From Kyle Lutters
Homlesvlle, OH — (September 24, 2012) — Mother nature and an early race restart continued Stevie Smith’s bad luck into a second straight weekend as he and his #19 team took on Eldora Speedway and Lernerville Speedway.
“The monkey that we’ve had on our back since the Tuscarora 50 is still on there,” said Smith, referring to the event at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday, Septemebr 8. “It followed us into Fremont and obviously bothered us this weekend between the rain out at Eldora and the race at Lernerville.”
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Get a low angle view at Lernerville Speedway with car #19
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The #19 CL Motorsports/DDNi/CJB Motorsports/Spectro Oils KPC was set to compete at Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio on Friday, September 21 as a part of the 4 Crown Nationals Weekend. However, as soon as the team arrived, a threatening weather front forced series and track officials to cancel the event.
“We were really looking forward to Eldora and racing with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series once again,” said Smith. “There were some new setup ideas that we were anxious to test out but Mother Nature wasn’t co-operating.”
The team followed the series east for the following night’s Commonwealth Clash at Lernerville Speedway near Sarver, Pa. Smith had his #19 KPC qualified in the third position as time trials were halted after heavy rain and winds moved into the area. A three-hour rain delay ensued and qualifying was restarted as only 19 of the 31 competitors had taken time. Smith slotted into the sixth position during the second round of qualifying and started the third in his heat race.
“We lost a spot in our heat race and finished fourth because the outside got going so much better,” explained Smith, who has three top-10’s at Lernerville in 2012. “We ended up starting the feature in the 11th position and managed to miss an opening lap wreck. On the ensuing restart, we got chopped as we raced into turn one and broke the right front shock. My crew did an awesome job of getting it repaired in the work area and we came back out in the 23rd position. Everyone bottled up on the restart and I just couldn’t make my way up through the field. The leaders came up quickly and we were lapped. Eventually, I just pulled into the infield and we finished 20th. It wasn’t worth tearing up our race car.”
With his car intact, Smith expressed hope that a familiar race track and stop the team’s skid.
“We head back to Williams Grove (Speedway) next weekend,” said the New Oxford, Pa. native. “The Grove has been one of our best tracks by far all season and I think we had one of the best cars there during Summer Nationals. I’m excited to go back there for the National Open weekend. It is one of sprint car racing’s marquee events and holding that $50,000 check in Victory Lane after Saturday night’s event would help us all forget some of the frustrations of the past few weekends.”
For more information on CL Motorsports and the Black Bandit, please visit www.TheBlackBandit.com
LERNERVILLE SPEEDWAY BOX SCORE:
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
6th 4th