The Birmingham Super Series, a grouping of eight (8) extended length stock car races to be held at Birmingham International Raceway, debuted Saturday evening. The reigning BIR track champion, Gary Sanford, Jr., of Maytown, demonstrated again why he is the reigning track champion by proving he was master of his domain for the entire 100 laps of the Steel City 100.
Sanford started his GM Crate Motor-powered Imaging Business Machines Dodge Charger on the inside, front row. Fastest qualifier Larry Speakman (20.832 seconds/108.006 mph) took the outside in the two-car inverted start. Racing fate was not to smile on Speakman this outing, however, as he never took the green flag. A malfunctioning clutch forced him into the pits and onto the trailer before the pace car came in.
Sanford ran like a car on a rail. By the 10th lap he had a 60-yard lead. The struggles were behind him. Jeff Letson, having started fifth place, worked his way into fourth running position on the 19th lap, then into third on the 24th lap. Sanford, meanwhile way out front, had stretched the lead out to 100 yards over second running Burt Belter.
At the half-way mark, it was Sanford leading by 60 yards, with Letson in second since lap 38. Andy Antinoro, Todd Mellot, and Belter were on the lead lap behind them. Each of the five caution periods provided an opportunity for somebody to catch Sanford on the restart. Nobody could do it. At the end of the first 100 lap event in the Birmingham Super Series, it was Sanford winning his first ever 100-lap event at BIR, followed by Letson, Belter, Edwin Gurley, 2006 BIR Rookie of the Year Tyler Caton and former BIR champ Dennis “Tink” Reno, Jr., was sixth.
“We just worked real hard over the Winter, ” Sanford explained. “Everything came together real quick last year (2006). We got the car painted a week before the first race. It took us all year to get it together. ” Sanford also showed up to race 30 pounds light. Not the car, but himself. He has put himself on a regiment of diet and exercise that has made him better physically and emotionally. Referring to how good it felt to race in good physical condition, Sanford said, “It’s gravy. I felt great. I could have run 200 or 300 more laps. ”
Like Sanford, Reno has BIR championships in Street Stock and Late Model divisions. He was admittedly off the pace Saturday. “I’ve got to quit changing things, ” he said dejectedly as he loaded up his pit equipment. “Then again, you don’t learn anything if you don’t try things. ” Reno’s car was all over the track all night long. He never got higher than a very distant fourth running position. He was sixth when Sanford took the checkered flag.
Todd “Mississippi Mudcat” Mellot started 2007 off with a seventh place finish, staying on the lead lap until the last lap. Antinoro had several pitstops for racecar demons, and was able to salvage an eighth place finish. Rookies Justin Cruise and Roger Cain were the ninth and ten place finishers. Pat Cruise was the first out of the race for an eleventh place finish and Speakman was 12th.
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