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World 100 Saturday
Late Model Mark
PINSON, Ala. (September 22) - The drapes flew open rather late this Saturday morning due to the late night and excitement of day one of the World 100. Looking out the window and noticing the great weather,just made me feel like I had downed two cups of Starbucks love. In short order the group was downstairs working over the complimentry breakfast buffet with many race fans. The room was filled with folks from all over who talked of the previous nights action and what would happen today for the biggie. The veterans of the World 100 I was with said we needed to be on the grounds of the track by 1:00pm. if we wanted to park in the main lot. At high-noon the truck hit the road for another trip thru the cornfields of Ohio. Our route today was different from Fridays mad dash, we took Highway 121 thru New Paris and into Greenville then onto Highway 118. What a scenic drive thru this area, what I saw shorty into Greenville surprised me as I had never seen this before.
The driver of the truck says this, oh, you will see probably 10 or so cars in line and it's coming right up. What is that line for? There was around 15 cars lined up out into the street, it was a drive-thru liqour store!! Huh? I can just picture someone going thru there saying, I'll take a six-pack of beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, some wine and 2 packs of Lucky Strikes, all of this sitting in the car. Never saw that before! Thru Greenville and more corn the truck zips thru Rossburg and shorty after that you see the cars and the throng of fans at the campground. Right at 1:00pm. the truck is parked and the tailgating begins. Coolers are opened, chairs come out and the party is on under picture perfect skies and weather. Eldora opened the gates at 1:30pm. for the days activities, by 1:35pm. our chairs are unfolded at our patio seats. 2:00pm there is a large gathering of internet fans, a meet and greet under the trees just outside the gates of turn 4 where I met many fans who you know only by usernames. That was fun meeting folks from all parts of the country. To get into the pits at Eldora you go to the ticket booth by turn 4, surrender your ticket,pay-em $5.00 dollars and then you get a wristband. The turn 4 area is like a carnival of vendors, food, and simulators. The overflow pit area is in the backstraight and is filled with haulers and cars,then you go under the track in the "love tunnel" into the infield. From this point you see how the track is banked, it doesn't look that banked from the seats but from the infield you can see this track has some hills to it. What a deal to be part of this race for me. World of Outlaw announcer Rick Eschleman pulls me over and invites me to the press conference in the famous Eldora ballroom slated for 4:00pm. The tour of the pits ends soon.Walking in the ballroom you could feel the history of it all. All of the media, both print and internet was present to ask questions to Earl Pearson,Shane Clanton, and Dan Schleiper. Cameras were clickin' away, ink was flowing,then some questions were asked. It was fun to be part of the whole scene.
By now it's 5:00pm. and the Orange shirt was out of the ballroom back to my cronies in the parking lot for tailgate action. At 5:30pm. all of us headed into the track for pre-race action and some grub. The place full and just buzzing with electricity at this point. Got me one of those frisbee size pork tenderlion sammys and watched the fan action go by. Then I checked out all the t-shirt and racing vendors off of turn 1, never seen so much Late Model items for sale. By this time the track was full of fans and it was almost race time. Just before the National Anthem, the air is electric of the likes I have never felt at a dirt race. Right at 7:00pm. the Anthem is belted out well by a young lady and it's race time!!! The dream of a lifetime has begun. In rapid order the 6 heats are run. Heat 1 starts at 7:03 while the rest go off at 7:26, 7:40, 7:55, 8:10, and the 6th and final heat race at 8:23pm. B-Main 1 gets the green at 8:55pm. while B-Main 2 gets going at 9:18pm. Intermission ends at 10:00pm. with the start of driver introductions. The place is jammed with fans and the cheering or booing begins in earnest. Right at 10:25pm. the dream comes true with the start of the World 100!!. Only 2 yellows slow the action on the black track that really did not promote too much action. In what I would call an upset, Bart Hartman won the race and that nice trophy with the big globe on it. The dream had been checkered right at 11:00pm. and my first, and not last, World 100 was in the books. The huge crowd now was slowly making their way out facilty while we hung out for 40 minutes to let traffic die down. We drove out of the parking lot just before midnight into the darkness of the rural cornfields of Ohio. Conversation flowed all the way back to the hotel room in Richmond, Indiana. All of us surprised that the "Bartman" won the biggie. Just before 1:00am. the lights went out and another dream began, going to the 2010 World 100 for the biggest Dirt Late Model race in the world. Dreams do and can come true when you walk thru the house that Earl built.
Late Model Mark
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