The Gamecock State is #15 & #121

#121 Cherokee Super Speedway, Gaffney, SC (1/2-mile dirt), 11/25/06...

I was in the area on Saturday and was able to check out the racing at Cherokee. On tap was day one of the two-day World Crown 4 Cylinder Nationals. Saturday included time trials and heat races for the four divisions. Car counts were 43 4-Cylinder Street Stock, 42 4-Cylinder Super Stocks, 18 4-Cylinder Young Guns, and 9 Crate Late Models. There were about 100 people in the grandstands. The weather couldn't have been better with sunny skies, not a cloud nor breeze to be found, and temps in the low 70s.

At 2 p.m. hot laps started followed by two timed laps for all 112 cars in the four divisions and then eventually heat races. The first heat race didn't hit the track until 6:40 PM.

Dennis "Rambo" Franklin is one of the top late model drivers in the south. I was in the pits when he crawled out of his late model with jeans and tennis shoes on then climbed into a 4-cylinder. He went on to win Sunday's $5,000 4-Cylinder Super Stock event and finished 2nd in the Late Model feature to Johnny Pursley, who I saw win at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's earlier in the month.

I saw a kid in a driver's suit that looked about 10 and there was girl walking around that barely looked 12. I was told that the age minimum started at 10! Their feature on Sunday paid $500 to-win and was won by Ben Wiley, while Benji Griffin win the 4-Cylinder Street Stocks that paid $1,500.

With the huge payoffs, I was really surprised the car counts weren't higher. There were nearly 80 4-Cylinder at Lowe's for $500 to-win earlier this month. Maybe it had something to do with the fact of the $100 entry fee and two days.

Cherokee has the typical southern red clay and some of the longest straightaways I have ever seen for a half-mile track. They did announce they are bringing in turns one and two next year. There isn't too much modern at Cherokee as the facility is pretty rundown. The nicest thing at the track is their victory lane. The bleachers are concrete. They have a Confederate Flag flying with their American Flag. Their food prices were very reasonable. They actually had a playground in the pits, which I have never seen before.

Cherokee made for my first ever track in South Carolina giving me 15 states now plus Ontario to see a race in. It accounted for my 16th new track of 2006

#121 Cherokee Super Speedway (SC), 11/25/06
#120 Concord (NC) Motorsports Park, 11/4/06
#119 The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway (NC), 11/3/06
#118 Wyalusing (PA) Valley Motorsports Park, 10/15/06
#117 Shippensburg (PA) Speedway, 10/7/06
#116 Linda's Speedway (PA), 10/6/06
#115 Freedom Raceway (NY), 9/22/06
#114 Spring Valley Raceway (OH), 9/17/06
#113 Hilltop Speedway (OH), 9/8/06
#112 Kokomo (IN) Speedway, 9/3/06
#111 Lincoln Park Speedway (IN), 9/2/06
#110 Lawrence County Fairgrounds (PA), 8/16/06
#109 Midvale (OH) Speedway, 7/22/06
#108 McKean County Speedway (PA), 6/29/06
#107 Hesston (PA) Speedway, 6/17/06
#106 Grandview Speedway (PA), 5/16/06

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Concord is #120 and is part of a double with The Dirt Track

#120 Concord Motorsports Park, Concord, NC (1/2-mile asphalt), 11/4/06...

The races were scheduled to start at Concord at 2:15 with last chance races. This would leave plenty of time to see some races and head back to The Dirt Track, which was only about 15 or so minutes away.

Though it was cool, it was a beautiful sunny, peaceful day with not a cloud nor any wind to be found. On tap at Concord was the North-South Shootout with various modified classes along with two classes of vintage cars. When we arrived shortly after 1 PM they were having an autograph session on the speedway with the cars and drivers. This is a very neat touch as fans go around collecting autograph cards and getting pictures.

I could tell Concord was a very fast track with it's banking. It has the old, nostalgic-type southern-feel to it. The pits were full of cars of cars and a decent crowd was on hand of probably 800 or so, but not what I expected even though it was announced that it was the largest crowd and car count in the event's four-year history. A total of 44 Modified Tour Type Cars and 34 SK-Type Modifieds attempted to qualify on Friday. The Vintage Modifieds totaled 15 and Vintage Sportsman 17. The combination of Pro-Four Modifieds and Four-Cylinder Stocks came in at 23 and there were 10 Limited SK-Type cars.

Concord has the cement bleachers and it looks like they added on with additional bleachers down toward turn one. You can tell as the old pit booth and entrance in the track that went under the bleachers are no longer used due to the size of the trailers I surmized. There is a tunnel underneath turn two that is used to get in and out of the pit area.

I'm not an asphalt fan, but I do really enjoy the modifieds as they flew around the tri-oval. Pennsylvania's Tony Hirschman set fast time on Friday night with a lap that averaged more than 117 miles per hour. We watched the two last chance races, which started shortly after 2:30, and the first feature before heading out. Hirshman ended up winning the 100 lapper, which was run last, and earned $10,600.

The facility, though old, is well taken care of and very neat. They have a nice play area for the kids behind the grandstands. The one thing I noticed in the parking lot was the large number of northern licenses plates of people that came down from the north.

Concord made for my second track in the Tar Heel state and 15th new track of 2006.

#120 Concord (NC) Motorsports Park, 11/4/06
#119 The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway (NC), 11/3/06
#118 Wyalusing (PA) Valley Motorsports Park, 10/15/06
#117 Shippensburg (PA) Speedway, 10/7/06
#116 Linda's Speedway (PA), 10/6/06
#115 Freedom Raceway (NY), 9/22/06
#114 Spring Valley Raceway (OH), 9/17/06
#113 Hilltop Speedway (OH), 9/8/06
#112 Kokomo (IN) Speedway, 9/3/06
#111 Lincoln Park Speedway (IN), 9/2/06
#110 Lawrence County Fairgrounds (PA), 8/16/06
#109 Midvale (OH) Speedway, 7/22/06
#108 McKean County Speedway (PA), 6/29/06
#107 Hesston (PA) Speedway, 6/17/06
#106 Grandview Speedway (PA), 5/16/06

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"The Dirt Track" #119 is one of the nicest!

#119 The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway, Concord, NC (4/10-mile dirt), 11/3-4/06...

I headed south for the World Short-Track Championships at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Located northeast of Charlotte, NC in Concord, the 4/10-mile dirt track is one of the nicest dirt facilities in the nation. The track is located right across the street from NASCAR track, Lowe's Motor Speedway. The stadium-style seating holds some 15,000 spectators and with the Musco lighting, it leaves for a pretty spectacular view.

Six divisions made up the event as a record 271 cars from 16 states plus England competed in preliminary action on Friday night including in some 77 four-cylinders, 55 Fastrak Crate Late Model, 47 USLMS Steel-head Late Models, 30 ASCS 360 Sprint Cars, 28 IMCA E-Mods, and 26 CRASHCars.

With so many cars hot lapping on Friday night they missed their scheduled starting time of 7 as the first of 24 heat races took the green at 7:23 PM. In between their heats they ran a make-up feature for the CRASHcars. It was a long day for me so I headed for the exits after their feature as they still had 8 heats for the 4 cylinders and 3 heats for the UMP Mods. The temperature had dropped from the mid 50s down to the low 30s. A crowd of 500 or so gathered for the preliminary action.

Saturday evening opened up with last chance B main qualifiers for five of the divisions before leading into the six features. Scheduled starting time was 6:50 and they pretty much hit that. A much better crowd was on hand somewhere in the 1,500 range. Though it was again sunny the high for the day only was in the mid 50s and quickly dropped down into the low 30s by the end of the night probably keeping their crowd down. They were predicting nearing record lows in the upper 20s.

They really did a good job keeping the show moving and the crowd entertained. The Raceiever radios certainly helped keeping the cars in line. One thing they didn't do was use the red flag, which was a first for me.

The CRASHCars is a novelty entertainment division, which are basically souped up demolition derby cars with roll cages. Their feature was first up and took the green just a couple minutes shy of 8:30. Chris Blair survived a late-race tangle with Jim Cook to score the 15-lap victory. As part of the show, Cook crashed Blair's victory lane celebration.

Johnny Pursley came out on top to win the 25-lap feature for the Fastrak Crate Late Models, one of the south's fastest growing divisions. 18 of the 19 finishers were on the lead lap and the only car one lap down wasn't lapped until turn three of the final lap. Pursley earned $2,500 for his efforts beating Lowe to the finish. 16-year-old Chris Ferguson charged from 18th to finish third ahead of 20th starting Dennis "Rambo" Franklin. It was a busy day for "Rambo" who competed in preliminary action at another North Carolina track earlier in the day before running two features Saturday night.

Making his first ever ASCS Southern Region start, Ron Blair made the long haul from Ohio pay off as he captured the 25-lap 360 sprint car feature for his first career win. The Troy, Ohio driver has been fast all year running all over the country competing in both 410 and 360 events. Just in his last five events, he's run with SOD in Michigan, the Canadian 360 Sprint Championship in Ohsweken Speedway, the 410 finale at Williams Grove, the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas, before nabbing the $1,500 victory Saturday night.

Blair charged from the 10th starting spot in his heat race Friday night to capture the victory then drew the pole position for Saturday night. Six cautions and a few challenges on the restarts by Justin Collet were the only things to slow the Buckeye gasser from victory. New York invader, Bryan Howland, ascending from the 11th starting spot to finish second after getting past Collet on the final lap. Howland also earned $1,500 including the $500 for being the highest finishing pre-entered car. Five of the six stoppages were for accidents that necessitated the red flag at 99% of the tracks in the country, but not here.

Ricky Weeks totally dominated the 25-lap USLMS Late Model feature for steel-head motors leading from start-to-finish in a race that started just three minutes shy of 10 PM. Weeks took advantage of his outside pole starting positions and only four cautions slowed his run to the checkered. Weeks, a three-time Carolina Clash Champion, earned $2,000 for his second win. "Rambo" Franklin came from 13th to finish second.

With it already being well after 10, I didn't stay for the final two features of 4-cylinders and UMP Mods, which I had the least interest in.

I really enjoyed the facility. Though it seemed as they were way overstaffed, their workers were very courteous. The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway made for my 119th career track and the 14th different state to see a race in. This year I have been to 88 races at 27 different tracks.

After the races we stopped at Sonic drive-in restaurant to get something to eat. After placing the order, I used the restroom to interestingly find a sign giving instructions "how to wash your hands". Thank God, not sure what I would have done! When the girl came out to bring our food, my friend paid for his off the grand total. I then asked her what I owed her. She looked at me and said, "ah ah...i can't do math'. Hmmm...but this was girl making change! I guess everyone pays with the exact amount. I said forget it, give the money back, and I gave her a $20. She gave me back my change, which wasn't exactly correct as I think we made out in the deal by 50 cents. I guess that's why there are signs in the bathroom giving directions "how to wash your hands".

On our way home we stopped to get gas and a sandwich from Subway in Virginia. Beside the Subway counter was hot food like chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, etc. There was one item that was unfamiliar to me and I asked the girl what that black stuff is and she responded in her southern accent and missing teeth, "it's green not black and it's kale." I thought it looked like onions and she responded, "it's not onions it's kale". I told her I had never heard of it and she asked where I was from and I told her Pennsylvania and she rolled her eyes and said, "must be a full moon out there." A guy that overheard the conversation came by and rattled off something to the effect about beer and kale and being good together as that was all I caught as the rest was southern jibberish to me.

#119 The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway (NC), 11/3/06
#118 Wyalusing (PA) Valley Motorsports Park, 10/15/06
#117 Shippensburg (PA) Speedway, 10/7/06
#116 Linda's Speedway (PA), 10/6/06
#115 Freedom Raceway (NY), 9/22/06
#114 Spring Valley Raceway (OH), 9/17/06
#113 Hilltop Speedway (OH), 9/8/06
#112 Kokomo (IN) Speedway, 9/3/06
#111 Lincoln Park Speedway (IN), 9/2/06
#110 Lawrence County Fairgrounds (PA), 8/16/06
#109 Midvale (OH) Speedway, 7/22/06
#108 McKean County Speedway (PA), 6/29/06
#107 Hesston (PA) Speedway, 6/17/06
#106 Grandview Speedway (PA), 5/16/06

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