Issue 243

Thoughts on Three 50s @ Riverside Speedway

The buzz since the winter months for most had been the format of last Saturday’s Ceilidh Honda Triple 50s. From the announcement, to the Atlantic Outdoor Sports and RV Show, Radical Speedsport and the early season events, the talk of the town around the water coolers had been the new format for the event that would kick off Riverside International Speedway’s 50th Anniversary Season.

Now that the event has come, has been executed and is in the rearview mirror by a week, folks are still talking about it.

Social media has been a buzz about some that were, and in some cases still are, skeptical about how the Triple 50s format went down. Like everything in life, when it all boils down at the end of the day, not everyone is going to be happy with how everything plays out.

Several folks have asked me since the checkered flag dropped what I thought of the race Saturday. So, here’s my take, and some are likely not going to like it based on what I’ve seen and heard. I liked the format - though it had a few things working against it Saturday night.

Let’s call a spade a spade. On paper, if you didn’t go to the race, it would look boring. Two cautions for the Riverside Roulette wheel spins and the three leaders that started on the pole at the drop of the green in those 50 lap segments ended up leading 50 straight laps. Sure, I think we kind of expected some strategy to be played and some drivers conserving in the first two segments in hopes they would catch an invert. I also think some teams were banking on a couple of organic cautions to tweak on their race cars. We didn’t get organic yellows.

From the tower, it also looked like it was difficult to create passes on Saturday night, which could have led to why we did not see any organic cautions. Dylan Blenkhorn is a prime example of a driver who made passes, but we saw him have to finesse the bumper a couple times to create opportunities to pick up spots in the third segment. Nicholas Naugle had a really strong race car in the second segment and had the field completely covered but when he got inverted to tenth, he couldn’t make up a lot of ground in those final 50 laps, or at least enough ground to really find his way out of traffic over that final green flag stretch.

Let’s play Devil’s advocate for a second here. If those two cautions did not come out at Lap 50 and 100 and this was the Ceilidh Honda 150, would that race have run caution free? We could sit here and fight back and forth about the fact, because teams may have played a different strategy and pushed harder, but with track position on Saturday being key, maybe it would have went wire to wire green. 

Again, I liked the format. I would be fine if they tried it again, but everyone is going to have their own opinion. Whatever way you slice it, it is still 150-laps on the high banks of Riverside International Speedway with the best short trackers in the North East. If you used the excuse that you didn’t show up because of the format, I feel bad for you. That’s okay though, you can redeem yourself and hopefully we see you next weekend in Halifax for some great short track racing action.

At the end of the day, Cole Butcher saved his stuff, caught a break and drove away with the win. Blenkhorn closed in late but just ran out of laps at the end. We saw Greg Proude and Nicholas Naugle with raw speed when they had clean air up front. Jonathan Hicken continued to have speed and Dylan Gosbee and their team ran a great race to come home third. Ashton Tucker backed up his second place effort at Petty Raceway with a decent run at Riverside. Kent Vincent also showed consistent speed, much like he did at Scotia Speedworld and I think the No. 8 has been one of the biggest underlying stories of the year.

I think the big story at Riverside Speedway though, maybe beside the format and Butcher’s first win at the track, was the underdog story. I look at two teams here - Shawn Pierce and Chris Hughes. Both teams do a lot with what they have and both have shown this season that hard work pays off. Pierce won his heat race on Saturday and ran in the top five for most of the night until a rear end failure sidelined the No. 21 Ntyce Motorsports Ford before the finish of the race. Hughes has had speed all season enough to put the part time team fifth in the standings with a quarter of our races completed in 2019. Hughes will be at Scotia Speedworld next weekend, while Pierce will look to put his issues from the first Scotia race behind him and ride the wave of speed he had at Riverside. It is always great to see an underdog story rise to the top and we’re seeing two unfold here in front of our eyes.

We have the building blocks taking shape for a really good 250-lap feature coming up in July. Add another dozen or so teams into the mix when the IWK 250 rolls around, the thrill of qualifying into the race and the electricity and prestige that event brings and I am already excited for July. The Ceilidh Honda Triple 50s has built a great foundation for the next time we head to Riverside International Speedway.

We’ll discuss more next week and preview the fourth event of the season, the Nova Trucks Centres Make a Wish 150 at Scotia Speedworld, coming up next week.

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track.