From CL Motorsports
HOLMESVILLE, Ohio. – October 1, 2012 – Just as it has been all season long, Williams Grove Speedway proved to be a safe haven for Stevie Smith and his CL Motorsports team. Coming off of four sub par finishes in a row, the New Oxford, Pa. native came into one of the sports biggest weekends with something to prove.
“First place is where everyone wants to end up but we’ll take a few solid nights,” said Smith, the driver of the #19 CL Motorsports/DDNi/CJB Motorsports/Spectro Oils KPC. “We hadn’t finished better than 17th in the previous four races so a pair of sixth place finishes feels like a win. It proves that we can still be competitive. Williams Grove has been that one place we can go to all season long and clear out a stretch of bad runs.”
Watch Smith Duel at Williams Grove
Watch Smith Duel at Williams Grove
Smith and his team arrived for the National Open weekend at the legendary half-mile on Friday, September 28 and set quick time against 54 other World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series drivers. After strong showings in his heat race and the dash, the New Oxford, Pa native rolled off in the third position for the 25-lap feature.
“We failed to capitalize on some excellent breaks on Friday evening,” said Smith, who now has 12 top-10’s in 14 starts this season at Williams Grove Speedway. “We started third and our car was just too tight and it got worse as the laps wore on. We set quick time thanks to an early pill draw and that set us on the right foot for the evening. We were strong in the heat race and dash. Closing out events seems to be our weakness now and we’re working to resolve that.”
With $50,000 on the line the following night in the 50th annual Morgan Hughes National Open, Smith and the team timed in 16th and lined up on the pole of the first heat race.
“Our qualifying effort the second night was a bit lackluster but we ended up right where we needed to be,” said Smith. “Craig Dollansky started to our outside and we had a tough battle with him. It was probably one of the best heat races I’ve been in all year.”
From his 8th place starting position, Smith was looking to charge forward in the 40-lap feature but had to endure an unusual delay.
“We couldn’t seem to get the race going,” explained Smith. “Between jumped starts and wrecks, we actually had to make a fuel stop before we officially completed a lap. It would have been a great chance for my crew to make some adjustments but I didn’t know what to tell them to do since we hadn’t stayed green for a while. Once we got going, our car was amazing. It drove well early on. We stopped again for a red flag, refueled and made some adjustments. The track really went away on the following restart and we slid backward. We were up to third and then fell back.”
Despite slipping to sixth, Smith expressed a sense of accomplishment following the event.
“Our owners, Chad and Jenn Clemens, fielded three cars for this weekend and we were all strong. Paul (McMahan) won Friday night’s event and Brian (Leppo) ran second in Saturday night’s race. To have all three cars in the top-6 is an accomplishment that not too many people can claim. I’m really happy for them but also for our #19 team. We battled back and picked up two solid finishes. We’re going to make some changes with of off weekend and come back at Eldora Speedway on Saturday, October 13 and try to pick up win number three.”
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WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY BOX SCORE (Friday):
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
1st 2nd 3rd 6th
WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY BOX SCORE (Saturday):
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
16th 1st 8th 6th
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