Archive for Race Reports
Sep
06
East Bay Sprints Race Report – 09.04.10 Part 1
Posted by: | CommentsAnd now for something completely different…two race reporters dispatched to one race, both turning in race reports. Up first is our (vastly more reliable) Editor at Speed “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose with his take on the action. Without further ado…
After watching this year’s Knoxville Nationals replay for about the fifth time, I just had to take in a dirt sprint car race. Thank you East Bay Raceway for filling that need.
DATE: September 4th, 2010.
SERIES: East Bay Sprints
ADMISSION PRICE: $25 Pit Pass
FOOD ORDERED: Cheeseburger & Hot dog
FOOD GRADE: A. The pit side cheeseburger was average but the hot dog more than made up for cheeseburger. The hot dog had good size and flavor.
DRINKS ORDERED: Water & Sweet Tea.
DRINKS GRADE: A. The sweet tea was full blown sweet.
CROWD GRADE: A. The place was packed. I would like to think it was for the return of the sprint cars after a more than a month lay off.
NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 19
FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: Plain and simple answer, Danny Jones. He started deep in the field and worked his way to a second place finish in the feature.
SERIES GRADE: B. Nice car count but I know there are more cars out there that have run at East Bay.
TRACK GRADE: B-. The surface blacked off a little but cars could run both the bottom and the top.
REST OF THE RACING GRADE: D. For the late model feature I watched after the sprint feature, it was painful to watch.
OTHER NOTES:
* Keith Butler continues to impress with his diverse driving talents from dirt to asphalt, both winged and non winged.
* It’s a shame to know that three sprint car hot shoes (Sport Allen, Greg Leonard & Tyler Godwin) were sitting in the stands and not racing. Plus Danny Martin.
* Lots of pavement racers in the house. Good to see Stan & Shane Butler, David Slawiak and retired racer Wendy Mathis.
* The Top Gun Sprints Series points championship between Ryan Partin & Tim George will be decided on the final race night. Mark my words. Tim George put in another strong and consistent run with a third place finish in the feature. Its looking like Tim will win the East Bay track championship.
* Great to see just about all the drivers tie ribbons on their top wings in honor of longtime East Bay car owner Bob Long. Bob passed away recently from his battle with cancer. Our condolences to the Long Family.
* Good to see some East Bay weekly lower division team members getting their “minds right” out behind their pick up truck. Just remember when the police ask about it, it was for medicinal purposes.
* I can honestly report that “Roller Derby” Josh “The Ladies Choice” Wichers was really in the house last night. Even sported a bit of a sunburn from his trip to Gainesville for the Gator game earlier in the day. Welcome back to the track Josh!
RACE REPORTER: “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose
Also, our crack pits photog Gary “Walk Quietly But Carry A Big” Johnson snapped some photos. Our apologies for a few of the blurry ones, particularly the one of Mean Gene and Crew, which would have been a nice one. We’ll get a better one next time guys.
Aug
01
TBARA Race Report – 07.31.10
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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
Jul
18
FMSA Race Report – 07.16.10
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Steve Wheeler knows how to make headlines around this place.
Date: July 16, 2010
Track: Ocala Speedway
Series: Florida Mini Sprint Association
Admission Price: $30 Pit Pass.
# of Sprint Cars: 29
Who Won: Gavin Thomas
Crowd Grade: C. I was kind of let down by the size of the crowd at Ocala. The last couple of sprint car shows I’ve been to at Ocala were pretty darn packed. Perhaps it was the threat of rain that kept people away? One other pundit thought perhaps we lost some of the snowbird crowd that we saw the last time the Top Gunners were in town. It was pretty damn hot out too, but that shouldn’t have hurt the crowd because it’s always hot in the summer. You got me…
Food Ordered: This is Ocala Speedway, chili cheese dog state champ! Did I order the chili cheese dog? You’re damn right I did. Was it the best in the state, for a race track? You’re damn right it is. This thing was such a mess the gentleman working the pits concession pointed me to the forks. I politely declined.
Food Grade: A+. I see no reason to order anything but the chili cheese dog at Ocala.
Drink Ordered: N/A. I got bribed with some Orange Crush down at the Partin Racing hauler, so that pretty much sealed the deal for me for the night.
Track Grade: C-. I’m grading on a scale here for Ocala. During hot laps the track was a mess best described as gumbo. Hot laps were useless. Heat races were a little better. For the feature, the groove wasn’t bad (I’m grading for the mini sprints) but I still think something has to be done in the off season to improve the surface at Ocala.
Series Grade: A. The only thing holding back this grade from an A+ is because this was billed as a Border War between Florida and Georgia. And I guess Georgia either a) didn’t get the memo or b) thought better of it knowing full well we would send them packing, tail between their legs. Hey, if this was supposed to be a war, we can surely insult the enemy by calling them pansies, right? Nonetheless, 29 cars, good field depth and a dog fight at the front in the feature between John Craddock, Gavin Thomas and eventually Brett O’Donnell. If you don’t think this is the best sprint car touring series in the state right now, you’ve got rocks in your head. I don’t care that they are smaller and have motorcycle engines. I want to see good racing and right now nobody is doing it better than the FMSA.
FSCF.com Driver of the Race: He never raced a mini sprint before. Dirt experience? Hardly. Tested much before the race? Not really. That didn’t stop TBARA driver Steve Heisler. Making his FMSA debut in the Penrose Racing #14D (normally driven by our Editor at Speed “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose) Steve put his head down, started 25th in the feature and came home 8th. He was in 7th until the last turn when Steve Crabtree got around him on the outside, but Steve did hold off Tim O’Donnell coming to the stripe – no easy task. Steve made six nice passes for position that I counted and stayed out of trouble all night. He also had a great crew chief helping him out. Now for those of you that know I was working on Steve’s car and want to call BS on me giving this award to Steve, well, the numbers don’t lie, but hey, I’m a sport. If you don’t like my choice, Brett O’Donnell is just as deserving. He too made his way through the pack and challenged for the win, eventually coming home in second.Watching Brett come through the pack was a thing of beauty as well.
Other Notes:
- Rhea Lynn Moss took a tough lick in the feature, due to a broken shock, but was thankfully alright. Rhea Lynn has been the revelation of the season and was sitting third in points, so this was a tough hit all the way around.
- I think I heard Steve Crabtree yell out, “Banzai!” as he made that last lap, last corner pass on Steve Heisler. Holy Guacamole did Steve have a head of steam as he went around the outside of our car. Nice pass.
- Gavin Thomas took it to everyone’s dome in the #7 Jesse James Demolition/Atlantic Powder Coating Special. Gavin has a boatload of talent and we suspect he could get the job done in a full blown sprint car if given half a chance.
- Justin Kolves and Ocala just don’t mix. Justin tore his car up something fierce last time out and came back on the hook again after he got caught up in someone else’s mess, breaking his brake line. It’s been an expensive year for the Kolves family.
- Jody McKenzie had a scary looking fire that brought out the red, just after the yellow had flown.
- Sheldon Kinser made a guest appearance up in the announcing booth. He’s still trying to get a powerplant under him to get back out there.
- John Craddock looked like the man to beat early on until Gavin Thomas got around him. Craddock was strong all night.
- Our Editor at Speed had a tough night. His brand new car drew a small crowd every time it was stationary, but despite the crew’s best efforts, it wouldn’t fire for the feature. Brian would like to send a special thank you to Don Taylor of Taylor’s Garage in Ocklawaha for doing his best to try and fix the motor.
- I wonder if Paul and Dominic Lanza are related to Blackjack Lanza…
Race Reporter: Todd Michaels