It was a fitting end of the season as the YesterYear Racing™ circus traveled to Martinsville Speedway for the Southern 200. It was the third visit to the "Paperclip" in 2024. In a pre-race interview, Allen Wannamaker, Founder of the YesterYear Racing™ League said, "It was nice to come back to the track where it all began back in March of this year. This was our third race here, but the second time here was back in the early spring so it felt like we had not been here in a while, and felt new."
Tom Ogle, who was looking for his third consecutive victory, set the stage early by winning his 7th pole position of the year. As the race got under way, however, it was quickly obvious that Ryan Pittman was going to be fast. Pittman had won the second Martinsville race by holding Ogle off and it looked like the big question was could he get out front and do it again. On lap 37 the question was answered as Pittman got in front of Ogle. Once in front, Pittman looked the stronger of the two cars most of the night.
In the end, it was Pittman who was able to hold on for his fourth win of the season and his second at the Paperclip. Ogle cruised to second place with Bootleg Racing League veteran Donnie Moore grabbing his first podium of the year coming in third.
Even though Pittman won the night, it was Massachusetts driver Brian Bianchi that won the season. Bianchi ran a very strategic and conservative race finishing in fourth place. The only other driver in the field that could have beaten Bianchi in the points race at the end of the night was Maine driver Lloyd Moore. When asked about how the race played out, Bianchi stated, "I tried to keep him (L. Moore) in my sights all night. I was in front of him most of the night, but Lloyd is a strong driver and anything can happen on the track. With that in mind I was able to get some space between myself and the other cars for most of the race which was good as it shielded me somewhat from any trouble on the track."
The 200-lap race ultimately had 5 cautions for 25 laps, but they came in spurts. The "Big One" happened on lap one and collected numerous cars. Then there was a very long green flag run that had some drivers thinking they would need to perform a green flag stop, which can get tricky in Tour Modifieds since the pit stops are slow. But a caution finally came out which allowed most drivers to stop.
By winning the Championship, and also winning YesterYear's flagship Race of Champions at Pocono back in September, Bianchi becomes the first driver to be able to race for the YesterYear "TRIPLE CROWN." To complete this Bianchi will need to win the points battle in the 2025 YesterYear IROC 4-race Series that kicks off in February.
In the post race interview Wannamaker thanked all the drivers, broadcasters, and participating leagues for making 2024 a success. Wannamaker also said he was looking forward to kicking off the YesterYear IROC Series in February and confirmed a second season of the YesterYear Tour Modifieds would happen. "About halfway through the 2024 season I knew the YesterYear concept was viable and I began planning for 2025. We will be going back 24 more years in time next year to 1966. A mere 17 years after the birth of NASCAR. I was able to research all that was going on back then and cob together a schedule based on 15 historic Tour Modified races. There will be some interesting tracks for sure and the schedule will be more balanced. We ran 1 super speedway, 1 speedway, 1 bull ring, and 12 short tracks this year. Next year the balance between bullring and short track will be 7 and 6 respectively," Wannamaker said.
With season one a wrap, the YesterYear Tour Modifieds will go dormant until late February. Once they awaken, we are sure 2025 will be one for the ages.
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