Closing in on Carteret County Friday Night

Friday night is the annual INEX National Qualifiers for Legends and Bandoleros at Scotia Speedworld. One might ask what the significance of an INEX National Qualifier for a team from Nova Scotia would be in the grand scheme of the entire racing community.

Well, Friday night’s race at Scotia Speedworld has a huge impact on both Legend and Bandolero teams that are racing for National points, track points and, for Legend cars, it could be their ticket to Carteret County Speedway on October 19th.

INEX, which is the global sanctioning body for Legend and Bandolero cars, splits Legend car drivers into four primary groups. Young Lions are drivers under the age of 16, Semi-Pros are drivers aged 16 to 39, Masters are those aged 40 and over and Pros, well, that is self-explanatory, they are the best drivers in all the land. Our Scotia Speedworld Strictly Hydraulics Legends sees three of those divisions represented and the top driver in those three divisions within the 50-lap feature on Friday will be receive eligibility for a provisional at the biggest Legend event of the season, INEX Asphalt Nationals.

This year’s INEX Asphalt Nationals moves back east, taking place by the shores of North Carolina at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina. Maritimers have a history at the event, most recently with Nicholas Naugle winning the Semi-Pro feature at Asphalt Nationals back in 2017. Emily Meehan and Cory Hall took part in the event last season and Cole Butcher is a former Pro Race of Champions winner at the event. All of their successes came at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Albeit Carteret is still a long haul for teams, it is a shorter haul than Vegas for our drivers looking at competing at the event in October.

If you’ve never been to an INEX National event as a competitor, you really owe yourself to do it. I’ve attended INEX Winter Nationals for the last seven years in February and finally got to my first Road Course World Finals and Asphalt Nationals last year in Vegas. I can tell you that from a competitor standpoint, it is an experience you will never forget with drivers from around the world competing to be the best. From a fan standpoint, it is great to see hundreds of competitors who share the same passion flock to the same track and while there are championships on the line, there is a lot of fun to be had. INEX and USLCI do it right at these events and it is something you truly need to experience first hand if you are a member of this community. Of course, if you cannot be there, you can also watch live or on demand via our friends at LegendsNation.tv.

Every time the Legends and Bandoleros hit the track at Scotia Speedworld, or any other INEX sanctioned track, they are competing for INEX National points. They are competing for a “state” championship (our “state” is Canada East, which is essentially Atlantic Canada including Newfoundland) and an international title. In Legend competition, a driver’s best 18 finishes, plus their best National Qualifier and their finish at Asphalt Nationals counts towards their National point total. For Bandoleros, it is a driver’s best 19 finishes plus their best National Qualifier. A driver can compete at any INEX sanctioned track to compete for National and State points and five or more drivers within their division counts towards a full point event, worth 100 points to the winner.

If you’ve got this far, great. I want to break down quickly some of the “State” standings heading into Friday night. It is a busy weekend for INEX drivers. If you are a Legend car driver, you have the chance to pick up INEX points both at Scotia Speedworld on Friday and during the Maritime League of Legends Tour race Saturday at Riverside. If you are a Bandolero driver, you can race for points Friday at Scotia Speedworld then hike up the road to Petty International Raceway for their Bandolero event. Both tracks (or in the MLOL case, series) offer points towards their local championships. Unfortunately, the track on Prince Edward Island opted not to sanction their local divisions this year, which hopefully they change for future years, but we won’t go into that here. Racers can also receive INEX points locally at Speedway 660 in Geary, New Brunswick, Sydney Speedway in Sydney, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland’s two tracks - Eastbound Park in Avondale and Thunder Valley Speedway in Jumper’s Brook.

At this point in the season, it sometimes comes down to who runs the most races locally to who we find on top. That is the case in the Pro division. Locally, Braden Langille, Shelby Baker, Nicholas Naugle, Cory Hall and Kyle McEachern are all classified as INEX Pros and with the races Braden has run this season, he is the top in Canada East. He’s got nine starts, five full point wins and sits 46th overall in International points out of 166 drivers.

The Canada East Semi-Pro points are kind of intriguing right now with Tim Hortons at the Airport Rookie Devin Wadden leading Sydney’s Kody Quinn by 25 points. Devin and his father Brad, who leads Canada East in Masters points, have driven all over the Maritimes getting seat time wherever they can. Even with the rain, Wadden has 11 INEX point starts this season. Kody Quinn has 10, with a handful of those coming at the Spring Battle at Texas Motor Speedway and one offs at Anderson, Concord and Atlanta.

This is what makes the INEX program so neat. The Semi-Pro battle is a prime example of two drivers coming from different areas of our region, with different backgrounds fighting for the same championship. Throw them in the mix with drivers from across the world doing the same thing at their local race track, ultimately competing for one championship. Pretty neat, eh?
I mentioned Brad Wadden is leading the Masters points, but not too far back in Canada East is Paul Goulden. Goulden has been so darn consistent this season that a late year push to October could see him raise another state title before this thing is all said and done. Also in the mix in the Masters division is Jeff Cruickshank, who isn’t too far behind Goulden. Darren Sherwood and Arnie Spinney also find themselves in the Top 100 in INEX points with less than two months to go in the National season.

Locally, Andrew Lively is ahead of the points after the slight shake up after last Friday’s 25 lap feature. Tylor Hawes took a huge step ahead last week and is now only eight points from the lead. Hawes is known to turn the heat up in the second half of the year. Add Braden Langille in the mix with his four wins and only 21 points between he and Lively and you’ve got yourself a fight.

Speaking of fights, you look from Langille back to Nathan Blackburn and you only have 14 points from third to sixth. Sprinkled in the middle is Goulden and Josh Langille. The Meehan Racing team suffered another setback last week and while this championship battle has seen lots of twists and turns, they will have a mountain to climb out of with only a few races to go and 48 points to make up.

Simply put, this race has lots of meaning to it, whether it is on the National point side, eligibility for a provisional into Asphalt Nationals or the local Strictly Hydraulics point standings, this race could be big for a handful of our drivers.

The Bandolero teams will also be up on their game with major National and local point implications on the line. The Toursec Lightning cars, who consistently have put on the best shows on our CARSTAR Weekly Racing Series program, are also back and our Sportsman teams are coming off their biggest race of the season to get back to point racing.

I say this almost every week, but this is truly a big night of racing. With only a month left to go, if you haven’t been out to the race track, you owe yourself to get out there this Friday night.

Oh, and not to mention, I’ll have THE THRILLMAKER Craig Ward on the call with me in the skybox. Craig is the Exide Batteries Rookie of the Year leader on the Parts for Trucks Tour, competed in his first Toromont Cat 250 last week and has been involved in racing for 20 years now. He’s making the long haul from Riverview, New Brunswick to come shoot the breeze with us, so hopefully you can make it out to listen to the stories that I’m sure will be told.

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