Cole Duncan
I like coming to Atomic because the folks are very friendly. I always get to sit by someone there who likes to talk racing and that’s cool. But its’ got to be about dirt racing, right? Have you ever sat next to a person who won’t talk racing with you? You know, you start talking or saying something to the stranger next to you, hoping that they reciprocate….. and then they just half smile, or look at you and then look the other way? Or maybe worse, they say something like, “this is my first dirt track race, but I love drag racing,” and then they proceed to tell you all about the drag races and this driver and that driver and on and on…..and your heart just sinks?
Well on this evening, we found out that the folks around these parts LOVE dirt track racing and they LOVE Cole Duncan and Danny Smith and Nathan Skaggs. Good, now we’ve got something! And they loved it when Duncan grabbed the fast time and West Virginia’s Cale Conley timed second quick. At the same time, I found out everything there is to know about Nathan Skaggs, courtesy of the fellow next to me and the young man in front of me! Evidently, Nathan started out racing motocross and won everything. Then he started in sprint cars around these parts and has been winning in those. Most recently, he was the weener of the sprint feature at Heeltop…(Hilltop) Then they started talking about Tem Sheefur and Chaid Kiminaw and how Kasee Kan had a car for Cool Duncan at Charlitt and shoulda run him more in it. Nathan Skaggs was not racing his sprint car tonight but he was in one of the modifieds. As Nathan’s modified heat came to a close, this fellow next to me pointed Nathan out to me….elbowing me and saying, “that kur right ere is that feller I was telling you bout, Skaggs!”….and as he was saying this, the tone of his voice, the inflection of his words, and the volume of his words increased as he got to the end of his sentence! Ha Ha, I got to laughing and I was really having fun because everyone around me was having fun and that’s what it’s all about.
The sprint heats were good, wow, this place is fast. They fly around here and you cannot race this place unless you are all in, pedal to the metal. If you are not committed, you will get passed or run over. After the sprint heats, more modifieds came out. During a yellow for debris on the track, I made a joke….I said, “debris,…..I wonder which car they are talking about?” Now, I thought that was hilarious…but no one else reacted to it….probably because they had friends or family racing those cars. Oh well, I will try the humor again next time!
Bayston almost got his second win of the week, but Cole Duncan had other plans. Cole runs down race leader Bayston on lap 22 and passes him for the lead and win. Congrats to Cole Duncan on the win and also to Tim Shaffer, who ended up winning the SpeedWeek title. Tim and his team is pulling it together and have been bad fast recently. With the Month of Money coming up, now is the time to get fast!
Thank you All Star Sprints and thank you Atomic Speedway. See you again soon.