Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Ocala features efficiently run programs
In a new feature appearing regularly on DirtonDirt, senior writer Kevin Kovac will offer readers five things worth mentioning from around the Dirt Late Model landscape (index to previous Take Fives):
No. 1: I’m not at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway covering this week’s Wieland Winternationals — Kyle McFadden is on the scene for DirtonDirt — but, watching from home in Pennsylvania, I’m very pleased to see the single-division shows that promoter Bubba Clem is running for the entirety of the week-long event. Two headline classes sharing the bill, like at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., is acceptable as long as the program is spun off efficiently, but any other type of multidivision card just doesn’t feel like Georgia-Florida Speedweeks to me. Three cheers to Ocala for spotlighting the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and ensuring crisp, early-ending evenings all week long (Tuesday’s opening-night 30-lapper won by Devin Moran took the checkered flag at 8:26 p.m.).
No. 2: Talk about a weird moment — during Tuesday’s qualifying session at Ocala, the car driven by Dave Loudin of Volga, W.Va., slowed on the frontstretch and he appeared to be drifting low and into the infield in turn one. With the green flag remaining out for the multicar group, Loudin instead turned right toward the turn-one opening to the pit area, which took him right into the path of the onrushing Michael Leach of Sun River, Mont. Leach tossed his car sideways and slid into the right-rear corner of Loudin’s car, but the contact wasn’t as heavy as it could have been. Disaster was averted, albeit just barely.
No. 3: Lucas Oil Series announcer James Essex pointed out during Tuesday’s FloRacing broadcast of Ocala’s action that Clay Harris of Jupiter, Fla., is fielding a car that not only has green as a primary color but also carries images of shelled peanuts in its wrap (he’s sponsored by the Florida Peanut Federation). So he’s racing in the face of a double-whammy for superstitious racers since the color green and peanuts around a race car have long been considered bad luck. Considering Harris’s performance so far this season — three straight podium finishes in Lucas Oil Series action after his third-place run on Tuesday — he must have the old-school railbirds shaking their heads.
No. 4: I enjoyed the time-lapse video clips that were shown several times during Tuesday’s FloRacing broadcast, most notably the sped-up aerial shot of all the Dirt Late Model cars circling the track during surface-packing. I thought seeing the cars moving around the track and then heading off to the pits was pretty cool. And there was also the time-lapse clip of announcers James Essex and Dustin Jarrett that was shot from behind them in the tower; what I got out of that one is that Jarrett swings back-and-forth in his chair so often as he calls the action — while Essex remains very stationary in his — that D.J. just might wear his chair out by the end of the week.
No. 5: I happened to notice that today (Feb. 25) would have been the 65th birthday of NASCAR Cup Series star Davey Allison, who died in a 1993 plane crash at the age of 32. Why do I mention this? Well, it reminded me that we now have a Davey Allison lookalike on the national Dirt Late Model scene with 21-year-old Dallon Murty of Chelsea, Iowa, debuting with Skyline Motorsports during Speedweeks. I know I’m not the only one who sees Murty’s resemblance to Allison.
