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The man can drive, there’s no question about that. Sterling Marlin hit the oval at Speedway 660 in time for the second practice session on Saturday afternoon and promptly put up a time of 13.6 seconds. This turned out to be the second fastest time put up in practice all day Saturday and Sunday morning.
Now, granted, a man with his credentials, should have some talent. After all, he did win the Daytona 500 twice. His personality and his Tennessee drawl made him a bit hard to understand occasionally, but he made himself quite available to the fans by times. Unfortunately, at other times he was quite gruff and unapproachable, leaving some fans unimpressed.
Marlin ran in heat four on Sunday afternoon, finishing third, thus qualifying for the 250 without the need of a provisional and that’s the way it should be done. Too often stars come our way and put in a half-hearted effort, relying on the promoter’s provisional.
There is a great equalizer in stock car racing though. A car can only go as fast as there is open track in front, and if an accident occurs right in front of you, more often than not, you will also be involved. This is what happened to Marlin, 51 laps into the 250. This made it a pretty short day’s work for the NASCAR great, but in all fairness, it wasn’t his fault.
In the end, it was a couple of Maritimers that showed the way in the Peterbilt 250. One was Enfield, NS’s Shawn Turple and the other was St. John’s Lonnie Sommerville, with Sommerville coming out the winner and first two time winner of this event. Both of these drivers are full time competitors on the Carquest Pro Stock Tour, and actually are battling it out for the Tour Championship.
There were several extremely exciting races over the weekend, aside from the Peterbilt. One was the O’Leary Pontiac Excitement 150 for Sportsman cars on Saturday evening. With three laps to go in this one, the caution flag flew, bringing the field together for a three lap shootout. Dan MacNeil was sitting in fifth, a very comfortable position for this driver who hadn’t seen victory lane at all this year.
When the green flag sent the cars hurtling down the track in the dash to the finish, MacNeil began to move forward. With one lap to go, he was third but you could throw a blanket over all of them, and on corner three, MacNeil went low and hard, beating Bradley Logan to the punch and grabbing victory. The most shocked person in the place, with the possible exception of the over five thousand fans, was MacNeil himself. When he spoke, his voice was shaky and jittery, as the realization of his run to glory sunk in.
That wasn’t the only tight one either. The AOW, who are sometimes criticized for putting on boring races, put it all on the line Saturday evening, especially Shelley Stewart and Mike “Sparky” Raeburn, who went side by side for laps on end and switched positions several times, before Stewart “bested” Sparky and took the victory.
And I have saved the best for last. Brian Fox, Rick Cashol, and Matt Matheson put on a tremendous battle in the 50 lap Street Stock feature on Sunday. It was a battle of “give and take” as each driver had a turn in front with neither able to hold the others off for long. In the end Matheson came out on top, followed by Cashol and Fox. It was a real barnburner, to be sure, and went all 50 laps without a caution.
OK, now for the latest developments in the River Glade – Centre for Speed saga. Last week Herman Berry announced that he was uncancelling the River Glade International and holding it on September 26th. He also stated that the race was in no way associated with the SouthEast Challenge. Apparently, several sponsors have come forward to help keep the International going, at least for one more year. Several top notch drivers like Glyn Nott from Speedway 660, have signified their intention to enter.
This, however, is where the plot thickens again though. Robbie MacLean, a regular on the Carquest Pro Stock Tour , and new owner principal at Oyster Bed Bridge Speedway on PEI, has been trying to put together a Sportsman race on the Island on the same date. After learning of the River Glade announcement, he was searching for optional dates to make everything come together.
The next part of the story has not been announced as yet, nor has it been confirmed. However the story goes like this. In an effort to derail the “International”, Centre for Speed owner Tim Wile has made a deal to help convince drivers to skip the International, and go to Oyster Bed Bridge instead. I really hope that this is not true because the whole thing begins to smell at that point.
I know Mr Wile personally and while I don’t believe the rumours, as it really hurts the sport more than anything, they are very strong and come from sources that are usually “right on the money”. There is no question that there are bitter feelings between Mr Wile and Mr Berry over things that have happened but using the sport that they both claim to love, is not fair to anybody.
We’ll keep you abreast of all the developments as they happen.
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