RPW Exclusive: Rain Friday At The World Short Track Championship Makes For A Busy Saturday Of Racing

Column By: TREVOR GAVIN / RPW – CONCORD, NC – A steady rain fell at The Dirt Track in Charlotte on Friday, keeping cars tucked in their haulers all day and washed out the scheduled qualifying.

Although the teams sat dormant and the 4/10th mile clay oval silent, it echoed with the roar of engines Thursday night. Opening practice for the third annual World Short Track Championship saw drivers from nine different classes turned their first laps of the event.

David Schilling from East Greenbush, NY turned the fastest lap among the DIRTcar Sportsman at 17.408 seconds in his number 20. The Pro Stock class saw Goshen, NY’s Sean Corr atop their speed charts at the end of the night with a lap of 19.720 seconds with his number 8c.

Since the Friday portion of the event had to be cancelled, officials will give fans a full day of action on Saturday. Heat races will begin at 10:00 am with the Sportsman scheduled to roll off as the third class and then the Pro Stocks to follow.

After qualifying heats are finished and time permitting, they will run four All-Star Invitational Features. Both the Sportsman and Pro Stocks are scheduled for the invitation only 20-lap events in addition to the UMP Modifieds and Pro Late Models.

If all is running well, there will be opening ceremonies at 5:00pm leading into last chance showdowns and then the Championship features.

All classes were scheduled to have timed hot laps Friday. However, because of rain and no cars getting on track, officials set the heat line-ups by practice times on Thursday. That made the laps by Schilling and Corr all that more important.

In the Sportsman class, 34 cars were checked in for practice with 33 posting an official time. Following Schilling’s pace were #11T Jeff Taylor (17.501), #98T Tyler Thompson (17.546), #18r Brad Rouse (17.561) and #20k Kyle Inman was 5th quick at 17.563. At the end of the night, the top 12 in times were separated by less than three tenths of a second.

Defending All-Star Invitational Sportsman winner Tyler Thompson has not let the rain damped his Queen City experience.

“Charlotte is just an amazing atmosphere where all of us ‘racers’ come to have a good time racing as well as after the races,” Thompson said. “I love everything about Charlotte and really enjoy making the long trip down.”

Thompson will start on the pole in Sportsman Heat #3 and is optimistic about his chances to bring the big prize back to Volney, NY, but knows there is a strong field of cars to contend with.

“I’ll just have to keep focused on the track, my car and just keep digging,” he said. “With a little bit of luck and a good draw we should be good. I’m looking forward to having my chance to be at the top spot of the podium at the end of the race.”

The Sportsman will run four heats at eight laps each. The top 5 from each heat will transfer to the A-Main. Heat #1 and Heat #2 will start nine cars with Heat #3 and Heat #4 starting eight each.

In the Pro Stock class, 16 cars are making their maiden voyage to the Tar Heel state. Trailing Corr on the time charts were #97 Dan Older (19.801), #35 Kenny Gates (19.825), #322 Jay Casey (19.830) and #33 Bruno Cyr (19.849).

The Pro Stock will run two heat races at six laps each with all cars transferring to the main.

Lebanon Valley Pro Stock Championship runner-up Jason Casey ended up timing 12th quick and will start sixth in Heat #2. Having one win under his belt this season at that Valley of Speed, the Canaan, CT native is hoping the track changes are different Saturday after the practice night.

“It was just a lot of top running (in practice),” Casey said. “We weren’t using all of the track”.

Casey’s teammate, his father, Jay, will also be in Heat #2, starting second. When you have two cars at the event, that means double the information and input you can apply to the set-ups.

“We feel we have two good cars,” he said. “We can’t wait to be in a racing situation with them…not just looking at lap times.”

With the wash out, the Casey tandem took the off day to visit the race shop of Hendrick Motorsports.

Looking at some of the other divisions in action, the UMP Modifieds have some familiar names participating in their division this weekend. 51 cars are registered for their six heat races. Former NASCAR Cup and XFINITY Series driver David Stremme set fast time with a lap of 16.190. Kyle Strickler who some may know as “The High Side Tickler” and from running the truck race at Eldora this summer clocked in second quick with a lap of 16.376.

NASCAR Xfinity driver Justin Allgaier timed sixth quick in his number 7 and will start on the pole in Heat #6. Allgaier is currently sits 6th in the XFINITY playoff standings, 5 points behind Christopher Bell for the fourth and final transfer spot to the Championship 4. The Xfinity drivers are off this weekend which is why the driver of the #7 JR Motorsports car is able to focus on his UMP modified.

Fan favorite and racer’s racer Ken Schrader timed 19th quick and will start fourth in Heat #1 in his number 9 car.

Chase McCormick set fast time for the 602 Late Models in his #22B with a lap of 16.419 and will lead Heat #1 of 4 to green from pole position. Five-time NASCAR Cup winner, Jeremy Mayfield is racing with the 602 Late Models and after timing 14th quickest will start fourth in Heat #2.

The 51 car field for the 602 Late Models was only out done by the SECA Pro Late Models who have 56 cars set to run six heat races Saturday. In addition to the biggest field, the SECA Pro Late Models may also have some of the best names of drivers in the field with the likes of Banjo Duke, Timbo Mangum, Chub Gunter and Colby Quick. They will all be chasing fast timer Matt Long in his #55 car who set the pace with a lap of 16.038.

Other fast timers included;
SECA Crate Modifieds: #44 Jeff Parsons 18.191
SECA Crate Sportsman: #9 Ronnie Mosley 18.806
MMSA Mini Stocks: #0 Nick Walker 19.257
Front Wheel Drive Hornets: #311s Jonathan Sarratt 20.022