A dramatic tale of a southern-born driver winning at a mid-west race track. He conquered the cambered 2-mile beast, taking the lead away on the final green flag lap. Despite his experience in other leagues, an N.O.R.L. victory has always eluded him. The first win is always the finest!
The NORL Fight Dirty Truck Series made it first ever trip to the dirt
banks of Eldora Speedway. Tony Pizzaro would claim the pole award at
116.482 mph to dirt ringer John Battista's 116.407mph. Pizzaro, Battista
and Crapser would jump out to the early lead in a caution filled first
segment. But Alex Crapser would win the first segment and lead the field
into the pits for a mandatory 2 tire change.
Rod Weston(#56) would lead the charge off pit road followed by Crapsers
#04 and Tim McDonnells #31. Chased by Ben Geer (#29), TEX Perry (#7),
Battista's #39, Mark Herons 01. New comer Connor Germain(#21),
polesitter, Pizzaro and Lucky Dog JT Armstrong (#5) would round out the
field before the invert.
In an anonymous vote as fans came in the gate not revealed until the end
of the scheduled pitstop, fans voted to invert the top 6 trucks
shuffling the order to Battista leading followed by Perry, Geer,
McDonnell, Crapser, and Weston. Pizzaro was heard on the radio saying "I
dropped to the tail cause I thought they would invert the field!"
McDonnell and Geer would pit after the invert dropping them to the tail
with Pizzaro. Having a lot of ground to make up the field went green
again.
Battista would jump out to the lead at the start of the 2nd segment as
Weston jumped from 4th to 2nd around Crapser and Perry. Pizzaro would be
the big winner coming from the back around the field to jump into 3rd.
Perry would settle into 4th until the 04 and 01 would tangle on the
front stretch drawing the 1st caution of the segment. The next yellow
would fly on lap 69 after the #7 of Perry sent the #29 of Geer spinning
into the outside wall in turn 4. Pizzaro would eventually win the 2nd
segment followed by the 39, 31, 56 and 04. Pizzaro would lead the charge
out of the pits after the mandatory stop and go followed by McDonnell
Crapser Geer and Battista. Heron, Weston, Perry, Armstrong and Germain
would round out the field.
Pizzaro would lead the field to the final segment to determine the first
ever FDTS Dawn of the Dirt winner. Early caution would see the 01 touch
the 39 sending Battista bouncing off the turn 4 wall. Heron would
eventually end up locking bumpers with the 56 of Weston sending both
trucks into the wall. Weston would bounce off while Heron getting the
raw end rolling his truck into turn 1. Heron would continue as he was
able to land on this wheels. McDonnell would lead the field back to
green after getting around Pizzaro coming back to the caution. Carpser
and Geer would both get loose out of turn 2 bringing out the next
caution and allowing Perry in the #7 to jump up to 3rd place for the
restart. McDonnell and Pizzaro would jump away on the restart while
Perry would fall back. Battista would rally from 5th to slide into 3rd
and Crapser would jump to 4th ahead of Perry. Battista would run down
the leaders in the final 10 laps but would eventually run out of race
allowing McDonnell to take the win closely followed by Pizzaro and
Battista. Crapser would end up 4th chased by Perry claiming another top 5
in the series. Victory Celebrations would ensue through the night at
Eldora by the #31 team. Tim was caught on the radio asking his crew "i
know how to do burnouts on the asphalt but how do I do them on the
dirt?" Congratulations to Tim McDonnell and the #31 Caterpillar team on
the win in the first ever Dawn of the Dirt at Eldora.
Truck
racing kicked off in Victoria BC with cloudy skies hanging over the
brand new racetrack. Tony Pizzaro set the pace stealing the pole from
Frank Womack. After the green fell it wasn't 10 laps in when the #33 of
Ken Joynt and #29 of Ben Geer made contact giving the #29 engine damage.
Geer would manage to complete a few more laps before the damage got the
better of him and the engine expired. Shortly
after the green flew for the 2nd time the caution would be returned to
the track as the rains started to fall just 31 laps into the event.
Trucks were ushered down pit road and tarped as officials worked
feverishly checking the radars. Fortunately it was only a quick shower
lasting only about 5 minutes. Track drying wouldn't take very long as
FDTS officials had brought the Air Titan to assist in this situation.
After track drying trucks would be moved back to the racing surface and
after a quick caution period that found JT Armstrong moving to the point
we were back to racing. Unfortunately J.T. would bring out the first
caution on the green racetrack when he spun leading collecting a few
trucks including TEX Perry's #7. Perry's truck would sustain engine
damage but he would be able to limp it to a 10th place finish. Battles
would ensue up front between series winners Pizzaro and Daniels along
with Frank Womack, Alex Crapser, Tim McDonnell, and Rod Weston making up
the lead pack. As the final green flag pit stops approached Pizzaro
would find himself in the lead when the final caution flew trapping many
trucks a lap down. Crapser would find himself in the hotseat as he was
exiting the pits as the caution flew keeping him on the lead lap with
Pizzaro. McDonnell would be the lucky dog and many other trucks would
take the wave around since they had already completed thier pit stops.
Final green would fly as Pizzaro jumped out to the lead with McDonnell
and Crapser in tow. Pizzaro would ultimately pull away by 1.43 seconds
over McDonnell to take the win uncontested. Trucks
move back to the states this week as preparations for FDTS' first
contest on the Dirts of Eldora on 11-25 for a non-points exhibition race
for Ohio dirt track fans. Tony Stewart has assured FDTS officials a
perfect racing surface for our first trip to the dirt. Although this is
just an exhibition race, racers should be able to enjoy themselves and
relax a little and let the track come to them. Watch for the underdogs
as no one can be counted out for this race. If all goes well Eldora could
end up on future schedules as a points paying event.
