Matt Hirschman Scores Victory In North-South Shootout Shootout
North, South, East or West, when the big paycheck is up for grabs for steering a Modified, Matt Hirschman is usually somewhere near the front.
Hirschman got by Jimmy Blewett on a restart with seven laps remaining to win the 150-lap 19th John Blewett III Memorial North-South Shootout Tour Type Modified feature at Caraway Speedway in Sophia, N.C.
“Late in the race it’s tough getting off that corner [on restarts],” Hirschman said. “It’s tough to get grip up off of that corner. He slipped enough where I was just able to keep my foot in it and carry my speed around him by the time we got to turn three. It was a good hard racing going there.”
It was the seventh North-South Shootout victory for the Northampton, Pa. driver.
Hirschman took home a little more than $9,000 for the victory, which included a $2,000 bonus for starting last in the 23-car field and winning after grabbing the pole position.
“This race has always been big in my career,” Hirschman said. “In the early part of my career it was the biggest. It kind of put me on the map.”
Blewett of Howell, N.J. was second and Caleb Heady of Shelbyville, KY was third.
“Obviously we weren’t the victor here today,” Blewett said. “That hurt a little bit. But you know what, congrats to Matt. There’s no better guy in the business. That right there is the man. Getting beat by him isn’t so bad for me.”
Can someone please report a full field run down? It shouldn’t be something that we have to work to find.
Driver name.
Starting position
Finishing position
Sponsor
Media should realize this would help and do something to get these drivers names and sponsors in ink somewhere. JMO. The tracks here in the south are horrible at it. I came on this site and still can not find anything. Does anyone know where a modified fan can go to get this info? Thank you in advance.
Keith,
Check the bottom of the story. Unofficial Race Monitor results there. Nothing has been released from the track.
Entertaining race, although it took way too long to run. The kid in the 7NY is impressive, and could do good things in the future. Not a great field of cars, but better than the past 3 or 4 years, so maybe this race gets back to what it started out as. Matt again rises to the top. PitRowTV was pretty good for the most part.
David, to get the race back to what is was they would probably have to move the date. The crowd seemed really small. A large part of the problem is the N\S Shootout now goes head to head with The World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. The event at the Dirt Track was announced as a sellout Saturday night and looked really close to full Friday during the features. Pretty tough to have that that race an hour away and pull in local fans. Hickory was also running a large Late Model race and appeared to have a decent crowd, so that does not help either.
Last to First = WOW that’s Confidence in your Equipment / Pit Crew and most of all your ABILITY to pass cars carefully without getting caught up in someones mess on way to the FRONT . As a Driver it’s so hard coming from the back, its hard to imagine for those Who haven’t strapped in …. Amazing Driving…. Super Faith to start scratch…. Big Money $$$$ cashes the Check again. I would guess He is up around $100,000. for a full season of purses starting in February in Florida… ??
Dadope did you forget Troyer 1-2-3
JMB, thanks for the response. I disagree partially, and respectfully. I say that because the world finals started 4 years after the shootout, and the crowd at the shootout was still good for some years after that, drawing good fields of cars and fans. I agree it isn’t ideal, but I don’t see a lot of conflict with dirt and asphalt fans, at least in my circle. Moving the date earlier would just cause more conflicts. I can’t explain why, but Caraway hasn’t drawn good fan counts in years, but the one at Hickory did not either. It’s a tough equation to resolve. I would love to see the payout equal what the World finals has, but that will never happen. 15,000+ fans at Charlotte, 1500 (I’m being generous) at Caraway just doesn’t make if feasible. The only fix will never happen, and that is to have it at Bowman Gray!
At the time when it was run at Concord in the early days, there were great car counts and crowds multiple forms of Mods running(tour, sk, supers). There were issues with facilities at the track, then the dirt world finals and payout……..
Unfortunatley there isn’t really a good track down here that will draw a good car count anymore. Caraway is in the middle of nowhere, hickory is too far from charlotte.
the only way to bring this event back to its former glory, is to figure out a way to do 3 things in my opinion, no mater what track or date.
1- more exciting overall event for the fans (maybe heat races)(get sk’s and supers involved again)
where are the bosignore’s, silks, cobys, mckennedys, etc. (I look at this line up and think to myself (before the race even starts) this looks like a 2 horse race, Hirschman and Emerling (the only 2 here with any level of sucess this year and continuity with their team.
2- entice the best of the best to show up from all forms of modified racing
3- have it at a track that at least has the opportunity to draw a big crowd for mods (down here the only place like that is BGS, but i do not see a bunch of norhtern guys coming down here to tear the stuff up at BGS)
At the risk of ruffling some feathers down here, the main reason for the decline is rather obvious. When Charles passed away, the NSS started its spiral downward. Charles work tirelessly on this event…and I do mean event. It wasn’t just another race. It was promoted the entire season, not just a few weeks before the date.
To many….now it’s just another race at Caraway. It’s up against the WOO show at Charlotte and a late model race at Hickory. A friend of mine who in the past would never have missed a NSS doesn’t even consider going now. “if it was what it used to be, I’d be there.” I got that reply from more than one person this past weekend. Myself? I watched on Pit Row TV. I’m 45 minutes from the track.
Taking it to other tracks isn’t necessarily the answer although it probably wouldn’t hurt. Promotion is the key. Until someone can take it back to an “event” you’ll keep seeing weak car counts and attendance. Oh….Bowman Gray wouldn’t work even if they wanted to try that route….from what I understand the promoter has an exclusive contract for racing there. You couldn’t lease it for a race of your own even if you wanted to.
in regard to the comments about the location of the NSS, Concord was a great place for this event! it was a great track that produced great racing and a very good location. caraway is far a good location.
as far as moving the race to bowman gray stadium, that is not an option. winston salem state plays football there in the fall.
how about Dominon speedway down near Spotsylvania, Virginia? great facility… easy to get to right off 95 and judging by the lack of northern cars this year, something may need to be done to entice their involvement. moving the race to a track a little bit closer and definitely easier to get to can’t hurt…..
This was the first year the race was streamed isn’t it? RaceDayCt promoted the heck out of the race and the streaming end of it with banners and more stories then in the past.
How do you know the race wasn’t very successful considering the potential for the fans in modified country to actually view the event?
The field had a decent number of northern participants.
Put it at any track you like down there and it will still be a headliner that is more a curiosity then the main interest of local fans.
If you want more northern teams move it further north. It is after all called the North South Shootout and not the Has to be in the South Shootout.
They should have the race at either Richmond or South Boston. Virginia is the farthest you should go to try and do a “North/South” race. Even though, when was the last time the North-South Shootout was a main stream race topic? I am not trying to hate but, let’s be honest that race lost its luster after like 2012. Didn’t it used to be an invitational race in like 2006 where you had to accumulate enough points or wins to even be allowed to race or am I confusing myself?