North-South Shootout Favorites Hirschman & Barrett Ready for the Challenge
SOPHIA, NC — The 11th annual John Blewett Memorial North-South Shootout 125 for tour-type Modifieds this upcoming weekend, November 7-9 at the Caraway (N.C.) Speedway will finish off the 2013 auto racing season for many. Prerace favorites Matt Hirschman and Tommy Barrett hope to turn opportunity into a $6,000 plus winners payday.
Both drivers are very familiar with winning races, having won multiple events on the Race of Champions and Valenti Modified Racing Series they compete with. One thing that separates Hirschman (Northampton, Pa.) from college freshman Barrett (Millis, Ma.) is open show success. Hirschman has won numerous events just this year, while Barrett is still searching for his first victory lane experience in an open show.
This one is 125 laps of all out green flag racing. Both drivers are as good as anyone at conserving tire wear for the end of tour events, but this is a different kind of race, and Hirschman knows that all too well, as a four time winner of the event, although three came at Concord (N.C.) and he doesn’t consider himself to be a favorite in this race.
“I’m at a track experience disadvantage but I don’t go there really feeling like my chance of winning is any less than it would be anywhere else,” Hirschman says. “I certainly don’t consider myself to be a favorite though either. I’m a little unsure about what it is going to take to win, but I don’t know that anybody really knows what it’s going to take because of the strategy involved.”
For Barrett, all he can think of is how close he came to winning the race last year after overcoming a pit stop for repairs that put him three laps down only to crash racing for the lead with less than five laps remaining. Optimism turned to disappointment again for Barrett in the two 2013 open shows.
“I’d have to say a five,” Barrett said when asked how he would rate his success in the two open show events he has run this season. “We were really good at Star (N.H.) until we had some bad luck, and at Seekonk (Mass.) the car was awful.”
Hirschman proved in 2011 that track experience doesn’t guarantee success, as he raced to victory in his first-ever appearance at Caraway Speedway in the John Blewett North-South Shootout.
“That was one of my proudest wins ever, based on how I was able to win the first year,” Hirschman added. “It proves that anybody can win. It doesn’t matter if you race there all of the time or not. I think that I was an underdog for that despite my shootout success at Concord.”
Hirschman and Barrett will have to contend with a number of teams who bring the potential of victory. The south is well represented by drivers such as George Brunnhoelzl III, Andy Seuss and Burt Myers to name a few, while northerners Chuck Hossfeld, Ron Silk and Chris Pasteryak are among the 27 early entrants as well.
With a mix of talent such as this, the 11th annual John Blewett Memorial North-South Shootout is sure to be a crowd-pleasing event you won’t want to miss. Qualifying begins on Friday at 5:00 PM, with feature races beginning on Saturday at 2:00 PM sharp with the PASS SLM 150.
The Southern Lite Modifieds, similar to IMCA cars will go 50 laps. The Legends cars have a 25-lap race followed by the 125-lap Modified Shootout, 50 laps for the Limited Late Models and 50 for the Super Trucks.
For a detailed event schedule log onto: www.carawayspeedway.com. Further information is available by calling the track office at: (336) 629-5803 or you can also find the full Modified early entry list and more on the history of this C&C Productions event at: www.northsouthshootout.com. Updates during the week, and on race weekend can be found on the Caraway Speedway Facebook page.
Sources: Kevin Rice/North-South Shootout PR