This message was edited on
October 17, 2007 at
09:16:14 PM by hook
Modified Wrap-up from October 5th & 6th and Look Ahead for Oct 12th & 13th...
Best News Came Yesterday!
Terry Davis:
A lot of folks in the Modified ranks know Terry Davis. Terry is from Muskogee, Oklahoma and gets hired a lot by promoters to help out at various racing events, especially big Modified shows. He's worked with USMTS in the past and at other shows like Rio Grande Speedway's December Modified Nationals (last time was 2004 I think) and the Xtreme Super Nationals at Oklahoma City in 2005. Several times a year he comes down to help promoter Gene Boyter at Ark-La-Tex Speedway with shows like the Modified Madness, the Spring Nationals and the Cajun Cruiser Classic.
This past weekend, Terry who is 49 and in good shape without any kind of medical history in this area that we were aware of, was working the Ark-La-Tex Championships in Vivian, Louisiana. On Saturday evening, without any kind of warning, he suffered sudden heart failure. Gene and Terry were over the turn four banking as the cars were were packing the track. They got in a golf cart type vehicle and were going to see how the packing was going when Terry suddenly slumped and passed out. He was sort of half-in, half out of the cart. There was no pulse and he wasn't breathing. Gene tried to revive him. When that didn't work he left him for a couple seconds and yelled toward the grandstand for help and called an ambulance. The track paramedics weren't schedule to be there for another 30 minutes which would be just before hot laps.
What's the value of CPR?
One of the concession workers, Angie Elliott knew CPR and arrived to help Gene. Another gentleman from the pits who we believe to be from the Natchitoches area also knew CPR and joined Angie in trying to resuscitate Terry. They never stopped working on Terry although, they never got a pulse and he still wasn't breathing. The ambulance was there in about ten minutes and the paramedics took over the CPR and did the other medical procedures that paramedics do in these situations. Me and my brother got to Terry about the time the paramedics arrived. At least a couple dozen racers and others came to the scene. Several drivers had stopped their car on the track and ran over to see if they could help.
As they loaded him into the ambulance, it still wasn't looking good and there were a lot of concerned faces all over the speedway but then, the track got a call that said they had a pulse and he was trying to breath on his own. That piece of good news spread around the track fast. They took him to North Caddo Hospital in Vivian first then transported Terry to LSU Medical Center in Shreveport where he spent the night in ICU in critical but stable condition. Meawhile, Terry's wife Cathy and other family members came to be by his side. Sunday, he was sedated and kept unconscious. Monday evening they began weening him off the sedatives but the doctors weren't giving high percentages for Terry's memory or brain functions due to the amount of time he was without a pulse and without breathing. Tuesday, there were reports that Terry was trying to respond at times although, he was still unconcious.
But Wednesday was a great day! Terry woke up. He knew people. He knew facts about people. His speech is slurred and he was weak but for his family, they couldn't be any happier than if he jumped out of the bed and started doing cart wheels! It seems like improvement was happening by the hour with Terry. I stopped by for a minute Wednesday afternoon to see him and not only did he recognize me but he remembered what I do for a living. Today (Thursday), more good news! Out of ICU and into a regular room. I'm going by for another visit in the morning and will keep you posted but it appears that Terry is well on his way to a full recovery. When I mentioned to Terry on Wednesday that I'd be back in a couple days to check on him, he said "he wouldn't be there!" It may take him a little longer than that to get out, but I don't imagine it'll take very long before he's back home in Oklahoma. In spite of all he's been through, Terry's still got that sense of humor. That in itself is an excellent sign for full recovery!
What's the value of CPR?
It appears like it saved Terry's life and just as importantly, may have saved his quality of life too. Let's chalk this one up to a lot of prayer and to folks who knew what to do when it mattered most! Obviously, it was a bad thing that Terry went through but fortunately, he wasn't alone or in an isolated setting when it happened and help was close by.
I don't know about y'all but I'm looking for a refresher course myself! Been a while...
OK, now that we have things in perspective, let's talk a little Modified racing...
October 5th and 6th:
At I-30 Speedway, after finishing third in Friday's qualifier and second in Saturday's dash, GRT's Mike Bowers won when it counted most as he took the $7000 Topless Nationals victory in Little Rock over a field of 80 cars. Friday's winner & 2005, 2006 TN winner Tim Crawley was 2nd with Kansan Justin Boney in third. Wendell Wallace and Chuck McGinty rounded out the top five. Great job by southwest Arkansas racer Rick Hearnsberger who pulled in with a sixth after winning a Saturday heat race. Louisiana's Kyle Pleasant also won a heat on Saturday and ended up 15th in the A. Other noteables: Jack Sullivan 8th, Jeff Taylor 10th, Johnny Bone, Jr. 18th and Columbus, Mississippi's Shay Knight 19th.
At Enid's USMTS races, Woodward, Oklahoma's Tommy Weder, Jr. who is having a strong year and was third in California a week earlier, scored his first USMTS win for $2000 on Friday night while Kelly Shryock returned to victory lane on Saturday night for the $3000 win. They had 45 cars each night. In spite of the win, Shryock's tenth on Friday and lack of passing points in the feature allowed second place USMTS Southern Series points man Randy Timms to close to 85 points of the lead with nine races to go. Timms had two top 5s in Enid. Two strong runner-ups with passing points by Jason Hughes moved him into third at -135. Hughes and Weder (-179) both passed Greg Skaggs (-183) in the Southern Series standings. Greg had a third on Friday but slipped to 13th on Saturday. Jeremy Payne was fourth on Friday while Minnesota's Tim Donlinger had a 6th and a 4th. Jon Tesch had a top five on Saturday and Eddie Martin had an 11th and an 8th. Phil Dixon of Crosby, TX was 16th Saturday night. USMTS visits Motorama in Beaumont on October 18th, 19th & 20th.
At the Ark-La-Tex Championship, Marshall, Texas racer Wes Armstrong drove his TRE Chassis to the $3000 win over a field of 60 Mods on Saturday night. Front row starter, 16-year old Timothy Culp had the fastest car there but didn't win the race. He was running away with it with his Shaw at half-way when a caution flew. John Williams in a GRT took advantage of a 16-year old's mistake on the restart and blew by Culp on the outside to take the lead. In his haste to pass Williams back, Culp spun himself out. Williams ended up cutting a tire down and loosing the lead as well. That gave the lead to Armstrong who had to hold off Chris Henigan and Michael Robertson in 2nd & 3rd to get the win. Tippy Bickham and Dustin "Tater" Hyde completed the top five. Richard Griffin pulled over from Texas for a sixth place run with Arkansas's Mark Smith getting 7th. Casey Jordan, John Whittington and Mike Washburn rounded out the top ten. 2004 winner Jon Mitchell was 11th ahead of Culp and Williams. Speak of Young Guns, 14-year old Gary Scott Christian of Oklahoma made this field out of the 60-car entry list and finished 21st.
George White drove his Larson to the $2000 win over a 37-car Topless 100 field at Cowtown Speedway. Troy Taylor, Triston Dycus, Jared Webb and Bobby Ruffin were the rest of the top five.
How about 2 former SUPR Late Model champions and a third former Late Model racer all in the top five of a $4000 to win UMP Modified race! That's what happened at Simpson Co. Motorsports Park in D'Lo, Mississippi last Saturday night. Rodney Wing -- a former SUPR Champion took the win with one of the Cliburns (not sure which one but they've all run Late Models at one time or another) was 2nd with Greg Hollingsworth, former SUPR champ David Ashley and Mark Herbert 3rd through 5th. Fedex pilot Ron Grandel was sixth. 23 or 24 cars was all that entered this one. The week before at Columbus (different tire, two hours away), there were 56 cars for a two-day, $2007 to win show with Tennessee's TJ Hernodon winning that one. I guess a lot of those guys could have been there just to watch Shane Clanton go 4-wide in beating a field of 79 Late Models for $25,007!!!
Tobby Hubbard won the $2000, one-day, Boyd Grand Nationals IMCA show with Josh McGaha and Tim Clonch in 2nd & 3rd. Stanley Reed topped the 2-day, State Fair Speedway Winter Nationals show in Oklahoma City.
It'll be interesting to see where all these guys race in the weeks ahead. Lots of good shows left starting with tonight!
Preview of October 12th & 13th:
Actually, Thursday night was the first of 3 $5000 to win UMP shows in 3 nights at the beautiful Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in western Kentucky. Possible $15,000 to win over 3 days just nine hours from Shreveport!
Closer to home though is a 2-day, $5000 to win Texas DIRT Shootout in Winona at David Hill's Texas DIRT Motorplex. Qualifying heats and feature tonight, finals on Saturday night.
Over in Ardmore, Oklahoma, Ronny Gould is putting on the Jordan Paige Winter Nationals at Lake Country Speedway. With a $500 to win dash tonight and a $3000 to win A main on Saturday, it's a possible $3500 to win weekend.
Just 4 or 5 hours north of Shreveport is Central Arkansas Speedway's Show-Me-What-You-Got Topless Modified 30. Long name but that's OK, good purse! $3000 to win, $400 to start, two-day show, tonight and tomorrow night.
The Devil's Bowl Winter Nationals is also this weekend with a weekly USA Modified purse on Friday night (tonight) followed by $1000 to win Mod purse on Saturday night.
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