Saturday dawned wet and cloudy after some overnight rain in Georgia but it turned clear before noon and was a perfect day. I drove southwest and avoided Atlanta to stop at the West Georgia Speedway in Whitesburg. This is a banked 3/8-mile red clay track that sits well below the spectator viewing areas. There are only 3 concrete steps for seating on the straightaway but there is spectator parking outside all 4 turns and down the backstretch. The track is wide with Armco walls on the inside and outside and the infield is the main pit area. Some bigger rigs pitted behind the spectator parking in the second turn and didn’t try and drive down the banking into the infield. The heavy loads of water ran down the hard packed red clay and left puddles along the inside fence. The flagman must know this as he throws the yellow before a car is done spinning and most often they ended along the inside wall and needed to be pulled from the mud. A good size crowd of maybe 600 surrounded the track to see 8 crate late models, 5 sportsmen, 10 hobby stocks, 13 pure mini stocks, 7 enduros, 10 modified mini stocks and 12 full sized cars. The lights were bright but spaced quite far apart and speakers were OK but the announcer only gave the names of the top 3 finishers following each race, neither lineups nor commentary. I had my lawn chair in place by 6PM but the 8PM opening ceremonies were followed by warm-ups, and qualifying for 2 classes with racing at 9PM. The good news was that the format was for features only and although it was dusty the wind was from our back. The bad news was the many towings and the wrecker was one tractor with a draw bar. The hobby stocks had 3 quick yellows, then went about 15 laps with 4th starter Lee McElwaney the winner over Jeff Carter from 6th. The modified minis went to about the halfway point when two of the front runners locked together and tested the wall head on. (The wall was not moved!) After 3 more yellows it was Frank Long from 8th who won over Richard Bagby from 7th. The enduros had 5 yellows as Bill Young won from 6th. The crate late models went 25 laps with only one yellow and DeWayne Aldridge was the winner from the front. The sportsmen also only had one yellow as pole sitter Rucker Orr won. The pure mini stocks had 7 yellows in 15 laps and pole sitter Bo Chambers won. He did not lead the entire race as 2 others had passed him but both spun before the end. Gary Parker started 8th and was second while Lonnie Patterson started 12th and was leading when he spun but still got back to finish third. The full size cars had 4 yellows as pole sitter Pappy Powell got the checkers about 11:50PM to end the night.
#1090 4/19/08 West Georgia Speedway - Whitesburg, GA - 3/8 dirt - Late Models
