By James Stewart

Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful for the continuation of the Hayes Jewelers 200 modified race later that day.  As the day progressed a few clouds drifted thru, but the forecast was looking good!  The gates opened at 6:00 and the crowd started pouring in.  The Stadium Stocks rolled onto the track for practice followed by the Modifieds, Sportsman. Street Stock, Modifieds and Sportsman again for round 2.  Since the race was to be picked up from where it was stopped the previous week, there would be no qualifying. 

About 7:00 a very dark, ominous cloud moved over the Stadium and by 7:15 the rain was coming down.  The cloud seemed to be the same size as the Stadium and you could see clearer skies all around.  The wreckers took to the track to try to keep some heat in it and as dry as possible.  Radar showed the rain lasting about 10 minutes but it hung around for an hour.  As the 8:00 racetime approached the track crew said the track would be ready for racing in about 20 minutes since the rain had stopped.  At 8:30, 30 minutes later than normal. the National Anthem was played and the Sportsman cars rolled out for their 40 lap event. 

The field started per draw and Zack Ore drew the pole with Zack Clifton on the outside.  Where last week’s race was exciting with the lead changing many times, this race was pretty much a snooze fest.  Zack Clifton led pretty much the whole race to get his first victory of the season.  Tommy Neal drove from a last place start to a 2nd place finish.  The only fireworks in this race happened around lap 10 when John Holleman IV and Michael Adams tangled exiting turn 2.  Holleman’s car was on the inside and as they touched climbed up the drivers side of Adams car, leaving both with damage that ended their nights.

As the modifieds rolled out to be lined up, noticeably missing were Jr Miller and Chris Fleming.  Miller was 7 laps down when the event was stopped last week and decided to stay home and get ready for next week.  Fleming was a top 10 car, but dropped out to attend the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, KY with his precious wife.  As the field started to roll, the laps started clicking off.  This would lead to confusion later on.  As the signal 1 to go was shown, the cone was set out and the drivers chose their lines.  It was no surprise that Tim Brown and Burt Myers led the field. When the green unfurled, the modifieds came out of turn 4 as if shot by a cannon!  Brown and Myers raced side by side for a couple laps before Brown was able to slide over in front of Myers.  Jason Myers was running 3rd and John Smith 4th. 

The race was restarted with lap 41 and Brown led Myers thru a couple restarts after cautions.  Remember Jonathan Brown had started the 200 last week with no practice or qualifying and had went from last to 11th in 40 laps….and Danny Bohn had lost 3 laps due to being black flagged for a fuel leak, but had made them up with the Lucky Dog pass  3 times and was back on the lead lap when the rains fell last week.  Bohn restarted 14th.  Brown and Bohn had moved to 5th and 6th respectively as the laps got into the 70’s.  Suddenly the 22 of Jonathan Brown slowed and headed to the pits, his night done with a power steering failure. 

As the laps approached 90, a very light rain started to fall again, and most were probably thinking that if they were able to make it to lap 100 and halfway, the race would end.  As lap 100 clicked off, the light rain got lighter but the race continued.  Not knowing if the rain would persist or not, Burt Myers started putting the heat to Tim Brown and while passing lapped traffic actually took the lead for a lap before getting caught inside by a slower car and Brown passed him back.  A few laps later though, Myers was able to make the pass on Brown for the lead just before the caution came out due to an incident involving Brandon Ward, John Smith, and Danny Bohn. 

Myers, Brown, and Bohn went to the pits for new rear tires.  Brown pitted a 2nd time under caution to get new front tires.  As the field lined up around the cone with 40 laps to go, you had to wonder if Brown had enough time to come from near the back or if Myers and Bohn would succeed with only 2 new tires.  Surprisingly Myers took the inside line which restarted him 9th and Brown took the outside to restart him 6th.  Brandon Ward and John Smith were on the front row.  What?  Both were in the incident that caused the caution….something was not right.  Remember the confusion I mentioned earlier?  This was it and it got worse before the night was over. A lot of lapped cars took the outside cone also and that is a no no….but the green flag flew.  After a couple laps Danny Bohn gave Burt Myers a hard hit that sent Myers spinning and another caution.  On the next cone lineup, cars were going everywhere, but the green flew again.  Tim Brown, on 4 new tires, was passing cars ahead of him on the outside.  As he approached 3rd running Ronnie Clifton with 20 laps to go, he dived inside of Clifton’s pushing car into turn 3…the cars made contact and went in the 3rd turn wall.  Some say Brown was at fault, some say Clifton, but it ended the night for both drivers. 

The race ended with Brandon Ward being flagged the winner, followed by John Smith, Joe Ryan Osborne, Danny Bohn, and Burt Myers rounding out the top 5.  The 53 team that Smith drives for protested the scoring, and after reviewing scoring charts and video, it was determined that Ward’s car had actually lost 2 laps in an earlier spin and Smith was declared the winner on Monday morning, more than 36 hours after the race ended.  The official release stated there was an error on Ward’s scorers sheet.  Truth be known, and ask anybody that scores, the real screw up should have been blamed on the official head scorer, Richard Miller.  Scorers were told to start their scoring at the green flag, yet Miller started as the first cation laps were run.  The scorers tried to get him to understand that scoring was messed up, but Miller refused to do anything about it.  This is not the first time this has happened.  All this could have been avoided if the cars were allowed to use transponders, but BG management refuses to allow electronic timing.  It has long been a theory that BG management likes to be able to “control” a race, place certain drivers where they want them.  This certainly seems to agree with that!  And not only in the modifieds, but every division.  It seems that every week, there are certain drivers getting hassled for minute things…ask Street Stock competitors Kevin Gilbert and KJ Stimpson!

Back to the modifieds, Ward agreed with the decision, saying he knew he was a couple laps down, but it does no good to argue with track management, so he just went with the flow.  He graciously gave up the trophy to be given to Smith.  Smith said he knew he was right, and hated it for Ward and having to win that way, but right is right.

The Street Stocks lined up for their 20 lap race with Jamie Byrd and Jasper Sumner on the front row.  As the green flew and the cars entered turn 1 3rd starting Gerald Robinson, Jr seemed to have a hung throttle and barrelled into Byrd as Sumner jumped to the lead and the rest of the field stacked up behind.  Many cars were damaged and finished for the night before the first lap was completed.  Sumner led the first 6 laps before 2015 champion Derrick Rice took the lead and cruised to victory.  AJ Sanders and Brandon Brendle won 15 lap Stadium Stock races.

Up this week is the Kevin Powell Motorsports 100 for the modifeds, 2 20 lap Sportsman races, 2 15 lap Stadium Stock races, a 20 lap Street Stock race, and the season’s first skid plate race.  A skid plate race is with front wheel drive cars and the rear wheels have been replaced with welded on “skis”.  It’s hard to control and is good for a few laughs!  Protocol for the 100 lap modified races this season is they will qualify and a trophy presented to the fastest qualifier, but the field will do a complete field redraw for starting postions.  Fans love it, the drivers despise it, but the cone is used and there is always lots of excitement!  Again this year for 100 lap races is the Fan Challenge.  The top 4 modified qualifiers have the choice to start in the rear instead of drawing and if they can race back to at least a top 4 finish. they can collect a share of $3000 extra. If no one wins it or a share, it rolls over to the next 100 lap race!  Gates will open at 6, modified qualifying at 7.  Hoping for sunny skies!!

I also want to say thank you to the readers.  I actually had a fan in the pits prerace hear me introduce myself to new modified driver and fellow resident of Lewisville, Scott Gordon, and asked me to autograph his program, lol!!  I was glad to oblige….been 36 years since I had done that, lol!!!  Following are the results for the May 7th races.

Hayes Jewelers 200

40-lap Sportsman Race

Race One

Race Two