Commentary by: Rob Staley [email protected]
Danville, VA(June 2, 2009) — I don’t know who’s responsible, but the decision to drop the Grand Stocks from the UARA event at Orange County Speedway was a poor one from my perspective. The GS boys had twice as many cars as any other class at the regular season opener way back in April and haven’t been back on the track since.
16 cars took the green flag in the mentioned race and there is evidence that more cars are being built for future Orange County Speedway shows. Hopefully the Limited division that was left on the program will draw better than the single digit fields we saw at the first two OCS affairs.
My hats off this week to Glenn Hamilton who won his second Stadium Stock race of the season at Bowman Gray Stadium. Glenn outran the four banger legend, AJ Sanders to garner the win. Glenn hopes to compete at the Midweek Mayhem shows at the Concord quarter mile track this summer along with his continued action at the stadium and RACE22.com is planning to have a strong presence at the Midweek Mayhem this year despite the fact that they don’t race Late Model Stock Cars.
It seems no one is giving Lee Pulliam the proper credit for his first career late model stock victory at South Boston. The fact is that the guy is a whale of a racer and WILL win a race with more of the big boys on hand. That being said, let the record show that Pulliam was the best car at the checkered flag last week and it’s not his fault that a lot of potential winners either had problems or were MIA.
A big thumbs up to Ace Speedway for pulling the plug on last Friday night’s races at a reasonable hour. Too many times tracks try to keep the racers and fans late into the night and early morning hours just to get a show in. Maybe it was a good thing as only six Modifieds were on the grid for their 30-lapper when the bottom fell out. The Modified division seems to be falling apart with Brian King totally dominating the division and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. Ziggy Zimmerman had bested a field of nine Limiteds in the only race run before the rain.
Looks like all systems are go for the first Modified/Late Model Stock Car double header in recent memory at Franklin County Speedway. The ASA Southern Mods will go 125 laps in the Kenny Minter Memorial race and the Old Dominion Shootout for Late Model Stock Cars will go 100 laps this Sunday. It appears that the Late Model race in particular will have a great turnout as many top drivers from Southwest Virginia are expected including three-time and defending track champion, Jimmy Mullins, Kelly Kingery, Nathan Wheat and multi-time winner last season, Rodney Cook.
2008 UARA-STARS Series Rookie of the Year, Darrell Wallace, Jr., who won his first race at Franklin County Speedway last season is expected to enter as well as 12-year old third generation driver, Michael McGuire, who has already collected a win there this season. Good luck to all involved with this joint venture between ASA’s Randy Myers and the folks at Left Turn Promotions.
Until the next time I decide to “Ramble” that’s it for this edition of Rob’s Ramblings!
