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Pretty solid racing last night, especially in the heat races. Here are some of my best pictures -- since I was sitting with Jeff, the angle may look familiar.

(Click for full size)

Last weekend was not a good time to be a Legends driver at Langley Speedway.
When I got to the track early Saturday afternoon I saw an ambulance and a firetruck leaving the track. After talking to a couple people I found out there had been a big crash in Legends practice which sent both drivers to the hospital, Brian May and Joe Hendricks. The officials had impounded May's car after they found he had been illegally running Tungsten in the frame rails instead of lead. Apparently May had spun and somehow either a whole tungsten bar or a chunk of one fell out of his car, bounced up, went through Hendricks' windshield, and hit him in the helmet, knocking him unconscious. The Unconscious Hendricks then broadsided May at full throttle, pinning May in his car. Hendricks was apparently released from the hospital later that day, while they found that May has a broken pelvis and femur.

Then to add insult to injury, in the feature race Chris Peterson made wheel-to-wheel contact with Rette Causey which launched Peterson into a series of about 4 barrel rolls through turn 4. Fortunately he was able to walk away from the car without any injuries.

cheaters never win.

Had something a little different going on at Can Am Speedway last Friday night with three national anthems being played instead of the usual two. Australian V8 Dirt Modified champion Peter Britten from Brisbane, Queensland is racing in the U.S. for the next couple weeks in a DIRT Big Block modified and his first race on U.S. soil was at Can Am Friday. At the start of the night they brought his car out with the Australian flag for the anthems (Australian, Canadian and U.S.). He did OK moving up through the field then it looked like he may have burned the tires of, sliding back to the tail before coliding with a slow car.

This week we will have a special show with the first ever appearance for the World of Outlaw Late Models for a 40 lap race, and if the track crew can get things like they want it (weather permitting) it should be very fast. It looks like Tim McCreadie will be back in action after his injuries suffered in a crash at this years Chili Bowl, looks like it will be sunny on Monday so it should be a good time. We'll also have big purse races for the Street Stock and Sportsman so I anticipate a packed pit area for those classes.

The great thing about being hundreds of miles away from Canada; one national anthem and we go racing.

WoO Late Models usually put on a pretty good show, should be an interesting race.


On Wednesday I went down to Langley Speedway to drop off the DVDs from last weekend and decided to stay and watch Wacky Wednesday, which is a weekly event where anyone with a street legal car and a helmet can drive the track. It starts off with single car runs, then burnouts, and culminates in one on one drag races where they separate the track into two lanes and run 1 lap around the track with a standing start. That was the first opportunity I've had to go to Wacky Wednesday since I usually end up having to work that night.

Wacky Wednesday Highlights. I recommend watching in HD.

Ditto with out short track meets. Except when World Series Sprintcars comes to town, and guys like Daryn Pittman and Jason Johnson come over, then we get two national anthems (the American anthem before the Australian anthem).

Had the WoO Late Model's last night at Can Am, and it was a great show with a great crowd. We got their a half hour early and the parking lot was almost full and people were having to park out on the side of the road. They had to open up a pavilion area for the extra people and then started letting spectators watch from the pits before finally closing the front gate and stopping ticket sales. Even when they were getting big crowds on a regular night, I don't remember them ever pulling in a crowd that massive, it was amazing. Fortunately I had a booth up top to use so I didn't have to fight to find a seat down in the grandstands .

Hometown favorite, Tim McCreadie started from pole for the 40 lap race and took held the lead at the start before getting passed by Steve Francis a few laps later, Tim's father, modified legend "Barefoot" Bob McCreadie waved the green flag. One of the other local favorites, Tim Fuller, took over second and had a good duel with Rick Eckert for the spot until a little after halfway when Francis started sliding back to them. They then had a great 4 way battle for the lead with Eckert grabbing the lead and McCreadie chasing him for second. Eckert would hold on despite heavy lap traffic, McCreadie was second, Vic Coffey was 3rd, Fuller ended up 4th. McCreadie looked pretty sore getting out of the car and was very apologetic to the crowd for not being able to get the win, but he drove a great race.

The track crew did a great job for their first try at a late model show, track was smooth and fast at the start of hot laps with some sub 18 second laps around the half mile. During the race they could run anywhere on the track and it made for a great race. The Sportsman and Street Stock divisions were also there and both put on a good show as well. Hopefully this will get some people to come back to the track on a regular basis and I really hope the late models come back next year.

I've never gone to a racetrack before and felt like I wasted my time, until tonight. I just got back from Wake County Speedway and all I can say about it is that it is the biggest joke in racing, bar none.

To begin with, none of their regular divisions have more than 10 cars, the drivers are some of the most talentless I've ever seen, and not to mention that the track saftey/clean up crew is incredibly incompetent and inefficient.

To start off the night they began behind schedule, the drivers proceeded to drive over their heads and frequently crash and spin, the single tow truck took forever to push or tow cars off the track, and the clean up crew put down speedy dry by walking around the track with a bucket lightly sprinkling it on the track by hand.

I then had to sit through the absolute joke that was the 50 lap Super Late Model race featuring a field of four cars.

By this point they were way behind schedule and the 50 lap UCAR race, which was the only one I really cared about, ended 6 laps early under caution because of the track's 11pm curfew, which was followed by what can only be described as a brawl in the infield after the race over who should have been declared the winner.

Hey now, the first rule of grassroots short-track racing is that you have to kiss the ground (and asses) of everyone involved regardless of what they actually do.

I guess this weeks videos will have a big "FUCK YOU WAKE COUNTY SPEEDWAY" tag and show your finger appearing in shot a lot flipping the track owners off!?

Nah, I wouldn't put that much effort into purposely alienating myself from any racetrack. I would have considered it if I had wasted $15 on a ticket, but I got in free so it was more of a waste of time instead of money.

I threw a quick video together that night of the finish and ensuing confusion.


I did get most of the fight on video but decided not to post that since it would make the UCAR Clash for Clash series look bad and I have too much respect for Larry, the owner and promoter of the series, to do that since he tried to put on a good show but Wake County staff just didn't let him.

If anyone wants to watch a good race, the TSRS late model race from Thunderhill Raceway will be shown live on kmacsports.com. I will be there in person.

I was down at Langley Speedway last Wednesday for 'Wild and Wacky Wednesday' when anyone with a car and a helmet can take some laps, participate in the burnout competition, or compete in one lap drag races.
It was a bit more interesting than the last Wednesday event I attended with every red mustang spinning during the time trail segment and some extremely close races in the drag racing portion.

There's an interesting article about Langley Speedway on NASCAR's local racing site.

http://localracing.nascar.com/node/3237

I went out to Langley Speedway again this week for Wacky Wednesday and saw a guy total a beautiful fox body Mustang. I got it on video but probably won't have any time to put together a highlight video for a few days. So here's a few screen grabs.





BTW, the crash was caused by a stuck throttle and the driver wasn't hurt.

what a shame

_________________
"The track's wet, that's what I think about it. Fucking shit gets wet when it rains."
-Dale Earnhardt Jr.

ISMA Supermodifieds are badass.

I went down to Virginia International Raceway's Patriot Course yesterday for the first road course event in the history of the UCAR Clash for Cash series. These were a bunch of oval drivers from from various short tracks around VA & NC who race in the entry level UCAR division. None had ever raced a road course before and for one it was even his first time racing on asphalt. Surprisingly, they did very well with zero crashes in the heat races and only one full course caution during the 25 lap feature for a 3 car incident that left a front bumper on the racing surface.
I'll be posting a highlight video later this week when I get a chance to sift through all the video I have from 6 different cameras, 3 onboard and 3 trackside.
This was my first time officially covering a road course event and it was a challenge trying to get the proper trackside angles but I think it should come out pretty good and it was a lot of fun.

Had a scary incident in the Street Stock feature at Can Am Speedway Saturday night. Tiger Chapman's car had a stuck throttle going into turn 3 and with no outside retaining wall, his car went sailing through the air as it went straight off turn 3. The car went through the tech area, through a fence and into a pickup truck, totaling it from what I heard, no one was injured.

We also had a powder puff race where everyone drove like they were in a school zone, until the end, when coming to the checkers off turn four the second place driver decided to make her move. Unfortunately she had to go into the infield dirt which was didn't have near enough traction like the tacky race surface, she won the race, barely, but lost control and went airborne off the infield track. No major damage which was fortunate for her husband who drove the car in the mechanics race that followed, which he won as well in another close finish. They were the two best races of the night and I almost didn't bother to stick around to watch them, but I was glad I did.

The La Crosse Speedway just ended their regular season this past Saturday with twin 50 lap features for the NASCAR Late Models. The first race was fairly clean. There was a small wreck towards the end that involved 3 cars, but they all continued with no major issues. On the restart, I accidentally got into the #20 of Todd Oliver and that knocked my left front tie rod loose, so I had to come in with a bad vibration. 2007 NASCAR Whelen All American National Champion Steve Carlson won this race. The second feature was relatively clean as well with a lot of really good, hard racing. In this race, Steve Carlson had to start around 18th or so due to the inversion process (26 cars started, the inversion was twelve plus the spin of the wheel which came up on 6) and by lap 30, Carlson was up to second and chasing down NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver Emily Sue Steck. Emily had a massive lead and Carlson would have probably had no shot had someone not taken me out with 11 laps to go bringing out the final caution for a dash to the finish. After an intense 10 laps, Emily Sue was able to hold off Steve Carlson and bring home her third win of the season. J. Herbst, who also races in the ASA North Series won the track championship and 10 time track champion Kevin Nuttleman won the NASCAR state championship for the state of Wisconsin.

I did not have my in car camera running this week, but 2 weeks ago I had it rolling and picked up some pretty interesting shots. My videos can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/lre4973

Highlights can be found here: Jacklyn Daniels from cc106.3 FM highlights: http://www.youtube.com/user/jacklyndaniels
KQEG Nights of Thunder highlights can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Wreckoftheweek