GM John McLaughlin heads a row of qualifiers in the first heat.	Eric Ritter, Bill Beckman and Carol Caler try to qualify.
Jim Bell, Joshua Coyle and John Weber attempt to qualify for the big Oval Final.	Dodgeball anyone? This year John added projected Lap cards on the wall.

The WBC 250 ...

Survivors to the Fore ...

The 2012 WBC 500 was as action packed as ever! The race was 250 laps on a 2.0 mile Tri-Oval track using the two lane racing and bump draft rules with a 75 lap pit window. And this year technology was added to project the current lap card on the wall for each turn in a nice touch that was both practical and visually attractive. 42 drivers fought their way through three rounds of racing over three days to make it to the Final to determine this year's winner. Defending champ Luke Koleszar qualified for the pole position with a speed of 199.99 MPH, followed by two-time champ Seth Gunnar at 199.98 MPH and Jim Bell at 199.3 MPH. The annual fan favorite, Mike "Ricky Bobby" Bucherri, lived up to his motto "if you ain't first, you're last" by starting in last place after blowing his engine during qualifying.

It took about 60 laps for everyone to settle in and adjust to their car setups. The first yellow flag came out on lap 72 for a crash that took out three drivers in one fell swoop. This put everyone into the pits under the yellow. The pack stayed close with five lead changes until car #37 went High In Turn in the outside lane on lap 104, losing 11 places. A green flag pit stop on lap 161 spread the field considerably. That forced many drivers to cooperate to make their way back up to the lead draft. Fortunately for those who could not make it back to the lead draft, there was a crash on lap 197 bringing out the yellow flag to bunch the field again. Unfortunately, it took out seven drivers including the leader.

After the restart, Carol Caler blew her engine trying to make her way back into the lead draft bringing out the yellow flag once more on lap 226. The race restarted with 21 laps to go with a couple of 6-lap cards which gave the remaining drivers plenty of chances to work their way to the front. The last turn was a 9-lap shootout with Phil White finally besting Ralph Gleaton, Jim Bell, Ron Schoenen, Brian Mongold and Steve Caler to take his second SCC title.

Luke Koleszar, Garry Rice, Michael Buccheri and Steve Cameron have great seats for the race start.