Somewhat of a surprising entrant in this Saturday’s Southern All Stars race at the Smoky Mountain Speedway was Randy Weaver. It was surprising because the Crossville, Tenn. driver has been racing full time on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this season and that tour had events scheduled in Maryland and Pennsylvania this past weekend.
Weaver pointed out prior to the Smoky Mountain drivers meeting that he intends to remain on the LOLMDS tour. However, a look at the weather forecast for the two areas meant to stage those races on Friday and Saturday caused the driver to reconsider making the long journey. As it turned out, Weaver’s gamble proved to be a good one as both of those events were indeed rained out.
Unfortunately, mechanical issues ended Weaver’s night early at Smoky Mountain and he was relegated to an 18th place finish.
Randy Weaver opted to race at Smoky Mountain on Saturday night instead of making a longer trip.
With the rising costs of fuel, it proves to be a difficult situation for race teams when they have to travel long distances and don’t get to race. The national touring series’ often provide “show up” money for drivers, but Weaver said that does not cover the expenses of travel and payroll for crew members when additional purse money is not earned. So with the forecast for the east Tennessee region looking much better than that of the eastern seaboard, Weaver opted to race closer to home.
Earlier this week, Keith and Tader Masters announced that they were removing their MasterSbilt house car for driver Ray Cook from full time competition on the LOLMDS tour due to a “multitude” of reasons, with time spent on the road being mentioned among them. That car had been on the circuit for six years with Don O’Neal as the primary driver.
