South Boston, Va. (November 25, 2006) - With rumors and controversy in the weeks leading up to the Mason-Dixon Meltdown at South Boston Speedway, fans and competitors alike wondered if the event would live up to the hype. SPEED Channel’s (and former Channel 12 Long Island TV modified reporter) Bob Dillner and his dedicated Speed51.com staff put on an event that already has fans and competitors making plans to ditch the relatives at turkey time next year and get in one last race before the holidays.

The inaugural Mason-Dixon Meltdown featured some of the best that modified racing had to offer in 2006 with RoC Champion Earl Paules, Whelen Southern Modified Tour Champion Junior Miller, Advance Auto Parts 199 Winner Jason Myers and North South Shootout winner Matt Hirschman all in the pits on Friday morning.

The modifieds shared the bill with the PASS Late Model Series who were holding their final points paying event at South Boston and the pits were filled to capacity by lunchtime Friday. There were so many race cars in the pits that the officials had to make everyone park their transporters outside of the speedway and set up small shelters of tarps and EZ-Up’s around their tool boxes and tires. Fortunately, temperatures during the day were around the 60 degree mark and everyone was comfortable until the sun dropped below the trees behind turns one and two.

Once the modifieds finally got on track for their practice, Northampton, Pennsylvania’s Eric Beers set the pace in his own blue number 9 that he raced in RoC events this year. 2006 Whelen Modifed Tour Rookie of the Year James Civali was right on his heels with 2006 RoC Champion Earl Paules rounding out the top 3. Ironically, the guy everyone wanted to watch was still in the pits and didn’t post a lap in the first practice session.

But, by the time practice two rolled around, every car in the pits had turned at least a lap and Beers let everyone know that if he kept all eight cylinders running this weekend, he would be one of the cars to beat.

As the sun went down the times continued to drop, it looked as though Mike Ewanitsko’s 2001 track record could fall with both James Civali and Eric Beers flirting with the 14.40’s and just close enough to rewrite the record books if their lap was just right.

Riverhead modified competitor Tom Rogers, Jr. was the only incident during practice as he made contact with the turn 4 wall during the final practice before qualifying. His crew immediately went to work repairing the right front suspension, right side sheet metal and nerf bars and when qualifying rolled around their hard work was rewarded with the 10th fastest time of the night.

But, when Qualifying was over, Ransomville New York’s Chuck Hossfeld out paced them all in Roger and Sandra Hill’s bright orange Coors Light/Hillbilly Racing number 79. Second was True Value modified competitor Bobby Grigas III with Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Burt Myers rounding out the top 3.

Saturday was just as beautiful as the day before and everyone was glad to come south for the weekend instead of running the traditional colder Thanksgiving weekend event. Twenty five cars were in the pits and two heat races and a dash would set the field for the 250 lap feature event later that evening.

In the first heat race, Bath, New York’s Alex Hoag got loose and lost control of his white number 7h exiting turn two and ended up head first into the dirt-filled containers guarding the blunt end of the backstretch pit road wall. He was okay but had a lot of work to do to his car to make the feature event.

The rest of the heat races went off without incident with Eric Beers and Somers, Connecticut’s Todd Owen winning the two heat races.

The top eight qualifiers raced in a twelve lap dash event to set the starting lineup for the feature. This would be Hossfeld’s demise as he redrew the number eight starting position and only passed Jason Myers to earn the seventh starting spot. Jason Myers joked with Hossfeld after the redraw and said, “Man if you draw like that all the time, you’d never make it at the Stadium.” Burt Myers and Hampstead, New Hampshire’s Andy Suess would lead the dash with Suess pressuring him every step of the way. “I really wanted to start on the pole,” Suesss would say later. “I just wanted to show these guys that I can race with them and start up front and not be a hazard, but the one car was just too strong.”

After a short break from the qualifying races, the main events of the evening commenced with a bologna burger-eating contest on the front stretch. One of South Boston’s delicacies is the bologna burger made famous by the Sadler brothers, Hermie and Elliott. The winner had scarfed down 10 burgers in the time allotted and took home 250 dollars cash and probably an upset stomach the rest of the night. By the way, he was from Canada.

By the time the features rolled around, the sun had dropped and the temperature went with it. Fans were bundled up but it wasn’t nearly as cold as the race in Concord, North Carolina a couple weeks previously. The grandstands were full and the fans would not be disappointed.

Farmington, Maine’s Cassius Clark would win the PASS Late Model portion of the event in his E.J. Prescott sponsored number 8c Ford Fusion. NEXTEL Cup star Kyle Busch was entered in the event but only got as high as third before motor problems ended his night early.

As the late model fans filed out and the modified fans buckled in, a majority of the crowd had left. Maybe they were just getting a head start on their way to the Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Florida? Either way, this was the last big event of the season for “Tour-Type” Modifieds and the fans who did stay ended up seeing a great race.

The modified feature took the green flag at 8:30 PM with Burt Myers and Andy Suess bringing the field down to the green. Myers immediately picked up where he left off from his heat race and led the field, opening up a full straightaway lead at one point. Suess would fall in line behind Jim Storace and James Civali for the first thirty laps as the 250 lap grind began. Once Storace cleared Suess, he set off after Myers who was setting a pretty rapid pace early.

The first caution came on lap 39 for a two car incident in turn one between Earl Paules (who was sent to the rear for not making the call to the grid in time) and Kory Rabenold. As the caution was coming out, another wreck happened in turn three taking out Jason Myers, Ben Rowe (a PASS late model driver who was doing double duty in a car purchased just for this event) Tyler Haydt (who was in a HIK Motorsports team car to J. Wesley Swartout) and George Brunnhoelzl, III. The Myers, Rowe and Brunnhoelzl cars left on the hook with Jason Myers receiving the worse of the damage, and Tyler Haydt and James Civali hit pit road for service. This turned out to be a lengthy caution for the excessive amount of speedy dry in the turn three area where the wreck had happened.

Said Civali of his early pit stop, “We put a right rear on it just to see what it would do and to see if we could come through the pack and how long it took to come through the pack you know, and it was real good.”

The race restarted on lap 55 with the first signs of change beginning to take place as Matt Hirschman, Chuck Hossfeld and Eric Beers began to make their presence felt. Burt Myers continued to lead over Storace, Hirschman, Hossfeld and Suess who stuck to his plan of dropping back and following the leaders.

By lap 70 Suess couldn’t hold on much longer as Beers and Todd Owen got by. The next caution came at lap 75 as Dean Culick brought his yellow number 7d car to a halt at the top of turns one and two with the right front tire gone. Suess, Swartout, Rabenold, Grigas and Haydt headed for pit road while Earl Paules cashed in on the “Lucky Dog” pass after losing a lap in the turn one incident with Rabenold earlier. Swartout won the race off pit road as the rest of the cars who pitted with him filed in line for the ensuing restart.

As the race restarted, James Civali was on the move in his King Racing, Ramar-Hall #28 as he moved back into the top 5 by lap 90. Civali, who took a fresh right rear tire on his lap 39 pit stop began to show what the effects of fresh rubber would do later in the run as he passed Beers, Hossfeld and Storace and by the following caution was right on the back bumper of the second place runner, Matt Hirschman’s number 60. The caution flew on lap 96 for Chris Pasteryak who lost a left rear tire and ended his night on the double hook after spinning hard into the turn two concrete. Pasteryak was okay and walked to the ambulance under his own power.

Andy Suess made his second stop of the night under this caution, Junior Miller walked the “Lucky Dog” back onto the lead lap and Earl Paules retired the Schuck Trucking #8 behind the pit wall with a transmission problem.

Lap 100 was completed behind the pace car as Burt Myers who had led since the initial green flag continued to set the pace in his black and orange DMC Auto Exchange #1 with Matt Hirschman patiently waiting for the race to come to him. James Civali was next in line with Jim Storace and Chuck Hossfeld rounding out the top 5.

The green flag flew again at lap 104 and the first lead change of the night came as Matt Hirschman wasted no time in beating Burt Myers to turn one as the right rear tire on the number 1 car spun trying to grip the cold Virginia asphalt. Matt cleared the famous bright orange front bumper beaten and battle scarred from it’s year long abuse at Bowman Gray Stadium and the red and white number 60 was back in front in the month of November and led to the next caution at lap 108 for another big wreck which again happened in turn one.

Eric Beers, Andy Suess, Jim Storace, J. Wesley Swartout and Bobby Grigas III were all tangled together and this caution led to the halfway break, albeit 13 laps early. The running order as the cars hit pit road were Matt Hirschman, Burt Myers, James Civali, Chuck Hossfeld, Todd Owen and eventual fifth place finisher Rusty Smith.

At the halfway break it looked at though Eric Beers’ night could be at an end. His crew immediately had the blue # 9 up on jack stands and two crew members dove under the car to begin frantically working away. In this time, there was work to do for being in the wreck but adjustments that also needed to be made that just did not get done. Meanwhile in the Hirschman pit, five time Whelen Modified Tour Champion Tony Hirschman stood over the right front and supervised as his son’s team went to work changing tires and making minor adjustments to the #60 car. Four fresh Hoosiers were bolted on and Matt waited for the call to file in back behind the pace car. Burt Myers’ team also bolted on a fresh set of tires and Beers’ team dropped the car off the jack stands just in time to fall back in line before the pace car pulled off pit road.

The front row on the restart had Matt Hirschman on the pole with Burt Myers on the outside. Burt wanted to resume his position out front and in his mind fresh tires is what he needed to get back to the point and hold off the shootout winner. Meanwhile, Matt set the pace and as the cars exited turn four to come to the green on lap 116, Matt got just a bit too much of a jump and the race went right back to yellow as the cars hit the backstretch.

As the cars took the crossed flags, Myers slowly began to fade as Hirschman continued to lead. Matt’s next big threat was a hard charging James Civali. The 2006 Whelen Modified Tour Rookie of the Year had found something in practice that few other people dared to try. As Civali wheeled his metallic blue and silver #28 off of turn four, he was dropping his left side tires onto the apron and using it to set the car up to point it down the front stretch. Civali brought the fans their feet as he raced hard with Burt Myers for second and by lap 130 had taken the spot, taking Chuck Hossfeld with him past the Southern Modified Tour’s race leading driver.

Civali explained his use of the curbing on the turn four apron, saying "Yeah, I knew from practice that the apron off of four was going to be a good place to pass and we were playing around in the beginning. My car loved that bottom over there. You know, it was almost like it freed you up as you first hit it, and then if you got a lot onto the apron it almost hooked you up more. I was passing a lot of cars there and the car really liked it.”

The fifth caution came at lap 141 for Dean Culick and his yellow 7h car as he spun off of turn two in a single car incident. Under this caution, Todd Owen, Louie Mechalides, Junior Miller and J. Wesley Swartout headed to pit road.

By Lap 150 the intensity was beginning to pick up as Matt Hirschman continued to lead but the racing behind him was fast and furious as a daring three-wide pass sent Civali up into the marbles and out of the throttle as Chuck Hossfeld, Eric Beers and Burt Myers snuck by.

Civali gathered it up and went on the attack and brought the fans to their feet a second time with some intense wheel to wheel slicing and dicing with Burt Myers and by lap 160 the top four cars had opened up a full straightaway lead on Burt who was having handling issues.

Burt Myers would say of racing with Civali, "Oh yeah, I had a hell of a good time. You know, a lot of times we don’t mesh good with the northern guys and it’s because we don’t race with each other and you don’t know what to expect out of a guy and you don’t know who he is, you don’t know what kind of driving style he’s got and when you race a little bit, and you give each other a little bit of room it makes a big difference on the next go ‘round.”

Civali, agreed with Myers assessment, adding, “Yeah, we were racing real hard and you know, it’s hard to know because we don’t race against them all that often and you get underneath some of them and it’s like “Okay, is he going to come down or am I going to be able to stay here?” and you know, every time I got a nose under there he gave me the room and it was a lot of fun. It was real fun racing with these guys up front. Some of these guys I race with all the time and it was great clean racing.”

At this point in the race the top four were Hirschman, Hossfeld, Beers and Civali with Burt Myers leading the second group of cars over Tyler Haydt, Rusty Smith, Kory Rabenold, Alex Hoag and Junior Miller rounding out the top 10.

Caution number six flew for Darrell Krentz’s engine letting go in turn two on lap 173 and Civali, Myers, Rusty Smith, Tyler Haydt and Junior Miller immediately hit pit road for service with Civali, Myers and Smith taking on a fresh right rear tires. Myers won the race off pit road with Civali right on his back bumper. This is an interesting fact as the Southern Tour teams do not change tires during their races while the Northern Tour does. So, this was a big moment for the Myers team as they high fived and celebrated on pit road.

The green flag flew again on lap 180 and Matt Hirschman only had to wait two more laps for the next yellow as Chuck Hossfeld’s night came to a halt at the top of turn four with a flat left rear tire. He limped back to pit road but retired the Coors Light car just two laps later with a broken half shaft in the rear end.

Myers and Civali continued to work their way back to the front and their battle with each other as lap 190 clicked off. RoC driver Rusty Smith got by Myers and started to chase down Civali as Burt raced with Kory Rabenold for fifth place.

At lap 200 Hirschman had a mirror full of Eric Beers. Beers looked in his mirror and saw a hard charging James Civali with Rusty Smith and Burt Myers in tow. Civali looked high and low and used the apron off of turn four at lap 203 to make his move on Beers for second. Beers dropped back to third with Rusty Smith and Burt Myers racing hard for fourth.

Hirschman had a two car length lead on Civali as lap 210 clicked off the scoreboard and Rusty Smith started to work over Eric Beers. By lap 217 Smith got by Beers who brought out the caution after he spun trying to stay off Burt Myers who was to his outside as they raced side by side through turns three and four.

Later, Eric Beers explained that his spin wasn't an intentional ploy get fresh tires. “No, I mean we were getting free there and I got down into the corner I was trying to stay out of the one guy’s (Burt Myers) way because he was on the outside and I got a little bit too low, and I must have hit some speedy dry because it came right around on me. We’re lucky no one was close enough to hit us there and we put right sides on and the right rear never came up.”

Under this caution, Beers headed to pit road to take on two fresh right side tires. Hirschman continued to show the way with Civali in second, Rusty Smith up to third with Burt Myers in fourth.

Hirschman said Beers’ late race move to take on tires didn't affect his race strategy. “Yeah, I knew he did and I knew it wouldn’t take him long to get back to the front but, once you’re in the lead you’re really, you’re almost forced into staying out and keeping the lead and if you lose, you know, you lose but like I said that’s pretty much the safest bet is when you’re leading you try and keep it and fortunately the new tires, we were pretty much, and these tires just, they work good from the start until they are completely worn out and we didn’t wear them out. I mean, they were there the whole time so, new tires weren’t….Yeah, they may have been fast for a couple more laps but not enough for me to change my game plan or strategy.”

Another green and yellow restart came at lap 222 as Beers got a little impatient and tangled with Alex Hoag and Junior Miller while trying to get back to the front as quickly as possible. They all drove away and the field quickly doubled up for the restart. Hirschman was still on the point with Civali on the high side. Burt Myers restarted behind Hirschman, with Rusty Smith fourth and Beers falling in line fifth.

Attrition had played into Beers’ hand as Miller and Hoag stopped to check damage before the lap 223 restart. Hirschman resumed the lead on the restart with Burt Myers in tow. Beers was all over Myers as Civali fell in line in fourth with Rusty Smith fifth holding off Junior Miller.

The two fresh right side tires Eric Beers took after spinning on lap 217 were beginning to show dividends as he passed Burt Myers with relative ease and began to set his sights on Matt Hirschman on lap 235. He got as close as he was going to get as he looked high and low for the slightest hole to make a move on Hirschman.

“The right rear never got big enough to chase him down, you know?" Explained Beers. "I got close and I was throwing the thing on the apron, going sideways through the water puddles and all that just trying to catch him and you can only do that for so many laps.”

Hirschman was plenty aware that Beers was charging hard. “I mean, I ran pretty hard the whole race but the last couple laps there, if he got you know, within a car length or so that was it, I put it to it and fortunately we were able to keep enough distance that nobody really could get to our back bumper.”

A full straightaway back was James Civali by himself, while Burt Myers was running in fourth trying to hold off a determined Rusty Smith with ten laps to go. Beers fell back like he was going to make one last charge and got back to two car lengths with five to go.

But at the end it was Matt Hirschman wining by two car lengths over Eric Beers, James Civali, Burt Myers and Rusty Smith.

In Victory Lane, a happy Hirschman talked about the month he's had. “November’s just been sweet, I just wish there were more races in it than just here but hey, It’s good to win the big one if you can win any. We won a couple races in past years but to get two huge wins like this at the end of the season it’s just…What a season man, this is great!

“I’m real happy. I want to thank all my guys for helping me this year. Every race, it’s been so many different people. Not everybody can travel as much as I want to or race but all season long I had great help and I’d like to thank them.

“It’s a great feeling to be the first winner. Hopefully they continue to have it in the coming years and we’ll bring more cars in the future and put on a better show. So, I hope it’s a success and it’ll continue.”

Meanwhile, Beers spoke of what might have been. “We just we didn’t roll through the center today you know, we didn’t practice and we made some adjustments for the race to keep it tight and it just hurt it through the center and the thing was just tight through the center the whole race from beginning to end and you know what hurt us was, we got in that wreck right before the halfway deal and we had to fix other stuff and we never got a chance to operate on the big problem and we put right sides on at the end there and the right rear never got big enough to chase him down.”

Burt Myers was the highest finishing driver from the Whelen Southern Modified Tour, finishing fourth. “It we’d have had the car we did the second run that we did the first run, we would have been the car to beat I think. I think the sixty car was probably riding a little bit early but, so was I. That second set of tires just never matched. They never came up to what we wanted on the stagger and it was just super tight and once it pushed the right front off it was too late. We were going to come in there at the end and get right sides and I got a move on the thirty four (Rusty Smith) to put me to third and I knew on the restart I’d restart third instead of on the outside and I said, “Well….”, I made the call to stay out and try to see if it would come around and once the rear tires wore enough where it would come around, it’d already pushed the right front off then.

“I mean, we’ll leave with our heads up. They won’t be down, but they won’t be up. Our chins will be up, somewhat.

“I had a hell of a good time. I love racing with these guys. They don’t mind banging bars and throwing sparks a little bit when we need to and that’s my kind of racing. We’ll come back and win this thing, next year.”

Fifth place finisher Rusty Smith was content with his finish. “Yeah, I was happy with it. Like I said, we had a good car. When the race started, we just wanted to stay out of trouble but we knew we had a decent car. You take the guys when you can get them, just kind of chip your way up through and I mean, when we got at the break we were running sixth and we kind of, we passed our way up to there. We didn’t luck out through pit stops and wrecks you know, because we had actually pitted during that, too. Before the first hundred twenty five and then after that we passed our way up into third and we had the same set of tires on that Eric Beers had and the one car had and some of those guys and we passed those guys to get up into third and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves and I know there wasn’t a lot of cars that finished but we passed good cars when we were on equal tires at the end of the runs, so I’m happy with that.”

All in all, a lot of high praise for a first time event. I think Rusty Smith summed it up best when he said “Hopefully, they can stick out their neck out again for us next year. I’ll definitely be back.”