Archive for FMSA Reports
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
Jan
31
FMSA Race Report – With Pictures!
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Out-of-state invader Todd Carmichael took home the glory.
DATE: January 29, 2010
SERIES: Florida Mini Sprint Association
TRACK: Ocala Speedway
ADMISSION PRICE: $35 for a pit pass. What can you do? Those 410 guys were there too.
FOOD ORDERED: Chili Dog. They were out of cheese!
FOOD GRADE: B. My favorite chili cheese dog in the state and they ran out of cheese! But it really was my fault, I waited until the red flag in the 410 A Main to grab some food. Nonetheless, best chili dog going. I’m just giving them a B because I wanted cheese. Steve Heisler said the taco stand was phenomenal, I just didn’t have time to make it over there sadly.
DRINKS ORDERED: None. “The Flying Brunette” Jeanette Burnett was my waitress all night, so I didn’t get to pay for any beverages sadly. My desire for Yuengling outweighed my journalistic duties.
CROWD GRADE: A+. The joint was sold out. I heard they had 4,000 sprint car fans packed in there. Also, we had a bunch of really nice fans swing by the Penrose hauler.
NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 22 mini sprints that I counted were on hand to start the night. Quite a few had issues throughout the night, but a good healthy turnout nonetheless.
SERIES GRADE: A. There were some incidents on the track, but by and large everyone raced hard and clean. I’ve really grown to love the FMSA races. By and large these drivers show respect for each other out on the track which makes for good racing.
TRACK GRADE: C. Based on the surface, it wasn’t the worst I’ve seen at Ocala but it was far from the best. Maybe one of these days they’ll get it right. Some of the people sitting in the spectator side said the dust was brutal. But the overall fan experience at Ocala always brings the grade back up some.
FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: This is a tough one for me, but I am going with the winner Todd Carmichael. Generally I don’t go with the winner unless they do something heroic, but Mr. Carmichael ran hard all night, made some aggressive moves out there and was in the right place at the right time . And he’s not a regular with the club. But I would like to give honorable mentions to Tim O’Donnell and Steve Crabtree. I really wanted to give this one to one of those guys, but I’m going with Mr. Carmichael.
OTHER FSCF.COM NOTES: This was a great show and man alive did we have our hands full with our Editor at Speed Brian Penrose’s car. We’d like to give a special thanks to Ricky Burnett for all of his hard work on the car all night long.
I would also like to post this picture, story after the picture…
FMSA Driver Rhea Lynn Moss.
So we were lined up for our heat race and I was giving our Editor at Speed his pep talk when Rhea’s mom asked me if I could help push her car out. I did. I asked Rhea’s mom why she was so nervous and she told me it was Rhea’s second race in the car. So I leaned in and gave her some tips on what the track looked like, stay on the bottom in turn one, don’t get crazy on the start, etc. So the green flag drops and what she does she do? She goes sailing around the outside of our Editor at Speed in Turn #1 and drives away from him. I turned to her mom and said, “well, that’s certainly not what I told her to do…” so I would like to give Rhea some recognition for giving me a good laugh and proving once again that women generally do the complete opposite of what I tell them.
Tim O’Donnell was on another planet in his heat race. Watching that car take a set and go through turn one was a thing of beauty.
Sadly for Eddie Moss Jr. we could all see that one coming as his tire was going down throughout the feature. If we had a Tough Luck Award, he would win it.
Justin Kolves had has ride torn up something fierce in the beginning of the night, but thankfully was alright.
OTHER NOTES: Those pesky 410s were there too. While I did catch the A Main, I didn’t see much else due to the issues we were having with our Editor at Speed’s car. So here are a few notes:
- Some of the big names that were expected didn’t show, but still, guys like Donny Schatz, Terry McCarl, Jac Haudenschild, Danny Lasoski, the Kasey Kahne team, Greg Hodnett, Lance DeWease, Jason Myers, etc. were there.
- Donny Schatz had to run the B Main. That should tell you how tough it was out there.
- You really didn’t think Lasoski wouldn’t win in front of his girl’s hometown did you?
- You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the aggressive driving of WoO guys on a track like Ocala.
- Rough night for DeWease and Hodnett.
- Kind of a boring A Main until the white flag lap and Cale Conley and Brad Sweet wrecked over in turn four. Sweet had a sweet run and well, neither wanted to give up. Sweet got out and punched Conley’s wing. That made me chuckle.
- I think I had the most fun watching Mr. Kaeding work traffic. I would love to see him with the WoO full time.
- Get some Terry McCarl merchandise – the t-shirt and hat combo is a steal!
- I’ve never seen a Greg Wilson t-shirt look as good as it did Friday night.
RACE REPORTER: Todd