Derek Griffith, Tim Curry and Finish Line Fabricating Racecars will combine to seek a $30,000-plus payday in the Noland’s Roofing Bill Bigley Sr. Memorial 128 presented by West Orange Roofing on November 24-25.
The season finale for the SRL National Tour will take place at Florida’s Freedom Factory, a three-eighths-mile paved oval. The event will be Griffith’s first visit to the former Desoto Speedway. For car owner Curry, it will be a return to a facility he raced at many years ago.
“I raced there when I was new to racing in 1978,” Curry recalled. “I was a multi-time champion at Collier County Speedway in Naples (Fla.), when Bill Bigley Sr. was the president of the association. Bill Jr. and I were best friends at the time.”
Curry is happy to have Griffith behind the wheel of his super late model after initially planning to be behind the wheel himself. Secondary plans found another driver scheduled to race his No. 90, but health issues put those plans on hold, with Griffith getting the call for the FLF house car.
“I feel very good, he is a great young man,” Curry explained his feelings about having Griffith in his super late model. “And he is a respectful hard charging driver.”
Likewise, Griffith is looking forward to competing in the event at Freedom Factory for the first time.
“I’m super excited to get the call to drive the FLF house car,” Griffith explained. “I’m especially excited for the Bigley race. I know we can be competitive, as it seems they always are.”
The deal to race with Curry came about with the help of SRL National promoter Ricky Brooks. Griffith was originally on the outside looking in, with only one super late model and a marque event following the next weekend.
“We told Ricky awhile back that we wouldn’t be able to race, due to only having one super and the (Snowball) Derby so close, it had us in a tough spot,” Griffith stated. “He helped line this deal up for us, so that’s awesome that the Series Promoter is working that hard for the racers.”
Griffith is a two-time Kulwicki Driver Development Program finalist. The New England racing star has been a dominant force in the super late model division in Florida as well. During Speedweeks at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway, he was the world series champion in both 2020 and 2021, nearly making it three-in-a-row in 2022.
This season, Griffith has found in victory lane several times, including the Sportsman Division at New Smyrna Speedway’s World Series, as well as in the PASS North Super Late Model Series at Thunder Road (Vt.) Int’l Speedbowl. But his season has not been up to his high expectations, established over the last half dozen seasons. Griffith will seek to finish at or near the front on November 25th, in his third SRL National start of the season.
“My expectations are to have a good showing as always”, Griffith exclaimed! “There’s been a ton of traction around the Freedom Factory, and this race, so it will be awesome to have our hat in the ring.”
The event, which will be broadcast by SPEED SPORT affiliate Pit Row.tv, will pay $30,000 to the winner with $4,000 to the fast qualifier. Another $1,000 is available if the fast qualifier wins the feature event.