By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Several competitors in the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series based in Beebe will take part in the 19th annual Comp Cams Topless 100 in Batesville this weekend.
Time trials and heat races for the $40,000-to-win, $200-to-start event were held Friday night, while the B-mains and 100-lap A-main feature will run tonight at the three-eights mile, high-banked oval in Locust Grove. The event takes its name from the requirement for competitors to remove the roofs of their racecars, giving fans a better view of the drivers.
Among the competitors expected at the annual crown-jewel late-model event are the top three in the points standings, Jon “Catman” Mitchell of Texarkana, Tex., Kyle Beard of Trumann and Floral’s Brandon Smith. Mitchell qualified for last year’s feature race while Beard made the field back in 2008.
Hall of famer Billy Moyer Sr. of Batesville looked strong in practice. Moyer holds the distinction of being the only driver to have won the event four times. Tennessee racer and fellow legend Scott Bloomquist has been to victory lane three times at the Topless 100.
The Topless 100 is considered to be one of the premiere late-model events in the country since its inception in 1993. Freddy Smith took the victory in the inaugural event, while the late Tony Cardin of Greenbrier won the following year. Moyer picked up the first of his four wins in the 1995 Topless.
Last year’s points champion Bill Frye of Greenbrier won the event back in 1996, while Benton native Jared Landers won last year’s Topless in thrilling fashion by passing Florida’s Earl Pearson junior coming out of the final turn.
Other series drivers expected to compete will be teammates Jon Kirby and Dewaine Hottinger of Russellville, Vilonia driver and former Beebe Speedway regular Curtis “Hollywood” Cook and his car owner Keith Lawson of Houston, Walnut Ridge veteran Jeff Floyd and Batesville’s Billy Moyer Jr.
