On Sunday at Star Speedway during the Milton Cat Modified Racing Series event an incident took place on track during a heat race involving drivers Mark Bakaj and Jeffrey Battle.
The on-track incident led to an off track confrontation between members of the two teams. The car driven by battle was owned by Bobby Webber Jr., who is the owner of Star Speedway.
Battle earned a qualifying spot into the main event through his finish in his heat race. Bakaj did not earn a qualifying spot through his heat race or through the consolation event but was the first driver eligible for the lone series provisional available for the event.
Bakaj had competed in all five previous Modified Racing Series events this season before Sunday’s race and came into the Star Speedway event seventh in the series standings. Following the consolation heat, Modified Racing Series management informed Bakaj that he would not be allowed to run in the main event due to the confrontation that took place off track following the initial heat race. Battle was allowed to run in the main event and finished last in the 25-car field after crashing on the first lap.
Milton Cat Modified Racing Series owner and operator Willy Doucette posted this statement below Monday on the series website concerning what took place:
Sounds like a conflict of interest! BWR seems to have crossed the line on this. Racing would die without sponsors and the funding from it, but BWR needs to associate itself with a more reputable sponsors.
So were they forced into that decision by the owner of the 19 car? Seems the FB post from the Bakaj team clearly says that they were told the track owner did not want them racing at his facility. That is a slippery slope to get on and is a pretty serious conflict of interest.
Though trite common expressions are perfect in this situation.
“he fell on his sword”- the guy is taking the hit not wanting to drag an owner in that he wants to work with in the future.
“mea culpa”- his post is dripping with contrition.
Boy this is a bad look for Webber to say the least. This is something that would most likely never occur at a place like Stafford. Why in the world would Webber be foolish enough to stick his two cents in???
Well look up the event that took place at New Smyrna Speedway during speedweeks several years ago, that got Mr. Weber banned from that track.
If Willy went to Mark and said hey I need to finnish this show but we wont ever comeback to this pricks Race Track and I am paying you points and purse for where you qualified, this wouldnt be as Bad.
Instead a Series Owner who is struggling to get Dates at Tracks took the potential for future Races at that facility over his Racer who has been to all of his Events this yr. Webber knows he has Willy over a barrel, no Star = no Series. What if Webber wants his car on the pole or no race? The Itengrity Scenerios are now endless.
The Racing guys were already telling teams 3 possible shows at Star next yr, Willy I am sure is going to piggyback those events as MRS Races and didnt think twice about throwing out the 52.
The problem is the other Races at Oxford, Wicasett, Groveton etc where they got 12-14 Cars, they beg scream and cry to get Teams to go to these shows and Mark went to everyone and was loyal to this Series. He hasnt ran anywhere else this yr so he could focus on MRS points.
Could not of happend to a better Team, just bad judgement all the way around
As track owner, Webber shouldn’t have been involved, as car owner he should have. Track trump’s Car so he should have stayed out of any decisions made.
Sounds like my 7 yr old wrote that explanation/apology. Fell on the sword is exactly how i would have said aswell. Well put Doug. I guess everyone has to eat but now all your teams know you won’t stand up for them if they need you to. Bakaj taunting them with a kiss and them getting butthurt about it, is somewhere between laughable and sad. I would expect that from a kid but not a full grown “adult”. You own a race track and can’t deal with name calling. Geesh. So if someone gets wrecked and interviewed, says so and so’s an idiot or should learn to drive, is gonna get booted? Or is it just cause it happened to your car? which i might add made the feature out of that heat and bakaj didnt.
Can anyone invision mark arute throwing anyone out of stafford cause they blew him a kiss? Hell no. Probably would have did it right back to them. Even if paul and david was spun like that never would you see that. Physical altercation absolutely, but this guys a joke. Be mad all you want over what someone called you or said but this dude looks stupid and petty. Im sure my words and everyone else’s will have zero effect on this guy or his gigantic ego but here’s to trying.
Never argue with idiots, they drag you down to their level and win with experience.— scott adams
After that stupid statement, I don’t have much hope that the MRS will be around much longer. Why would anyone want to race with a series where the guy that runs it doesn’t have your back? A guy blows a kiss at someone and you have him thrown out of the race? Willie Doucette clinched his place as one of the worst series owners in the history of racing with that move. And why would anyone want to race with that series again if you know when Webber has a car in the race he can just ask the officials to throw out anyone he wants thrown out?
Isn’t it funny that Little Webby’s car was the first car out yesterday…
Don’t think Willy Doucette had much credibility in the modified racing community before this. Whatever bit he did have is gone now.
So now every driver racing on the mrs knows that if the right person asks Willie to throw them out of a race then they’ll get thrown out for no reason.
OK it’s been a couple days now so have we all got that out of our systems? The bile of cynicism manifesting itself in a need to step on someone’s throat for something. But wait, what’s that I see. Could it be, well by gum it is. Mark Bakaj himself throwing a fig leaf out as it were on Facebook. A dose of Pepto Bismol for all those acidy stomachs. And the MRS responding with a love note of their own.
All is right now in the Modified Racing Series world. We’ve all come together, holding hands and it’s on to Thompson with pure hearts and clear minds reason has prevailed.