Catching Up, 4/19 Stateline Opener

Last Saturday night, April 19, I went to Stateline Speedway in Busti, NY for their season opener. I have to say, that place knows how to put fans in the stands! We arrived a 1/2 hour late and had to wait in quite the line to get in. Then due to the ticket booth running out of change, we ended up getting in for only $5! (Not that their usual $9 is steep in any way). Anyway, Stateline Speedway is the only weekly Super Late Model track in NY, even though it's just barely in NY. So that's what you go to Stateline to see. On that night, it was the only thing anyone would have wanted to see. I'm not sure if it was due to first night jitters or what, but everything besides super lates was pretty crappy. Self spins and dumb moves a-plenty. That's fine though, because the Super Late Model class at Stateline is stellar. 25+ super late models were on hand for the night. The 25 (or 20) lap feature started with a skirmish heading into turn 3 on the first lap. Doug Eck (03) got into the back of Dick Barton (28B), spinning himself. He was then collected up by a few others. For some reason he seemed to be angry at Barton, which made no sense to me since Eck is the one who ran into the back of Barton. The rest of the race was mostly mishap-free with the final 3 fastest cars being Rick "Boom" Briggs (99), Dick Barton (28B), and Rich Gardner (1). All 3 were hooked up on the bottom of the track, making it seem that there was no high line left. At lap 20, it was Briggs 1st, Gardner 2nd, Barton 3rd. Here's where things got strange, or as track management wanted "exciting". They throw the caution and send everyone but the top 3 to the pits. Then the top three were lined up Indy 500 style three-wide and given the green to battle it out for the final 5 laps. Gardner went to the high side which was a shock, and it seemed as though he might get Briggs for the lead. After 2 laps though, it was clear Briggs was going to take it. Barton sneaked by for second. I thought this format was a bit odd. I understand what they were going for, but I'm just not sure it was worth doing. At lap 20, the leaders were catching traffic and things were getting interesting. This format seems to kind of cheapen things; I'd rather just have a race play out. So after the Mickey Mouse format in the late model race, the E-mods rolled out for their feature. Of course it was a Randy Hall (10) and Rich Michael (17x) front row. Whenever those guys show up at an e-mod race, they're definitely the ones to beat. Hall went to the early lead and never looked back. The same couldn't be said for Michael. The cars behind him weren't too friendly getting by in the early going and he seemed to slow slightly. In the end, it was Randy Hall leading flag-to-flag. Funny race format aside, the Super Late Model race was good to watch. Gotta love the super lates. The same can't be said for the rest of the classes, but ya take the good with the bad and a not so great day at the races is better than most days anywhere else.