Ace unveils unconventional Rodney Cook Classic format, drivers demand change

Jason Turner wanted to mix things up with the 11^th renewal of the Rodney Cook Classic while also trying to get drivers to pre-register earlier, which led to the announcement of an unconventional format for the season-ending highlight at Ace Speedway.

The first 10 drivers who pre-register for the Rodney Cook Classic on November 2will be guaranteed a starting spot and will not have to compete in the heat races.  In fact, their starting positions will be based on their time in qualifying.  Additionally, the starting lineups for the heat races will be determined by the order which entries are received.

Turner believes the format will make for a more challenging race for the drivers, entertaining race for the fans, and a memorable experience to remember the legacy of one of Ace Speedway’s toughest and most iconic drivers, the late Rodney Cook.

“I thought to myself, Rodney was a determined racer,” Turner said.  “He was very relentless on the track and he never backed down from a challenge, so I said, in the spirit of how Rodney raced, how could I come up with something more challenging for drivers and create a storyline for the race where you don’t know who’s going to start where until it happens.  You see JR Motorsports on the entry list a month in advance, you see who’s coming a month in advance, and you don’t know where he’s going to start.  Historically, this race has never been won outside of the top three or four rows, so lets shake it up a little bit, gets get bold, lets get new, lets get excited about something that is bigger than just Ace Speedway.”

Turner also hopes the format will be an incentive for drivers to pre-enter sooner, allowing the speedway to increase promotion of the race in 2024.

“Historically, dad tells stories about how he would be one of the last to enter the race,” Turner recalled, talking about his father and Ace Speedway co-owner Robert Turner.  “He’d go to Martinsville and have his entry blank in his hand, blank, and have somebody else fill it out for him to get him into the track.  That does not create an avenue or an incentive for drivers to pre-enter, so you give them an incentive to pre-enter and, while it sounds pretty big, it’s not as big as one would think.”

Getting drivers to pre-register for races is a challenge most promoters in asphalt racing deal with.  Racers often times wait until the last minute to commit to a race for various reasons, and may not even announce their participation or file an entry until the day before the race.  This forces tracks to have to promote the race in more generic terms when the racers are the show the speedway wants to promote.

So far, the format has not been well received.

“Lovely… Not going to listen to the racers or the fans about the race format I don’t get it,” Late Model Stock Car veteran and former Ace Speedway winner Ryan Millington posted on Facebook.  “Seems to me if there was that much negative feedback about the format when it was released a few days ago that it would have been changed. Then again who am I to voice my opinion it’s not like the racers and fans run the facility or event we just help keep it going.”

Turner responded to the criticism in our interview.

“So, I’ve had some positive, just like there’s been some negative,” Turner explained.  “It’s just a different format.  In racing, you try to come up with the best product with fans in mind and I’ve never met a racer who didn’t want to race in front of a packed house.  I’ve never met a racer who wanted to race I just the same mundane style of racing, so I wanted to shake it up a little bit and I want the racers to say, ‘man, that was fun, that was big.’”

Turner also said he spoke with the Cook family about the format.

“I reached out to Rodney’s brother today and he was pretty much on the same page as I was,” Turner noted.  “He talked with his wife and said we’re doing what we can to get cars and get entries early to promote the race.  He understood what we were after and appreciated it.”

Late Thursday evening, Kimberlyn Cook, Rodney’s daughter, called for the format to be returned to a more traditional format.

“Since the Rodney Cook is in honor of my father and this race means the world to me as it does to anyone else, I want the car count to be knocked out of the ballpark and fans in the stands,” Cook said on Facebook.  “So with the growing amount of comments and concerns from the Late Model drivers stating they will not race in honor of my father, I am asking that the Turner family and Ace Speedway return to the old format and let’s have a good showing in my father’s memory.”

Millington and Kaden Honeycutt each replied to Cook’s post saying they would race if the format was changed.

Hermie Sadler also chimed in, saying he would donate an additional $10,000 to the race’s first place winnings if Cook posted the format she wanted Ace Speedway to run and if it was adopted by Ace Speedway.

“I don’t have a dog in this fight, I’m not a promoter and I don’t own a late model, but you shouldn’t be stressing over this race to honor your dad,” Sadler stated.  “If you will post exactly what format you would like to see and if the tracks adopts it for you, I will donate an additional $10,000 to go to the winner of the race.”

Short Track Scene spoke with Turner prior to Cook’s posts and Sadler’s responses.

“I don’t want everybody to jump the gun and rush to judgement early,” Turner stated.  “From what I know about it and the track and the dynamic it has on tires, I’m just trying to create a plat twist to where the fans are like ‘man.’  What I envision are a couple drivers running in the front and mixing it up at the end and one driver has 10 more laps than the other and you don’t know who is going to win and have that unforgettable, timeless finish to where they’re door-to-door for the last three laps and you don’t know who’s going to win.”

Turner also said the format is “not as big a brain buster as some make it out to be and that’s okay, it’s just a way to get creative.”  He noted that he remembers sitting in the stands with his father watching qualifying for the NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and thought about it when wanting to mix things up.

When the entry form was posted earlier Wednesday afternoon, Turner posted a video to explain the format a little more on the Ace Speedway Facebook page.

At the time of publication, Turner had no plans to change the format, but he did post on Facebook that he had direct messaged his number to Hermie Sadler and asked the former NASCAR Xfinity Series star to reach out to him directly.  As of 10:01pm Wednesday night, Turner said he would not respond to questions until he spoke with Sadler. 

The 11^th Annual Rodney Cook Classic is set to take place on Saturday, November 2, 2024.