From CL Motorsports
HOLMESVILLE, Ohio. – November 5, 2012 – The stage was set for something great.
With the camera’s of SPEED TV capturing all of the action from the final night of the PEAK Motor Oil World Finals presented by NAPA Auto Parts, Stevie Smith and his #19 CL Motorsports/DDNI/CJB Motorsports/Spectro Oils sprinter found themselves on the pole position for final World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series race of the season.
“There wasn’t a better seat in the house,” said Smith, who has started from pole four times in 2012. “Looking up into those stands and seeing so many people was a great feeling. The World Finals has grown into such a marquee event that it is on every driver’s list to win. We had an excellent shot at taking the checkers.”
The journey to the pole position began on Kellogg’s Qualifying Night on Thursday, November 1 at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. With two rounds of time trials setting the heat race line ups for Friday and Saturday night’s events, Smith timed in 16th and 5th respectively.
“Qualifying night really set the tone for the two race nights,” explained the New Oxford, Pa. native. “We struggled in the first round with our entry into turn three. We got things corrected and the car entered the corners much better during the second round. It just seemed to set the course as to how we were going to run.”
CL Motorsports All Access: PEAK Motor Oil World Finals presented NAPA
Check out some highlights from the PEAK Motor Oil World Finals presented by NAPA
By virtue of his 16th place time trialing effort, Smith was on the pole for Friday night’s first heat race. From the drop of the green flag, the action was fast and furious.
“We weren’t as good as we would have liked in Friday’s heat race,” said Smith. “The car wasn’t getting a good drive off the corners and that hurt us a lot. Things got worse we I had to get on the brakes hard to keep from running over someone. Sadly, I got run over myself, spun and had the front end of the car damaged. The #19 crew did a great job of fixing it up and we went back out but finished seventh. We had to come through the B-main and started 17th in the feature. The same problems we had earlier in the night hit us again and we slipped back to 21st.”
Heading into their season finale on Saturday, Smith and the #19 team knew they had to pull out all the stops.
“The crew got to the track early that morning and went through everything at least twice,” said Smith. “We started fourth and nearly won our heat. Ended up on the pole of the dash and won it. We were sitting really good by the time we pushed off for the feature. We led the first 11 laps and then began to battle with Dale Blaney. That allowed Craig Dollansky to catch us and get out in front. With about 8 laps to go, we had a yellow flag and Dollansky appeared to have a right rear going flat. He choose the outside line so we were lined up right behind him on the double file restart. As we were coming around to complete a lap, the tire let goand I slid into him. I believe we were alright until we got drilled by someone and that’s what flipped the car. It was a hard hit but I’m fine and feel. Just an extremely disappointing result for us but it’s been how our season has gone. Lady luck just hasn’t been around very much in 2012.”
With the checkered flag waving on their inaugural season, Smith looked back on a year that had its fair share of ups and downs.
“We started this organization in January and didn’t have much to build on. We really started from scratch. Since then, we’ve endured a lot of frustrations and distractions but also have had some bright spots like winning the Ohio Sprint Speedweek title and a few races. We felt like we could have won more but luck just wasn’t there for us. 2012 was a great building year for all of us. Chad and Jenn Clemens, our car owners, never gave up on us and were there to support us every step of the way. Brian Bloomfield, Jim Oare and Kyle Luetters held together as the crew and made sure we rarely ever fell out of races. Ron Lowe and John Anthony were also huge contributors to our success this year. We didn’t end the season as we would have liked too, but we are confident in the fact that we will be back in 2013 with a stronger operation.”
For more information on CL Motorsports and the Black Bandit, please visit www.TheBlackBandit.com
DIRT TRACK AT CHARLOTTE BOX SCORE (Friday):
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
16th 7th 17th 21st
DIRT TRACK AT CHARLOTTE BOX SCORE (Saturday):
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
5th 2nd 1st 23rd