Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Easley, SC(April 13, 2011) — On Saturday night at Greenville Pickens Speedway, Marty Ward picked up his second win of the young season.
On Tuesday, April 12th, Anthony Anders was awarded the victory as Ward was disqualified for his camshaft coming up wrong. On Wednesday evening we reached out to Ward to get his side of the story and unlike some racers who don’t make it through the tech shed, Ward returned our call and gave us all the details.
“We went down there and won the race,” said Ward. “Then Anthony Anders wanted to tear us down and then the track decided to tear down the top three finishers. They said we were off on the camshaft and that we were disqualified.”
Ward said that he wasn’t upset about it, but doesn’t understand why they won’t give him any details as to how they were off.
“The only thing I have a problem with is that they wouldn’t tell us how we were wrong and exactly what the numbers are,” explained Ward. “They won’t tell us anything, so we don’t know what we did wrong.”
When asked about why he seems to have problems passing tech at Greenville at least once a year, Ward didn’t mince words.
“When you win 13 races a year at one racetrack, it causes problems in the tech shed,” continued Ward. “We have won a bunch of races over here at Greenville over the years winning 13 races in a season a couple of times and we just can’t seem to get past that number 13, because of stuff like this.”
With Ward’s disqualification, Anders inherited the victory and despite wanting to protest according to Ward, he didn’t have to. For Anders it was his fourth win of the season with three at Greenville including this one and one at Anderson Speedway on Friday night.
About the issue with the camshaft, Ward admitted that something could have been wrong, but he wanted to see the numbers to see how far off they were.
“They thought that mine and Anthony’s(Anders) camshaft was off and after they had it checked it came back that it was just mine and his was ok. I just wanted to see the numbers and they won’t show us. I’m just a country boy and I can weld and work on these cars, but I don’t build engines.”
“Apparently we went a little too far with the camshaft, but you push the limits in this deal. You have to, because your competition does and my motor man says we were good and the track didn’t so, we’ll regroup and maybe go race somewhere else.”
As far as Ward’s traveling he said that he will probably hit Anderson a few times and maybe go over to Myrtle Beach and see if he can change his luck there. He also plans to have a built engine pretty quick and has been invited to run in the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown at Richmond International Raceway. Ward said he plans to be there for the test, but may not get everything together, but either way, he plans to hit that race and try some other places out instead of going back to Greenville.
“We’ll travel around a little bit and do something different,” concluded Ward. “They really helped me out to not have to be in the points deal and to get to travel a little and do a race or two a month and not every week.”
