Coming into the 29th running of the Dirt Late Model Dream at the Eldora Speedway there were a few drivers who most followers of the sport knew would be front runners over the course of the three-day weekend. On the first night of competition at the Rossburg, Ohio track two of those expected contenders showed exactly why they are expected contenders.
Tim McCreadie
It wasn’t difficult to guess that a veteran driver who has had past success at this track and who has won the past two Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championships would be in contention. Not only was Tim McCreadie in contention but he won Thursday night’s 25-lap A-Feature on the historic clay oval.
In a battle that pitted what are essentially the house cars of the two most dominant chassis builders in Dirt Late Model racing against each other, McCreadie’s Longhorn Chassis passed Hudson O’Neal’s Rocket Chassis with six laps remaining then drove on to collect the $12,000 first prize.
Although it was McCreadie’s first victory since back in February, the Paylor Motorsports No. 39 had been showing that the next win was not far away during recent races and that driver and team put it all together on the sport’s biggest stage.
“It’s been a little while,” McCreadie acknowledged in his victory lane interview with FloRacing.com. “We never used to worry about that much. The last six or seven years we’ve been on a decent little stretch there. People will question you when you don’t win but all I can tell them is there’s 95 guys in this pit area who are trying to do the same thing. We’re trying our best.”
McCreadie drove a car that he had used only once previously in the Castrol FloRacing Night in America event held at Eldora back on April 18th. He finished in the runner-up position that night behind Mike Marlar then put the machine on the sidelines for the purpose of bringing it back out at the ‘Big E’ this weekend. That decision is already paying dividends.
“It’s an amazing car, it’s the second race on this car,” McCreadie explained. “We came here to the Flo race and basically ran second with it or third or whatever then we put it away. I probably should have had it out a little more. This thing is a badass piece of machinery.”
McCreadie made a big move on the initial start of the race that took him from the eighth starting spot to second on the first lap.
“We went down into three and the seas parted,” the Watertown, New York driver explained. “We were in second without even getting one full lap in. At the end, I don’t know if we had the best car but when Hudson took off on that one restart(lap 14) into three, I didn’t really expect it so the next time(lap 19) I thought ‘I’m not going to get my pants pulled down again’, When I stayed on his right rear quarter he started to go to the wall so I tried to hang a left and slide him into turn one.”
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Late restart move propels Tim McCreadie to Group A win on Thursday at Eldora
Ricky Thornton Jr. not only came into the weekend as the leader in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series standings but also as the hottest driver in the country having won the last three features he had entered not to mention crossing the finishing line first in the Show-me 100 only to have that win negated due to a droop rule infraction. Like with McCreadie, it was an easy prediction to make that the driver of the SSI Motorsports No. 20RT Longhorn would be found at the front of the field sometime during the weekend.
Ricky Thornton, Jr.
As it turned out, Thornton proved that to be true on Thursday night when he collected $12,000 in the Dirt Late Model Dream preliminary feature for those designated as Group B.
The Arizona native took the lead from the start of the 25-lap affair and essentially controlled the race throughout leading by as much as two seconds at times.
“My crew guys worked their tails off,” Thornton told FloRacing.com after the race. “I’m just the one lucky enough to get to steer it. This one is definitely for them, we’ve worked really hard this year and I think it’s definitely showing. I got out front and I was overdriving and got the wall a couple of times so I thought ‘What are you doing? Just slow yourself down’. I finally slowed myself down and I felt like we were really good. In the traffic I really didn’t know if I needed to move down or stay on the top but the top got me to them so I was just going to stay there. It worked out for us.”
Thornton caught a bit of a break with the Eldora inverts that ultimately allowed him to start the feature at the front. Is this the year he will win the Dream?
“Man, I sure hope so,” Thornton responded. “Like I said, we’ve worked really hard to make sure we’ve got speed everywhere we go and lately we really have. I felt like tonight we didn’t qualify as good as I needed to, but in the long run, we got the poll for the feature. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow we can qualify 15th or 16th again and do it all over again to set ourselves up good for Saturday.”
Thornton knows he and his team are in a good position and he knows why that is. He hopes to capitalize this weekend.
“Oh definitely,” Thornton declared when reminded of his recent success. “As a little kid growing up all you ever wanted to be was a Late Model driver, and luckily enough, I’m able to do it. To be running as good as we are shows a lot of hard work through the years, and finally, it’s paying off.”
Ricky Thornton Jr. stays hot with Thursday night Group B victory at Eldora
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