Foul forecast washes out Batesville

BATESVILLE, Ark. (March 23-24) – A first-time visitor and a regular at Batesville Motor Speed­way both raced their way to victory lane during the Arkansas Spring Nationals. Hunter Marriott topped Friday’s IMCA Modified feature while Jeff Taylor went from last on open­ing night to first in the Saturday show. Both features paid $1,500 to win and both Marriott and Taylor were already on the ballot for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. Marriott started opening night from outside the front row and led the distance, pulling away from everybody en route to his eight Fast Shafts ballot qualifying victory already this season and 11th since last August. After running in lapped traffic much of the way, Marriott won ahead of Tyler Stevens, Peyton Tay­lor, Jeff James and Mark Norris. “We were getting ready to race and decided on Thursday to go to Batesville,” Marriott said. “We went down there to learn and had a pretty good weekend.” Jeff Taylor, a double winner at Spring Nationals each of the last two years, started on the pole, held [Read More]

BATESVILLE, Ark. (Sept. 22) – Night one of Batesville Motor Speedway’s Race For Hope 71 belonged to Ethan Dotson.  The IMCA Modified clipper from Bakersfield, Calif., started seventh and finished first on Wednesday, opening night of qualifying for Saturday’s $50,000 to win main event. “We were pretty good and hopefully we can keep that speed for 75 laps on Saturday. Starting on the pole will definitely help,” Dotson said. “The track had some character (tonight) and it was fun moving around. We had to get past some pretty good cars to get to the front.”  Dotson made his way into the lead on lap 10 of the 25-lapper. He’d finished 14th in the 2019 event and seventh last year. Lining up behind him in the main event will be Jacob Hobscheidt, hard charger Cody Laney, Kollin Hibdon, Jesse Sobbing, Sawyer Crigler, D.J. Shannon, Scott Bloomquist and Mike Mullen.  Laney motored to third from 21st starting. Qualifying for Race For Hope 71 continues Thursday night. One hundred Modifieds vied on opening night at Batesville.  Feature results – 1. Ethan [Read More]

BATESVILLE, Ark. (Oct. 11) – New car? No problem. Thornton topped the $12,000 to win Race For Hope 71 feature for IMCA Modifieds at Batesville Motor Speedway. Sunday’s checkered flag run was his second straight and third in the four years the event has been held. “It’s awesome to be able to win this race three out of four years. This was definitely one of our biggest wins,” said Thornton, who led start to finish in the 71-lapper. “We brought a new car (a Lethal Chassis), went back to our notes and didn’t have to change a thing all week.” Already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot, Thornton set fast time to start the week and never slowed down. After rain postponed the main event from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, he weathered a handful of cautions before and after the mandatory fuel stop on lap 40. The final yellow came with three laps left. Jake O’Neil pulled to Thornton’s back bumper before chasing him to the checkers. “This year we were really good [Read More]