| Clint Foley Leads Flag to Flag in Florida Mini Stock Challenge Series at New Smyrna Speedway | by Jane Smith
Samsula, Fl. (May 25, 2002) - Thirty six of Florida's best
Mini Stockers came out on a full moon to race the third
race of the Florida Mini Stock Challenge Series. Two
cars had trouble even before the full moon could rise
and lost engines and had to sit and watch as their
competitors qualified one by one at New Smyrna
Speedway.
Fast Qualifier Clint Foley #7x ran a 21.418 followed by
Marty Neikens 21.577; Robbie Storer 21.643; Corbin
Gibbs 21.648; and Rick Sirmans 21.804. The top ten
each drew a pill for their starting position with
David Castello #l drawing the pole and Clint Foley on
the outside. Matt Watts lost his rear end on his
second lap and was towed into the pits. By race time,
Watts and his crew had a new rear end in the car.
By race time, the full moon was in it's glory, high
above the track. Cars were lined up at a forty-five
degree angle on the frontstretch and all drivers were
introduced to the fans. Now, it was time to race.
It took two total restarts to get the first lap down
in the books. The first caution of ten came out for
the #99x Tom Clark when he hit the backstretch wall.
On the second restart, caution 2 came out for the #66
Donnie Lockard. Lockard was able to continue unlike
Clark.
When the green flew again. the #7x of Foley jumped to
the lead over Castello and never looked back, restart
after restart. Lap 3 brought out caution 3 for the
#82 of Timmy Warram. Since caution laps do not count,
only green flag laps, the #70 Marty Neikens, #v3 Rex
Christenson, #77x Randy Blakeslee all went on to pit
road for some crew attention.
Foley once again jumped to the lead on the restart with
#7 Tim "Missileman" McPhail, #30 Robbie Storer, #2 Corbin
Gibbs, and #3 Matt Watts filling in the top five spots.
Lap 9 saw caution 4 come out for the #07 Dick Laszlo who
spun on the bottom of turn 2. Both #29 Richie Acres
and #45 Joe Irwin went in and out pit road for assistance.
On Lap 10 on the restart, Robbie Storer passed Tim
McPhail for the second spot putting McPhail to the
third. The outside pole sitter, David Castello #l was
obviously having problems and was back in 8th place by
lap 10.
Lap 11 saw caution 5 when McPhail and #65 Joey Caterelli
got together coming off turn 2 and ended up at the
entrance into the pits. Both McPhail and Caterelli were
fine. Caterelli's car was towed into the pits, McPhail
came around on his own power but with a smashed front
nose. McPhail went to pit road for his crew to try and
make repairs to continue.
Lap 13 was "unlucky 13" as the #30 Robbie Storer blows
a motor and the #28 Sean Bass hits the frontstretch wall.
Storer goes high to avoid the traffic and makes it into
the pits with Bass being towed in. McPhail also takes
advantage of the caution to go in to the pits for more
repairs to the Missile.
By lap 15, Castello's car has died and goes in, the
#v3 of Christenson also retired along with the #7
of McPhail. Foley still holds the lead over Gibbs,
Watts, Sirmans, and #96 Frank Welch.
Lap 18 saw the yellow once again for the #112 of Justin
Edwards who spun. The field was quickly realigned and
Foley took off like a light. Lap 20 saw caution 8 for
#03 Richard Bueter who hits the wall coming off turn
3. The #12x of Mark Ross spins avoiding Bueter but
is given back his ninth position in the realignment.
The #28 Sean Bass returns to the field on this caution.
Foley maintained his lead on the restart and by lap 22,
#70 Mary Niekens is noticeably off the pace. On the
next lap, lap 23, caution 9 is thrown for the #112 Edwards
and the #16 Chase Goodson who both have spun coming off
turn 4. On the backstretch, the #29 Richie Acres has
also spun.
Back to green flag racing and the #2 Corbin Gibbs and
#3 Matt Watts played swope tag swopping second and third
place a few times. The #05 Sirmans looked to pass Watts
for third but Watts blocked keeping Sirmans in the fourth
place spot. The three, Gibbs, Watts, and Sirmans, are
nose to tail putting on a good show until lap 30 when
the motor in the #3 Watts has blown. This brings out
caution 10 and the final caution of the night.
On the restart, Foley leads Gibbs, Sirmans, Welch and
#02 Wes Pyburn. On lap 34, Sirmans passed Gibbs and
took over the second place spot with Gibbs in third.
Sirmans sets his eyes on Foley as the #96 Welch looks
high and low and is able to make the move on Gibbs for
third and makes it stick. It is now Foley, Sirmans,
Welch, Gibbs and Pyburn for the final ten laps of the
race.
Foley said "it has been two years since I won a big
event, I am extremely happy. I am just glad the monkey
is gone." All cars passed tech.
OFFICIAL RACE RESULTS.
1. #7x Clint Foley
2. #05 Rick Sirmans
3. #96 Frank Welch
4. #2 Corbin Gibbs
5. #02 Wes Pyburn
6. #42 Eddie Lowery
7. #12x Mark Ross
8. #24 Chris Thornton
9. #98 Jeff Davis
10. #45 Joe Irwin
11. #9ar Charlie Staats
12. #40 Dennis Valdez
13. #66 Donnie Lockard
14. #112 Justin Edwards
15. #4 Ron DuBeau
16. #29 Richie Acres
17. #16 Chase Goodson
18. #07 Dick Laszlo
19. #15x Don Strosahl
20. #6 Jamie Dixson
21. #28 Sean Bass
22. #3 Matt Watts
23. #57 Travis Kuykendall
24. #89 Scott Sharpe
25. #70 Marty Neikens
26. #03 Richard Bueter
27. #l David Castello
28. #7 Tim "Missileman" McPhail
29. #v3 Rex Christensen
30. #30 Robbie Storer
31. #65 Joey Caterelli
32. #77x Randy Blakeslee
33. #82 Timmy Warram
34. #99x Tom Clark
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