Archive for FMSA Reports
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
Mar
23
Unbelievably long race report from Lake City this past weekend.
Posted by: | CommentsI decided to combine both series into one gigantic race report, so if you’re having trouble sleeping this just might do the trick for you. Think of it as being like “a very special episode of Blossom…” wherein you know should really pay attention even though it may be tedious at times.
DATE: March 20, 2010
TRACK: North Florida Speedway (aka Lake City)
ADMISSION: $30 pit pass.
CROWD GRADE: A. Now I must admit that I’ve never actually been to North Florida Speedway as all of my sojourns to Lake City ended with me turning left and heading to the pavement track, but from what I saw this was a very healthy crowd. I don’t have anything to compare it against but the crowd looked pretty good, from what I could see across the dark track.
TRACK GRADE: B. This was a bit of a puzzler for me to grade. We got there mid-afternoon to set up camp for our Editor at Speed and I was confused by the watering going on given the track condition and time of day. Then they watered the track before the mini sprints went out for hot laps, making the whole affair look like a swamp buggy race. But we all knew it would slick off and it did. BUT I still thought the racing was pretty good. When Ocala slicks off, the racing kind of blows, but I thought the racers adjusted well and made a game of it.
FOOD ORDERED: Hot dog and cheese fries.
FOOD GRADE: D. The hot dog was barely consumable and the hot dog bun had seen better days. A friend of mine got a hamburger that was burned to a crisp. He did remark however that this was somewhat better than the hamburger he had at Ocala Friday night, which was raw in the middle. The cheese fries weren’t bad…but they weren’t good. Everybody warned me to not order the food, but in the name of journalism I did. I should really learn to listen to people wiser than me, which is really most of the general population.
SERIES: Top Gun Sprint Series
# OF SPRINT CARS: 16 sprint cars signed in, 12 took the green for the feature.
SERIES GRADE: C. Car count was a little low and I was hoping to see more of the FSCA posse show up, but they didn’t. I was half tempted to give this one a D for a grade because only six cars finished and there were a lot of cautions, and it seemed that every time someone wrecked another car would break down in the same caution period. But the racing that did happen between cautions was pretty good. It sucked that “The Flying Mullet” Gene Lakser was on the front row because that meant the feature was pretty much over at the start despite arch nemesis Tim George lining up beside Mr. Lasker.
Feb
28
SpeedWeeks Race Report – 02.27.10
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DATE: February 27, 2010
SERIES: Florida Mini Sprint Association
TRACK: East Bay Raceway Park
ADMISSION PRICE: $40 for a pit pass. What can you do? Those 360 guys were there too.
FOOD ORDERED: Boneless buffalo wings and cheese fries.
FOOD GRADE: B. I was so excited to see something on the menu with the word “buffalo” I just had to get it. It was alright, just a couple of chicken tenders with some buffalo sauce thrown on. I was cold, it worked. The cheese fries were an A+. Good fries and lots of cheese. I enjoyed them way more than the buffalo offering. I was half-tempted to go with the shrimp basket but it was pricy and I’ve yet to have good seafood at any track. I still think East Bay has the best food midway.
DRINKS ORDERED: None. Well, I did have two Yuenglings back in the trailer and “The Ladies Choice” Josh did have the sweet tea, which he raved about.
DRINKS GRADE: A. Josh loved the tea.
CROWD GRADE: D. I haven’t seen a crowd this weak since any sprint car show at Bithlo Falls Speedway (Orlando Speed World) and that was just sad. I get that it rained a bunch and was cold, but still, this was the King of the 360s and there were tons of empty seats. I’m sure the weather kept a bunch of people away, but maybe the high admission ticket price did too? Not sure, but damn that was a sad showing.
NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: Since this is a FMSA report – I heard 43, 41 and 47. I can’t say I went and counted them all because we had all sorts of issues to work on for our Editor at Speed. But there were a ton.
SERIES GRADE: A+. I’ve been giving a lot of good grades to the FMSA lately and quite frankly there were more out of state cars than our guys and gals, but man alive, you want to talk about a ton of quality cars. Holy wow. These Pennsylvania teams are nothing to sneeze at. I saw one hauler so big I think all of the FMSA drivers could live in it comfortably for at least a month. Some of these teams had haulers bigger than anybody has in the Top Gun Sprint Series or the TBARA.
TRACK GRADE: A. Given the amount of rain that hit the track in the morning and afternoon, East Bay gets an “attaboy award” for keeping the race on the books but also having a good racing surface.
FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: Our FMSA guys and gals brought a knife to a gun fight this SpeedWeeks, but a few of the FMSA faithful need to be applauded. First is Rhea Lynn Moss. Short on experience, she got herself into the A Main without having to run the B Main. She may have got lapped a lot but I’m sure she learned a lot out there. Four other FMSA drivers made the A Main – Tim O’Donnell, Jody McKenzie, David Pleaugh and Brett O’Donnell. Now Tim and Brett both finished on the lead lap, and Brett was the top Florida finisher…but I liked how David got lapped but then hung with the leader the rest of the race and I swear I saw him banging on the leader under caution one time, which I loved…but I’m going with Jody McKenzie. Why? He raced his way into a transfer spot in the B Main, which was no easy chore and even though he got a lap down in the A Main, my man was out there slicing and dicing. I admire your spunk Jody McKenzie; you are our Driver of the Race.
OTHER FMSA NOTES: Let’s get down to the obvious – the whole mini sprint week was swept by one driver, Luke Thomas. And if you were at any of the races, you know why. Let’s put it this way, after the feature a very agitated older gentleman walked down past the grandstands and loudly proclaimed, “if any of you people think that number two car is legal you are all fools.” I didn’t see anyone disagree with him.
Other points:
- The #22 car of Travis Senter was fast all night and put on a nice charge through the field.
- The same can be said about the #1T ride of Bill Jackson.
- By lap five the #2 car had half-a-lap on the field. Enough said.
- If you throw out the #2 car, this was actually a great race with tons of driving.
- Tim O’Donnell was making the bottom work down in one when hardly anyone else was. Tim gets it done at East Bay.
- Darren Hasty had a big flip on Lap 1. Darren is from North Carolina and had a new chassis, so that sucked, but he was alright.
- Brett O’Donnell did a very nice job all night long in the #11. Well done.
- We never did get our Editor at Speed comfortable out there and we had to thrash a little due to having a new motor in the car, but nothing did break or vibrate on the car we’re happy to report, and bless his heart he never pulled off the track. Big thanks to our own “The Ladies Choice” Josh Wichers and also “The Bushnell Bullet” Shane Butler for helping out.
- Why does any mini sprint team need a stacker hauler? Seriously.
OTHER RACING NOTES:
- I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and got an autographed Steve Heisler Racing koozie from none other than Steve Heisler himself. I had to stand in line, but it was worth it.
- The King of the 360s is Wayne Johnson, who put on a great charge in the feature and held off “The Rocket” Jesse Hockett to win.
- Looked like “The Texas Dreamweaver” Gary Wright was the man to beat but a left rear let go while leading and did him in.
- Then it looked like “The Steel City Outlaw” Tim Shaffer would take home the glory, but his engine threw a rod (so we heard) and that ended his night while leading.
- In our contest for the best David Hobbs impression while saying, “the motor she done blowed up,” after Mark Smith blew up, “The Bushnell Bullet” Shane Butler was the winner.
- “The Flying Mullet” Gene Lasker dusted himself off and made it back out Saturday night, but his night was over early in the B Main, breaking on the first lap.
- Sport F’ing Allen! The only Florida driver to make the A Main every night this week. And the only Florida driver to make the A Main Saturday night. Don’t ever doubt Sport Allen, kids.
- Sadly, we didn’t see any Greg Wilson t-shirts being modeled in the pits.
RACE REPORTER: Todd