The I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark. has long been known for some of the best short track racing in the United States. The home of the Comp Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tire, the Arkansas oval is a long standing stop on the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV American Real national schedule.
Paying a visit to the quarter-mile on Saturday, April 6, 2013 drivers were greeted with a track unlike what is normally seen at the I-30 Speedway.
With some 220 loads of “Arkansas River Gumbo” now lining what was a Red Clay surface, Mother Nature was not so kind to the workers of the I-30 Speedway. Dumping nearly five inches of rain over the course of a week, it was nearly impossible to properly mix the two surfaces together. What resulted was a rougher than normal race track that produced some of the most intense racing seen on the ASCS National Tour.
From start to finish, it was cowboy up, or go home as 39 drivers tested their might on the track known as “Hammer Hill”. One of the most impressive rides of the night was not a crash, but rather a wheel stand that carried the length of the back straight-a-way.
Racing hard for a better transfer spot, Logan Forler and Seth Bergman pursued race leader Derek Hagar during the first of the night’s two B-Features. Standing his Hoosier Tires skyward once off the exit of turn four, Hagar was only getting started as a few laps later, the R.E. Technologies No. 9jr went tail-tank down exiting turn two and carried the front tires until the last possible moment in order to make the swing into turn three.
Hagar held on for the B-Feature win and proceeded to race to a ninth place finish after staring seventeenth in the night A-Feature.