Archive for TGSS Reports
May
11
TGSS Race Report – 05.08.10
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If you want something done right you have to do it yourself, so here we go…
DATE: May 8, 2010
SERIES: Top Gun Sprint Series
TRACK: East Bay Raceway Park
ADMISSION: $25 for a pit pass. $12 for general admission. You can’t beat that with a stick. Though here is an amusing aside – one of our Factory Driver’s crew showed up a tad late and they were out of wrist bands for the pits. This turned out to be quite a conundrum that took a while to sort out…
FOOD ORDERED: I may have very well found my new favorite track food in the whole state of Florida. Wait…my new favorite track food that is not a chili cheese dog. But I DID order a cheese dog, which was slightly above average. To be fair, the chili cheese dog at Ocala Speedway really wrecks the curve for everybody else, it’s that good. After eating my cheese dog I saw many race fans ordering the deviled crab, so I decided on that instead of the chocolate dipped cheesecake at the stand behind me. Well. I really didn’t expect that much crab in a trackside consumable, but man alive was it good. You must get this.
FOOD GRADE: A. Had I simply ordered the deviled crab this would have been an A+, but the cheese dog suffered the grade a tad. But I do think that East Bay might have the all around best food offerings at a track from top to bottom and the staff runs that place like no one’s business.
DRINKS ORDERED: None from the concession stand, but our Factory Driver had plenty of Orange Crush on hand…
DRINK GRADE: Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to drink Anheuser Busch products.
CROWD GRADE: A. I thought this was a really good crowd for East Bay. The parking lot was pretty darn full when I pulled in and the stands were pretty darn packed. It’s great to see the East Bay faithful back out in droves.
NUMBER OF CARS: I saw 27, but the official count was 28. Still, 27 cars! The plan was to run three heats of nine, take seven from each and run a consi but mechanical woes sidelined some competitors so everyone got to run the feature.
SERIES GRADE: A+. 27 cars! I’ve heard some grumbling about the tire rule, but again…27 cars…and there was some top quality pieces out there.
RACE WINNER: Danny “The Hammer” Martin, Jr. This was Gene Lasker’s race to lose and unfortunately, he did. Gene literally had the checkers in sight and the rear end broke and he ended up coasting across the finish line.
RACE GRADE: D. I’m kind of morally opposed to giving a race an F, especially one that had this many cars, and hey, drivers showed up to race and I hate to give them an F, so I won’t. But my god, I lost track of the cautions. In the first 7 laps there were five cautions. And that wasn’t the end of them either. There was only one real honest-to-god long (and using the term “long” is a bit of a stretch) green flag run, but it was a good one as Danny Martin Jr. put a wicked slide job on Gene Lasker for the lead and then John Crowder spun right in front of them. Then Shawn Murray threaded the needle with inches to spare on Martin. How he made it through there, I still don’t know. But because it was a caution, and Martin got tagged by Crowder, the lead went back to Lasker.
FSCF.com DRIVER OF THE RACE: This is a tough one. Danny Martin Jr. certainly put one wicked slide job on Gene Lasker (see above) and did win, but I have a track record of not going with the winner unless they pass a ton of cars or do something earth shattering. And certainly Gene Lasker deserves some sort of “tough luck award,” but that’s not what this award is called. I’m going with Keith Butler. Why? Keith was involved in a spin on lap one, restarted at the tail and then worked the high side like no one’s business, racing his way into the top five before getting collected in another spin. Up until that point Keith passed more cars than anyone else, and that’s what I like to see.
OTHER NOTES: In no particular order….
- Big ups to East Bay and the Top Gun Sprint Series for the driver autograph session. This doesn’t happen enough, so thank you, thank you, thank you!
- I’m quite sure John Crowder would like to forget Saturday ever happened. I like John because he’s a hell of a nice guy, but man alive, what a rough night…
- I’m thinking “The Human Highlight Reel” Shane Kreidler is keeping his nickname for a while. God bless him, Shane seems to have his nights end quick so far this season.
- Sadly Mark Ruel Jr. had a short night of it as a broken pinion gear did him in. Look for a 10 Questions profile in the near future…
- Darrin Miller had a quick night too, sadly. You might see both Mark and Darrin in Georgia for a few Otto’s Sprint Car Association races.
- Looking to buy a racecar? I’m pretty sure I saw a For Sale sign on the car of Kyle Welchance.
- It was nice to see Rich Pratt out there even though he too had a short night.
- Sport Allen was a surprise entry (at least to me) and he was a threat all night, but came up a few pounds short on the scales and got disqualified, despite an excellent run.
- Give a shout out to Clint Reynolds on bringing home a well deserved top five. Same goes for sixth place runner Kerry Gilbert.
- I was aggravated with all of the cautions, but I was even more aggravated with the lapped cars. Seriously, if you’re lap(s) down, why are you banging on the cars on the lead lap?
- Tim George and Ryan Partin followed each other home in third and fourth, and only four points separate them in the TGSS points.
- Amanda Ferguson had her night end on lap one, getting caught up in a spin just in front of her. East Bay and Amanda seem to not mix well.
- For those of you that don’t run modern safety gear, think twice. Jeanette Burnett walked away with only some bumps and soreness, but that crash had people gasping and running toward her car, it was that bad. Jeanette runs good safety gear and you should too.
- Heat wins went to Ryan Partin, Gene Lasker and Tim George.
RACE REPORTER: Todd
Apr
28
TGSS Race Report – April 24, 2010
Posted by: | CommentsAttempting to make the age old argument of, “better late than never,” ladies and gentlemen, we present the reporting stylings of Josh “I’m Still The Ladies Choice” Wichers…drumroll please…
Date: April 24, 2010
Track: Volusia Speedway Park (Barberville, FL)
Series: Top Gun Sprints Series
Admission: Pit Pass $30
# of Sprint Cars: 23
Who Won?:
Heat 1 – Ryan Partin
Heat 2 – Gene Lasker
Heat 3 – Tommy Denton
Feature – DANNY MARTIN JR.
Crowd Grade: C+. Apparently they didn’t get the word out that Leaping Lanny Poffo AND the Flying Flatfoot (aka : The Two Lap Wonder or The Hot Foot ) were going to be at the same venue on the same night. This was a monumental night in “Rasslin’ and Racing” history. How could you not be there? This was a night to tell the grand kids about! Regardless of the major attractions at VSP on this night, the stands were a bit empty.
Track Grade: A. In my opinion, the track gets a solid “A”! By feature time, there was a good mix of dust and tackiness. I’m not a dirt conissuer, but it looked really good to me. The track seemed to be fairly smooth. At least I didn’t see any mini sprints disappear in any potholes.
Series Grade: B+. The Top Gun Sprint Series continues to bring really good car counts to their shows. 23 strong to start the night is very respectable ! I did however hear ALOT of complaining about the tire rule in place. Seems like that was a subject at most haulers in the infield. I don’t know tires. As I learned at the Panhandle races last year, “His Holiness knows tires!” but not me. But it sounds like this issue might need to be addressed soon to help keep the teams happy. Just a suggestion ….Other than that, it seems to be a well rounded and well organized group with a lot of comradery.
Food Ordered: Chicken Fingers, French Fries, Chili Cheese Dog.
Food Grade: A. After making sure that the Flying Two Lap Wonder Flat Foot was as ready as he could be, the Bushnell Bullet and I made our way to the infield concession stand. I did the traditional chicken and fries, while the Bullet inhaled not one, but two chili cheese dogs. The chicken was pretty darn good. The fries were hot and crispy. I did however make the mistake of putting BBQ sauce on the fries. Quite an interesting cross breed if I do say. Before i had realized what I had done, I looked over at the Bullet and said, ” I thought you got a chili cheese dog?” He said “I did, and it was good ……I might get another.” Of course I suggested that he enjoy this VSP delight for our favorite webmaster at FSCF.com, whose sole purpose in life seems to be to find the ultimate chili cheese dog.
Drinks Ordered: Sweet Tea, of course.
Drinks Grade: A+. I finally got a glass of this sweet tea that I had heard so much about. And I was not disappointed! That was some good sweet tea, even better than that of which I found in Alabama. So much for Alabama Sweet, guess we’re gonna have to look for VSP Sweet.
FSCF.com Driver of the Race: DANNY “the Hammer” MARTIN! It was definitely Hammer time on Saturday night!! Danny lapped up to 2nd place, and was less than a straightaway from completely lapping the field. Had there not been a caution early in the race, the Hammer might have just pulled it off. Team Shaw flexed their muscle big time. And unfortunately for the other Top Gunners, this may only be the beginning of their winning ways.
Other Notes:
- The tech police had their radar guns out and pulled over Tommy Denton for having an illegal rear rotor (Ti). Gene Lasker took the back roads around the road block, but was later cited for not going to the scales at the completion of the feature. Both were DQ’d.
- Ryan Partin had another solid finish, coming home 2nd.
- Amanda Ferguson was sidelined for the night when a broken driveline left her stranded in turn four during her heat race. Ferguson was leading and pulling away when the driveshaft pushed through the yolk on the u-joint assembly. After a mad scramble to find one to replace it, sadly it was game over as nobody was carrying a spare.
- The antique midgets, sprints, and modifieds were in the house as well. It was really cool to see these masterfully restored time machines back on the track. You could almost feel the past as you watched these pieces of American history kick up dirt around VSP.
Apr
13
TGSS Race Report – 04.09.10
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Better late than never, here we go…
DATE: April 9, 2010
SERIES: Top Gun Sprint Series
TRACK: Ocala Speedway
ADMISSION: $25 for a pit pass. You can’t beat that with a stick.
FOOD ORDERED: Well, I suppose a disclaimer is in order here. Lately I have had a bad habit of a) helping out people that are foolhardily enough to ask me to help work on their cars or b) I get so ensconced in the racing that I realize it’s almost the end of the evening and I should probably eat something. I suppose you could say both happened this time. So around 10:15ish I hit the food stand pitside in search of my favorite chili cheese dog in the state. No cheese or burgers left. Not what I wanted to hear, so I went grandstand side to the other food hauler. No chili and no hotdogs. So I thought, why not, I’ve never had the pizza here…no pizza. So back pitside I went and got a hotdog and loaded it up with what condiments were left. No bbq sauce either. So I got some fries and used the very last packet of mayonnaise and tried to act like I was Belgian, like say Erik van de Poele. On one hand I guess you can applaud Ocala for cutting everything close so they don’t have any food to waste. I get that. But dammit this is the best chili cheese dog at any track in the state! So shame on me I suppose. Even without the cheese or chili the hot dog rocked nonetheless.
FOOD GRADE: C. I’m willing to take some blame myself, but running out of so many condiments is a bit odd given their very long shelf life…
DRINKS ORDERED: The Yuengling I had out in the parking lot was pretty good…
DRINK GRADE: Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to drink Anheuser Busch products.
CROWD GRADE: A. I thought this was a really good crowd for Ocala. The parking lot was pretty darn full when I pulled in and the place went berserk when Amanda Ferguson took the checkered flag. It’s great to see a crowd get that into a sprint car race. Pure heaven.
NUMBER OF CARS: 19 were there, though not all took the green for the feature.
RACE WINNER: Amanda Ferguson. What can you say about Amanda that hasn’t been said on this website before? She made a nice move on Tim George and held him off the rest of the way, without the aid of a left rear shock. And during some of the longer green flag runs she had almost half-a-lap on Tim. I was glad I made the trip to Ocala to see history made.
RACE GRADE: B. Track surface didn’t help much and there were some spins and flips, but there were some good scraps in the pack and the anticipation of watching Amanda hold on to win lit the place up.
FSCF.com DRIVER OF THE RACE: Our factory driver Flyin’ Ryan Partin deserves a nod here. Once again Ryan spun at the beginning of the race (hit the brakes when the door got slammed on him) and had to work his way up from the back. And work he did, all the way up to fifth on a track that wasn’t providing many lanes for passing. But at the end of the day, when history has been made, how can I not give it to Amanda Ferguson for her first dirt win and thus putting her name in the Florida history books. Congrats Amanda, we owe you some Red Bull or something.
OTHER NOTES: In no particular order….
- Gene Lasker’s reign of terror over dirt sprint car racing came to an abrupt end when he spun and got collected by Shane Kreidler in an ugly wreck. It was actually a very “un-Lasker” night that saw him struggling in the feature with the track going so slick. Thankfully Gene was alright.
- Speaking of “The Human Highlight Reel” Shane Kreidler, we were looking forward to more high flying antics ala Lake City, but Shane ended up being a highlight in a bad way (see above). Shane’s car looked ugly back in the pits after that wreck, thankfully he was alright. Shane also spun twice in his heat. Rough night.
- I finally got to meet the very amusing Mark Ruel Jr., who had a very unpleasant evening. Mark was leading his heat race and spun out of the lead and then had just about everything gone wrong that could in the feature. We may not see Mark running too many Top Gun races in the future. We chatted about his plans and Mark came up with the best name I’ve heard yet for the FSCA – Otto’s Sprint Car Association. So look for Mark to run with the OSCA this year.
- It was good to see Tony Agin out there and he looked to have the bottom working way before anyone else, though it didn’t pay off in the feature for him quite as much as I thought it would. Still, a sixth place finish is plenty good.
- Heat #3 – ugly. I’ve never heard so many people say “wow” and not in a good way.
- Shawn Murray had a very long night. Clobbered the inside tire in his heat, then was doing his best to brush the wall down in turn four and then finally did on the white flag lap and wrecked right at the start/finish line. I think Shawn would like to forget Ocala altogether…
- Danny “The Hammer” Martin was strong all night, but just couldn’t get around Tim George to get at Amanda. Catching Tim George and passing him are two different things.
- John Crowder brought two cars – one for himself and one for Robert Bozema. Bozema looked to have a flat left rear before the feature ever got started. We like John, but he did have a long night.
- Darrin Miller had a productive night, picking up a feature win and coming home fourth in the feature. Nothing wrong with that at all.
- It was nice to see quite a few pavement sprint car drivers roaming the pits and having a good time. Shane Butler, Steve Heisler, Stan Butler and David Slawiak were all spotted.
- Speaking of sprint car driver sightings – Jack Hewitt…
- Heat wins went to Darrin Miller, Danny Martin Jr., and Mike Schroeder.
- I love the Top Gun Sprint Series. There, I said it, I feel better.
RACE REPORTER: Todd