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If there was a theme song to this years All Star Super Sprint Speedweek show at Wayne County Speedway, it would be A Rollin' and a Tumblin'.
Threatening skies greeted the participants and the fans for this year's event, but thankfully, the weather held off and we got to see some good racing. This was my third try at seeing a sprint race here since the first All Star race back in April where Parker Price Miller put on a heck of a show. I had been anxious to see the improvements recently made to the speedway but the rain has been relentless. This track is a paperclip shape, 3/8 mile, semi-banked turns and it has giant steel light poles in the infield that reach to the sky it seems. The old lights were mounted to the top of the front stretch fence and also to poles around the inside of the turns, and the lights would shine down on the cars so you could see them as they went by. These newer light poles, installed by previous owners after they removed the old lights, shine from the infield into the grandstand. As a result, the front stretch was always dark. Now, thankfully, front stretch lights were installed this spring and the lighting is much better. Also added was a new lighted scoreboard that shows the order of the cars. The times for time trials were not displayed however and I hope the speedway can include that soon.
51 cars were on hand, a pretty good car count. Jac Haudenschild was in a local ride, a black and white and pink #73. When I saw this car, I immediately thought of Kramer Williamson. Jac had it wound up and rode it to a 5th or so finish in the feature. Turns 1 and 2 were a little bumpy, 3 and 4 smooth. In time trials, Jason Dolick had a good run going but got the right rear too close to the guardrail on turn 3 entry and summersalted into the turn 3 catch fence. After the car came to a rest for about 10 seconds, the steering wheel flew across the track with some velocity. It was a spectacular looking flip, end over end but Jason was a-ok. It was more than an hour before they got the fence repaired so time trials could resume. Tony Stewart, having much practice at climbing fences, was hanging halfway up the fence with the other track folks helping fix it. I commend Tony for his hands on approach and leadership by example.
The racing, when resumed was really good. Little Haud raced to the front from his 7th starting spot in the dash. Paulker and May flip in the B main. The track was developing a little rut in 3 as well but it looked to me that the flips could be blamed on close racing and over exhuberance as much as some bumps in the turns. Dean Jacobs also turned over in turn 2 during the b-main.
Before the A-main, I took a stroll around the place. There were alot of t-shirt trailers and food vendors on hand. It was a really good atmosphere and it made me glad that this speedway is back up and going good again.
Holtgraver and Little Haud were on the front row of the main. Brad Haudenschild flips in turn 3 on lap 2. After that things settled down and we got to racing. Sheldon got out to a lead and Holtgraver faded. Price Miller came up and put a slider on Haud to grab the lead in turn 1 but Haud cut the whell and did a diamond and dove under PPM in turn ttwo down low to speed back past down the back straight. Guys were actually sliding up into the turn two guardrail on exit to bump the right rear for traction. But you had to be precise because many got their cars upset if they didn't do it just right. After that, Haud sailed away for the victory. Thank you All Stars and Tony Stewart and Wayne County Speedway. Looking forward to the next race!
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