FRIENDSHIP MOTOR SPEEDWAY Weekly Article

Elkin, NC (10.16.2008) - The ASA Sanctioned Friendship Motor Speedway was back at it with a major grand national event that would be the first two-day show since going back to dirt. Things got started on Wednesday at the FASTRAK Racing Series would roll in with an impressive car count of nearly seventy cars. This would be the second of three Grand National Championship Series events. The winner of the championship will receive an impressive fifty-thousand dollars. Also appearing would be our regular Coffee House Four Cylinder division for a generous five hundred to win on Wednesday night while the Speedsters would have their first appearence and their feature would be on Thursday night.

In the FASTRAK feature event, Royce Bray took command at the top of the green flag by virtue of being atop the leader board in FASTRAK Qualifying and cruising to the win in the first of six FASTRAK Heat Races. Bray looked as though he was going to be the driver to beat. With the skill and precision Bray is known for once in command, few who have watched Bray over the years would hardly disagree. On restarts Bray is one of the masters and is seldom challenged into Turn one.
Inman SC’s David Smith has been runner-up to Bray in the finishing order in many events in the southeast, most recently at Lavonia Speedway in Lavonia Ga. for the Georgia State Championship just three weeks ago. Apparently, Smith has closely watched Bray in his mastery on restarts noting where he might be able to challenge Bray into the corner on a restart.
After a caution that completely blocked the track between turns one and two on Lap 17, David Smith launched past Bray on the ensuing restart on Lap 18, and went on to win Night 2 of the FASTRAK Racing Series GRAND NATIONALS
The FASTRAK Racing Series moves to Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, VA Saturday October 18th where the 2008 FASTRAK Racing Series GRAND NATIONALS Champion will be crowned.

In the Coffee House Four Cylinder event, Derek Mathis would be the man to beat as he would start from the front row along side Tommy Zachary. Mathis would lead early as Zachary would find mechanical woes once again this year and be done for the night. Dale Barneycastle would make a run and challenge Mathis but would come up short. Derek Mathis would cruise on to win his second event of the year while only running in three races. Dale Barneycastle would bring his car home in second while Matthew Warden would finish a close third. Last weeks winner Sandy Martin would finish fourth with Michael Wells rounding out the top five after having a tire go down early in the event.

In the Special SpeedSTR Sprint Car event, these cars are very fun to watch as they are all running a special Dodge four-cylinder engine made just for these cars. Richie Tobias would be the man to beat as he would win the first ever SpeedSTR feature event at the speedway as he would roll into the Neighbors Stores/100.9 Victory Lane. Nick Pecko would finish a strong second. Steve Hicks would finish third while Doug Rose would round out the top four of the ten cars racing.

Congrats to this weeks feature winners and thanks to all the dirt racing fans, drivers, and crewmen for your support as we head into our next event of the 2008 racing season on Saturday October 25th, 2008. Coming up for our next event will be our regular four weekly racing divisions as the GM Direct Automotive Crate Late Models will return but for a special "Topless" event. Also racing will be the Basic Finance Super Street, Coffee House Four Cylinders, and the Southeastern Cars & Parts U-Car Division. Come on out as we would love to have you as part of our dirt racing family.

For more information, complete results, and the latest on the happenings of Friendship Motor Speedway just log onto www.FriendshipRacing.com, the official website of Friendship Motor Speedway. Be sure to bring the family, friends, or whatever the case may be to the best dirt track racing in the south at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina.

(Article written on October 16th, 2008 by Corey M. Hensley with a portion written by the FASTRAK Racing Series)