DASH Touring Driver Eric Wilson Rules Music City Motorplex

DASH Touring Driver Eric Wilson Rules Music City Motorplex

Topics: Music City 100, Eric Wilson

DASH Touring Driver Eric Wilson Rules Music City Motorplex

ISCARS PR
August 12, 2006

Download 2006 Music City 100 Race Broadcast in Windows Media Audio format - 9,165KB - 1:14:32

NASHVILLE, TN - ISCARS Dash Touring completed its two-race 2006 sweep of the Music City Motorplex this past weekend. Originally scheduled for Friday night the event was postponed to Saturday morning due to rain.

The rain came just as the qualifying was getting underway. The first car out, Ned Combs had just come off the track and Johnny Chapman was thundering down the back stretch. In an instant it was as if a bucket of rain had been poured on the track heading into turn three, which caused the slick tires of Chapman’s car to lose grip. As the car spun backwards Chapman nailed the gas but was unable to keep the car off the wall. The crash caused significant rear-end damage.

“We feel really bad about Mickey York and Johnny losing their car like that. The rain came so fast and was isolated on that one area of the track. No one had enough time to react,” stated Randy Claypoole, ISCARS President. “It was a tough weekend for the team, in addition one of their crew members had emergency surgery for kidney stones. Fortunately, he came through the event just fine.”

Due to a tight schedule for the track safety crews, who were doubling efforts with the Nashville Super Speedway that was hosting the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ISCARS was provided with a short window of opportunity to get the race in on Saturday morning. The race was shortened from 100 to 80 laps and the green flag fell at 9:45 am.

The teams were given 10 minutes to run some hot laps and also get some rubber laid down on the green track. The starting grid was determined by the Championship Points standings placing Eric Wilson and Jake Hobgood on the front row.

On the initial restart, Hobgood drove hard into turn one and muscled the top position away from Eric Wilson. Wilson, Hobgood, and Danny Bagwell mixed it up for several laps until Hobgood was able to pull away by a few car lengths.

The first of three cautions happened on lap 21 for debris. The restart came on lap 25 and Wilson immediately mounted a challenge for the lead. Hobgood moved high and low to block each move, holding Wilson at bay until lap 28 when Wilson was able to gain the advantage exiting turn two. Bagwell seized the opportunity to follow in the tracks of Wilson pulling by Hobgood and moving into second place.

The halfway break came on lap 44. Teams were given four minutes to adjust their cars. The race resumed on lap 47. The complexion of the race seemed to be affected mostly by handling. Hobgood would move past Bagwell and back into second place on lap 49. Randy Humphrey remained steady in fourth. It appeared that some of the cars were on the loose side, while Wilson never slipped.

In victory lane Wilson admitted that his strategy was to make the car real tight at the beginning and let the handling come to him as the race progressed. “We set the car up so tight that in the beginning I could hardly get it to turn left,” explained Wilson. Then he chuckled as he shared how his spotter communicated with him. “One minute he is telling me we are pulling away from Jake. Then all of a sudden he is telling me to hurry, that Jake is closing in! I looked in my mirror and there he was, so I really got up on the wheel.”

“That was a fun race,” said Hobgood. “I just couldn’t get back up there and take him. He really knows how to get around this place.”

Finishing Order:
1. Eric Wilson
2. Jake Hobgood
3. Danny Bagwell
4. Randy Humphrey
5. Ned Combs
6. Scott Krehling
7. Mike Watts
8. Frank Lile, Jr*
9. Darren Holler
10, Joey Jones*.
Johnny Chapman and Perry Nantz were the only two drivers that did not start the event.

Other Notes of Interest:

* Randy Humphrey improved the most positions during the event and secured the GoFastBeSafe.com Hard Charger Award. Humphrey’s crew chief is 5-time series Champion Robert Huffman.
* La Porte, Indiana driver, Frank Lile, Jr, logged his first official laps in ISCARS. Lile was on hand for the June event but was unable to start the race due to transmission failure.
* ISCARS launched a live audio broadcast over the internet. The entire show can be heard at: http://www.iscarsonline.com/broadcasts/Nashville08112006.wma (Windows Media Player Required).
* The next event for the International Sport Compact Auto Racing Series (ISCARS) DASH Touring will be Saturday, September 2, 2006, at the Florence Motor Speedway in Timmonsville, SC. Log onto iscarsonline.com for the latest news. You can see highlights of the race by watching ISCARS Full Throttle which airs weekly. Check your local listings or log on to: http://www.theautochannel.com/cybercast/fullthrottle/