Biggest Surprise this early in the season

[CarolinaDirt]

What is your biggest surprise of 2016 so far ? Davenport still winning despite rule changes ? Josh Richards dominating return ? Lanigan''s struggle in Lucas?


For me it would have to be the success of Brian Shirley. He has always ran good but this season he is really making a name for his self .

Let's try to keep this positive , and I want to hear about your biggest surprise local drivers too

[BTExpress]

The early success of the new XR1 chassis, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region. The other would be the low car counts in my area, other than the UFo show at Port Royal.

[zooker25]

The early success of the new XR1 chassis, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region. The other would be the low car counts in my area, other than the UFo show at Port Royal.

Brian Shirley success, Only driver that has done well in that car!

[zyoung25]

Shirley early success, or Birkys return.

[BTExpress]

Zooker, I am not even talking about Richards.... Satterlee, Cosner, Hollidge, and Covert all jumped out of the gates with early season wins in the Mid-Atlantic area in the new XR1. Andy Haus won the first two races at Port Royal but he was driving a 2013 Rocket.

[TheJet-09]

Random impressions for my area and that or those which I follow...if even from a distance:

*For the earliest of any shows in my area, surprised that LaSalle had the largest crowd in their history for the Saturday night of the Thaw Brawl. Kudos to them on a job well done! Great for the track but bad for the local racers as they will quickly see only running specials will suit them much better than losing money on weekly shows.

** Surprised at how "not as good as he normally is" Feger has looked.

***Surprised at how finicky we've (or some) have become regarding the weather and whether (ha ha) or not we want to go watch some racing.

****Super surprised to see Heckenast at LaSalle with an open trailer (albeit a nice Reliable Welding one...presumably hauler issues?), only to have a great run the first night, only to come up light at the scales. Did we learn nothing from Bloomquist? But also surprised to see the series/officials actually DQ him.

*****Surprised to only see 7 late models at the opener for Peoria Speedway last week. But I am to blame for there not being 8, I suppose.

!!!!!!Not at all surprised to see Shirley's early season success. He's (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) good. Period!

[old fan]

*Surprised at how finicky we've (or some) have become regarding the weather and whether (ha ha) or not we want to go watch some racing. man you got that right no racing this weekend in my area with in 90 miles because it eas a degree colder than last weekend wth

[HoosierDirtFan]

Random impressions for my area and that or those which I follow...if even from a distance:

*For the earliest of any shows in my area, surprised that LaSalle had the largest crowd in their history for the Saturday night of the Thaw Brawl. Kudos to them on a job well done! Great for the track but bad for the local racers as they will quickly see only running specials will suit them much better than losing money on weekly shows.

** Surprised at how "not as good as he normally is" Feger has looked.

***Surprised at how finicky we've (or some) have become regarding the weather and whether (ha ha) or not we want to go watch some racing.

****Super surprised to see Heckenast at LaSalle with an open trailer (albeit a nice Reliable Welding one...presumably hauler issues?), only to have a great run the first night, only to come up light at the scales. Did we learn nothing from Bloomquist? But also surprised to see the series/officials actually DQ him.

*****Surprised to only see 7 late models at the opener for Peoria Speedway last week. But I am to blame for there not being 8, I suppose.

!!!!!!Not at all surprised to see Shirley's early season success. He's (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) good. Period!

No so much hauler issues. I asked and Heckenast said he wasn't wanting to have to clean it afterwards so he decided to save time and just use his dads open trailer.

[johnE]

Ross Bailes' dominant win streak.

[CarolinaDirt]

Good stuff keep it coming the XR1's have definitely been impressive early , I would add both hall of famer Bill Frye and Birky's return being major surprises this season.

[zooker25]

I guess I meant Shirley has done well in that specific car. I know Schlieper drove it and looked terrible and I'm thinking someone else drove it and did pretty bad. I know Shirley drove it at the USA nationals and struggled not making the feature. Just good to see it all come together. Not really a Shirley fan but I am impressed!

[Josh Bayko]

Biggest surprise to me is Colton Flinner running for Lucas RoY. He's a decent shoe, but he's not even a consistent front runner in supers around western PA's local tracks. I get that it'll probably make him a better driver in the long run, but there's enough specials within a few hours from Pittsburgh on both national tours and various regional series that he could run pretty much every weekend with high level drivers anyways.

[plunks7]

Don O'Niels And EPJ struggles.

[huskerdirt]

I guess I meant Shirley has done well in that specific car. I know Schlieper drove it and looked terrible and I'm thinking someone else drove it and did pretty bad. I know Shirley drove it at the USA nationals and struggled not making the feature. Just good to see it all come together. Not really a Shirley fan but I am impressed!

The car Shirley drove last year for Cullen was a Pierce at Cedar Lake. Then Cullen came on board at the end to help (with the Shirleys Rocket).

Now the team had brand new Longhorns from Weaver.

[onlyfacts]

Brian Shirley success, Only driver that has done well in that car!

There only was 5 XR1 cars that went to Florida. Sheppard had good runs at Brunswick and Ocala then blew up at Volusia early in the week. Carrier ran much better in Florida this year than last year. Satterlee had the best trip ever to Volusia and was racing with the front runners at east bay at end of the week. Now the local and regional races are starting up north and they are showing very well. When there is as many XR1 at the track as Longhorns or Club Cars then we can judge. But right now XR1s are the minority.