WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!

Corey Hangs With Midgets at Concord Motorsport Park

WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!

Corey Hangs With Midgets at Concord Motorsport Park

Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@race22.com

Bet that title got your attention. I've done some crazy things in my life, but even I haven't had that adventure yet. But I did hang with some really fast Midgets Wednesday night, the USAC Carolina Ford Focus Midget Series on the 1/4 mile at the Concord Motorsport Park. And I had an absolute blast.

Being that I've only covered Late-Models for the majority this year, I was excited to check this whole Wednesday night racing deal out. And earlier in the week a few mini-stock drivers from

Bowman Gray contacted me wanting to pump of the publicity for it also, they were going to let them run a feature also. Knowing all these guys from the mini-stock ranks, I wondered if the USAC people really knew what they were getting into. I was ready to see this stuff.

As I got there I walked down to the mini-stock pits to see who all showed up. With a 2 day notice we had 14 mini stocks in the pits with about 12 other drivers there to check it out. I ventured over to the midget area to check those out next, and let me tell ya, these things are bad. They look just like the midget cars that run

at Richmond, except they run a Ford Focus motor. But not the one you drive to work, these have racing ignition, exhaust, gears, and they run off Methanol. These things get up and go.

The whole show they have on Wednesday should be noted by all tracks. This was the first time I have dealt with anything to do with USAC, and these guys are 100% professional and run a show like a work of art. Heat races for the mini-stocks, followed by qualifying for the midgets, and we were ready to go with no lag at all.

The 1/4 mile track at Concord has always been there since I've been around, but I have never really walked over and seen it. I thought it was just something they threw in the ground to put on

David(left) and Mark Green was hanging out in the stands at the Wednesday night USAC event.

some little go-cart races. I was really, really wrong. I love this track, great banking, small, just grass in the infield, and it's fast for everything that I saw run on it. Including the go-carts, they blew my mind with the speed they had.

Most races that I attend, I try to give a play-by-play story somewhat on the nights events. I had my notepad and was ready. After 2 laps of the first go-cart event, I realized I could forget that, things happen ridiculously fast on this track. As the midgets got underway, I was amazed at how these things raced. They were going so fast it looked as if they couldn't even race each other, but they definitely did. 14 cars started, and that was plenty enough, every lap there was racing for position somewhere on the track. They have so much power that spin

Mark Daily from Indiana took home the checkered flag in an exciting USAC race.

outs off the corner are not uncommon, and smoking the right rear is pretty much mandatory. I took a seat behind former Busch series champ David Green and his son, and he just like me was impressed with the action on the track. Mark Daily from Fairmont, Indiana led from flag to flag, but was pestered by second finishing Steven Intravia from Sailorsburg, PA the whole event right down to the checkered flag. And after all the open-wheel rubbing and grinding, the most impressive thing was that all cars finished.

The last event of the evening was the mini-stocks. The USAC officials went to Bowman Gray last Saturday night and handed out some flyers to get the Mini Stocks down there. They called a conference call for everyone involved Tuesday night, and in a 45 min. phone call the purse and rules of the whole thing was put

AJ Sanders won the Mini Stock race after blowing his engine coming to the finish line.

together by the drivers and officials. It was a new concept to me, but it worked to perfection, the people from USAC wanted to put on the best show possible and who to get better ideas from than the people that drive them. The race started and the boys from Bowman Gray looked right at home. Beatin, bangin, rubbin and wreckin. And an added twist was added, during each caution if you wanted to go to the outside you could, and many that spun took advantage of it. Nobody ended up with any considerable damage, and A.J. Sanders took the win just barely, as his motor blew when he crossed the finish line.

This was my first visit the the little track at Concord but definitely not my last. the USAC people run a tight ship, and the racing was over by 9:45 so we could get home without taking a day off from work. I encourage everybody, nothing is happening on Wednesday nights anyway, get on down to Concord. I promise you'll be back the next Wednesday, it's just that good.