Super Late Models
Third Time is the Charm as Derek Thorn Claims Snowball Derby
Dec 5, 2022
The Jefferson Racing car was a really impressive machine all week.
Snowball Derby
One of the most impressive and unique cars of the weekend met a very gruesome demise on Sunday in the Snowball Derby when Ty Majeski climbed over the back of Erik Jones on Lap 177.
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Jones was driving a Phase II Port City Race Cars chassis out of the Jefferson Racing stable but one largely crewed by his Petty GMS Cup Series crew -- including the likes of Dave Elenz and Austin Pollack.
The talk of the pit area over the weekend was how fast the car was and how many interesting things it appeared has been done to the car both aerodynamically and setup wise. It was an impressive car.
But Jones had started to fade in the middle of a run and had fallen outside of the top-five upon getting passed by Hunter Robbins and Corey Heim. That's when Majeski reached him. Majeski went to fill the hole and they collided; the car driven by Jones getting ripped apart like a sardine can.
It eliminated the two-time winner from the race.
"Ty caught us and ran us over," Jones said.
That was followed by a pause and then...
"I don't know what else to say," Jones said. "He ran us down, caught us, ran into the back of me and destroyed it. I don't want to say a lot because there's a lot I could say, but that's pretty poor racing 180 laps into a race.
"Ty should .... has respect ... is better than that and knows he is better than that. What do they say? I'm not upset, I'm just disappointed. It's disappointing."
For his part, Majeski went on to finish 10th and conceded he made a mistake but offered an explanation for why it happened that way.
"He got caught on the outside and I was trying to fill a hole," Majeski said. "I kind of hesitated and thought he was going to give me the lane. He came down and it was just mis-anticipation on my part. I just misjudged it. I should have just lifted out of it and let him have it.
"I thought he was going to give me a lane and then he started to come down and it was too late for me to react at that point. Just dumb. It was a bad mistake on my part. Sorry to Erik. We had a tough day. Didn’t quite have the speed we needed."
And yet, Majeski took his car to the top-five late, when he spun and 3 and 4, ultimately finishing 10th when the dust settled.
"We battled all day, got the car to fifth, and then the car bottomed out, got into (Cole Butcher) and spun myself out. Not a clean day. We were fighting for it but still had a chance at the top five in the end. Just a tough race."