July 17

A hot topic on the Virginia Dirt Lovers board recently is Bo Feathers. Well, Feathers has always been a hot topic on the message board, but recently a lot of people seem to either be in favor of Feathers running at Winchester, and there are some people who seem to be against him not running at Hagerstown. I'm going to look at this objectively. Bo Feathers is not my favorite driver, but I also don't hate him. I respect his ability behind the wheel, and him being a driver with a great amount of skill makes me somewhat of a fan of his. First off, some people have said that he will never run at Hagerstown again after what happened at the season ending banquet last season, but he has already raced there once this year in the first round of the Hagerstown/Winchester Shootout. So that argument goes out the window simply because he has raced there this year. It couldn't have been bad enough for him to simply say that he would never race at Hagerstown again. Also, toward the end of last year Feathers had a falling out with car owner Greg Gunter and I would argue that it has only hurt the both of them. Bo Feathers benefited from having Greg Gunter as his car owner, and Gunter's cars ran better with Feathers behind the wheel than what the have with either Richard Gwisdale before Feathers, or D.J. Myers post-Feathers. Anyone who would argue that is not paying attention to the results. More importantly, Bo Feathers is not as fast in Preston Deitz's car than he was in Gunter's car. In 2007, Bo Feathers won more races than any other Late Model driver in the Mid-Atlantic area according to Area Auto Racing News, and Feathers also picked up a lot of wins in 2006 (Jeremy Miller got the honor that year). So far this season, Feathers has 4 wins, all coming at Winchester. A lot of people have said that Bo doesn't travel any, but he has proven that isn't true this season. With the exception of Jeremy Miller and Jason Covert, he has traveled more than any other driver in this area in 2008. Feathers has ran at Elkins, Hesston, Hagerstown, and Bedford (not sure if I left any out) this season outside of Winchester. He had a pretty good run at Hesston the one time he went there (day race, started up front), but he has struggled at Bedford when he's been there. The talk at the beginning of the year was that Deitz and Feathers were going to run the D1 car at Bedford on a weekly basis. Obviously, that hasn't come to pass. The fact of the matter is that the Feathers-Gunter split has only hurt Feathers as a driver, and Gunter as a car owner. It has allowed Gunter to travel more than what he did with Feathers though. In the last couple of weeks alone D.J. Myers has raced at Big Diamond for the WoO Late Models, Central PA Speedway for the Yankee Doodle 50, as well as both Wythe and Cherokee for the Southern Nationals events. No one can argue that Feathers ran that many different tracks as what Myers is running with Gunter. I also don't think anyone can argue that Myers is running as good at some of these places as what Feathers would run at these places. When Feathers and Gunter were together in their better days they were right up there with Jeremy Miller as the fastest car in the region. I would even argue that in 2007, Feathers was the fastest car in the region. So far this year, it has been Jason Covert and anyone who doesn't think so is not paying attention. Listen, Feathers not running at Hagerstown is only hurting himself. I know that Hagerstown reportedly gave the money to Gunter for the second place finish in points to J.T. Spence last year, a championship that Feathers would have won if not for a parts failure, but has anyone even mentioned what the process for championship money is at Hagerstown? Does anyone even know if the car owner is supposed to get the money or not? Hagerstown's procedure could be to give the car owner the money, and then the car owner pays the driver. It's just a thought. The fact of the matter is that the Feathers-Gunter split has hurt both of them. Feathers is not running as good in Deitz's car as he was in Gunter's car, and Gunter is not having the same kind of success with D.J. Myers that he was having with Bo Feathers.