RPW Column: These Days, It’s “All Roads Lead To The Clay Palace;” The Dog Days Of August

Column By: TOBY LAGRANGE / RPW – GLOVERSVILLE, NY – I don’t know about you but the fact that the month of August is just a few short, checkered flags away is both sad and exciting. The sadness of course comes from knowing that the 2022 racing season is approaching the final laps way too quickly and of course there is that excitement that I mentioned. That comes from knowing that we are that much closer to the big, season ending events such as Super DIRT Week.

The old slogan used to say that “All Roads Lead To Syracuse”, however with our beloved Moody Mile replaced with a parking lot, that slogan can be updated to say “All Roads Lead To The Clay Palace”.

When Columbus Day Weekend rolls around all six of the Sportsman DIRTcar Series regions will have crowned their 2022 champions and the DIRTcar Sportsman Fall Championship Series will be more than half-way to crowning their champion.

Not to be overshadowed, the 2022 Hoosier Tire DIRTcar Sportsman Weekly Championship will also have crowned a champion as will each of the weekly sanctioned tracks.

See what I mean by sadness and excitement?

In the meantime we get to enjoy the battles for those championships.

Since this column last focused on the DIRTcar Sportsman division, there have been five regional series events held in DIRTcar Sportsman Series land. Those events represent four of the six regions.

On June 29th the Can-Am Speedway held opening event in the Central Region. The event was part of the prestigious Pabst Shootout at the LaFargeville, New York track. Picking up the win in the 30-lap feature was hometown driver David Rogers. Rogers started on the pole and led the entire distance to pick up the win over Josh Reome, Ryan Shanahan, Gavin Eisele and Jessica Power. A total of 40 drivers entered the event.

The very next night the Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, New York held the second round of the Central Region’s schedule. It was also the second round for the West Region. Tyler Corcoran picked up the win over a field of 38 drivers. Justin Henderson finished second with Nick Guererri third, Andrew Buff fourth and Kane Bristol fifth. Buff set the overall fastest time in time trials with a lap of 20.533 seconds.

“Just like last night I sucked in time trials once again,” Corcoran said. “To put it in the re-draw was definitely the biggest thing on this track tonight. There’s really a stacked group of drivers here like the Guererri boys and (Joe) Sobotka. Hats off to Rich and Paul (Cole, LOLR promoter), this is a phenomenal race track, I could go anywhere with the lapped cars.”

The third round of the West Region was held on July 1st at the Ransomville Speedway. Derek Wagner picked up the checkered flag in the Chris Moore Memorial event over the 20-car field. Wagner was followed across the line by Cameron Tuttle, Scott Kerwin, Mike Fowler and Cody McPherson.

The first of two appearances in 2022 for the North (Canada) Region at Autodrome Drummond took place on July 2nd. A total of 30 drivers entered the second round of the regional series with the checkered flag being collected by William Racine. The win was the second of his now three wins at the Quebec track this season. Samuel Charland finished second with Shane Pecore third, Christopher Cormier fourth and Antoine Parent fifth.

On July 3rd the DIRTcar Sportsman West (Canada) Region series held their second event of the season with the win going to veteran Brad Rouse. Rouse picked up the win over Cody McPherson, Adam Leslie, Jay Mallory and Trevor Wright. A total of 20 drivers entered the event.

So far there have been ten different winners in as many DIRTcar Sportsman Series regions events this season. The Central Region is back in action on August 10th at the Thunder Mountain Speedway while the East Region is back in action on July 30th at the Bear Ridge Speedway. The North Region is back in action at the Mohawk International Raceway on August 11th and the Brockville Ontario Speedway (Canada Region) on August 27th. The West Region is back in action on July 31st at the Humberstone Speedway (Canada Region) and the Ransomville Speedway on August 24th (Combined US and Canada event). The Fall Championship Series kicks off as part of the Malta Massive Weekend on September 23rd at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

A look at the afore mentioned 2022 Hoosier Tire DIRTcar Sportsman Weekly Championship standings show Andrew Buff leading the pack. Buff, the current Glen Ridge Motorsports Park DIRTcar Sportsman points leader has a 24-point lead over Alan Fink. McPherson (-28), Corcoran (-62) and Zach Sobotka (-66) round out the top five. Amy Holland, Cameron Tuttle, Brandon Carvey, David Rogers and Cody Ochs round out the top ten.

Until next time, please remember to support those that support racing.