| Racing Returns to New Smyrna Speedway with Jason Boyd taking the Goodyear Challenge Late Model Win | by Jane Smith
Samsula, Fla. (August 15, 2003) Twenty four of the best Late Models in the state came to New Smyrna Speedway Saturday night to try their luck at the half mile high banked oval along with the Open Wheel Modifieds, Sportsman, Super Stock, Mini Stock and Strictly Stocks. The Super Late Models had the night off.
Jason Boyd of Orlando, Fla set fast time with a 18.667 or 96.54 mph. Second fastest Jerry Symons of New Smyrna with a 18.854 or 95.47 mph. Completing the top five were Rich Clouser of Palm Bay with a 18.879, Sean Murphy of Ft. Lauderdale with a 18.892 nd Joe Sumsky of Lehigh with a 18.905. Boyd would pull the 0 pill so the field started head-up.
As the green waved, Boyd quickly took the lead over Jerry Symons, Sean Murphy, Rich Clouser, and Joe Sumasky. The first caution would come out on lap one for Dan Crowe who got off the track at the bottom of turns 1 and 2. The race restart on lap 4 with Boyd leading.
Lap 9, caution came out once again as Bobby Orr's engine blew and he stalled at the top of the turn 4 exit to pit road. Orr was pushed to the pits and his night was ended before it even began and not the way he had hoped it would. The race resumed on lap 12 with Boyd, Symons, Murphy, Clouser and Sumsky in the top five.
By lap 23, Larry Osteen has worked his way to fifth with Sumasky sliding back to sixth. On lap 29, Paul Schrien, Jr. taps Jimmy Castleberry coming down the frontstretch as Castleberry makes a great save and keeps on racing. But lap 30 sees Tim Russell going high in turn 1 trying to pass Nolan Wilson when Russell spins along with David Green who spins avoiding Russell. Green has to be towed to the pits with his night done. Russell rejoins the race in the rear of the field.
The race restarts on lap 35 with Boyd, Symons, Murphy, Clouser and Osteen in the top five. But only two laps later, lap 37, Jimmy Castleberry's tire blows as he goes into turn 1 and Castleberry hits the wall. Castleberry is able to drive back into the pits with his right front brake on fire and is also done for the night early.
Restart lap 41 but lap 42 sees the yellow again as Travis Wilson hits the turn 1-2 wall hard. The race is red flagged to check the cars to see if one is leaking fluid. The race resumes lap 43 with Boyd, Symons, Murphy, Clouser and Osteen.
Lap 45, Russell and Nolan Wilson bring out the yellow as they spin in turn 2 trying to pass each other. Richard Parks also spins avoiding the spun cars. The race resumes on lap 46 with Russell, Wilson and Parks in the rear.
Lap 52, Chris Lawrence hits the frontstretch wall hard and the race is red flagged. Lawrence finally emerges from the car okay with the crowd giving him a loud applause. The race resumes on lap 53 with Boyd, Symons, Murphy, Clouser, Osteen, Sumasky, Jason Crossey, Jerry Artuso, Brad May, and Brent O'Neill in the top ten.
Lap 60, Clouser passes Murphy for third as Murphy is beginning to look very loose in the turns. Lap 61, Osteen passes Murphy for fourth with Murphy settling in fifth. On lap 62, Brad May brings out the caution when he spins coming down the frontstretch. May goes to the pits and does come back out but has to retire finally with a broken trailing arm after running a very good race.
The race resumes on lap 65 with Boyd, Symons, Clouser, Osteen, and Murphy. Lap 69, Chad Pierce goes in with overheating problems. Lap 70, Brad May retires with his rear-end problem.
Lap 72 sees Osteen take third from Clouser with Clouser settling into the fourth place spot. On lap 75, Nolan Wilson goes high coming off turn 4 but does a great save and keeps on trucking. Sean Murphy continues to slide backwards with Joe Sumasky coming into the fifth place spot and Murphy settling in the seventh spot.
With no more cautions, Symons tries to catch Boyd but just can't seem to find the power to pass Boyd. Boyd holds the lead and takes the checkered with Jerry Symons, Larry Osteen, Rich Clouser and Joe Sumasky.
In Victory Lane, Jason Boyd said "this was a great win for my team and we finally think the monkey is off our back. This feels great."
Mark Vandevender had the pole for the Open Wheel Modified feature, in Jerry Symons' No. 66 Mod. Vandevender's mod is still not done from his wreck a few weeks ago and he had rented Symons mod for the feature.
Vandevender took the lead on the green followed by Rob Underwood, Brad May, Jim "Hoot" Flynn, and Justin Henderson. Henderson and Bobby Blake race each other for the fifth place spot when they come into turns 3 and 4 with Sonny O in the middle, Henderson on top, Blake on bottom. Henderson hits the turn 3-4 wall hard suffering rear-end damage. Henderson retires from the race with a crippled modified.
The race goes back green with Vandevender in the lead. On lap 2, Vandevender brings out the yellow as he spun in turn 4. Brad May in the #00 climbs the frontstretch wall. Jim "Hoot" Flynn is also involved and retires to the pits as Blake pits with a flat tire and May goes in for a check after climbing the wall. Blake returns along with May but Flynn is done.
Rob Underwood takes over the lead on the green with Jason Boyd, David Hite, Ed Kuhl and Glen Bradley in the top five. Kuhl slips in turn 1 with Bradley taking over fourth and Vandevender coming back into the top five. On lap 5, Bradley brings out the caution.
The race resumes with Underwood, Boyd, Vandevender, May and Art Kunzeman in the top five. Caution comes out on lap 9 as Kunzeman spins The race restarts on lap 8 with Underwood in the lead.
One more caution on lap 11 sees Vandevender spin and goes into the pits. Underwood holds the point on the restart and takes the checkered with Jason Boyd, Brad May, Bobby Blake and Paul Duncan in the top five.
The Mini Stock feature ran with no cautions in their 15 lap event. Rex Christensen had the pole but it was Tim "Missileman" McPhail who jumped to the lead followed by Rex Christensen, Robbie Storer, Ted "Mr Mini Stock" Vulpius and Rex Hollinger.
David Castello, the feature winner of two weeks ago, worked his way from the rear of the field to fifth and by lap 3, Castello was in fourth. By this time, McPhail and Storer are going side-by-side for the lead and doing a great job of racing each other.
Lap 7, Storer takes the lead from McPhail. Castello passes Vulpius and McPhail and takes over second but is not able to catch Storer. Storer takes the checkered for his second win of the weekend, he won Friday night at Orlando SpeedWorld. Following Storer across the checkered was David Castello, Tim "Missileman" McPhail, Ted "Mr Mini Stock" Vulpius, and Rex Christensen.
Josh Wronkowski had the pole for the Super Stocks and took the lead on the green followed by Charlie Collins, Sean Bass, Mike Amato, and Jeff Colburn. The caution came out for Ron Whaley who spun going into turn 3 and was off the track. Whaley was towed into the pits and done for the night.
After two tries at a restart, it was Josh Wronkowski on the point, Sean Bass, Charlie Collins, Mike Amato and Jeff Colburn in the top five. By lap 3, Collins had worked his way to the lead with Wronkowski sliding to fourth. By lap 6, Wronkowski had passed Amato and taken back third putting Amato fourth.
On lap 7, Henry Raider brought out the yellow as he spun in turns 1 and 2. Raider starts to come back on the track as Collins is coming around hitting Collins on the driver's side and taking off the sheet metal from his fender and door. Collins is fine but has alittle less sheet metal than he started with.
The race restarts on lap 7 with Collins, Wronkowski, Colburn, Amato, and Pat Buckley in the top five. By lap 9, Amato has passed Colburn for third. Buckley also passes Colburn for fourth with Colburn ending up in the fifth spot.
Collins holds the lead as the rest of the top five shuffled with Collins taking the checkered followed by Josh Wronkowski, Mike Amato, Pat Buckley, and Jeff Colburn.
Bill Spade had the pole for the Sportsman event but it took two tries to finally get the race under green. When the green finally flew, it was Spade, Dusty Downer, Ron Lufcy, Mike Trocki, and Dale Clouser in the top five. On lap 3, Jim Snyder blows a tire and hits the backstretch wall. Synder is fine but done for the night.
On the restart it is Spade, Downer, Lufcy, Trocki and Clouser. By lap 6, Lufcy has slipped to fifth with Trocki in third and Clouser in fourth. Lap 11, Trocki is now running second with Downer third. Lufcy comes in fourth with Clouser going back to fifth.
Spade takes the checkered followed by Mike Trocki, Ron Lufcy, Dale Closuer and Dusty Downer.
Gordon Houck had the pole for the 12 lap Strictly Stock feature but it was Curtis Smith who took the lead on the green followed by Houck, Hovencamp, Jones and Cherrett. Barry Parks brought out the caution on lap 1 when he spun in turns 3 and 4.
On the restart, Hovencamp spins coming down the frontstretch. Restart again with Smith in the lead. Smith continues to lead for 10 laps when his front tire comes apart and he is done for the night. Chris Guidy takes the checkered followed by Gordon Houck, Ralph Jones, Bruce McConigall, and Jason Cherrett.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
GOODYEAR CHALLENGE LATE MODEL - 100 Laps
1. #15 Jason Boyd, Orlando, Fla.
2. #66 Jerry Symons, New Smyrna, Fla.
3. #22 Larry Osteen, Clermont, Fla.
4. #9 Rich Clouser, Palm Bay, Fla.
5. #12 Joe Sumasky, Lehigh, Fla
6. #17x Jason Crossey, Lake Worth, Fla.
7. #32 Sean Murphy, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
8. #36 Tim Russell, Longwood, Fla.
9. #26 Mike Murphy, Clermont, Fla.
10. #28 Steve Smith, Lakeland, Fla.
11. #5 Jerry Artuso, Ontario, Canada
12. #60 Brent O'Neill, Hollywood, Fla.
13. #18 Nolan Wilson, Sanford, Fla.
14. #46 Richard Parks, Cornelus, NC
15. #926 Dan Crowe, Lantana, Fla.
16. #10 Brad May, Orlando, Fla
17. #57 Chad Pierce, Orlando, Fla
18. #74 Paul Schrien, Jr., Jupiter, Fla.
19. #62 Travis Wilson, Bartow, Fla.
20. #08 Jimmy Castleberry, Connersville, Fla.
21. #47 David Green, Ft. Pierce, Fla.
22. #64 Don Hess, Geneva, Fla
23. #30 Bobby Orr, Montverde, Fla.
24. #63 Chris Lawrence, Deleon Springs (DQ'd)
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS
1. #09 Rob Underwood
2. #2x Jason Boyd
3. #00 Brad May
4. #75 Bobby Blake
5. #88 Paul Duncan
6. #4 Glenn Bradley
7. #9A Art Kunzeman
8. #38 Ricky Moxley
9. #20 Ed Kuhl
10. #66 Mark Vandevender
11. #9 David Hite
12. #57 Jim "Hoot" Flynn
13. #3 Wayne Parker
14. #0 Sonny O
15. #16 Justin Henderson
SPORTSMAN
1. #15X Bill Spade
2. #46 Mike Trocki
3. #07 Ron Lufcy
4. #30 Dale Clouser
5. #09 Dusty Downer
6. #2 Bill Love
7. #70 John Nusbaum
8. #13 Aaron Williamson
9. #12 David Williamson
10. #6 Bruce McConigall
11. #55x Patrick Thomas
12. #55 Jim Synder
13. #51 Ed Kennedy
SUPER STOCK
1. #23 Charlie Collins
2. #21 Josh Wronkowski
3. #2x Mike Amato
4. #34 Pat Buckley
5. #3 Jeff Colburn
6. #01 Chuck Smith
7. #11 Nick Vogler
8. #10P Bob Bailey
9. #72 Adam Bultemeir
10. #17 Sean Bass
11. #28 Henry Raider
12. #59 David Castello
13. #45 Mike Soukup
14. #2 Ron Whaley
MINI STOCKS
1. #9 Robbie Storer
2. #1 David Castello
3. #7 Tim "Missileman" McPhail
4. #71 Ted "Mr Mini Stock" Vulipus
5. #v3 Rex Christensen
6. #07 Chad Ashley
7. #7x Rex Hollinger
8. #01 Donnie Howell
9. #20 Chris Jones
10. #11 Pug Pugsly
11. #00 Mike Sible
12. #5 Mark Brook
13. #4 Ron Dubeau
STRICTLY STOCK
1. #X Chris Guidy
2. #99 Gordon Houck
3. #13 Ralph Jones
4. #22 Bruce McConigall
5. #21 Jason Cherrett
6. #39 Jeremy Hovencamp
7. #667 Randy Kough
8. #92 Curtis Smith
9. #8 Teresa Trombley
10. #27 Barry Parks
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