Dennis Setzer testing at Martinsville Speedway

THE MOTOR MILE MEMOIRS

Chronicling speedway testing throughout the week of March 23^rd

JW Martin

TUESDAY: A Motor Mile test on Tuesday means Martinsville success on Saturday

Dennis Setzer walked past me inconspicuously heading for the inside retaining wall in turn one at Motor Mile Speedway. It was nearing 4 o’clock p.m. and his teammate, Stacy Compton, had only a few runs left in his number 4 Dodge Dealers Dodge, and he wanted to observe the truck’s transition through the center of the corner.

“You need to rotate hear at Motor Mile really good,” Setzer said. “We can learn what makes our trucks turn here, and putting some of that in effect at Martinsville is our plan.”

Setzer was referencing the Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck Series race, taking place later on in the week. It was Tuesday, and in preparation for the Martinsville event Setzer, Compton, and the pair of Bobby Hamilton Racing teams had made the trip to Motor Mile Speedway for an all-day test session.

The team had chosen the .416 mile short track to log the crucial preceding circuits because of the similarities it shared with the paper-clip short track in Henry County. Specifically, the transitional factors applied to the corners.

Banked 15 degrees in the turns, MMS has a steeper banking than Martinsville by a mere three degrees. This comparison is significant, and is the reason many teams throughout the NASCAR spectrum choose Motor Mile Speedway as their proving ground for waging a competitive campaign at weekend short tracks. The increased emphasis placed on coil-binding setups further adds to the importance of data gathered from the asphalt corners of MMS.

“We bind the front springs on these trucks,” explains Setzer. “I can’t do the same thing here that I plan on doing at Martinsville, just because of the transition into the corners- but we learned what we had to do here to make it happen, and I think we can turn it around and make it work at Martinsville.”

Setzer went on to elaborate about the phenomenon that surrounds the practice of coil-binding; pointing out the disparity between a good coil- binding setup versus one amiss can be a challenging obstacle to overcome.

“It’s the point where a spring is totally collapsed, and you run the thing on maximum travel. You might want both springs to collapse, or you might just want it to be the left front or the right front, and that’s what you have to decide in two hours of practice.”

“It is different. When your right, you’re really good and when you’re wrong it’s tough to get to that point,” Setzer said.

Judging by Dennis Setzer’s confidence, it seemed as though the pendulum had swayed to favor the positive side of that scale. The number 18 team had practiced throughout the morning, and by the time I arrived Setzer’s truck was in the hauler and the focus had shifted to Compton’s number 4.

As the truck sat idle with the front tires off and the hood up, that focus was again centered on rotating through the corners.

“We’ve got a different truck than what we tested [at Martinsville], so we wanted to make sure our spindle package would let us roll through the center pretty good,” Compton said. “That’s basically what we’ve come up here to work on.”

Appling the information shared from Setzer at the number 18 team, Compton mounted several two lap runs – with Setzer atop the turn one retaining wall – hoping for positive results on the stopwatch. After pulling the throaty Dodge Ram down pit road for the final time, Compton revealed the outcome.

“We came up here with some expectations, and to be honest, we were about four to five tenths quicker than what we expected.”

As a footnote worthy of mention: After leading 126 of the 253 laps during Saturday’s Kroger 250, Dennis Setzer- before an estimated crowd of 20,000 and 35 competitors- claimed victory at Martinsville in dominating fashion. And although Compton’s number 4 finished a disappointing 35^th, the results -for the 18 team at least- prove that testing on a new river valley short track on Tuesday can aid in a victory at a major venue on race day.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Misguided intentions at Martinsville and a wager on the season opener

I lost the Sunday pool.

Gathered around the puny pull-down table inside the RV, me and three racing buddies made a pair of picks each on who would win the Goody’s 500 taking place only steps from our position outside turn four at Martinsville Speedway. I felt it would be a strong day for Clint Bowyer’s number 07 Chevrolet, and I figured Jamie McMurray, running this particular Sunday with the best equipment the Roush/Fenway stable could offer, would be a decent pick as well. After all, the bet was whose driver would finish the highest- not necessarily win. But after enduring 500 laps in the most frigid weather Henry County could produce, I left – feet and legs num-dejected at the fact Toyota power had crushed Bowyer’s Chevrolet and McMurray’s Ford. Although both picks had finished in the top ten, I lost to a Stewart fan that had chosen Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin had been a particularly hot topic the night before as we made our rounds through the frozen Martinsville campground. It was cold. Bitterly cold… colder than a johnny-house toilet seat…colder than a well-digger’s…

…The discussion between me and the Stewart fan had focused on Hamlin’s chances the next afternoon, and on that subject each of us agreed they were quite good. We both felt he could capture the clock in the name of the Commonwealth, and, apparently, a lot of the folks we met that night concurred.

The Hamlin fan base had a solid bedrock foundation of Virginians’ scattered throughout the frosty backstretch confines who thought their native son would grab his first victory on domestic soil at Martinsville. They were represented well, but as we traveled through the myriad of portable party stations I found the majority of race fans had traveled from Pennsylvania, and had thrown their support behind the California native, Jeff Gordon.

We found one such Pennsylvania establishment comprised of a gang of law enforcement officers, out of uniform and huddled around a TV screen, jamming to Enter Sandman on Harmonix new video game platform, Rock Band.

While most of the rowdy camping contingent seemed to be from the Quaker state, I had conversations with a diverse plethora of fanatics. I talked at length with a gentleman who had worked for the famed Holman-Moody Ford racing juggernaut. And earlier that evening, hunkered around a fire I came in contact with Lynn Phoenix and a portion of the number 14 Phoenix Racing crew.

Phoenix and the number 14 team had been absent from the Late Model field testing at Motor Mile Speedway earlier in the day. Phoenix had not been the only driver to opt out of the test session, however. Several big names, including Philip Morris and Davin Scites had elected to bypass the only pre-season test date at the Radford oval.

The Saturday session was the final installment of a two-week test that included all divisions. The MOD-4’s and Mini-cup drivers had made their assessments the week prior. Dennis Holdren and Kevin Kenley had been on top of the charts throughout the eight practices sessions in the MOD-4 class, with Holdren laying down the fastest circuit of the day at 18.077. Richie Radar’s number 99 and Lee Bradely had also maintained consistent lap times that hoisted both drivers into the top five among those fastest.

Allen Mason’s time of 20.374 had eclipsed Damian Inge’s hot lap of 20.377 to sit atop the scoreboard in the Mini-cup division, with Sam Brook’s number 48 third among those fastest.

It was shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday when the first motor roared to life. Cloudy conditions and the threat of precipitation kept officials uneasy, and the cold temperatures-dropping into the lower forties by noon- had everyone restless. The turnout was mediocre; although there were several news faces and some old ones in new places.

One such driver was Mike Looney. After three wins and four top fives in Limited Sportsman competition last season, Looney - armed with the car that had produced those results- had made the transition into the ranks of the Late Model Stock car division.

With a brand-new gleaming black body, polished meticulously for the event, Looney eyed the official making the mandatory check-up call on the Chevrolet carefully.

“Be careful with that car now, she’s looking kinda nice.” Looney muttered.

He knew he was up against stiff competition, and made no secret of the fact the underpowered car he depended on in the Late Model division was pretty much the same missile he had driven to victory in the Limited Sportsman class.

“I thought we’d be a little better off the trailer than what we were, but we’re pretty close- I think we’re gainin’ on it,” Looney said later in the day.

Looney, and others, would be chasing Kelly Kingery and Tommy Lemons Jr. for most of the test session. Both drivers were consistently near or at the top of the infield totem pole when it came to fast laps, and both were appropriately satisfied with there showing.

“We’re close,” Lemons said, standing beside his shiny- blue, Bailey’s-sponsored, number 27. “I think we’ll be good come race time.”

Nearing the end of the afternoon sessions, a familiar face was beginning to appear at the top of the speed charts hanging just outside the white house door. Roanoke’s Tink Reedy had made it to MMS just after lunch, and it hadn’t taken the local driver long to get warmed up.

“We’re about a tenth, tenth-and-a-half slow right now, but those are Martinsville tires from last year-we haven’t put any tires on it yet,” explained Reedy. “We’re gonna make a sticker run today, sometime before we leave, and that will be the true test.”

Overall, though, Reedy was impressed with the number 17 Chevrolet, and just glad to be back.

“We’ve been cooped up all winter, it’s now spring time-it’s time to get out [here]. Everybody’s gung-ho and ready to go.”

From what I saw during that cold Saturday, as well as factoring in those returning drivers absent from their division’s test, the competition will be such that good racing and excellent finishes will be a good bet for the 2008 season at Motor Mile Speedway.