The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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    racing
July 2, 2009

Firecracker 30

Big pot tonight for Firecracker 30

By Dan Stillwell

The weather might be cool, but the racing will be hotter than, well, a firecracker, tonight at Beckley Motorsports Park.

“I’m hoping we’ll have standing room only,” promoter Jim Williams said about the Firecracker 30 event for Super Late Models.

Racers from all over West Virginia and nearby states are expected for the race, which pays $2,000 to the winner. The regular purse is $1,200.

“We’re not raising the admission price or the pit price,” Williams said. “We’re just trying to bring in a few more Super Lates and put on a better show for the fans.”

He’s already been contacted by racers who didn’t compete the last two weeks at Beckley. The three-eighths-mile dirt track should be a prime draw in the region.

“Elkins has a regular night’s purse, Skyline (Belpre, Ohio) is not running Super Lates and Rocky Top (Ky.) is closed this week,” Williams said. “We should have a really outstanding group of Super Late Model cars to come down and race with us.”

He’s pleased that races the past two Fridays were over by 11:45 p.m. In past years the track was plagued by delays, with racing going on well into the night.

Fan support was down, and the track’s future had looked bleak before Williams and business partner Ken Williams took over the track’s management this year.

“We’re on target, but I’d still like to hit 11:30,” he said. “We had a crash last week, one car on top of another one, and you have to let the Jan Care Ambulance people check to see if the drivers were OK. Then we had to get one car off the other one.”

Harold Redman Jr. won last week’s Super Late Models race and holds a two-point advantage in the standings over the first week’s winner, Rod Evans.

Redman has 96 points, while Evans has 94 and Chris Meadows is third with 92. Rick Williams and Eslie Bills follow at 84 and 74, respectively.

Joe Cox leads the AMRA Modifieds with 96 points. Brett Hamilton and Robert Garnes are tied with 84, wile Scott Harper and Joe Hamon have 74 apiece.

Eddie Hambrick Jr. tops the AMRA KOM Late Models with 100 points. Keith Bills (90), Steve Adkins Jr. (84), Chad Justice (82) and Aaron Barley (80) hold down the next four spots.

Other standings leaders include Logan Allen (98) and Zach Fox (50) in Mini Wedges, Kevin Fitzwater (100) and Mike Lilly (88) in Outlaw Streets and Steve Stover (96) and Matt Schoolcraft (86) in Pure Stocks.

“The racing has been absolutely awesome,” Jim Williams said. “It’s been side-by-side, a little racin’ and rubbin.’”

— E-mail:dstillwell@register-herald.com

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