Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Tough ruling clouds Blue-Gray finish
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: Sunday’s conclusion of the Blue-Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., left home-state driver Ross Bailes feeling like he was robbed of a chance to close out a $30,000 victory after officials forced the leader to pit during a caution with seven laps remaining in the 70-lap Southern All Star event won by Jonathan Davenport. Bailes led most of the way but his car showered significant sparks from the right-rear corner on a late restart, prompting the flagger to signal caution that series director Ray Cook said he didn’t want. During the caution, Cook pondered a solution, but once he saw Bailes gas up and send more sparks flying, Cook directed him to the pits for repairs in the interest of safety with Davenport inheriting the lead. Bailes’s crew found a body brace was flapping and bent into the right-rear wheel; he ended up 13th. Cook realized the situation set him up to be “the bad guy” in making the ruling, he told my colleague Todd Turner on Monday morning. Cook didn’t regret the decision, but regretted the predicament. “When you throw flags prematurely you create situations you can’t fix,” Cook said. “It’s a tough deal. … I just feel bad we all got put in that situation.”
No. 2: Bailes was obviously disappointed that his bid for a first career Blue-Gray 100 triumph ended in frustrating fashion. “I didn’t feel anything as far as like something rubbing or, you know, something wrong with the car, other than it kind of felt like it laid over on the right-rear a little bit more on that last restart,” Bailes told me on Monday afternoon. “I mean, obviously the tires were worn out. I don’t know if I could’ve made it (to the finish). That’s the thing I wish I could’ve been able to see if I would have. I might’ve blown a tire out the next lap or I might’ve made it all the way to the end but we will never know.” Bailes also wondered whether he would have lost the lead to Davenport on the restart circuit; while he noted that he saw the caution flight blink on as he headed down the backstretch so he had “already let out” of the gas, he acknowledged from watching the video that “J.D. definitely had a run on me so he may have gotten by me if it stays green … but again, we’ll never know.”
No. 3: The caution flag that was displayed as Bailes’s car trailed sparks left him dismayed. “I had no idea the caution was for me,” he said. “I heard them on the (one-way radio) saying something but I wasn’t really realizing they were talking about me. We ride around four, five laps it seemed like before I realized they were saying the caution was on me. Ray said that the flagger threw the caution and he had to charge somebody for the caution, even though it wasn’t his call to throw the caution. Then they told me to go to third because of the ‘blend rule’ even though we didn’t make a lap and nobody had passed me before the yellow came out. Then I had to go back around J.D. and (Chris) Madden (during the caution) and Ray (Cook) said whenever I throttled up sparks showed out of the back and that I need to take it to the pits.”
No. 4: A big winner on Saturday was Dalton Murty, the 21-year-old Super Late Model rookie from Chelsea, Iowa, who collected $20,000 for capturing the Midwest LateModel Association Liberty 100 at West Liberty (Iowa) Raceway. Murty’s Skyline Motorsports crew chief, Zeb Holkesvik, texted me afterward: “How about that Murty kid? He’s turning out to be quite the little driver.” The 41-year-old Holkesvik noted that he’s had the opportunity to work closer with Murty in recent months with Skyline’s Tyler Bruening scaling back his racing activity and he’s now assumed the role of Murty’s head wrench and he’s “excited for the future.” Murty’s next action will be a first-time attempt at the World of Outlaws World Finals on Nov. 4-7 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C.
No. 5: I saw that there were some Dirt Late Model families running wild at Disney World last week — and they had a chance to meet up while enjoying their vacations in the Florida theme parks. Indiana’s Kent Robinson, who has largely backed away from driving but remains involved in the sport as a sponsor, hit up Disney with his wife, Sarah, and they two daughters Lane, 8, and Hadley, 4, at the same time that Illinois standout Jason Feger was there with his wife, Abby, and their 4-year-old daughter Wynn. Looks like they got a group picture in front of the Epcot ball — with Feger wearing a Kamp Motor Speedway shirt to rep Dirt Late Model racing — and hit rides together, but I didn’t see a photo of K-Rob and Feger posing with Mickey Mouse.
