Commentary by: Rob Staley
Danville, VA(April 8, 2011) — Though, I’ve been hit or miss this winter with my commentary, I’ve been inspired recently to sit down and write a few of these “Rob’s Ramblings”. I hope you enjoy them and I hope that I bring a little different perspective and thoughts to RACE22.com.
Though many feel the current rendition of the USAR Pro-Cup series is on life support, the April 1st event at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw gave indications that this group might have a future yet. By many estimations, the race was easily more interesting than the 2010 races of the other two Late Model series that grace the track’s schedule, the PASS South Series and the UARA-STARS Series.
The racing was fierce with enough beating and banging to entertain the albeit small crowd of fans on hand at and otherwise boom little bullring. 21 of these USAR Pro-Cup cars took the green flag with only four of them doing the start and park. A number of former Late Model Stock Car drivers figured heavily in the race’s story on Brad Allen’s 4/10 mile track.
Former Lonesome Pine and Kingsport standout, Caleb Holman edged Brad Rogers to win the 250-lap race. JP Morgan, a Concord Speedway staple from a several few years back, led most of the race, but was involved in a chain reaction restart crash that took him out of contention. The terror of New River Valley(now Motor Mile) Speedway in the mid 1990’s, Jeff Agnew saw a promising night end early after crushing the front of the car at the race’s start. A South Boston regular from the 1990’s, Larry Barrett, had one of his best Procup runs ever with a 9th place finish.
With the future of the series in doubt and the lack of fans in the stands, I was impressed with the race that these drivers were able to put on and it gave me, someone who really enjoyed the “Hooters Pro-Cup Series” in it’s prime, a glimpse of hope in this series future. It will be interesting to see if the USAR Pro-Cup traveling circus will be invited back to Ace, if indeed the tour even has a 2012 schedule and I for one hope that it first has a 2012 schedule and second comes back to Ace Speedway for another show.
