Randall Walker dominates to win Sunday's Ice Bowl at Talladega Short Track

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Randall Walker didn’t know he would be racing in the Ice Bowl at Talladega Short Track until last week.

In fact, he had such short notice, the Pell City construction worker didn’t even have time to wash his super late model before the race.

But even with a dirty race car, Walker cleaned up the competition at the biggest dirt race of the year in Alabama by leading all 50 laps of the feature event on Sunday. And that was even after losing his brakes for the last 10 laps.

“About a week ago my dad called me and said, ‘Let’s go racing.’” Walker said. “I wasn’t planning on coming. I hadn’t even washed the car.”

Walker had turned in the fastest lap during qualifying, then went out Saturday and won his heat race to win the pole.

“Hopefully this’ll start off 2010 real good,” said Walker, who has raced regularly at TST for about five years but had never won the track’s premier event.

The race was run before a smaller crowd than last year thanks to sub-freezing temperatures and an icy wind. The number of cars that showed up was also down this year -- 238 compared with 368 last year.

“My hands were getting real cold out there,” Walker said.

Dingus Griffin finished second, followed by Chris Jones, Travis Pennington and Tim Busha.
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The IMCA Modified race provided a controversial finish.

Chris Moore of Coldwater, Miss., held off NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader to take the checkered flag in the 20-lap event.

Moore pulled into Victory Lane and started to celebrate only to be told by a race official to pull out because he was being disqualified. Schrader then pulled into Victory Lane as an argument ensued between Moore and race officials.

Moore had failed to pull directly into the infield after the race to have his car weighed and instead made another lap around the track.

But race officials decided to let Moore keep the win but forfeit a portion of his winnings.

“They wanted to throw us out because they said we didn’t come straight to the pits,” Moore said, arguing that he took an extra lap because other cars were still racing to the checkered flag.

Moore said Schrader, with whom he has raced many times at other local tracks, agreed that he should get the win.

“He’s cool,” Moore said. “I knew when he was behind me (during the race) that he wouldn’t take me out.”

Two other races were run on Sunday. Tim Busha of Boaz, the track’s 2009 champion, won the crate late model race and Barney Mayfield won the limited late model race.

One face familiar to race fans at Talladega Short Track, Alabama Gang legend Red Farmer of Hueytown was at the track but didn’t race. The 77-year-old former NASCAR veteran is still recovering from a bout of pneumonia. His grandson, Lee Burdett, filled in for him.

By
Doug Demmons - The Birmingham News

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Here are the 16 drivers who are locked in, starting with pole winner Randall Walker of Oxford:

Position/Driver/Car No./Lap time

1. Randall Walker, 15, 14.254
2. Billy Mayo, 115, 14.273
3. Stacy Holmes, H2, 14.278
4. Dingus Griffin, 49, NA
5. Chris Jones, 46, 14.297
6. John Ownbey, 48, 14.501
7. Travis Pennington, 21P, 14.360
8. Lavon Sparks, 11S, 14.588
9. Todd Morrow, T1, 14.442
10. Tim Busha, 15TB, 14.434
11. Steven Ashby, 16A, 14.365
12. Tim Roszell, 25, 14.651
13. Doug King, 18DK, 14.542
14. Ethan Hunter, 15H, 14.602
15. Dillon Crim, 7C, 14.384
16. Andy Standridge, 16, 14.475
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ICE BOWL RESULTS

(1) Randall Walker,
(2) Dingus Griffin,
(3) Chris Jones,
(4) Travis Pennington,
(5) Tim Busha,
(6) Todd Morrow,
(7) Steven Ashby,
(8) Tim Roszell,
(9) Neil Baggett,
(10) Dillon Crim,
(11) Lamar Scoggins,
(12) Doug King,
(13) Terry Smith,
(14) Mike Ashley,
(15) Kyle Beard,
(16) Andy Standridge,
(17) John Ownbey,
(18) Adam Cummins,
(19) Stacy Holmes,
(20) Lavon Sparks,
(21) Tony Morris,
(22) Eric Cooley,
(23) Billy Mayo,
(24) Ethan Hunter,
(25) Dane Burns.

Fast qualifier (among 62 cars): Randall Walker, 14.254 seconds.

Heat race winners: Randall Walker, Billy Mayo, Stacy Holmes, Dingus Griffin.

Consolation winners: Lamar Scoggins, Tony Morris, Neil Baggett, Mike Ashley.

Provisional starter: Terry Smith.

Dirt on Dirt
Todd Turner