Florence Speedway
JRR's 'other' driver gets rolling at North-South
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
Justin Rattliff (16) battles at Florence. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
UNION, Ky. (Aug. 8) — Florence Speedway’s big Sunoco North-South 100 weekend crowd was all riled up for Jason Jameson, the home track standout, to make a bid for victory on a lap-16 restart in Friday’s second 25-lap semifeature.
When the green flag returned, though, it was Jameson’s James Rattliff Racing Motorsports teammate who very nearly stole the show. | RaceWire
Justin Rattliff of Campbellsville, Ky., the son of the team owner, launched off the inside of turns one and two from the fifth spot. He raced three-wide underneath Jameson and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., down the backstretch, seized control of second at lap 18 and closed right up on leader and eventual winner Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio.
“At one time I thought I might win the thing when I caught Devin,” Rattliff said.
Rattliff couldn’t seal the deal, losing second to O’Neal’s turn-three slider on lap 20 and settling for a third-place finish. But it was still an outstanding performance by the 38-year-old driver who competes on a limited basis for a team that also fields entries for Jameson and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular Daulton Wilson of Fayetteville, N.C.
With only six starts this season entering the North-South 100, Rattliff spotted his rivals plenty of laps. He showed no outward rustiness, however, as he mixed it up on even terms with everyone in his path while advancing from the 12th starting spot in his Longhorn Chassis he debuted in late May.
“I’ve just done it for a while,” said Rattliff, who started his racing career over two decades ago and early on, in 2007-08, was a full-time traveler with the Lucas Oil Series. “You don’t really forget how to do it. It’s hard though … like, these guys never mess up. I’ve caught myself making a few mistakes and then lose a spot, you know?”
Rattliff undoubtedly came out on the positive end of the position equation. He said he was assisted by the three caution flags that were displayed on laps 11, 15 and 16, allowing his soft right-rear tire choice to excel and carry him from eighth to second over the stretch.
“We had on a soft (3-compound) tire and on those restarts I could get down in that bottom and just go,” Rattliff said. “And I think they all had on hard (4-compound) right-rears and it would take them like three laps to get going. I could pass two or three, and then it was such a momentum deal, like, they really had to get going to get back by me.
“So I think we just had the right tire. We started 12th, so for where we started, I think we had the right tire. After like five, six laps, my tire would start getting hot and their’s would start getting better, but I think we did all we could do from where we started it.”
Jameson was certainly impressed by his stablemate. It appeared he was primed to battle Moran for the $6,000 victory after race-long leader Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., was knocked out on lap 11 in a homestretch incident with the lapped Roger Williams of Independence, Ky., but he didn’t take off well and could watch Rattliff sail past him.
“He gave me a (helmet) tearoff when he passed, I was so slow then,” Jameson joked afterward.
After Jameson failed in his attempt to split O’Neal and Rattliff off turn two on the lap-16 restart, he faded significantly over the remaining distance to finish seventh. He said he initially thought he might have had a right-rear tire going down but, upon further evaluation, believed his trouble stemmed from the hard 4-compound tire he had on his car’s right-rear corner sealing over through the series of caution flags.
While Jameson was frustrated with his late slide, he hailed Rattliff’s run.
“He ran good. Congrats to Justin,” Jameson said. “He’s been good since he got in that car. For somebody that doesn’t have a lot of seat time, he’s doing a helluva job.”
Rattliff has been competitive in his occasional action this season, finishing worse than fourth just twice in his eight overall starts after Friday. He placed 20th on May 9 at Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon, Ky., and seventh in Thursday’s second 25-lap semifeature at Florence. He has two runner-up finishes, on May 25 at Mudlick Valley Raceway in Wallingford, Ky., and last Saturday at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway.
“The car’s been really good, so that’s been most of it,” Rattliff said. “We’ve run good with it. The first night out we got in a wreck, but other than that, we’ve been real good.”
The success has Rattliff looking to “race a little bit more” in search of his first triumph since a 604 Crate Late Model score on Aug. 19, 2023, at Richmond (Ky.) Raceway. It’s just not possible for him to run anything near a full schedule, let alone follow a national tour like he did with the Lucas Oil Series when he just turned 20.
“We just work all the time, and just had a baby last year,” said Rattliff, whose son, Jett, with his wife Necole will soon celebrate his second birthday. “That changed things. I work for my father — we sell cars — and we stay out on the road. We do wholesale automotive stuff, so we’re gone three or four days a week, so that kind of deters the racing. After being gone all week, I don’t want to be gone all weekend.”
Nevertheless, Rattliff has plans to at least run next week’s Butterball Wooldridge Memorial at Richmond and next month’s Jackson 100 at Brownstown. He’s also contemplating a return to Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, where he has competed in a crown jewel since the 2014 Dream. (He’s never started a major at Eldora, failing to qualify five times for both the Dream and World 100.)
The North-South 100 represents a return to crown jewel action for Rattliff, who has entered the event for the 13th time since 2006. He’s only started the finale twice — finishing 14th in 2010 and 18th in ’15 — and his last three attempts (2016, ’21, ’22) have resulted in DNQs.
“We’re not used to a race like this, three days in a row. We’ll be ready to go home tomorrow,” he said with a laugh.
