Archive for FMSA Reports
Dec
03
No sprint car races this weekend, let’s remember last weekend!
Posted by: | CommentsI often think to myself when I’m at the track, for example this past weekend at East Bay, “look at that bulbous guy wearing that homemade FloridaSprintCarFans.com t-shirt with some goofy tribal tattoo thing design carrying a notepad and writing things down. What is he writing down? Notes for a report? New ways to aggravate Todd? New recipes for those goofy cookies he makes?”
Nope. At least for the report part.
Since I was in the Penrose Racing pits contemplating beating myself in the head with a torque wrench most of the night since once again our new car would not fire despite doing so back at the shop…here are my observations.
DATE: November 27, 2010.
TRACK: East Bay Raceway Park
ADMISSION: 25 clams for a pit pass. I even got to stand next to Gene Lasker in line. What a deal!
SERIES: Top Gun Sprint Series and Florida Mini Sprint Association.
TRACK GRADE: B. It wasn’t too dusty, it wasn’t too wet, despite rain in the area the previous few days, so I would say it was a pretty good racing surface.
CROWD GRADE: B. Not the biggest crowd I’ve seen at East Bay this year, but still a good one.
FOOD ORDERED: Boneless Buffalo Wings.
FOOD GRADE: B+. It was a little cold out and I was definitely not in a good mood, so these sure did hit the spot. Some tasty buffalo chicken always brightens my mood…
WHO WON: Danny “The Hammer” Martin Jr. took home Top Gun honors while Jim Young took home FMSA honors.
TGSS FSCF.com DRIVER OF THE RACE: Kerry Gilbert. Now this one is a toss up for me since I generally go with whoever passed the most cars. Sport Allen started 15th and finished 3rd. Kerry Gilbert started 18th and finished 6th. They both made up 12 spots. We’ve given this award to Sport before and I think a nod to Kerry Gilbert is in order because in my humble opinion he has put together a very fine 2010 season for himself.
FMSA FSCF.com DRIVER OF THE RACE: Gavin Thomas. He may have finished second to out-of-state invader Jim Young, but Gavin was driving like a man possessed out there, with some big lunges down in turn two trying to get at Young. Gavin also picked up the win Friday night at North Florida Speedway.
TGSS Race Notes:
- Despite injuring his foot, it was good to see Sport Allen at East Bay. When Sport is in the pits you know “The Hammer” isn’t going to run off with it.
- Speaking of Danny “The Hammer” Martin, Jr. is there a hotter dirt driver in the country, based on simple winning percentages over say, the past six months? For everyone thinking it’s all motor, Danny is building a new one for next season and he’ll be more than happy to build one for you too.
- For a while it looked like “The Hammer” was going down to defeat at the hands of Tyler Godwin, who was debuting a beautiful brand new Spike Chassis. Unfortunately Godwin spun out of the lead and then adding insult to injury came up lite at the scales after tearing back through the field. Had he not been DQ’d he would have been our Driver of the Race. Watch out for Tyler in 2011.
- Nasty, nasty wrecks befell Rocky Sullivan and Rich Alexander. I think Alexander got off somewhat easy as that could have been a savage wreck the way he sailed into turn one. We also wish a speedy recovery to Rocky who had an ambulance ride for his troubles.
- Jimmy Ballew has wrestled new life out of the Jeanette Burnett Motorsports #18 picking up two nice finishes in back-t0-back races at East Bay. Ballew started up front, kept his nose clean and held on to a nice top five finish.
- Shawn Murray put in another strong run for a well-deserved second spot.
- Gene Lasker‘s night went up in smoke in the feature, making for some slippery slides for other drivers. The second half of the season is probably one Gene would like to forget.
- Congratulations to Tim George on becoming the 2010 Top Gun Sprint Series champ. Tim kept his nose clean all night and made sure he came home in one piece to lock up the championship.
- Our Factory Driver Ryan Partin did all he could in the feature, but got caught out in the Lasker oil spill and lost a ton of spots after Ryan was moving forward at a good clip. A rare sighting – Ryan was actually spotted in the high groove for one lap.
- We bumped into a few more pavement sprint car drivers thinking about making the switch to Top Gun for next year…
FMSA Race Notes:
- The race got off to a bumpy start as the FMSA always seems to at East Bay, but once things got settled it was a humdinger with Young and Thomas provided many fireworks.
- 2010 Rookie of the Year Rhea Lynn Moss started up front for the feature but fell back on the second restart and couldn’t charge forward.
- Congratulations to 2010 FMSA Champion Brett O’Donnell who put in a solid season and is rumored to be making the jump to full size sprint cars, quite possibly with a Maxim chassis.
- We had issues galore in our pits, with a broken brake caliper doing in our 14D piloted by TBARA campaigner Steve Heisler. Sadly our Editor at Speed Brian Penrose turned nary a lap as we could not get the primary car to fire.
- It was nice to see some out-of-state drivers out there this weekend, clearly tuning up for SpeedWeeks in February. If you don’t think the FMSA are a big deal, what other club has drivers towing in from other states for some late season running to get ready for 2011?
RACE REPORTER: Todd Michaels
And here are some pit photos from Gary “Walk Quietly But Carry a Big” Johnson.
Jul
18
FMSA Race Report – 07.16.10
Posted by: | Comments
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.