WINSTON SALEM, NC :: Well folks, it’s that time again. Time we dust off the ole’ seat cushions, get on the driver garb on and clear our throats so we can hoot and holler. Time we round up friends, talk smack in the parking lot and get to the track and hour early just so we can get a seat… in a 17,000 seat stadium. It’s time for the 66th opening night of ‘The Greatest of Them All’. It’s time for Bowman Gray racing.
As the season starts, there so many storylines, so many new faces, and so many things that simply stay the same. The rivalries are there because they never die, the “promises” of payback and what’s to come never end and the competitiveness that can only be had at the “Madhouse” is something that cannot be duplicated. We’ll take a small look into what the season has to offer.
Modifieds
The cream of the crop, the feature division. “By the grace of God and 600 horsepower”, the modifieds will roar to life Saturday night for the annual Hayes Jewelers 200. And when they do, the field will have a few different looks to it.
Of course we still have the big dogs of Tim Brown and Burt Myers. Myers is coming off his sixth championship in 2013, while Brown is looking to 2014 for his 10th championship and the one record he hasn’t broken, the all-time win record. Needless to say, these guys are the odds-on favorites to win the title again, but there are many others that will be chomping at the bit harder than ever.
First we’ll take our regulars. Maybe the hungriest is Jason Myers. Jason finished second to his brother last year, a sight that has become too familiar and one shadow he is ready to get out of. He has been getting more aggressive in the past few years which has propelled him to the top contender to dethrone the top two. John Smith is another driver right there with him, if Smith can put a second half of a season together like he does the first half, he would run away with a championship. And poor Lee Jefferys, if the man had some luck he would be hard to hold. If something is going to happen, it happens to him or in front of him. Hopefully 2014 will be the year his luck changes.
The surprise contender that’s really not a surprise will be Danny Bohn. Bohn came out in his rookie season a few years ago picking up two wins, something unheard of at the stadium. Driving the famous Puddin Swisher owned #53 again this season, Danny will make his first complete season and run at the championship. They went through the car completely in the offseason, got some power and for the first time in many years, the #53 is in tip-top shape.
Add in Danny’s brother Mike driving for Bob Nelson for the entire season, and the sibling rivalry is alive and well. But it’s just not them, five, yes five sets of bothers could be competing at once this season in a race. Danny and Mike Bohn, Burt and Jason Myers, Chris and Frank Fleming, Ronnie and Michael Clifton, BoBo Brown and his brother JonBoy if he can find a ride will make history. Add in Randy Butner, Tommy Neal with his best equipment ever, Cale Gale making his modified debut, David Calabrese running his rookie season, Zach Brewer running a few races and Derek Stoltz making five appearances in the mods, man, it’s just too much to talk about at once. Oh… and the ‘King of the Southern Modifieds’, Junior Miller.
The last spin on the mods will be how the points will be awarded for the nights with the twin 25 lappers. In years past you collected points from each race, but this year they will take the average finish of the two races, making sandbagging in race one to get a good spot for the redraw in race two go away, at least hopefully. “We actually did some mock runs with different scenarios and the points surprisingly came out quite a bit different,” explained Loren Pinilis, Public Relations Director for Bowman Gray. “Instead of a guy getting one point for a position is race two, he could be getting 10 points, it looks to make the drivers go after it each more in both the races.”
Sportsman
Over the past few years this division has become the talk of the town. From great racing, side by side finishes, tore up cars, bitter rivalries, on-track demolition derbies, fisticuffs, suspensions, the Sportsman Division has had everything you can imagine. Mack Little will try and defend his championship with grace and not over-thinking, the man only bought one set of tires last season, but the next year is never as easy as the last.
We can only hope this year is as half as exciting as the past few, as the on-track product has produced some thrills, some even making it to national TV and becoming viral hits. Derek Stoltz is usually one in the thick of things, and while this year he will be scaling his season down and not running all the races (we’ll see how true that becomes) he will be there opening night and already has his winners speech down pat he says. Taylor Branch will have something to say about that though, another driver not sure if he was running the entire season, just recently picked up sponsorship from Flow Chevrolet and looks to be the main man to try and knock Mack Little off the throne. Bryant Robertson completes the trifecta as he and Stoltz have had numerous run-ins, so he may be the spoiler for everyone if things get rough.
Zach Clifton may just watch the hijinks and capitalize on others mistakes, same as he did last year while picking up wins in the process. After coming home a quiet second in the points, he looks to break into the limelight as his father once did as Ronnie Clifton is the most successful driver to ever race in the Sportsman division. Zach has branched out into the Late Model ranks so his time at the stadium may be limited, he knows the time is now.
The two things most people will be watching is one that’s coming for the first time and one that’s going away. Jon Holleman IV has moved up the Sportsman ranks and people are wondering if his style is coming with him. After a successful tenure in the Street Stock division where he was aggressive and made the fans come to their feet, he has purchased one of former Triplett cars that has been the most dominant ride at BGS in recent years. Speaking of Triplett cars, Noah Triplet will be one face missing at the track this season. He will be there in his regular #70 for the first race, but attending Duke University and spending the summer in Spain, his racing career will be put on hold for a while. Don’t be surprised if the #70 shows up a few times throughout the summer with someone else behind the wheel though.
Jeff Garrison, regarded as one of the cleanest racers in the division and the man that came home third in points last year, looks like he will miss the season after recent foot surgery, leaving a void that others will take advantage of. Those include Michael Adams, Wayne Hill, Mitch Gales, the legends Barry Edwards and David Adams, along with a host of others.
Street Stock
By far the most eventful division at the stadium, you can honestly never know what is remotely going to happen on any given night. While most tracks struggle to get 10 cars for their Street Stock division, along with the other divisions there, Bowman Gray is pushing 25 or more every week. And with that many cars, the carnage ensues.
The main question is “who?” With Holleman moving up to Sportsman, who will Billy Gregg rival with? Even though Doug Wall did a masterful performance winning the championship last season rather cleanly, all eyes were on Gregg and Holleman, as they took it upon themselves to have their own demo derby week in and week out. While it was fun for the fans, it got frustrating for the drivers as they couldn’t really race. This season looks to return the Street division to its glory days with a lot of old-school veterans leading the charge.
First on that list would be Wall, your champion. Doug has his cars ready to rock and as usual, will take a back seat to the antics on the track if they arise, which in his case worked out very well for him last season picking up his first championship. Billy Gregg will be hot on his heels, Gregg has a completely different driving style but when racing with certain people, he will let you get it back after contact. John McNeal is the other cagy veteran that will be right there also, and if practice was any indication the other day the #99 is as fast as ever… sideways as always.
The last veteran may be the one to watch the most. David Sumner has been winning for years, but over the last few he hasn’t made a full season run. In early practices this year he has been the talk of the town, turning the fastest laps of anyone and knowing the experience and race track savvy he has, he will be hard to beat.
The Street division always has the up and comers also, and that charge will be led by Aaron Hylton. After running some races in the mini-stocks he moved to the Street division last year with help from the Clifton stables and looks to contend for the championship himself this year. Along with Dakota Ratcliff, son on Matt Kenseth’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff, Chase Hunt and a host of others, there is no middle ground in the Street class, it’s veterans vs. the new kids.
Stadium Stock
One of my favorite classes at any track and usually the most competitive: Four bangers, usually Mustangs with the old-school Pinto and a Celica or two thrown in. These guys come to the stadium in droves, 40+ to be exact every Saturday night, so many they are divided into two separate races. But everyone is racing each week to be in the “A” race, the race that after five weeks it only takes the top point contenders.
The two favorites are two of the winningest drivers in the Southeast in the Mini-Stocks as they are called at other tracks. One is the champ from last year, Chuck Wall as he looks to defend his title against 40 other angry wolves. Chuck has won on numerous tracks but made Bowman Gray his home a few years ago and will challenge week after week. That is if he can keep AJ Sanders behind him. AJ is like Chuck, yet he still races anywhere and everywhere and I dare say by this Saturday has already raced at at least 10 different tracks this year, including dirt.
The second set to challenge them will come from AJ’s son Andrew and Jason Keaton. Keaton has been beating on the door for another championship since his 2010 title, but sometimes his over-aggressive driving has come back to haunt him as drivers take retaliation in this division to a whole new level. Andrew is the next driver to carry the torch in the Sanders clan as the patriarch Archie passed away last year leaving his son AJ and now grandson Andrew to take over the reins to keep the family tradition alive and well.
The cast of characters for this class goes on and on, Chris Allison, Derek Taylor, Shane Southard, Tyler Burke, Pnut Vernon, Daniel Yates, you really never know what to expect in these races. One thing is for sure, while a lot of people only come to watch the mods and leave, the true race fans stay until the Stadium Stocks run, as they know they will be getting their money’s worth.
Everyone come out this Saturday. If you’ve never been, mark it off your bucket list. If you go but know others that haven’t, bring a friend. Bring your family, bring your buddies, hell, bring your enemies, trust me, everyone will fit in. There is nothing like it, truly the eighth wonder of the racing world. This is where I started my love for racing when I was four years old, and now 34 years later, I still haven’t missed an opening night… and never will till I die. There will be over 14,000 there just like me this Saturday, come join the party.
