Winning moment: Ricky Thornton Jr. passed Max Blair on a 30th lap restart and never looked back, holding off defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Tim McCreadie to score the win and the points of the series at All-Tech Raceway Saturday night (February 4)
It should be noted though that Thornton’s $15,000 win was not the richest of the weekend. That went to Brandon Gibson Jr. of Dry Ridge, Ky., who won the $19,000 season opener for the Sport Compact Dirt Racing Association at Screven Motor Speedway in Georgia.
Dramatic moment: And the dramatic moment of the weekend came in this race. John Windham, who drove from outside the top 20 to the front in 20 laps after turning from the lead, appeared to gate leader Gibson on Turn 4. Racing side by side on the front straight, the two made contact again, with Windham going for a lap in Turn 1.
The video was inconclusive as to whether Windham made contact with Gibson in Turn 4, and whether the spin was the result of Gibson’s dirty riding or Windham pinching him on the front straight. Thankfully Race Control left the incident alone, although Windham’s wife did not on Facebook.
In a word: Sporty compact race. Half the cylinders, twice the drama.
What they will talk about as a group this morning
Remember a few seasons back in NASCAR-land where we all got used to hearing “Stage winner – MTJ?” Well, fans of late models this year might want Get used to hearing “Feature winner – RTJ”. Thornton is as hot these Speedweeks as Devin Moran was a year ago.
After seeing how long the race took to unfold and how much drama unfolded as a result of it, Thank goodness 4-cylinder cars don’t run for five figures as often. Big budget and recreational running classes shouldn’t mix.
Screven’s Winter Freeze lasted about 11 hours on Saturday night, which frankly should amount to a kidnapping to pay race fans by race organizers who insisted on an eight-class schedule.
But, I have to say I feel bad for race control track officials, who had to endure a number of disasters not their fault during the program, including a field of late model 602s that restarted its own race despite race control audibly telling them five “yellow yellow yellow” times and a crash during their sporty compact race which saw a stationary car slam the ARCA brakes more than five seconds after the warning.
Good refereeing doesn’t go that far… competitors must listen.
On that same note regarding time management, the LOLMDS and All-Tech Raceway had a rare misfire this weekend, with a significant delay occurring between qualifying and the start of the heat races after the track took on rubber. during time trials, forcing a thorough overhaul of the track.
The good news? Between having an all-professional track prep team at All-Tech and a two-division program (which saw the grandstands PACKED), once the retouching was done, the program ran smoothlywith the feature still made well before 11 p.m. On a Saturday, there’s nothing to frown upon.
Between a very strong Thornton/McCreadie/Blair/Clanton battle up front at All-Tech and a very racy season opener for the Southern All-Stars at Screven, super late models were the dirt racing class again this weekend. We’ll just leave this one here.
And finally, after Uber’s controversial victory at East Bay Raceway Park on Friday night thanks to race officials, Lucas Lee won the $5,000 Winternationals final at the fair and instead of the trackleading 69 of the 75 laps without ever being seriously challenged for the race lead.
Lee received a lot of flak (and in my eyes, rightly so) for being a poor winner after picking up the win over young Drake Troutman on Friday. But as the saying goes, “it ain’t bullshit if you can back it up.” Lee was definitely the king of mods in East Bay.
weekend heroes
William Herrington had the move of the weekend in round two of the late model at All-Tech Raceway on Saturday, getting three cars into literally one corner.
Villain of the weekend
It’s been a long time since Jonathan Davenport had a bad weekend of any kind, but Saturday night felt like all the bad luck Superman avoided in 2022 all decided to fight their way into race night at All-Tech. Starting with the time trials, Davenport made contact with the wall and snapped a driveshaft, forcing him to start at the back of his heat race.
Davenport suffered nose damage during his qualifying run in a collision that was not his fault, also finding issues in his B-hand and being forced into a tentative starting position.
Davenport again found trouble in the A-main, finishing 21st. There’s no driver in the peloton more grateful than the LOLMDS only counts a driver’s best five Speedweeks finishes for the series points standings.
Numbers game
8
Dirt tracks that held oval track racing programs this weekend in the United States
210
The highest number of cars in the country Saturday, the Winter Freeze at Screven Motor Speedway.
$19,000
The biggest scholarship in the country awarded this weekend to the winner of the SCDRA feature film at Screven on Saturday night.
Following: Front stretch will return Tuesday morning (February 7) with opening night coverage of the DIRTcar National Championships from Volusia Speedway Park and the latest Winternationals model from East Bay Raceway Park. Stream coverage can be found on DirtVision and Flo Racing, respectively.
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