Tim McCreadie Comes Up “Huge” In Brett Hearn’s Big Show 9

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW (Race Report By: CLAYTON JOHNS / DIRTCAR) – MALTA, NY – Tim McCreadie’s been trying to win Brett Hearn’s Big Show for quite some time because he wanted to take some of Brett’s money home. Well, on Tuesday night, he did just that with a convincing win in front of a standing room only crowd at the Albany-Sartaoga Speedway.

T-Mac, who currently sits second in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points, took advantage of a caution at lap 68 and proceeded to motor past the likes of Matt Sheppard, Larry Wight and Stewart Friesen on his way to the front. Once in the lead, he led the rest of the way to take home the $10,000 first place prize.

“I have to thank Vic (Coffey) as this car wasn’t picked up until about a week ago,” McCreadie said. “I got home on Sunday and he was putting the motor in with his son and the guys at work. He came up with the idea and said let’s run some Modified races. We’ll get you a car from Bicknell’s and, hell I didn’t do anything. He picked the shocks, he picked most of the setup, so I did what I love to do most which is drive this thing.”

Tuesday evening’s victory at the Malta, NY speedplant was the first Super DIRTcar Series victory since Charlotte in 2011. Even though he doesn’t get back to his roots much these days (running the Modifieds on a regular basis), he doesn’t take any of his competitors for granted.

“I wouldn’t say this is coming back to my roots,” he said. “These guys are good enough to run Late Models. This series is full of such great racing that purses deserve to be $10,000-to-win like they are tonight. Hopefully they will start to trend that way.”

The move of the race was the restart on lap 74. That was when McCreadie made his charge, moving past three of the top drivers on the Super DIRTcar Series.

“I was a little free to run the bottom and we kind of fought free all night,” McCreadie said. “I just got lucky. Those guys were hunting the bottom and hunting the bottom and I’d been up top banging the cushion for like 70 laps and I thought the only shot I have was to go in above it into (turn) one and it just happened to stick. It could have easily gone the other way too.”

It wasn’t smooth sailing from that point to the finish, however, as the defending champion of the event, Stewart Friesen, was hunting down the Sweetners Plus #39. Friesen inched closer and closer to McCreadie as the laps began to wind down, but couldn’t work his way past.

“I saw him poke his nose once or twice, but it was real dusty once you caught lap traffic,” McCreadie said. “It wasn’t that I couldn’t maneuver enough, but I couldn’t really see through the center of the corner to put my right rear on the cushion, so it slowed my entry down and slowed the whole corner down.”

Lap traffic almost helped to decide the fate of the race.

“When (Keith) Flach moved back up to the top I thought we were going to be a sitting duck up on the top,” he said. “But what can you do? You can’t get off the top but if he (Stewart) had beat me I would have shook his hand and told him good job.”

Second-place finisher Stewart Friesen looked like he had things in hand until the last caution of the night. The former winner of the Big Show was surprised at how McCreadie used the outside line.

“Second to a guy like that is okay,” he said. “There’s not too many guys who can run a curb like that and put it where it needs to be. It cleared up for him and he did what he had to do and we’ll take a good second.”

The bright spot of the night for Friesen was learning some tips on their set up which helped with extended green flag runs.

“Our Halmar car was really good on the long run which was cool,” he said. It’s something we haven’t really had all year. It was really good for us and I’m proud of everybody.”

For third place finisher Matt Sheppard, starting 11th didn’t hurt him. Track conditions and traffic made things pretty hairy.

“We had a really good car in the middle of the race,” Sheppard said. “Really didn’t need that lap 68 caution as we were rolling by Larry Wight for second. I don’t think anyone wanted to be third on that next restart. Timmy (McCreadie) was third on the restart before that and that’s how I got by him and then I got stuck down there. We just lost some ground, and got rolling good again there at the end but it was too little too late.”

Late in the going, however, it was traffic that hindered Sheppard’s drive to the top.

“Truly, the only thing I wanted was probably 30 more laps,” Sheppard said with a laugh. “The traffic was getting tough. It would have been interesting if we had gotten through it there but Timmy was really good tonight. Stewie was really good and there were a lot of really fast cars. We had to start farther back after not making the redraw. Our car was good and I thought we might have had a shot, but it all went away with that one caution.”

Race Report By Clayton Johns…
Larry Wight started on the front row with Max McLaughlin for the 100-lap Feature. Wight drove his No.99L to the point position at the drop of the green flag while Stewart Friesen raced into second from the third starting spot.

McCreadie was quickly on the move from his sixth starting spot and used the same outside lane to take second from Friesen at lap 17. Twenty laps in, Wight found his way into heavy lapped traffic as the race stayed green. At lap 22, Friesen took second back from McCreadie while Wight was able to race freely through the traffic.

Friesen caught the leader on lap 42 and passed Wight to take over the lead on lap 46. Friesen held the point just as the first caution of the race waved at lap 50 when Rich Scagliotta got turned around in turn two.

When the race restarted on lap 59, Friesen held off Wight’s charge while Sheppard took third from McCreadie. The top-five maintained their spots, with Hearn in fifth, until the second and final caution at lap 68.

The final restart with 74 laps complete produced all the action at Wight retook the lead from Friesen in the outside lane while McCreadie made his move from fourth to second before taking the lead three laps later.

Before Wight could worry about getting too much heat in the right-rear tire, McCreadie used the outside lane to drive to the lead.

With eight laps to go, Wight jumped the cushion while running second and fell to fourth as both Friesen and Sheppard raced past him. Friesen caught McCreadie over the final five laps, but couldn’t get close enough to regain the top spot for the win.

Sheppard held on for a third-place finish, his third straight top-five finish and fifth consecutive top-five result to start the season.

Wight was happy to earn a top-five finish, but naturally would have preferred to hold on for the win. Mostly, Wight was surprised McCreadie was able to use the outside lane to take the win.

“I never thought anyone could get the top to work with it that far out and as nasty as the cushion was, but he must have been free enough where he could lean on it,” Wight said. “It seemed to be that if I went up there it would pull the nose and the car was a handful up there.”

Erick Rudolph was the 811 Dig Safely New York redraw bonus eligible driver as the eighth starter. He raced to a sixth-place finish in the Feature event. Pat Ward, who raced to an 11th-place finish, was the Pole Position Raceway Fast Qualifier. Series driver Peter Britten received the Speedy First Aid Hard Luck award after he was the first car out of the race at his home track.

The Super DIRTcar Series returns to action at Utica-Rome Speedway on July 2 for the New Yorker 100. For additional event information, visit www.uticaromespeedway.com.

Super DIRTcar Series Statistical Report; Brett Hearn’s Big Show 9 at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, NY

Feature (100 Laps) – 1. 39-Tim McCreadie [6]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen [3]; 3. 9s-Matt Sheppard [12]; 4. 99L-Larry Wight [1]; 5. 20-Brett Hearn [10]; 6. 91-Billy Decker [4]; 7. 14j-Alan Johnson [15]; 8. 19-Tim Fuller [9]; 9. 6h-Max McLaughlin [2]; 10. 25-Erick Rudolph [8]; 11. 42p-Pat Ward [5]; 12. 98h-Jimmy Phelps [13]; 13. 22-Brandon Walters [28]; 14. 93-Danny Varin [23]; 15. 46-Jeremy Smith [16]; 16. 3j-Marc Johnson [22]; 17. 18b-Bodie Bellinger [14]; 18. 43-Keith Flach [18]; 19. 115-Kenny Tremont Jr. [25]; 20. 88m-Mike Mahaney [26]; 21. 109-Billy Whittaker [27]; 22. 8-Rich Scagliotta [29]; 23. 19m-Jessey Mueller [24]; 24. 3g-Brian Gleason [17]; 25. 1rj-Ronnie Johnson [7]; 26. 22j-Jeremy Wilder [21]; 27. 7m-Michael Maresca [30]; 28. 49-Billy Dunn [11]; 29. 35-LJ Lombardo [19]; 30. 97b-Peter Britten [20].

Qualifying Group 1 – 1. 44-Stewart Friesen, 15.670; 2. 19-Tim Fuller, 15.791; 3. 49-Billy Dunn, 15.929; 4. 14-CG Morey, 16.099; 5. 46-Jeremy Smith, 16.147; 6. 115-Kenny Tremont Jr., 16.296; 7. 97-Robert Hackel IV, 16.416; 8. 25-Chad Jeseo, 16.495; 9. 88a-Andy Bachetti, 16.798.

Qualifying Group 2 – 1. 20-Brett Hearn, 15.688; 2. 76-Bobby Varin, 15.865; 3. 99L-Larry Wight, 15.887; 4. 3j-Marc Johnson, 15.888; 5. 9s-Matt Sheppard, 15.908; 6. 19m-Jessey Mueller, 15.959; 7. 3g-Brian Gleason, 16.189; 8. 22-Brandon Walters, 16.338; 9. 816-Kenny Martin Jr., 17.038.

Qualifying Group 3 – 1. 42p-Pat Ward, 15.627; 2. 6h-Max McLaughlin, 15.746; 3. 43-Keith Flach, 16.031; 4. 22j-Jeremy Wilder, 16.090; 5. 6-Josh Hohenforst, 16.125; 6. 109-Billy Whittaker, 16.171; 7. 98h-Jimmy Phelps, 16.215; 8. 96-JF Corriveau, 16.341; 9. 34-Shawn Pangman, 16.429.

Qualifying Group 4 – 1. 91-Billy Decker, 15.805; 2. 1rj-Ronnie Johnson, 15.805; 3. 88m-Mike Mahaney, 16.005; 4. 18b-Bodie Bellinger, 16.022; 5. 3d-Matt Delorenzo, 16.207; 6. 35-LJ Lambardo, 16.314; 7. 21y-Yan Bussiere, 16.561; 8. 2L-Jack Lehner, 16.734; 9. 30-Floyd Billington, 15.870.

Qualifying Group 5 – 1. 39-Tim McCreadie, 15.751; 2. 25r-Erick Rudolph, 16.034; 3. 97b-Peter Britten, 16.168; 4. 93-Danny Varin, 16.214; 5. 14j-Alan Johnson, 16.292; 6. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 16.331; 7. 7m-Michael Maresca, 16.335; 8. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 16.668; 9. X-Edward Kitchell, 25.667.

Heat 1 (8 Laps – Top-4 Qualify – Top-2 Redraw) – 1. 44-Stewart Friesen [1]; 2. 19-Tim Fuller [2]; 3. 49-Billy Dunn [3]; 4. 46-Jeremy Smith [5]; 5. 14-CG Morey [4]; 6. 25-Chad Jeseo [8]; 7. 97-Robert Hackel IV [7]; 8. 88a-Andy Bachetti [9]; 9. 115-Kenny Tremont Jr. [6].

Heat 2 (8 Laps – Top-4 Qualify – Top-4 Redraw) – 1. 20-Brett Hearn [1]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight [3]; 3. 9s-Matt Sheppard [5]; 4. 3g-Brian Gleason [7]; 5. 3j-Marc Johnson [4]; 6. 76-Bobby Varin [2]; 7. 19m-Jessey Mueller [6]; 8. 22-Brandon Walters [8]; 9. 816-Kenny Martin Jr. [9].

Heat 3 (8 Laps – Top-4 Qualify – Top-4 Redraw) – 1. 42p-Pat Ward [1]; 2. 6h-Max McLaughlin [2]; 3. 98h-Jimmy Phelps [7]; 4. 43-Keith Flach [3]; 5. 22j-Jeremy Wilder [4]; 6. 109-Billy Whittaker [6]; 7. 6-Josh Hohenforst [5]; 8. 34-Shawn Pangman [9]; 9. 96-JF Corriveau [8].

Heat 4 (8 Laps – Top-4 Qualify – Top-4 Redraw) – 1. 91-Billy Decker [1]; 2. 1rj-Ronnie Johnson [2]; 3. 18b-Bodie Bellinger [4]; 4. 35-LJ Lambardo [6]; 5. 88m-Mike Mahaney [3]; 6. 3d-Matt Delorenzo [5]; 7. 2L-Jack Lehner [8]; 8. 21y-Yan Bussiere [7]; 9. 30-Floyd Billington [9].

Heat 5 (8 Laps – Top-4 Qualify – Top-4 Redraw) – 1. 39-Tim McCreadie [1]; 2. 25r-Erick Rudolph [2]; 3. 14j-Alan Johnson [5]; 4. 97b-Peter Britten [3]; 5. 93-Danny Varin [4]; 6. 8-Rich Scagliotta [6]; 7. 7m-Michael Maresca [7]; 8. 111-Demetrios Drellos [8]; 9. X-Edward Kitchell [9].

Last Chance Qualifier 1 (10 Laps – Top-3 Transfer to A-Feature) – 1. 22J-Jeremy Wilder [2]; 2. 93-Danny Varin [3]; 3. 115-Kenny Tremont Jr. [10]; 4. 76-Bobby Varin [4]; 5. 7m-Michael Maresca [7]; 6. 14-CG Morey [1]; 7. 22-Brandon Walters [8]; 8. 97-Robert Kackel IV [6]; 9. 3d-Matt Delorenzo [5]; 10. 96-JF Corriveau [11]; 11. 21y-Yan Bussiere [9]; 12. 6-Josh Hohenforst [DNS]; 13. X-Edward Kitchell [DNS].

Last Chance Qualifier 2 (10 Laps – Top-3 Transfer to A-Feature) – 1. 3j-Marc Johnson [1]; 2. 19m-Jessey Mueller [6]; 3. 88m-Mike Mahaney [2]; 4. 109-Billy Whittaker [4]; 5. 8-Rich Scagliotta [5]; 6. 34-Shawn Pangman [9]; 7. 2L-Jack Lehner [7]; 8. 816-Kenny Martin Jr. [11]; 9. 30-Floyd Billington [12]; 10. 25-Chad Jeseo [3]; 11. 111-Demetrios Drellos [10]; 12. 88a-Andy Bachetti [DNS].

CONTINGENCY WINNERS

VP Racing Fuels ($50 Cash): Tim Fuller; Pole Position Raceway Fast Time ($100 Cash): Pat Ward; Bicknell Racing Products ($100 Product Certificate): Tim McCreadie; Cometic Gasket ($50 Cash): Brandon Walters; Comp Cams ($50 Cash): Erick Rudolph; Comp Cams ($50 Product Certificate): Matt Sheppard; Edelbrock ($50 Cash): Erick Rudolph; Fox Racing Shocks ($50 Cash): Brett Hearn; JE Pistons ($50 Cash): Billy Decker; JE Pistons (Product Certificate): Keith Flach; JE Pistons (Product Certificate): Rich Scagliotta; KSE Racing Products Inc. ($50 Product Certificate): Brandon Walters; MSD Ignition ($50 Cash): Matt Sheppard; MSD Ignition ($25 Cash): Peter Britten; SuperFlow Dynos & Flowbenches ($50 Cash): Keith Flach; Wrisco Aluminum (Product Certificate): Tim McCreadie; JRI Shocks ($50 Cash): Kenny Tremont; Dig Safely 811 Redraw Bonus ($100 Cash): N/A; Speedy First Aid Hard Luck Award (Product Certificate): Peter Britten; ASi Racewear ($50 Cash): Alan Johnson.