The REAL Racing This Weekend.....
#1
02-10-2008, 08:44 PM
The REAL Racing This Weekend.....
Since i couldnt make it to Ocala on time friday night (SORRY PHIL!!) me and some friends decided to go to Eastbay Raceway for the D.I.R.T. Latemodel Winter Nationals, been about 4 years since ive been to the dirt......im glad i went...... and since im too lazy to type ill just post it off their site......for the rest of my weekend in racing at New Smyrna Speedway read on past the dirt highlights.......
FRIDAY NIGHT:
TAMPA, FL (February 8, 2008)-For the first time in the last eleven Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at East Bay Raceway Park there was a repeat winner as Batesville, AR’s Billy Moyer led all 50 laps grabbing his second DART Machinery Winternationals victory of the week. By no means was Moyer’s 17th career win at the East Bay Raceway Park an easy one, as Brady Smith finished second, by just one car length. Eric Jacobsen finished third followed by Donnie Moran and John Blankenship. Moyer drew the number two starting position among the six heat race winners and with the largest field of cars (88) on hand all week long; the 25 feature starters definitely had to earn their way into the main event. Matt Miller started on the pole alongside Moyer as the 50 lap journey began when chief starter Julian Mullis waved the green flag to start the event that was witnessed by the largest crowd of the week. Moyer took the lead in turn number one with Miller moving to second followed by Brady Smith, Josh Richards and Bart Hartman. Richards would pull even with Miller as the two drivers battled around the 1/3rd mile oval. Miller would fight to regain the second slot by the third lap. With Moyer stretching his lead out, it was a torrid battle for positions among the rest of the top ten cars. Chuck Harper started to gain ground on the frontrunners as he was using the top groove on the track and was hounding Hartman for fifth. Harper cleared Hartman on lap nine to take the fifth position just as the top cars were entering some heavy traffic. Miller was starting to gain on Moyer when he suddenly slowed in turn number four to bring out the first caution of the race. With Miller now out of the race, the Delaware double file restart would see Moyer out in front by himself with Richards and Smith paired up behind him. When the race went green again Moyer would have to fight off the aggressive Smith who would now pick up the challenge for the lead when Miller went pit side. With 15 laps in the record books there would be two straight caution flags to come out, one for Scott James and the other for fellow Hoosier State driver, Don O’Neal both of whom stopped on the track. The race would then see a stretch of seven caution free circuits, with Moyer and Smith opening up a straightaway margin over the rest of the field. Moyer and Smith were in control of the top two spots; Richards was still in third with Steve Francis and Terry Casey gaining strides in the race. At the halfway mark of the race Francis would gain a spot passing Richards for third and started to make up even more time than he had on Moyer and Smith. With 30 laps scored Eric Jacobson started to become a player and was on the prowl as he and Donnie Moran were blazing through the pack and stalking down the leaders. Jacobson had climbed all the way at this point with Moran, who at one time in the early stages of the race had fallen from his 12th starting spot to around 20th place. Jacobson and Moran were chasing down the wake of Moyer and Smith as the two leaders were again involved in heavy traffic with only 15 circuits remaining. Smith would see an opportunity that he had been waiting on for the last several laps as Moyer was being held up by some lapped cars, he tried to go around on the inside coming out of turn one, but Moyer shut the door on him time and time again. Just as Smith was about to reel in Moyer, who was battling traffic as the yellow would wave for the stalled car of Dan Schlieper on lap 39. That would set up the final 11 lap shootout to determine the race winner. On the restart Moyer and Smith would fire off of turn four to begin the final laps of the race, but what looked like to be another Moyer runaway in the waning laps did not turn out that way as Smith would make it tough on the veteran driver. Moyer and Smith would both close in on traffic before the end of the race and Smith was going to take one last stab at Moyer on the final lap. Smith did just that and as the two headed into turn three Moyer would take a new line on the track, which opened the door for Smith to try the inside route coming off of turn number four. As they raced to the checkered flag, Smith would get to the left rear of Moyer’s quarter panel but he could not muster enough traction to pass him at the line falling one car length short of the winner’s circle. Jacobson’s third place was his best ever in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competition with Moran right on his bumper at the finish and Blankenship recording a strong finish after starting in 20th coming home in fifth. For the second time this week Moyer took his Moyer Victory Circle Chassis to victory lane at East Bay Raceway Park and he addressed the huge crowd afterwards. “That was a good race there, we made a few adjustments after the heat and starting on the outside front row was a big advantage, but my car really did well all over the track, we kind of searched there a little bit to see what groove to run and it actually got faster there towards the end,” said the 50-year-ol National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer. “That yellow there while I was in traffic was a huge help, I didn’t know how much left rear tire I had left and that cleared the way up and we ran back into more traffic with a few laps to go and I thought Brady might get by me there for a moment, I want to thank the guys at Victory Circle they’ve really worked hard on these cars and I’ve taken a lot of my own ideas in building these and I very happy to get a second win here this week.” Moyer’s number 21 is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Banner Valley Hauling, BSB Manufacturing, J&J Steel, Karl Chevrolet, Watters Auto Land, Redline Oil, Performance Rod and Custom, Universal Concrete and Minx Show Palace. Smith in his first appearance of the week at East Bay Raceway Park earned the runner-up slot in his AMSOIL/Vic Hill Engines/Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS with Jacobson in his VP Racing Fuels/Pro Power Engines/Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS, Moran in his Custom Cutters/Vic Hill Engines/MasterSbilt Monte Carlo SS and Blankenship in the Don Blankenship/Busch Beer/Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS completing the top five. The remainder of the top ten in the finishing order were 19th starting Mike Marlar, Steve Francis, 22nd starting Ray Cook, Terry Casey and Tim McCreadie.
FRIDAY NIGHT:
TAMPA, FL (February 8, 2008)-For the first time in the last eleven Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at East Bay Raceway Park there was a repeat winner as Batesville, AR’s Billy Moyer led all 50 laps grabbing his second DART Machinery Winternationals victory of the week. By no means was Moyer’s 17th career win at the East Bay Raceway Park an easy one, as Brady Smith finished second, by just one car length. Eric Jacobsen finished third followed by Donnie Moran and John Blankenship. Moyer drew the number two starting position among the six heat race winners and with the largest field of cars (88) on hand all week long; the 25 feature starters definitely had to earn their way into the main event. Matt Miller started on the pole alongside Moyer as the 50 lap journey began when chief starter Julian Mullis waved the green flag to start the event that was witnessed by the largest crowd of the week. Moyer took the lead in turn number one with Miller moving to second followed by Brady Smith, Josh Richards and Bart Hartman. Richards would pull even with Miller as the two drivers battled around the 1/3rd mile oval. Miller would fight to regain the second slot by the third lap. With Moyer stretching his lead out, it was a torrid battle for positions among the rest of the top ten cars. Chuck Harper started to gain ground on the frontrunners as he was using the top groove on the track and was hounding Hartman for fifth. Harper cleared Hartman on lap nine to take the fifth position just as the top cars were entering some heavy traffic. Miller was starting to gain on Moyer when he suddenly slowed in turn number four to bring out the first caution of the race. With Miller now out of the race, the Delaware double file restart would see Moyer out in front by himself with Richards and Smith paired up behind him. When the race went green again Moyer would have to fight off the aggressive Smith who would now pick up the challenge for the lead when Miller went pit side. With 15 laps in the record books there would be two straight caution flags to come out, one for Scott James and the other for fellow Hoosier State driver, Don O’Neal both of whom stopped on the track. The race would then see a stretch of seven caution free circuits, with Moyer and Smith opening up a straightaway margin over the rest of the field. Moyer and Smith were in control of the top two spots; Richards was still in third with Steve Francis and Terry Casey gaining strides in the race. At the halfway mark of the race Francis would gain a spot passing Richards for third and started to make up even more time than he had on Moyer and Smith. With 30 laps scored Eric Jacobson started to become a player and was on the prowl as he and Donnie Moran were blazing through the pack and stalking down the leaders. Jacobson had climbed all the way at this point with Moran, who at one time in the early stages of the race had fallen from his 12th starting spot to around 20th place. Jacobson and Moran were chasing down the wake of Moyer and Smith as the two leaders were again involved in heavy traffic with only 15 circuits remaining. Smith would see an opportunity that he had been waiting on for the last several laps as Moyer was being held up by some lapped cars, he tried to go around on the inside coming out of turn one, but Moyer shut the door on him time and time again. Just as Smith was about to reel in Moyer, who was battling traffic as the yellow would wave for the stalled car of Dan Schlieper on lap 39. That would set up the final 11 lap shootout to determine the race winner. On the restart Moyer and Smith would fire off of turn four to begin the final laps of the race, but what looked like to be another Moyer runaway in the waning laps did not turn out that way as Smith would make it tough on the veteran driver. Moyer and Smith would both close in on traffic before the end of the race and Smith was going to take one last stab at Moyer on the final lap. Smith did just that and as the two headed into turn three Moyer would take a new line on the track, which opened the door for Smith to try the inside route coming off of turn number four. As they raced to the checkered flag, Smith would get to the left rear of Moyer’s quarter panel but he could not muster enough traction to pass him at the line falling one car length short of the winner’s circle. Jacobson’s third place was his best ever in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competition with Moran right on his bumper at the finish and Blankenship recording a strong finish after starting in 20th coming home in fifth. For the second time this week Moyer took his Moyer Victory Circle Chassis to victory lane at East Bay Raceway Park and he addressed the huge crowd afterwards. “That was a good race there, we made a few adjustments after the heat and starting on the outside front row was a big advantage, but my car really did well all over the track, we kind of searched there a little bit to see what groove to run and it actually got faster there towards the end,” said the 50-year-ol National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer. “That yellow there while I was in traffic was a huge help, I didn’t know how much left rear tire I had left and that cleared the way up and we ran back into more traffic with a few laps to go and I thought Brady might get by me there for a moment, I want to thank the guys at Victory Circle they’ve really worked hard on these cars and I’ve taken a lot of my own ideas in building these and I very happy to get a second win here this week.” Moyer’s number 21 is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Banner Valley Hauling, BSB Manufacturing, J&J Steel, Karl Chevrolet, Watters Auto Land, Redline Oil, Performance Rod and Custom, Universal Concrete and Minx Show Palace. Smith in his first appearance of the week at East Bay Raceway Park earned the runner-up slot in his AMSOIL/Vic Hill Engines/Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS with Jacobson in his VP Racing Fuels/Pro Power Engines/Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS, Moran in his Custom Cutters/Vic Hill Engines/MasterSbilt Monte Carlo SS and Blankenship in the Don Blankenship/Busch Beer/Bloomquist Race Cars Monte Carlo SS completing the top five. The remainder of the top ten in the finishing order were 19th starting Mike Marlar, Steve Francis, 22nd starting Ray Cook, Terry Casey and Tim McCreadie.
#2
02-10-2008, 08:45 PM
Mean While at New Smyrna..........
FRIDAY NIGHT:
While me and my buddies were at Eastbay friday night, our car owner/driver B.J. McLeod was racing at New Smyrna Speedway on the other side of the state, B.J. was doing great but got spun out cause of someone elses careless driving (the other driver apologized later) but did come back to finish fourth in the race.....
SATURDAY AFTERNOON:
me and my same buddies get to New Smyrna at about 1pm, there is SUPPOSED to be wristbands waiting on us their, B.J. forgets to pay for them cause he was busy that morning so we wait 2 hours for him cause he is on the track practicing, he finally comes to the gate and buys us our wrist bands....
the car is good, not great, but good in practice, we pull the scuff tires off from practice and take a light skin off them with the heat gun and scraper then wrap them in our new tire heaters to get them good and warm for qualifying, we do a few things with the car, whipe it down throw the old tires on it and take it to pit road, we swap the tires for our practice scuffs and he rolls out for qualifying, comes in to hard and overdrives #1 on the first lap, well there went that chance, on the second lap he qualifies 6th place, setting us on the outside of row 3 for the start, about 20 minutes later we find out they drawed a 10 invert, which means the top 10 qualifying positions are invertered, so this is great we are starting 5th, same row but on the inside, gives us a better run coming into the first turn......
SATURDAY NIGHT
The weather is good, nice and cool, just perfect for racing, we start the race and take 4th by the tenth lap or so, well they begin coming up on lap cars by about the fifteenth lap, well B.J. manages to take 3rd cause of a driver error on 2nd place's part, well B.J. is fighting traffic along with fighting the 4th place car, WELL.......about lap 20 the 4th place car comes up the race track in between 3 and 4 and tags B.J. and spins him out causing him to nose into the wall and demolish all of the front sheetmetal.....the car leaves the track hooked to two wrecker trucks.........
LATE SATURDAY NIGHT
We think the car is hurt badly, we got a twisted motor mount, busted radiator, bent spindle, ALL of the sheetmetal forward of the firewall is destroyed, and a few other odds and ends.......at 10pm B.J and another teammate head for Wachula where B.J. lives, which is 3 hours away to get the back up car cause they didnt bring it with them......meanwhile we are tearing the motor out of the wrecked car so when they get back in 7 hours we can drop the motor into the backup car......we get the motor tore on the ground at 12am, it took about 1 1/2 hours to pull the motor, we load the damaged car onto the hauler and hang out about 2 hour then hit the bed.......
EARLY SUNDAY MORNING
Its 5:30am and B.J. and Joey are back at the track with the backup car, one of the other guys on our team helps them start putting the motor in the backup car while we are sleeping......after about 45 minutes.....GUESS WHAT!!!!! the damn motor wont fit in the car, of the 4 cars they own, 3 are convertible from ford to chevy engines, this weekend we are running a ford engine, and guess which car they happen to bring.......SOOOOOO!!!!!! they start pulling the motor out of the backup car and about this time me and a couple of the other guys wake up, so we roll the good car out of the way, yank the wrecked car out of the stacker and roll the good one in.......then the thrashing commences.....
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Nothing fits right....., we checked the car for straightness and luckily it is only bent 1/8 of an inch to the right side in front of the suspension so no big deal, but none of the lines want to go back on, none of the bolts want to line up, its just a generally bad time, but we get mostly all the parts and tools we need, even though half of them are barrowed......we get the engine in and ready to go, we get the new spindle on.......and now we got a clearance issue with the dust shield/air director, so we got to take it off and modify it with tin snips, we get that fixed, get the car setting o nthe ground ready for sheet metal and the suspension dosent look right, the car is setting way wrong, so at this point its 20 minutes til qualifying, we have missed both practice sessions and the sheetmetal isnt even done.......so we say screw it, were not racing tonite..................just just kind of hang around and clean up the pit and fiddle with the car checking ride heights and stuff and me and my 2 buddies head for Lakeland at 6:15.......tomorrow they got a day off and are getting it eady for the rest of the week, we got a 200 lap race next weekend so i will be jackman for the pit crew.......
At the end of the weekend i smell like a yeti......i am filthy, nasty, greasy and covered in sweat, and i havent brushed my teeth for two days and i have had about 5 hours of sleep.......what a weekend.....................i cant wait to do it all over again.........
FRIDAY NIGHT:
While me and my buddies were at Eastbay friday night, our car owner/driver B.J. McLeod was racing at New Smyrna Speedway on the other side of the state, B.J. was doing great but got spun out cause of someone elses careless driving (the other driver apologized later) but did come back to finish fourth in the race.....
SATURDAY AFTERNOON:
me and my same buddies get to New Smyrna at about 1pm, there is SUPPOSED to be wristbands waiting on us their, B.J. forgets to pay for them cause he was busy that morning so we wait 2 hours for him cause he is on the track practicing, he finally comes to the gate and buys us our wrist bands....
the car is good, not great, but good in practice, we pull the scuff tires off from practice and take a light skin off them with the heat gun and scraper then wrap them in our new tire heaters to get them good and warm for qualifying, we do a few things with the car, whipe it down throw the old tires on it and take it to pit road, we swap the tires for our practice scuffs and he rolls out for qualifying, comes in to hard and overdrives #1 on the first lap, well there went that chance, on the second lap he qualifies 6th place, setting us on the outside of row 3 for the start, about 20 minutes later we find out they drawed a 10 invert, which means the top 10 qualifying positions are invertered, so this is great we are starting 5th, same row but on the inside, gives us a better run coming into the first turn......
SATURDAY NIGHT
The weather is good, nice and cool, just perfect for racing, we start the race and take 4th by the tenth lap or so, well they begin coming up on lap cars by about the fifteenth lap, well B.J. manages to take 3rd cause of a driver error on 2nd place's part, well B.J. is fighting traffic along with fighting the 4th place car, WELL.......about lap 20 the 4th place car comes up the race track in between 3 and 4 and tags B.J. and spins him out causing him to nose into the wall and demolish all of the front sheetmetal.....the car leaves the track hooked to two wrecker trucks.........
LATE SATURDAY NIGHT
We think the car is hurt badly, we got a twisted motor mount, busted radiator, bent spindle, ALL of the sheetmetal forward of the firewall is destroyed, and a few other odds and ends.......at 10pm B.J and another teammate head for Wachula where B.J. lives, which is 3 hours away to get the back up car cause they didnt bring it with them......meanwhile we are tearing the motor out of the wrecked car so when they get back in 7 hours we can drop the motor into the backup car......we get the motor tore on the ground at 12am, it took about 1 1/2 hours to pull the motor, we load the damaged car onto the hauler and hang out about 2 hour then hit the bed.......
EARLY SUNDAY MORNING
Its 5:30am and B.J. and Joey are back at the track with the backup car, one of the other guys on our team helps them start putting the motor in the backup car while we are sleeping......after about 45 minutes.....GUESS WHAT!!!!! the damn motor wont fit in the car, of the 4 cars they own, 3 are convertible from ford to chevy engines, this weekend we are running a ford engine, and guess which car they happen to bring.......SOOOOOO!!!!!! they start pulling the motor out of the backup car and about this time me and a couple of the other guys wake up, so we roll the good car out of the way, yank the wrecked car out of the stacker and roll the good one in.......then the thrashing commences.....
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Nothing fits right....., we checked the car for straightness and luckily it is only bent 1/8 of an inch to the right side in front of the suspension so no big deal, but none of the lines want to go back on, none of the bolts want to line up, its just a generally bad time, but we get mostly all the parts and tools we need, even though half of them are barrowed......we get the engine in and ready to go, we get the new spindle on.......and now we got a clearance issue with the dust shield/air director, so we got to take it off and modify it with tin snips, we get that fixed, get the car setting o nthe ground ready for sheet metal and the suspension dosent look right, the car is setting way wrong, so at this point its 20 minutes til qualifying, we have missed both practice sessions and the sheetmetal isnt even done.......so we say screw it, were not racing tonite..................just just kind of hang around and clean up the pit and fiddle with the car checking ride heights and stuff and me and my 2 buddies head for Lakeland at 6:15.......tomorrow they got a day off and are getting it eady for the rest of the week, we got a 200 lap race next weekend so i will be jackman for the pit crew.......
At the end of the weekend i smell like a yeti......i am filthy, nasty, greasy and covered in sweat, and i havent brushed my teeth for two days and i have had about 5 hours of sleep.......what a weekend.....................i cant wait to do it all over again.........
#4
02-10-2008, 09:07 PM
PHOTOS
some photos from New Smyrna:
our car is the black #78 on the right side of the screen with orange numbers and green flames.....http://www.newsmyrnaspeedway.org/html/photos.shtml
B.J. "Buckethead" McLeod our fearless leader on the right, and Jeff "Mr. Clean" Scofield on the left.....we call him buckethead cause he about needs a 5 gallon bucket with 2 holes punched in it for a helmet cause his head is so big........
The guy in the blue shirt with his back to the camera with the headset on is our spotter/crewchief Ace and the kid in the white shirt is Steven, B.J.'s right hand man....
our teams website......needs updated.....
http://www.bjmcleod.com/
more pictures of the car.......
http://www.floridastockcarfans.com/g...um16/BJMCLEOD/
well i imagine about like i did before i got a shower, after being in the heat, dust, dirt, grease, oil and brake fluid for almost 2 days straight you begin to smell funny.....
and for all you canadians, we had 3 teams down to race with us from the great white north and several fans.....we even played the canadian national anthem for ya'll.......
our car is the black #78 on the right side of the screen with orange numbers and green flames.....http://www.newsmyrnaspeedway.org/html/photos.shtml
B.J. "Buckethead" McLeod our fearless leader on the right, and Jeff "Mr. Clean" Scofield on the left.....we call him buckethead cause he about needs a 5 gallon bucket with 2 holes punched in it for a helmet cause his head is so big........
The guy in the blue shirt with his back to the camera with the headset on is our spotter/crewchief Ace and the kid in the white shirt is Steven, B.J.'s right hand man....
our teams website......needs updated.....
http://www.bjmcleod.com/
more pictures of the car.......
http://www.floridastockcarfans.com/g...um16/BJMCLEOD/
well i imagine about like i did before i got a shower, after being in the heat, dust, dirt, grease, oil and brake fluid for almost 2 days straight you begin to smell funny.....
and for all you canadians, we had 3 teams down to race with us from the great white north and several fans.....we even played the canadian national anthem for ya'll.......
Last edited by LOGANSTANFORTH; 02-10-2008 at 09:09 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
#7
02-10-2008, 09:16 PM
it wasnt my fault Adam ran me so dang late we woulda missed over an hour of it.......so we went to Eastbay to watch the dirt late models......it really made me miss the old days.......
#9
02-10-2008, 10:36 PM
#10
02-10-2008, 10:40 PM
IT'S A GIRL!
Racing is so awesome!
This is the track where all my friends race:
http://www.graysharborraceway.net/
This is the track where all my friends race:
http://www.graysharborraceway.net/
