What would make the season finale Crazy 8s at Big Diamond Speedway for the roadrunners even crazier? How about making them turn right instead of left?
“Last season, a fan whom I do not have a name for, said to me, ‘If you want to make the Crazy 8s really crazy, have one of the features run in the wrong direction.’” track PR director Dino Oberto said. “So, I put a bug in the track owner Jake Smulley’s ear. He thought it would be great to throw the roadrunner drivers a curveball.”
Officials told the drivers of their plans to run one of the four 8-lap features in reverse during the drivers’ meeting.
“There were looks of disbelief and apprehension everywhere, especially when they told us they would let us know in staging,” eventual reverse feature winner Joey Brennan, of Minersville, Pennsylvania, said. “I didn’t know what to think. We built the car to obviously turn left. It was mind blowing to think we would be going in the opposite direction.”
The lack of notice prevented drivers from making huge swings in setup to accommodate going in a direction the cars were not built for. For the first of four features, officials told the drivers they’re turning right.
“We had a couple of slow laps,” Joey said. “I began by winding it up in the corner just to see how the car would react. I’m used to my car rolling on the righthand side. When you have to feel it roll on the left — the weaker spring side — you don’t know if it is going to turn right or spin out. Then I let her have it, and it handled better than what I expected.”
Starting in fourth, Joey marched to the front. With a late-race caution, Joey (No. 105) had to outduel Chuck Fayash, taking the lead out of the final turn on the final lap.
“I got a little braver every lap,” Joey said. “I have to admit, it was actually a lot of fun.”
While Joey Brennan won the first of four races in reverse, the other features ran in the customary counterclockwise fashion.
“Fans loved it,” Dino said. “The sudden announcement ruffled a few drivers’ feathers. In the end, it was a novelty race, and everyone had fun. Everyone got through it with no major problems.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
