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Fall racing is stirring the leaves

Fall is in the air. Racing series are running the final events for a lot of the short track groups on both pavement and dirt. One such event took place just this past week in Martinsville, Virginia.

The Whelan late model stock car class which makes up most of the regular Saturday night feature race programs in the NASCAR short tracks each and every week across the southeast ran the Valley Star Credit Union 300. This event brings together the top teams in what is considered their Daytona 500.

Sixty-nine of the country’s best teams came together to find the fastest 30 cars to race for 300 laps around the paperclip-shaped half-mile speedway. When the smoke cleared and the race was settled, Catawba, Virginia’s Mike Looney stood tall in victory lane and took home a nice check and one of those nice Ridgeway grandfather clocks.

Mike is a regular racer at the Kingsport Speedway in Virginia. This was truly a Cinderella story. Mike is a journeyman racer who takes care of his own equipment and towed to the races with an open trailer. He competed against teams with $200,000 tow rigs alone and beat them at one of the toughest tracks. Mike was followed by veteran driver Lee Pulliam, who has won this event in the past. Kres VanDyke was third. C.E. Faulk and Austin Thaxton rounded out the top five. Pay attention to those names, you may see them in the near future in the Truck or Xfinity series.

Dirt racers gathered at Portsmouth, Ohio’s Portsmouth Raceway Park for the Dirt Track World Championship. The DTWC is one of the most prestigious events on the Super Late Model yearly schedule. Seventy-nine late models from 11 different states and 85 Modifieds representing five states were in the pits to vie for the 28-car feature starting fields. This was decided over three days, and 16 heat races and 3 B mains were run to determine the feature starters in each class.

When the dust settled, Brandon Sheppard took home the $100,000 first prize check. Brandon wrestled the lead away from Josh Richards on lap 77 and was there to stay. Brandon started 21st in the 28-car field. Richards set a new track record with a lap of 14.121 seconds and averaged 110 mph.

Earl Pearson Jr. worked his way to second after two late race cautions. Richards held on for third. Gregg Satterlee and Darrell Lanigan rounded out the top five. Other notable finishers included Devin Moran in seventh after starting 28th and earning his start by winning the non-qualifiers Jim Dunn Memorial race. Ohio’s Rod Connely finished 10th. Scott Bloomquist was 11th after leading early. Parkerburg’s Tyler Carpenter was 12th. The remainder of the field was like the who’s who of dirt late model racers.

The Modifieds ran their feature on Saturday night, also. A 26-car field took the green and on the 17th lap Morgantown’s Jacob Hawkins put his 2brothers Racing No. 13 in the lead to stay. Jacob defeated Jessie Wisecarver, who finished second after leading early. Dave Jamison was third. Tanner Wilson and Jason Brookover rounded out the top five. Jacob Hawkins attempted to make the late model race, also. He flipped that car in his B Main but was uninjured.

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In NASCAR action, the Sprint Cup and Xfinity series raced at the Kansas Motor Speedway. On Saturday afternoon, the Xfinity teams ran the Kansas Lottery 300.

Kyle Busch led 150 of 200 laps to once again dominate the race. Elliott Sadler finished second over Daniel Suarez. Cup stars Joey Logano and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.

The “Chase” for this title is starting the round of 8 with 4 drivers to be eliminated after the next two races. Elliott Sadler and Daniel Suarez are tied for the points lead. They are followed by Blake Koch, Justin Allgaier, Erik Jones, Ryan Reed, Brendan Gaughan, and Darrell Wallace Jr. None of these drivers are locked into the next round because Cup drivers have taken the victories so far.

On Sunday the Sprint Cup stars took to a windy speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400. Kevin Harvick took the lead after a late race restart and drove away to victory. Carl Edwards finished second and didn’t help his friendship with Kyle Busch when the two of them raced each other extremely hard and caused Kyle to barely hang on to a top five finish. Joey Logano finished third. Jimmie Johnson was fourth. Kyle Bush was fifth.

The Chase moves to the unpredictable high banks of the Talladega Motor Speedway this coming week. This is an elimination race and four more drivers will lose their chance for the Cup. Jimmie Johnson and Harvick can breathe a sigh of relief because, due to their victories, they are locked in.

Following these two, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano are in. However, none of these drivers are really safe. The four drivers who find themselves out at the moment and really need great runs or a win to stay alive are Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott.

The Camping World Truck series join the Sprint Cup guys at Talladega this weekend. The Xfinity cars are off until Nov. 5 when they race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Wow, it’s late in the year but there’s still lots of racing to watch. There was something interesting that happened Sunday afternoon right here in our city.

There was the snarl and rumble of exotic v12 engines as the 2016 edition of the Cannonball Run made a lunch stop downtown as they raced their way to the Greenbrier Resort.

Exotic Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other beautiful fast sports cars make up the field of this once-a-year event. It was made famous in the 70s with the movies “Cannonball Run” and “Cannonball Run II.” Today, instead of an illegal high speed road race, the competitors race against a timed goal and points are awarded for the cars closest to the projected time. Sure was interesting to literally see millions of dollars’ worth of these beautiful cars cruising the streets of Elkins.

Until next week, remember, at the end of the straight there’s Another Left Turn.

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