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New Sponsor? Check. New Crew Chief? Check. Carlson Has Fresh Outlook for Blizzard Series/SSS

By Chuck Corder

It seems like Scott Carlson’s late model career is undergoing a fresh detail.

A new ride from Grand American Race Cars, the Jaguar of late model manufacturers. A new sponsor thanks to Anderson Subaru. And a new crew chief in Josh Hamner who knows his way around Five Flags Speedway.

The Extreme Makeover: Blizzard Series Edition continues next Friday, June 21, night when the Southern Super Series returns its Super Late Models to Pensacola's high banks for the SSS 125 Presented by Penske Racing Shocks.

“Racing keeps me feeling young,� Carlson said.

The 55-year-old hotshoe pointed out he’s a year older than Mark Martin, who continues to make life tough on his Sprint Cup Series counterparts.

Carlson would love nothing more than do take a page out of Martin’s playbook next Friday evening after coming home 19th in the Blizzard opener, the Rubber and Specialties 125, last month,

Motorcycles -- yep, Rob McClendon and his wild bunch are back -- Sportsmen and Bombers join the festivities when the grandstands open at 5 p.m. June 21.

All four Blizzard races this year figure into the Southern Series points. To date, there have been six events at tracks across the South, but only Five Flags has exhibited a bit of diversity.
T.J. Reaid, who won last month in Pensacola, is one of just three winners. Augie Grill -- he of the two Snowball Derby and,  oh yes, two Snowflake 100 titles -- boasts three wins, while Bubba Pollard -- the pole sitter at the 2011 Snowball Derby -- owns two wins.
Pollard was on pace for his third when the SSS debut May 24 at the famed half-mile asphalt oval, thoroughly throttling the field for a giant chunk of the 125 lapper.
But lapped traffic spelled disaster for Pollard with five laps left when he crashed into the outside wall.

“What (these races are), is a mini Snowball Derby,� Carlson said. “We’ve got the same class of racers here for the Blizzard race as we do for the Derby.�

The now 36-year veteran of Five Flags — last year was the first season Carlson missed since breaking through in 1976 — would love nothing more than to test his new mettle (and metal) against the cream of the crop.

“Sure, I wanna be able to race against the best and beat the best,� he said. “You do that, you know you’ve accomplished something. Winning a Blizzard race as an underdog would be like David Ragan winning Talladega.�

Carlson hopes Josh Hamner can help grant that wish.

He a past Blizzard race winner, Hamner once drove for Kyle Busch’s late model team and has twice started third for the Snowball Derby.

“Being a driver, (Hamner) can relate to what I feel in the car,� Carlson said. “He has a better understanding of how to adjust the car. If he sees something on the track, if I’m not driving the right line, he has the expertise to change the line up or tell me to do something different. All around, it’s a big plus.�

Hamner, whose family builds engines for many of the drivers competing in the SSS, has come aboard with aspirations of returning Carlson to his 2007 form.

That season, Carlson captured the track championship in dominant fashion. Having Hamner, who won the title a year later, in his ear has put Carlson at ease.

“It gives me a lotta confidence,� he said. “Some of the things I worried about in the past, I don’t have to concern myself with now. I can keep my mind on driving and try to keep up with the ones that do this for a living.�

Like a Sportsman or Bomber driver, Carlson has long championed his blue-collar, grass-root ties to the sport.

The proprietor of Fast Eddie’s Fun Center doesn’t have the time, crew or, most importantly, the wallet to bounce from track to track every weekend across the southeast.

But with the show in his backyard once again next Friday, Scott Carlson 2.0 is eager to chase the “big boys� around the blacktop.

“We’ve got high hopes,� he said. “It’s all about being the hometown guy. You want to go out and do good for yourself at your home track for the hometown fans and all of your friends. I’d like to think we could win the race, but just to be competitive, that’d be great too.�

 

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