wow, last night was full of awesomeness for me as a race fan...
High Limit sprint cars at Bridgeport, NJ. had some rain off and on that ended up delaying the start of the feature. front row was Gio Scelzi and Danny Sams. if y'all remember Sams is the young man i made the model for (hopefully going to deliver it to him at Wheatland, MO on 10/15 if the weather cooperates) and he is wrapping up his first full year on a national tour, and hasn't been having the best results. the team has been sticking it out and they were rewarded... on lap #8 going into the first turn, Sams powered around Scelzi on the outside and took the lead, pulling away. on lap #10 rain fell and they red-flagged the race. they decided to call it finished even though they were 5 laps from halfway, to the benefit of Sams. i was sooooo happy for him.
(https://i.imgur.com/IG5hgxa.jpeg)
and here he is in victory lane... if you look real hard you can see the rain is still falling ;)
(https://i.imgur.com/PPNWhPr.jpeg)
so after that ended i checked on the World of Outlaws. they were racing at Sharon raceway in Ohio, which Dave Blaney owns. 4 years ago Blaney won his final Outlaws race at Sharon in a car that was built in-house. he also set the record for the oldest WoO winner.
fast forward to last night and Dave's brother, Dale, an accomplished sprint car driver in his own right, ran that same car (just a little bit different of a set up, as you will see below) and beat the Outlaws. he re-set the record for oldest WoO winner at age 61.
here is the car
(https://i.imgur.com/MEHVaH2.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/dLktXAY.jpeg)
there is something really unique about that car... aside from the fact that it ran coil-overs on the rear... but i just can't put my finger on it :o
all of this topped my previous 2 "best days" as a race fan; first was when i got to see Dave Blaney win a sprint car race in person at Tri-City back in the mid 1990s. the second was in 1997 when i got to see (both on television) Mark Martin win at Michigan during the day and Dave Blaney win the Knoxville Nationals the same night.
Very cool experience, a thing you won´t forget 8) 8)