on Sunday.
So how did the racers feel about the new format?
Andy Bachetti (Lebanon Valley modified points champion for 2020): “We don’t race at those tracks often so we learned a lot. I enjoyed going from track to track, it was a neat deal and was a change from sitting in one spot day after day. I learned a lot and we need a new package so we’ve got some work ahead of us.”
Stewart Friesen (NASCAR Trucks racer, won more than 25 events on dirt surfaces this season): “I would rather do the traditional deal. The six-day deal was cool but with the amount of cars it made for some extremely long nights. You had to try and turn cars around, get the maintenance done in the morning and we are hot-lapping at three or four in the afternoon and then racing until midnight, that was the hard part but the purses were decent and the traveling wasn’t too super bad — there was definitely pros and cons. To sum up my week — we were unlucky. We were fast, a couple of quick times, a couple of top five’s but just some burned up tracks and not a lot of luck in the redraws and that was it for us.” He finished 12th, 3rd, 5th, 25th and 4th.
Rob Yetman (Pro stock racer, past winner of five Super DIRT Week events): “I didn’t mind the traveling part of it but what I didn’t like was the shortage of laps at each track. I think that hurt us a little bit. I don’t know how a modified team could do that, we only had three races, and one of them got rained out but it was still a lot of preparation. I didn’t come in on a high to begin with — this summer was a throw-away year — we tried some new stuff and there are some guys out there that are just blistering fast right now.” He was 8th and 14th in his two races.
Marc Johnson (Former Albany-Saratoga Speedway modified champion): “I like the traditional dirt week — it was a lot of traveling and I struggled so that never makes anything fun. Maybe I’m biased because I didn’t do well. I’m trying to recoup right now and I can’t thank my guys enough for such a grueling week. A lot of these tracks were new to us so you are going to these guys' home tracks now and the competition is ridiculous.” He was 8th, 28th and 14th, and failed to qualify twice.
Mat Williamson: “I like the traditional Super DIRT Week because it’s special. The six-day deal was like two weekends wrapped up in one week so it wasn’t any different than what we do all summer so I’d like to go back to the regular way. To sum up our week, it was average. We had a couple top-fives and finished in the top 10 every night but it wasn’t like we set the world on fire so we were kind of disappointed.” He wound up 7th, 4th, 9th, 2nd and 5th).
So happy, yet so sad
Anthony Perrego made only two stops on the six-day ‘OktoberFAST’ tour — Albany-Saratoga Speedway and Can-Am Raceway. Perrego, who has been making his presence known over the past few years, picked up the win at both locations. Events paid $7,500 to win each.
“To not have a series win coming into this week and then to get two in a row is pretty cool,” Perrego said in victory lane. “Unfortunately, we really can’t keep going on because we have some work to do for bigger events coming up (Port Royal and Orange County Fair Speedway). I wish we could do them all but maybe next year we can do the whole Super Dirtcar Series.”
Sadly Perrego dad’s Tom, his biggest fan and supporter, suddenly passed away — fortunately he got to see his son’s two-night domination over the best drivers in the Northeast. Our condolences to the Perrego family.
More tears … but happy ones
Many would agree that one of the biggest moments from the six-day series was McLaughlin’s first Super DIRTcar win on Sunday at Al Heinke’s Weedsport Speedway. It was an emotional win.
Fitting for McLaughlin’s first win to come at the high-tech oval since he spent last summer living on the speedway property running dirt shows with the help of Heinke. But at the end of the season he headed back to North Carolina to pursue a career on asphalt and found rides in a bunch of different style race cars this summer.
“I was crying with five laps to go,” said a very emotional McLaughlin in victory lane. “I didn’t have a ride a week before this and we are in victory lane.”
Fittingly, his dad Mike ‘Magic Shoes’ McLaughlin parked in victory lane on the same oval back in 1980 and 1981 before embarking on an asphalt modified and Busch Series career.
“This car (Max was driving the Coffey family-owned ‘Sweetners Plus’ automobile) was amazing,” McLaughlin said. “My idol growing up in dirt racing was Matt Sheppard — he built this car — I passed him for the win. We are going to celebrate tonight.”
McLaughlin has been signed on again by the Sweetner’s team for this weekend’s event at Port Royal.
A round of applause
The DIRTVision folks did a fantastic job with coverage of the six-day event. The World Racing Group plans to broadcast all of the Super DIRTcar events next season.
Signing off
This will be our last column for the 2020 season. Hopefully we can get things back to normal before the 2021 season gets underway.
Robin Yasinsac's column appears every other week during the racing season.
"auto" - Google News
October 15, 2020 at 06:23AM
https://ift.tt/3lRs6vP
Auto racing: Closing events a different finish to strange season - Times Union
"auto" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Xb9Q5a
https://ift.tt/2SvsFPt
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Auto racing: Closing events a different finish to strange season - Times Union"
Post a Comment