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Behind The Camera “Colossal” Sized
The event that an entire dirt racing community had been waiting for has come and gone and the most dominant
driver in the history of the sport just continues to add to his legacy with yet another payday worth $50,000.
The Circle K Colossal 100 which was held for the first time this past weekend at the heralded Dirt Track @ Lowes
Motor Speedway saw some exciting racing, heavy rains and lots of torn up equipment. 119 of the nations best lined
up during the weekend to take their shot at the big money, some had their dreams crushed while others that had
expected to merely be there for the happening turned in some of the best stories of the weekend.
After all was said and done and 10 cars were on the track qualifying at the same time in groups (which seemed very
bizarre to me) Shannon Babb would stand atop the standings as the overall fast qualifier followed by one of the
virtual unknowns of many fans attending the event Ronnie Lee Hollingsworth. After an “inversion stunt” which
featured an individual flying off a ramp into a huge stack of dice the invert would be 7 sending Babb to the middle of
the field during the first of 10 heat races. Babb would rocket to the front of the field and take the win in Heat 1 over
Scott Bloomquist who had very little to offer Babb on night 1. Chuck Harper, Mike Marlar, Jared Landers, Shane
Clanton, Clint Smith, Mike Balzano, Justin Fegers and Booper Bare would take the remaining heat races on night
one. As the green was shown to the field in heat 10 the raindrops would fall and wash out the last of the nights
activities to the following day, which according to many weather folks would be a total wash.
Come Saturday morning puddles of rain surrounded the facilities as it still drizzled off and on, but the sun would
finally shine down on the track and the race was on. The call was made for the autograph session that was held
under the grandstands, 10 minutes in the clouds rolled over and turned black. The skies opened up with hail and
heavy rain would fall for the better part of 30 minutes before finally relenting. Most, including myself went ahead
and considered the day a wash and activities would begin on Sunday afternoon at 1 pm. The announcement then
came down that the rain had all moved past and according to the P.A. man “We Race, We Race”.
Heat 10 would finally roll onto the track just shy of 8pm and it would be Matt Miller absolutely destroying the field,
holding down a straightaway lead for most of the race. The C mains would roll off and the racing was dicey and
action packed as Furman Parton and Gary Mabe picked up the wins. Parton was one of the underdog stories after
winning the C main, he would race his way into the starting field by advancing up to the 5th place in his B main after
starting deep in the field. Ray Cook would also accomplish the same feat following the same rout as Parton. Tim
Dohm absolutely destroyed the 2nd B main feature and appeared to be one of the fastest cars on the grounds at the
time. Jeff Cooke was also fast and dominating the first B main until he broke as the bad luck monkey saddled up to
ride one more time leaving the HMI team loaded up and scratching their heads.
Steve Francis and Shannon Babb would lead the 36-car field to green for the 100-lap event, with Babb jumping out
and dominating as the laps clicked off. It would only take 7 laps for the first “Big One” to take place as Virginia
native Ronnie DeHaven Jr went for a wild flip coming out of turn 4 destroying his mount and leaving him probably
wishing he would have already been loaded up. It wasn’t until a lap 51 restart that Scott Bloomquist would take the
lead and finally decide the time was right to “Put it on the field” as once he was out front Bloomer put a feather to
the wind and set sail and would completely trash the remaining entries that had been dwindled down to a mere 12
cars running at the end due to track conditions and broken parts and other things that were said and done by the
race director. I personally have no problem with a driver stopping on the track if he has a flat, rather than just being
told to pull off and not come back onto the track. Not only is it a safety issue, but pretty damn demeaning to the
drivers that have busted their ass all weekend and spent up God knows how many and how much resources just to
make the show, then to be done that way is low down in my book. Ray Cook and Darren Miller were both put into
that category after making great runs towards the front of the field, only to be parked after stopping on the track
for flats due to the surface. Chub Frank was also critical of the event overall after finishing in the top 5. Myself, I
enjoyed the race other than the way that Darren and Ray were done during the feature. Hopefully all the
suggestions that have been brought forth will be put forth into this even next year and it can be an annual mega-
race for the south, something that region has been lacking for many, many years. Until next time, Keep it out of the
ditch and tire side down and let the loose side drag.
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