If you still want to get in on the “owners alliance” action, just scroll down.

Yesterday it became official that the remainder of the Checkered Flag Sprint Series has been canceled due to Punta Gorda Speedway wanting a lowered purse structure and CFSS officials not willing to do so, given that the same purse structure has been in place for almost three years.

So congratulations to Mark Gimmler on becoming the 2010 Checkered Flag Sprint Series champion!

On to the tardy TBARA race report of one Josh Wichers! Pictures too, courtesy of Gary “Walk Quietly But Carry a Big” Johnson.

Date : 10.30.2010

Track : Desoto Super Speedway (Bradenton, FL)

Series : TBARA

# of Sprint Cars : 17

Who Won ? :

Heat 1 – Ben “Flash” Fritz

Heat 2 – Travelin’ Troy DeCaire

Feature – SHANE BUTLER

The Finish :

18- Shane Butler, 16- Ben Fritz, 0- Dude Teate, 68- Troy DeCaire, 78- Shane Miller, 3x- Bo Hartley, 5w- Johnny Gilbertson, 99- Keith Butler, 81- Sonny Hartley, 77- John Gilbert III, 12- Collin Cabre, 11x- Bryan Riddle, 21- Jimmy Alvis Jr, 47- Mike Koss, 9- Jimmy Alvis Sr, 20- Larry Brazil Jr

Admission :

Grandstand: $20

Pit Pass: $30

Track Grade : D. I recently learned a new term that applies to a select few racetrack owner/operators. The term is “Gatekeeper”. This is definitely one of those facilities where this term applies. They show up on Saturday morning, open the gates and the ticket windows, and hope that someone shows up. If we could only get someone like Tim Bryant from 5 Flags in Pensacola or maybe Ron Barfield from Dillon Motor Speedway to come show these people how to put butts in the seats and car counts in the back gate ! ! I was talking to someone Saturday night, and they asked if there had always been so few cars there or if it was an off night. I explained to him that a number of years back, Desoto Super Speedway was the mecca of short track racing in Florida. That even sprint car teams had to park in “the back 40″ because there were no pit spots available in the pit area. It’s sad to see such a wonderfully potential facility not live up to it’s expectations !

Crowd Grade : D. Considering that Florida’s elite touring series was on tap, and school bus figure 8′s , and trick-or-treat for the little goblins , you would think the place would be packed. Not so much. But from a fan’s perspective, I understand. It’s $20 to sit in the grandstands. There were only 34 total cars in the pit area, which 17 of those were sprint cars. There was better candy and more traffic in my neighborhood the next night. And it was free.

Series Grade : B-. The TBARA brought one of the best top-to-bottom fields that I’ve seen. I would safely say that 12 of the 16 cars that started the feature were top 5 cars and could potentially win depending on where they started. Even after the first lap incident that retired Larry J Brazil Jr and Jimmy Alvis Sr from the race, it was still a very exciting race watching the ” Flash” work his way through lap traffic with the “Bushnell Bullet” in hot pursuit. Not to mention the 22 lap battle for the 5th spot between Shane Miller and Bo “Hollywood” Hartley, as they went literally bumper to bumper with neither driver faltering. The TBARA brings some of the best looking, well prepared racecars to the track of any club in the country.

Food Ordered : N/A. I must say, one of the best perks of being the newest member of the Stephenson International Shipping race team, besides all of the zeros on the paycheck, is the delicious groceries that Judy prepares and brings to the track. Simply yummy !

Drinks Ordered : N/A. Anyone that has read more than 1 of my race reports knows that the fastest way to my heart is good sweet tea. So as always, I approach the pit side concession and ask for the biggest sweet tea that they have. Well . . . , they didn’t have any. They don’t have any. And she said that they won’t have any. Really ??

Where are they next: Citrus County Speedway (Inverness, FL) , November 6, 2010. The TBARA wraps up their 2010 campaign at one of FSCF.com’s favorite tracks, Citrus County Speedway. Egg rolls , sweet tea, and even beer in the pits (after the last race has started – $2). Why would you not go ? ?

Other Notes of Interest:

- The crowd that was gathered was treated to a lot of red. The first of which was on lap 1 when Colin Cabre and Jimmy Alvis Sr made contact on the backstretch. Cabre was able to drive away, but Alvis Sr wasn’t quite so lucky as he hit the wall in turn 3 and slid to turn 4. During the scramble to miss debris and spinning cars, Larry J Brazil Jr hopped a right rear tire and was catapulted into the turn 3 wall hard. The rest of the red was that of the “Flash” in his shiny red 16, and the “Bullet” in the red 18, as they put on a show to determine who would take the checkers.

- Sonny Hartley had stepped out of his usual ride and into the Butler Motorsports 81 car to fill in for the absent Brad Davis. Sonny had a rear axle break at New Smyrna Speedway, which demolished his chassis. Sonny is an ageless thrill to watch wheel a sprint car, but unfortunately had a brake issue that kept him from giving it his all.

- John Gilbert III made the incredibly long trek from his shop in Key West. John and his dad, John Gilbert Jr, always bring top notch equipment to the track. It was great to see the Key lime green 77 car back in action. I hope we see more of both of them next season.

- Are you a Facebook junkie ? Can’t always make it to the TBARA races ? Check out the Butler Motorsports or Ben Fritz Racing FaceBook pages. Both team do a fantabulous job at live updates. Great job ladies. PR is becoming a lost art. Keep up the good work !

- Shane Miller is back behind the wheel again. Shane had taken a break from the seat for a while and had put some great talent behind the wheel. We’ve seen Dustin Perez, Tommy Nichols, Mickey Kempgens, and most recently , Joey “the Ace” Aguilar piloting the Miller Motorsports machines. Shane was out of the seat for over 7 years, but you would never know it by watching him drive. Great job Shane ! Glad to see you back where you belong.

- Word on the street is that Larry J Brazil Jr has his car for sale. It’s a fairly newer Hurricane chassis with some of the best that money can buy bolted to it. He’s only asking $10k for the complete roller. Call Larry @ Steele Performance for info.

- As the series prepares for their final stop on the tour, Shane Butler leads the championship chase over Dude Teate. Mathematically, Dude can still win the championship, but it would take a disastrous night on the part of the points leader to make that happen. Look for there to be fireworks at Citrus County Speedway this weekend, both on the track and in the air.

- One of the allures of the night was the return of “His Holiness” Dave Steele to TBARA action after his horrible crash at 5 Flags Speedway a few weeks ago. But this time, rather than finding The Man of Steele in the familiar black 91 car, he was set to pilot his own car and creation, the “Haulassinski” with the number 14 adorning the sideboards. But due to a disagreement with TBARA officials concerning a previous fine, Steele loaded up and did not compete. An utter shame, as I was anxious to see what the “Haulassinski” was capable of.

Race Reporter: Josh Wichers

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DATE: October 1, 2010

SERIES: TBARA

TRACK: Orlando Speed World (or Bithlo Falls Speedway if you like…)

ADMISSION: $20 for the grandstands, $25 for a pit pass. Twenty clams in this economy is outrageous, particularly given the lack of cars at OSW these days. However, $25 for a pit pass is pretty darn reasonable.

# OF SPRINT CARS: 27! I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt like it was 2-3 years ago at OSW for a TBARA show. I was thinking 20-21 cars given names I was hearing, but I was pleasantly shocked.

WHO WON: His Holiness Dave Steele won the feature after starting mid-pack. Heat wins went to Matt Mercer, Keith Butler and Dakotah Stephens.

CROWD GRADE: D. Trust me, I want to give them an F, but some of the Orlando faithful said there was a slightly larger crowd than normal, and that’s just sad because what I saw were pretty empty stands. This was an awesome race with an awesome field of cars and the place should have been jam packed. I talked to the promoter before hand and all I’ll say is that FASCAR or whatever the hell you want to call them needs to wake up and do something about OSW, or at the very least let your promoters think outside of the box.

TRACK GRADE: B. OSW has jokingly been called Bithlo Falls Speedway because of the weepers that seem to last for days on end after it rains, which given our proximity to the equator is not a good thing. But they got this one in and the staff were pleasant to me as always.

FOOD ORDERED: Two cheese dogs.

FOOD GRADE: B-. Were they the best cheese dogs? No. Do they even sell cheese dogs in the back pits? No. But the lovely gal working the grill hooked me up with some cheese anyway and it was after 11:00 so I appreciated some fresh hot food right off the grill.

SERIES GRADE: A+. 27 cars! Do I need to say anything else? You had just about every conceivable driver you could ask for – all the regulars, Dave Steele, Matt Mercer, Brian Gingras, the Alvis Family, Sonny O’Sullivan, Mickey Kemgens and more. There were some tempers in the tech area and also some poor sportsmanship by one of the teams, but more on that later.

FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: Everyone will hate me for it, but….His Holiness Dave Steele. The man started 12th and was making all of the passes that have made him a crowd favorite for a long time. And the outside pass he put on Dude Teate was just sick. You don’t see much passing on the outside at OSW, but Steele didn’t seem to care about that really. Watching Steele work traffic is just pure art. Some other notable mentions would be Mickey Kempgens who started mid-pack and came home 5th and Sonny Hartley who got spun early on and rallied to a 7th place finish with a bent left rear wheel.

OTHER NOTES:

• My favorite on-track moment of the night? Keith Butler going three wide around the top in his heat race. Keith’s car was handling like a slot car in his heat race. It kind of went away from him in the beginning of the feature and then he got dumped by another car in the feature, but then did a snappy 360 to keep going. In retrospect I wish he would have just stopped to get his spot back because Keith was bad fast early on.
• Same heat race, the 20B of Larry Brazil Jr. came rolling to a stop on the back stretch right at the end of the heat and no yellow! That was just dangerous. Larry had a rough night the whole way around.
• Travelin’ Troy DeCaire was in the house but had a very un-Troy like night. Spun in his heat, then slowed with injector issues. Then in the heat got into a spin with Sonny Hartley, made his way back up through the field and spun again, this time on the backstretch. The team never could figure out why the Diablo kept jumping out on Troy so much.
• Hard Luck Award goes to Matt Mercer. Won his heat, was leading the feature and then pulled off all of a sudden on the back straight. I asked him if anything broke and he said no but the engine was dumping oil all over him and it wasn’t going to have a good outcome so he shut it down. Tough break for Matt, he’s a very nice guy.
• Kudos to Shane Butler who drove a very aggressive and smart race to come home second and more importantly finished in front of championship protagonist Dude Teate.
• Spoke to Jimmy Alvis Sr. for a little bit and they’re still working on finding the setup on the #9 car they just purchased. Senior was struggling with the car all night, but it was good to see him back out there.
• Hustlin’ Steve Heisler had a tough go of things in the Dave Steele owned #14. Heisler ended up getting involved in two spins in the feature and got a broken shock for his troubles. Bummer is that Steve reported that was the best the Steele R&D car has felt yet.
• Speaking of Dude Teate, aggressive doesn’t begin to describe his drive through the pack. He was coming through the pack something fierce, but he also did leave some cars is his wake, like Keith Butler.
• Amanda Ferguson was spotted walking the pits and reported she does plan to jump back in a pavement sprint car this year, but is also planning on moving up to the super late model world next year as well.
• Hardest wreck of the night was when Ben Fritz went to the inside of Dakotah Stephens and they both ended up in the wall. Stephens was an early leader after Mercer fell out, but was dropping back through the pack at the time of the wreck. Both hit hard and Fritz told me he was thankful he had his Hans Device on. Now here’s where everything goes from bad to worse…Fritz is up by the fence as the paramedics are getting ready to do their thing and then a member of the Stephens team proceeds to try and punch Fritz through the fence. First off, if the drivers want to fight, go for it. Team members attacking drivers? While they’re still on the track? And just took a major hit against the wall? Do I need to say more?
• I will…I saw a little kid about 8ish or so (I saw him get lots of autographs) come up to Fritz in the pits and ask him why, “that guy was trying to punch you when you were hurt…” Fritz was very diplomatic in his answer, but I would like to think that maybe every once in a while we can all think about this concept called sportsmanship and remember that there are fans in the stands, including families with children, and this is entertainment and you should probably try to set a better example than what you did if you want the fans to come back.
• Nonetheless, I almost didn’t go but was damn glad I did. It’s been a long time since I was this excited watching a TBARA race, so I hope they can keep these fields up because it was awesome.

RACE REPORTER: Todd Michaels

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