By T.J. Buffenbarger
(July 18, 2024) — The second night of racing at Eldora Speedway is in the books during Kings Royal weekend and David Gravel is $100,000 richer after winning the Joker’s Jackpot with the High Limit Sprint Car Series after a feature that took multiple twists and turns.
Here are my takeaways from a memorable night of racing at the Big E.
• While the record books will show David Gravel as the first winner of the Jokers Jackpot at Eldora Speedway, one of the most memorable things about the evening will be those that were in good position to contend for the victory before misfortune took them out of the running.
The most notable of these is obviously Giovanni Scelzi who appeared to have things well in hand before encountering Eldora’s concrete wall that sent him tumbling down the racetrack.
Tyler Courtney’s flat tire while starting to make his presence felt early in the feature event, Jacob Allen’s run from the B-Main and 21st starting position in the feature into the top five disrupted after a fuel stop with ignition issues, and Kyle Larson encountering mechanical issues in the closing stages of the feature were notable moments in one of the more dramatic feature events I’ve recently witnessed at Eldora.
By the time Gravel took the checkered flag it felt as if we were all on a roller coaster ride for 40 laps along with the drivers and all the various comers and goers along with the drivers that fell by the wayside while in contention.
Those that made mistakes should not discount Gravel’s victory in the slightest. Gravel has continued to mature as a driver and makes very smart decisions, which on Thursday night included keeping his race car where it worked best, which was nowhere near the rim riding thrill show the other drivers were using.
• Sprintcarunlimited.com writer Jeremy Elliott verbalized the same thing I was thinking after the first heat race. We were being treated to a vintage Eldora Speedway on Thursday night with a razor thin cushion right up against the wall and a fickle line on the bottom that could work for the most patient of drivers. While the bottom lane did eventually win the race for David Gravel, the star of the show was vintage Eldora rim riding with little or no margin for error.
That thin cushion tried its best to upend multiple drivers in the main event. Larson made one of the wildest saves I’ve ever seen at Eldora coming out of turn two in the main event where the car was pointed in such a direction towards the inside of the track that I’m still not sure how Larson managed to keep the car going.
Even at the end Brad Sweet was tracing Eldora’s high line in a last-ditch attempt to catch Donny Schatz and Gravel with no room for error. It was Eldora at its finest watching sprint car drivers on the ragged edge racing for a large amount of cash.
• When it was made official that the All Star Circuit of Champions was absorbed by the High Limit Sprint Car Series and for all intents and purposes put on the shelf I was one of their biggest critics. While I still have concerns about what the local 410 racing in Ohio and other parts of the country will look like in three to four years, I am impressed at what the staff at High Limit Racing has managed to put together in such a short time.
From mid-week special events that didn’t seem to have any real flow to the program and at times were run a bit ragged to the smoothly run programs I’ve had the opportunity to witness three times this year, it’s been an amazing transformation to watch.
Building something out of nothing is never easy, especially in motorsports. What the High Limit Racing staff has managed to do in half a season while being under a microscope has been remarkable.
The process hasn’t been without headaches and pain along the way but is a perfect example of why hiring good people matters because the program now compared to what it looked like at East Bay at the start of the season is impressive.
The High Limit program is trying things that for some of the more hard-core sprint car audience may seem cheesy at times like the driver playlists, oddly personal questions in interviews, and other things sprinkled into the program. Those things are starting to metrically track with certain demographics that may look at sprint car racing differently because those things are there.
The upcoming international series that is having its first event this December in Perth is extremely ambitious for such a new organization. While this is a great challenge, I believe the venue they are going to in the Perth Motorplex along with the people that run the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series in that part of Australia along with the support staff High Limit is bringing should make this endeavor easier to pull off this early in the High Limit tenure.
There are a few things I have concerns and skepticism about, but I look at the High Limit Series in a much more positive light than I did six months ago.