LMS Winter Heat 12/8/07: Legends Racing Action
By Matt Kentfield
SEMI-PRO: ROSS TWO-FOR-TWO IN THE 48

So far in the two rounds of the Winter Heat, if any driver is going to win the Legends Semi-Pro Championship, they are going to have to take it away from Steven Ross and the #48 Ladyga Motorsports camp.

Since teaming up with Tim Ladyga this fall, Ross has been tough to beat in the Semi-Pro ranks.  He’s been unstoppable in the two weeks of the Winter Heat, as well, winning for the second-straight outing by passing early leader Ryan Blaney on lap four and never looking back.
Steven Ross is now two-for-two in Winter Heat racing during the 2007 season. (LN Photos)
“In the first three laps, I was just trying to get the tires heated up, then after that I started closing in on him (Blaney).  I tried to get by him as clean as I could and he gave me plenty of room.  I knew if I could run my line, I was going to start pulling away.

“I was checking every lap to see how far I was pulling away from them.  From then on, I just took it easy, trying not to make any mistakes.  I took my time getting around lapped traffic.  That’s all you can do is take your time and it worked out.”

Michael Brown proved to be Ross’s toughest competition late in the going Saturday, but Ross’s hot streak continued with a second-straight victory.

”It was a good race, but he was just a little bit faster than I was,” said Brown.  “I was giving it everything I had to try and run him down.  I ran off
the track a little bit early in the race, but from then on I was giving it everything I had to catch him.  His car was better than mine all day.  We’ll just have to get it better for next week.”

Brown and the rest of the Semi-Pros are all gunning for the Ross/Ladyga camp early in the Winter Heat, but that’s just fine with Ross.

“I’m so happy to be driving for Tim Ladyga.  I have to thank him for giving me this awesome car.  I try to help him out as much as I can, but he does so much work on these cars getting them ready.  We’ve still got another car that’s just as good as this one, so I’m real happy to be driving Tim’s cars.”

PRO: HALL’S PRESSURE DOESN’T FAZE TYLER GREEN

Drivers competing in the Legends Pro Division are expected to compete just as their title suggests - professionals.  Most of the time, they do race cleanly and put on some good shows.  Sometimes, as was the case on a few occasions during the Summer Shootout at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the “Pro” tag was not indicative of the rambunctious racetrack hijinks by the Pro Division’s drivers.
Tyler Green didn't have to worry about getting spun out on his way to a Winter Heat win.
But in Saturday’s second round of the Winter Heat Series at the fifth-mile behind Lowe’s Motor Speedway (NC), the frontrunners in the Pro Division’s 20-lap feature raced the way that professionals should.  Rob Hall could’ve dumped Tyler Green out of the victory.  Green could have run Hall dirty to maintain his lead.

Instead, the two raced cleanly and Green pulled out the victory with Hall glued right to his rear bumper.

“Rob, he’s one of those guys that you don’t have to worry about hitting you,” said Green.  “That’s the good thing about racing with him.  There are certain people that make it pretty hard for you to get around them and if you don’t use the bumper then you’re not going anywhere. 

“I tried my best to focus out the windshield because I knew I had Rob right behind me, but I did look back there every once and a while and saw that I didn’t have much breathing room.”
Hall, who won the first round of the Winter Heat last Saturday, spent nearly every one of the 20 laps with Green’s #20 car filling up his windshield.  In the end, he had to settle for second.

“I was just a little too loose.  I could never really get to his bumper coming off the corner to work with him a little bit.  I just didn’t quite have it.  I was definitely trying to get past him, but I just couldn’t get him off the corner.”

Green bested Hall and third-place finisher Mitchell Coble for the victory, giving the young driver momentum going into the final events during the Winter Heat Series.

“We had a good car, but you can always tweak on it and always make it a little bit better.  We really haven’t been as good here at the 1/5-mile as we have been at Lowe’s.  I don’t know if I’m just starting to get the handle here or if we’re getting the handle on the car, but whatever it is, it’s coming around good.”

MASTERS: HURTIN’ HAIR DOMINATES

Clay Hair is arguably the most dominant Legends Masters Division driver in recent memory, if not ever.  He’s won just about everything there is to win in the Masters world.  Normally, though, he does it healthy.  Saturday, he had to dig just a little bit deeper if he was going to add another trophy to his case in the second round of the Winter Heat.

Earlier in the week prior to round two, Hair pulled a lower back muscle while cutting a set of tires at his Mt. Pleasant, NC race shop.  The pain from the pulled muscle was bad, but not bad enough to keep Hair out of the seat nor out of victory lane on Saturday, as the veteran racer built up a half-track lead and never looked back.
“This track isn’t real good on the lower back anyway.  It didn’t bother me too awful-bad, but I’m hurting a bit now.  It bothered me when I take deep breaths and when I turn the steering wheel.  It’s just one of those deals.

It was pretty cool to win the race, even though I was pretty sore in there.”

Luckily for Hair, a couple of jumbles among the rest of the field allowed him to build up a commanding lead over the likes of second-place Glenn Jamieson and third-place Jeff Turner.  Even with a lengthy advantage, Hair still did not let up.

“I can’t even see out the mirror in this car, so I couldn’t tell what the deal was or where anyone was around me.  The car was good.  We changed the tires earlier to give it some more forward bite.  The car wound up driving great.  Customers’ cars are running great.  I’m real happy.”
Clay Hair had plenty of room between him and the rest of the competition on Saturday.  (LN Photo)
YOUNG LIONS: PRESNELL DOUBLES UP WITH MID-RACE PASS

The 20-lap Legends Young Lions feature was about 10 laps more than Cody Blackburn would’ve liked it to have been.  Blackburn had the dominant car early in the race, but last week’s Young Lions feature winner Dylan Presnell was stalking him throughout the early laps.  A mid-race caution allowed Presnell to get to Blackburn’s bumper and on the restart, Presnell made the move for his second-straight Winter Heat victory.

“I wanted to get by him so bad,” said Presnell of his mid-race pass for the lead.  “I think he was blocking me a little bit, but I got by him and the car was great from there.”
Dylan Presnell was on fire, literally, after his second win in the Winter Heat.  (LN Photo)
Blackburn, however, would have liked to have seen either a few fewer laps or a few more laps in the feature, because he believed he had a strong enough car to hold Presnell off.

“I think I could’ve stayed out front if we could’ve caught lapped traffic because I thought I could get through the traffic better than those guys.  Then that caution came out and I think that’s what cost us because I couldn’t hold those guys off after that.”

Two straight Winter Heat victories now have Presnell pondering a sweep.

“I don’t know about a sweep, but that’d be awesome to do, though.  We came and practiced yesterday and the car was good all day.  We came here this morning and the car was kind of loose.  Then it was pushing.  So we got that all fixed and now I think we’ve got a good car, so we’ll see.”




RESULTS

Young Lions
1. Dylan Presnell
2. Jimmy Heavlow
3. Cody Blackburn
4. Tyler Kivett
5.Ronnie Bassett
6. Derek Ramey
7. Ryan Truex
8. Austin Leitner
9. T.J. Hicks
10. Robert Kuczmacski
11. Chris Davis
12. Bailey Freeman
13. Jordan Stillwell
14. Brock Baldwin
15. Tyler Hanberry
16. Devin Jones
17. Timmy Hill
18. Sean Harris
19. Tyler Strickland
20. Hayden Reeves
21. Derrick Hill

Semi-Pro
1. Steven Ross
2. Michael Brown
3. Daniel Hemric
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Sam Mc Aulay
6. Gene Kirila
7. Landon Bullock
8. Dennis Kiser
9. Jerame Donley
10. John Ellenburg
11. Andrew Brown
12. Matt Lundstrom
13. Matt Harris
14. Mike Alcaro
15. Chris Moore
16. Jordan Penninger
17. R.S. Senter
18. Ryan Wallace
19. Kara Clarke
20. Johnny Love
21. Jamie SMith
22. Heath Manning
23. Kyle Pierce
24. Cody Johnson
25. Corey Weaver
26. Thomas Hatcher
27. Tyler Devault

Masters
1. Clay Hair
2. Glenn Jamieson
3. Jeff Turner
4. Jan Ingram
5. John Davis
6. John Barilka
7. David Denham
8. Gary Shannon
9. Jimmy Gurley
10. Chip Ferguson
11. Robert Petry
12. Carlos Moore
13. Mike Rogers
14. Bruce Silver
15. Bill Baldwin
16. Eddie Harwell

Pro
1. Tyler Green
2. Rob Hall
3. Mitchell Coble
4. Matt Stover
5. Jordan Paschal
6. Kyle Beattie
7. Parker Hammons
8. Trey Edison
9. Daniel Moskowitz
10. Steve Daniels
11. Dennis Lambert