Archive for Ben Fritz
Sep
21
TBARA Race Report, but not in our own words…
Posted by: | CommentsWe ended up not having any of our reporting staff at Desoto Speedway Saturday night for the TBARA action, which was sadly our loss given Dude Teate’s very exciting victory holding off a hard charging His Holiness Dave Steele.
But we did have Gary “Walk Quietly And Carry A Big” Johnson walking around the pits and snapping some pictures. And we also got permission from Rick Anges to reprint his article that he wrote for the TBARA website. Rick’s a damn good writer, so we’re more than happy to step aside and let his magical prose brighten up our website.
Enjoy – pictures are at the end.
Dude holds off Superman in TBARA thriller!
By Rick Anges
Bradenton, Fl. The weather was perfect for a night of ASA sanctioned racing at the “High Banks” of DeSoto super Speedway and the fans in attendance were in store for another awesome night featuring the return of the High Powered TBARA Winged Sprints.
The “Four Wide” salute to the fans had the crowd on its feet as the field prepared for the action packed thirty-lap feature.
The green dropped and it was a wild scramble for position. Coming out of turn two on the first lap the cars of Ben Fritz and Shane Butler went spinning into the infield bringing out the caution. Both drivers were able to continue. Butler would come back and finish fifth Fritz would take eighth on the evening.
When the race was restarted it would be thirty-laps of green side by side racing for the rest of the feature.
Up front pole sitter Keith Butler would hold onto his top spot but just before the halfway point Dude Teate would come from his eighth starting spot and challenge for the lead. Teate would flex his muscles and make the pass on lap sixteen and pull away from the field.
Meanwhile all eyes were on “the Superman” Dave Steele who was making his return to DeSoto as he sliced and diced his way up through the field. Steele would get around second place Butler on lap nineteen but with eleven laps left there was almost a full straightaway between himself and the leader.
With seven lapped cars and laps winding down it would make sense to settle in and be happy with a solid second place run over a great field of drivers but then there is a reason they call him Superman.
With only a handful of laps to go the fans were on their feet as Steele had closed to within a car length of Teate and as the duo went under the white flag Steele was inches away from the leaders push bar.
Steele made several moves to get around Teate and was nearly beside him on the inside coming out of turn four but Dude held his line and roared to the checkered flag. Butler would take third, Larry Brazil Jr. would come from tenth for a hard fought fourth and rounding out the top five was Shane Butler.
The TBARA Winged Sprints return to DeSoto Speedway October 30th.
| Finish | Start | Car | Driver |
| 1 | 8 | 0 | Dude Teate |
| 2 | 11 | 91 | Dave Steele |
| 3 | 1 | 99 | Keith Butler |
| 4 | 10 | 20 | Larry Brazil Jr. |
| 5 | 7 | 18 | Shane Butler |
| 6 | 6 | 3 | Bo Hartley |
| 7 | 4 | 19 | Dakotah Stephens |
| 8 | 5 | 16 | Ben Fritz |
| 9 | 9 | 27 | Sonny Hartley |
| 10 | 13 | 11 | Bryan Riddle |
| 11 | 14 | 2 | Johnny Gilbertson |
| 12 | 16 | 47 | Jason Bradford |
| 13 | 3 | 15 | D.J. Hoelzle |
| 14 | 2 | 14 | Steve Heisler |
| 15 | 12 | 81 | Brad Davis |
| 16 | 15 | 28 | Larry Brazil |
Aug
25
The TBARA FloriBama Races are starting to seriously heat up.
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That's called truth in advertising.
Remember those pictures we posted at the open testing at Citrus County last week? We told you there was a lot going on in those pictures…
Here is your TBARA FloriBama primer and why you should go if at all possible.
* A gambling man would be wise to bet on the team of George Rudolph. Why? Because this weekend the operation expands to two cars. Travelin’ Troy DeCaire is flying in from Indiana to pilot the Diablo he drove to victory lane at New Smyrna Speedway recently. In the other car, the Hurricane? That would be arguably the state’s hottest driver, “The Smooth Operator” Mickey Kempgens. So George ostensibly has Florida’s hottest driver on the asphalt, and arguably one of the hottest pavement drivers in the country right now in Troy DeCaire as his drivers. Damn.
* Now of course, if you were a team owner you would say to yourself, “Self, I’ve got to do something about that Rudolph operation this weekend…who should I hire?” Well, His Holiness Dave Steele of course. That’s right, The Man of Steele returns to TBARA competition this weekend in the #91. Will he dominate the FloriBama races like he did last year? Who knows, but it’s never wise to bet against His Holiness.
* Speaking of Mr. Steele, he’s also a car owner this weekend as Hustlin’ Steve Heisler slides into a Diablo entered by His Holiness. “The Hustler” had an up and down FloriBama tour last year in the DeCaire Motorsports #41, so he definitely has an opportunity to run up front this weekend.
* So what car did Mr. Heisler vacate for this weekend? That would be the Butler Motorsports #81. So who is in that car you ask? That would be “The Legend” Stan Butler. We last saw Stan’s heroics during qualifying at the Little 500 in Indiana this year. Make no mistake about it, he can still get up on the wheel. We saw it with our own two eyes. Six actually, if you count all three of our then staff.
* Speaking of Butler Motorsports and TBARA points overlord Shane Butler, they are doing a super cool thing for the little ones during the autograph sessions this weekend. The first 50 kids to get to the #18 during the autograph session at both Pensacola and Mobile will receive a custom Butler Motorsports red folder with a pen, pencil, and paper! How unbelievably awesome is that with school just starting up again? We love to see teams making sprint car fans out of the little ones, so props to Katrina Butler for lining this one up for the kiddies to get some school supplies.
* Qualifying returns! Say what you want about this one, but most fans that have never seen sprint cars on asphalt dig this and the times usually get their attention in a major way. We say watch for Larry Brazil Jr. to lay down a flyer as he loves to stand on the gas at 5 Flags, as his completely used up tires from last year can attest to. Don’t overlook DeCaire either as he just ran a sub-10 second lap at Slinger Speedway. Think about that…
* Speaking of fast flyers at 5 Flags, word on the street is fast man from earlier this year “The Commando” Brian Gingras will be in the house. Brian was a rocket earlier this year, and our pick for a championship sleeper this year before he suddenly stopped showing up. Keep an eye on him.
* We’d also like to say don’t count out Ben Fritz in all of this as he’s been putting together some strong runs as of late and his highly waxed car is always a big hit during the autograph sessions.
That’s a lot to digest, and sadly we won’t be there to report live for you like we did last year, so the state troopers that clocked the FSCF.com Ford Edge at almost triple digit velocity last year somewhere around Chipley can rest easy. Sadly our crack staff is either a) flat broke or b) starting a new job that prevents taking time off.
But for the record, the Penrose Racing hauler is carrying Hustlin’ Steve Heisler’s chariot up there, so we’re almost kind of sort of there…