"The Professor" wins first USMTS race in eight years
After being disappointed by a flat tire at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, Texas while leading on May 3, Eddie "The Professor" Martin (J.M. Hallas dubbed him that nickname at one of Martin's chassis seminars) drove from the eighth starting spot to the win at Tri-State Speedway on Tuesday. Martin drove Alan Sharpensteen's Sharp Racing Products Chassis to the win. Martin then backed that up with a sixth to third run at I-30 Speedway on Wednesday and was just edged by Kelly Shryock for second place.

First-time USMTS winner Jack Sullivan teams up with Salazar Racing for Southern Speedweek
Greenbriar, Ark.'s Jack Sullivan showed up at Tri-State with a GRT Chassis with backing from Salazar Racing (Las Cruces, N.M.) - the former car owners for Johnny Scott, who is no longer in the Salazar ride and, unfortunately, lost his perfect attendance in the O'Reilly USMTS Southern Series. At Tri-State, they treated Sullivan like a pinball and we never got to see what he had after heavy contact in both his heat and Real Racing Wheels "B" Main put him on the wrecker. But at I-30, he blasted around Casey Findley on the rim of the race track and stayed there for the 40-lap win. He was able to see Martin, and later Shryock, on the low line but held his line in a near-perfect performance.

Holzkamper shaves 46 points off of Hughes' lead
If anyone though the O'Reilly USMTS Southern Series was going to be a cakewalk for Jason Hughes, guess again. Wednesday night was not helpful at all for Hughes in his quest to become the second champion of the series. While he has dominated with his Hughes Chassis with four wins, seven top-5s and eight top-10s in eleven races, Steve Holzkamper has been real consistent in his TRE Chassis with one win, seven top-5s and ten top-10s in eleven starts (his lone finish outside of the top-10 was the first race of the season where he was scheduled to start on the front row but was a DNS due to mechanical failure). While Hughes got caught up with damage in one of the attempted starts at I-30 and struggled to a 22nd-place finish, Holzkamper started 15th and charged his way to fourth-place finish to earn finishing position points plus 11 passing points. That cut Hughes' points lead from 58 down to just 12!

Defending champ not defending, but returns to action
Eight-time O'Reilly USMTS National Champion, and the only O'Reilly USMTS Southern Series champion so far, Shryock won't make it two-for-two because he's concentrating on the national events this year and the Casey's General Stores Hunt for the USMTS National Championship, but Shryock is back in the house! He's been real good at both shows so far and has a pair of runner-ups to prove it. So far, Shryock is 0-for-6 in Southern Speedweek races dating back to 2007. Last year, Peyton Taylor, Greg Skaggs, Randy Timms and Hughes kept him from victory lane, and this year it's been Martin and Sullivan doing the trick. The Skyrocket Chassis pilot and builder still has three shots with his green #3 at getting a Southern Speedweek win this week though.

So far, locals not bad at all
Larry Campbell nearly did it. He nearly became the fourth "homer" to win an O'Reilly USMTS Southern Series race this year as David Mitchell (Champion Park Speedway), George White (Cowtown Speedway) and Chris Brown (105 Speedway) already have wins. Campbell was among the top eight in heat race passing points, redrew the pole, led almost a third of the race, kept second until late in the 30-lap feature and finally scored an excellent fouth. He was joined by another fine local performance by Fayetteville's Brian Williams who was sixth and another local hero, Brandon Hunter, who grabbed the final transfer spot (22nd starting position with 57 cars on hand) and scored a 14th.

At I-30, a great local performace by Little Rock's Randy Weaver was ruined by motor trouble. After a ninth-to-second run in his heat earned him the AFCO Pole Award, Weaver had to withdraw his car and go to a back-up for a Ral Racing Wheels "B" Main. He was eventually given a track provisional, started 24th and ended up 16th but must be thinking, 'what if—' Casey Findley of Bryant put his Mr. Fish Motorsports Shaw Chassis in the top-8 and drew the pole. After surrendering the lead to Sullivan on lap 2 and losing ground early to many of the best in the business, Findley settled into some great three-wide action and scored a ninth-place finish. Another local hero, Scooter Scruggs, was part of that action and advanced from 21st to finish 11th.

Huge disappointments for a pair at I-30
Two guys who absolutely love I-30 had misfortunes when it looked like they were poised to strike. Mitchell was trying to recover after motor trouble knocked him out in hot laps at Tri-State. He runs great at I-30 though, and after making top-8 with a dominant heat win and drawing outside pole, his right front suspension gave up as the initial green flag waved. Johnny Bone Jr. ran well but didn't finish at Tri-State (by the way, 19 of the 24 starters finished both Holley "A" Mains at Tri-State and I-30). What's become the norm though is you count on that #12 TRE Chassis By Bone being lightning-quick at I-30. Last night was no exception, but after redrawing fourth starting spot, then moving to third when Mitchell had his trouble, Dereck Ramirez misjudged a really strong entry into turn 3 and drilled the back of Bone's car which sent both cars to the pits. Bone rejoined the back of the field so that fourth-to-seventh finish that appears in the final rundown in reality was a 22nd to 7th run.

Whittington leads tight battle for Dustin Duncan Memorial "Just Say Yes" Rookie of the Year
John O. Whittingtom has been making the best of less-than-stellar runs in qualifying all year with his #5w Rinehart Trucking Pierce Chassis. So much so that he is fourth in overall O'Reilly USMTS Southern Series points and leads the rookie standings. This week so far he has two 10th-place finishes after starting 19th and 22nd, but has not used a provisional race.

Shane Hebert, who is sixth overall in points and 34 behind Whittington, is joined by Ramirez and Morgan Bagley in a three-way tie for RoTY. Hebert was unable to use a provisional start at I-30, but he still has two left to burn in the next nine races. Ramirez had another great qualifying effort and hasn't used a provisional all year. Bagley, on the other hand, needs a change of luck as he's burned all of his provisionals this week and is out of them until November now. He was having a good run (24th to 12th) at Tri-State when battery issues took him out. He's now 11th overall in points.

The seventh-place points man is another rookie -- Bryan Rowland -- who like Ramirez is from "Modified Town" (aka Woodward, Okla.) along with Tommy Weder Jr. and Brandon Kenny, plus the Kraft Chassis operation is there now and Boom Drilling, who backs Weder, Hughes and Texan Rodney Sanders as well as being a Southern Series sponsor. Rowland is just two points away from making it a four-way tie for second in the rookie battle. Be sure and visit www.justsayyes.tv to learn more about the award's sponsor.