Day 3: Playing by different rules

Time trials, straight-up starts and single-file restarts have nothing on New Smyrna Speedway.

How about leader infallibility? Yeah, despite the hundreds of things that need Band-Aids in short track racing in our home region, that's certainly a new one to northerners.

Jeff Choquette was dominating night No. 3 of Super Late Model competition at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing when he came up on a slew of lapped traffic in the second half of the event. But he guessed wrong when trying to dodge a car on the frontstretch, and he ended up getting hard on the binders and spinning himself out after contact with the lapped machine.

Tough racing luck? Fatal driver error? Each of the above?

How about getting your spot back while under caution?

You didn't guess that one, did you? True enough it was, as Choquette was given his spot back at the head of the class and the lapped car that simply pulled into the low lane to allow the leader to go by -- well, he was immediately black-flagged and given a tongue-lashing. Choquette went on to lead the final 8 laps and win his 2nd straight SLM feature this weekend.

Given the southern penchant for treating each and every short track race like it's a 500-mile NASCAR Cup Series race, it's amazing stock-car racing ever became popular. They time trial, skip heat races entirely, start the fastest qualifiers at the front (maybe pausing to invert the top few on the grid) and then have single-file restarts. Not only do the rich only get richer in that format, but it offers virtually nothing in the way of excitement for fans.

And you thought you'd seen questionably officiated races at your favorite track....

*****

Pole day at Daytona International Speedway, in all honesty, is no more exciting in person than it is on television. Or, should we say, it's no more boring in person than it is on the tube.

I've always been amazed that Cup Series qualifying attracts fans at any track, be it New Hampshire, Martinsville or Pocono. But time trials at Daytona are about as tedious as it comes -- especially when you consider that it has very little bearing on actual qualifying for the 500.

There was no buzz at the track today, the day following the excitement and energy of the Bud Shootout and the day before Cup teams take 2 straight days away from the speedway. Qualifying is a perfunctory activity, and kudos to DIS for realizing that -- and not pairing it with some other support race just to force a few more fans into buying tickets for something they don't want to sit through.

*****

Mainers are still holding their own at New Smyrna, even on a relatively light night of action at the World Series -- where the Crate Late Models and both Modified divisions were off.

Louie Mechalides, who has 2-time PASS North Series champion Johnny Clark along for the ride, started on the pole for the second straight night in the Super Late Models. Mechalides posted his best finish thus far at the World Series, racing home in 4th.

In that same race, Trevor Sanborn of Parsonsfield, driving for Jay Cushman, finished 9th.

"We were really happy right off the hauler," Cushman said. "The thing is the other guys have all picked up a little bit (in the last couple of nights), so it's putting us a little bit behind."

The good news is that, while Mechalides and Sanborn have each had some problems, the damage has been minor and neither team has had to partially rebuild race cars.

The Super Late Models take a break from racing on Monday, but both teams will be at the track, anyway. New Smyrna has scheduled practices for the divisions that aren't racing, and both Sanborn and Mechalides are planning on working out kinks.