I had the very fortunate opportunity to attend with my good friends, Billy and Karen Biscoe, which meant I had access to the Hayes Jewelers Suite and the good food within as well as hand-picked seats out in the coliseum for the event. No true race fan worth his salt would ever be stuck inside a luxury suite during a stock car race. Thankfully the Biscoes had us sitting about half-way up right in the middle of turns one and two. From this vantage point one can literally see (with peripheral vision) both, the front and back stretches as well as both ends of the track. My compliments to the Biscoes for the outstanding seat selection.
The racing festivities began with honoring tonight's grand marshal and local legend, Ralph Brinkley. Up until the 2012 season when Tim Brown took the record, Brinkley had been the racer with the title of most Modified Championships. His presence at the arena was well respected as evidenced by the response form the thousands of adoring fans cheering from the stands.
The night of racing began with the Sportsman division. I'm personally not sure of the differences, but this class appeared to be of the Late Model Stock variety. Having not been to a short track recently, I was pleased to see my first new Carmaro body in the field. It was a great looking race car. I had heard that because of the its quarter-mile-long and flat corner design BGS often yielded some follow-the-leader style racing. To my surprise, I saw some really good close racing made even more interesting by the double-file restarts. If you haven't witnessed the interest added by this latest version of double file restarts whereby the orange cone is placed on the start / finish line and as the competitors approach they can elect to restart in either the inside or outside lanes. Depending upon the choices made by the leaders, this often allows fourth, fifth, and sixth place cars to move up on the outside...as most often the inside is the desired lane at BGS.
The main feature of the night was the Hayes Jewelers 200 lap Modified race. Twenty eight cars started the race with Madhouse regular Jason Myers on the pole being paced by Grand Marshal, Ralph Brinkley in his original modified Corvair. The field was very impressive to say the least. As the announcer called off the names of each driver, it became more evident just how competitive this division really is. It seemed like almost every driver mentioned was a previous multiple winner and / or champion at BGS.
Seeing this huge (for a quarter-mile track) field roll off was incredible. Being in those stands in the middle of nearly twenty thousand screaming fans was absolutely awesome. But, the realization that impressed me the most was just how good these guys really are. The close quarters yielded some extremely tight racing...which in an open-wheeled race car can become treacherous when tires touch another car. These drivers were diving into the turns almost flawlessly, almost always two wide, and always within an inch of disaster. There were some cautions, which is expected with this type of racing, but the professionalism of the track crews made those cautions brief through their choreographed attention to each incident.
The excitement highlight of the night came when Brian Weber managed to climb the wall and become airborne, landing between the inside guardrail and outside retaining wall. I would not have imagined there was enough room between those two walls for a car to fit. But, Brian's car slid right between them on it's right side. Fortunately Brian was not injured. His flight by the flagman may have this 35 year flagging veteran considering his options for the future. It took two wreckers to remove the wedged car from between the two walls and the same two to carry the car from the racetrack. We had Brian on Jerry Smiths STARS Radio show Monday night telling his amazing perspective of the crash. You can listen to the interview on RacersReunionRadio.com by CLICKING HERE.
The record holder with the most Modified Championships at BGS, Tim Brown won the 200 lap event...that ended with a green-white-checker finish. I wasn't able to stay for the remainder of the program, but you can bet I'll return to The Madhouse. Short trck racing is alive and well in Winston Salem. Sixty-five years and getting better each year.
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