Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]
I needed to sleep for about four days after this weekend. I have been to many tracks and ran all day, but nothing has been as taxing on the body and especially the mind as the weekend at Ace Speedway. It’s not often that we have articles following a great weekend of racing and nothing we say is really about the race itself, but we have to in this situation.
First off on Saturday we had the “Mischa Sell Memorial” race and it was a huge success. 29 cars started the event, we raised a lot of money and the track went out of their way for the race as they painted the walls pink, wore pink track logo shirts and let everyone have a pink balloon to release during pre-race ceremonies. The race was wild with a lot of carnage but we all expected that, Scott Hall dominated the event and took the checkered flag. Then, it got weird.
Since the Hall machine was as dominant as it was, I knew it was going to get torn down. I learned a long time ago, if you stink up the show and especially if you’re not a regular at a track, you better be prepared to be looked at closely. The word in tech was that the heads were going to be pulled. I ran around doing my thing and came back a few minutes later only to see a bunch of yelling and cussing. It seems that the Hall machine was not getting the heads taken that day as was talked about and that they were going to do it the next day since they were racing on Sunday also. The Gary Ledbetter machine that finished second was also in tech and said they could tear their car down right then even though they were racing the next day too. Of course the arguing ensued.
I go to Ace Speedway General Manager Brad Allen and ask him what is going on. He said the Hall machine will have the heads checked after the race on Sunday no matter where it finishes dictating both races, as would the Ledbetter car as it was getting torn down regardless for being the Meltdown Series champion for the Sunday race. BOTH cars were to remain at the track that night. I talked to car owner Mike Robertson and he laughed and said they never asked to take the heads off. They said something about it and he said he was racing the next day and they decided not to. He also said that he didn’t care if they left the car there; they could keep the whole car after the races were done for all he cared. I left and went home. My head already hurting from the tech and nothing else was going on. I was wrong on that one.
I get a call from the Ledbetter team saying the Hall machine had pulled out of the track and left… say what? I call Brad Allen and he states that they left and he confronted them. An argument ensued and he told me they would be disqualified (DQ’d) because they left the track. The Robertson team said they were never told that and were going home to set it up for the next day since they were running on completely different tires. BUT, Allen didn’t know they had already been paid. Upon discovering that, Allen jumped in his car and went to chase them down the road. He did get in touch with them and they came right back to the track and had the motor tore down and passed, but the damage was done as it looked ridiculous to even go through that. If it had been me, and this goes for any race at any track, I don’t care if it’s a two day show or what, each race is a separate thing and tech for each one is separate. If you don’t tear down from day one when asked because you have to run the next day, well that’s tough. They have a parts trailer right there and they sell gaskets all day long. But this all comes from someone being too nice and we’ll get to that later.
Now we are on day two and the modified race, the real debacle. Burt Myers leads JonBoy Brown in the points going into the final race and it’s tight. Surprisingly, Burt brings another car with him and lets his buddy, former Goody’s Dash series and mod driver Zach Brewer, in the car. Could some “teamwork” be going on here? Well that went south real quick.
Burt takes the first race with JonBoy second. In the second race, JonBoy is leading over Burt with a handful of laps to go when a caution comes out. Technically Burt is already the champion (we’ll get to that too) but if he finishes second there is no question. On the restart Burt takes the outside and gets passed for second by a hard charging Brewer, in Burt’s car, which also brings Danny Bohn with him putting Burt back to fourth. I was amazed at this; I could not figure it out at all. Why would Zach pass the guy whose car he is driving when the championship is on the line? JonBoy wins and wins the championship by two points. Then all hell breaks loose.
After JonBoy’s celebration in victory lane, the cars are pushed over the scales and to tech. A scuffle between some women with men and yelling erupts on pit road. I run to see what it is and it seems that Burt is protesting his own car that was driven by Brewer, saying it is illegal. If the Brewer machine is found wrong, it moves Burt up a spot and he becomes champion. This beats all I’ve ever seen. In all my years of racing, I have never seen a driver protest his own car.
As the story keeps spiraling out of control, another awesome twist comes in as Brewer rejects the protest, automatically DQ’ing himself and moving Burt up a spot. Now Burt is the champion. In all this crazy mess we all forgot that the Meltdown series lets you throw out your two worst finishes so, technically, Burt was already champion after race one and it didn’t matter if he even ran the second race. I ask Zach why on earth he passed Burt and he said he didn’t have any idea what the points were going in, he said he asked on the radio numerous times what he should do and his radio was going in and out and he couldn’t hear. Personally, and I’ve known Zach for a long time, I think he just wanted to race. And if that’s what he did kudos to him because this whole “bringing other cars” for whatever reason is all BS to me in any form of racing. If you’re in the seat behind the wheel drive the damn thing and try to finish first, that’s the entire object of racing.
So now we have a cluster. It looks as if which ever car, between Brown and Myers, passes tech will be the champ. If they both pass Burt is the outright champ. Well in reality Burt wins anyway because they would be tied and then it goes off wins, but who wants “reality” at this point in time? The tech area was packed and we stayed there all night. Everything looked normal until they took the intake off the Myers machine. Gary and Burt Myers were summoned into the tech building with Brown in tow. To make a long story short, there was a lot of bickering and arguing and no one seemed to give a good answer. In the end Brad Allen gave the final statement that the Myers machine was wrong on intake and Burt appealed the decision. JonBoy and the Tommy Neal crew celebrated and walked out with the trophy. But we still had this appeal, so my long day and long night was still without closure.
The next day I get all sorts of texts and calls about a post on the Ace Speedway Facebook page saying “Please stayed tuned for a very difficult announcement regarding Sunday’s results” …are you kidding me? At this point we didn’t need to change anything at all. I don’t care if the intake was legal as legal could be, this didn’t need to change any more. But it did, after an outside source reviewed the intake, it was deemed legal and Burt was now once again the champion. And JonBoy was left fuming again about winning his first ever championship in any series for only a few hours.
There were many mistakes made here for sure, that’s obvious. First off, to kill this whole thing, I would have not let someone protest their own car. I don’t care if it’s in the rules, I don’t care if it’s written in blood. The track has the final say and if someone didn’t like it, they could hit the road. Plus, it’s just common sense. I’m also pretty sure the car owner has to be the one to decline protest so that would mean Burt saying to himself, “Hey me, I want to protest my car, nope me I’m not going to do it”. It just sounds crazy. Second, the whole process needed more organization. We missed points, forgot the mulligan races and what not. Third, it should have never left the track. This dragging it out never turns out well in any series of any racing. Let’s make a call, stick with it and go home.
Now, the fallout has been pretty brutal, but I’m not going to throw Ace Speedway under the bus here. People are all over the internet cussing and acting a fool, but these are just Bowman Gray fans that didn’t support the track anyway unless certain mod drivers were there. The weekly fans and drivers will still be there every week. I’ve seen people say they wanted certain drivers to die, calling their mamas names and saying they are criminals. Yeah, we know where these fans come from. People can be passionate but they need to realize this is a hobby and these guys work regular jobs and shop at Wal-Mart like the rest of us. It’s just plain stupid and makes racing look bad. Then again we can centralize what the problem is.
Some drivers from Sunday said they would never come back there. Yeah, they weren’t going to ask you back anyway so I wouldn’t worry about that. And this wasn’t because all; the saying about a few comes true nine times out of 10. The track has had three years under Brad Allen’s direction and has come from the brinks of closure to one of the best and most attended tracks in the region. Not one problem like this has arisen, until this weekend. The drivers from the stadium for years have cried about wanting to race somewhere else. Ace gave them a place to race and paid them more than twice what they had been getting weekly. Hell, the mod races, if you won, both 50 lappers paid more than a 150 lap NASCAR Whelen tour race.
But it was totally messed up, not questioning that. It goes back to what I said above about someone being too nice. That person is Brad Allen. I’ve known Brad personally a long time and can say that he and Ron Barfield at Dillon are what race promoters today should be. He never shies away from a question, goes out of his way to welcome and cater to every racer there and walks around shaking hands with all the fans. Maybe that’s his problem; he tries to do too much.
In the drivers meeting he said he wants everyone there to be his friend, he doesn’t want to be the A-hole at the track. Well in this game and the way racers are, I’m afraid that’s the way he is going to have to be. Racers today, and especially at certain tracks, will take advantage of you any way they can. He said he just wanted to do the “right thing” and if that was the last decision he ever made there, he wanted to do it the right way. That’s fine, but the “right way” is not always the “best way” and sometimes that’s the road you need to take. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s the best place in the world, but at the same time, I hate to see a place that has become a showplace for racing in the region get crucified over two days. Sadly, in society today, we remember the negative far more than any positives. All the people that said they won’t come back will be there even more next year, mark my word and save this article. I’m betting more news from the track will be coming before the year is out.
