By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher Photo: Nick Zebelian @NickZeb
Byron Reed’s Charge: Thanks to a quarter-inch kidney stone, Byron Reed missed Attica’s season opener. Things got worse for Reed, as turn one, lap one of his heat, he clipped the infield tire and went flipping. He made his way into the feature through the BMain, and he passed all but two opponents: that kidney stone, and DJ Foos on his way to a runner up finish. The eight-time Attica champ just didn’t have enough to get by Foos, but he was certainly happy with second. Reed went from nineteenth to second, easily the highest +/- margin of the year so far.
“Every year I wonder if I can do this anymore, I’m getting older and older and right now I’m racing with a quarter-inch kidney stone in me. I had a big screw-up in the heat race, I totally misjudged the corner. Luckily I was able to come back and have a good feature. I found the top in turns one and two and it seemed like everyone else was going to give it to me. I was pretty good in three and four too, until I got to DJ. Maybe if he would’ve gotten into traffic I could have caught him, but I’ll take second with the way our night started,” said Reed.
TJ Michael Survives Waynesfield: The FAST Series kicked off their season at Waynesfield, who opened their doors for the first time since fall of 2019. Thirty 410’s entered the pits as well as 32 BOSS non-wing cars. After a wild set of heat races and an even wilder feature, it was TJ Michael who came out on top to collect a $5,500 pay day. This was Michael’s second career 410 win, both coming at Waynesfield. Drew Rader made a late-race pass to pick up the BOSS win.
John Ivy’s Strong Start: John Ivy got back into the 410 game last season, and had some solid runs. In his first two starts in 2021, he’s been one of the top contenders. Racing with a new team he and the 27S have rattled off a sixth place, and a third place finish at Attica, and looks to be a challenger for race wins this year.
Ivy was thrilled with his podium run: “Hopefully this amazing start stays this way! I’m glad to being back to feeling competitive again. I’m getting older, not getting any younger and you start to doubt yourself, but then you have nights like tonight and you realize you can still do it,” said Ivy. “We just need to be consistent in qualifying, get through our heat races and get a decent pill draw for the feature because starting position is the biggest deal right now. We’d like to win a race or two- and definitely win more than that and just be consistent. I want to go forward every night. Once you start knocking on the door, the door is going to open. I feel like we have the stuff to do it now and hopefully we can keep going down this route.
Very Good Moments for Wise: Before the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions season starts next week in Attica, Zeb Wise and the newly-formed Wise-Priddy team shook the car down at Attica. While the team may not have gotten the results they wanted at the end of the night, Wise turned some heads. Wise was quick time in qualifying, setting a 12.521 second lap. Over three tenths faster than anyone else. Wise had to go through the BMain after a heat race incident, but wholloped the field to nab a feature starting spot. Early contact rattled Wise early, but he was able to rebound and finish ninth. Not bad for a shakedown night before it really counts next weekend.
Quick Notes:
Lap two has plagued Cole Macedo at Attica this year; last week was going off the top of turns three and four, this week it was contact with Caleb Griffith. Macedo didn’t rebound as well this week after another incident with Griffith later in the race. If he can make it past lap two, he should start contending for top five finishes and wins.
Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting Jamie Myers to hang around the front that long at Attica last night. He sure proved me wrong. Myers was running second and third most of the feature before finishing with a well-earned fifth place finish against some stiff competition. The 2020 OVSCA champion ran earlier in the year with the All Stars down south and it seems to have been super beneficial for him. I’m interested to see how his season pans out.
Saturday was the first time more than one track ran 410’s on the same day this season, which concerned some racers and fans alike. Both Attica and Waynesfield had plenty of cars to go around though, and got full 410 fields, plus a full 305 and nonwing fields. With 119 sprint cars in the pits, it’s safe to say that Sprint Car racing is strong in Ohio.
Last week at Attica ran a little long due to uncontrollable reasons. Round two was much, much closer to the norm though, as heat racing started right on time at 6pm, and the first feature was pushing off less than two hours later. Attica should host a clinic on how to run an efficient show.