Yesterday’s Dirt

Words: Lee Ackerman Photos: Tony Hammett

Chub Frank three-wheeled his way to a fifth place run.

A TRULY COLOSSAL EVENT

PART I

IN 2000, THE OWNERS of the Charlotte Motor Speedway built a 4/10ths mile dirt track just across Highway 29 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The idea was to host special events in conjunction with the two big race weeks at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In 2006, they decided to add a huge dirt late model event. The inaugural Circle K Colossal 100 came with a winner’s payday of $50,000.

The inaugural event held in late April 2006 turned out to be a success, despite the fact that mother nature tried to put a damper on it. Thunderstorms hampered the event on both Friday and Saturday night, but a healthy crowd helped make things a success.

When you put up a lot of money on the table you get a lot of cars and that was true in the case of the Colossal as 119 cars entered the event. When time trials had been concluded it was Moweaqua, Illinois’ Shannon Babb with fast time with a lap of 15.421 seconds. This set the lineup for ten heat races with the top two finishers going to the 100 lap A feature.

The top six finishers from each of two B features then made their way to the feature. Spots 33 and 34 went to the two fastest qualifiers who had not yet qualified for the feature with the final two positions in the 36-car starting field going to the two drivers not yet qualified with the earliest postmark entry. 12-lap heat race wins were scored by Babb, West Virginia’s Chuck Harper, Winfield, Tennessee’s Mike Marlar, Arkansas’ Jared Landers with Georgia’s Shane Clanton and Clint Smith claiming the next two heats with the final four going to West Virginia’s Mike Balzano, Minnesota’s Justin Fegers, Virginia’s Booper Bare and Ohio’s Matt Miller.

North Carolina drivers won both of the 20-lap C features with Furman Parton taking the first one and Gary Mabe the second. Wisconsin’s Brady Smith took the first 25 lap B feature and moved to the big race along with Louisiana’s Garrett Durrett, Ohio’s Million Dollar Man Donnie Moran, Mississippi’s Rick Rickman, Parton (from the C) and Georgia’s Ed Basey.

West Virginia’s Tim Dohm won the second B and advanced along with Pennsylvania’s Jeremy Miller, Illinois’ Darren Miller, Iowa’s Denny Eckrich, North Carolina’s Ricky weeks and Pennsylvania’s Chub Frank. Alabama’s Ronny Lee Hollingsworth and New York’s Tim McCreadie got in on time with Ed Basey and Virginia’s Ronnie DeHaven making it in with the earliest postmarks and filling out the starting field of 36.

Some drivers just seem to rise to the occasion for the big money races and certainly Mooresburg, Tennessee’s Scott Bloomquist has proved that again and again throughout his amazing career. This race was no different. Bloomquist started fourth and patiently drove through the first half of the race where the caution flew ten times (13 in all).

Those cautions help to diminish the 36car field as fast as the clouds that dumped a large amount of water about 5 pm had

disappeared. On lap 51, Bloomquist decided it was time to take off and took the lead from Kentucky’s Steve Francis. Francis wasn’t thru and regained the point on lap 68 but Bloomer rode the high side back to the lead on lap 70.

From that point Bloomquist went unchallenged to the checkers and a huge $50,000 payday. The man on the move during the second half of the event was Donnie Moran. Moran started 25th (coming out of the B) and charged all the way up to a second-place finish and a $25,000 payday.

Francis, started on the front row with fast qualifier Babb, finished third, Georgia’s Dale McDowell finished fourth with Chub Frank fifth. Babb started on the pole but got tangled up with the lapped car of Justin Fegers on lap 67 and made two yellow flag pits tops before battling back to sixth. Rounding out the top ten were Hollingworth, Bare, Parton and Weeks.

“I’m worn out,” Bloomquist commented after the race. “I was out of tear offs. The car was super. We built these cars new this year, and Vic Hill is doing our engines now, and we were strong on the restarts. This was one great win for us. We have some pretty special race cars, and we put a lot of tender love and car into it. We worked really hard to win tonight.”

After the race, Speedway Director of Events Roger Slack confirmed that the race will be back for a second time the next April and said he was pleased with the way the first one turned out despite thunderstorms that hampered the event.

“The thing that makes you mad is that we have made great strides with that race track, and out of nowhere we get rain on Wednesday that screwed us up for the rest of the week,” said Slack. “We thought we had it back in pretty good shape after Friday and then to get hit again just as we were ready on Saturday is frustrating.”

If a Bloomquist chassis won the first Colossal 100, they dominated at the Second Annual Colossal 100. Bloomquist, who had proven time and again over the years that he was as good a dirt late model driver as there has ever been made a big statement for being a damn good chassis builder as well. When the smoke cleared and dirt quit flying at Colossal Two, Bloomquist Chassis had finished one, two, three.

Starting ninth in the field, the defending Colossal 100 champion started ninth in the field and with his teammate, Gray Court, South Carolina’s Chris “Smokey” Madden swapped the lead five time in the 100- lap feature with the unique “Choose Rule” employed at the Dirt Track at Charlotte playing a major role in the restarts in a race that saw eleven yellow flags.

Bloomquist took the lead from Madden on a lap 85 restart and despite heavy traffic during the closing laps held off Madden for the win. To make matters even sweeter for Team Bloomquist, “The Newport Nightmare” Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tennessee started the night in the C feature and raced his was into the A feature, starting 32nd and driving all the way up to a third-place finish.

“I have to take my hat off to Chris and Jimmy,” said Bloomquist. “Jimmy came all the way back and Chris was really strong, and when I slid on that start toward the end, it made my tires give up a bit, and that would have been tough on us if we would have stayed under green”

“The starts are really critical,” continued Bloomquist. “All I can say is its pretty nice to have a one-two-three with these boys, and It’s nice to have the order the way I like it.”

For his part Chris Madden earned $20,000 for finishing second while Jimmy Owens pocketed $10,000 for his long drive from the C to finish third in the A. Tim McCreadie had a solid run to finish fourth, with Shannon Babb finishing fifth, Ashland, Kentucky’s Steve Francis sixth, West Virginia’s Steve Shaver seventh, “the Hurricane” Jacksonville, Florida’s Earl Pearson eighth, Mike Balzano ninth and Kentucky’s Darrell Lanigan (who led the first three laps of the feature) tenth. 92 cars were on hand for the event with Earl Pearson, Jr. setting fast time at 15.078 seconds. Heat race wins went to Clint Smith, Ricky Weeks, the Wisconsin Wildman Dan Schleiper, Madden, Ohio’s Ben Adkins, South Carolina’s Dennis Franklin, South Carolina’s Jeremy Clements, Babb. Dale McDowell and Chuck Harper.

Illinois’ Brian Shirley and Jimmy Owens won the C Features. Georgia legend Jack Pennington and California’s Kellen Chadwick won the B features with Pearson, Shane Clanton, North Carolina’s Ray Cook and Iowa’s Brian Birkhofer getting provisionals.

Has any dirt late model racer ever looked more appropriate wielding a sword?

NEXT MONTH THE FINAL TWO COLOSSALS

Furman Parton and Rick Eckert tangled during their heat race.