Warrior chief Sanford Goddard is pleased with the recent wins scored in his cars.
With its $100,000-to-win first prize, the Dirt Late Model Dream is the richest event in the sport of Dirt Late Model racing. And even though that race has been held each of the past 20 years at the Eldora Speedway in Ohio, much of its history is intertwined with east Tennessee.
Freddy Smith, who now lists Seymour, Tenn. as his hometown, won the first Dream back in 1994 and added another victory in 2000. Mooresburg’s Scott Bloomquist has won the event a record six times. And, Jimmy Owens of Newport scored a Dream win in 2009.
This past Saturday night, the east Tennessee legacy at The Dream was increased. Although winning driver Dale McDowell hails from Chickamuga, Georgia, the car he drove was built in Knoxville. Warrior Race Cars owner Sanford Goddard was thrilled to see one of his cars make the trip to Victory Lane at the Tony Stewart owned facility.
“Going there, with what Dale had done in the two or three weekends before, we all went with a little confidence even though at Eldora luck plays a big part in it with the draw and everything,” Goddard explained in an interview conducted in his shop. “Going into the heat race, we made some changes that kind of hindered the car’s performance, but it gave us a good idea of what to do in the B-main. We actually had a little more track education than what the other guys who didn’t run those B-mains got.”
Once the 100-lap feature got underway on the famed half-mile oval, Goddard was cautiously optimistic that McDowell could hold his own with the other cars on the track.
Dale McDowell drove his Warrior to a win in The Dream.
“Watching the car take off at first, we seemed kind of average like everybody else,” Goddard explained. “But as the race went on, Dale clicked off a few cars. By the time it got to about lap 30 or 40 he had passed quite a few cars so we were thinking we might have a chance at a top-10. Then everything just played our way. The car performed well and Dale drove a good race.”
McDowell started from he 22nd position on the grid, and that made the win even more satisfying to the car builder.
“Starting so far back to win that race was earning the race in the best way you could earn the Dream 100,” Goddard declared.
Warrior has been on the upswing of late, piling up a number of wins in a short period of time.
Going into the Eldora race weekend, McDowell had won three consecutive Spring Nationals events. And while in the town of Rossburg, Ohio, McDowell drove his Warrior to a top finish in one of the preliminary shows at the ‘Big E’. Also, North Carolina’s Chris Ferguson has won three consecutive features(two Carolina Clash and one Ultimate SLM) in his Warrior, including a $10,000-to-win event at the Virginia Motor Speedway.
“Everything’s going well,” Goddard said. “We’ve got some 2014 cars out there doing well. Opie Spatola from up in Illinois raced last weekend for the third time out in his new car and set fast time and won. We’ve got some new medicine for everybody this year if we can just keep it going in the right direction.”
But even with this current run of success, Goddard says the impact may not be immediately felt.
“I think with the economy the way it is, you’re not going to see a lot of car sales right off the bat. But later on when a guy is trying to choose between one or two cars, we’ll be in that thought pattern.”
