Best of the Weekend: November 1-2, 2019

_Top Features, Best of the Weekend, Features
Danny Smith. (Bob Buffenbarger Photo)

By T.J. Buffenbarger

As the season winds down in the United States and ramps up in Australia and New Zealand here are five of the best things that took place last weekend:

• If you haven’t checked out the action from Perth Motorplex on Dirtvision this fall you have missed out on two tremendous sprint car races. Saturday’s sprint car feature came down to Daniel Harding and Callum Williamson. Williamson had Harding setup for a last moment slide job and appeared to be on the way to his second win in a row at Perth. Harding had other ideas crossing over and getting a good run off the corner to drive back by Williamson to the finish line.

This was a solid victory for Harding, who many fans will remember from his tour of America in 2017. With a win and second place so far this year though Williamson is someone to watch the rest of the season to see if he can carry this kind of momentum throughout the season.

• Danny Smith with feature victories in five different decades. Based on his performance at the end of 2019 Smith has a great chance of adding a 2020 win to his legacy after winning Saturday’s USCS Feature at Hendry County Motorsports Park. Smith held off Friday’s winner Justin Barger for the win.

Smith’s win received some extra attention for tumbling off the top of the car while doing a wing dance in victory lane. Thankfully the ageless Smith quickly bounced up to do the victory lane interview. You can check out Smith’s tumble and interview approximately 3:30 into the video, but we recommend checking out the entire package to see how Smith topped Barger for the victory.

• KTAR radio host and sprint car driver Bruce St. James finding victory lane on Saturday with the ASCS Desert Sprint Car Series at Arizona Speedway was one of the better stories of the weekend St. James often talks about his sprint car driving exploits and other facets of the sport on his afternoon radio show and has done a lot of work outside the car to promote the sport.

Based on Bruce’s social media response he still has not come to grips with the fact he won on Saturday.

• Shane Golobic found victory lane twice over the weekend at Stockton Dirt Track. Friday Golobic won the 360 sprint car feature while Saturday Golobic was victorious with the King of the West sprint car series presented by NARC. Golobic’s trips to victory lane were extra special with his 20 day old daughter joining him for the photos.


• The final slot of the weekend’s best is reserved for the “obscure race of the week”. Congratulations to Michael Butcher winning the wingless v6 sprint car feature on Saturday at Lismore Speedway.