Super Clean Modified Series Presented by Lucas Oil

An SRO crowd gathered at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway, a quarter mile paved oval located in Blythe-California, on April 12th to witness the official 2008 debut of the Super Clean Modified Racing Series. The fans were delighted to discover that the harsh winds in Blythe, that threatened to blow the track to another zip code, had dissipated and it was a beautiful night for racing. Not even competition from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series being on Saturday night television could not prevent this event from being a sell out.  This special 10 race series at five different tracks has attracted a lot of attention and the fans were there to see some of the best modified driving talent in the western states area. They got their money's worth.

So did Jimmy Dickerson who had a huge night at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway by winning the 75 lap feature. Driving for Team STR, Short Track Racers, Dickerson's excellent evening in Blythe began with qualifying where he set he set the fast time and won the bonus money from the Budweiser Pole Award. The roll of the pre race inversion dice turned up the number three which meant Dickerson actually started the feature on the inside of row two. It took him exactly one lap of the race to fix that situation when he took the lead for good and completely dominated the remaining 74 laps.The race winner collected $1,000 for his efforts. All through the race Dickerson had to deal with the presence of Chris Gerchman who was always right behind him. These two drivers had their own personal drama that was incorporated into the Super Clean Modified Series debut. They were racing for the speedway's Modified Division track title. Dickerson had a two point lead over Gerchman going into this night and was officially declared the series champion. Mike Salm, Andrew Phipps and Billy Johanneck completed the top five.

This event was loaded with plenty of action and the 22 car field had to endure nine yellow flags and one red flag. You almost had to feel sorry for driver James Cole who was directly involved with four of the yellow flags due to spins. Cole started his evening at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway on a promising note by winning the Poly Dome Plastics trophy dash and a $100 bonus. Sadly, once the green flag fell on the 75 lap feature, nothing went right for Cole and the only thing he had to look forward to was a long trip home to his native San Antonio-Texas.

Even after the checkers waved to end the race the on track drama continued when a rear end assembly expired on Larry Gerchman's car causing the back end of his modified to catch on fire. Fortunately the Blythe Fire Department was on hand and made quick work of extinguishing the flames.However the grease on the race track  caused race winner Dickerson to spin out heading towards turn one while third place finished Salm went spinning down the backstretch.

After the race the happy winner said "this car was awesome and it's all STR. They build these cars and set them up and I owe all of this to them." Commenting on the track action behind him, that brought out all of the yellow flags,Dickerson said "I really wish we could have got some more green flag runs because I think we could have gotten a better handle on the race and maybe even pulled away from the field a little more but it is what it is and you just have to deal with it." Delivering one of the best lines of the evening, Dickerson said "this car was just unbeatable tonight. I think a monkey could have drove this thing and won the race." Winning the track modified champion was also a sweet moment for Dickerson on this night. Commenting on his new track title he said "That's just awesome. Chris Gerchman is a good guy to race with. He put up quite a fight there. He didn't want to give it away. We just had a good run tonight."

Chris Gerchman was all smiles after the race and said "I've got to give it to him, (Dickerson), he ran a good race out there. I just kept trying and trying while waiting for him to make a mistake and that never happened so I just couldn't get to him. Even though we were both up front all night we still had to deal with a lot of the things that went on behind us during the race while we were both fighting for the local track championship. But our finish is still a good way to start the new series."

Mike Salm's third place finish almost didn't happen because of an incident that happened at the very beginning of the race. When the 22 car field took the initial green flag, Salm's car went spinning wildly down the frontstretch and onto the grassy infield. Fortunately the speedway's official rules state that the entire field of cars must complete the first lap to create an official start. The result of the spin out was a red and yellow flag which meant the field had to return to their original starting positions and take the green flag again.

After the race Salm said "we still had a good night tonight and I'm very appreciative of my crew. We actually finished fourth in the Modified Series points last year but our bad luck just didn't completely go away. We completely changed the car for this year. We installed a brand new suspension and a complete new body as well as some aerodynamic changes even though these cars are not that aerodynamic to start with. But the little bit we can do was changed and we moved some stuff around. It worked pretty good tonight. We were a third place car. We didn't have a lot for the leaders but we finished where we should have so here we are." Commenting on his spin at the beginning of the race, Salm said "that restart thing was just a good luck deal. It could have happened one more lap later and I would have been sent to the back of the field and it would have been a whole different night."

Also very happy with the debut of the 2008 Super Clean Modified Racing Series was Greg Scheidecker the series Technical Director as well as the Promoter for the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway. Commenting on the series' debut he said "without a doubt tonight we were able to put a show together that had something for everyone. We had excessive yellow flags that were mostly due to single car spins and not because of people taking each other out due to very aggressive driving. But on the same hand we had a car that blew a rear end and caught on fire with lots of flames and lots of excitement. Those are the type of things that spectators remember. As much as all of us racers as a whole don't want to see that type of thing,on the other hand are the spectators who come to the track and sees something like this that is exciting and backed with close racing. They saw accidents that were truly accidents and they saw situations that happened on the race tack that brought them to their feet. This can be a very positive thing if it's put into perspective."

Scheidecker was also very pleased with the level of competition from the race and added "bumper to bumper, these guys were using the outside groove and they were using everything they had. Tonight I spoke with driver Jason Patision, who finished ninth, and I can tell you that last year running up front the way he did it's harder to run ninth than it is to  first." Commenting on the local modified track championship Scheidecker said "that was amazing. it shows that seat time and track knowledge means everything. When you take two racers who took the time to come here and run our weekly show then the seat time and their experience on this race track obviously showed up tonight and allowed them to finish one-two."

Series Race Director Bill Rozhon, who is also the co promoter at the Havasu 95 Speedway, was also very pleased with the first race and said "we've worked pretty hard trying to put this thing together and I think it's looking pretty good right now." The Super Clean Modified Racing Series will move on to round two, May 3d, at the Havasu 95 Speedway and Rozhon speculated that the race could draw 25 to 30 cars.

In addition to the series' title sponsor, Super Clean, this outstanding modified racing series is also presented by Lucas Oil, Dixie Chopper, General Tire, Jim Beam, Torco Racing Fuel, R&L Carriers, Fatheadz Sun Glasses, E3 Spark Plugs, K&N Performance Filters, Hoosier Tire West, Blue Water Resort and Casino, Budweiser, Poly Dome Plastic Products, and Sencon Concrete LLC.

By Dave Grayson