John Blankenship
In relatively few opportunities, John Blankenship has not posted the type of results he would like to have had at the Smoky Mountain Speedway. However, the Williamson, WV native hopes to change that this Saturday night when the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series pays a visit to the Maryville, TN track.
“I like it pretty good,” Blankenship said of Smoky Mountain. “I’ve not got to race there too many times, I’ve done one or two of the Ray Cook deals and we got to run the NDRL race this year. I really like the race track. I struggle to figure it out because the way you run tires at a lot of these Southern tracks is different from what we run at a lot of other places. Knowing how best to groove and sipe them and get on harder tires a little faster is something we struggle at.”
Blankenship is one of a few drivers who has opted to follow both the Lucas Oil tour and the NDRL in 2014. He currently ranks 7th in the LOLMDS standings with no wins at this stage of the season. He sits 8th in the NDRL rankings, where he scored two early season wins at the El Paso Speedway. He posted a pair 9th place finishes in the NDRL races held at SMS back in March.
The defending champion of the prestigious World 100 hopes his results will improve as the summer heat creates more dry and slick conditions on most dirt tracks.
“It definitely seems to suit my style a little more when they are not so hammer down in the features,” Blankenship explained. “We’ve gotten a little better in the mud and our slick program has gone down a little bit because of that, I think. It’s always hard to find that happy medium and once you get a car that does, you end up wrecking it.”
The 32-year-old driver would very much enjoy scoring a win at Smoky Mountain, which is near his current home in Knoxville. Beyond his residence, Blankenship has other ties to east Tennessee. His No. 23 Rocket cars are prepared in a shop located in Morristown and he owns Bear Cove Village cabin rentals in Pigeon Forge.
The former LOLMDS winner at Virginia’s Wythe Raceway believes he has a chance to score his first series win of 2014 this weekend.
“Typically it would fit my driving style well, but I didn’t run real well down there earlier this year,” Blankenship said. “Toward the end of the feature, we did figure some stuff out that ought to help us going back this time. Generally, that place suits what I like out of a track so I should be able to run well there. It’s actually really similar in shape to Wythe except it’s banked a little less.”
John Blankenship
