Better late than never, here is our Race Report for the TBARA action at Desoto Speedway. We had a few technical glitches, had to chase down some information and so on and so forth. Special thanks go to Gary Johnson for also patrolling the pits for us and kicking in his two cents as well.

This one is a doozy, so get comfortable…

DATE: July 18

SERIES: TBARA

TRACK: Desoto Speedway

ADMISSION: $20 general admission, $30 pit pass

FOOD ORDERED: Cheeseburger, french fries, chicken tenders, and hot dog.  We had friends in tow…

FOOD GRADE: C- The cheeseburger was great. The fries were fries. At least they were crispy and cooked, much better than some I’ve had lately of the limp and cold variety. The chicken tenders are always good at Desoto. But the hot dog … I’m going to try not to make anyone sick here, but the hot dog … well… for one it wasn’t hot. But most importantly, when the wrapper came off … it was … of the grassy tint. Yes folks, it was green. Maybe it was Desoto’s idea of being festive, but I doubt it. It’s not even St. Patrick’s Day.

DRINKS ORDERED: Pepsi, water.

DRINKS GRADE: C+ Pepsi is a hard one to mess up. And the water… well personally we like spring water. Not the filtered, reverse osmosis (no kin to Jones), additive-filled bottled water stuff. Give us  Z-Hills (as a nod to the Reutimanns) or Deer Park please.

CROWD GRADE: D. They were an enthusiastic group, just not many of them. But I guess if you like watching racing with lots of elbow room, Desoto is your place. It is just a shame to see these guys (and girls) put on a show like they did for so few people. Is there a magic ingredient that Desoto is missing that keeps people out of the seats? Do people not know that these pavement pounding, fire breathing, animals of the asphalt are in their backyards? Are the green hot dogs keeping people away? You know a track has attendance issues when the pit grandstand has less empty seats than the main grandstand.  Maybe the $20 ticket is keeping most of them away. That’s a romantic dinner for two at Sonny’s!

TRACK GRADE: C- Apparently the lawn mower broke this week because I had a crew member from one of the teams compare the facility to a sandspur patch. I’m not sure about the spectator side, but the pit area was really unkempt. I know it is a tough job keeping up with a place that big, but you just have to. It shows you care when you do the little things like sweeping pit road, or mowing on Saturday morning.

NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 22

WHO WON: Larry J Brazil, Jr. He brought sexy back when he took the point from Dakotah Stephens and never looked back (sideways maybe, but not back).

DRIVER OF THE RACE: There are a number of drivers deserving of this award this week. But since they don’t really get anything other than bragging rights until next race, maybe they won’t be mad at us for only choosing one. If I were a betting man, I would have put half of my chips on Troy Decaire and the other half on His Holiness Dave Steele. But then again that’s why I don’t bet. At the end of the slugfest, it was His Sexiness on top, followed by a hard charging and hungry Blaze Martin. We kid you not, the front seven were all on the front stretch when the checkers fell. And that wasn’t a one lap shootout, they ran the last eight laps like that. Shane Butler continues his quiet steadiness in the top 5.  Mickey Kempgens is picking up steam and posted a good finish for Miller Motorsports. Wendy Mathis seems to have found the right combination and posted a good strong finish. I’m going to have to go with The Quiet Assassin Blaze Martin as our choice for driver of the race. Congrats to Blaze (and his new nickname) and we will put you on our “we owe ya one” list when we pick up an official FSCF.com driver of the race sponsor.

REST OF THE RACING GRADE: B. The Pure Stock race was good close racing and Flyin Four class and Mod Mini stocks were pretty darn good as well.    

OTHER NOTES OF INTEREST: Congrats to Dave Shotsberger on capturing the first heat race win of his career. Dave is a true rookie to sprint car racing and is currently leading the rookie class in points in convincing fashion.

One of our favorite nice guys, Steve Heisler, is now the newest hired gun at Butler Motorsports. Steve was found piloting the #81 red rocket this weekend, stepping in for the legend, Stan Butler. Is this a full time deal? Is Stan taking a break or is he retiring? Is Steve’s new nickname The Legend Replacer? We’ll have to keep our eye on this one! We miss you Stan, and your K&N hat throwing antics.

Both cars of Dude Teate and Lil Jimmy Alvis reportedly ran out of fuel during the feature event. Interestingly, this was one of the shorter races at Desoto, completing only 57 total laps.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for – our spin on the two on-track incidents that occurred this past weekend at Desoto. So without further ado, here is the best and most unbiased interpretation that we can give you. While running 2nd and 3rd respectively, Dakotah Stephens in the #19 and Joey Aguilar in the #52 , went into turn three aggressively together. From my viewpoint, in turn two, it appeared that both cars became loose simultaneously. The result of neither driver willing to forfeit their position was the #19 hitting the turn 4 wall very hard. I was pleased to see the quick exit by the driver from his car but felt his grief at the same time. I don’t like to see anyone tear up equipment, but it appeared to be a racing thing. I’m no official and I was at the opposite end of the track, but that’s how it appeared to me. However, Joey was on probation for rough driving, so any incident is going to be highly scrutinized by the officials. The call was made to remove the 52 from the race. He would later be disqualified from the event. As of press time, there was no certain word on further disciplinary actions to be taken, but I did hear the words suspension and fine being thrown around amongst the officials present. This was a very unfortunate situation for all involved, but I’m sure that the officials of the TBARA will do their best to rule as fair as possible.

As for the other situation that occurred involving the #91 of His Holiness Dave Steele, this one cut into everyone’s sleeping time, or drinking time, by about two hours. During the red flag that was brought out for Dakotah Stephens, His Holiness returned to the pit area to attempt to fix a mechanical issue on the #91. The TBARA rule book states that if you get out of your car or work on your car during a red flag situation, you will be placed at the back of the field. All fine and dandy, right?

WRONG!

Apparently sometime during the final caution lap before the field went back green, the #91 was pushed back onto the track. The field went through turns 3 and 4 nose- to-tail anticipating a green flag. There was no green flag, just a quick flash of the green lights, then back to caution. The #91 was re-fired and joined the field at the scratch position of the lead lap. He maneuvered his way back to a sixth place finish, getting by Wendy Mathis on the last lap. The controversy soon followed. The initial call was to award His Holiness the last position on the lead lap at the time of the red flag. After closer review of the rule book, it was determined to award him the 6th position. I later heard that had the race officially went back to green, he would have been scored at the end of the lead lap, but since the green never flew, he would be scored 6th. This may be a good time to bring up two of my concerns or ideas from the past. (1) we need a flagman dedicated to the TBARA – someone who knows the cars, knows the drivers, and knows our rules. Doug, if you’re reading this, I know I speak for a lot of people – we miss you in the flag stand!  (2) It might be a good idea to have quarterly meetings to discuss things like this while it is fresh on our minds and then make amendments to the bylaws as needed.

RACE REPORTER: Mostly Josh, with a dash of Gary.