Best and Worst of 2009-2

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The Best & Worst of the 2009 LMSC Season - Con't

Paddy Rodenbeck was the highest climbing of the drivers making a rise to the top as he was able to go from a very fast, very inconsistent driver in 2009, that had only one top ten finish to a driver with two UARA-STARS Series victories and a handful of near misses. He also had a star performance in the Dwight Huffman Memorial at Hickory Motor Speedway, the biggest race of the season on the 3/8 mile track where he nearly pulled off the victory if not for getting bumped around by Steven Wallace. Rodenbeck made himself a formidable competitor this season for the UARA-STARS Series championship even leading the points for one week early in the season and being a top five driver in every race he entered. in 2010, Rodenbeck will be competing on a part time basis in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and in select Late Model Stock Car races.

WORST of 2009 #4 ...
~Darrell Wallace, Jr.'s Performance
Darrell Wallace, Jr. blasted into the UARA-STARS Series as a young 13-year old racing phenom with a boat load of talent and what seemed like the financing to get the job done even at such a young age. His four appearances in 2007 left him looking to be the youngest ever Rookie of the Year award winner on the tour and as the 2008 season wound to a conclusion he beat out Brandon McReynolds in the best Rookie point battle you could imagine.

With the Rookie of the Year award firmly secured and another season on the horizon many thought he would be one of the guys in the top five by the end of the season to battle for the championship in the UARA-STARS Series. However, in just a short matter of time as the season began Wallace was quick to find out what the term "sophomore jinx" was all about as he couldn't seem to get out of his own way. Wallace had many problems and no matter what he and his crew chief, Mike 'Grumpy' Cheek did there was no improvement.

It seemed as if that "sophomore jinx" has bitten him over and over and over and even a lone victory at Franklin County Speedway against less than stellar competition did little to improve his season and soon he was off the UARA tour for the remainder of the season. Wallace then suffered through the rest of the season spending more time on the sidelines than anywhere and missed his first attempt at the Bailey's 300 after spinning Clay Greenfield and being black flagged, missing the race in the end by one position. Hopefully with Wallace joining the NASCAR Driver Development Program this season, his effort will improve and plus he can now scratch that "sophomore" title away.

BEST of 2009 #3 ...
~Dominant Single Track Performances
OK, so many fans at the Hickory Motor Speedway, Langley Speedway and Greenville-Pickens Raceway's in particular wouldn't exactly call the domination of Andy Mercer, CE Falk and Marty Ward respectively a good thing, but we're certainly going to show those dominant drivers of 2009 the respect they deserve. Mercer made his mark on the Hickory, NC track this season by winning 14 of the track's 21 races and cemented himself as one of the best drivers of all-time on one of the most historic tracks in the Southeast. Mercer also took home the track's championship, his first and is hoping to venture out some in 2010 to further prove himself on different tracks.

Falk took home 11 wins on his home track of Langley Speedway, noted by many of Late Model Stock Car racing's best drivers as one of the toughest tracks in this region. Falk also took home a single victory at South Boston Speedway this season just edging out one of the track's top drivers, Eddie Johnson for the win. Falk's single track performance has him among an elite group in Langley Speedway's history and as the young wheel man continues his quest toward racing stardom he's sure to venture out from the Hampton, VA and try and continue to climb the racing ladder.

Ward has been a hometown hero at Greenville Pickens Speedway for years and this year was no different as he dominated the 1/2 mile flat track winning 13 feature races. Ward continues to be one of the biggest names in Late Model Stock Car racing and continues to be one of the winningest drivers in Greenville Pickens history and despite his 13 wins this season he fell short of the track championship.

Other dominant drivers this season on their home turf included Kevin Leicht(8 wins) at Newport, Brent Brinson(9) at Myrtle Beach, Dexter Canipe, Jr.(7) at Tri-County, Speedy Faucette(7) at Ace, Rodney Cook(6) at Ace, David Triplett, Jr.(6) at Orange County and Travis Swaim(5) at Caraway. All these drivers certainly proved how good they are this season and next year each and every one of them will be looking for bigger and better things in 2010 whether they continue racing their home track or venture out to others in search of tougher competition.

WORST of 2009 #3 ...
~Rain Soaked
The 2009 season saw it's share of races get rained out and specifically two of the first three UARA races were washed out and had to be rescheduled and the season finale was pushed back three weeks from it's originally scheduled date. Many other race dates were washed out around the NASCAR Weekly racing community including a couple at Motor Mile when the RACE22.com crew were present at the event including the second leg of a twin night.

Rain was certainly hard on the Late Model Stock Car contingent in 2009, but let's hope that in 2010 the weather will get confused and instead of being on what seems like an every other weekend pattern, maybe it will confuse Monday and Tuesday of every week as the weekend and our Friday, Saturday and even some Sunday's will be as beautiful as our Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's seemed to be this year.

BEST of 2009 #2 ...
~The Dwight Huffman Memorial
One of the best things from the 2009 season for us Late Model Stock Car fans was the Dwight Huffman Memorial, the 177-lap race at Hickory Motor Speedway. It wasn't one of the best races when it comes to the on track battles and didn't display one of those never forget battles to the finish, but the DHM race certainly deserved to be among this year's "Best of 2009". So, you're asking yourself "What makes this one of the 'best of 2009'?" ...

The Dwight Huffman Memorial was the best promoted, most organized Late Model Stock Car special of the season. A 177-lap race that featured only green flag laps being counted, a special offer for the highest qualifiers to go to the rear and race up to the win for bonus money and featuring the best of the best in Late Model Stock Car racing in the Carolina's. In the end it was Matt McCall who took home the victory, but that only begins to tell the story as McCall had been one of the fastest qualifiers and took the challenge and won the bonus money collecting over a $14,000 payday in the race.

McCall's victory was huge, but the atmosphere at the race was crazy, with near packed stands, giveaways from local businesses and everything a special race should be. The Dwight Huffman Memorial in just two years has easily established itself as the biggest race at Hickory even against the longer running, Bobby Isaac Memorial and the Fall Brawl. The Dwight Huffman Memorial has also established itself as the biggest of the mid-season big races and will certainly draw more and more of the biggest names in Late Model Stock Car racing in the third annual race coming up on July 10th.

WORST of 2009 #2 ...
~Track Issues
We've seen a lot of crazy things in local short track racing over the years, no one will soon forget the Del Richards era at Southern National Raceway Park or many of the other people who took advantage of a very open racing community. This season we got our fill of it from the Charles Collins/North Wilkesboro Speedway debacle and Ace Speedway's ever revolving door of management with the latest group shoving the track deep into a hole it may not soon recover from.

The Charles Collins era at the formerly defunct North Wilkesboro Speedway which had been dormant since 1996 until he reopened it for practice and eventually a misguided attempt at staging a race. The race would have worked, but with just a two week notice for drivers it was going to be a failure right from the start, but there was so many layers deep to this deal that no one knew about. Collins was reportedly wanted on charges in Georgia involving another business and when he allegedly took money from a Bowman Gray Stadium racer, he tried to pay her back with bounced checks and that's when he was arrested by local authorities.

Thankfully before this guy could stage a race at North Wilkesboro, he was caught by the police and was never able to take advantage of any other local racers. One good thing came out of this deal and that is the spark of interest in the track that will hopefully bring the facility back to life in 2010 with some notable racing people, but Collins is surely not going to be involved in anything further at the Wilkes County race track.

As the dawn of the 2009 season arrived the future looked promising for Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, NC and while things didn't immediately go south to the viewing public, it wasn't long before another management change(seems like that happens about once every six to eight months) was done and talks from the drivers were that checks were bouncing or not being sent to drivers. Since then this situation has spiraled out of control and many believe that the track won't operate at all in 2010 after the track has been reported to have lost it's NASCAR sanctioning, which seems to have been solidified by the fact that Caraway Speedway in nearby Asheboro, NC has announced that they are sanctioned for Friday nights this season.

BEST of 2009 #1 ...
~Rivalries in an Abundance
Everyone who knows me, knows that I really couldn't ask for anything more than a little controversy and this season was jam packed full of the best kind .... a lingering rivalry! This season you had a little of everything from two young guns having a flare up in the biggest race of the season to two pairs of veterans scratching and clawing for championships this season. We saw Jake Crum and Brandon McReynolds rekindle an off-track rivalry in the final laps of the Bailey's 300 at Martinsville Speedway and after McReynolds slammed Crum on the cool down lap from Crum's victory, the two did a little trash talking in the media center.

The two young bucks and their little on again, off again rivalry made for a good one race show and while Speedy Faucette and Rodney Cook have arguably the best on-going rivalry, this season's rivalries were all overshadowed by the championship contending battles of Jamey Caudill and Matt McCall and one featuring Frank Deiny and Philip Morris. The Morris and Deiny battle was one you kinda could have seen coming between two of the all-time best on Motor Mile's 4/10 mile track, but no one would have ever expected the McCall and Caudill battle. Morris took the high road when it came to the trash talking, despite being the aggressor bumping Deiny out of the way as Deiny went on to talk 'smack' about as much as anyone ever has.

McCall was the aggressor in the other big rivalry this season as he was the one laying the bumper to Caudill in a green, white, checkered finish at Dillon in the UARA-STARS. McCall nor Caudill are big trash talkers, but in this case McCall did the talking with his car and while Caudill had only a few choice words for McCall. Deiny in the Motor Mile battle promised to deliver retaliation, but the opportunity never materialized and Morris skated off to another track championship and a third NASCAR National