Fan Notes from Atomic Speedway All Stars Finale

Atomic Speedway (Tom Myers) 10/23/2016 – Saturday evening Atomic Speedway in Waverly, Ohio hosted the All Star Circuit of Champions final race for 2016 and it was a wild one. Wow, where do I begin….this was originally a two day show starting with Friday qualifying and heat races and ending on Saturday with a $20,000 to win finale. But rain washed the Friday show away and the event turned into a one night shootout paying $10,000 to the winner and a promise to crown the 2016 All Star Champion. 

We ended up with a little bit of everything on Saturday. A Vice Presidential motorcade, lots of race cars, a wet and heavy racetrack, very cool temperatures that turned into cold temperatures, tons of grilling smoke, hot tempers, cars flipping everywhere, excellent racing, a points battle that went down to the wire, a little bit of joking along the way that didn’t go over well and a young guy muscling a tough track to get the win. 

I left early and planned on getting to the track around 2 or so but I got held up just south of Columbus. I understand Governor Pence and his motorcade was heading north to Columbus for a rally….while I was heading south. The southbound lane of route 23 was clogged with traffic for miles and that didn’t make any sense…unless Columbus is all Democrats and they were making a break for it before Mr. Pence got there? Anyway, I got off 23 and went west to hit 104 south and that sped things up for me. When I finally got to the track around 3:30, I first noticed 4 television camera lifts, one on each turn. As I walked through the pits I saw an interesting collection of competitors on hand as well as the regular All Star racers. Present were  Danny Lasoski, Jac Haudenschild, Brent Marks, Cale Conley, Page Polyak, Bill Balog, Hunter Schurenburg, who was in a beautiful black and red and blue #2 car with gold lettering, and Spencer Bayston, driving for Kevin Swindell, whose sprinter was white and carried the number 39. It said SWINDELL SPEED LAB on the wings and I thought that was neat. The yellow 97 Seeling car was driven by Broc Martin and Cole Duncan was driving a black 12N car I hadn’t seen before. 

Cole Duncan The track was wet and heavy around the bottom and it looked like they ran it in too much at the top as some of the hot lappers were kicking up dust high in the turns.  However, as the sun went down and the temperature cooled, the moisture started coming up and the top started getting heavy in some spots, just like the bottom.  During his hot lap session, Bradley Howard flipped it hard in turn 2. This was a foreshadowing of things to come as the drivers would battle the track conditions all evening and many would tip over. Brad hit so hard that the front of the frame was deformed and broken, the front axle was demolished and the steel bracket that holds the steering wheel and power steering unit in place was sheared in half. Yikes! Brad was fine and escaped with just a cut on his hand but he was done for the evening. As hot laps continued, ruts were developing at the bottom and the top of both turns.  Many cars slid into the turns and when the right rear stuck, the front of the car would jerk to the right. If you started bouncing and went sideways, you hooked your right rear and then went flipping. 

The first group of racers out for time trials stayed around the bottom and avoided the ruts. Among them were some of the veterans like Blaney and Kemenah and Lasoski. As the session wore on, more racers got brave and started throwing it high into the turns. This proved to be the fastest way around as Cole Duncan kept it straight and timed quickest.  One of the last guys out was Danny Holtgraver. His first lap was good enough for second quick time but then he flipped it on his second lap exiting turn 3. Duncan, Holtgraver and Kraig Kinser ended up being the top 3 timers. Holtgraver would return to action. 

There would be 5 heats and the top 4 were locked into the feature. In heat 1, Polyak flips it in turn 3. She was ok but did not return.  Myers wins it followed by Sheldon, Kemenah, and Balog. TJ Michaels had a transfer spot wrapped up but stalled on the last lap and Balog took advantage. 

Spencer Bayston Lasoski wins heat 2 followed by Danny Smith, Blaney and Spencer Bayston. It was exciting watching Bayston in this heat as his top wing started tipping down in front of his face on the first lap, courtesy of a broken wing bracket. I thought he would pull off but the “wind in his sails” down the straights would tip the wing back into place as he continued racing. The wing would drop down on every lap but Bayston showed off some real talent by continuing on and driving his way into the final transfer spot! 

In heat 3, Caleb Helms, who timed pretty good, flipped it in turn 3. He was ok and would return to competition later…but not after a lot of hard work and hammering on his wounded machine!  The finish order in this heat was Lee Jacobs, Jac Haudenschild, who made some aggressive moves around the top, Duncan, and Andrew Paulker. 

Tim Shaffer wins heat 4 followed by Stinson, Henry and Marks. The drivers went high through 1 and 2 but stayed on the bottom in 3 and 4 to avoid a tall ridge that was developing in the middle of the turn. 

Sheldon Haudenschild Travis Philo won heat 5 and trailing him were Shurenburg, Kinser, and Holtgraver. The track is really getting rough now and the track crew springs into action to smooth it out. 

It is now that I notice the temperature dropping rapidly…… and at the same time, I become aware of the increasing intensity of grilling smoke that wafts into the stands from behind me. The burgers smell great, but the volume of smoke starts to irritate my nose and throat. It was really thick but I am not complaining.  Going to the races and having charcoal-grilled burgers is amazing, but I was getting too much of the outdoor food experience!  So I decided to head back to the pits again. As I went on my way, I could now see my breath in the cold air and that reminded me of those old NFL films, where the players look like steam locomotives puffing away as they played in sub-zero temperatures. 

Before the dash even started Jac had to go pit side because he was dumping a voluminous amount of oil on the track…thanks to a loose oil line. The top 4 were Duncan, Sheldon, Myers and Holtgraver. Lee Jacobs flipped it in turn 4 on the last lap. He would return for the feature. 

Danny Lasoski In the B main, Ryan Broughton and Dallas Hewitt flipped in turn 3 at the same time. Both were done for the night. Reeser also went over….he did a complete end over end but didn’t bend his front or top wing! The B main racers transferring to the A main were Broc Martin, Helms, Cruea and TJ Michaels. Helms was leading but had a motor go sour on the last lap. He held on for second and did come out for the A main. 

Now comes the joking that didn’t go over too well.  Most of the time, while in the pits, I observe and do my thing. I don’t like to talk with the drivers too much. I don’t ask for autographs or request a driver to stand by their car for a picture. I just leave them alone generally. Sometimes I can talk with the crew guys as they seem to be more approachable. Today was a little different. I don’t know what got into me but……… I thought I would joke about two identical looking cars. Maybe make someone smile or laugh. Now, all of us who follow the sport know about it. We all know about it. Only a newbie or maybe just an aloof person who knows nothing about anything would even make such a comment….a comment about identical looking cars….And that is the joke, right? The humor in it right? So I said, in an incredulous manner….. “I don’t know if you know this, but there is another car over there……painted identically to yours. I think they are copying your paint job, I think they stole your paint job and your sponsor. I just thought you should know about it! “ I was expecting a grin or a chuckle but I got a serious, “I don’t care. I don’t care.” And I thought to myself, wow, I better move on to the next car now! Ha Ha. The next episode happened right before the feature. I was watching the Swindell crew work on their car and a few taller fellows walked up and started talking to Kevin about the wing tipping in the heat race. I looked at these guys with a serious face and after we made eye contact I said “I think Kevin was experimenting with the down force and new wing angles.”  Now everyone knows this is not the case and that is why it was funny…at least to me. Well these guys just kind of had a blank look on their face and walked away.  No smile, no laugh, no grin, just blank. And I thought, man, what a tough crowd tonight! 

2016 All Star champ Chad Kemenah Ok, enough of that, now on to the feature. I have enough math skill to figure out that Blaney had to finish at least 8 spots or so ahead of Kemenah to tie or win the championship. The track being as challenging as it was, it was possible one of them or both of them would not finish the race. So, do you charge hard or lay back and win the battle of attrition? To make things more tense, Dale and Chad started side by side in row 7. Talk about a close points battle. It seems it has been like this for most of the season! For the feature, I decided to split my attention between the Blaney and Kemenah battle and the leaders.  On the first lap, Jac flips his ride up high in turn 3. On lap 8, Henry violently flips in turn 2 after bouncing through turn 1. Most of the older drivers are staying down low in the turns but Duncan, who is the leader, and Sheldon, who is hotly pursuing, are riding high.  I noticed Kemenah bicycle his car through the turns more than once. He was racing around the bottom and was up on the right side tires so much so, that I thought he would tip it over! I mean, his left side tires were both in the air! 

Right before Henry’s flip, Chad had worked to the inside of Dale entering turn 3 and it looked like Dale didn’t see Chad or intentionally pinched him on the entrance to the turn. Wheels touched and Chad almost spun but he saved it and then the red came out for Henry.  As Dale and Chad slowed to come to a stop on the front stretch, tempers flared and they banged wheels again…Chad sending a message maybe? After the restart and on lap 10, Holtgraver, who had worked his way into second,  bounces through turn 1 and loses a tire in turn 2. Stinson piles into him from behind and Shaffer hits Holtgraver’s tire. All 3 retired to the pits.  The race continues and on lap 18, Armstrong flips in turn 3. At this point, Chad has passed Dale and sits in 7th or 8th with Dale just behind him. After a fuel stop the racing resumes with Duncan and Sheldon locked in an epic battle. Both guys are wrestling the track, driving low and high. On lap 30 Sheldon gets alongside the outside of Duncan as they scream down the front stretch and tires touch. Duncan starts flipping at full speed all along the straightaway fence and into turn 1.  Wow, that looked bad, but Cole was okay. Sheldon went on to win and Kemenah finished ahead of Blaney to win the title. Wow, that was a crazy evening to say the least…I think 17 or so racers flipped their cars….and no one was injured thank goodness.  Congrats to Chad Kemenah and car owner Rob Hunter and team. Well deserved.

Well, that’s all the racing for me this year. But I do have some All Star and Ohio news to share if you have not already heard….…..”Mad Max” Stambaugh will be following the All Star circuit next year, driving the Buckeye Machine sponsored Marshall Motorsports yellow 33 sprinter. As far as other team plans for next year, I asked a couple of the newer All Star teams about their plans. Of the few I asked, the teams indicated they have every intention of returning to follow the series next season and that is good for business. I also recently read that Bryan Sebetto announced he was retiring from competition. Sebetto has at least 45 feature wins including F.A.S.T.  (Fremont and Attica) championships in 2011 and 2012 and also the Fremont track championship in 2011. Bryan was a 2011 Jim Ford Classic winner with the All Stars, a 360 winner at Eldora, and he owns 4 career All Star feature wins. He is a good one and still fairly young but has not had a steady ride the last few seasons. Brandy Bower, who has been racing around Ohio for the last 10 years or so, also announced her retirement from racing after this race. 

Have a great winter and thank you for reading. Hopefully we will see you at the races next season!