2015 DIRTcar Nationals Notebook Day Five
By: Brooklyn Kennedy
-It was a very chilly night at Volusia on Thursday. With it being in the low 30s for most of the racing action, there really was a decline in fan count from the past several days. I think with the final two days seeing warmer race time temperatures and having the same two divisions running, it kept a lot of fans home.
-Shane Clanton is having a heck of a week so far. He scored his second Late Model win of the week after holding off some tough challenges from Don O’Neal. Going into the week I don’t think many people listed Clanton as the man to beat but he’s showing he has a good chance at taking home the Gator trophy.
-Josh Richards looked to be a challenger in the early laps of the event. He was steam rolling around the topside of the track for the opening 14 laps. It looked like he used up all of his tires a little too early and faded during the latter half of the feature.
-Scott Bloomquist showed how easy it is to go from hero to zero. After winning last night’s feature in dominating fashion, he finished last in his heat and grabbed the final transfer spot during his B main on the last lap. He was never a factor during the feature event.
-While not qualifying for the feature event 12-year-old Tyler Clem had a heck of a night. He passed Donny Schatz during hot laps and was in a qualified spot during his B main until Scott Bloomquist passed him on the last lap. Not many 12-year-olds can say they have raced side by side with some of the greatest racing legends of all time.
-The track was in great shape for both the Late Model and Modified features. There were multiple racing grooves in both features. While the speeds were about a second slower on average than yesterday, the multiple grooves made for great racing.
-The biggest disappoint of the night belonged to Billy Pauch. He was the fastest Modified all night and started on the pole. But by lap two he had dropped to last place. He quickly pulled off and didn’t return to finish the race.
-Stewart Friesen won the feature event in large part by finding the top groove had grip faster then Matt Sheppard. While Sheppard was leading Friesen moved up a lane and made it stick to take the lead coming out of turn four. He never relinquished the lead and went on the score the victory.
-The DIRT drivers were definitely in command tonight. With the exception of Rick Laubach the top 10 was dominated by the New York DIRT drivers. I expect much of the same over the final two days of competition.
-Tomorrow night I will be taking a break from the action at Volusia Speedway and will head to Bubba Speedway for the first night of their USAC racing action. I’m really looking forward to seeing USAC in action and will have a notebook posted tomorrow night.
