Jun
06
TBARA Race Report – 06.05.10
By
After a heated rock, paper, scissors tournament at the worldwide headquarters of FloridaSprintCarFans.com (also known as Todd’s garage) on Friday afternoon, I was given the responsibility for the TBARA race report from New Smyrna. I had no idea it would be so difficult to throw a rock, paper, scissors match with Josh “Roller Derby” Wichers. I guess the Jim Croce song “Roller Derby Queen” playing in the background was throwing him off. Anyway… to the report!
DATE: June 5th, 2010
SERIES: TBARA
ADMISSION PRICE: $25 Pit Pass
FOOD ORDERED: Chicken sandwich & small fries
FOOD GRADE: C. Don’t eat the pit concession at NSS. I think the heat lamp was out when I got my small fries. You are better off eating on the grandstand side or eating before you come to the races.
DRINKS ORDERED: Powerade & Barq’s Root Beer.
DRINKS GRADE: C . Yes, the drink order was messed up too. Only one Powerade flavor and I ordered a Root Beer and somehow got a Coke…
CROWD GRADE: C. NSS advertised heavily on the local radio in Volusia County. I’ve seen better crowds for a TBARA show at NSS. I’m guessing the threat of rain kept many away.
NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 15
WHO WON: Travelin’ Troy DeCaire
FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: It looked like Bo Hartley was going to take the honor until a big puff of smoke came from his racecar. Then it looked like Ben Fritz until a broken right rear shock ended his night. In the end it goes to third place finisher Larry J Brazil. He started deep in the field and stayed out of trouble to have another solid run.
SERIES GRADE: D. This is the premiere asphalt series in Florida and only 15 cars show up. As a fan it was very disappointing to see only 7 cars running at the end of the race.
TRACK GRADE: B+. It would have been an A had my concession experience been better. They kept the show moving nicely with the threat of rain. The surface was racy as usual. The support divisions had horrible car counts, as usual.
REST OF THE RACING GRADE: D. Four and six car features make for a pitiful show.
OTHER NOTES:
* First, congratulations go out to Frank Riddle’s family. Frank is a 2010 Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee this year. It’s long overdue in my opinion. A big thank you to all those people behind the scenes who helped get Frank inducted this year. Now let’s get TBARA Champion & Little 500 winner Jim Childers inducted along with Sam Rodriguez.
* Outstanding effort by the Butler Motorsports crew for getting Shane’s car back together after a hard crash during hot laps. All the hard work paid off as Shane survived the night to come home 7th and save valuable championship points. It was disappointing that more teams didn’t offer help to fix the Butler machine.
* Lap 1 of the feature saw Dude Teate, Joey Aguilar & Ben Fritz get together. Teate lost something in the rearend; Aguilar checked up to miss Teate, but was drilled from behind. Aguilar spun Teate with help and Joey hit the wall. Teate and Aguilar were unable to continue. Fritz re-fired and tagged the tail for the complete restart. Fritz later retired with a broken shock.
* I have to give the teams that are showing up to race credit. It’s the cars that are sitting on the sidelines that are hurting the show for the FANS and tracks. Is the TBARA on its way to self destruction?
* On a side note, the racing community lost a talented driver last week in “The Rocket” Jesse Hockett. It was my pleasure to watch him win the 2009 King of the 360s at East Bay, then have the opportunity to talk to him about it the following week at Volusia Speedway Park. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hockett Family. God speed and rest in peace Jesse.
RACE REPORTER: “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose
Also, friend of the website Gary “Walk Softly But Carry A Big” Johnson was in the house and snapped the following pictures during a pit walk. Thanks Gary!
I believe the 1st photo of the #18 was taken by the Butlers. I hadn’t arrived there yet.
That is true. Good catch.
Todd