TBARA Race Report – 07.31.10

After collecting my seventh consecutive Employee of the Month award, (thanks Josh) this past Friday at the FSCF.com corporate headquarters (a.k.a. Todd’s garage), I was dispatched to the TBARA race Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway. I wasn’t sure if it was a reward or a punishment. I took it as a reward.

DATE: July 31, 2010

SERIES: TBARA

TRACK: New Smyrna Speedway

ADMISSION PRICE: $25 Pit Pass

FOOD ORDERED: Hamburger

FOOD GRADE: A. The actual track hamburger was overpriced and average at best. The reason the food grade is A is one reason. Mrs. Butler’s BBQ sandwich Friday night at Orlando and the meatball sub Saturday at New Smyrna. Thank you Mrs. Butler for keeping me from starving to death. It is much appreciated.

DRINKS ORDERED: N/A I had plenty of water at the Butler hauler due to the extreme heat. Thanks again!

DRINKS GRADE: N/A However, our man John from Red Fox Run did have a sweet tea at the pit concession and said it was acceptable.

CROWD GRADE: C. NSS advertised heavily on Brighthouse Networks. I’ve seen better crowds for a TBARA show at NSS.

NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 17

WHO WON: Dude Teate

FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: I was all ready to give the honor to Shane Butler after the primary car would not crank for hot laps and blowing the engine in the #81 backup car during hot laps. Shane was working his way towards the front during the feature in the #18 car after the crew thrashed to get it to the starting grid. But Shane pulled the #18 car in during the only caution (Bryan Riddle broke a shock and came to rest on the track) for overheating. So with no further adieu, Driver of the Race is race winner Dude Teate. Dude was taken out leading the heat race by a lapped car that pinched him into the wall. The accident sent Teate to the pits with a broken front axle. After the restart for the Riddle caution, Teate brought the crowd to its feet with a high side pass of then leader Troy DeCaire.

SERIES GRADE: C+. This is the premiere asphalt series in Florida and only 17 cars show up. As a fan it was very disappointing to see only 9 cars running at the end of the race. I gave the C+ because the teams that did show made every effort to put all the cars on the track. A tip of the cap to those teams.

TRACK GRADE: B

REST OF THE RACING GRADE: B. The Pro Truck race feature had a dramatic three wide finish at the flagstand. Karnac legend Rex “Boneman” Hollinger competed as well.

OTHER NOTES:

* It was a Diablo kind of night. The Dave Steele built chassis came home 1 & 2 with DeCaire chasing Teate to the finish line. DeCaire led the first half of the race going away until he had what felt like two shocks fail late in the feature. However, he did an outstanding job to hang on and close on Teate (after laying his wing back all the way) in the final couple of laps.

* The Butler crew continued to show why they are having a championship type of season. On a day when the primary car had problems they kept working to get the car on the track.

* Larry Brazil Jr. showed great maturity. After hurting the engine in his primary car, he jumped into the 28B typically run by his father. Noticing the engine had a bit of a miss and was running on the warm side, he stayed out and collected valuable points.

* FSCF.com’s favorite graphics man Mickey Kempgens had a very solid run in the Terry DeCaire owned Dirt Devil’s Speedway #41 car.

* Once again Ben Fritz was fast, but hard luck struck again. Ben was running in the top three during the feature, when the front wing blew off and basically into the cockpit.

RACE REPORTER: “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose