It was a night to remember at Eldora on Friday as 91 drivers tested their luck in a pair of one-lap qualifying sessions for the 17th Dirt Late Model Dream.
Arkansas driver Jared Landers, 29, won’t soon forget it, mostly because of that hard, unforgiving concrete wall he was staring down in Turns 3-4.
“I didn’t know if the car was going to stay turned or not,” said Landers, concerned his speed was going to carry him into the outer wall. “If you lift (off the gas) you’re gonna hit it but if you stay on it you might have a better chance to get through it.”
Landers stayed on the gas and in doing left Eckert’s old mark of 15.215 seconds in the Eldora dust. Landers turned a 14.922 (about 121 mph) in the second qualifying session on the extremely fast track that guaranteed himself a starting spot in the Dream that ran late Saturday night.
“I didn’t know I had it in me. My crew didn’t either,” Landers said. “I got lucky. ... I didn’t know it was on the scoreboard when I came in (to the pits). My crew was giving me high-fives so I knew I must’ve done something good.”
Eckert didn’t have a chance to defend his title. The Pennsylvania driver didn’t make the trip this weekend and the schedule on his website had him idle.
Tennessee’s Jimmy Owens, 39, briefly held the record after becoming the first driver in Eldora dirt late model history to post a sub-15 second qualifying lap (14.968) in Friday’s first round.
“We had a really good car and any time your car is working good it doesn’t feel like you’re going as fast as you are,” the 2009 Dream winner said. “It actually did surprise me. I came across (the turn in 1-2) and my ranking didn’t flash on the scoreboard. I thought, ‘Daggone it, I thought I was better than that.’ It felt like a good lap. I rolled around, it popped up as No. 1. I thought, ‘Cool.’ ”
Landers wouldn’t have minded if Owens had actually taken the track record. “Having the track record, it puts a lot of weight on your shoulders,” Landers said. “It’d be easier to let Jimmy have it. He can carry that weight.”
The track record continued a Dream week for Clint Bowyer’s dirt racing team. The NASCAR Sprint Cup driver led all 30 laps to win the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora on Wednesday and Landers, who drivers for Bowyer, gave his boss the track record.
RACING UPDATE: In early action Saturday, Darrell Lanigan, Billy Moyer, Will Vaught, Eddie Carrier Jr., Bart Hartman and Jeep Van Wormer won heat races. Lanigan started on the pole for the $100,000-to-win Dream.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2400, ext. 6991 or gbilling@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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