*Turn 2 Blog is a regular feature on InsideDirtRacing.com. Here, site operators Michael Moats and Richard Allen take turns offering their thoughts on the dirt racing topics of the day from east Tennessee and beyond.
Richard: Often times when a transaction occurs in sports, the end result proves to favor one party or the other. That seems to typically be the case when drivers and teams make changes in racing as well. However, there seems to be a situation unfolding in which all parties involved in a change are reaping rewards from their moves.
Last September, Billy Ogle, Jr. and his Blount Motorsports team parted ways during a tumultuous weekend at the Eldora Speedway. At the same time, fate placed Donald McIntosh in that ride after the lift gate on his truck failed and his family team was not able to unload their car. Shortly afterward, Ogle landed with veteran racer Stacy Boles, who then expanded his operation to a two-car effort.
As it stands now, it appears as if all parties have benefited from their respective moves.
McIntosh and Blount Motorsports have scored five total feature wins and a recent Spring Nationals championship.
Ogle has won two major races (World of Outlaws Late Models and Spring Nationals events at Tazewell Speedway) while driving the Boles entry and narrowly missed out on the Spring Nationals title himself.
Do you agree that this seems to be working out in favor of everyone?
Michael: Yes, I agree both sides have benefited from the moves. McIntosh nearly won the Spring Nationals title last year driving for his own team. It would make sense that he would be a contender for, and ultimately win, this year’s title driving for the team that won it last year.
While some folks point toward Ogle’s two wins at Tazewell, he is still driving an older Rocket while Boles is in a Longhorn. It will be interesting to see if Ogle’s performance goes up a notch or two whenever his new Longhorn is ready.
Richard: I believe Boles made an excellent move to bring Ogle into the fold. This has the makings of a very solid foundation that could grow into a significant program. And yes, I will also be interested in seeing what happens when both team drivers are in Longhorns and are able to share more information with each other to get the full benefit of the engineering that is so often listed as a reason for teams switching to that chassis brand.
I don’t know if Boles has the intention of running a Dirt Late Model team beyond his own driving career, but if he does, Ogle brings experience and credibility to the team that a younger driver could not have brought. That will be important for this organization going forward.
It’s really remarkable how all of this played out. Had the McIntosh lift gate worked properly, he would have been driving his own car at Eldora. Further, Ogle and Blount Motorsports parted ways just as Boles’ trucking business was doing well enough that he could expanded his racing enterprise.
The Blount Motorsports ride is one of the best regional efforts in the country, in my opinion. There’s no reason to believe Boles’ team can’t become the same type of situation, if it isn’t already.
Michael: After Ogle left BMS, I know they got a ton of calls from all different drivers about the open ride. They run a certain type of schedule and that made it hard to find the right driver that would be content to run their schedule. They certainly hit it with McIntosh.
Fate is a funny thing. There are many times in this sport where timing is everything.
I don’t know either about Boles’ intentions with his team whenever he steps away from driving. I hope he continues to field cars because this area could certainly use as many good teams as it can get.
Richard: Now to completely change the subject, over the past few weekends I have had a couple of experiences that have strengthened my belief in time limits on both heat races and feature races. In one instance, I was at a track in which a 20-lap feature race took over 50 minutes to complete. That’s just ridiculous.
And to be clear, I’m not picking on support classes. This would be for any class that runs at a particular track, from Late Models to Mini-Stocks. Obviously, sanctioned touring series races have to go by the regulations set forth by the sanctioning body.
In the case mentioned above, I had my two young sons with me and they grew restless and exhausted by the time the race in question finally ended and had lost all interest in being there even though the main event of the night had not even started yet.
One of the biggest concerns I hear from track owners and others involved in the sport is that there is no new blood coming into dirt racing. Making kids endure caution plagued features like that will not help matters at all and will cause those kids to seek other forms of entertainment when they are old enough to make their own choices.
What are your thoughts on time limits?
Michael: I am totally for time limits, even if a track has no curfew. The argument I hear all the time from drivers is they paid their way in like everyone else and they should get the laps that were advertised. I agree with that to a point. But when a race is nothing but one crash after another, it’s obvious the race director should call it a night and move on.
I made a trip to 411 last weekend just as a fan. I took my youngest daughter who had been begging to go with me for some time (I will be doing an upcoming blog on this soon). I realize 411 only runs 4 classes. But they were finished by 9:30 with little down time. It was great to be out there by that time with a young child. I can’t imagine her sitting there until 11:00 or 11:30 with crash after crash and still waiting on the main event to start. There were more kids in that crowd than I have seen at a lot of other tracks. I believe their efficiency has a lot to do with that.
