Caraway Speedway, Sophia, N.C. SMART Tour Warrior 99 Saturday 27, 2022

 Posted by Wayne G.Barber    Story by Jim Snape and Photos by Simply the Best, Crystal Snape

 The tour type modified combination of Caleb Heady and Tommy Baldwin Jr. has been a dream come true. This team is on a hot streak that has 8 top 5 finishes in a row with the SMART tour. The latest finish was his victory in the warrior 99 at the Caraway Speedway.

   Heady drew the outside pole starting spot alongside pole sitter Jonathan Brown. Brown also set fast time in qualifying then redrew the pole and blasted out to become the initial leader with Heady, Bobby Labonte, Luke Fleming and Bobby Measmer Jr. in tow.

      It didn't take Heady long to sniff out the lead and by lap three he made an inside pass to take over the lead. Heady pulled out to a fifteen car length lead while the rest fell into single file running in tire saving mode.

    By the lap thirty stage break caution the entire field regrouped and on the restart Brown out-dragged Heady to lead for the second time. Again the rest of the field set a conservative pace trying to save tires for a later charge.

   The second yellow flag flew on lap 45 for a minor spin. This caution was the chance for the leaders to pit, handing the lead over to Luke Fleming with Measmer Jr. starting beside. The restart only lasted one lap until the caution light came on again for a stalled car on the front stretch. Fleming ran out to the lead again but Measmer challenged him for the next few laps pulling along side but Fleming would prevail ... until lap 56. Measmer pulled off a pass by Fleming, but Fleming wasn't going to let Measmer get away and the two dueled for the lead again. On lap 65 Fleming took the top spot back allowing Labonte to take advantage and slip into second place.

   While Fleming and Labonte tried to break away, back in the pack Heady knew he was running out of time and started to pick off competitors one at a time. By lap 73 Heady put Brian Loftin in his rear view mirror for fourth place.

  On lap 77 Labonte finally wrestled the lead from Fleming while Heady picked off Measmer for third place and five laps latter took over the runner up spot from Fleming.

   On lap 86 a four car crash on the back stretch eliminated Jonny Kay from the marathon. This caution opened the pits for a beehive of activity among most of the leaders, among them was Labonte, Hirschman, Loftin, Gary Putnam, Fleming and Burt Myers.

   Heady stayed on track inheriting the lead with Brandon Ward second. With laps running out quickly the heavy hitters who took on a new Hoosier started to put on the pressure and Burt Myers charged from the sixth spot into second place in two laps. Following Myers was Hirschman coming from seventh into third.

   Lap 88 brought out a caution and Myers used his fresher tire to power into the lead on the restart but Heady wasn't going to give up easily. Heady got beside Myers for two laps and took back the lead on lap 91.

   The last caution came on lap 95, another minor spin. Heady on older tires looked like a sitting duck with Myers, Hirschman, Labonte and Loftin breathing down his neck, but the 17 year old driver looked like a veteran driver and wasn't going to let this one slip away, holding on to win his first 2022 victory with the SMART tour. Burt Myers turned in a brilliant performance finishing second. Labonte took the third podium finish from Hirschman in the last laps. Brian Loftin rounded out the top five.

Summary

Jerry Hunt Super Center 30 Lap Stage Break- Caleb Heady

Carolina Drilling Blast to the Front- Dennis Holdren

Fastest Lap of the Race-Bobby Labonte

Free Hoosier Race Tire-Jonny Kay

Pace O Matic Hard Charger-Jason Poole

Josten's Lap Leader- Caleb Heady

Bankers Life Halfway Leader- Luke Fleming

Fastest Qualifier- Jonathan Brown-16.060

Finish

1   7NY-Caleb Heady

2   1-Burt Myers

3   25-Bobby Labonte

4   60-Matt Hirschman

5   15-Brian Loftin

6   14- Bobby Measmer Jr.

7   77-Gary Putnam

8   2-Brandon Ward

9   07VA-Dennis Holdren

10 22-Jonathan Brown

11  4-Jason Myers

12  12-Anthony Bello

13  79P-Jason Poole

14  99-Jamie Tomaino

15  41-Bussy Beavers

16  21-Tommy Neal

17  02-Troy Young

18  6-Greg Butcher

19  21W-Jimmy Wallace

20  01-Brian Weber

21  40-Luke Fleming

22  48-Jonny Kay

23  03-Craig Young

24  00-Kevin Orlando

25  79-Jeremy Gerstner

26  37-Dan Speeney

Southern National Motorsports Park Kenly, N.C. 3/19/2022

 Posted by Wayne G. Barber   Story by Jim Snape

Photos by Simply the Best, Crystal Snape

 It wasn't an easy romp for Matt Hirschman in the PEE DEE sponsored number 60 on Saturday 3/19 at the beautifully prepared Southern National Motorsports Park, but Hirschman took home the winner's check after a spirited duel with Max McLaughlin for the last 10 laps of the Lucky Charms 99.

   Jonathan Brown topped the time trial chart turning the 4/10 mile speedway with a time of 14.893.  The track record is held by Junior Miller with a time of 14.220, that record was set in 1993.

 

   The top ten fastest qualifiers redrew for starting position and Jeremey Gerstner and Joey Coultier brought the 27 car field to flagman J.B. Cole's green flag. Gerstner and Coultier tried to run away from the rest of the field racing out to a quarter of a lap lead by lap 6.

   Behind Gerstner and Coultier the rest of the field was bunched up two by two side by side changing positions every lap.

   On lap 12 Coultier raced by Gerstner taking over the lead and racing out to a half lap lead. The first yellow came on lap 30. The stage caution negated Coultier's huge lead and allowed the field to bunch up for the restart. Behind Coultier was Gerstner, Hirschman, Caleb Heady, Brian Loftin and Max McLaughlin.

   Again Coultier flew out to a straightaway lead while Heady, driving the Tommy Baldwin number 7NY passed Hirschman on lap 34 and four laps later Heady put Gerstner in his rear view mirror for second place.

   The second yellow of the event flew on lap 59. It was the perfect time to pit for adjustments and fresh Hoosier tires. Exiting pit road first was Heady with the fastest qualifier of the event, Jonathan Brown second, Brandon Ward third. Jamie Tomaino fourth and Hirschman fifth.

   When the green reappeared Hirschman powered his way into third place and one lap later passed Brown for second place. Hirschman followed Heady for one lap and raced past him to become the new leader on lap 62.  Further back in the pack McLaughlin decided it was time to go and in twenty laps he raced into the runner up spot, then on lap 91 he caught Hirschman in heavy traffic and passed Hirschman for the lead.

   Three laps later Hirschman outdrove McLaughlin and became the new and final leader racing to the victory. McLaughlin followed in 0.558 of a second behind. Third on the podium was Burt Myers who put on a brilliant run to finish Hirschman and McLaughlin.

   The victory by Hirschman was his second this year and his fourth straight with the SMART tour.

Summary

Track- Southern National Motorsports Park, Kenly, N.C.

Size-4/10 mile 0.400

Race-Lucky Charms 99

Fastest qualifier-  Jonathan Brown- 14.893

Cautions-(3)-laps 30-59-94

Time of race-43:58.737

Lap leaders-#(79) 1-11-#(02) 12-58-#(7NY) 59-61- #(60) 63-90- #(77)-91-93-#(60)-94-99.

Finnish

1-#60-Matt Hirschman

2--77-Max McLaughlin

3--1--Burt Myers

4--2--Brandon Ward

5-25-Bobby Labonte

6-15-Brian Loftin

7-7NY-Caleb Heady

8-4-Jason Myers

9-14-Bobby Measmer Jr.

10-21-Jimmy Wallace

11-22-Jonathan Brown

12-02C-Joey Coultier

13-45-Gary Young

14-8F-Chris Finocchario

15-6-Greg Butcher

16-99-Jamie Tomaino

17-48-John Kievman

18-79-Jeremy Gershner

19-8NY-Wes Gilbert

20-07-Dennis Holdren

21-79D-Mason Diaz

22-5-Tom Buzze Jr.

23-01-Brian Weber

24-12-Dean Ward

25-02-Troy Young

26-00-Kevin Orlando

27-03-Craig Young

Next SMART tour event- Caraway Speedway, Sophia,N.C. 3/26/2022 

Unexpected Opportunity Leads to Chris Meyer Moving Up to Late Model Division at Stafford Speedway

Posted by Wayne G. Barber 

Stafford Springs, CT)---After finishing second in points with 7 total feature wins the last two seasons in Stafford Speedway’s Street Stock division, Chris Meyer had plans to chase the championship for one last season before moving up to Late Model competition in 2023.  Meyer’s plans have now been accelerated by a year with an opportunity to drive Scott Cook’s #99 Northeast Truck & Off-Road Late Model.

 

“I’m really excited for this opportunity,” said Meyer.  “We had originally planned on this being our last year in the Street Stocks and we were going to go Late Model racing next season.  Scott [Cook] was looking for a driver and both Bob Fill and Don Wood at R.A.D. Auto Machine told him I’d be interested.  I gave Scott a call and we talked out some details and we were able to come to an agreement that works out really well for both of us.  This is one of the best opportunities I’ve ever had and we’re all looking forward to it.”

 

Meyer won a championship in 2017 while racing at Waterford Speedbowl and he wasted no time getting comfortable in Stafford’s Street Stock ranks.  Meyer won 2 races in 2020 and 5 more in 2021 and finished second in the points standings in both of those seasons.  With such success already under his belt, Meyer felt like he might be the favorite for the 2022 Street Stock championship, but now he will be chasing Late Model Rookie of the Year honors.

 

“I’d say for our first season together our first goal would be to win Rookie of the Year,” said Meyer.  “After that, we want to get a win.  I don’t expect to win opening day but we expect to compete and we all anticipate being able to run up front and prove ourselves as a team.  If we leave the season with a win and some good top-5 finishes and competitive runs, I’d say that would be a successful season.  Winning trophies is where it’s at so we want to win races.  We won a championship in 2017 at Waterford so we have a championship team and we felt like we were going to be the favorites to win the Street Stock championship this season.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s going to be some strong competition this season between Travis Hydar, Nick Hovey, and Adrien Paradis but we really felt like the favorites.  However, I’m not disappointed [about not racing for the Street Stock championship].

 

In addition to himself as the driver, Meyer will also be bringing his crew members along with him to the #99 team and Meyer will have his businesses listed as sponsors alongside the sponsors that Cook already had lined up for his car.

“I have a great group of guys behind me and they’ll be coming along with me to Scott’s car and I’m going to do my best to make Scott happy with me driving his car,” said Meyer.  “Scott has really good sponsors and he’s going to put D & L Services and Meyer’s Crazy Hollow Creamery on the car along with Northeast Truck and Off-Road, Randy Chamberlain and Big Butch Motorsports.”

 

Meyer has already been busy taking notes about the competition he will face this season and he is confident that Cook’s experience as well as advice from others will make learning a new car and division a not so tough proposition.  

 

“I’m a student of the game so I’m always watching and learning who my competitors are,” said Meyer.  “I’ve been watching film since Scott and I made this agreement and I have a lot of people I can lean on for advice.  I’d say the biggest thing for me will be adjusting my mentality behind the wheel.  I have limited experience racing cars with a three-link suspension and a locked rear end and I’ll have to get adjusted to the horsepower difference between the Street Stock and Late Model cars.  I’m not sweating that too much because Scott has been doing this a long time and he has a great notebook to work with.  I’ve been thinking about the car day and night and I know it’s not all going to be on me.  Scott knows his car very well and he’ll be able to carry that load for me.  We’ll take things as they come and try to get better each and every week.”

 

Meyer and Cook will be sure to utilize all the track time they can get in the open practice scheduled for Saturday, April 16, the week before the season opening NAPA Spring Sizzler®.

 

“That open practice session might be the most important track day of the year for us,” said Meyer.  “We can make the largest gains with the car that day and we’re looking to get as many laps as we can before the season starts because we want to compete and we want to look good out there.”

 

Meyer will begin his Late Model quest on Sunday, April 24 as part of NAPA Spring Sizzler® Weekend.  Tickets for the 50th running of the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler® are now available at staffordspeedway.com/tickets. The two day event begins Saturday, April 23rd with the NAPA Auto Parts Duel, two 40-lap qualifying races that will set the field for the 50th NAPA Spring Sizzler scheduled for April 24th. The PASS Super Late Models and all five of Stafford’s weekly divisions as well as the Vintage All-Stars will also be on hand for the weekend.

Pass SLM Easter Bunny Results 3-18-22

 Posted by Wayne G. Barber      Track reporters, Photo's by Crystal and Jim Snape 

PASS SLM 150 Easter Bunny #1

Results are not official

1

1	#74 Ryan Moore   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:15.923	5	00:14.641
2	#53 Cole Butcher   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:16.319	36	00:14.689	0.396	0.396
3	#4NH Joey Polewarczyk   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:16.786	39	00:14.823	0.863	0.467
4	#61 Gabe Brown   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:17.178	8	00:14.817	1.255	0.392
5	#13 Austin MacDonald   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:17.579	23	00:14.863	1.656	0.401
6	#32L Treyton Lepcevich   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:17.986	6	00:14.742	2.063	0.407
7	#94 Garrett Hall   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:18.169	9	00:14.785	2.246	0.183
8	#60 D J Shaw   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:18.485	5	00:14.565	2.562	0.316
9	#7C Tyler Church   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
	150	01:25:18.489	6	00:14.620	2.566	0.004
	#1 Kyle Desouza   North SLM
	Laps	Total Time	Best Lap	Best Time	Diff	Gap
						0.151 11 #17MA Eddie MacDonald   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 150 01:25:18.926 4 00:14.695 3.003 0.286 12 #4 Ben Rowe   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 150 01:25:19.486 4 00:14.840 3.563 0.560 13 #7N Travis Benjaman   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 150 01:25:19.508 3 00:14.807 3.585 0.022 14 #7B Isaac Bevin   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 148 01:25:19.334 5 00:14.972 3.411 15 #18s Michael Scorzelli   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 148 01:25:20.696 6 00:14.985 4.773 1.362 16 #09 Jeremy Davis   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 146 01:21:30.454 9 00:14.952 17 #12 Rodney Brooks   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 139 01:15:40.661 5 00:14.995 18 #52 Jake Matheson   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 135 01:25:20.182 9 00:14.801 4.259 9:39.521 19 #43 Nick Loden   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 134 01:11:08.625 3 00:14.672 20 #96 Wyatt Alexander   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 134 01:11:16.587 11 00:14.817 7.962 #09P John Peters   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 124 01:04:52.674 4 00:14.847 22 #29 Trevor Sanborn   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 98 57:57.573 44 00:14.967 23 #42 Kyle Reid   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 79 14:50.948 6 00:14.799 24 #12G Derek Griffith   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 74 48:25.124 5 00:14.634 33:34.176 25 #21 Joshua KIng   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 54 37:00.953 11 00:14.921 26 #32J Nick Jenkins   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 53 36:27.450 5 00:14.603 27 #10 Kate Re   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 53 36:28.495 8 00:14.719 1.045 28 #66VT Jason Corliss   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 50 36:28.553 23 00:14.931 0.058 29 #15H Mike Hopkins   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 31 16:39.153 3 00:14.618 30 #09R Ryan Ripley   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 17 08:07.891 3 00:14.674 31 #72 Ryan Kuhn   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 17 08:09.542 12 00:14.917 1.651 32 #7ct Cory Casagrande   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 13 03:14.329 6 00:14.917 33 #88 Brandon Barker   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 00:00 0 00:00 34 #24J J P Josiasse   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 00:00 0 00:00 0.000 35 #83 Cory Hall   North SLM Laps Total Time Best Lap Best Time Diff Gap 00:00 0 00:00 0.000

Florence Motor Speedway, Timmonsville, S.C. March 5, 2022

 Posted by Wayne G. Barber           Story & Photos by Crytal and James Snape

An impressive 23 car field signed in at the Florence Motor Speedway for the running of the S.M.A.R.T. Tour Low Country 99 with Bobby Measemer Jr. turning in a quick qualifying time of 17.086 taking down the first Pace-O-Matic pole award on the 4/10 mile speedway.

   Caleb Heady holds the track record of 16.806, he set that record one year ago 3/20/2021.

   After the top twelve drivers redrew for position Jimmy Wallace and Brandon Ward brought the field to flagman Brian Callen's green flag and Wallace blazed out to a ten car length lead in the first handful of laps until Dean Ward reeled Wallace in and took command of the event on lap eleven while Matt Hirschman watched the hot action from his seventh starting spot.

   Ward's lead only lasted five laps until Dennis Holdren shot into the number one spot and held it to the lap thirty Jerry Hunt Super Center stage break but Holdren spun his tires on the restart and Dean Ward, Caleb Heady and Hirschman took advantage by racing by. Three laps later Heady  powered pass Ward and took command but Hirschman was eyeing the $200.00 Bankers Life halfway leader award and out dragged Heady down the backstretch to power into the lead.

   2021 Bowman Gray modified Champion, Burt Myers who has been winless at Florence was the next to flex his muscle and charged into the number one spot

 but it was short lived as Hirschman blew by Myers on lap 64 and never relinquished the top spot for the remainder of the 99 lap marathon.

   With time running out seventeen year old Caleb Heady pushed his Tommy Baldwin Jr. mount to its limit and pressured Hirschman looking inside then outside but Hirschman held Heady at bay while Brandon Ward put on a late race charge and was possibly the fastest car on track at this point. but lap traffic kept him from challenging Heady or Hirschman to better his third place finish.

   In victory lane Hirschman said,"You never really know, cautions can make or break your race strategy". "For the first time here  we really adjusted to it and dug into my bag of tricks by referring back to what we learned at Myrtle Beach and a couple of other tracks." Hirschman added, "you try to figure it out and do the best you can. Those last 30 laps were some hard running right there."   

   Second place Heady said. "Man I needed those lap cars to get out of the way, I feel like we would've had a shot if it was clean there." "I could pick my own line and go wherever I wanted but more or less it was a good race." He added, "Man ,second place sucks, but I cant thank Tommy Baldwin enough for this bad fast car.

   Brandon Ward came across the line third and said,"We did wait late to take a tire, we figured it would come down to who had the best tires at the end.' "I felt like it was the best strategy, we were too far deep into the field by the time we got our tire." "By the time we got back to third, we kind of leveled off" he said. " I had ran them back down but we just used it up to get back to where I was at. Got to thank Randy Renfrow and the entire Coulter Motorsports team."

Summary

Time of race- 1hr. 19:52

Cautions-7 for 39 laps

Lap-30, (stage break)-34-66-67-69-75-78

Lead changes-8 among 6 drivers

1-10-Wallace

11-16-D.Ward

17-34-Holdren

35-38-D.Ward

39-45-Heady

46-62-Hirschman

63-B.Myers

64-99Hirschman

Lap leaders

Hirschman-54

Holdren-17

Wallace-10

D.Ward-10

Heady-7

B.Myers-1

Jostens lap leader- Hirschman

Bankers Life halfway leader- Hirschman

PACE-O-MATIC pole award-Bobby Measemer

Jerry Hunt Super Center stage winner-Holdren

Finish

1-  #60-  Matt Hirschman

2-    7ny- Caleb Heady

3-    2-     Brandon Ward

4-    1-     Burt Myers

5-     22-  Jonathan Brown

6-     25-  Bobby Labonte

7-     15-  Brian Loftin

8-     21W-Jimmy Wallace

9-     4-    Jason Myers

10-   14-  Bobby Measemer

11-   12-  Dean Ward

12-   07H-Dennis Holdren

13-   95-  Cody Kohler

14-   48- Jon Keivman

15-   79- Jeremy Gerstner

16-   99- Jamie Tomaino

17-   00- Kevin Orlando

18-   02Y-Troy Young

19-   21N-Tommy Neal

20-   01-  Brian Weber

21-   03- Craig Young

22-   45- Gary Young Jr.

23-   6-   Greg Butcher