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Marlar trifecta highlighted by Skylar's hot streak
Skylar Marlar at Thunder Mountain. (facebook.com/bestplumber)
The Winfield, Tenn., racing brothers Mike, Camaron and Skylar have piled up lots of victories in Late Model-style cars over the years. But winning three special events on the same night? Never.
Never, that is, until the Fourth of July. Talk about fireworks for the Marlar clan, whose father Dave has also been a longtime dirt racer.
"He called me and said, 'Well, you all did it. You all three won the same night,' " the 40-year-old Skylar Marlar said of his father. "He said, 'I had a good feeling about it.' "
Oldest brother Mike Marlar, 48, was the first to click off a victory, winning Saturday evening's Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series race at Mudlick Valley Raceway in Wallingford, Ky., for a $10,000 payday.
Not long after was the victory for Skylar Marlar, who capped a three-win holiday weekend with a $3,000 Best Plumber 604 Racing Series triumph at Thunder Mountain Speedway in Corbin, Ky.
And shortly thereafter, at Big South Fork Raceway in Huntsville, Tenn., 32-year-old Camaron Marlar completed the trifecta, pocketing $10,000 in an unsanctioned Limited Late Model special.
In a phone interview while driving his hauler toward the Kentucky-Tennessee border early Sunday morning, Skylar said his father was hoping for a magical night when he talked with him on a steamy Saturday afternoon.
"Mikey's shop is a quarter-mile throw from mine. I said, 'I'm going to drive my truck and trailer up there and unload and get in his shop because it's got AC.' So I was in there working in his shop today and my dad come in," Skylar recalled. "And he was helping around in the car a little bit. He's like, 'Man, hopefully y'all three can win tonight.' He said, 'Y'all have never done that.' And I hadn't thought about it. So that was more for him than anybody. He really wanted all three of us to try to win on the same night."
Call it mission accomplished for the dynastic brother combination. While Mike and Camaron earned the richest paydays on Saturday with five-figure checks, Skylar is the hottest of the three brothers.
Preceding Saturday's Crate Late Model victory at Thunder Mountain, Skylar won Thursday's Save A Lot American All-Star Series event at Willard (Ky.) Speedway worth $3,000 and Friday's independent event at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky., paying $3,500.
He set fast time all three nights, won three heats and led every lap of two of three features (Zach Sise led 14 laps of Willard's Freedom 40).
"Just had a crazy good weekend," Skylar said. He couldn't put his finger on why he had so much success — "just do what we normally do," he said. "We've had a good car. We've just had some bad luck this year. We had an ignition box go out. I got in a wreck in a heat race at Bulls Gap. I knew we had a good race car. We just had to put it together, you know?"
Skylar won on the Fourth of July weekend for the third straight season. He said mid-summer race conditions tend to suit him.
"I think, honestly, the racetracks are, because it's so hot and they're slick," he said, "we seem to shine a little better when the racetracks are in the slicker conditions."
