Slider gone bad
 

Did anyone see the midget race last night? I heard there might have been some avoidable contact?

Re: Slider gone bad
 

You heard correct. Meseraull tried to throw a slider on Ryan Timms and was about a mile away from clearing him. Sent Timms into the fence and ended his night. I'm sure it wasn't intentional but I hope Meseraull apologized after the race.

It was a move typically seen on the last lap of a Chili Bowl b main. In other words not good at all.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

"I kinda got into the 84 but that's midget racing these days, All OUT! Sucks to be him"

Roughly the Apology given.

TMez also almost didn't survive it but the motor didn't die and the red was thrown saving his position.

BTW the top 8 started the race outside of the top ten.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

Lets face it, T Mez was a "menace to society" last nite....:14:
Entertaining, but I guarantee the victim wasn't happy about it...:19:

Re: Slider gone bad
 

T Mez was driving like some of his much younger competitors he voices his opinion about. I like the guy but what goes around comes around and its a long season. Speaking of sliders gone bad, Lincoln speedway in Pa had a pretty crazy slide job in the 410 feature. Slide jobs are part of the sport but I don't like seeing torn up equipment due to drivers driving over their heads or running out of talent.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

There was no way that move was gonna stick, he could’ve braked and maybe avoided the contact. That timms is not to shabby def a gasser. Not sure what happened to Seavey he was leading and went to work area during a caution, I couldn’t listen just watch.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

I like T Mez too, & at least he didn't try to make excuses or blame the other guy like a certain "Sammy S".... but if Timms had jacked his jaw in the pits, Mez would have had it coming...:42::

Re: Slider gone bad
 

Big time midget racing is a young man's sport these days because this is the style of racing today- elbows up, full contact. And that's why we don't see guys like Darland and Cottle running midgets much these days; the more seasoned drivers really aren't willing to drive like that.

The guys who've run a sprint car at Eldora or Winchester generally don't drive that way because they know that there are serious consequences when people start racing dangerously. And most of these kids running midgets these days don't have those experiences and, therefore, are more fearless- thus the style of racing we see today.

I can't blame T-Mez, really. He's racing for a living and that's what it takes these days. He owned up to it. He'll get his too..... and so will everyone else.

Didn't feel like it was an apology at all. His interviews comes across as being an arrogant ass, In my opioid I'd say that's pretty accurate... But he can drive.

Oops.. opinion

Re: Slider gone bad
 

"opioid"????? :11:

Flat out ran his ass over!

Chris, what exactly is it that you can’t blame Thomas for?

I believe this is the same individual that was complaining last year @ Jacksonville ILL about the young kids & their questionable sliders?🤔

Re: Slider gone bad
 

I can't blame T-Mez for racing as aggressively as he did Saturday night.

Obviously, he dumped Timms.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

I think he took it to heart?
FloRacing loves to interview him, and he most definitely hasn't complained one iota this year.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

Bad move indeed and interview didn't win him any fans!!! Sometimes T-Mez's brain doesn't engage before he speaks and this was one of these times!!! Should have apologized on the spot and walked away without trying to make another quote for his upcoming t-shirt. Like to watch him race and usually enjoy his interviews but this was not one of those times. No excuse for this one.

Bruce Eckel

P.S. - The slide job by Chase Dietz was worse and he took out the leader who had never won before with just 7 laps to go. You knew that one was not going to fly.

Alright Chris. I’ll reserve judgement in this case. I’ll just say that perhaps we have different views on what we consider aggressive. I have a completely different word I would use for that particular incident

Re: Slider gone bad
 

While I love the safety improvements that have been added over the years, I truly believe that this sort of racing is a direct result of safety improvements and nearly totally enclosed cockpits. While it is still dangerous, the "fear" of being seriously injured or killed is mostly gone. I have no interest in going back to the days of seeing a weekly death notice on the cover of Speed Sport News, but the risk of injury or death had a tempering effect on the aggressive moves that were made by the drivers.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

This is a big part of it. I also think the lack of good ole fashioned pit justice comes into play often times also. In the old days, knuckleheads would get a knuckle sandwich & get brought back in line (or keep getting knuckle sandwiches). Nowadays, any sort of physical retaliation is frowned upon & an offender runs risk of being suspended, fined, etc.

I think your point is especially true in modern day Nascar. Look at how those restrictor plate races are. Rolling demo derbies with blocking like crazy. 30 years ago, those pileups could send you to the morgue so there was a lot more decorum.

It is great that the sport is generally much safer than the old days, but there was a certain soberness that was brought to on track behavior when most everyone with experience had attended funerals for fellow drivers.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

TMez original interview was Slide or die, sorry bout his luck. But did later apologize on Social Media after being told by the slidey he had no class. BTW I think the 84 driver just became USAC legal at 15.5 years. So a fight was not in order.

Kinda what the momentum classes have become. People eat it up a them two 600/speedster tracks in the east. One runs before a full house ever weds and it's four or five guys throwing sliders every corner of every lap.

This has happened since the slider became the proffered way to pass. I remember late 80s early 90s CRA at Eldora and Hewitt did the same thing to McSpadden and put him hung up in the fence. Of course Jack said he screwed up. But it was basically the same thing, Hauling it in there and hope it sticks..

At the end of the day we are all human an make mistakes. If anyone thinks Thomas did that intentionally, they obviously don't know how he races. You put 24 midgets on an 1/8 mile and you are going to have some unavoidable contact. Thomas and Ryan talked and they have no issues so people need to stop trying to stoke the fire

Re: Slider gone bad
 

What did you expect on a 1/8 mile track ?

Re: Slider gone bad
 

Looked to me like Timms came down off the cushion more than T-Mez was expecting. Same thing but more obvious happened with KTJ last night.

In the end T-Mez had a good weekend and can pay bills and feed his daughters. Timms can go home, go to school, and tell dad we need to send CBR more money to pay for the crash.

What would your analogy be if the situation was reversed?

To me most drivers take chances that may or may not workout. It boils down to the frequency and severity and who you collide with!

Re: Slider gone bad
 

With all his experience, I think T Mez should have known it was not gonna work. I agree with the previous posters who think that he said to himself, "If this is the way they're gonna play, have at it!"
Thats more or less what he said in his interview...

Re: Slider gone bad
 

Charles,
As I type this I'm looking at the sequence photos of the Hewitt and McSpadden crash at Eldora on my wall,definitely a nasty crash.

Here's a little story about the aftermath of the crash,
When Jack came to our pit after the crash to apologize he says to me and my father " I can't believe you guys aren't kicking my ass right now" to which I replied that I'd seen him fight before and didn't want to go that route. He says back "i'm knocked pretty silly right now you probably could get the best of me" And I told him that an injured animal is always at their most dangerous, to which we all laughed.

The year that happened was 1991,Jack drove a second car for us many times after that incident and became a good friend of mine and my fathers.:9:

Re: Slider gone bad
 

I was amazed by them two or three tours CRA pulled off. Almost three weeks of nearly daily racing from Colorado almost to PA and by how many car they brought. What also amazed me was the lack of local support. Almost like, We can't run against them guys. Of course IN was running a ton of winged at the time. That burnt out quick. One of the races I attended was Whitewater *Liberty IN* and Kerr won it but kinda put Leland in the wall also. They weren't happy.

Re: Slider gone bad
 

No we wasn't very happy with Kerr on that deal, he pretty much drove right over the left front and tore the axel out of the car. We didn't have a good tour that year, blew up a bunch of motors and destroyed a couple cars and that was the straw that broke the camels back. It was time to head home with our tail between our legs.:deadhorse:

Re: Slider gone bad
 

Which part are you asking about?

If T-Mez left the cushion and Timms hit him I would call it the same way. A racing incident with 24 cars on an 1/8th mile track.

The other part if T-Mez was living at home and mom and dad or someone else was renting his ride for him and Timms was racing for a living and trying to raise two daughters as a single parent I would naturally be a bigger fan of Timms.

So if you race for a living it’s more acceptable,thanks for the reply

Re: Slider gone bad
 

I was kinda with you up until this take. Racing for a living doesn't give you the right to run over a local, but that's usually the attitude (that locals are just cannon fodder).

Now if you want to tell me that Timms shouldn't be out there with USAC National guys, I wouldn't argue that at all. He's young. He's talented. He's got just as good a racing pedigree as any driver, but he is probably a bit over his head running USAC National. But that's USAC's fault for letting every local micro and POWRi guy enter. Sure, it sounded great to have 44 cars sign in the back gate, but the quality of racing wasn't that much better for it. We all seem to want to wax poetically about "the good ol' days", but back in those good old days, USAC didn't let just everyone enter.

Stick to the argument that 24 cars shouldn't have been on an 1/8th mile. I'm with you on that.

Let’s face it If Thomas says “I made a mistake and I apologize “ in the interview, this isn’t as big a deal as it has become. We all love a great TMEZ quote but this wasn’t that spot

Re: Slider gone bad
 

If a guy doesn't make a habit of it, it is a part of racing on dirt, just developed to a fine art by some, those others, in my day, were called "slingers", the I don't think this'll come out good kind. Didn't know, hadn't heard if anyone else had heard that dirt track version.