High Country Sports

Category: Professional

  • LIVING HISTORY: ONE on ONE with… Dylon Wilson, 4th generation stock car racing pro

    By David Rogers. NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — It is NASCAR’s All-Star Week at North Wilkesboro Speedway but it is much more than the exciting Cup Series races on the weekend. At 0.625 miles around, the iconic NWS oval is short-track racing at its best, including midweek Pro and Late Model competitions that serve as the proving ground for future stars in NASCAR’s top three stock car competitions: Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck.

    There will undoubtedly be a lot of stories told this week around the North Wilkesboro Speedway venue, but few people can possibly be as good of an ambassador for stock car racing as Dylon Wilson. A fourth generation driver-owner competing on the zMAX CARS Tour, Wilson literally grew up some 300 yards from the North Wilkesboro Speedway start-finish line — and may be father to a fifth generation soon to love burning rubber, driving around in circles and trading paint.

    On the eve of North Wilkesboro Speedway’s hosting the NASCAR All Star Race for the second consecutive year, Wilson sat down with High Country Sports to talk about Speedway Motorsports’ rescue of the iconic stock car racetrack from the overgrown weeds that were poking up through the grandstands just three years ago, what the rebirth of the track means to him and the region as well as to his family, and to help us understand some more about the stock car racing world arguably at the foundation of NASCAR.

    The CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro is my Daytona 500.

    Wilson’s great grandfather was Charlie Combs, who was one of the original owners and builders of North Wilkesboro Speedway, where construction began in 1946. The Cup Series was originally known as the Strictly Stock Series and NASCAR concluded its first, 8-race season at North Wilkesboro on Oct. 16, 2949. North Wilkesboro was part of the NASCAR circuit for 47 years, until it was removed from the Cup schedule after the 1996 race.

    What does it mean for you to have stock car racing, especially NASCAR, return to North Wilkesboro?

    Driving at North Wilkesboro means everything to me. It makes my life complete. I didn’t come along until 1996, which was toward the end of the track being part of the Winston Cup Series. For North Wilkesboro to make this comeback and become fully operational… Well, I dreamed about it my whole life. Honestly, I didn’t think it was realistic but as it became closer to reality I was overwhelmed with excitement and ready for it. When it came back in 2022, we could check that off the bucket list. So then it became, ‘Well, we are racing here again. Now I want to win here.’ That is my next goal.

    In which racing series are you competing, wanting to win, as you say?

    It is called the zMAX CARS Tour for what are known as Late Model Stock Cars.

    Most people would consider the CARS Tour maybe a step below the NASCAR Truck Series. As far as the pecking order goes, the CARS Tour is grassroots racing where you will see some of the future Cup series stars competing today. Here at North Wilkesboro, you will see guys racing on Wednesday for CARS that you will eventually see on Sunday in the Cup series. The CARS Tour is professional racing. The events are at a professional venue and there are a lot of really good drivers. I know that because I am competing against them every week.

    On the backside of the grandstands near Turn 4 is an iconic ‘Winston Cup Series’ sign. Look closer and you can see that it was painted over another sign, ‘Combs Tower’. Photographic image by David Rogers

    Well, how does the CARS Tour racing compare to NASCAR Cup Series events, from a competition standpoint?

    Some consider the CARS Tour even more intense because it is a closer, tighter field than what you will normally see in the Cup series. The lap times between the pole sitter and the guy who qualifies last are usually closer together than what you might see in a Cup race.

    For North Wilkesboro, we will probably have 36 cars in the field. Most weeks on the CARS Tour there are 32, 34, depending on how many local guys are competing in an event at the various racetracks. But there are usually 20-28 drivers who compete in every race during the season.

    The zMax CARS Tour has largely been a regional competition but now there is also another series that goes all the way out west. It is a little bit different car, called Pro Late Model. We drive a Late Model Stock Car. They look very similar, but they have a different motor, different weight and stuff like that. The general consumer wouldn’t tell the difference, but the Pro series guys go all the way out to California to race while the Late Model Stock guys typically stay in the Southeast U.S.

    From week to week, how many people come out to watch a Late Model Stock Car or LMSC race?

    I saw a report recently that last year we averaged about 22,000 spectators at each race.

    With those numbers, I can see why a lot of folks in Wilkes County look at the return of the North Wilkesboro Speedway as an economic driver.

    Sure it is an economic driver, but perhaps more than any other racetrack North Wilkesboro Speedway is a community cause and a community effort. Everyone comes together. I don’t know how to explain it except for the Field of Dreams movie where they re-enacted that baseball ball game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees. There is a special feeling here, every day, when you see this racetrack sprouted up out of the ground.

    Dylon Wilson stands in front of the iconoic Winston Cup Series sign painted over the ‘Combs Tower’ sign bearing his family’s name that once identified grandstands near Turn 4 of North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers

    “Sprouting” is an interesting use of words given what was here just three years ago.

    North Wilkesboro Speedway looked pretty rough for a long time with the weeds growing up through the grandstands after it was all but abandoned in 1996. I was pretty pessimistic about it ever coming back. I proposed to my wife here because I thought it was going to be flattened at some point and I wanted those pictures. But the revival effort kind of snowballed and it eventually worked out.

    Getting back to that community aspect, everybody is excited about the racetrack’s comeback. The whole county is excited about it because it is this big prosperous thing that is good for the area’s economy.

    In the larger scheme of things, what do you think the reopening of North Wilkesboro means or should mean to NASCAR?

    The revival of North Wilkesboro is important to NASCAR, I think, just as it is really important to the regional community. It could be key to NASCAR’s long-term success, integrating these iconic venues like North Wilkesboro and Darlington and others, potentially, with the bigger tracks. For me, it means taking care of and preserving where the sport started. Take care of the roots. It is OK to expand and go to the big tracks and the road courses, but I think you have to take care of the sport’s beginnings and bringing North Wilkesboro back into the mix is an awesome first step.

    The CARS Tour is professional racing on professional venues and there are a lot of really good drivers.

    How many of the Late Model races will you run this year?

    Well, the North Wilkesboro Late Model race on May 14 will be my first one this season. I have been a little preoccupied. My wife recently gave birth to a baby boy. I wanted to be there for mama the whole time. My son wasn’t born here at Wilkesboro but he came into the world on the same night I was supposed to be racing in Hickory and in a hospital in Hickory. So I was just down the road! It was a pretty cool experience.

    It sounds like you have established pretty good priorities.

    Family has always been very important to me. I love racing and I will always provide my son with an opportunity to be involved with racing, if he wants. My whole career has been in racing. It is a great career with great people around. There is no place else I would rather be than with a 2-week old kid, testing at North Wilkesboro.

    We are going to leave the number of races I run this year kind of up in the air. Probably between six and 10. One of the luxuries of the CARS Tour for me is they race different regions and in certain parts of the schedule they race three or four races within 30 to 40 minutes’ drive from my house. I’ll hit all of those and then some others that aren’t too far away so I can spend more time at home. Once we get the new baby experience further along as new parents, I will be back on the Tour a whole lot more.

    Does your son have a helmet and racing gloves yet?

    (laughing): Well, there isn’t any pressure for him to be a race car driver but we did bring him to the track for testing a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t like the ear plugs much so stayed inside quite a bit, but once things settled down we gave him the grand tour.

    What is your son’s name?

    As soon as we figured out that our baby was a boy, we knew what his name was going to be. We named him “Wilkes” because of what this racetrack means to our family and in honor of all our family members who have been part of this track.

    Does he have a nickname yet? Maybe “Smoke” or because of the legacy stories from around these parts, “Moonshine”?

    (smiling): We don’t have a nickname for him yet. I kind of like Willy and my wife sometimes calls him Wilkie, but maybe Moonshine will work, too!

    So, there is the potential that Wilkes will be the 5th generation stock car racer in your family. You mentioned your great grandfather, but also tell me about your grandfather and father.

    My great grandpa isn’t with us anymore. He was one of the kindest gentle giants I ever met. He was a county commissioner for Wilkes County at one point. People sometimes compare him to Andy Griffith.

    My grandfather was Dean Combs. He was Junior Johnson’s crew chief when Brett Bodine was driving the car, but before that he drove in a lower level, NASCAR-sanctioned series. They ran four cylinders back then on full-size racetracks like Daytona and Talladega. He won five championships doing that, about 60 races. He really dominated here at North Wilkesboro, winning something like 14 or 15 times. He has lived his entire life about 300 yards below this racetrack’s start-finish line. He still lives down there. I think he is mowing today, getting after it even at72 years old.

    My father raced in the same division that my grandpa did. He was originally from Corpus Christi, Texas and moved to the area to pursue a racing career. He ended up meeting my mom’s father, Dean Combs, who hired him as a crew chief. He met the boss’ daughter and then I came along. So, here I am.

    North Carolina golf is awesome. There is rarely a flat lie, so it makes me better.

    You mentioned earlier that the CARS Tour is a place to see some of the NASCAR Cup Series drivers of the future. Do you have any aspirations for making that jump?

    This may be hard for people not familiar with the CARS Tour to understand but I am at the competitive level that I can afford to race. A lot of CARS Tour drivers are in the same boat as me. For a lot of us, the Late Model Stock Car series is our Cup series. There is absolutely a pathway for guys that want to move up, but for a lot of us this is where we want to be. For me, in particular, the Late Model race on May 15 is my Daytona 500.

    I spoke about that pathway. Last year, Brendan Queen won the CARS Tour race here and this year he is racing in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series. That is just one example. It is an opportunity that could be presented to every winner here. It doesn’t matter what the level of competition is. Any winner on the CARS Tour could also run well at the next higher level.

    At the age of 28, I wouldn’t say that I am ready for a skyrocketing career path to the next level, but I absolutely would love to jump on the opportunity to drive one of those cars here at North Wilkesboro.

    I am happy at this level. CARS Tour is our top level and if you come and see one of these races I think you will see what I am talking about.

    I put a lot of effort into every race, but especially here at North Wilkesboro.

    What does a CARS Tour team’s budget look like?

    That is a good question and the answer is, “It varies.” You will see some guys with haulers that look like they came straight from a Cup race and then you will see other teams pulling a 24-footer (trailer) like we do. Your typical budget can range from $100,000 for lower budget teams all the way up to a quarter million. The purses for most races are $7,500 for the winner, $10,000 for some races. You get tire money back for starting. Even though it isn’t the top level, you get rewarded for trying.

    What is the sponsorship environment like?

    It is on an upswing right now. With North Wilkesboro coming back, businesses are seeing the eyes that are watching, especially in the new world of social media. The new platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram are providing new opportunities for drivers who have embraced them. Especially in this region, short track racing is seeing a rise in sponsorship interest. It doesn’t cost as much to sponsor a short track car as it does a Cup series car, so if a business owner wants to spend, say, $5,000 to get his name out there, you can do that pretty effectively. In the Cup series, it will cost about a million dollars to get your name on a car.

    Now you have an auto-related business down in Bethlehem, North Carolina, a little south of here, right?

    Yes, I do (car) wraps and decals. I have my own printing business, plus I do a little bit of video and photo production work on the side. We can put a big number on the side of your car and you can come do some laps to see how you stack up against the CARS Tour guys!

    Well, that might be fun but I doubt my Mazda 4-cylinder would ‘stack up’ very well against you guys. When you aren’t driving, producing wraps or changing diapers, what do you like to do?

    I am a big golfer. I like golf. The little guy is taking up a lot of my golf time right now, but that is only temporary, I guess, and I wouldn’t trade this time with him just to chase a little white ball around a course.

    Do you have a favorite course?

    My local track is Brushy Mountain Golf Course. North Carolina golf is awesome. You rarely get a flat lie so that makes me better. Up in the High Country, I have played both Blowing Rock Country Club and Boone Golf Course, both really fun courses.

    Other than CARS Tour, what other racing experiences have you had that are memorable for you?

    I worked at RCR, Richard Childress Racing, as a pit crew guy. My father worked there for several years and I worked as a summer job learning pit crew stuff. A lot of pit crew members in NASCAR now are high level former college athletes, especially from football.

    Well, that begs the question: How are pit stops and pit crews different than, say, the Cup Series. Or are they the same?

    Oh no. We don’t pull into the pit, run around and change tires and maybe lose spots. Ours are really controlled cautions and it is really to save budget. If we had to hire a pit crew like the Cup series, our budgets would skyrocket. On our teams, there are 6-8 guys who have been there for years changing tires, refueling, and all. Of course there are times when you have to move fast to get a car back out there, but usually caution laps don’t count. You don’t go a lap down or something. You just go to the tail end of the field. This year for the North Wilkesboro race, they will all be controlled cautions. That way we can do all of the talking on the track.

    Now the Cup boys, they will have live pit stops and even pit crew competitions.

    OK, one more question: Was there any truth to the rumors that the big cavern recently found under the North Wilkesboro grandstands was part of an old moonshine business?

    (laughing): I think the most recently discovered cavern they found under the grandstands was more of a sinkhole. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something else around this area. I have heard plenty of stories about things around these hills and around the race track. There are plenty of stories, but also ones that the locals don’t like heard on the air waves!

     

     

     

  • My Life: Dining with Legends

    By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — Hardly an Easter holiday goes by when I don’t recall a very special dinner, back in 1972.

    As a kid growing up in Central California, summertime on Saturday often found my father and I sitting in front of a fuzzy, black and white TV watching Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese call the “Game of the Week.” Most often, as THE major market team in the earlier days of broadcast television, it was the New York Yankees playing some other American League team. Not surprisingly, my favorite players were the Bronx Bombers: Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson, Yogi Berra, Tony Kubek, Whitey Ford, Rhyne Duran, Hank Bauer, Billy Martin, Bill Skowron, Elston Howard and the like.

    I was six years old in 1957, watching a game with Dad and one of my uncles when my father decided it would be cute to let me have a few sips of his Falstaff beer. He and Uncle Herm got a big kick out of that, but it cured me from drinking beer until I was in college. Mom kept saying that beer was evil and, well, I believed her — at least all the way through high school.

    I was mesmerized. Starstruck, even.

    Fast forward into the early 1970s and I was in college. I suspect a young woman I was dating at the time convinced her parents that our relationship might be serious because, almost out  of the blue, I received an invitation to join the family for Easter dinner at a country club in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles.

    Much of that evening remains a blur for me. I remember being seated at this big, long table with room for more than 12 dinner guests. I looked to my right and there was Yogi Berra, extending his hand with a greeting. I looked across the table from Berra, and his friend and host, Casey Stengel, acknowledged me with a “hello.”

    Now, imagine a kid who grew up a continent’s width away from New York City. He used to dig into an old shoe box filled with baseball cards to make his pretend lineup for playing a one-on-one pretend game against his brother on a pretend Yankee Stadium carved out in the oilfields where they lived, 10 miles from anything resembling civilization. Yogi Berra was often his catcher and who didn’t know about Casey Stengel, the famous Yankees manager.

    On this night, I was mesmerized. Starstruck, even. I don’t think I spoke two sentences the whole evening. Stengel said something about my long hair, which flowed down to my shoulders. We all laughed. This was the early 1970s, after all.

    This happened in 1972. At age 82, there was little else about Stengel that evening to remind a fellow guest of his reputation for being “colorful” as both a player and manager. He was jovial enough, but not particularly healthy or vibrant. I don’t recall hearing any Yogi-isms, if the Hall of Fame catcher uttered them. It was all friendly banter. My girlfriend and her parents faded into the background, part of the wood-paneled walls serving as the setting for this moment. My attention was elsewhere.

    Stengel passed away just three years later. Berra went back to managing the New York Mets. I returned to school with “bucket list” caliber memories to cherish over a lifetime.

  • High Country’s Cooper, Vestri go 2-3 in California women’s 5K, earning automatic Olympic Trials spots

    By David Rogers. AZUSA PACIFIC, Calif. — Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance put another team member in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials on April 12 — and the High Country poached two of the top three spots in the Bryan Clay Invitational Women’s 5K Invite race at Azusa Pacific University.

    Distance running veteran Abbey Cooper finished second in the Women’s 5K Invite, just ahead of ZAP Endurance team member Amanda Vestri. Both athletes finished under the U.S. Olympic Trials ‘A’ qualifying standard of 15:15, Cooper breaking the finish line in 15:11.15 and Vestri stopping the clock in 15:13.38.  The University of Alabama’s international student from Kenya, Hilda Olemomoi, crossed the line in first place, 15:06.42.

    Afterward the race, ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea said he was excited by Vestri’s progress and her potential in the Olympic Trials.

    “I think Amanda can meet the Olympic Trials’ automatic qualifying standard in the 10K, too, and I would not hesitate in having her run both events at the Trials,” said Rea. “Her fitness level is very high right now.”

    Rea said that Vestri is one of three ZAP endurance members he will be taking to a race near London, England, in May, the “Night of the 10K PBs,” in Highgate.

    Both Vestri and Cooper are now Boone residents. Cooper (D’Agostino) is one of the current elder statesmen of USA Track & Field at the 5K distance, where she has qualified for several U.S. teams, including the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She is among the most highly decorated Ivy League track and field athletes from her time at Dartmouth. Before joining ZAP last year, Vestri competed for Syracuse University where she was a star performer in both track and cross country.

  • My Life: Crossing paths with O.J.

    By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — I had mixed feelings today when learning that O.J. Simpson had died of prostate cancer. I met him in 1975, two years after he became the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in an NFL season and just a month before the ’75 season in which he nearly surpassed 2,000 yards again (1,817).

    Our paths crossed, logically enough, on the campus of the University of Southern California, just outside Memorial Stadium where he had become one of the greatest college running backs of all time. I was walking to the tunnel that would take me onto the field at halftime of a Los Angeles Rams vs. Oakland Raiders game. I had been selected to play in what was billed as an all-star rugby exhibition for about 15 minutes during the intermission. It was quite a thrill to play in front of more than 68,000 people.

    By this time, of course, Simpson was something like six years into his NFL career with Buffalo. He was cordial enough, offering a handshake. When he asked what I was doing for halftime and I told him about the rugby exhibition, he seemed impressed. “Now THAT is a man’s game,” he said.

    A year later, any admiration I might have harbored for O J simpson was burned up in the exhaust of a slow moving, Ford Bronco.

    I was on the front-end of a key play during the exhibition. I was playing right wing and when the ball was passed out to me there was little room to maneuver on what is a narrower football field. So I punched a high, up-and-under kick back toward the center of the field, 20-30 yards in front. On a full sprint, our flyhalf ran under the ball, gathered it in, and ran untouched to score the exhibition’s only try.

    Because he had met me earlier, Simpson sought me out as we came off and congratulated me on making that play happen. He seemed to intuitively know that an improperly placed kick would not have allowed our flyhalf to be the central figure who scored. I was honored that he would even care about the play and its significance, much less my role.

    After that encounter, however brief it might have been, I frequently wondered how O.J. would have done on the rugby pitch. I suspected he would do quite well once he understood the laws of the game, what he could and couldn’t do. Almost two decades later, in 1993, those thoughts and questions about O.J. and how he would have played resurfaced when I organized an inner city rugby program in Bakersfield, Calif., the Kern County Stampede.

    A year later, any admiration I might have harbored for O J Simpson was burned up in the exhaust of a slow-moving Ford Bronco. With Simpson the passenger and his friend and former teammate Al Cowlings driving, a normally busy Los Angeles freeway was empty while police were engaged in a low speed pursuit of the man wanted for killing his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, the night before.

    Certainly, I did not want to believe that the same hand that had shaken mine two decades earlier had just taken the lives of two innocent people whose only crime was that they were friends. The Ford Bronco “pursuit” and his actions, for me, made the distraught Simpson look guilty.

    Following the trial, filled with credible evidence against him — even with a potentially botched investigation at times — I didn’t see how he could be acquitted. Out of all the African American people throughout our country’s sordid racist history that were wrongfully lynched, executed or imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, this was the guy who was going to “get off,” scot-free?

    How many times would I have to wash my right hand before it was clean enough?

    Of course, he didn’t really get off scot-free. There was the lengthy civil trial and a jury that unanimously found Simpson guilty for the wrongful death of Ron Goldman and battery of both Goldman and Brown. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages, $8.5 million in compensatory damages to the Goldman family, and $12.5 million in punitive damages to each family.

    Not surprisingly, Simpson’s life took a downward spiral. His Heisman Trophy was auctioned off and the proceeds given to Goldman’s father. He moved to Florida so that his NFL pension would be protected (Florida does not permit pensions or residences to be seized as a way of collecting on debts).

    There were brushes with the law in Florida and, perhaps most famously, the Las Vegas incident where he was accused of entering a hotel room at gunpoint and taking various sports memorabilia.

    As a result of his conviction, Simpson spent almost nine years of a 33-year sentence in prison, released for good behavior in 2017.

    Simpson’s death attributed to prostate cancer only underlines how much his life had spiraled downward. Caught early, there are many therapies to diminish or remove the threat. But catching it requires resources, including time and money, which Simpson may well have not had after being released from prison in 2017.

    Yes, I had mixed feelings when I heard of O J Simpson’s passing on April 10. While I admired not just his gridiron talents but how, as a kid, he had used them as a way out of the Portrero projects in San Francisco. After early brushes with gangs and even the law during his high school years, he leveraged football for a ticket to USC and gridiron fame and fortune.

    But in 1994, he threw it all away and I wondered how many times I would have to wash my right hand before it was clean enough.

  • Vestri wins ‘The Ten’ in California, sets eyes on Olympic standard at 10,000 Meters

    By David Rogers. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — Just a week removed from winning the Oskar Blues 4-Miler in Brevard, N.C. — and setting a new women’s course record for that event — ZAP Endurance team member Amanda Vestri shaved 14 seconds off her previous best at 10,000 Meters and, in the process, won Sound Running’s “The Ten” event while qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials at that distance. Her official time was 31:54.22. The U.S. Olympic Trials for all track and field events except the marathon distance will be in Eugene, Ore., in June.

    In winning The Ten race, Vestri beat an international field of 16 elite women runners.

    Lowering a personal best gets harder and harder as you go faster and faster.

    It was the first time Vestri has broken the 32 minute barrier and the young athlete’s progression at 10,000 meters has been impressive since running a 35:11.45 in 2018, in Waco, Texas. The Syracuse University alum had lowered her time to a personal best of 32:08.26 on March 31, 2023, in Palo Alto, Calif.

    The ZAP Endurance elite professional running team is based in Blowing Rock and head coach Pete Rea noted after Vestri’s run, “We are extremely proud of Amanda and the work she has put in to reach this level of performance. Lowering your personal bests gets harder and harder to accomplish the faster you go, so her breaking through that 32-minute barrier is significant. Her early pacing was brilliant.”

    Rea indicated that there is still more work to do, since the qualifying time to actually run in the Paris Olympics this summer is 30:40.00. Vestri will be eyeing that standard as she trains to make the U.S. team in Eugene.

  • SNAPSHOT: Logano, Byron, Gibbs test new Goodyear tires on N. Wilkesboro’s new pavement

    By David Rogers. NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — With the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race weekend just two months away (May 19) and having had the North Wilkesboro track recently repaved, NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports and North Wilkesboro got together with Goodyear for some good, old fashioned tire testing on March 12, 13, and 14.

    The March 12 testing sessions focused on the Truck Series, while March 13 and 14 are focused on the Cup Series.

    William Byron and his No. 24 car passes by the iconic North Wilkesboro Speedway sign on March 13, during the Goodyear tire test. Photographi image by David Rogers

    It was a picture perfect day for racing, as well as for tire testing on March 13. Temperatures hovered in the high 70s, the skies were clear, and only the slightest breeze kept the American flag in the middle of the mostly empty track infield from dropping against the flag pole, motionless.

    Scott Cooper, Senior Vice President for Communications at Charlotte-based Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which owns North Wilkesboro Speedway, explained to High Country Sports that a driver from each of the three major car manufacturers were invited to participate, with members of their support teams. The mission is to allow Goodyear to select the perfect tire for the new pavement, to be supplied to the Cup teams who will compete in the All-Star event.

    Ty Gibbs speaks to invited media after the March 13 tire tests at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers

    For the March 13 testing, three of NASCAR’s young stars represented the manufacturers: Joey Logano (Penske Racing, Ford), William Byron (Hendrick, Chevrolet) and Ty Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota).

    The grip of the tire on the race track and how it performs during acceleration and braking are among the characteristics being evaluated by the race teams and Goodyear.

    All three drivers offered high praise for the new paving vs. what they experienced a year ago. Logano said there were still some idiosyncrasies in turn No. 1 and that a bump in turn No. 4 is still there, noting that “… they give the race track character.”

    The NASCAR All-Star Race is slated for May 19 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

    BONUS PHOTOS

    William Byron contemplates an answer to a reporter’s question after participating in a Goodyear tire test on March 13 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers
    Joey Logano acknowleged beingin a slump of late, but felt confident things are turning around. ‘In 15 years here now, I’ve been through other cycles.” Photographic image by David Rogers
    Ty Gibbs speaks to invited media after the March 13 tire tests at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers
    Senior Vice President of Communications Scott Cooper addresses the media before player interviews on March 13, where William Byron, Joey Logano and Ty Gibbs and their teams had tested several Goodyear tire compounds in advance of the All Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers

    William Byron and his No. 24 car passes by the iconic North Wilkesboro Speedway sign on March 13, during the Goodyear tire test. Photographi image by David Rogers
    Crew members work on Joey Logano’s No. 22 car on March 13 during a tire test at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers

  • Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance sweeps top spots in Oskar Blues 4-Miler

    By David Rogers. BREVARD, N.C. — Thanks to a well-conditioned contingent from ZAP Endurance, Blowing Rock captured four of the top nine finishes overall on March 9, including a sweep of Nos. 1 and 2 in BOTH the men’s and women’s divisions of the Oskar Blues 4-Mile Run.

    Andrew Colley (No. 1, 18:04) set a new course record in the men’s division, followed by ZAP Endurance teammate Eric Van Der Els (No. 2, 18:36). Ryan Drew of Greenville, S.C. finished in the No. 3 position, in 18:49. Colley’s winning time was a 4:31 mile pace over the four miles’ distance.

    ZAP Endurance’s newest team member, Amanda Vestri, set a new course record in the Women’s Division by finishing No. 1, in 20:30, outpacing ZAP teammate Annmarie Tuxbury at No. 2, in 22:07. Well off the winning pace at No. 3 was Jessica Payne of Brevard, in 25:28.

    More than 200 runners competed in the race. The race course is described as “fast and flat”, even if running in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The start and finish are both at the Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard.

  • Izewski breaks ZAP Endurance record at Orlando Olympic Trials for Marathon

    By David Rogers. ORLANDO, Fla. — In a stacked field — 149 of the most elite male long distance running athletes in the U.S. — finishing in the top 20, much less the top 10 is quite an accomplishment. Representing Blowing Rock based ZAP Endurance, Josh Endurance was No. 8 to cross the finish line on Jan. 3 in the U.S. Olympic Trials for the marathon.

    Izewski did not make the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team but served notice that he is a talent to be reckoned with in professional long distance running. His 2:11:09 time broke the ZAP Endurance club record and he was a little more than two minutes behind first place finisher, Connor Mantz, running for Nike and clocking 2:09:06. The No. 2 finisher was Clayton Young (ASICS/Run Elite Program), in 2:09:06. Leonard Korir (Nike/U.S. Army WCAP) finished at No. 3 in a time of 2:09:57.

    All of the  athletes competing in the Feb. 3 Olympic Trials event had to first  “qualify” by running beneath a certain standard. For the men, an athlete had to have run the 26.2 mile distance in 2:18:0 between Jan. 1, 2022 and December 5, 2023 OR a half marathon in 1:03:00. The women’s qualifying standards were 2:37:00 for the marathon and 1:12:00 for the half marathon.

    The top three athletes in the Trials event are selected to represent the U.S. in their respective men’s and women’s events.

    The marathon events are scheduled for Aug. 10, 2024, covering an historic route through Paris and out to Versailles and back. The historic event recognized with the Olympic marathon route is a key moment from the French Revolution: the Women’s March on Versailles, on 5 October 1789.

    ZAP Endurance, an elite, professional distance running club based in Blowing Rock, had six athletes competing who met the qualifying standard. On the women’s side, ZAP member and former App State cross country and long distance runner in track, Tristin Van Ord finished the race at No. 17 in the field of 117 elite U.S. female athletes.

    The other ZAP members competing:

    • MEN: Tyler Pennel, who in 2016 (Los Angeles) finished No. 5 out of approximately 280 elite runners (he led the field from Mile 13 to Mile 19), was forced to drop out of the Orlando trials after 11 miles because of a hamstring injury. Through that distance he was running a 5:00 mile pace, including a 4:50 pace at Mile 9.
    • MEN: Andrew Colley was running at an impressive, 4:44 mile pace through Mile 17 and was in touch with the race leaders when he was  forced to retire because of gastrointestinal issues, at Mile 19.
    • WOMEN: Annemarie Tuxbury finished at No. 62, clocking a time of 2:39:53, averaging 6:06 minutes per mile.
    • WOMEN: Whitney Macon made it through the 20-miles mark before having to abandon the race due to injury. When she dropped out, she was running at approximately a 6:39 mile pace.

    RELATED LINKS

    • https://www.paris2024.org/en/olympic-marathon-route/
    • https://track.rtrt.me/e/ORLANDO-TRIALS-2024#/leaderboard/top-men-marathon/FINISH
    • https://track.rtrt.me/e/ORLANDO-TRIALS-2024#/leaderboard/top-women-marathon/FINISH

     

  • Vestri captures USATF National XC title, ZAP sweeps in Kiawah Island

    By David Rogers. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A stacked field of 131 elite athletes from across the nation, including full contingents from 20 top U.S. clubs and a smattering of top-level unattached harriers didn’t faze Amanda Vestri on Dec. 9. The former Syracuse University athlete now training with Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance claimed the championship title of the 2023 USATF National Club Cross Country Championships staged in Apalachee Regional Park.

    Vestri was the only member of the ZAP Endurance professional running team competing in the event. Head coach Pete Rea explained that several others who might have taken on the challenge are in a different training mode.

    Amanda Vestri holds form with 2k to go in the 6K USATF National Club XC Championships in Tallahassee, Fla., Dec. 9. Photo by Michael Scott, courtesy of ZAP Endurance

    “We have six of our members who qualified to run in the U.S. Olympic Trials for the Marathon in early February,” said Rea.

    Vestri, however, embraced the challenge of the 6k USATF National Club Championships course, finishing the distance in 20:06.3, more than 14 seconds before No. 2 Claire Green of the Peninsula Distance Club (20:20.4). No. 3 Maya Weigel of Peninsula Distance Club was two seconds behind her teammate (20:22.8).

    In the club team competition, Peninsula Distance Club had all five of its athletes finish in the top 10, easily beating the No. 2 club, Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, as well as the No. 3 club, Pacers Running//GRC NB ‘A’.

    Kiawah Island Half Marathon

    Three other ZAP members also got in a competitive training run on Dec. 9, in the Kiawah Island Half Marathon. Andrew Colley finished No. 1 in the men’s division while Kristin Van Ord and Annmarie Tuxbury finished 1-2 in the women’s division.

  • ZAP’s Vestri finishes No. 8 out of 200 elite runners in Boston indoor season opener

    By David Rogers. BOSTON, Mass. — In a field of almost 200 top-ranked collegiate and professional women’s middle distance runners, Parker Valby of the University of Florida ran a sub-15 minute 5,000 meters (14:56.11) in the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener indoor track meet at Boston University — and it came just one week after she captured the NCAA Division I Cross Country title in Charlottesville, Va.

    For most of the race, Valby ran a step behind Andrea Rodenfels, representing the Boston Athletic Association, the duo gaining significant separation from the rest of the elite field in Heat 1. With five laps to go, Valby surged ahead and never lost form in not only setting a meet record but an American record as well.

    Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance also had an elite runner in the race, Amanda Vestri who recently joined the team after finishing her collegiate career at Syracuse University. Near the middle of the race, Vestri jumped into the No. 3 position to lead a long, single file of elite runners. She remained at No. 3 before fading slightly in the closing laps to finish No. 8, clocking 15:21.11. Even so, Vestri was just five seconds behind the No. 3 finisher, Ella Donaghu of the Nike Union Athletics Club.

    According to ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea, Vestri’s performance in Boston represents a milestone of sorts in her career.

    “Amanda is a 10,000 meter specialist, so this 5,000 meter distance is more akin to speed work for her. After her training with us for a few months, we wanted to see what she could do. Her best time at this distance while competing for Syracuse was 15:42.48. So for her to improve on her time by roughly 27 seconds is pretty significant and we think she can go a lot lower.

    “To put this performance in perspective,” added Rea, “the slowest qualifier for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials was about 15:24 and Amanda ran faster than that in this race. While her beating that time in this indoor race looks promising, for the 2024 Olympic Trials I don’t think a 15:21 will make the field. The U.S. has a deep field of 5,000 meter female runners this year.”

    In the Seeded Men’s 5,000 meters, Harvard University’s Graham Blanks followed up his recent win in the NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championships by breaking the NCAA indoor record for the 5,000 meters in 13:03.72, smashing the 11-year old mark of 13:08.28 set in 2012 by Arizona’s Lawi Latang. The mark also was under the Olympic qualifying standard of 13:05, should he earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.

    Of local interest, Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance athlete Dan Schaffer, who is more of a mile and 1500 meters specialist, stepped up his distance and qualified to run in Heat 1 with the elite runners.  Ultimately, he finished at No. 39 out of the 235 top collegiate and professional runners competing in the field.