Business as Usual for Trio of Perennial SCSCS Title Contenders
Statesville, North Carolina (April 11, 2019) – The Super Cup Stock Car Series has the pleasure of showcasing some committed lifelong racers who have become mainstays near the top of the running order, knocking on the door for their first overall championship. With years of experience attained, the off-season process serves as nothing deviating too far from normal.
Mike Potter achieved a breakthrough season in 2018. The Johnson City, Tennessee based former Daytona 500 competitor captured his first Pole Award, locked down third in the final standings with six top-five finishes, won the Hard Charger of the Year Award for advancing the most positions from green to checkered on multiple occasions, led more than 50 laps altogether, and nearly earned his first career SCSCS victory during a couple instances.
To continue and better the performance from the most recent and past years, the strategy is pretty much the same.
“We’re just trying to get our car better,” Potter stated. “We’ll start out the first of the year, see how it goes, and run the best that we can.”
While there was one-time last year where he made the 800-mile round trip for an event at Midvale Speedway entirely on his own, Potter has been grateful for the support he actively receives at many other tracks on the schedule and back home in the shop. Former Pro Cup champion Caleb Holman often helps dial in the No. 14 behind-the-scenes, including the installation of a modernized front nose during the winter months. Dale Schlobohm, Mike and David Blevins, and Nathan Archer are among the cast that assists when they can as well.
Potter has a few notable places pinned that gained his interest on this year’s calendar, including a couple that the veteran gets to add to the long list of venues visited over a storied five decades of racing.
“I’ve never been to Salem or Shenandoah so I’m anxious to go there,” Potter remarked. “Jennerstown is one of the tracks I like to drive on the best.”
The closest track to home was the site of one of his biggest SCSCS accomplishments to date, in front of a local turnout of cheering spectators and family.
“I didn’t really expect to get the pole, but I tried hard and we’ll try to do it again this year,” Potter mentioned regarding the Kingsport Speedway event last June and returning at the start of summer 2019.
“The Concrete Jungle” also played into the Car Owner of The Year Award in which he was recognized for at the conclusion of the season. The Potter Racing team prepared five cars for the nearby event, sweeping the appearances in winners circle with driver Ben Ebeling.
While Kevin Kromer has come up short in the overall crowning achievement, he is one of the select few who can call himself a division champion after a steady effort a year ago.
That feat is only one of the factors that has the Walnutport, Pennsylvania driver carrying momentum into the new year.
“I hope we can get off to a good start and be consistent like before,” Kromer noted. “Our goal is another championship, whether it’s in the north or overall.”
Entering his 11th full season of SCSCS competition, Kromer has seen cars come and go from his stable, analyzing different strategies in order to improve and often preparing day and night all the way up to the opening event. This off-season has been slightly different, as the K2 Motorsports team acquired a new car mid-season, which is already set up most of the way following a solid result in the final races of 2018 at Dominion Raceway back in September.
“That’s the best thing,” Kromer said. “We had to go through it to make sure everything is all right, but there hasn’t been as much time spent on it.”
With the help of his crew members, such as his wife Kelly Kromer, his friend ‘Puda’, and father and son Rick and Rob Wellek who travel from the western part of Pennsylvania, they are optimistic to start off the year with a positive outcome and know what it takes.
“The biggest thing is you have to keep the tires on the car,” Kromer indicated about the American Racer compound the series runs on the 4/10-mile oval and all season long. “We cut a right rear tire the first race (in September) and had to replace it with one that probably had close to 300 laps on it, and we were right there. It goes to show the abuse these tires will take, but you still have to manage them.”
Kromer will once again be partnering with the Lehigh Valley Cancer Institute and his Mission R.A.C.E.R. foundation on the No. 77 throughout 2019.
Brent Nelson has built upon the successful statistics he has recorded year after year ever since joining the SCSCS midway through 2010. But 2018 turned out to be another season of being the bridesmaid in the final standings despite a career high three wins which moves him to second all-time.
It is business as usual for the resident of Petersburg, West Virginia who has firmly believed time and time again that races are won at the shop.
“There is literally not a nut or bolt that hasn’t been touched,” Nelson explained. “Every part has been checked front to back on the car. A roller cam I feel like cost us a championship a few years ago, so you have to go through it all every chance you get.”
Upon finding some odds and ends that were not quite right or in need of fixing over the offseason, the No. 80 Precision Auto Collision / Airtek Inc. / Atkinson Welding Chevrolet also received a needed rebuilding and freshening of the engine after a rocker arm issue sidelined him in a race late in the season. Additionally, Nelson took a close look at the valve train and will be packing the wheel bearings in advance of arriving at the racetrack for the first time in 2019
“We’re looking to pick up where we left off last year,” Nelson, who led laps and learned a great deal from the Thornburg, Virginia facility races in 2018, declared. “We’re gunning for a win at Dominion. We really had them covered in August until we ran over something with only a few laps left.”
Nelson’s wife Wendy, his brother Rocky, and Rocky’s wife Patsy will join in once again for the small-budgeted and family endeavors at the race track.
Updates in the form of a list of drivers expected, complete race day schedule, and pre-race release are forthcoming at www.supercupstockcarseries.com, Facebook (search Super Cup Stock Car Series), Twitter (@SCSCSRacing), and Instagram (SCSCS_Racing) as the 2019 season inches even closer.
Sources Aaron Creed, SCSCS PR
Photos by Patrick Miller Photography