Spencer Hughes was noticeably absent from Mississippi and Alabama dirt tracks for a couple of weeks, but he was busy racing, and at a much higher rate than normal.
Hughes, who has competed – and won – in every division in Mississippi dirt racing, recently fulfilled a career dream of competing in the Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals, known as the “Hell Tour,” which spans the months of June and July each year, with racing nearly every night at different tracks across the Midwest, mostly in Illinois.
Hughes drove the No. 7 Modified car of Bryan Foy, competing in nine races and cracking the top 10 four times. He won at Fairbury American Legion Speedway in Illinois on June 29 in a non-tour feature.
Hughes will return to in-state racing this weekend at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, where he’ll run Crate Late Models.
The Hell Tour provided a number of firsts for Hughes: he’d never followed a touring series and had never raced north of Talladega. He also became the first Mississippi driver to win a Modified feature at Fairbury, the track that left the greatest memory of the nine his team visited.
“What makes it stand out the most is the atmosphere,” Hughes said. “It’s right in the middle of the town. Neighbors around the track will let you rent out their front yards for big events. There are campers everywhere. It’s not really big – like a bullring style with really close-quarters racing.”
The challenges of racing at Fairbury were reflective of the challenges Hughes and the Foy team faced each night. The Southerners hadn’t raced at any of the tracks on the schedule, and, to further add to the unfamiliarity, the tour doesn’t have hot laps before qualifying. Modified car specs are different, too: UMP rules don’t allow a spoiler, and it requires a wider tire than what he’s used to.
“It’s challenging each night,” Hughes said. “The Saturday at Fairbury before we won, we didn’t even make the race there. We didn’t even make the race the first two nights we were up there. It’s extremely tough going to a different racetrack every night, tracks that are way different than anything we’ve got around here. You’re unloading at a place you’ve never seen. If you’re lucky, you’ve watched a video of it on Facebook before you get there. The dirt is so much different, too. And the competition level up there is great.”
Hughes has been racing Modifieds for Foy off and on since last February when he competed at Volusia Raceway Park in Florida. Hughes had three feature wins in a Modified this year before Foy broached the idea of racing the Hell Tour.
It was a “no-brainer” decision for Hughes.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to go up to the Hell Tour and race, and one day in my life, I hope I have the opportunity to do all 30 days of it,” Hughes said. “I’m very, very fortunate to have gotten a chance to try it out.”
Ultimately, the tour experience yielded valuable notes that were quickly applied for the next race and for the future, should Hughes have another crack at the tour.
“I think it made us better for around here, too, even though the tracks are so much different,” Hughes said. “You can learn as much as you can in the shops and prepare as much as you can, but until you race, that’s about the only real practice you can get.”
Taylor: Supers on hiatus
When Columbus Speedway promoter Rod Taylor announced via Facebook the divisions that would run tonight in weekly racing at The Bullring, Super Late Models weren’t listed.
A few drivers asked why the division, which had been a staple of weekly shows at the track this week, weren’t running. Wednesday, Taylor confirmed that the division was suspended due to “a little controversy” in a prior race and would return in August, when the track will host four features.
Taylor declined to elaborate on the issue, but in late May, he announced on Facebook that Wesley Greene, who won the Super Late Model feature on May 24, violated the tire rule. Taylor posted photos from different points of the night that showed two different brands of tire on Greene’s car – Columbus requires American Racer tires. Greene was allowed to keep the win and was not fined.
Greene, on the Facebook post, questioned the photos, noting, “I was on Hoosier during the feature race? And an American racer in victory lane? That’s no way possible … victory lane was on the track.”
“I’m trying to work through that thing so the race track doesn’t go through that again,” Taylor said Wednesday.
Racing in all other divisions begins at 8 p.m. Friday.
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