(Dorchester, Ontario) – Darrel Porter and his L-82 / Perth Auto Dismantlers / Glazier Graphics Chevy was back in action July 21st at Delaware Speedway, as he chases the 2006 Challenger Motor Freight Truck Series Championship.The night started with a 10-lap qualifying event and Porter took the green from the back of the pack. He deftly passed a number of competitors, but in heat race competition, you can’t risk taking too many chances, as you have to have a truck left to run the feature. “We were good. Not as good as in practice, but good. I was also keeping the truck clean for the main.” Porter would claw his way back to a fourth-place finish, and a pair of bonus championship points.
Porter started 12th in the field and quickly sliced his way towards the front. He was able to keep his # 8 machine on the bottom of the track, passing a number of trucks and finding his way to the top-five with just a couple laps on the board. “We were working really well and found a couple of holes early. We made some adjustments before the feature and it really made us take off.”
Porter then found himself on the leaders bumper, but after a lap of trailing the point truck Porter took control, making short work of his rival and taking the lead. Darrell would survive a pair of restarts during the rest of the event as he went on to capture his second feature win of the season.
“We survived again. We had a couple of three-wide situations and we were able to make it out of all of them. The truck was working great on the high side, and with everyone wanting the bottom you can usually find less traffic out there.
1. Darrell Porter, 2. Paul Fothergil, 3. Rick Verberne, 4. Matt Robblee, 5. Norm Roy.
August fifth was a special night for all the Challenger Truck drivers at Delaware during the second annual All-Truck night, featuring ARCA Lincoln Welding Truck Series, and an All-Truck ‘King of the Hill’.
For the Porter Racing Team, it was also a special night as they unveiled a new paint job, ‘Petty Blue’. “We’ve had a silver truck for a while, and now there are some other silver trucks out here now, so we switched to blue. We also added some decals on the bottom, got rid of the orange numbers, and added a new sponsor Glazier Graphics, who helped with the design. I think it looks pretty sharp.”
The night started with a qualifying session and Darrell ripped off the sixth-fastest lap. “We put a brand new right rear tire on for qualifying, and it cost us. The truck was really loose, but I think we’ll be okay with the new tire for the feature.”
Following an inversion of ‘11’, Darrell took the green from sixth on the grid, and he was fast right out of the chute. It took all of four laps before Porter had found his way to the bumper of Doug Braunton, and just one more circuit for him to take the lead. He paced the field until lap nine when he came upon a pair of slower trucks. The pair continued to race, and finally Porter gave a tap to one of the competitors about to go a lap down. The driver spun, and Darrell was black flagged for the incident.
He served his penalty, but would finish the race in 22nd-position.
Porter would be force to start the second event from the back of the field, but a lap two incident would be costly. As three trucks got together in turn one, Porter tried to avoid the incident, but hit the pileup with the right side of his new paint job. He would come to pit road and the crew took off the fender and door, leaving the right side of Darrell’s truck exposed. On the restart, there was another wreck and Darrell locked up the brakes trying to avoid it, stopping just shot of the dustup.
When the field was turned loose again, Porter went on a rampage. He passed a bunch of trucks on the outside, and then with seven laps on the board, went to the bottom of a three-wide situation to take second into turn three. Jeff Showler was showing the way, with Porter 2.6 seconds behind. Over the next eight laps, Porter reeled in the leader and pulled to Showler’s back bumper while the pair were taking the white flag. Porter took a stab on the outside entering turn three but came up one truck length short. “We just needed a yellow when we were trying to catch Jeff. I just ran out of time.”
The seven-truck inversion put Porter sixth for the start of the final 10-lap segment, and with a class record $750 up for grabs to win, everything would be brought to the table. The first laps saw Paul Fothergil get black flagged for rough driving, after an incident that ended Matt Robblee’s night. On the next restart, Porter got boxed in and slid back to fifth as Jeff Showler got by on the highside. “I was between a rock and a hard place, and had nowhere to go,” explained the driver. Porter then went to the outside as well, and dispatched Joe Windas. He then tried to make a move on third-place Tom Zagorodny, while Jeff Showler was getting into the back of leader Norm Roy and sending him for a wild ride into the tire barrier at the start of pit road. Darrell was able to avoid the carnage and slip by on the outside. This put Zagorodny on the point for the restart, with Porter nipping at his heels. When the field was turned loose again, Porter took to the high line and when the field put lap four on the board the freshly painted # 8 machine was leading.
Darrell would survive one more restart, before pulling away en route to the checkered flag and celebrating with a tremendous burnout on the front straight. “This was awesome. Trucks were running over each other, but we survived. It didn’t look too good earlier in the night, and we ripped most of the right side off the truck winning, but we’re the ones standing in victory lane tonight.”
Following an emotional rollercoaster of a night, Porter summed up the evening, “We were shafted, then we were vindicated, then we dominated.”
With the victory, Porter moves even closer to the top of the championship points heap, and now sits second in the championship standings, just 19 markers behind Fothergil.
1. Darrell Porter, 2. Zagorodny, 3. Fothergil, 4. Joe Windas, 5. Shawn Johns.
Points Standings – 1. Fothergil (759 points), 2. Darrell Porter (738), 3. Powell (737), 4. Robblee (728), 5. Johns (700).
For more information about Darrell Porter, Porter Racing, or Delaware Speedway, please visit
http://www.team-porter-racing.piczo.com/, or
http://www.delawarespeedway.com/.
From Maudsley Motorsports
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