Chester Aretta is an artist who works in clay. Not pots, but rather the racing surface at his Latrobe Speedway. John Flinner is an artist whose medium is the heavy metal of a Late Model race car, an overpowered, underweight ground-bound jet of a car that functions best when balanced on the fine line between high speed and high risk. The two artisans had a creatively satisfying rendezvous Saturday night at Latrobe Speedway. Aretta, promoter and keeper of the racing surface, had the track prepared to tacky perfection. Flinner, making his first appearance of the season at the speedway, took maximum advantage to cover the field in the Late Model feature race. The promoter in Aretta didn't like to see Flinner starting from the outside pole of that feature, a spot from which he immediately took the lead and retained it for 25 laps. The clay guru in Aretta enjoyed seeing a driver take maximum advantage of the track he had offered up for that purpose. "Late Models flat fly here," Aretta said, moments before the green flag marked the start of the verification process for his boast. "The track is perfect tonight. You walk across that track now, your shoes would stick to it." Flinner's shoes were spared, but his car stuck high, low and in-between. "The top was really good," Flinner said, before smiling and adding, "But the bottom wasn't too bad either. "It's a fast surface, and it's easy on tires. That's what you're looking for. Some of these places get so abrasive, you go through a set of tires a night." At $130 times four, that can cut into the profits. Flinner earned $1,200 for this victory and came away with all four tires intact. Not that this was a great accomplishment for the left front, which spent much of the race in the air. This is the stance of speed for a Late Model, the car cocked with the rear end angled toward the outside of the track, and the left front tire airborne. "That's when she's good, when it hovers about an inch off the ground," said the 41-year-old Flinner, who had talked of retiring last season but now figures he'll drive "a couple more years." He also plans to race again this season at Latrobe. Al Zuccolotto, who at 63 years of age was the dean of the Late Model driver corps Saturday, raved about the Latrobe track's consistently excellent condition this season. "I've been racing 41 years, and this is the best surface I've ever been on," Zuccolotto said. "Some of the tracks are like dried up river beds, they're so rocky. This is fast, smooth and wide. That word needs to get out. It's no fun if there aren't a lot of cars." It's no fun for Aretta if there aren't a lot of people in the stands, either. On those two fronts, the Saturday show was not an artistic success. Aretta estimated a paid crowd of 700 to 800 in the stands, down from an average of maybe 1,100 for the season. He blamed competition from other summer events. The Late Model turnout, buoyed as it was by the appearance of Flinner and three other first-timers this season, still was only 16 cars. Zuccolotto has a couple of explanations. He said the crowds were bigger last season, when the racing at Latrobe was on Sundays. He theorizes that the competition from other Saturday tracks is cutting attendance and the car count. Also, Zuccolotto believes Aretta is making a mistake by eliminating Late Models on certain weeks. The coming Saturday, for example, school bus races take the place of Late Models in the show. Aretta concedes the race day change has been a difficult transition. The schedule part, he's not willing to concede. This much all seemed able to agree upon, the track itself is a gem. All that's needed are more cars to take advantage of it, and more people in the stands to appreciate it all.

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