11/06/2004

LIA WINS ONE FOR THE NORTH
by Walter Johnston

 

    The North-South Shootout at Concord Motorsports Park began with a big bang on lap 3, and ended with a rush of excitement as Donny Lia, in the Huntington Honda #18, shot from 4^th place to 1^st in a march to the front in the last 16 laps of the race. It included the best of the best Modified drivers from North and South running 100 green flags laps in what was a truly a great race by all involved.  It was truly a great ending to a great Friday and Saturday of racing.

 

    The Shootout began with the 32 drivers being introduced as they stood by their cars on the front straight of the ½ mile tri oval. The Dale Jarrett Mustang pace car then led them around for pace laps as the large crowd anticipated the start of this unique event. At the drop of the green, #66 John Blewett III and #19 Eric Beers ran side by side until the completion of the first lap, with Beers gaining the advantage as they crossed the stripe for the first time. Beers had a 2 car length lead by the 3^rd lap, as disaster struck with the #57 of Jay Foley getting loose and spinning of the 4^th corner into the front straight, causing the rest of the filed behind him to take evasive action, which resulted in a pile up of over 20 cars, totally blocking the track and causing the yellow flag, which quickly became a red flag, to be displayed. The way the cars were piled up from this sudden stop made it evident that many would be unable to continue, even with extensive repairs. It took close to 25 minutes just to get all the cars towed off, as only a few were able to make it to the pits on their own. During the red, a lot of speedy dry had to be used to soak up all the spilled fluids on the track. When the yellow finally came out again, work on pit road began. The first car back out was #73 L.W. Miller, but officials indicated that was because his crew had worked on the car during the red flag, and he was given the black flag immediately, but ignored it. While work continued on a few others, the remaining 21 cars went back to racing, and Miller was again given the black flag, which he chose to ignore. A few laps later, he was being shown the black with white crossed flag, indicating he was no longer being scored.

 

     Meanwhile, John Blewett III took the lead from Beers on the resumption of racing, and pulled out to a 5 car length lead as Beers and #0 Nevin George battled for 2^nd, while #67 Freddie Query and #77 Ed Flemke Jr. ran nose to tail battling for 4^th & 5^th place. Rounding out the top ten were #3 Jerry Marquis, #34 Bobby Santos III, #00 Ted Christopher, #18 Donny Lia, and #83 Ronnie Silk. Blewett, Beers and George had pulled away from the rest by lap 25, as the next 6 in line were glued to each other’s bumpers. By lap 35, Blewett had pulled out into a 10 car length lead over Beers and George, as Freddie Query started fading back in the field, dropping out of the top 10 as #77 Doug Coby moved up into 9^th by lap 40. The running order remained the same, as the yellow came out on lap 53 for debris in the dogleg on the backstretch. All the leaders took advantage of this to make their mandatory pit stops, and all the leaders but Marquis took on at least one tire. On the double file restart, it was Marquis out front, with Beers, Lia, Blewett III, and Flemke Jr. running in the top 5 positions.  Marquis maintained the lead as the yellow flew once again on lap 63 for a spin in turn 2 by #49 Bob Park. Of all the leaders, only Christopher pitted again, and his crew was all over the rear of the car, checking it out, but it turned out he was finished for the night with rear end trouble.

 

     On the double file restart, it was Marquis maintaining his lead, as Blewett got around Lia for 3^rd a few laps later, and Blewett started to put pressure on Beers for 2^nd. The top 5 were running nose to tail on lap 77, with Blewett getting by Beers for 2^nd on lap 79, as George bumped Lia while passing under him for 4^th. An intense battle was now shaping up in the top 5, as Beers got around Blewett for 2^nd again, and Lia got back by George to move up into 4^th position by lap 83. Lia then passed a fading Blewett on lap 84 for 3^rd and set his sights on the two leaders, Beers in 2^nd and Marquis, running 1^st. Lia passed them both to take the lead on lap 86, and started to pull away by a large margin. Obviously, he had managed his tires well to this point, as all the others were slipping around of the corners as Lia kept his car on track and pulled to a lead of over 10 car lengths by lap 89. Lia kept right on pulling away from the field, and had a 15 car length lead as the yellow flew on lap 92 for debris on the track, closing the field back up again.  When the green came back out, Lia once again pulled away from the battling duo of Beers and George. On lap 96, Marquis, whose tires were now shot, spun in turn 2, bringing out the final caution of the race. Lia took off on the restart, and ran away to a convincing win over the stellar field of cars. Finishing 2^nd through 10^th were #19 Eric Beers, #0 Nevin George, #34 Bobby Santos III, #66 John Blewett III, #79 Ed Flemke Jr., #77 Doug Coby, #83 Ronnie Silk, #67 Freddie Query, and #5 Charlie Pasteryak.

 

News and Notes: Lia’s win worth over $6,000 with lap money thrown in…It was a nice end to a brilliant season for the team to add the win to their FMS Pole award and 8^th place points finish on the Tour…Bill Park had a rough weekend, crashing and severely damaging the left rear on his Mod…repairs were made by his able crew, but he never quite got a handle on the uniquely shaped tri-oval, and ended up only running in the non-qualifiers race, where he finished 3^rd…Steve Park made it to the track on Saturday to watch his Dad and Uncle run, even if it was in separate races…Nice to run into many Long Islanders at the track, among them Robin and Elaine Vollmoeller, Wayne Okula, Keith Rotzi, who is going to school in NC for the next 18 months,  Doug Corwin, Wayne Anderson’s sponsor (Eastport Feeds), and quite a few others whose names escape me as I write this (sorry folks)….A big Thank You to the Ken Heagy team, for sponsoring part of our weekend at Concord, and especially his Dad, Grumpy, for the ride and company over meals for the weekend…without their help, I would not be writing this story….and  lastly, thanks to the weather man, who after practice being rained out Thursday, gave us all a cloudless and relatively warm two days to participate in our favorite sport, Modified racing… What a really wonderful experience this whole trip turned out to be.

Results for the other support racing divisions can be found at  www.mendsimage.com/northsouthshootout/index.htm

Sources:  Walter Johnston/LongIslandJam.com
Posted:  November 8, 2004