Jason Byrd doesn’t have an explanation for the roll he has been on at Columbus Speedway.
Byrd has won four of his last five races there and leads the Factory Stocks points standings entering tonight’s Mud Bug Classic at The Bullring.
“I guess sometimes you got to have as much luck as anything else, and we’ve had a lot of it,” Byrd said. “Both me and (wife) Jennifer put a lot of work in the cars to keep them up to par to go out and race.”
Jason and Jennifer split time in the seat of their No. 4 Monte Carlo last season. Jennifer finished third in track points at Magnolia in 2016. But Jason has taken all the laps in their No. 4 Camaro this season, as he prefers Columbus, and she prefers Magnolia. Jason said Jennifer might compete at Magnolia in the coming weeks. For now, expect to see him racing the car at Columbus.
“I enjoy racing anywhere, but Columbus is a lot of fun,” Jason said. “There’s a lot of competition. It’s fun to race with all those guys.”
Some of those guys, like John Johnson and Tyler Castle, have benefited from Jason’s collective competitiveness. Johnson and Castle broke into the class, in part, because of Jason’s willingness to help them set up their cars. Johnson said Jason built his motor for his Factory Stocks car in 2016 and credited him with helping him in the shop. The Byrds also built a motor and purchased a car for their daughter, Megan Batten, who is competing in the division this season.
“I’ve always had to learn everything on my own and figure these cars out by myself,” Jason said. “I don’t mind helping anyone. There are a lot of people that won’t help anyone. If I see someone that needs some help, I’ll ask them if they need it. I love dirt track racing, and I enjoy seeing someone get their car better.”
Jason’s attitude has helped grow the class from its slow start at Magnolia in 2015 to its status as a fixture at nearly every track in the state.
The entry-level class also has benefited from rules enforcement, Jason said. He said Thomas McReynolds at Magnolia and Paul Ware at Columbus are doing a great job of keeping all the cars on the same playing field.
“That’s encouraging more and more people to build cars,” he said. “The tech-men we have are doing a good job of keeping the cars equal. That’s one thing that helps the class –along with affordability — that has created good side-by-side racing as a result. There’s no two or three people that are a lot faster than the rest. It takes the track guys and tech-man to make it like that. The class will get bigger because of all those things.”
The restrictions put more of a premium on handling than motors, Jason said.
“You can change your springs and move some weight around in the car, but you really have to learn how to drive each track,” he said. “The Bullring is real fast, and Magnolia gets really slick, where you have to slow down a lot to be fast. The Bullring is one of the toughest because it is so fast. You have to pay attention the whole time … it gets so fast where you’re up on the wall. You slip up and you’ll bounce off the wall.”
Columbus will sell crawfish by the pound at tonight’s races. Crawfish will be ready at 7 p.m. Racing begins at 8 p.m.
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