ARCA race at Elko Speedway

[ron.brown11]

It's not often that I write about the ARCA Series, but last night's finish was pretty cool. William Sawalich won it, but it was not easy. With 75 laps to go, while leading, a lapped car flat took him out. That put him back to 8th, with body damage and a slow leaking left rear tire. He struggled but made it to the scheduled race break. The Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew got him fixed up, and another tire mounted, and it was on from there. The toughest pass was around Isabella Robusto, as it took several laps to complete. He made pretty quick work around the third and second place cars, and set sail trying to catch Lavar Scott (Wendell Scott's grandson), for the lead. They swapped the lead a couple of times, which allowed Kris Wright to close fast on them both. Coming out of turn 4 to the checkers, they were all side by side, The finish reminded me of a race years ago at Sonoma, where 3 cars entered the hairpin, and then did a synchronized spin. But this time only Wright went around all the way. All 3 crossed the finish line with maybe 18" to 2' separation (.043 seconds). Sawalich won by about 4". There was some rubbing and pushing, but nobody tried to "Do what I had to do" to win. 

I really thought that Lavar was going to win it, and probably would have if not for a yellow flag with about 10 laps to go. He had a 3 second lead before the yellow. Lavar drives for Rev Racing, Max Seigal's team, and finished second. Andres Perez, driving Max's other car finished 5th. Kris Wright was 3rd, and Robusto was 4th. 

There wasn't near as much attrition as they had the last race at Salem, thankfully. Salem has a long history of being hard on equipment and drivers. Watching a race from there either online or on TV, doesn't give you a great understanding to racing there. It's like racing inside of a cereal bowl fast. At a late model race I went to there years ago, they parked 4 of them in the trees outside of the exit of turn 2. And I don't mean setting out there amongst the trees. I mean in the trees! One was on the ground, with the other 3 on top of him and in the branches. It took a bit to just get the drivers out of their cars, and about another hour+ to get the cars out of the trees. There's still some trees outside of turn 2, but the ones that sat just beyond the wall are gone thankfully. I'm not sure which track, Salem or Winchester has put more drivers on the sheets, but it's been a lot. Those tracks are about 180 miles apart in Indiana, but what a reputation they share. Great racing, and some very violent crashes. 

[NickHolt]

I really appreciate your contributions to the site. Ron. I know others do too!

[ron.brown11]

2 hours ago, NickHolt said:

I really appreciate your contributions to the site. Ron. I know others do too!

Thanks Nick. I try my best. Too bad I can't watch a race and type at the same time lol.. That race at Salem where they parked in the trees, was also the first time I ever saw, or heard of Darrell Waltrip. He was still racing late models then. It's was a red 1965 Chevelle, with a gold roof. He was sponsored by Falls City Beer. I think that's the only reason that I remembered him. I think it was car #48. I couldn't tell you names of any of the drivers that went into the trees. It's funny what the mind will store away, and the things that it won't. I've probably been hit in the head too much.