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[/media-credit]The Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 set for Sunday, Oct 21 at Martinsville Speedway. Come see 42 cars take the green with one goal, to win the clock. The infamous grandfather clock has been a longstanding traditional trophy given to Martinsville Speedway race winners for many years. For the Late Model racers that are here this weekend , it may be their only chance to earn one. Many of these racers will never compete at a higher level in the NASCAR ranks, but are highly competitive in the Late Model world.
To compliment the prestigious trophy, a nice check for $25,000 also goes to the winner. It will be a much larger payday than most of these teams are used to. Many weekly short tracks only pay $1,500 to $2,000 to win, so this weekends purse will definitely go a long way to recover some of the cost the teams incur during the season.
Another interesting prize for this weekends race will be the crown, yes and actual crown, given to the Virginia Triple Crown winner. The Triple Crown consist of three major Late Model races in the state of Virginia throughout the year. The Triple Crown tracks are South Boston, Langley Speedway, and wrapping up at Martinsville. Points are awarded at each event, with the driver accumulating the most points in the three races being crowned the champion. In addition to an actual crown, the winner champion will also receive a $5,000 bonus check and of course bragging rights!
The contenders for for the triple crown are, the leader with 83 points, CE Falk III, who was the winner of the South Boston race, Matt Bowling, the winner of the Langley event just four points back and Nick Smith, the self proclaimed underdog who is 19 points behind leader Falk. All three drivers expressed confidence at the track Saturday as they prepared for practice. Laughter erupted in the media center when referring to winning the triple crown, Falk asked Bowling, “Does that mean you bump me out of the way if I was running third?”, Bowling replied, “I would bump you out of the way if we were running tenth!”
Given all the pressure the drivers are under this weekend, they seem loose and relaxed and ready for 300 laps of competition,and with a total of 86 cars trying to secure one of the 42 starting spots, it will be very tough 300 laps of competition.
