Mechalides leaves people talking with Bastille 200 effort Mechalides may have stolen the show at Lee USA Speedway on Tuesday night, but he couldn't steal a victory from 3-time PASS North Series champion Johnny Clark in the Bastille 200. Those in attendance will talk about Mechalides' dramatic charge from 16th to second in just 60 laps.
But in the moments after the race, it seemed Mechalides was already willing to move on. While those who witnessed savored it for minutes, even hours in the afterglow, the driver himself was over it. LEE, N.H. -- There's no such thing as a moral victory for Louie Mechalides.
"No, no," Mechalides said when asked if he felt like he won with his amazing run. "I was just out riding around and having a good time. That's all."
Trying to win one for the little guy, Mechalides came up one position short.
He won his heat race in convincing fashion, starting the main event on the pole. He led the first 118 laps, leaving Clark in his dust and prompting Clark to later call his car "the best" of the night.
Mechalides had people on their feet as he wiggled and weaved his No. 1 off the corners in heavy traffic, sometimes two- and three-wide. He did everything he could to get back to the front after a lengthy pit stop -- two, actually -- dropped him all the way to the tail end of the field with just 82 laps remaining.
The 2008 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series New Hampshire champion, who spent last year in a Modified at All-Star Speedway, wants to race more. You can see that in his eyes, hear it in his voice.
But this racing game is about a whole lot more than ability or desire.
"Everybody has a race car. That's the easy part," said Mechalides, who hadn't driven in a Super Late Model in two years. "You need to be able to afford to race it and do it right and have good enough help. It's just a lot.
"These guys, when they get together, they like to race. So whenever they want to race, I usually go and race with them."
The grind of the weekly season a year ago took its toll. Mechalides may have won the All-Star championship, but it took a yeoman's effort. Most of the time, it was just he and friend Joe O'Brien, the two of them doing everything but cooking the hamburgers at the race track.
Heck, they probably did that themselves most of the time, too.
"Last year it was the same thing," Mechalides said. "It was me and Joe every night. During the week at the shop, me and Joe. At the race track, me and Joe. The only reason we did that was because we just didn't have enough help and you could race over there (at All-Star) on a tire rule and make some money."
Money that Mechalides now wished he had, so he could race with the Johnny Clarks and Ben Rowes of the New England racing world on a week-to-week basis.
All Mechalides really wanted from Tuesday night was a win, but he wanted to earn it -- not by sailing half a lap ahead of the field or by winning a race off pit road, the way Clark did.
"I didn't know how good (the car) was. I never really got to race side-by-side with Johnny," Mechalides said. "It's a tough series with a lot of good cars."
He wasn't buying Clark's explanation, either, that he had the best car.
"I don't know," Mechalides said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Johnny won."
And then he thought about the final few laps, the race's final conclusion running through his head on a movie screen unseen by the rest of us.
"I wish I would have gotten to race him," Mechalides said. "I wish he would have had to get by me, and not in the pits."
-- TRAVIS BARRETT, GWC Editor
Louie put on one hell of a show while coming from the back... You don't often see that these days when you have a large field of super late models or late models...
His performance in this race was a throwback to the old glory days of prostock racing....
This whole race was as much fun as any I've been to in a very long time....
This race was a racefan's dream IMO...it had everything.... power and speed....visitors from afar...young guns...savy veterans...live pitstops...breakdowns, a couple of wrecks and that classic charge to the front, (courtesy of Louie Louie!) and it even had a green white checkered finish....tremendous suspence that kept you on the edge of your seat the whole night....
Gosh that was fun! Lets go do that again soon!
Lee is such a great place to watch prostocks!
And what a well run show this midweek diamond in the rough turned out to be!
I sure hope PASS returns there soon.....
Posted by: Norm | 15 July 2009 at 11:56 AM