Saturday night’s Spring BreakOut provides a clean slate for the drivers who will be taking on the high banks at Southern National Motorsports Park this season and all five divisions have stories to tell.
One of the biggest and most exciting divisions is the U-CAR division and one of the upcoming stars of that division is 25-year-old John Ordiway from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He’s active duty in the United States Air Force stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and he is also a competitor in the U-CAR division at Southern National. Ordiway had limited success last year but he expects that to change this year.
“I definitely believe we can win,” Ordiway commented. “I finally have the car dialed in; fixing some bugs we were working on. I’m definitely going to try for a championship. I believe we can win it. I think it’s going to be a top-three car. Last year I had two accidents that hurt my season points wise. This season, I’ll be back.”
Bruce Bizzell has never won a race at Southern National Motorsports Park. The 39-year-old from Wilson’s Mills, North Carolina is racing in the Charger division where he hopes he can score that first win, a win he says would mean a lot to him.
“We’re going to try to be as high up in the points as we can and hopefully win the championship,” Bizzell said. “We’re going to see how it all turns out. It would mean the world to me to win just for my father, Donald Bizzell. He spends a lot of money for me to race.”
19-year-old Billy Hall from Mount Olive, North Carolina won the Legends championship at Southern National in 2013 but, after not repeating as track champion, he said the three trips he made to victory lane in 2014 mean more than a championship. It is victories that he’s looking for and he’s already off to a winning start, scoring a win last Friday night at Wake County Speedway in Raleigh.
“Last year, I realized after winning the championship and not winning one in 2014, I’m looking forward to just winning a lot of races,” Hall said. “Fans don’t come to the banquet. They come to the races so I want to win at least 10 between Wake County and Southern National.”
13-year-old Kailey Murray from Bailey, North Carolina scored a victory in the final Bandolero race of the season last year. This season, she thinks she can win a lot more as she hopes to climb up the racing ladder and eventually race in NASCAR.
“I think we’ll do pretty well on Saturday,” Murray stated. “Maybe we’ll get a win. I want to get a chance to race Late Models when I get older.”
In the Late Model division, one of the early season storylines is 18-year-old Dillon Spain from Clayton, North Carolina. Spain, who also races in Legends cars frequently, finished second in points in the Limited Late Model division last season. However, his season ended on a sour note when a part failure caused him to wreck his only car in practice ahead of last November’s Halloween Spooktacular.
Spain now has that car rebuilt, he is excited to be back and he feels like he can mount another challenge for a track championship.
“We’re going into this year with a different attitude,” Spain said. “Last year, we wanted to get some good laps in and transition into a fulltime late Model. This year, we’re going for wins and for the championship. I think we can win it. We’ll be a lot better this year and we’re more prepared.”
Southern National Motorsports Park’s Spring BreakOut will take place on Saturday night, April 11th with racing in all five divisions. Gates open at 6pm, qualifying at 6:25pm and racing starts at 7:15pm.
