THERE’S ALWAYS MORE TO THE STORY – Orange County Speedway Race Night 9-21-24

“There’s always more to the story than a body can see from the fenceline.”

Barbara Kingsolver

In our support for local short track racing in the central east coast racing region, our extended coverage choice this week took us back to the “House of Speed”, Orange County Speedway. There should be no doubt by now our belief in the fact that the nation’s short tracks are indeed the foundation of the sport of stock car racing. It’s where it all began, and for any driver that aspires to reach the top levels of the sport, it’s the training grounds that starts you on your path. From Denny Hamlin’s youth in Mini Stocks, Brad Kesolowski’s beginnings in Factory Stock, or the Busch brothers Kurt and Kyle’s Legend Car days, short tracks are where they started to learn their craft. Short tracks are where we were introduced to a number of drivers who are, and have made their ways up the ladder to the premier levels of the sport. And for those that come and visit tracks like Orange County Speedway, the lessons learned can be invaluable. Trust us when we tell you that Orange County Speedway is, for many reasons, a great racing school ground. It will let you know where your boundaries lay, and is a great indicator for any driver on where their skill level truly is. And for the local weekly driver, no matter where they are in their career, it’s an amazing place to compete. It will test your will and your skill in more ways than many fans could ever imagine. For that reason, it’s also a place for fans to watch great racing as the competitors that grace it’s challenging asphalt compete on a track that allows them to take each other to the limit.

In respect for those facts, we feel it’s our duty to give you, even if just a glimpse, a bit of a look behind the scenes of each and every event we cover. More than you can get from a mere paragraph article, as there’s always more to everything than at first meets the eye. We know this approach isn’t for everybody. But for you, the true short track racing fan, we think you deserve nothing less. Before we take a look behind the curtain however this week, let’s take a closer look at the racing from Orange County Speedway from this past Saturday night.

ROUGEMONT STORAGE PURE STOCK FEATURE

2024 South Boston Speedway Pure Stock champion B.J. Reaves in the # 11 puts it on the pole and will lead the field to green tonight. Defending Orange County Pure Stock champion # 66 Scott Phillips starts second followed by Zach Reaves in the # 77. The Orange County flagman looks over the competitive pack, likes what he sees, and we’re underway! B.J. Reaves gets a fantastic launch but the same can’t be said for Zach Reaves, stumbling just a bit and dropping back to fifth. That’ll give # 31 Caleb Sanford third with Andrew Turner in the # 76 getting by for fourth. Phillips is battling a noticably loose race car, but is keeping his times within striking distance of B.J. Reaves. Phillips and Sanford attempt to mount a late race charge, but it won’t be enough as B.J. Reaves puts on a clinic and takes the win! Phillips takes his machine to second while Sanford hangs on for third.

MOD 4 FEATURE

The # 06 of Brandon Watson qualifies the fastest, but elects to start in the rear for a chance at maximum points. That puts the # 10 of familiar Tri-County Speedway competitor Tim Canipe on the pole accompanied by Mod 4 rookie # 15 Thomas Penny and # 17 Bubba Perry. The start is all Canipe as he clears for the lead, but there’s soon trouble behind! Penny goes around off of turn two, just barely kissing the outside wall. He’s able to get it back going but he’ll unfortunately have to restart in the rear. Canipe will continue to lead followed now by Perry and # 12 Joseph Kiger. Canipe once again fires off the best, but all eyes in the crowd are focused on Watson as he’s sprinting through the field like a man possessed. Before you know it, he’s up in the top three after getting around Kiger. Perry is next on the chopping block and he moves to third, leaving just one car in the way of another win for Watson. The # 06 is right on the back bumper and is able to move by, but Canipe sticks to him like glue. They’re nose to tail coming to the white flag! Canipe dives deep into turn three in a last ditch effort but nearly spins, giving Watson the hard earned victory, his third in a row! Canipe hangs on to still finish second while Perry notches third.

CHOICE AUTOMOTIVE CHARGER FEATURE

Due to an issue in technical inspection, fastest qualifier Lane Woods in the # 92 will have to start in the rear, meaning the # 8 of Tripp Evans will start on point. Lining up second will be # 22 Joe Lunsford with the top three rounded out by # 83 Tommy Raino. Evans executes a near perfect start while Jeb Redman in the # 16 breaks into the top three by Raino. You can cover almost the entire second half of the field with a blanket, with no one giving an inch! It’ll become a little more stacked up as Redman is off the pace! He’s soon back to normal speed, but he’ll lose a few positions, most notably third to # 27 Rusty Denny. But Denny won’t hold that spot for long because, just like Watson in the Mod 4 race, shotgun starter Woods has made his way to the top three. He makes quick work of Lunsford as Denny spins on the backstretch! That’ll bring the caution out, setting up a crucial restart. Evans will have control followed by Woods and Raino. It’s not a good restart for Evans, allowing Woods to head the field! Through the shuffle, Trace Daniel in the # 2 climbs to second with Evans recovering in third. Evans starts to lurk in Daniel’s mirror, and now he gets into him, setting off a multi-car pile up in between turns three and four! Daniel, Raino, Redman, and Denny are all involved. All will get away except for Daniel, who’s night is unfortunately over. Evans will also be done as Orange County has made the decision to park the # 8. Woods will lead them once all is cleaned followed by Denny and Raino. The first attempt at the restart is a no go, but the second is good with Woods pulling away from a raging battle between Denny and Raino. Woods will be successful in the worst to first, getting the win while Raino edges ahead of Denny behind!

LATE MODEL STOCK FEATURE 1

With a time of 14.438 seconds, points leader # 01 Camden Gullie vaults to the pole for the first of twin fourty lap Late Model Stock events. Carolina Pro Late Model Series points leader # 18 Max Reaves will start second along with # 151 Grant Davidson, # 77 Darren Krantz Jr, and the # 57 of Ben Maier who all round out the top five. The field inches to the finish line, the flagman approves the formation, and we’re racing! Gullie and Reaves are locked in a dead heat for the lead, giving everything they’ve got in the opening laps. Reaves eventually assumes the position with Gullie filing in behind. Krantz Jr is on the move early, kicking Davidson to third. He starts to stalk Gullie, but each time he takes a peek, Gullie slams the door. They play this cat and mouse game for multiple laps on end, allowing Reaves to slowly but surely pull away. Krantz Jr will finally make the pass, but does he have enough time to catch Reaves? He burns out qualifying lap after qualifying lap, but it won’t be enough. Reaves gets his first career Late Model Stock win in a dominant performance for Sellers Racing Inc! Krantz Jr crosses the line with an impressive second, Gullie claws out a third, Davidson gets a quiet fourth, and Maier puts in a consistent run for Carroll Speedshop in fifth.

LATE MODEL STOCK FEATURE 2

As a result of the redraw, Davidson starts up front for race two joined by # 07 Chase Ellis, Maier, Krantz Jr, and earlier winner Reaves. Davidson fires off nicely as Krantz Jr is wasting no time, already muscling past Maier and Ellis, leaving them to fend for themselves in a pack reminiscent of the Charger race. All of the jockeying makes way for Gullie to take third ahead of Ellis and Reaves. Ellis is under fire from both Reaves and Maier, who tag team to take fourth and fifth. Up ahead, there’s almost major trouble as Krantz Jr gets very sideways, somehow not looping his Chad Bryant Racing hot rod around. That will clog up the field some though, jumping Reaves all the way to second over Gullie while Krantz Jr settles for fourth. Davidson is holding a pretty wheel up front, but Reaves is right there! Can he pull off the sweep? Reaves dives under Davidson’s left rear quarter panel, and soon is up to his door. But the outside is strong, and Davidson is making it work to perfection. It’s a fantastic battle as the fans are on their feet as they come to the white flag side by side! Reaves throws it into four hard, making it an almost photo finish, but he can only get to his quarter panel as Davidson scores his first career Orange County Late Model Stock win! Gullie has a great points night with another third, Krantz Jr hangs on for fourth, and Maier bags another fifth.

MY TAKE

The cover photo for this article is of a racing body shell that we see every time we come to Orange County Speedway. It sits on the edge of the property off of Highway NC-57 less than a mile from the track, and it’s also a perfect example of what we mean when we say, “There’s always more to the story.” To the casual observer, it looks like it may just be a prop. Cool yard art if you will. But if you dig a little deeper you find out it’s the shell of a Volkswagen Bug that not only raced at Orange County Speedway, but won as well. But it’s story gets even better. Racer Horace Long, former NASCAR driver and MBM Motorsports owner Carl Long’s dad, not only drove the car to victory lane at Orange County Speedway, he also took it to compete in the Baby Grand Series, or as some people came to know it, the NASCAR’s Goody’s Dash Series, for two years. One of the only Volkswagen Beetle Bugs to compete in a NASCAR touring series. That alone in our book makes it quite special. And to us, it’s a representative of sorts of the track it sits down the road from. Built in 1966 as a dirt track, it was paved and held it’s first NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman race, now NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, in 1983. But in 1994, NASCAR ran it’s last Busch Grand National race there. Nine years later it was closed, and for all intents and purposes, left a shell of what it once was. Discarded if you will. Almost left to rot. But fortunately for the region’s short track racing fans, someone was smart enough to save it for posterity. Unfortunately for them however, some so called racing fans to this day don’t seem to understand the gravity of owning a track made for one of NASCAR’s top tier divisions and having to run it as an independent. NASCAR doesn’t even grant the track sanctioning anymore, much less bring to the track a series that draws tens of thousands of fans every year. And so the keyboard warriors type away at how the track isn’t the Orange County Speedway they knew in the 80’s and 90’s. But how could it be? There is no cure for losing millions of dollars in funding.

But still, the current owners persist. And we applaud them for it as loud as we can, hoping they hear us, and others like us, that we appreciate it more than they may ever know. I was fortunate enough to experience the speedway in it’s prime. But my Short Track Report partner didn’t get that privilege. He wasn’t even born until the year the track closed. But he is astute enough to recognize what Orange County Speedway still is. A great, fast, challenging short track that brings out the best in great drivers. That’s the relevance of it. Unlike Horace Long’s Bug, it was saved before it became unfunctional. In fact, as a racing track, it’s still as functional as it ever was. Ask any driver that competes here about the track and they’ll tell you the significance of it. It still lives up to what it was made for, great short track racing. And so on Saturday night, it was where young Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Max Reaves came to compete in a Sellers Racing Inc entry under the tutelage and mentorship of NASCAR Hall Of Fame driver Bobby Labonte in the aims of gaining the experience and skill it will take to compete at stock car’s highest levels. Whether he makes it remains to be seen of course, but they knew this would be a great testing ground to help gain the knowledge. And now it will be the place he remembers as he looks back on his first Late Model Stock win. Grant Davidson, a driver that has competed in Super Late Models on the PASS Series among other genres, has came here several times in pursuit of getting a Late Model Stock win at a track that’s challenged him. With just his dad there to help him as they thrashed on the car all day, it all paid off in the second feature as he was able to hold off Reaves to get his first ever Late Model Stock win at the track, even as points leader Camden Gullie padded his points lead ahead of his Martinsville Speedway ValleyStar Credit Union 300 challenge this coming weekend.

Young Lane Woods has used the track as his guiding post as the thirteen year old driver has moved up from the Mod 4 division to run Chargers this year, and under the guidance of experienced driver Craig Moore has proved to be quite the contender scoring his second win on the season as Brandon Watson continued to show he knows his way to victory lane scoring his third in a row. And 2024 South Boston Speedway Pure Stock Champion B.J. Reaves comes down to Orange County Speedway to continue his winning season, taking the Orange County Speedway Pure Stock win. Orange County Speedway also continues to host big Late Model Stock events such as the Orange Krush earlier in the year and the Orange Blossom Shootout, as well as the return of the zMAX CARS Tour, races that bring the best Late Model Stock racers in the region and beyond to the track, and for good reason. That said however, because of the facts I stated earlier, to continue into the future as a top tier destination will indeed hold it’s many challenges. In order to continue with it’s ever growing momentum, the track will need to remember it’s history as it lays it’s path for the future, just as every track should. It must understand it’s relevance, and strive for integrity in today’s short track racing era. Integrity in the midst of a challenging economic period has been a challenge for several short tracks across the nation, there’s no hiding that fact. As racing in this sport has become increasingly more expensive, blue collar teams will also continually gravitate to tracks they know to be fair as they look to justify their expense. Of course this will be a challenge for every short track in the country as they seek the funding to put on the best racing they can muster. Orange County Speedway if anything has proved to be a track that provides great and exciting racing. In fact, it’s almost like it was made for Late Model Stocks, and as huge supporters of great short track racing, we can only hope it continues it’s regrowth for many years into the future. This track is simply more important to the region than it appears at first glance. It’s time that many who are blind to that fact start to see it for what it truly is. Until next time, as always, See You At The Track!

(Race write ups by Joshua Weatherman. Intro and My Take written by Billy Weatherman. Copyright 2024 SHORT TRACK REPORT)