With the Rolex 24 and Chili Bowl Nationals in the books and Florida Speedweeks off to a fast start, it’s time for the return of the Friday Morning Heat Race. Let’s get started with our weekly tour around the racing world.
Hot Laps: Dig A Little Deeper
We wonder with the Roto-Rooter’s sponsorship of High Limit Racing’s Midweek Series, if there is bonus money for rooting a competitor out of the way on the final lap of a race?
Qualifying: Wild Racing
If you like entertaining auto racing of all types and you haven’t watched the Mazda MX-5 Cup races, you are missing out. Both races last week at Daytona Int’l Speedway were thrillers, and October’s oval debut for the spec sports car series at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway was also an interesting watch.
First Heat: Blast From The Past
Anyone who read about Maranelo, the new Texas-based luxury auto garage company many have come across a familiar name. Michael Holigan is the company’s CEO. Holigan sponsored NASCAR teams, including Hendrick Motorsports and also dabbled in team ownership both in NASCAR and Supercross competition.
Second Heat: Numbers
Last year, 16 drivers ran the full High Limit Racing sprint car schedule, while 11 drivers and 12 teams participated in all of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series events.
Less than two weeks from the kickoff of this season, it appears 13 drivers will follow the High Limit Trail with 14 committed to the World of Outlaws. Should Bill Rose return from injury, that number would jump to 15.
Third Heat: Turning Back The Clock
It seems ironic that NASCAR national series action returned to a pair of historic North Carolina race tracks during the same week.
While all focus was on the Cup Series visiting Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem for the first time since 1971 for Sunday night’s Clash, NASCAR Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series competitors tested at Rockingham Speedway (formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway) in preparation for the return of the two series to the one-mile track April 18-19.
Rockingham has been repaved and appears smooth and fast.
Fourth Heat: New Tradition
It’s starting to be a tradition that at least one of the Rolex 24 At Daytona class winners is penalized or disqualified several days after the conclusion of the race for an infraction the public doesn’t understand.
Apparent LMP2 class winners Tower Motorsports with drivers John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez, JobVan Uitert and Sebstien Bourdais was disqualified on Wednesday because the car was “found to have exceeded the maximum allowable wear to the regulated area of the skid block on the underside of the car.”
Say what?
In 2023, the overall winners, Meyer Shank Racing, were penalized more than a month after the race, but kept the victory.
Dash: Florida Car Counts
Florida Speedweek got underway in earnest on Thursday night. The ASCS National Tour had a stout 53-car field at Volusia Speedway Park, while 65 UMP modifieds were also on hand for night one of the 54th annual DIRTcar Nationals at the half-mile dirt track.
Elsewhere, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series drew 45 cars for its first of three nights at All-Tech Raceway in Lake City.
B Main: Two Sides Of The Family
We found it interesting that long-time late model stock car driver Cody Coughlin is getting into the drag racing business. While not surprising given his family’s longtime participation in the sport, and specifically the Pro Stock class, it wasn’t surprising that Coughlin would go the Pro Stock route.
What was surprising to learn is that he’s making his Pro Stock debut with KB Titan Racing, which is co-owned by NHRA Mission Food Drag Racing Series champion Greg Anderson, and not Elite Motorsports, which fields Pro Stocks for Coughlin’s uncle Jeg Coughlin Jr. and his cousin, Troy Coughlin Jr.
That could provide an interesting moment or two.
Feature: Wisdom & Honesty
Donny Schatz doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He has no need. Starting his 29th season on the World of Outlaws circuit with more than 300 victories and 10 series championships, he’s the elder statesman of the series. He’s been there and done that, and he knows it.
Schatz met the media recently to preview the upcoming season and discussed changes in his team, his life, rules and much more. He was honest, and quotable as hell.
Talking about team leadership in the wake of numerous crew changes, he said in part: “We all have to pull the rope in the same direction, and I’ll be honest, sometimes you have to take the rope and give someone a swat on the ass with it.”
In regard to the competition between the World of Outlaws and High Limit Racing, Schatz pulled no punches.
“I find it ironic that we can live in a time when everyone was always wanting to win an outlaw championship and now they are trying to act like it isn’t worth a damn thing because so and so is not there,” he said. “We’ve all built brands there. We have all built our life there, so for someone to come along and say, ‘It ain’t worth it anymore or it ain’t this,’ well, sorry, I have invested a lot of time and a lot of my life in it.
“I am going to continue to invest my life in it.”
For more from Schatz, read our feature on him coming Sunday on SPEEDSPORT.com.
