It came as no surprise to see short-track veteran Bobby Gill winning the 2001 USAR Hooters ProCup Series title. A win at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida, helped bring a third consecutive USAR championship for the Dalton, Georgia, resident.
Nonetheless, Gill's most recent title came with an additional twist. The Hooters ProCup Series included a second division in 2001, as a separate Northern division was added to what had been a decidedly Southern touring series. While the folks at Atlanta-based United Speed Alliance Racing came up with a unique postseason playoff format for the two divisions, Gill and a few of his racing cohorts failed to see the sanctioning body's attraction to the Four Champions "tournament" that resulted.
According to USAR President Gene Cox, the postseason format was designed to maintain a fair and equitable points system, complemented by a season-ending tournament. With that in mind, a points structure was established to recognize the two regular season champions, with Mardy Lindley winning the Northern division and Gill emerging as the Southern division, regular season champion.
Under the format, drivers were allowed to compete in both divisions, but had to declare one division or the other for accumulating regular season points. As with any true postseason championship, the regular season titles meant little in the overall scheme.
The playoff format revolved around a four-race challenge series run at the end of each division's regular season. (A race originally scheduled for Chicago Motor Speedway was cancelled after the September 11 terrorist attacks, reducing the format from five races to four.) Gill and Lindley entered the championship series tied for the first seed based on their regular season championships, and ties for seedings were repeated through the playoff structure as 50 drivers (the top 25 from each division) qualified for postseason competition.
What really spiced up the tournament, however, was a points system that, in essence, gave equal weight to points earned in each of the four postseason races and points earned in the regular season, meaning the four championship races each counted the same 20 percent as the entire regular season.
Even after claiming the overall prize and the $250,000 that goes with it, Gill expressed displeasure with the system, which downplays the importance of a strong regular season run.
"The only people it hurt was me and Mardy Lindley, who were leading the points going into these four races," said Gill. "We had like a 120-point lead on these other guys. All it did was move everybody else up and give them a better chance."
Battles WonAfter winning the second and third events in the four-race series, Hal Goodson, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, appeared to have the best chance at claiming the overall prize. By the time the series rolled into USA International on November 24, Goodson had won at Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) Speedway and at Concord (North Carolina) Motorsport Park.
Both wins came in a car borrowed from competitor Bill Plemons. The Myrtle Beach victory came just five days after Goodson's team owner put Goodson out of a ride by deciding to shut the team down. Two weeks after the Myrtle Beach win, Goodson won at Concord.
A remarkable story was unfolding, with Goodson's two straight wins in a borrowed car vaulting him into the points lead, 583-564 over Gill, heading to the final battleground at Lakeland. Goodson, however, had experienced some of his worst luck of the 2001 season in the division's two previous runs at Lakeland. Steve Christian had edged Goodson by two points to take the runner-up spot in the Southern division regular season, and Goodson's Lakeland runs-a 27th and an 11th-were partially responsible.