User blog:Ajaxcupseries/100th Modern Era Ajax Cup Race Review - Jared Ayers proves the Youth Movement has finally ARRIVED

The Fallon Corner - April 2022

When Jared Ayers MOVED his teammate Randle Woods out of the way with 10 laps to go, not only did this signify that the 23 year old’s first career win in the Ajax Season Finale at Belltown in 2020 was far from a fluke, to me it also signified the forcible end of an era and start of another.

Diego Orkedi, Randle Woods, Nick Orkedi, Jimmy Hood, and Dan Rodgers have scored the most wins of any drivers throughout the first 100 races of the ASCA’s Modern Era.

What do those five men have in common?

NONE of them have won though the opening 7 races of the 2022 season.

In fact, outside of 35 year old points leader Norm Lester’s breakout season carrying the banner for the veterans, the rest of the drivers in the 30 or older club are either having well documented career worst years (Diego Orkedi, Randle Woods) or rather underwhelming campaign’s for their standards.

Instead, its been these young drivers FINALLY stepping up to the forefront of the sport and proving that they had the talent all along to win races and compete for titles….they just needed additional maturation and the proper equipment to hone their skills in.

While many would’ve predicted if there were to be any “youth movement” talents to take over the sport at the beginning of the year it’d be either Todd Kidd or Greg Healey, while those two are within two points of the points lead as I type this up and most certainly serious title contenders, I’d say they’ve taken a backseat in the spotlight compared to some of the other young drivers we’ve seen assert their true talents over the course of 2022 so far.

I mean, raise your hand if you really could’ve predicted the CJ Barrymore Racing trio of drivers would be sitting 4th, 5th, and 6th in the standings heading into the All-Star break with victories in three of the opening seven events so far this season?

Sure, you can argue a bounce back season from Ryan Dixon might’ve been expected following a disappointing 2021 campaign from him, but did anyone really predict his teammates Chris Barrymore and Cameron Atwood to be serious title contenders right alongside of him?

Chris Barrymore for YEARS has received scrutiny time and time again for “choking” races away in the closing laps, so naturally this season he goes out and wins two of the opening five races of the season and takes over the points lead like its nothing.

Cameron Atwood had become a total afterthought with Tico Bowden Motorsports. We all knew he had a lot of talent, but in arguably the worst equipment in the garage outside of short tracks it was basically impossible for him to show that on a weekly basis. Put him in a brand new Mustang with CJ Barrymore Racing, and through the first seven races his performance level now compared to his TBM tenure has been absolutely night and day so far.

Here’s the deal - while I don’t think Modern Era stalwarts such as Diego Orkedi, Randle Woods, and Nick Orkedi are completely washed up just yet, I do think victories and championships in the Cup Series will be a LOT harder to come by for them over the course of the next 100 Cup races.

Not only have they had to fend off young superstars Greg Healey and Todd Kidd the past couple seasons, but now also adding in guys like Chris Barrymore, Cameron Atwood, Jared Ayers, Ryan Dixon, and even a resurgent Norm Lester is going to make it THAT much harder for them to maintain their stranglehold on the sport.

Add in guys such as 19 year old Laquon Scransen, 21 year old Shane Park, 23 year old Devin Smith, and starting next season 22 year old Ross Jackson slowly but surely improving and eventually developing into race win and title contenders themselves….and I think its safe to say the next 100 Ajax Cup Series races will be the most competitive by far in the sport’s history.

If you’re tired of seeing Diego Orkedi and Randle Woods take home the Ajax Cup trophy for nearly the past half decade, I feel confident in saying their reign over the sport will be stopped dead in its tracks barring a miracle at Belltown on June 20th.