FightForTheRail

I did list that one in my original post. 😀

No one has discussed the '87 Valley 200 that I mentioned in the original post, but here is a link to what happened. That incident was such a polarizing and widely-discussed race for a long time after that race. I know hindsight is 20/20, but everyone in the place (other than the officials) knew what was going to happen and why Horton was just slowly driving around waiting for the leaders to approach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdvZ8d_edw

I know the Rolling Wheels speed thing was mocked relentlessly on Hoseheads. The 410s did not average 140+ at Rolling Wheels. That track was really a half-mile, not a 5/8 mile that was used for the bogus average speed. Rolling Wheels was not 25 mph faster than hammer down places like Knoxville and Port Royal.

That is another worthy race to mention. Pauch did make the pass on Danny for the lead with a couple to go, but had to go back to second due to a caution. I think a lot was made of the Alan Johnson dead heat that wasn't was because it is shady to tell people that there was a dead heat when the entire grandstands saw that it really wasn't. Who are you going to believe, DIRT or your lying eyes? LOL There would have been less backlash if DIRT would have just added Alan as a past winner instead of making up the phony dead heat story.

You know, along with the 1986 Flemington 200, that is the other race I thought of and considered putting on the list. The only reason I didn't include it, and this isn't any kind of iron-clad declaration that I refuse to deviate from, is that most of the other races on the list were on bigger stages than than just a standard series race. But that is absolutely one of the other races I did think about, and I don't have any issue with that race being thrown into the mix.

As an aside, for years after the '87 Flemington 200, my friends and I would have a running joke every time Bob McCreadie would suffer some bad luck that it makes for the Flemington 200 that he really did not win,. LOL

Great post. For those not familiar with the complete clusterfuck that was the 1987 Flemington 200, Tom Hager argued with officials that he was the rightful winner for hours after the race. Officials completely lost control of the scoring midway through the race. Eventually, it seemed as though officials just threw up their hands and declared Bob McCreadie the winner. I am inclined to believe that race may be my choice for the answer to the question I posed in the original post.

Horton was also using that line in the race. At the post race press conference, Horton said he did not have any idea who was driving the blue "3" car.

That was the 1986 Flemington 200. I actually did consider the McKinney/Laureno race, then decided against it. I didn't want to have two Flemington 200s from the same period on the list. For those not familiar with that race, Laureno, who was racing under the alias of "Mike McKinney" that day, led the Flemington 200 until the final turn, when he backed off and allowed Jimmy Horton to take the win. The reason for this was that Laureno was on workman's comp from his job and did not want the publicity and photos of such a high profile win. That is certainly a famous race, though, because of the details surrounding it.

I have thought about this question at various times over the years. I don't think there is much dispute that the Batmobile at Syracuse in 1980 is the most famous/most iconic/most discussed dirt Modified race of all time. If we accept that premise, what is the second most famous dirt Modified race ever? i am not necessarily looking for some amazing battle for the win and really not looking for a race famous because of a fatality. But what race still gets debated and discussed years or decades after the fact because events were so memorable or controversial or impossible to believe? I acknowledge that some of this may be based on where an individual poster watches their racing, but here are some suggestions off the top of my head. This is by no means an exhaustive list. * 1987 Flemington (N.J.) 200: Who knows what driver really won? Tom Hager? Kevin Collins? Bob McCreadie? Somebody else? * 1989 Super DIRT Week: Alan Johnson wins Syracuse (N.Y). from 49th after getting into the race on a dicey "dead heat" call in the last chance race. * 1987 Lebanon Valley (N.Y.) 200: Who actually remembered that Danny Johnson won the Valley 200 after Jimmy Horton intentionally wrecked Brett Hearn out of the lead following a Hearn and Horton tangle earlier? * 2010 Eastern States 200: Stewart Friesen gets jobbed by OCFS (N.Y.) officials, then stages an on-track protest * 1983 Nazareth National (Pa.) 4-25s: A personal favorite of mine. Jack Johnson wins the first three of the day's four features from deep in the pack each time, then runs out of time while chasing down Dave Kelly in the fourth feature. * 1983: Nazareth National (Pa.) $50,000 to win: Kenny Brightbill wins in a race famous for taking on Super DIRT Week at the height of Syracuse's power: * 1992 Fulton (N.Y.) Victoria 200: Of all the amazing races from the glory days of the Victoria 200, this is the one that most stands out to me. Billy Pauch lost for the first time in six tries at the Vic the year before, but the '92 race is still the one I remember for Tom Kinsella making his own line through the infield, angering Pauch so much that he refused to even take his third-place trophy from the race. * 1973 Reading (Pa.) 4-25s: Carl Collis at Nazareth (Pa.) and Billy Pauch at Bridgeport (N.J.) have both matched the feat of winning four big-block Modified features in one day, but Brightbill at Reading did the unthinkable when he swept the 4-25s program in October of that year. 1985 Eastern States 200: On the same weekend Richie Evans is killed in a NASCAR Modified at Martinvills (Va.), a distraught Jack Johnson starts the the Eastern States 200 at Orange County (N.Y.) from last via a provisional and wins.

Are you sure she didn't think you were the OCFS race director? 😉

Without a pit stop to put strategy into the mix, a 200-lapper (or a 100-lapper) during the daytime will usually be dreadfully dull. That is a recipe for someone to lead every lap.

Slightly more than a quarter mile, smaller than either a 3/8 or a 4/10.

People complain about the SDS because half the race gets lost sometimes due to caution laps counting

Could not agree more. That post is spot on.