Rain halts big night of racing

May 31, 2018

This past weekend was one of the biggest weekends of the year for motorsports. Memorial Day means Indy 500, Coca-Cola 600 and the Formula 1 cars run the Monaco Grand Prix. Locally, we were scheduled to race Friday night at Elkins Raceway with extra distance and purse for the Street Stocks. There was a great car turnout. Several of the top AMRA Modifieds in the country stopped by on the way to Tyler County Speedway for their tune up weekend “Dickson Classic” for this week’s Mega 100 on Friday and Saturday. It was shaping up to be a great night of racing. However, ...

Racing is now back on track

May 24, 2018

Finally I’m getting back on track with this column and our race car. Elkins Raceway was able to get the makeup features run and get the second full evening of Thunder in the Mountains in the books on May 11. Let’s get right to the action. The AMRA Open Wheeled Modifieds had a makeup feature and 15 cars started this race. Dave Defibaugh put the number 83 Rob Smith-owned car in victory lane. Phil Jefferies was a close second. Randy Bohan finished third. Michael Moreland and Larry Yanero Jr. closed out the top five. We were able to get the first race of the year behind us, ...

DNR puts out info and results

May 19, 2018

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has released the results of the questionnaires for the 2018-2019 big game season, the 2019-2020 small game hunting and trapping seasons, along with the 2019 fishing regulations. Individuals and various clubs approved of all of the changes the DNR was proposing for these various years by large margins. Several were more than 80 percent. The proposed “Mountaineer Heritage Season” for black bear and deer in January 2019 was approved by 77 percent of the individuals and 81 percent of the clubs who responded the questionnaire. This ...

Thunder in the mountains

May 15, 2018

Friday Night Thunder kicked off under threatening skies at Elkins Raceway. The rain held off long enough to see some great racing in two of our divisions. The Super Late Model car count was down but the action was good as Billy Holbert notched his first victory to kick off the 2018 season. He took the Ace Metal works car to victory lane over veteran Bob Gordon. Shane Hitt was fast qualifier but suffered problems in his heat race and DNF the feature. Dylan Lewis in his first Late Model start finished third. Shawn Polling finished fourth with Hitt finishing fifth. The FASTRACK ...

Exciting pack racing

May 10, 2018

First of all I want to thank everyone who lifted up my family in prayer. I was out of town in North Carolina for my uncle’s funeral and our column has fallen behind in the race coverage. There has been so much happening in the racing world over the last two weeks on both the local and national scene. My uncle’s death touched me and my racing. He was always a big supporter and interested in what I was doing. He was a pit crew member for NASCAR great Harry Gant before he made the move to Cup racing. He also briefly helped Butch Lindley and L.D. Ottinger on their late model ...

Statewide Sunday hunting to begin

May 5, 2018

The long prohibition of Sunday hunting is over. On March 29, Gov. Jim Justice signed into law Senate Bill 451. This bill will allow Sunday hunting on public lands in the state. I was talking with West Virginia Division of Natural Resources officials at the Elkins Operations Center this past Monday, and they informed me this new law will go into effect on July 1. This bill passed both houses of the Legislature by huge margins. This is something I have wanted to see for a long time. From the time I was a teenager, I have bitterly detested the law that prohibited someone from going ...