Only two weeks of racing remain before we
close on the 2015 racing season here at Five Flags Speedway. Both will be Saturday night races and Championships in all divisions will be decided. Then all drivers can start preparations for the 48th Annual Snowball Derby.
By Chuck Corder
Sterling Return: Marlin Enters PLM Tune-Up 100 Field, Three Decades After Lone Snowball Finish Three decades ago, Sterling Marlin came to Five Flags Speedway to test his mettle. He’s hoping his return appearance proves more triumphant. Marlin, the two-time Daytona 500 winner (1994, 1995) whose NASCAR career spanned some 33 years, finished 31st in the 1983 Snowball Derby. It was the only time Marlin faced the famed half-mile asphalt oval. Until tonight. Marlin, winner of 10 Sprint Cup Series races in an historic career, highlights what promises to be a blockbuster Pro Late Model field for the Allen Turner Tune-Up 100.. “It’s like riding a bicycle,” Marlin said of returning to Pensacola’s high banks. (Con’t on next page).
Let’s get down to business and talk about what you great fans can expect this Saturday night as we will play host to the Allen Turner Hyundai Pro Late Model 100 lapper. Ryan Luza, from Cypress, Texas will step to the plate as the point’s leader and will be looking to hold off a determined Wayne Niedecken, Jr. for the point’s title. After three straight wins at Five Flags, Luza will be looking for win number four. He will also be racing in safe mode and hopes for just a good finish to guarantee his first ever championship at the fast half mile. Look for a great field of cars to be on hand because this will be the last time they will race until the Allen Turner Snowflake 100 in December. Also racing for the 2015 title will be the Super Stocks as Randy Thompson holds a very slim lead over Gary Sutton. This one will certainly go down to the wire. (See Chuck Corder’s story inside). The Sportsman and Bombers will be on this week’s card but they will have to wait another week to decide a champion in each division. Also this Saturday night we expect to treat the fans with a special appearance of a well-known driver. I’m speaking of two time Daytona 500 winner, Sterling Marlin, who plans to make his first ever Pro Late Model start at Five Flags. Marlin, from Columbia, Tn., has eleven Nascar Cup wins under his belt and track championships at his home track at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, but with all the talent that will be here he will have his work cut out for the win. Hope you fans don’t miss these next two weeks because it should be some of the best racing we’ve seen all year. “SEE YA AT THE RACES’
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It didn’t take Marlin too long to come out of retirement when he left NASCAR in 2009. The Columbia, Tenn., native returned to his roots at his beloved Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. Marlin was an instrumental reason in preserving the iconic .596-mile short track in 2011. Then, a year after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Marlin began wheeling his No. 114 PLM in 2013, strictly around Fairgrounds Speedway. “It took a little bit of time to get used to ’em,” Marlin said of the late models. “But we’ve been competitive, especially here of late.” Marlin’s newfound youth has led him to expand his schedule this year. Last month, he raced in Montgomery.
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Marlin Continued-
. “Once we start riding, it’ll be OK. No doubt, we’ll need some tweaking here and tweaking there.” Making adjustments will be part of not only Marlin’s gameplan, but the strategy for a slew of PLM drivers. Drivers and their crews will take all the mental and physical notes they can muster in preparation for the ’Flake, one of short-track’s crown jewels. “We hope to gain more track position this time,” Marlin joked, referencing the disappointing finish at the ’83 Derby. “We’ll just need to be smooth on the gas and we’ve just gotta race.”
While Ryan Luza, the 19-year-old Texan, has the Allen Turner PLM series track championship virtually locked up thanks to his streak of three consecutive victories, most of his competitors just want to find a winning edge come December.
“That was real neat,” a humbled Marlin said, describing a scene of well-wishers flooding the racetrack. “There must’ve been 30 or so people coming outta the stands to say hello and wish me luck and share their memories. It was pretty neat.” When he’d talk on the phone to longtime friend James Finch, the Panama City businessman encouraged Marlin to come down and race Pensacola. Finch was an integral sponsor for the likes of Jeff Purvis, Eddie Mercer, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones during their respective Snowball Derby wins. “(Marlin) kept asking me when I was gonna come up there to Nashville and see him race,” said Finch, whose Phoenix Racing team fielded cars for both Sprint Cup Series and Xfinity Series races from 1990 to 2013 when he sold the team. “And, I told him, he should come down here to Pensacola.” As a young, fresh-faced 26 year old, Marlin came to Pensacola in 1983 to compete in short-track racing’s version of Daytona.By that time, Marlin already was one a heck of a hotshoe who had deep racing bloodlines. He won three consecutive track titles at his beloved Nashville from 1980 to 1982 and had dipped his toe into Sprint Cup. Read the rest of Chuck’s story on our web site: www.5flagsspeedway,com
“I talked to (Sutton) a couple of weeks ago, and told him I don’t deserve it,” Thompson said of the championship. “He said, ‘I don’t either.’ ” Yet here they are. And no one is near the duo. Thompson and Sutton have nearly lapped the field. Bubba Winslow sits third, but trails Thompson by 84 points. “It’s like we’re trying to give it to the other one, but neither one of us will take it,” Sutton said.
By Chuck Corder
Super Stocks Champ To Be Decided Tonight By Chuck Corder One race. For all the marbles. Whoever ends up on top as the Faith Chapel Super Stocks track champion Saturday night will let out a mighty exhale before a wild celebration ensues. Cantonment drivers Randy Thompson, 36, and Gary Sutton, 34, can’t exactly explain how they’re in championship contention going into the Super Stocks season finale. Both have struggled with motor issues all season. Thompson, who leads Sutton by a miniscule 7 points, has borne the brunt of handling issues. Sutton, who captured the 2012 Super Stocks Snowball Derby, has driven a modified Sportsman car several times to stay in the hunt, and then wrecked during the Super Stocks feature last month.
Sutton held the points lead in the summer thanks to a pair of early-season podium finishes. But when a brand-new motor blew up during practice for the fourth race, Sutton was left scrambling to stay points racing. He twice drove Kenny Williams’ Sportsman car just to remain in the hunt. “It’s pretty frustrating, honestly,” said Sutton, who is looking to improve on sixth- and fifth-place finishes in his last two races. “Every time I’ve been in my car, it’s been super-fast. But when the new motor blew up, we had kinda put all our eggs into that basket. “But stuff like that happens in racing. I’m not saying we’d be leading the points — not by a long shot — but the season definitely wouldn’t have been as frustrating.” Sutton has raced off and on at Five Flags for two decades. The husband of 15 years (Valerie) and father of two — 7-year-old daughter Emery; 13-year-old son Darren — took last year off while helping others with their cars inside the Mike Williamson Race Cars shop. In his spare time, with best friend Williamson’s help, Sutton put the finishing touches on his Super Stocks ride. “Mine took a little longer than everybody else’s,” he said. Read the rest of Chuck’s story on our web site: www.5flagsspeedway.com
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