Labor Day Weekend 2010

 September 4th and 5th, 2010

 Low Country Motorsports

Charleston, South Carolina

 The Racers wanted the yearly event to continue and we obliged, the venue may have changed but the vintage Tjets battled just as they always have, decked out in 1960's era Detroit Iron these cars always get the heart pumping with memories of NASCAR's Greatest Racing 

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.The long, hot summer break came to a thundering end on Labor day weekend as the Southern Sportsman Series kicked off it's 6th season at Low Country Motorsports. All of the cars and drivers showed improvment over last year but still could not muster the horsepower to get around last season's Champion - Kevin Browning. Most improved was Dwayne Hoyle, who everyone has been waiting to break-out from the center pack. He did it in style, running slip-ons and keeping his Chevy Monte Carlo in the slot to capture third behind Chris Walker who will pick-up his bid for the 2010-'11 championship in two weeks at Oak Hill. This is not one of Chris' best tracks as he prefers the shorter flat circuits but he did improve over last year. Lewis Wouri had a strong showing after getting around some Pick-up shoe issues early on pulling in a forth place finish. Skylar Spake kept on task for fifth with a smooth drive and new found horsepower in his Chevy Monte Carlo as he crossed the line just ahead of the faster of the two Team BRP Dodges driven by Roger Corrie. Tony Puzzello kept his hopes alive as both he and the second BRP car of Bill Kurtz had to limp around their final lane with the "Park It" rule looming large. Andy Lancaster got the most out of his well seasoned Kevin Harvick body which he plans on retiring soon getting a top 10 out of Southern One along with fellow SC racer, Mike Reed. One car to watch this year will be the ARMY Chevy of Ray Utz, his car has the look of a winner and just needs a bit more top end speed should get him there. As it was, his car should do well on the smaller tracks and I for one was very impressed with Ray's perfection driven outlook all weekend long. Local racers Alan Moss and Ricky Fender both had strong cars with big time speed but fell just a bit short in the corners, that still play into the picture on the big tracks, look for them in the mix soon and remember that it was Alan who gave Kevin Browning fits at Electric Motor Speedway last January. With South Carolina's Mike Reed most likely picking up the February race I would give him some early on home track advantage, we will keep you posted on this schedule change.

. . . . as the Southern Muscle Division enters its second full season of competition it has clearly carved out a place in the hearts of the racers. Those of us who go to traveling events love the fact that we can fine tune at home against stiff competition and those who don't hit the roads benefit from what we learn and return home with. Both Lewis and Kevin spend countless hours before races helping others get their cars ready for the green flag and if they can't get them running at speed, we dig into our boxes and get them a ride that will. The "Monster" as we refer to our lovable six-lane mega beast at Tony Puzzello's Low Country Motordome is all TOMY and we know what that means, to those that are used to the smooth routed tracks out there this one will take you back to your roots and fast ... she is by no means a cart path but those little, ever changing knicks and crannies will give you fits and level the field, I love her ! Kevin stated that he had "Left the Door Open" after unplugging on the ever challenging Orange lane but with the next finishing position, Bill Kurtz, seven laps back it must have only been a crack. The steady Lewis Wuori had a tough rotation on White and it took another lane to stop kicking himself so Mike Reed took full advantage and stood the the 3rd place podium spot. Oval track stars Chris Walker and Skylar Spake finished respecfully but couldn't stop the charging Camaro of Ray Utz who scored fifth. Poor Ol' Tony, wore out from cooking the Burgers and recovering from a Brown Recluse bite had to pull behind the wall early leaving the final points paying spots to fellow South Carolina racers Alan Moss and Andy Lancaster.  

         Thanks much to the efforts of Ron Fields Sr. the Southern 500 has become a Labor Day tradition to the Southern HO racer and when Ron mentioned he couldn't host it in 2010 some of us just refused to let it go away. I have been a part of six of those 500's now and proudly display all of my cars in a case. We get a chance to learn about the racers from NASCAR's past, paint our cars in nostalgic schemes and relive some of the best racing the US has ever known. A few changes were made for this year's event most notable were the "Double Flange" rims which were a help on the high banks and we did allow the racers to balance, but not true the aramatures. If you ever suspected that a naturally balanced armature was woth it's weight in gold, you should now note that the top 6 racers in the field did not feel the need to balance theirs. Kevin Browning made the weekend his Trifecta with a chassis he won the evnt two years ago with and Bill (forever the brides maid) Kurtz finished second yet again in a car that should be used to it. Top Qualifier Lewis Wuori had a missle, Kevin, Lewis and I had worked on our cars the previous evening while dailing some Challenge cars in on Kevin's TKO and Lewis had taken a car that finished 3rd in the 500 more than once and found some new speed. He topped her with a BRP '64 Chevy that bore a fantasy 3, one of mine of course, and drove her straight to the pole. Roger Corrie is one of our HO/1:1 historians and he looked forward to seeing these cars lined up again but he misjudged his guide pin and suffered a mechanical because of it. Ray Utz continued his exellent weekend and my only regret was we didn't get more lanes in the same rotation as we drove and pushed each other hard and had great lap totals to show for it. When Ray was not on the track it was Skylar Spake pushing everyone, he had his #43 running like the King did back in the day and drove it to a 3rd place finish. This car was a winner and if I were Skylar I would put it up till next year. The coolest thing about the 500 is how many changes your car would go through during the race, cars began to loosen up while others began to tighten and the drivers who could adjust their style during those changes served themselves well. All in all it was a great event again this year and we need to get this class in more events thoughout the season.

Driver         Qualified (Time)   Laps

Kevin Browning     2 (4.409)              514

Bill Kurtz                3 (4.415)              501

Skylar Spake         4 (4.471)              496

Lewis Wuori          1 (4.388)              479

Ray Utz                  8 (4.778)              473

Mike Reed              5 (4.699)              467

Alan Moss              7 (4.742)              466

Dwayne Hoyle        9 (4.797)              446

Tony Puzzello      10 (4.973)              440

Chris Walker        11 (5.260)              425

Roger Corrie          6 (4.716)      Mechanical