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This weather pattern of rain in Ohio has been threatening to be the story for 2015's version of the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Speedweek. Thankfully the rain stayed away from Attica Ohio Friday as 58 cars showed up to compete for the first place money.
That's right, 58 cars. I was pretty sure that there would be close to 50 but 58, man that's a good count. Gleaning from driver comments, this speaks to Tony Stewart's stabilazing ownership as well as the new qualifying format that many believe is much fairer than the old format.
Attica is an old fairgrounds with the dirt track sitting in the middle of the much larger horse racing track. Silos, barns, cornfields, and frequent freight trains surround the grounds. Walking to the ticket stand from the parking lot, I could see the wings of the cars just above the first turn banking as they flew by. Dirt was flying and the engines roaring as hot laps were underway. I noticed the wind in my face and the smell of race engine exhaust.
When we got our seat, time trials were just beginning. the track was really tacky and looked great. Attica is fairly high banked and has no fence around the turns, just like Bloomington. Drivers can go too high and go over the hill. Dean Jacobs was one of the earlier ones out and coming around turn 4, he got into the cushion a little and this upset his car. As he tried to correct it out of 4, the right rear went over the ledge and sucked the car toward the front retaining wall and smack! After rolling two times he ended up on his side. Man, that was a really hard hit, but Dean was okay. He was done for the evening. Another car got high out of turn 4 during time trials and launched a few large clods of mud into the air. Off the right rear they went up, up, up and arched back down toward the crowd sitting off of turn 4. 1 big piece managed to hit a spectator in the chest. He was looking the other way and didn't see it. People were yelling but you couldn't hear. He was okay, but pretty startled!
Loyett, Roger Crocket, Brady Bacon, Kasey Kahne, Bryan Clausen, man what a field of cars. Sopem surprises for sure. Jamie Veal, and 3 or4 other Aussie gusy as well. This is sprint car nirvana for sure. New T-shirts that said Rick Ferkel, The Ohio Traveler...Still Traveling. I saw a Dingus Lounge t-shirt, Knoxville Iowa. So cool. A guy from Australia was sitting close to us in the stands and it was cool listening him talk with his accent. This speedweek stuff, it's serious, it's a big event for sure.
Heat 1 was Helms and Philo finishing 1 and 2. Heat 2 saw DJ Foos get together with Caleb Griffith and get spun around like a spinning top on the front strait. Heat 2 finished Veal and Chaney. Heat 3 ended up Andrews and Kahne. Heat 4 Blaney and Wilson. Heat 5 was fun beacuse 3 of the top 5 cars were smoking badly. After battling with Bacon, McFadden broke. Price-Miller and Bryon Reed are the top two. Track is still tacky.
As I waited for the late models to finish their thing, I noticed the new light poles in the pits, and around the track itself. Alot of improvements here, the track is a first class facility. As I pondered how long the new lights had been there, the D-main was lining up. yeah, the D-main. Then the C-main and look who was in the c...Clausen, Shaffer, Kemenah, Ryan Smith, McFadden. Kemenah takes a provisional to start the A-main and Shaffer and Mcfadden were no shows to start the c main. Kenny jacobs, Foos, Darrah and Duncan get top four spots in B to transfer to the A. Ryan Smith takes a provisoonal to start the A-main. Dale Blaney finished 2nd in the dash to PPM. That does not bode well for the rest of the field, to have Blaney start up front!
The A-main was coming up and the show was being run quickly. I was shocked to see the track get watered but very happy about it. Hardly ever see that anymore. And I am glad they did a thorough watering because it proved to make the racing really good in the A. As the watering was being done, the track announcer was talking about how we get information about the races almost in real time these days. They mentioned the National Speed Sport Newspaper, and that reminded me of when I was a kid. I would wait by the mailbox every Thursday for the mailman to deliver it so I could find out who won the races the previous week! Man are we spoiled these days! Ha.
The feature was a good one. Gary Taylor had shined up his tires with oil or something to start the feature. It looked pretty cool, but you don't see many if any sprint car guys do that. Blaney gets the lead from PPM and then everyone elses chases. PPM passed Blaney back once but only briefly. Yellows worked in Blaney's favor while there were good battles behind between Kahne and Reed and Henry and Little Haud, who was up from 20th! Haud was sweeping around the outside in 1 and 2, bumping the cushion for traction and coming strong. After Kahne hit a tire in middle of turn 3, Blaney raced away after the ensuing green with Reed getting 2nd and Haud passing PPM on the last lap for third. Dale is so smooth right now. His car is hooked up and he doesn't look like he is driving it hard at all. Look out for Dale this week! He's got it going right now.
Thank you Attica and the All Stars for a great show, it was alot of fun. Hopefully I can get to a few more of these this week!
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