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Sunday, March 31, 2002

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

After a one-week delay, the weather cooperated and local drivers finally had a chance to test off-season changes and new equipment yesterday at Motordrome Speedway and Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.

Lernerville Speedway canceled its opener Friday night because of continuous rain last week leading to rather soggy grounds.

After watching practice at Motordrome and PPMS, it's clear that while the late models will garner most of the attention this season, some of the best racing will be in the modified classes at all three tracks.

Although he has made few changes since buying Motordrome in November, Red Miley switched the NASCAR ShorTrack Division points from the trucks to the modifieds. The change was apparent yesterday with nearly twice as many modifieds at the track than last year. Jim Nicola, the track's modified champion, was pleased with new opportunity, but thought Miley should have gone further.

"I think the purse increase ought to go with it. I think that's very important," Nicola said. "All [Miley] did was give us a name. That's all we got. We're not getting any more in the check. I'm like anybody else, it takes money to run these cars. I hope he thinks we deserve it because if we are the ShorTrack division we should get our dues. Those guys made more money than we did last year, now they're putting this title on us. I think everything that went with the title should go with it."

The difference also was noticeable in the truck division, where only a handful of drivers, including defending champion Dave Marrow, were at the practice.

"We had our motor built for Jennerstown," Marrow said. "We didn't even plan on really racing here too much this year. [Jennerstown] lowered the tire prices to get more trucks there, and they raised the purse money. You can't beat it."

At PPMS, Larry Kugel rules the modified division, and he has five track titles in the class as proof.

After finishing his practice session yesterday, he attributed the popularity of the modifieds to their affordability.

"You're looking at $50,000, $60,000 in a late model on asphalt or dirt," he said. "In a modified, with a motor and everything, it's probably under $18,000. A lot of guys want to run late models, but they can't afford it so they run this class. I really like this because you can go a lot of places. I could go anywhere around here that runs modifieds with this car. You might have to put a different kind of tire on, but other than that, it's pretty legal for every place. That makes it affordable, too."

At Lernerville, the modified division was one of the most hotly contested divisions at any track last year, with Brian Swartzlander holding off Dave Murdick to win his third title at the Sarver oval.

With sprint car champion Jimmy Hawley out of the CIII machine and late model runner-up David Scott -- one of the most exiting late model drivers to watch in Western Pennsylvania -- planning to do more traveling this season, the modified division might generate the most excitement over the course of the season at Lernerville.

Cottone returns

Mark Cottone is back to defend his late model title at Motordrome with the same car he won with last season. There's no point in changing. He was the most consistent driver in the class with two victories, 16 top-five finishes and 17 top-10s.

"I just hope everything goes good and we'll see what happens," Cottone said between practice sessions yesterday. "We're excited about the new year."

One driver with a chance to unseat Cottone is Travis Geisler, a junior at Vanderbilt University. He is working on a plan, with a little help from his sponsors, to travel from Nashville, Tenn., to race at Motordrome every Friday night.

"We'll make an effort at it," said Geisler, who earned his first late model win last season. "We're working things out at school a little bit and trying to get them in order."

Radio waves

KDKA-AM has canceled "Fast Track" this season, but "Rappin' on Racin' " returns for its 18th year starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday on WEDO-AM (810). As usual, the "Inside Track" with D.J. Johnson can be heard at 11 a.m. Sundays on WPTT-AM (1360) before the station switches over to coverage of NASCAR Winston Cup races.

Chris Dolack can be reached at cdolackpost-gazette.com.