Bagwell and Hawkes Provide Epic Battle at Concord Speedway

Bagwell and Hawkes Provide Epic Battle at Concord Speedway

Bagwell and Hawkes Provide Epic Battle at Concord Speedway

ISCARS PR
August 30, 2010

Danny Bagwell with the ISCARS Voodoo Ride Girls (Photo Courtesy of Dale Roberts)

Concord, NC - Danny Bagwell took another step closer to his third ISCARS Championship in four years by notching a win in the first Voodoo Ride Feature Race last Saturday at Concord. Rounding out the top five were Charlie Barham, Cole Canady, Todd Hawkes and Mike Guerity.

Making history in any sport often comes down to a battle of the young contender verses the seasoned veteran. This year, the battle of season veteran Danny Bagwell verses rookie of the year contender Todd Hawkes is proving not only to be a season for the record books, but also a record breaking year in many ways for ISCARS DASH Touring, Sanctioned by the American Speed Association (ASA). The battle between the two race winning racers left race fans cheering throughout the running of Twin VooDoo Ride Mojo races at the famed Concord Speedway on Saturday, August 28, 2010.

It has been since the late 90’s since the DASH Series raced at Concord. Danny Bagwell was the only driver in the field to have stock car experience at the track. Thus the two practice sessions earlier in the day found drivers searching for how to handle the unique tri-oval speedway. Bagwell explained that the drop from turn 2 to turn 3 was similar to a roller coaster. All of the drivers shared the consensus that it was about finding the right set up and trusting the car to stick. In finding that specific edge, several tagged the wall coming onto the front stretch.

Leading the field to the green flag was Bagwell on the pole, with Hawkes on his outside. Bagwell edged to a slight lead on lap one, the #99 machine driven by Joey Jones, and the Honda fuel injected #83 VooDoo Ride Honda Accord, driven by Robert Tighe, made heavy contact with the front straightaway wall exiting the turn three corner to bring out the first caution. Tighe was able to drive away. Jones’ car had to be towed to the garage.

The caution flag would wave four more times during the race keeping the field bunched on restarts. Bagwell and Hawkes swapped the lead multiple times. Bagwell reached the checkered flag first while Hawkes spun coming off the final turn. Charlie Barham and Cole Canady fought back from earlier spins to finish second and third. Canady was making his first start in the series. Hawkes recovered to finish fourth followed by Mike Guerity.

“Well, the year has gone pretty good, we have been lucky. We haven’t made a lot of mistakes, while other people have. As far as Concord Speedway, it’s a very nice place, really fast, you have really got to be on your toes, because as we have seen, it don’t take but just a couple of mistakes, but it’s a good addition to the ISCARS family of race tracks,” said race winner Bagwell. When asked about his toughest competition, “Todd has really come on strong this season; he’s proved to be a hard racer, with a really good car as well.”

“We really like being apart of the ISCARS family, it’s a lot of fun to come and race with Danny Bagwell, and to be able to run second to him is a blast, he is a heck of a race car driver. It’s great to be in this situation, and to race behind him at the line is a thrill for me,” said Hawkes.

The second feature seemed to pick up right where the drivers left off a couple of hours earlier. The race started with drivers jockeying for position throughout the field. As things settled in, it was Hawkes and Bagwell at it again. Finally, Bagwell was able to breakaway from Hawkes. With the race going green it seemed as if Bagwell had another win in the bag. Just four laps from the finish, Charlie Barham’s FNO Race Cars Chevrolet Cobalt got loose and slammed the front stretch wall. This set the stage for the infamous green-white-checkered DASH to the finish.

Bagwell opted to restart outside of the front row with Hawkes lining up on the inside. Hawkes drove hard into turn one, diving underneath Bagwell. The cars hit door handles and Bagwell had to lift to keep control of his car. Bagwell fought back but was unable to overtake Hawkes, who was gunning for the second win in his rookie season with ISCARS. Canady, Barham, and Guerity rounded out the top five.

The next stop for the ISCARS DASH Touring Series will be October 2nd, at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, NC.

Quoteable Quotes:

Danny Bagwell on changes that will be made in his opinion from race #1 to race #2:
“I hope they are for the better. We are going to go over everything, and make sure that we didn’t miss anything. The car is good, but when you have someone just as good as you are driving another car, you just can’t make any mistakes, so maybe I need to be the one to get tuned up a little better.” (Speaking of fellow competitor Todd Hawkes)

“No, that’s a secret, we can’t tell anyone what that is, but anyway, and I hope that we make enough to make it faster than Danny, let’s hope so!” (Todd Hawkes, speaking of the changes that will be made for the second event, which proved to be the race winning changes.)