Spring Break

They spent two days at Georgia tracks last weekend without racing due to thunderstorms that kept rolling across the Peach State. They had this weekend’s $20,000-to-win Illini 100 at LaSalle (Ill.) Speedway wiped out three days early due to an ugly spring forecast.

But at least most of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series stars had a chance to enjoy some spectacular weather while hanging out down south last week.

During the days between the ‘Cash Cow 100’ on March 19 at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway and the March 25 tour event at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway, 11 of the 16 teams currently planning to follow the WoO LMS stayed on the road. The only Outlaws who steered their haulers back home after Columbus were Shane Clanton, Clint Smith and rookie Brian Reese – not surprising, of course, since they all live outside Atlanta, which is roughly a five-hour drive from Ocala – Kentucky’s Darrell Lanigan and Pennsylvania’s Ron Davies (the Rookie of the Year contender had to make the long trek back north to fix his Mars car after a practice crash at Columbus).

For those who remained out, the week was like their Spring Break. While they spent plenty of hours working on their cars, they also partook in some R&R.

Several teams took the ‘Spring Break’ theme literally, most notably those headed by young stars Josh Richards and Austin Hubbard. After the Richards and Hubbard groups spent a day testing at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park on March 21 and worked on their cars for much of the following afternoon, they headed to nearby Daytona Beach and parked their rigs downtown – right in the middle of the annual Spring Break mayhem that overtakes the city.

The non-stop action that accompanies the invasion of thousands of partying college kids was a perfect scene for 20-somethings like Richards, his chief mechanic Matt Barnes and Hubbard crewman Nick Hover as well as the 19-year-old Hubbard. It wasn’t quite as nice a fit, however, for 50-somethings like Richards’s father Mark and Hubbard’s car owner Dale Beitler and 40-somethings such as Hubbard’s crew chief Robby Allen and Richards’s crewman Jimmy Frey.

“Us older guys definitely didn’t fit in with that 18- to 22-year-old crowd,” cracked Mark Richards. “Those younger guys – Josh, Austin, Matt, Nick – they were out having fun at night. The rest of us were just worrying about where we were gonna eat next.”

With their rigs parked in the Aqua Lounge lot, the team elders did have a front-row seat for plenty of late-night craziness.

“We sat in the hauler and just people-watched,” said the laid-back Frey, the tire specialist for Richards’s operation. “We saw a few fights and lots of drunk people, and we watched Josh and Austin try to lay down their raps on girls.”

The only other Outlaw followers to visit Daytona Beach were 2008 Rookie of the Year Vic Coffey and his crewman Matt McCrimmon, but they got there in an unorthodox way. When they crossed paths with the Richards and Hubbard teams, Coffey was asked where their Sweeteners Plus hauler was parked. Coffey responded by saying, “Ocala,” which is about, oh, 80 miles west of Daytona. While other members of the Sweeteners Plus outfit, including Coffey’s teammate Tim McCreadie, set up shop in Ocala and went out in that city’s downtown area, Coffey and McCrimmon took a taxi to Daytona on Wednesday night – a one-way trip that cost Coffey a cool $320, including tip.

Of course, Coffey and McCrimmon had a sound reason to make the trip to Daytona: Coffey’s mother, Ann Myers, was in town staying in one of the two condos owned by her husband, Sweeteners Plus team owner Carl Myers. Coffey spent a couple days visiting his mother before heading back to Ocala for Friday night’s WoO LMS action.

Florida’s Gulf Coast, meanwhile, attracted several WoO LMS travelers, including Rick Eckert (Panama City Beach), Brent Robinson (Pensacola) and rookie John Lobb (St. Petersburg). With temperatures topping 80 degrees daily, hanging out by the surf was a refreshing diversion.

“We had a great time,” said Eckert, whose wife, Kristal, accompanied him on the southern excursion. “I wish we could’ve just stayed there for another week.”

WoO LMS rookie Pat Doar was a bit more low-key during the break, spending most of it parked in his hauler at a truckstop where he “watched diesel (fuel) prices go up every day.” Also avoiding sandy beaches was Chub Frank, Tim Fuller and Jill George’s husband Rick Hartzell; they stayed at Clint Smith’s shop in Senoia, Ga., and worked on their cars. (George had to fly home to Iowa to see patients at her chiropractic office while her husband and their five-year-old son, Jackson, stayed behind in the team’s hauler.)

Frank, Fuller, Hartzell and their crew members did have one especially big night while at Cat Daddy’s compound. They were among nearly three-dozen who people who went out to a Japanese restaurant for a birthday party saluting Smith, who turned 46 on March 20.