Afer Five Years, McCreadie Returns To Modifieds Competition During Hall Of Fame Weekend

During the off-season, World of Outlaws Late Model star Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and Central New York racer/ businessman Vinnie Vitale began talking about T-Mac running a Dirt Modified around the time of the Hall of Fame inductions.

The World of Outlaws Late Model schedule was off this past week, and when McCreadie became an inductee into the Dirt Motorsports Hall of Fame on Thursday, the talks between the two intensified. What resulted was McCreadie finding himself back in a DIRTcar Modified for the first time in more than five years.

McCreadie originally thought it would be Vinnie’s own-looking car, but he was shocked around six weeks earlier when he showed up to test the car at Utica-Rome. Car owners Vinnie and wife Bridget (Wetmore) went all out, having the car reskinned and wrapped to look like the Kinney Drugs-sponsored No. 9 car that Tim’s legendary father, Bob McCreadie, raced so successfully.

“The last few weeks have been very humbling. The car was lettered when we practiced,” said McCreadie.

“I was very surprised what it looked like stayed under wraps, because there were six other teams that practiced with us that day.”

On Friday night at Brewerton, T-Mac used the evening to get used to the car and, after a while, started to look very comfortable. The plan was to get acclimated so McCreadie could run the car more competitively at Weedsport Speedway for the  Super DIRTcar Series Hall of Fame 100 two days later.

“Bridget and Vinnie didn’t have to do this, we talked this winter out of the blue. I wanted to do something, but I said to Vinnie, ‘if you think I can’t do it then be honest with everybody and we won’t do it,’” said McCreadie.

“If he didn’t think I could do it, I would be home with my wife and kids tonight in Watertown, instead of being here. They were going to come but it got busy the last few days with everything going on. Plus, we just came back from a break.”

After hot laps on Friday night, the 50-year-old McCreadie spoke of his feelings.

“I had a little struggle and almost spun out. Then somehow, we ran the second fastest lap in practice, so the car is fast, it has potential for sure,” said T-Mac.

“Vinnie is working on the car to make it better, now I have to do a better job driving the car. There’s potential, but I wasn’t as comfortable as I wanted to be behind the wheel. That’s what happens when you do new things.”

McCreadie started 10th in a loaded heat race and knew he had his work cut out for himself. Working his way through the field and getting used to the changes in the car, T-Mac got faster each passing lap while racing in traffic and ended up eighth.

In the consolation race, he started fifth, and that old McCreadie magic came back as he made a last-lap, last-turn outside pass to claim the win by .011 seconds. The move brought the nice gathering of fans to their feet, acknowledging the effort.

For the feature, T-Mac started 19th, made some passes and ended up 11th.

“We do some of the same stuff on our Late Model as Vinnie is doing to the Modified, but these cars don’t react remotely compared to a Late Model, these cars when they’re built are not even remotely the same,” said McCreadie.

“The Late Model doesn’t lay on the right rear like a Modified. When a Late Model lays on the right rear, it doesn’t affect the car that much. These cars (Modifieds) when you have them rolling over too much or even kind of hopping around, then without not as much control on the rebound side of these shocks.

“I give these Modified drivers credit as these cars are not easy to drive. For us to come back here and just try to do our best, that’s why Vinnie is here. I can tell him what I feel that car needs and he does it, like after our test session we had. I had some issues with what the car was doing and I told Vinnie and he made the adjustments.”

On Sunday, McCreadie qualified for he 100 lap feature at Weedsport despite a stoudt field of cars on hand. During the running of the feature, however, he got together with the spun car of Tim Sears Jr. causing damage that ended his night.