DirtonDirt.com Dispatches
Dispatches: Watkins falls shy in Xtreme title chase
Ben Watkins (16) on Friday at Cherokee. (ZSK Photography)
The latest notes and quotes from Dirt Late Model events nationwide from March 25-27, including World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series action from Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., and Zimmer's United Late Model Series competition at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa. (find XR Super Series Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals coverage elsewhere):
Watkins falls short
Ben Watkins of Rock Hill, S.C., entered the final weekend of winter's Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series as the tour's points leader, but he failed to clinch the title during the Rock Gault Memorial weekend at Cherokee Speedway.
Xtreme drivers including Watkins faced tough competition at the 4/10-mile oval with the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series was co-sanctioning weekend action and Watkins managed just a pair of 22nd- and 17th-place finishes.
That left the door open for Ross Bailes of Clover, S.C., to steal away with the $15,000 title, largely on the strength of his solid runner-up finish to Max Blair in Saturday's 60-lap main event.
"This track's always been a struggle to us," Watkins said. "We've been hit and miss at times. We've just been working on it trying to get better and better here, but this place has kinda plagued us. I've gotta get better here — there's too many big races
"But you know, if it was meant to be, maybe it would have been last night. It just wasn't meant to be. Congratulations to Ross and those guys, they work hard (and) really get around here. But I'm not gonna hang my head. Ross is a great driver ... we're just gonna keep (plugging away) and hopefully we can hit a few more big races."
Brown's memorable moment
Michael Brown watched a fellow South Carolinian, Ben Watkins, become a World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series winner for the first time last September at Lavonia (Ga.) Speedway.
Six months later, racing at one of his home state’s most venerable tracks, Brown joined Watkins on the national tour’s victory list.
Pageland, S.C.’s Brown broke through for the biggest triumph of his career on Friday night, capturing the 40-lap Rock Gault Memorial opener at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. He overtook Ryan Gustin for the lead just before the halfway point and never looked back en route to beating the WoO regular by 0.696 of a second.
Brown climbed atop his car’s roof in victory lane afterward and happily waved the checkered amid a flurry of confetti. The reigning Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series champion then declared how he felt in a post-race interview: “It’s badass, badass.”
Noting that he’s “always dreamed of doing this,” Brown shifted his comments almost entirely to mentioning all the pole who had gotten him to this unforgettable moment.
“Man, I just, I’ve got to thank everybody that’s behind me to get me here, first and foremost Mark McLeod,” Brown said, starting with his car owner. “If it wasn’t for him, none of this (stuff) would be possible. So hat’s off to him, hat’s off to my great crew, my awesome wife (Lauren). Mark Richards Racing with this Rocket Chassis … it’s a bad, bad, bad machine, so I can't thank him enough. Clements Automotive, my motor ran flawless, and Hoosier Tire South by Brian kept me some tires on this. Also hat's off to Kurt Rogers at Rocket. I wear him out every week asking him dumb stuff, so thank you, Kurt. I know your’re watching.”
Adding even more luster to Brown’s accomplishment, it came just days after his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child.
“And thank you to my beautiful wife for allowing me to do this, and my newborn baby Mason,” Brown said. “It’s awesome — my first race as a dad to get a win, so this is pretty badass.”
Gustin finally contends
The start of Ryan Gustin's second full-time World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series season didn't get off to a good start. In six starts, he didn't record a finish better than 25th on the national tour.
The 31-year-old Marshalltown, Iowa, driver finally got on track Friday at Cherokee Speedway in the first round of the Rock Gault Memorial weekend at the 4/10-mile oval. He started outside the front row, led laps 14-19 and posted a second-place finish behind surprise winner Michael Brown, Gustin's first podium finish on the series since last August.
"I just got too tight. You know, I was trying to hit (the groove) and then I'd just shove a little bit," Gustin said in his DIRTVision interview. "Obviously everybody was in the same speed down there in the rubber. But I can't thank (crew chief) Taylon Center enough. Man, he's busted his butt on these cars, and he's got us really really close. The big one's tomorrow. so hopefully we get that one."
Can he improve in Saturday's $20,000-to-win event?
"It all just depends on what the track does honestly," Gustin said. "I mean, tomorrow's a new day. Hopefully we'll be just a little bit better and one spot better."
Friday's WoO tidbits
With his fourth-place finish Friday, Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., moved into the series points lead. ... Erb took the tour lead from Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., who gave up his WoO chase to compete in XR Super Series action in the Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where he pocketed a $50,000 victory. ... Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., improved nine positions to finish ninth at Cherokee. ... Michael Brown is the second home-state winner in WoO competition at Cherokee. Ross Bailes of Clover, S.C., won a 2019 visit to Cherokee (Bailes was 21st Friday).
Eckert's work pays off
Rick Eckert’s first weekend of Dirt Late Model action of 2022 didn’t satisfy him. So he went to work in his shop to make sure his second weekend lived up to his expectations.
Flipping the script from his runner-up finish to Gregg Satterlee in his season debut March 18 at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Eckert returned to the historic half-mile oval Friday night and simply ran away from Satterlee to capture the 30-lap Zimmer’s United Late Model Series feature.
“Well, we worked on three of the four corners to get better, and that was better,” Eckert said of his self-owned XR1 Rocket car after claiming Friday’s $3,500 top prize. “I’ve cut this car apart in the past couple of week three times, two times, trying to get it more fitting to my liking. I think we’re gaining on it.
“I don’t know if we’re the best car yet, but we’re gonna try to be there before long.”
The 56-year-old standout from York, Pa., remarked that the development of his familiar No. 0 machine is a work in progress. His opening-weekend finishes of second at the Grove and fifth on March 20 at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway — both in ULMS-sanctioned events — left plenty of room for improvement, and he used his vast experience to make the right changes in the days leading up to his second try at Grove competition.
Eckert was searching for more speed right up to Friday’s A-main and he obviously found it as he led from flag-to-flag and beat Satterlee by over 12 seconds.
“Well, I wasn’t very good in the heat race and I worked on it,” Eckert said. “Gregg (Satterlee) was a good bit better than us last week, and I worked on my car and I was hoping I made my car better, which I did. My car was way better. I just really couldn't slow down. I was extremely tight, so I had to just charge really hard and keep my speed up or I pushed. My (spotter) was telling me I had a pretty good lead, but if I slowed down, I felt like I was falling over, so I just kept going.”
Eckert, whose first action of 2022 came in February in open-wheel modified events at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga., and Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., registered his ninth career victory at Williams Grove. It was his first checkered flag at his home-state track since 2019, when he won a ULMS show in March and an unsanctioned race in June.
Blair gets taste of Cherokee
WoO rookie Max Blair led the first 13 laps Friday at Cherokee, but the Centerville, Pa., driver admitted he was facing conditions and a track where he didn't have much experience. The Viper Motorsports driver gutted out a third-place finish.
"This (type of track) isn't something I've raced on much," Blair said. "I just didn't really know what to do with them lapped cars, and I obviously made the wrong choice. But you know, I think maybe we could've caught a yellow (flag) before we got the lapped traffic. I felt pretty good in clean air and those guys didn't really get away from me much after they got by. But congrats them guys, it was a lot of fun. Hopefully we can get a little better tomorrow."
Blair leads WoO's rookie points and stands third in WoO standings heading in Saturday's 60-lapper at Cherokee.
"I'm just trying to learn every time I'm on a racetrack against these guys. I think we're getting a little better and a little better every night we're out, so hopefully we get where we want to be here," he said. "I mean ... I'd rather be sitting up there where all like confetti's laying, but for my first time here, we'll take a third."
