Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991 TAG: 9103090045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Markham, already a winner of a track-record three Late Model Stock Car races, continued his Martinsville success story on Friday, taking the pole for Sunday's 100-lap LMSC portion of the Miller 500 tripleheader.
Markham's pole run of 88.115 mph in a Buick surprised absolutely no one. In fact, it may have been bigger news if the 31-year-old Fredericksburg driver hadn't won his third career Martinsville pole.
"For some reason, I've always been able to get around this track," Markham said. "The first time they brought the Late Model Stock cars here I sat on the pole and won the race.
"So this, I guess, is the same old stuff. Sure, when you have success at a place like I've had here at Martinsville, you sorta feel like good things are going to happen. You feel a little more relaxed."
Despite having to scrap his usual Martinsville chassis setup due to a harder tire being provided by Hoosier, Markham never missed a beat.
"We didn't really know how the new setup was going to react," Markham said. "The car ran good right off the truck. We made some changes before the last practice and it slowed down, so we changed everything back to the way we had it."
Markham conceded the new harder rubber compound, combined with cool temperatures, made the cars slip slightly in the .526-mile oval's tight corners.
"It takes several laps for these tires to heat up," Markham said. "On the first [qualifying] lap, the guys on the crew told me to be careful and use it to heat the tires and make a run on the second lap. I was slipping and sliding on the first lap, but I drove it into the corner hard on the second lap and fortunately it stuck.
"I slipped a little in both corners on both laps, but I must have kept the car straighter than the others. We just slipped less than everybody else, I guess."
Markham shrugged off notions that the rest of the field will be running for second place on Sunday.
"Hey, this is just one lap. Qualifying is one thing, the race is something else," he said.
The North Carolina quartet of Maurice Hill, Michael Ritch, Jay Fogleman and Johnny Rumley qualified second through fifth.
Former Martinsville winners Wayne Patterson of Richmond and Ronnie Thomas of Christiansburg qualified sixth and seventh.
\ Ferrum's Paul Radford, still going strong at age 59, qualified his familiar Dodge 14th for the LMSC race.
Markham, who will try to earn a spot in Sunday's Busch Grand National 200-lapper in today's qualifying races, said Friday he almost landed a deal to drive for Rick Mast's dormant GN team.
Mast, a regular GN campaigner until getting a full-time Winston Cup ride for this season, reportedly is close to striking a deal with driver Tom Peck.
"All indications were that we were going to do it," Markham said. "We thought the sponsor was going to come through. But at the last minute, the sponsor backed out, and that was it."
Markham is driving a GN car owned by Ronnie Barnette this week.
\ Mike Oliver, whose second-place qualifying run in Thursday's Grand National time trials was disallowed when NASCAR inspectors discovered his Pontiac did not meet the required no-offset rule, spent Friday morning making changes on his car.
"The car is legal now," Oliver said Friday. "It was only a minor adjustment. We went back out today and ran as fast as we qualified [90.434 mph]. We're in the heat race and the car is fast."
The 29-year-old from Alabama can qualify for his first career GN race if he can finish in the top five in today's second 25-lap GN heat race.
\ The final 10 spots in each of the three 30-car starting fields will be determined in today's 25-lap qualifiers. The first of the eight heat races - two each for the GN and Modified divisions and four for the heavily populated LMSC class - starts at 1 p.m.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB