:usac:The Richard Petty Driving Experience USAC Carolina Ford Focus Midget Series Presented by Calico Coatings kicked of the Tours 5th Season of Racing and the Start of the 2008 Season at the debut of Ron Barfield's Dillon Motor Speedway in Dillon,SC, and what a great show it was as 14 Drivers including 5 rookies made the call at Dillon in front of a packed house for the 35 lap season opening affair.
The Ford Focus drivers recieved 3 rounds of Practice before Qualifying and from talking to many drivers in the pits they stated the Barfield track facility was bumpy but very fast as speeds reached almost 90+ MPH in Practice but that was also cause that were working out the right setup in the machine during those three rounds and by Qualifying Time mostly everybody had the setup to best suit them at the Dillon Motor Speedway.
Finally time for Qualifying as they beat the clock at Dillon to set the field for the season opener. Only two drivers had trouble tameing "The Premire Short Track of the South East"in Qualifying. One was the #99 of Rhett Tucker a new driver this year that spun on the Frontstretch and gave the Fans somthing to aww about as he made contact with the rear nerf bar of his midget hitting the concrete but he was able to roll away. The other one wasn't so lucky coming in the apex of Turns 3 and 4 the #14 of Donnie Wetmore Jr. cut down a right rear Hoosier Tire and did a 180 into the concrete where red flag had to come out to assist him however both Tucker and Wetmore Jr. were able to go to the Garage area to the attention of their crews and fix the problems. The fastest Midget in Qualifying was the #11 of Bradley Riethmeyer from College Station,TX as he ran 15.782 sec around the 4/10ths Dillon Facility and the crowd went totally balistic as I announced on the House P.A. that he was going 91+ Mph to get the First pole of the Season for Riethmeyer. However Tracy Trotter and Kris Conyers and the other USAC officials like to make things intresting for the fans especially for the ones at Dillon for veiwing the Touring Series for the first time so USAC Officials inverted the top 6 qualifiers for the 35 lap A-main.
This was the Line Up....
Row 1 19L Chirs Lamb 12 Micheael Mohelski
Row 2 73 Steven Intravia 45 Shane MacMillan
Row 3 43 Rick Fedrizzi 11 Bradley Reithmeyer
Row 4 38 Ryan Osborne 80 Mike Ward
Row 5 99 Rhett Tucker 44 Scott Hunter
Row 6 6 Donnie Wetmore Sr. 17 Bryce Burden
Row 7 27 Tim Craver 14 Donnie Wetmore Jr.
That was the line up and prep began in the pits for the event when a Special Announcement was made to the drivers and USAC Officials... It was told to the Drivers that Chris Browning the President of Darlington Raceway was putting up an additional $500.00 to the winner of the event so with that "It's GO TIME!!!"
However another problem arised before the start of the event at the conclusion of the Dillon Charger race three cars wrecked hard coming out of turn 4 and broke the rebar and the retaing block wall so it delayed the start but kepping the fans pumped is what USAC Ford Focus Officials love to do so the kids and adults came the fence and met the stars and seen the cars of the USAC Carolina Ford Focus Midgets Tour as Ron Barfield,Andy Locklear and his hard working devoted Dillon Staff fixed the problem and within 45mins. we were set to go.
The fans gave the command as 14 USAC Ford Focus Midgets roared in unison to life and began to roll behind the pace car for 3 preliminary laps to get the 2008 season underway as the Dillon faithful stood on their feet and waved and roared over the sound of the cars coming down the frontstretch at one to go.Coming for the Initial start of the 35 lapper the midgets went all over the place before the Green Flag and Race Series Director Tommy Walls made the call to throw the caution flag and start the race over. When the Green finally went up on the field they were three wide and sometimes four wide making daring gusty moves that sighed the Dillon Fans. Only one Caution Flag fell and that was at the completion of lap #1 when #43 Rick Fedrizzi lost it in the apex of one and two got sideways and was then able to get going after the yellow fell. Back to green Lamb and Mohelski battled side by side a whole lap around the 4/10th mile facility and then bye bye Mohelski as he rocketed away from Chris Lamb and then the field as he caught the tail end of the field and slowy began chipping them off one by one and was clear sailing to win the first event of 2008. Now the rest of the field from 2nd to 8th spot were battling all the way around the Barfield track and the fans really enjoyed it as they cheered with pleasure of the spectacular show they witnessed. Riethmeyer and Intravia gave the fans a good show as Ward and Fedrizzi the late spinner did to.
The next stop for the Richard Petty Driving Experience USAC Carolina Ford Focus Midget Series presented by Calico Coatings will be Saturday May 31st as we visit another 1st time track Coastal Plains Raceway Park in Jacksonville,NC if you remember the Championship race last season was going to be held there and mother nature took the checkerd flag in that so they are excited about going to Jacksonville,NC for more details visit our official website
www.carolinamidgetseries.com or go to
www.usacracing.com and click on the Ford Focus Link and find us there. Hope everyone enjoyed the Dillon event and we will be back September 6th and possibly some more stay tuned for more details none the less here are the results at Dillon see you May 31st at Coastal Plains!
May 3rd Results at Dillon Motor Speedway Dillon,SC
1st #12 Michael Mohelski
2nd #80 Mike Ward
3rd #73 Steve Intravia
4th #19L Chris Lamb
5th #11 Bradley Riethmeyer
6th #38 Ryan Osborne
7th #45 Shane MacMillan
8th #43 Rick Fedrizzi
9th #44 Scott Hunter
10th #6 Donnie Wetmore Sr.
11th #27 Tim Craver
12th #14 Donnie Wetmore Jr.
13th #99 Rhett Tucker
14th #17 Bryce Burden
"Voice of the USAC Carolia Ford Focus Midget Series"
Wesley Outland - (919) 262-4353
