Ricky Weeks Captures Carolina Clash Career Win #36 At Lancaster Motor Speedway.

By Mark Huey, Carolina Clash PR

At 6:30pm on Saturday afternoon, April 14, 2012, Ricky Weeks strolled up on his Team #1 decaled four-wheeler and kicked back, waiting for the Carolina Clash officials to begin the evening’s meeting of the drivers. After the meeting was held, Ricky spoke up…he wanted to m...ake sure that the series’ safety personnel had the fire-extinguishers recharged after the Carolina Crown event from the week before, where an on-track fire had depleted their charges. Just then, SYSCO Fire and Safety representative Earl Hill walked up with three freshly-charged extinguishers, just in case they were needed. It was as if Ricky were somewhat of a seer, a foreteller of the future. Perhaps he was predicting the fire soon to be ignited in his Clements Engine, Rocket Super Late Model.

Thankfully, the fire extinguishers were never used nor were they ever needed, at least not for any serious heat produced by a real fire. They only fire that was lit that night would be from the passion in Ricky’s eyes in his quest to get his season on the right track. After two disappointing Carolina Clash races and a near disaster with a blown right-rear in the Carolina Crown, Ricky was ready to see his season catch fire. While he did scratch his way to a fourth-place finish the week before, two laps down, Ricky cleared his mind from those misfortunes and prepared to set Lancaster Speedway on fire with his #1 Cooper Electric, Parton Lumber, Special Thanks to Phyliss & Ikey #1 “Rutherfordton Rocket.”

He did.

Ricky Weeks captured the XS Power Racing Batteries pole position for the event with a fast time of 18.553. This time would be eleven-thousandths (0.011) of a second fast enough to beat out former track record holder Ross Bailes of Clover, SC and Carolina Crown champion Scott Autry by four hundredths (0.040) of a second.

Ricky took the opening lap lead among 20 cars and never looked back en route to his second career win at the Palmetto State’s only half-mile dirt oval. For the second straight week in the Red Rose City of South Carolina, Ricky competed at Lancaster Speedway, a track that many feel to be among the fastest and scariest rides in dirt track racing. Lancaster is infamous for it’s long straightaways, which a week before laid claim to some of the best machines in Super Late Model racing in the grueling 75-lap Crown event. Weeks sustained major cosmetic damage in that event when a right-rear tire exploded late in the race. With new sheet metal, decals, and a fresh set of American Racers, Weeks would be on track to claim his 36th career Carolina Clash victory, all-time leader of the series. He led every lap of the event having seldom been challenged by the cars behind him.

The event was slowed only by three caution flags. The first came on the opening lap when Lancaster Speedway champion Daniel Tucker of Kannapolis, NC slowing from his rear starting spot. His new Warrior #81 entry experienced mechanical difficulties over most of the event. He was collected by Randy Smith in the #84 Barfield Grading of Fort Mill, SC, another track champion, ending his night early. A lap six caution was followed by a lap 13 caution, with single-car spins. Many cars exited the playing field early in the event, most still woeful from the event the week before.

2011 Rookie of the Year driver Travis Yow was the Safety-Kleen “Hard Charger of the Race” having advanced seven positions from his 16th place starting position. He was driving the #98 car for the first time this season. He finished 9th, which was considered a huge win for the Fayetteville, NC young gun.

Another eastern NC young gun, Dustin Mitchell, had the crowd pointing for most of the night, along with Clover, SC Ross Bailes. The two raced very hard throughout the night, often shooting sparks from the concrete retaining walls in turns three and four. Most of the race would see Mitchell using the seldom-used upper deck of the banking to advance positions. He and Bailes raced in and around one another over most of the main event. Bailes recorded the fastest lap of the race at 19.522 seconds on lap three when he challenged Ricky for the race lead. Mitchell’s fastest lap came well into the event, on lap 26 – a 19.659 – during his charge into the top five. By then, Weeks had a three-second lead. The lead would shrink slightly late in the event as Bailes and Mitchell settled in to their spots. However, Bailes could not gain enough momentum to catch the #1 and Weeks went on to win by a margin of 1.96 seconds. Ricky Weeks finished the event with an average lap time of 20.041. While Weeks recorded consistently faster lap times during the race, Bailes was able to reel off faster times in the race’s final five laps to close the gap.

It was not enough and a caution would not be thrown to give him and Mitchell a shot at Weeks .

Bailes scored a second-place position while Mitchell resulted to third. Last year’s Lancaster winner Johnny Pursley and most recent Super Late Model winner, Scott Autry, were fourth and fifth. Autry was not able to go two-in-a-row at Lancaster, but was very satisfied with the finish. Luke Roffers emerged from the Lancaster event with a sixth-place finish and took back the points lead from Jeff Smith. Roffers now leads the points by one point, having finished two ahead of Jeff Smith. Smith was driving a car loaned to him from Jim and Daniel Baggerly while his #18m car was being freshened.

Tim Allen rebounded from a disappointing finish at the Carolina Speedway season-opener to finish seventh in the race. 2012 Rookie contender Michael Marlowe of Nichols, SC finished tenth. Wayne Hughes, of Ghent, West Virginia, finished eleventh in his second Clash start, and declared to series president Larry Lee his intent to run the remaining schedule for 2012 in quest of the Rookie-of-the-Year championship with Marlowe.

The series was idle for the week of April 21 and also on April 28 to support the running of the Battle of the Eastern All-Stars Tour (BEAST) races at Cherokee Speedway and Gordon Park Speedway. The Cherokee event heralded the annual Rock Gault Memorial Race for the track and was won by 2010-2011 Carolina Clash champion Dennis “Rambo” Franklin. The Gordon Park race will be the second-annual Jack Starrette Memorial Race, which will honor the long-time Carolina Clash supporter and Hall of Fame member Mr. Jack Starrette.

The next event for the Carolina Clash will be the 4th Annual Ed Gibbons Memorial Race on May 5, 2012 at the Fayetteville Motor Speedway. Former winners of this event are Dennis Franklin, Dean Bowen, and Luke Roffers. The race will honor the 2001 Carolina Clash champion, who lost his life in a February 2009 automobile accident.

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