We 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.

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