So Many Cars, So Many Drivers, So Many Stories From the World Short Track Championships
Column By: TREVOR GAVIN / RPW – CONCORD, NC – One of the greatest things about the DRIVEN World Short Track Championships is all of the classes that are in attendance. There were nine divisions on the schedule and featured everything from Late Models, to UMP Modifieds, the northeast Sportsman and Pro Stocks all the way down to stock Front Wheel Drive 4 cylinder (Hornet) cars.
Race car trailers were parked and squeezed in anywhere they could find space at The Dirt Track in Charlotte pit area. Rows and rows of cars with drivers from all across the United States and Canada made up the 394 entries. Rain is never welcome at any race track but it did allow some time to wander around the pits and meet some drivers from outside the northeast.
MONSTER MINI-STOCKS
Craig Overby from Elm City, North Carolina is the driver of the No. C25 Howard’s Frame Shop, Blaine Overby Pressure Washing, Carolina Kid Trucking Monster Mini-Stock. Overby was nice enough to take the time to fill me in on his class before his heat race.
“These cars have to start with the frame of a 4 cylinder and rear wheel drive. We have ours built on a 4 cylinder Mustang”. That is where the stock requirements end. Teams then will hang a body and add rub rails and bumper bars.
The class requires that motors be 4 cylinders, “We use a 1993 LX Mustang 2.3 liter motor but some of the other cars in the class are running purpose built Toyota racing motors” Overby said. In comparison to the Pro Stocks, the lap times are similar. In the Monster Mini Stock feature, the fastest lap was a 19.571 and in the Pro Stock feature, their fastest lap was a 19.531.
Overby races with the Super Stock 4 Cylinders at Fayetteville Motor Speedway in Fayetteville, NC. He was the Championship runner-up by just eight points and was happy to be part of Short Track Championships for the third straight year. This is only his third year behind the wheel but that didn’t stop him from picking up two wins this season at Fayetteville.
Overby finished 10th in the third last qualifier and unfortunately missed the A-Main. 60 cars checked in for his class with only 26 cars making the 25 lap main event. You can also find Overby racing weekly at County Line Raceway in his hometown of Elm City, NC in addition to select events at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina.
FWD HORNETS
The other 4 cylinder class that was a true stock front wheel driver division called FWD Hornets. These cars are exactly like the local 4 cylinder classes in the capital district except these cars are allowed to run a racing rim with a max width of seven inches. No racing tires allowed and all drivers still need to run street tires. 66 cars entered the event with features only. The field was split in half and all the drivers got the chance to run in two fifteen lap features.
Tyler Fister of Max Meadows, Virginia made the 130 mile drive down to race with his No. 24 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier. Fister raced weekly at Friendship Motor Speedway until selling his car in the middle of June. He was second in points at the time before selling the car and had earned enough points to still finish the season sixth in the standings.
Fister bought his car back just to make the trip to the Short Track Championships. He and his girlfriend, Destiny Hutton, were the ones there to work on the car. Tyler finished 16th in his first feature and 23rd in his second feature. The full-time diesel mechanic for a concrete company was even able to get some money back at the pay-out window at the end of the weekend.
“I don’t do it for the money, I do it because I love the sport. I met so many awesome people (over the weekend) and hung out with some Canadians Saturday night. It was an experience like no other.” Fister added.
You may recognize part of Tyler’s car from the DIRTcar twitter handle. His Drake lyric decal on his trunk lid was featured in a tweet on Saturday morning.
