Eldora Speedway
Moyer's winning pass at '10 Dream haunts Cook
By Joshua Joiner
DirtonDirt.com staff writer
Ray Cook is haunted by losing the lead to Billy Moyer at last year's Dream. (thesportswire.net)
Ray Cook remembers well a lap-20 restart during last year’s Dream feature at Eldora Speedway.
Cook of Brasstown, N.C., had led the race from the start, and with a dominant high groove that made passing extremely difficult on the slick racetrack, he thought he might be on his way to his first victory at the historic half-mile racetrack as long as he hit his marks and avoided any mistakes. | Complete Dream XVII coverage
But Billy Moyer had other plans. The wily veteran snookered Cook, jumping to the high side on the restart to get a good run off turn four, then diving to the bottom entering turn one to complete the pass. The Batesville, Ark., driver never looked back, racing to his second Dream victory while Cook was forced to settle for his second runner-up finish in Dirt Late Model racing’s highest paying annual event.
“That was probably the biggest lesson I’ve had in racing in quite a while,” said Cook, the 39-year-old racer who has trophies from such major events as the Show-Me 100, the Hillbilly 100 and the Dixie Shootout, but none from Eldora’s Dream nor its other prestigious race, the World 100. “I still replay it in my mind over and over and just think how I would have done it different.”
Nearly a year later, the frustration of missing out on a crown jewel victory to add to his win list isn’t all that haunts Cook. The difference between finishing first and second was a pretty big financial hit as well.
“That was an $80,000 lesson,” Cook added, citing the drop from the $100,000 winner’s paycheck to the $20,000 he earned as the runner-up.
While the missed opportunity certainly was a disappointment for Cook, he takes comfort in knowing that he’s now come close to winning the Dream not just once, but twice.
“It just lets us know that we can win it to come close like that,” said Cook, whose other runner-up Dream finish came in 2000. “It’s a bit of a letdown for sure, but all you can do is just come back and try again the next time. There’s just so many things that have to fall into place to win (at Eldora). Even to run second to be honest, it takes a lot of things going your way.”
Cook will take another shot at claiming that elusive Eldora victory this weekend, as heads back to the Big E for the Dream XVII. While he’s as excited as ever to head back to the site of last year’s near victory, he’s heading into the event on much different terms than he did in 2010.
Cook was arguably one of the hottest drivers in the sport entering last year’s Dream, with seven victories on the season already under his belt, including two $10,000 victories and the Show-Me 100 victory just two weeks before the Eldora weekend.
In fact, the one detail that Cook’s two runner-up Dream finishes have in common is his preceding finish in the Show-Me. In 2000, Cook won his first Show-Me feature at West Plains (Mo.) Motor Speedway, and last year he again won the Show-Me feature, this time at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.
This year’s Show-Me didn’t go so well for Cook. He struggled in time trials, putting himself behind for the rest of the event. After not transferring to the feature through his heat race or consolation race he had to use a provisional to make the race. After starting 29th, he was able to salvage a ninth-place finish to end an otherwise frustrating weekend on a positive note.
Cook isn’t buying in to the idea that he has win the Show-Me in order to run well in the Dream. Instead, he’ll use some of what he learned during the disappointing outing in order to take a better approach at Eldora.
“We didn’t have a good weekend out at Wheatland, but when that happens you just try to learn from it and go on,” Cook said. “At big races like that it’s like climbing a ladder; you have to hit every step from the beginning of the night till the end. It’s all about starting out on a good note. You’ve gotta hot lap good, then time in good, run good in your heat, and then the feature don’t seem as hard if you can do them other three things.”
Missing rungs on the ladder is a problem Cook has had all season. Much like 2010, a season that ended with 10 victories, Cook has had a fast race car at most of the events he’s entered this year. But the finishes haven’t been nearly as good as last year with just one victory on the season, which came in a $4,000-to-win regional event May 29 at Duck River Speedway in Wheel, Tenn.
While he’s certainly not satisfied with his results so far in 2011, Cook isn’t overly worried, blaming most of the poor finishes on bad luck.
“We’ve been running good all year long, we just ain’t had anything go our way,” Cook said. “We’ve had things break on the car that you can’t maintenance, part failures that have nothing to do with people we get the parts from just stuff you can’t see coming and can’t do nothing about.
“We ran good at the Bama Bash (a $10,000-to-win event at Green Valley Speedway in February) and we’d won that race the past two years,” Cook added. “This year we again put ourselves in position to win it a third year and we got caught in a wreck with lapped cars. Then we were on the front row at (Volunteer Speedway’s) Spring Thaw, another $10,000-to-win show, took the green and didn’t even make it to turn one and had a part failure. And that was another race we won last year. So we’ve been in position to have the same kinda year we’ve had the previous two years, but it just hasn’t worked out for us.”
While his luck may be down so far this year, Cook isn’t bothered. Instead, he remains upbeat about his chances, knowing that a victory this weekend would be the perfect way to break out of his season-long slump.
“I was talking to Keith Masters of (MasterSbilt Race Cars) this past week, and he quoted Ronnie Johnson as saying no matter how bad things are going, you’re only one win away from having a great year,” Cook said. “And certainly the Dream would do that. It would equal 10 other races as far as money and even momentum and everything. It’s a year-changing race.”
For Cook, winning the Dream wouldn’t just turn around a lackluster season. A victory at Eldora is a career goal he’s been waiting quite some time to accomplish.
“I’ve been blessed to win some big races, and I’m happy with how my career’s gone, but yeah, there’s always that motivation to win (at Eldora). I wouldn’t say it makes a career or that you gotta win there to be considered a great driver, but winning there is definitely something every driver wants to put on their resume. I can tell you it would be big for me and my race team if we could win it.”
