Date: June 12, 2010

Track: Punta Gorda Speedway (Punta Gorda, FL)

Series: Checkered Flag Sprint Series (feat. FMARA TQ Midgets)

Admission:
Adult – $10
Seniors – $8
Kids 11-17 – $5
Kids 10 and under -Free
Pit Pass – $30

# of Sprint Cars: 18

# of TQ Midgets: 10

Who Won:
Sprints :
Heat 1 – David Slawiak
Heat 2 – Scotty Adema
Heat 3 – Jimmy Alvis Jr.
Feature – JIMMY ALVIS JR

TQ Midgets :
Heat Race – Ted Durfee
Feature – TED DURFEE

Crowd Grade: A+. Lawn chairs were a very popular carry in item. The grassy knoll in turns 3 and 4 was full of chair toting spectators. What a great idea, your very own comfy seat with cup holders to hold your favorite frosty adult beverage, overlooking south Florida’s new favorite short track on a balmy Saturday night. Had you taken all of the fans perched on the lawn and put them in the grandstands, it may have been standing room only. And why wouldn’t the place be packed? Ten bucks people! Where else can you get this kind of show for $10?

Track Grade: B+. The facility as a whole was very clean, neat, and tidy. The new management has done a lot of work in what little time they’ve had since the previous owners.

Food Ordered: Fried bologna sandwich.

Food Grade: A++. The Flying Flatfoot would have been in heaven! During our adventure to Anderson Speedway and the Little 500 last month, we of course had to eat at White Castle at least twice a day. Well they had a fried bologna, egg, and cheese sandwich on their breakfast menu, so I had to try it a few times. Upon opening the first one, Penrose loudly exclaims “HA …. That’s no bologna sandwich! A bologna sandwich is a slab of meat on a bun … Are you kidding me? “. I liked it, but the Two Lap Wonder continued to discount its validity as a “real” sandwich because of its size. Well friends, I found the elusive and mythical delight that our Editor at Speed warned me of. It was bigger than most hamburgers that I’ve had. As Rachael would say, totally Yum-O! One of these monsters and I was done for the rest of the night. And it was only $2.50! I was disappointed that the country’s best BBQ, Smoking D’s BBQ, wasn’t there, but the bologna sandwich made up for it.

Drinks Ordered: Sweet Tea (of course)

Drinks Grade: A-. Although it’s not nearly as good as that which I found at Volusia, it was a close second. Good enough I had to taste test 2 large glasses. After a long, hot, nasty day of doing yard work, it really hit the spot. Not to mention that Brian and I spent 6 days straight at racetracks that when we would ask for sweet tea, they would say “sweet …what”. The Beer Shed had Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Lite. All in cans and only $2.50 apiece.

Series Grade:
- Sprints: A
- TQ Midgets: C+

The CFSS continues to pull decent car counts. Due to an early engine casualty on Billy Riddle’s hot rod, 17 of the 18 cars that made the tow started the feature. The staff of the CFSS is super friendly and always offer me a printed lineup sheet complete with driver names, numbers, and hometowns. Curtis “Bean Pole” Whalin is one of the best push truck drivers in the country and runs a tight ship with the on track communication. The drivers of the CFSS haven’t let me down yet on the show that they put on. From Florida’s favorite flaming flagman to the girls in the scoring tower, it’s a top notch organization from top to bottom.

The FMARA is still having trouble getting cars to the track. The ones that do attend put on one heck of a good show. They ran all 10 cars in the same heat. I think they could have easily split it in half and had 2 heat races. This club is becoming super competitive with the limited car count. By my stopwatch, our little friends were only 3 tenths slower than the sprint cars. That kind of speed in such a little car makes for big excitement.

FSCF.com Driver Of The Race:
TQ Midgets: Ted Durfee
Ted drove a nearly flawless race. He charged his way from the 6th starting spot up to 3rd by lap 3. By lap 7, he managed to work his way by the living legend, Jack Duffy, to take over the second spot, and on lap 10, he took the point and never looked back. He survived a few late race charges from Mike Belusar to prevail at the checkers. The Heartbreak of the night was, hands down, Jay Stutz. After having some handling issues in the heat race, Jay’s team had the car on a rail for the feature in the hot lap session. Stutz was poised to be a contender to win the “Fast” Freddie Stutz Memorial. But on lap one of the feature, while trying to avoid a flipping car in turns 3 and 4, Stutz was hit on the side of his mount, ending his night and any chances of taking home the trophy in memory of his late father.

Sprints: Jimmy Alvis Jr.
David Slawiak and Alvis Jr. made up the 3rd row for the feature. By lap 3, Slawiak and Alvis Jr. were running 1st and 2nd with some very talented youngsters, Amanda Ferguson and Channing Conley, hot on their heels. Slawiak would lead the first 13 laps dicing his way through some heavy lap traffic. But Alvis Jr. wasn’t far behind. And on lap 14, Alvis Jr. used the traffic to his advantage and slipped under Slawiak. Alvis Jr. would lead the remainder of the circuits around the very tough 3/8 mile to pick up the first sprint car victory of his career. Alvis Jr. was able to keep some of Florida’s best behind him.       Rounding out the top 5 behind him were Slawiak, Mark Gimmler, Scotty Adema, and Gary Gimmler.

Other Notes:

* When I arrived at the track at 6:00, there were parking attendants to assist the mob due to lack of parking still available. I jokingly asked where the shuttle bus was, and the guy said that they were working on it. He wasn’t joking.

* There were cars on the track and racing at 6:30. I’ve heard of punctual, but this was to the minute.

* Check out www.fltqmidgets.com . I did, you should too. These guys are working hard to make their club survive. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

* Ray Smith found out the hard way just how safe a TQ Midget is. He tumbled his #17 side over side at least 6 times in turns 3 and 4. Easily the worst flip I’ve ever personally seen in a TQ. I hope he’s still ok. He got some serious air between bounces.

* Punta Gorda Speedway employees were ALL wearing Team Punta Gorda Speedway shirts. That was sharp. Red, white, and blue button ups. Nice touch to a professional appearance.

* The invocation and National Anthem were done after the heat races during the first intermission. That’s right, first. They had two. ALL of the heat races were done by 7:20.

* PGS uses a Shelby GT 500 for their pace car. For those of you not familiar with the new Shelby Mustang, when I was selling cars at Brandon Ford, they stickered at around $65k.

* All of the sprint car races went caution free. Three 8 lap heat races and a 30 lap feature without a yellow flag.  The Wild Child had a very easy night in the stand. But then again, he makes every night look easy.

* I heard some talk of the PGS officials possibly having the TBARA in town to put on a show. I can’t wait to see that one.

* The points battle in the CFSS is heating up faster than fried bologna in the Florida sun. Mark Gimmler came away with the lead at 251 points. He leads his brother, Gary Gimmler, who has 233, and sneaking his way into a championship run is Jimmy Alvis Jr. with 231.

Race Reporter: Josh “Roller Derby Queens are my Business and Business is Good” Wichers