UNION, Ky. (Aug. 10) — On the first day of the three-day Sunoco North-South 100, Michael Chilton had a flat tire. And a wreck. And that was before he even made it into the pit area at Florence Speedway.

Things turned decidedly better thereafter for the 37-year-old driver from Salvisa, Ky., who — once Chilton unloaded his race car — went on to set Thursday’s overall fast qualifying time in a 61-car field and win the night’s opening heat race to earn the pole position for a 25-lap semifeature on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The fast time paid a $534 bonus in memory of Doug Lee thanks to sponsorship from Slicker Graphics, Wildfire Motors, Quality Electrostatic Painting, Bobby Wolter Sr., Crystal Kenneda and Jimmy "Shoe" Graham.

Chilton led half of the 25-lap feature before fading late to finish ninth, but the day’s outcome was far better than the way it started.

Chilton had an eventful 100-mile trek to northern Kentucky from central Kentucky. He blew a trailer tire in Sadieville, Ky., just past the halfway point in the trip, and that wasn’t the worst of the journey. As he was prepared to enter the racetrack grounds off U.S. 42, “traffic got all bottle-necked up and a dump truck hit me in the trailer, the (right side) of the trailer … A dump truck smoked me in the side of the trailer."

“I went to pull into the racetrack. (The dump truck) was way, way out and some people (near the racetrack entrance) walked in front of me and I had to slow down for them. He never seen me. Or I don’t know. I don’t know if he was on his phone or what. I never actually saw him until he hit me.”

The damage was more scrapes than dents, but contact was made with the rear-most trailer wheel.

“It may have bent an axle,” Chilton said. “We’ll worry about that after we get through the night and we’ll see. I'm sure I can get at home no further than I am from home. We'll get it home and tear it apart and see what it looks like."

"Usually when I have them deals like blowing a tire out going to the races, we usually do good. Like the first time we made (a major race at) Eldora, we blew a tire going, and a couple of other big races. It seems like any time we got to a big race and blow a tire, we do good.”

Two of Chilton’s three 2023 victories have come in the previous three weeks, including the previous weekend’s $7,500 victory in Valvoline Iron-Man Racing Series competition at Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky. He’s only entered a dozen races all season, limited in part by rain and in part because of the passing of his mother-in-law this spring after a cancer battle.

“Maybe we can get rolling here,” Chilton said. “It seems like I always get rolling around the end of July, first of August through September is when we’re the best, it seems like. I don't know why, I guess maybe for us from the winter, maybe that's the problem. It sounds like I need to race more — but it gets expensive.”

At Florence, he struggled in hot laps, and had to “come in and change a bunch of stuff there (before time trials). I just kind of went back to the stuff we had like at Ponderosa last weekend and it was pretty good. Being early definitely helped, I’m sure (the track) slowed down quite a bit.”

With his 2021 Rocket Chassis, he’s been using some “old school” setups that have suited the car well.

At Ponderosa on Saturday, track-dominating Mike Marlar retired after 15 laps, and Chilton thought that Marlar “was probably going to be better at the end of the race than I was there. But it’s kind of one of them deals that worked out. Any time you go out and win a week before a big race, it just gives you a little bit of momentum to, you know, feed into the next weekend.”

Unforgiving second semi

Running up front in Thursday’s second 25-lap semifeature was hazardous to your car. While Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., dominated the final 10 laps without incident, Hudson O’Neal (a lap-12 flat tire while leading), Ricky Thornton Jr. (striking turn-three wall and flat tire) and third-finishing Brandon Overton (hitting frontstretch wall heading for checkers) were among those running into trouble.

“Everybody got into the wall that was running the top,” said Anthony Burroughs, the SSI Motorsports crew chief for Ricky Thornton Jr. Thornton’s car had “just a little bit of body damage and nothing major,” but Thornton was left with a 17th-place finish at the track where he’s won two major events this season.

Burroughs said that Thornton, who was battling Marlar for the lead just past the 25-lappers midpoint, "told me he felt like he was having a flat even before Hud pitted. At that point we hadn’t even been up there, so I think there was something in the track."

“That cushion’s just gnarly,” Burroughs added. “It’s a bummer. It’ll be all right. We’ll get ‘em tomorrow.”

"It’s easy to get a little too high and get sucked into the concrete at the 4/10-mile oval," Overton said.

“Obviously, (the track surface is) smooth and black and slick to (the cushion). And then once you get in it, it like if you hit it a little too hard and you get the nose under,” he said, pointing out the right-front corner of the car. “It just grabs it and it pulls you up against it. You just hit the wall, mash the gas and try to get off of it.”

The damage to his Wells Motorsports car wasn’t as bad as it might’ve looked. Overton and Longhorn Chassis consultant Kevin Rumley surveyed the right-front suspension shortly after the race.

“It's not bad,” Rumley said. “That’s what we were just talking about. It didn’t even bend that lower-control arm. It got the spindle, a little bit, and the upper (control arm). And knocked the (right-rear quarterpanel) a little bit.”

Strong run for Cosner

Matt Cosner’s first visit to Florence Speedway in 2021 while running the Lucas Oil Series didn’t go well. Cosner didn’t mince word in describing the weekend two years ago that ended with him taking a provisional starting spot for the 100-lap feature and retiring in 24th place.

"I was awful,” the 33-year-old Ridgeley, W.Va., driver said, then paused and found another description. “I was terrible.”

Fast forward to 2023 and Cosner found himself right in the mix in Thursday’s opening semifeature after winning a Lucas Oil Series heat race for the first time in his career. He ended up with a fourth-place semifeature finish after losing a spot to local standout Josh Rice on a late restart.

"I couldn't have asked for much more, honestly,” Cosner said. “To be able to stay up front there, you know, it's very rare that I've had an up-front starting position with Lucas or (the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series). I feel like we usually have a good car come feature time and we struggle early. But tonight, it feels like we really put a whole night together. To be able to start up there and stay up there means a lot. We weren't just a fast-falling rock or anything.

“The field being split up obviously helps all of that, but it does give you confidence and we got a whole ‘nother night of it” with twin preliminaries again Friday.

Cosner started outside the second row and ran among the top five all the way in the 25-lap race where Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., took the lead at halfway and raced to a $5,000 victory. Ryan Gustin finished second and Rice third ahead of Cosner after sweeping past on the outside on a one-lap dash to the finish.

“I really thought there on that long green(-flag) run, I was just as good as Gustin I felt like,” Cosner said before heading to the track to watch teammate Eddie Carrier Jr. compete in the second semifeature. “I haven't really looked at lap times yet, but I felt like I could hang right with him. I could run the top, I could run the bottom."

"I'm happy to run that good, but I hate to see that (lap-24) caution. I heard them say Josh (Rice) was behind me. Like, well, I know where he's going (the high side), and I missed (turn) one on the restart and that just screwed me. I almost had to stop down there. That really killed my momentum. I don't know if he would have got me, but yeah, I just messed up on the last lap.”

Numerical tribute

David Breazeale of Four Corners, Miss., has run the No. 54 throughout his career, but he had a surprise when he unloaded Thursday afternoon at Florence Speedway. His car carried the No. 222 to pay tribute to Mike Boland of Cuba, Ala., who on Saturday will be inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.

The flashy red car — Boland’s traditional colors — also carried sponsors from Boland’s heyday from the 1990s and ‘00s — Boland Performance and B&K Underground — as Breazeale raced his way into the first prelim, posting a 14th-place finish in the night’s opening 25-lap semifeature.

Breazeale wondered if he could keep his secret until the car hit the track Thursday evening, but social media being what it is, the No. 222 was out of the bag earlier in the day.

“He wasn’t supposed to know about it, but once we unloaded, pictures got out,” Breazeale said shortly after time trials. “I think he knows about it now. But he’s not here. I don’t think he’ll even be here until tomorrow. I heard the grapevine he wasn’t even coming to the pits — but I think he’s going to show up now.”

Boland will join Booper Bare of Rockbridge Baths, Va., Rick Egersdorf of Lake Elmo, Minn., Randy Korte of Highland, Ill., and the late Jackie Boggs of Grayson, Ky., among five drivers at Saturday’s invitation-only induction ceremonies. Contributors to the Hall of Fame are longtime announcer Ozzie Altman, former promoter and Racing News publisher Ernie Elkins and late chassis builder Gary Oliver.

The burly Boland, who lived just across the Alabama border but had most of his success at Mississippi dirt tracks, was seven-time Mississippi State Champion and 1998 champ on the Rick’s Furniture Series. In Super Late Model action, Boland recorded 16 MSCCS victories, had a tour-high 11 victories on the Rick’s Furniture circuit (’96 to ’01) and was a two-time winner on the Southern All Star Series. He was a $15,000 winner in Meridian, Miss.’s Fall Classic (at Queen City Speedway and Whynot Motorsports Park) and in 2005 and ’06 won both the Southern 100 at Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla., and the Gulf Coast Championship at South Mississippi Speedway in Pass Christian, Miss.

The founder of Trak-Star Race cars ended his career as a successful Crate Late Model racer, retiring after the 2011 season. Breazeale, whose first five-figure payday came in 2005, battled Boland through the first half of his career. He was glad to have a relationship with Boland.

“I mean, that’s the reason we’re here. He’s going into the Hall of Fame. It’s just respect for him,” Breazeale said. “I grew up racing with him and he was the guy to beat every time we raced down South when I was learning how to run these things. It’s just out of respect for Mike and him going into the Hall of Fame."

“He’s technically an Alabama guy, but he has kicked our butts in Mississippi for a long time. So he's a Mississippian to us.”

Breazeale can’t remember the first time he outran Boland in a meaningful event, but the 36-time MSCCS winner knows it must’ve been special.

“There are just several flashes (of memories). I’ve known Mike for a long time and he’s always been good to me,” Breazeale said. “Like I said, he was the guy to beat. I can't remember the first time we ever outran him, but I know it had to happen somewhere. He's just a good guy, good family and we’re just happy to support him.”

Into the deep end

So much for easing into the Dirt Late Model division. Veteran racer Donnie Jeschke of Dayton, Ohio, has thousands of laps behind the wheel in quarter-midgets, asphalt Late Models, street stocks and more divisions over 39 years of racing, but he made his first competitive laps against a stiff field of Lucas Oil Series Late Models in Thursday’s North-South prelims.

The 53-year-old Jeschke, who owns and operates Dayton Hood & Fan, an installer of commercial kitchen hoods, wasn’t in contention during heat heat or consolation races, but he avoided any problems in getting a better feel for his former Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis.

"I know what I'm up against for sure,” Jeschke said Thursday afternoon in the Florence pits. “But if we can compete and just hold our own, I'm pretty comfortable with with that. I think we’ll be pretty successful."

"You know, we gotta crawl before we walk. We jumped into this a little premature. Coming here was not a great idea, but I know that, but it's not like I've never been in a race car. So that kind of changes things a little bit. And all the guys said, you know if you come to North-South, you're gonna be able to run at least twice a day and we can get realistic conditions.”

Jeschke tested his car along with Best Performance driver Tyler Erb last week at MRP Raceway Park in Williamsburg, Ohio, and ran well enough to give it a shot at Florence’s richest race.

“That was kind of the decision-maker. We ran really well, a lot better than I thought that I'd do right out of the (gate),” said Jeschke, who was 1.4 seconds off quick time in his time-trial group. “But again, it goes back to the same thing, you've got to have good equipment, you've got to have good people behind you. It's not like I'm jumping in a car that isn't going to turn left. You know, it's gonna turn left. Tyler got in the car. That was the deal when we bought the car, I said, I want you to shake it down, make sure it's gonna do its thing the way it's supposed to. And then that would obviously give me more confidence and be able to do the same and pick the pace up, get my elbows up and be able to race the car and have confidence that it's going to turn.”

That confidence in his equipment was invaluable. The alternative was “to build my own car and (then) I don't know what the hell I'm doing. You know? We went to — the shocks and springs are all different — so we went to a little class trying to just acclimate ourselves to what's going on as opposed to what we were doing. It's absolutely totally different. But we're just learning. They’re helping us and we bought all the right tools.”

Jeschke, whose career highlights include a national championship quarter-midget victory over future NASCAR star Jeff Gordon as an 11-year-old, sold all his stock car equipment to make the jump to Late Models.

“We just bought everything that we could the best and that was a struggle,” he said. “But we knew that spending that extra money was going to be worth it. It's going to help our program. instead of going and wasting your time, spinning your tires, not knowing what you're doing, going to the racetrack with motor problems to begin with, and now you’ve lost that night.”

Odds and ends

Doug Drown of Wooster, Ohio, picked up $1,034 bonus as the 34th fastest qualifier. … On a night with no provisional starting spots, Boom Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa., was the lone Lucas Oil regular failing to make a semifeature after retiring from a consolation after a mid-race scrape. … Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., contended early in the first semifeature but lost his car’s air cleaner in the early laps and, after apparently getting into the turn four wall, stopped to draw a late caution and retire. … Among Florence Speedway’s capital improvements from last year’s North-South 100 is enlarged and improved bathrooms near the main concession stand. But if you’re heading that way, pay attention as the track has flip-flopped the men’s (now on the right) and women’s (now on the left) entrances.