David "Banjo" Duke Gets Impressive First Carolina Clash Win at Sumter with a 525 Engine

David “Banjo” Duke Gets Impressive First Carolina Clash Win at Sumter with a 525 Engine

By Rhonda Beck, WISNC Creations/BeckRacingMedia

10-14-2024

The Carolina Clash is slowly winding down its 25th Anniversary season, which has included several first-time winners in 2024. The latest was David “Banjo” Duke of Manning, S.C. He had an impressive showing on Saturday, October 5, 2024, capturing the pole in a record-setting lap of 14.333 seconds and then leading flag to flag to get his first Carolina Clash win in the 5th Annual “Gibbons Memorial” at Sumter Speedway. Two-time Carolina Clash champion Ben Watkins was second and Christian Thomas was third. Gray Parton and Brent Robinson rounded out the top five. Adam Yarbrough currently leads the series in points and finished ninth.

Duke also went on to set another record lap and capture the Street Stock win at the track in Sumter, S.C. He has had several good finishes in super late model competition, including a second with the Ultimate Super Late Model Series this year and a win in 2021. He is a top competitor with victories in street stock races across the southeast and is planning to head to The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C. in a couple of weeks. He is looking for his first street stock win there after close finishes of second and fourth in the past couple of years. Last week he spoke about his Carolina Clash win, some of his history in motorsports and other upcoming plans.

RB: Banjo, congrats on your first Carolina Clash win. There have been several first-time Carolina Clash winners this year, like Jake Jackson and Matthew Nance. You also set fast time in qualifying. And that was a record, right?

DD: Thank you. And yeah, that was the new track record.

RB: You led flag to flag, and it was the annual Gibbons Memorial race. Anything to say about getting your first Carolina Clash win?

DD: Well, the best thing about the Carolina Clash win is that it was very emotional. Because a lot of people don’t know that Ed Gibbons actually got me into racing. Without Ed, I wouldn’t be racing. I knew Ed’s son and Ed was a long-time Carolina Clash champion and winner. To be able to not only win Ed’s race and for it to be a Carolina Clash win almost amplified it. What made it even better was that Ed got me into racing and I drove for Gerald Mintz--that was my first time in that car. That was only my second late model race all year. And that was Gerald Mintz’s and Austin Mintz’s car. Gerald was a local hero that raced against Ed, and I pulled for Gerald and Ed. I won three super late model races, and this was the first one that almost made me cry. I was that emotional.

RB: Well, that’s really special. And that is understandable when you have all those connections.

DD: Those heroes.

RB: For sure. This year I was with Ricky Weeks when he got inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame and Ed Gibbons is the other Carolina Clash champion who is a member of the NDLMHOF. So you definitely feel that kind of emotion when you know certain families. ?As far as Austin Mintz and his family, how did you first connect with them?

DD: Me and Austin have always raced together hard. Austin and Justin, we’ve always been hard-core competitors, and Austin actually is going through some health problems with his heart. He’s out of the racecar for the time being and he called me up and asked me to drive it. Which coming from a competitor, to let another competitor drive your car, is saying something in itself. Like I told him, I don’t know if I could put somebody else in my racecar. It would be a really hard choice. But that shows the lack of selfishness for him to do that. A lot of people wouldn’t do that. He trusted me to wheel it, and they trusted me with the adjustments. They were extremely racecar smart, and it was only the third race they had on that car. To put us in it and to run as well as we did against that type of competition is just saying something about how good they are with set-up.

RB: You won with the Ultimate Supers at Sumter too in 2021. And with the Blue Ridge Outlaws. And now you did this with a 525 motor. That’s really impressive.

DD: We were down about 300 horsepower. I ran my car earlier this year at the Ultimate race. I’ve only ran four late model races in two years. We ran the Carolina Clash race last year; ran second. With the Ultimate this year we ran second and went to the Carolina Clash this year and won it. So we’ve had a slew of seconds and thirds.

RB: That’s pretty good. And you run in other divisions.

DD: I’ve also been running the street stocks.

RB: Yeah, I saw you’ve had wins at places like Harris. Are you following a series?

DD: No, we’re just running the money races. We actually broke the track record with the late model Saturday night and with the street stock. It really was a good night.

RB: How were the track conditions? Were they similar to what you’re used to?

DD: For Sumter, it actually had a lot more grip than normal. I was able to put the throttle down a lot harder. Because with the conditions, obviously the track was 2-3/10th’s faster than normal. But we had a really good car, so I don’t want to take that away from the car, because it was really good. But the track was also a 10th and a half to 2/10th’s faster than normal. They added a little bit more moisture. I was hoping it would be a bit more racier during the race, but it wasn’t. It kind of got to the bottom, like it kind of normally does. We ran on the softer tire in the main event. It was kind of a gamble, but I thought the track wasn’t going to rip the tires apart and we were right, got lucky on that. It didn’t hurt the tires and all in all the track was the nicest it’s been all year, by far. I would say the track was the best I’ve ever seen it.

RB: I wonder if that rain did anything to help with that from the week before?

DD: Well, they put new clay on it this year and they had been making it too wet to where it keeps moisture, but it gets really rough. And they finally kind of found that equal medium to where it will keep moisture. Because they could either get it dry or too wet and it would get rough. But they figured out how they could get it to be a mixture of both while staying smooth.

RB: Good. I saw that you had almost a two second lead over Ben Watkins. You’ve competed against him and have known these good drivers for some time. With the sticks, did you know you had a good lead?

DD: Oh yeah. I actually messed up as a driver a little bit. I had my stick guy and at the very beginning we checked out really good and then I eased off on the car, protected the tires. And then we had that long green flag run there and I kind of got set at a pace that was a little slower than earlier. Ben caught me a little faster than I thought he was going to, and I had to go, “Oh Lord,” you know. One lap, there was a gap, and the next lap they were together. But about the time that happened, the caution came out, so I was able to go pretty good that last ten laps and get a little gap. The car was so good, I feel like we could have kept a gap when we needed to. But not taking away from Ben, because Ben realistically was actually one of our partners per se because we’re on the same shock guy. He parked beside us, and I helped him on tires. I have a serious amount of respect for Ben as a driver and as a person; he’s a very good person. And if anybody was to finish second to me out of that crew, I would chose him, by far.

RB: Earlier this year I went to Laurens for a Carolina Clash race, and then I did an interview with Wesley Page at his shop in Rock Hill. Wesley does Ben’s car and a lot of other competitors who have been successful around here. Have you known him for a while?

DD: Oh yeah. Wesley does all my street stocks too. I’d like to do a big shout-out to him too.

RB: As far as the Carolina Clash, led by Marion Limbaugh and Joey Chapman, this is their 25th anniversary year. Do you have anything to say about that series?

DD: Oh man, that’s all I ever watched in this area when I was little—Ricky Weeks, Ed Gibbons. Ricky Weeks was one of my heroes too and you just mentioned him. Other than one Hav-A-Tampa race when I was little, the only thing I ever saw was the Carolina Clash. When it came to super late models in the south, eastern region, for me that was all I watched. So I don’t have anything but amazing things to say about them. Every time they come and every time I’ve raced a race, they’ve been nice, respectful. They worked with us after the race when we had an issue, because normally people don’t win with a 525, so they didn’t really understand. We had an MSD box that they were worried about being illegal, but it’s the one you have to run with a 525 because 525’s don’t have distributors, they have coil packs. So technically, if we had run that on a super motor it would be illegal. But instead of straight up throwing us out early, they called somebody and checked on the rules and worked with it and made sure that it was legal. And they didn’t have any arguments. They were like, “Let’s check on it.” And everything was calm. Some places will jump the gun and tell you, “That’s illegal!” or whatever. But it was just something they hadn’t seen before. Not many people have won with a 525 in super races.

RB: True. That’s good how you all handled that. So I have a question regarding your nickname. I had heard that you were named after Banjo Matthews? And when did you start racing?

DD: Yeah, my daddy nicknames everybody. My entire family has a nickname. My Mom is Stinky, my sister is Mick Mick, my other sister is Snotty, my Granddad is Flick. It’s just something he does. My son is only two so he’s really working on that nickname. And when I started racing, like I said, we were in the rodeos and didn’t really have a nickname at the time. Then went to a go-kart race with Ed and his son and they let me ride the go-kart, and I wrecked it and got put in the hospital at 7 years old. Bruised rib. I think I rode horses every single day 24-7 until that day. I think I’ve been on a horse about six times since then. My dad was trying to make me into the next Lane Frost. And I thought I liked rodeo until I got into a go-kart. Then I begged him about a year straight until he finally bought me one and it’s been all racing since then.

RB: And I wondered about your car numbers. You’ve run the 28 and 11 and 18?

DD: I’ve always been number 11; well I’ve been 11 or 28. Those are my two favorite numbers. Getting back to Gerald Mintz, the guy I drove for, he was always number 28. That’s why I chose 28. So if somebody in my series has 11, I’ll go to 28. Number 11 is my first pick because my parents raced go-karts and they were number 11. And my mama had a stillborn and he was born on the 11th. So it’s kind of a connection with that. And then Davey Allison and Gerald Mintz were always my two racing heroes. So if I didn’t have 11, I would go with the 28. And Austin’s number has always been 18. That’s Austin’s number that we ran this weekend. And Justin is the older brother and Justin's number is 28, so Austin just went with 18 since he couldn’t run the same number as his brother.

RB: It’s interesting to learn the stories, like about the numbers. When I wrote for The Gaston Gazette, I got to know Freddy Smith and Jeff Smith and wondered about the 70 and 00. And I heard that Freddy went to one track and wanted to run 70 and someone else already had it, so he had to put tape on the 7 to make it into the double zero.

DD: It’s funny that you mention that, because when we first started, Buckshot Jones was one of my little heroes just because of his name and my dad liked him. For our first car we were 00 and it was the absolute worst luck we ever had in our life. We actually ran an entire year and blew up like four motors and we never finished a whole race. And then over the winter we switched to the 11 and won the very first race the next year. And have never put the 00 back on the car.

RB: That’s funny. You’ve done well at Sumter, but do you have any other favorite tracks you’ve raced at over the years?

DD: Oh yeah. Tons of ‘em. Sumter is like my favorite track for every class but late models. We run really well there. But I’d say other favorite tracks are Lake View, Senoia Speedway in Georgia--any track in Georgia. I don’t know what it is about Georgia, but we do not run bad in Georgia ever. And it’s funny that Gaffney’s one of the closer places but I don’t run well there usually. I actually really like Gaffney. I’ve had some seconds and thirds but it’s the only track I haven’t won at. But I can’t really say there is one I don’t like. I feel like every promoter tries really hard. I feel like every track has its perks and negatives. I can’t really sit there and say that I have one that’s my doggone favorite. The only one that would really stick out would be Senoia. That would be the only one. Because it gets really slick all the way across the track and you have a lot of racing room.

RB: Clint Smith has done a lot with that track in recent years.

DD: They use the really good clay. They’ve got a good owner and will buy what the track needs. The clay they’ve got, it’s got that gumbo and when it’s wet—and the track will teach you everything—it’ll be tacky and it’ll slick up and you have to search the track. And then it’ll get slick everywhere and you can’t go nowhere, you can’t go anywhere and have grip. So it kind of gives you everything; that’s kind of what I like about it.

RB: Challenging, but good when you can figure it out. One track I enjoyed going to and haven’t been to in a while is Wythe Raceway. Have you been there?

DD: I went there one time, and we practiced, and it rained out. And I was dying to go back. And it was a blast in practice. God, that’s a fast racetrack. It is fast; a beautiful track.

RB: And are there any tracks that you haven’t been to yet that you’d like to race at?

DD: Absolutely. Definitely Eldora. I’d like to make that trip one day. East Alabama, Dixieland, at the Georgia-Alabama line. Talladega--I’d like to get to that. I want to run Golden Isles. And I want to go to All-Tech. We’re going to run that this December, I think.

RB: I know that Jeff Smith and some of those guys have gone down to All-Tech.

DD: That would be the list that I pretty much can think of right off hand. East Bay, but I won’t have that shot.

RB; I know. I’ve been to Volusia and two years ago I was at the Talladega Short Track. I wanted to go up to the DTWC at Eldora Speedway this month, but due to budget and such, I had to make the decision not to go. I did go to The Dream and The World 100 this year. It’s a cool atmosphere. One sad thing, of course, was the loss of Scott Bloomquist. They had that memorial up there at Eldora. Had you seen him race a bunch? Or any comment on him?

DD: Yeah, he ran Sumter one time, and he was having a bad night—I’ll never forget it. I was twelve years old, and I always heard about Scott. And my heroes then were probably Rick Eckert and Ray Cook. I liked Ray Cook a lot. And Billy Moyer. They were all some of my favorites and Bloomer was on the edge of who I liked at the time. After he got done at Sumter, I didn’t like him as much because he was having a bad night. And as a young kid, me and my cousin threw our pens in his face trying to get some autograph and he took the pen and threw it and said he was busy. But when you are having a bad night and it’s your living. Later on, I became a really, really big fan. And the more I learned about him—like I test like him. We just kind of started when I heard about him doing it and I tried it two weeks ago. He does that qualifying test. You go run two laps and you pull right in instead of going and running five to six laps. He was an inspiration. He makes you want to take things to another level, the way he talked and looked at things about racing. I’d say a lot of my OCD in the shop comes from ideas that he had and things that he let people know about and all that.

RB: I once heard an interesting story from Chuck Piazza, who worked with Barry Wright and saw Bloomquist in his early days. ?He said went out to the track and realized how things had changed from written diagrams of how he did set-up to what Barry was then doing with Scott. And Chuck said something like, “You guys are doing black magic. I can’t keep up with that.”

DD: Oh yeah. And he was out there with the aliens and things too. He believed in all that.

RB: Yes. So besides racing you also have done a lot of fabrication. You have your Wicked Fabrication business?

DD: Me and my sponsor with my street stock, State Tree Services, we went into partnerships to build racecars. I actually built my street stock car from the ground up. I’ve built asphalt late models for Ronnie Howell Motorsports, and I’ve built a bunch of cars. You know Ronnie Mosley?

RB: Yes. I used to cover him and Travis and their racing.

DD: Well, when Ronnie had that gray car with the orange cage a few years ago and he wound up winning the $10,000 at Carolina with it, I built that car. I’ve done a bunch of cars. And we’ve done set-up work and started helping local racers. But then our business got so busy with the trees, we had to close our fabrication business up for the time being.

RB: But you like that end of it? The fabricating?

DD: Yeah, I’ve done pro mod drag cars for Mike Floyd Racing. I love it. And we were pretty successful with it. But tree work makes a whole lot more money.

RB: You definitely have to make a living and balance those things. Do you have any goals or upcoming races yet for this year?

DD: As far as late models, the Mintz’s asked me to run it again. If we can find a race, I will. I wanted to run at The Ultimate (Motorsports & RV Park) for $10,000, but I have a birthday to go to. But I know we’ll run Charlotte with the street stock. That will be one thing.

RB: So you’ll be at the World Short Track Championships at The Dirt Track at Charlotte at the end of the month?

DD: We were so close to winning it, so I kind of I feel like I have to go and finish the job. We ran second the year before last and last year we dominated the whole show until the dang race and finished fourth. Just trying to fit a whole night together there. Last year I missed it in the slick a lot with that car and I think I finally got that fixed. So hopes that we will finally be fast enough to finally get us a win there with our street stock. And we have one more big race at All-Tech with the street stock and then I’ll probably call it after them two races unless somebody calls me. Well, I’m supposed drive a local guy’s car in a couple weeks in late models at Senoia. So we’ve got three more. We’ve got Senoia, Charlotte and All-Tech.

RB: ?And Charlotte is such a big event. It’s amazing how many cars are there.

DD: The only problem I have is I’m kind of like Billy Moyer. I like to go and run for money. And they do not pay money. No matter what you do, you’re going to be like $2000 in the hole. Even if you win. I finished second and it didn’t even pay for my hotel room for one night.

RB: Yeah. You definitely have to look at life balance and be smart with your budget. Finally, who have been some of your main sponsors and those who’ve helped you with your racing program?

DD: I’d like to mention State Tree Services, Mike Johnson and Johnson Landscaping and Grading, and Advanced Doors. And Nicky Hill and Rawland Hill and Taylor Geddings. And my mom and dad and wife, Stacy Duke, and son, Dawson Duke. They help me with everything on Geralds’s car and I just want to make sure they get a shout-out.

Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series, Sumter Speedway, October 5, 2024, Results: 1. David “Banjo” Duke 2. Ben Watkins 3. Christian Thomas 4. Gray Parton 5. Brent Robinson 6. Ricky McClain 7. Anthony Sanders 8. Matt Pridgen 9. Adam Yarbrough 10. Devon Morgan 11. Kevin Godwin 12. Willie Milliken 13. Brian Strickland 14. Taylor Wood 15. Benji Hicks 16. Fletcher Wulff 17. Caleb Fulp 18. Doug Sanders 19. Steve Banal 20. Tony Ayers 21. David Yandle 22. Jake Jackson 23. Richard Lynch 24. Richard Burns 25. Dale Timms 26. James Murphy