Fan Notes from Sharon Lou Blaney Memorial

Sharon Speedway (Tom Myers) Hartford, Ohio 7/11/20 – A hard earned first ever All Star victory for Cale Conley, “Cowboy Up” and “Is that Dave Blaney?” These were the themes at the 2020 edition of the Lou Blaney Memorial here at Sharon Speedway Saturday evening.

The Lou Blaney race was the first of two races at Sharon Speedway scheduled this weekend during All Star Sprint Speedweek and it was paying $7500 to win. The 2nd race here is set for tomorrow July 12th and that race will be the final race of the 2020 Ohio Speedweek and will pay $6000 to the winner. Entering this race, Aaron Reutzel held an 82 point advantage over Cale Conley for the Ohio Speedweek championship. Cale has had a very consistent week so far with 4 top 5’s and 6 top 10 finishes. Cale was also leading the Wayne County race when he was passed by Cap Henry with only 3 laps to go. Since he has started working with many-time All Star Champion crew chief Brian Kemenah, Cale has raced faster and faster and with more consistency this racing season.

We arrived at the track pretty early, around 3:45 pm. I had my Dad with me along with my friend and new sprint car fan Chris and his daughter. I am doing my part for the sport by bringing new folks to the track! Evidently the racetrack grounds took a lot of rain earlier in the day, evidenced by the muddy parking lot and large puddles of water everywhere. As I walked the pits I noted that Kyle Larson was not there. Also missing were Chad Kemenah, Cole Duncan, Jac Haudenschild, and Shane Stewart, all who I thought would be here. I didn’t know this but found out later that Atomic was running the Freedom 40 tonight and paying $8500 to win. That’s where the others were racing. Hunter Schurenburg won the $8500, congratulations to Hunter!

Drivers who were here at Sharon included Danny Dietrich, Brock Zearfoss, Rico Abreu, Cap Henry, Cale Conley, Tim Shaffer, Dave Blaney, Dean and Lee and Trey and R.J. Jacobs, Jordan Ryan, Sye Lynch, Adam Kekich, Brandon Spithaler, Broc Martin, Cole Macedo, Gerard McIntyre, Carl Bowser, and Josh Baughman…along with other Western Pa regulars and of course the regular All Star followers. There ended up being 43 sprints in the pits. Originally the plan was for a C main to be run but the All Stars ended up combining the C cars with the B main because the program was extending much further into the night than anticipated.

Dave Blaney's suspension The program got a late start because the racing surface took longer to run in than usual. I understand that the track had been plowed up but not run in before a large volume of rain hit earlier in the morning …..and that made for a really wet track. The track stayed tacky all night and produced a narrow racing groove around the bottom with a noticeable ledge and a rough cushion. Cars would hit the ledge with their right rears and bounce or hop up the track. Many drivers blasted through the cushion up higher and around the ledge and some were successful while others hopped up the track or bicycled through the turns. Blake Anderson called it a “Cowboy Up” track and this evening it sure was that. The many times I have been at Sharon Speedway, the surface was always smooth and slick all the way up to the guardrails in the turns. I have never seen it stay tacky….like it did tonight.

I walked around the pits before engine heat and I went over to look at Dave Blaney’s car. I noticed that Dave had a different set up with his rear suspension. There was a standard torsion arm on each side like normal. However, the wider end of the arm that normally fits onto the torsion bar was, in fact, connected to another arm. There were no torsion bars. This additional arm was vertical and sticking up alongside the fuel tank. The skinnier part of the arm was attached to a rod that extended into the roll cage and was attached to a coil or spring. The spring was mounted alongside the driver’s seat. So, Dave had 4 arms in the back, not two. There were no torsion bars in back only in the front, so this was a two bar, two coil-alongside suspension I guess! I asked Dave about it and he said that since he was older, he had to have a faster car to keep up with the kid racers. I told him I had never seen such a set up before and he said the idea was about 50 years old and comes back around every once and awhile. I asked him if he could adjust the spring rate from inside the while he was driving and he said, Nah, I can’t do that with it. At first I just believed him but after a few seconds I started to wonder if he told me the truth or not! Ha Ha , gamesmanship right? I don’t know if it’s possible or even an advantage to adjust your spring rate while driving in the car….But I am pretty sure they had adjusters for the front suspension….that a driver could play with while they were racing, back in the day.

Not long after that, an All Star official came over to inspect Dave’s chassis. The official got out some kind of electronic device and went about measuring the material thickness of Dave’s roll cage and frame. While taking the readings, this official asked Dave what brand of chassis this was. ( probably thinking it was a J&J, Maxim, Eagle, DRC or something like that) Dave looked at him for a moment and after a pause said “I made it.” And after a few more measurements the official put an All Star sticker on the frame and Dave was ready to go! Not long after Dave went out and timed 4th quickest overall.

Rico Abreu timed fastest followed by Baughman, Eliason, Blaney McIntyre, Conley, Zearfoss, Macedo, Dietrich and Lynch. The heats were entertaining as there was drama and some “Cowboy Up” passing. There were 5 heats, with the top 4 going to the A main and the top 2 to the dashes. Broc Martin had heat 1 in the bag and with 2 to go, had a good sized lead over Conley and Zearfoss. Then going into turn 1 the car went straight for the guardrail and Broc flipped it. He was okay but the chassis was noticeably bent in the front. Broc was done for the night. He said it felt weird at the turn 4 exit and then going into turn one he turned the wheel but the car kept going straight. At the restart Zearfoss blasted around the top and around Conley to take the win. 3rd went to Pifer and 4th went to Brent Matus who came up from 7th position. In heat 2 the finish was Kuriger, Blaney, Abreu and Macedo. The heat 3 finish was Wise, Eliason, Reutzel and Dietrich. Reutzel made a mad bonsai move to split 2 cars in turn 2 on the first lap to move from 6th to third…but he couldn’t advance any further on a narrow tacky track. The 4th heat finish was Shaffer, McIntyre, Kekich and Lynch. There was a good battle between Baughman, Lynch, Gee and Kekich for the 4th transfer spot. Baughman had it but bounced through the ruts a few times and dropped back to 6th. Kekich dropped back but rallied back to finish in 3rd.

Greg Wilson, Dave Blaney, Cale Conley The final heat finish was Bauer, Spithaler, McMahon and Dean Jacobs. Henry looked to have a transfer spot but he also bounced up the track a few times and had contact with Dean Jacobs and that set him back and he couldn’t recover to transfer.

Later on, back in the pits and after the heats, I walked by Dave Blaney’s car again because I wanted a picture of his car without the fuel tank and number covered. I was planning on getting back around to a few cars to get better pics as well. While standing there a fellow about my age walked over and said to me, “Is that Dave Blaney?” I said, “Yes, that’s Dave Blaney.” He then went over to tell the others he was with and it looked like they wanted to get Dave’s autograph. Earlier in the evening a fellow sitting in front of us turned around and asked me about the time trial format. I don’t think he had ever been to a sprint car race before. I explained that they put racers in heat race groups and then they time against the cars in their heat race. I know it may seem silly to some of the readers but I felt really good that I could offer a little knowledge to some of the spectators and I am glad they asked me.

After the time trials the track crew ran the cushion in and cut the ridge down. The ridge came back. After the heat races they did the same thing. The ridge came back. After the dashes and B main, they did the same thing. The ridge came back. After the Modified B main, they did the same thing. The ridge came back. Each time they smoothed out the cushion and cut the ridge and ran it in again, that ridge came back and the track stayed tacky and narrow, with a rough cushion.

Man, the Modified heats are taking a long time. They have a big pile up on the first lap of the first heat and it takes a while to clean it up. The other Modified heats are the same. The rough track keeps causing wrecks and pieces of cars to fall off.

Cale Conley Finally the sprints are ready to race. The dash one finish was Zearfoss, McMahon, Abreu, who came up from 5th, Macedo, Blaney and Kuriger. In Dash 2, Conley blows out to a big lead and the win and he is looking fast. McIntyre finishes 2nd, Shaffer comes from 6th to 3rd, Eliason, Bauer and Wise are the last 3.

In the B main Skyler Gee finds some speed and wins it. He was followed by Dan Shetler who was up from 8th, Cap Henry and Josh Baughman. Henry and Baughman and Shetler and Sodeman had a battle as Henry kept blasting around the loose stuff up high in the turns. Finally Cap grabbed 4th and then 3rd for good as Baughman bounced back to 4th. Shetler quietly advanced past all except Gee.

After the Modified B main, I told my buddy that this was going to be a wild sprint feature. The track was still tacky and would be narrow and guys would have to go up into the rough stuff to pass. For the 30 lapper, Zearfoss was on the pole with Conley outside of him. McMahon and McIntyre made up row 2. Row 3 was Abreu and Shaffer, row 4 Eliason and Macedo, and row 5 Blaney and Bauer.

On the first start attempt, Zearfoss jumped and the officials didn’t like it so they brought the field around for another try. This time Conley edges Zearfoss into turn one and then proceeds to pull away. Conley was riding right up against the ride and sometimes over it. He was clearly faster than everyone else. It only took 2 or 3 laps for the leader to run up on the last place cars. Then there were yellow flags. A whole bunch of them and a few flips in there too. McMahon stopped on the track. Macedo stopped on the track. Henry spun out after a suspension part broke. Dave Blaney pulled off. There was a fuel stop on lap 19. Then Josh Baugman flipped. Then Reutzel spun out and left the race. And after all of these stops and yellows, I think there were at least 8 of them, and on each restart, Conley would pull away. And when in traffic, he would navigate successfully never allowing 2nd place Zearfoss to get close enough for a pass. Then on lap 25 Zearfoss flipped in turn 2. On this last restart, Conley pulled away for the win. Behind him Eliason got by Abreu for 2nd. The finish was Conley, Eliason, Abreu, Shaffer, Dietrich, who was up from 17th, Spithaler, Kekich, McIntyre, Gee, who was up from 21st, and McMahon.

That was a hard fought and exhausting race to win, but Conley did it. At the end there were only about 12 cars running. The track never did dry off, it was still sticky and gooey on the front straight when Conley came up for photos. Congratulations Cale, on your first All Star win. You earned it. Thank You All Star Sprints and thank you Sharon Speedway for putting on Ohio Sprint Speedweek and the Lou Blaney Memorial race. See you next time.