DISCLAIMER: Me and our Editor at Speed (and even our Factory Driver Flyin’ Ryan Partin at one point) spent all day working on the #90 for our friend Craig Skene, desperately trying to get it ready (we didn’t – found a terminal problem late in the day) for the feature. So I didn’t see much but the feature.

DATE: February 7, 2010

SERIES: TBARA

TRACK: New Smyrna Speedway

ADMISSION: Nothing for me. The TBARA were parked over in Turns 1 and 2, so  I didn’t have to pay to work in the parking lot all day…but I did pay the price with a stupid looking sunburn.

FOOD ORDERED: Sadly, I was at New Smyrna, yet I never had time to eat, which was a tragedy because I very much enjoy the food at New Smyrna.

DRINKS ORDERED: Again, I never had time to go order a Yuengling, but my man Joey “The Ace” Aguilar had some Orange Crush over in the cooler at the Shane Miller Motorsports rig.

DRINK GRADE: A+ Now it goes without saying if I can’t have Yuengling, I love a nice Orange Crush to quench my thirst. And these were Orange Crush in the glass bottles – double score! God bless you Shane Miller Motorsports, those hit the spot when we finally called it a day on the #90.

CROWD GRADE: C-. Looked a little thin to me when I made my way over to watch the feature, but it was quite cold and that football game was tonight too.

NUMBER OF CARS: 20? 21? Not sure. But I know 19 took the green for the feature.

RACE WINNER: Bo Hartley. Don’t want to take the glory away, but he did start on the pole and that’s a nice place to be at New Smyrna.

RACE GRADE: C. This was an average race for the TBARA. On the first start, Travelin’ Troy DeCaire went so far to the top he looked like “High Groove” Harry Gant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone go that far up the track at New Smyrna, at least on purpose. But there was a yellow and that one got called back and Troy got bunched up on the second start, which hurt his chance for victory. Lots of cars pulled off early, including the #66, #80 and #20B. Shame there wasn’t a caution to bunch things up and liven up the show.

FSCF.com DRIVER OF THE RACE: This one isn’t even close – “The Bushnell Bullet” Shane Butler. Shane made some nice aggressive passes going into turn three and came all the way up to second and ran out of time or I believe he would have ended up in victory lane. Shane has really stepped up his game in the past 12 months and he was charging out there tonight.

OTHER NOTES: In no particular order….

• Ryan Litt continues to make the best of his SpeedWeeks in the DeCaire Motorsports #41. He was running in the top five all night until the motor started sounding rather sour. Very impressive.
• In the other DeCaire car (the #01) our favorite homeboy “Hustlin’” Steve Heisler decided to see what it would be like to drive an over-powered tricycle and three wheel it out there. Thankfully Steve was okay and I must say, his crew shirts are pimp as hell. I was stopped by three prostitutes just outside of the track that asked me if I would be their pimp, saying, “only a pimp would wear a shirt that hot.” I politely declined.
• “The Commando” Brian Gingras was very strong in the feature, looking to be the fastest car in the early part of the race. His third place was well deserved. And Gingras won his heat too. Could Gingras be a dark horse this season…
• Frankie Hurst clobbered the wall early on but appeared to be okay back in the pits.
• Nice to see Johnny Gilbertson out there mixing it up with the TBARA.
• Also nice to see out-of-state drivers like Jeff Banyas out there.
• Joey “The Ace” Aguilar was very strong early on, using his head to stay out of trouble, but looked like he burned up his left rear late in the race. Good run – and you must stop by his hauler and check out his new t-shirts.
• I’ll say it again – watching Troy DeCaire on restarts at New Smyrna really is mind boggling.
• Look for Australian Craig Skene to jump in the #80 car tomorrow.
• There is something very wrong about seeing His Holiness Dave Steele at the track and not be racing.

RACE REPORTER: Todd