IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

June 26, 2007 ASA Late Models Live up To Expectations for Fans UPDATE JUNE 27, 2007: After the event, ASALMS Officials pulled the Crate Engines from the Top Three drivers and after all three engines were gone over, Jason Boyd, who originally finished Third, was Disqualified for Unauthorized alterations to a Sealed Crate Engine and has been Suspended indefinitely! (official results below) By Jack Smith The ASA Late Model Series Southern Division completed their third race of the 2007 season Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway. The folks coming down from the northern states were greeted with a blast of the late June Florida furnace, blindingly bright sun with temperatures on the track well over 100 degrees. Thirty-nine teams came to try and make the field of twenty-eight starters in the second of three Florida stops on the ASA Late Model South tour. The ASA awards a provisional to the drivers in the top ten in the points race, which was a real good thing for Wayne Morris, Rob Partelo and Dillon Oliver. All three failed to qualify on their times but were able to use their provisional to get in the race. The Florida 100 was not full of surprises, but it was replete with the predicted crashes as the 12 cautions were testament to. Also predictable was the effort of Jason Boyd of Clermont, Florida. Hopes were high for Boyd, who knows New Smyrna Speedway probably better than any one else in the field. "We done a lot of testing and I would be disappointed if I come here and wasn't in the top three", Boyd told KARNAC.com after setting fast time. Boyd smoked the field with a 18.147 lap time, considerably faster than second fast Sean Bass with a 18.315 time. Jason Boyd in Post Qualifying Interview with Real Racin' USA. Florida's toughest short track came to life with a vengeance during the afternoon qualifying rounds. "Thrillin" Dillon Oliver, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, hit the wall hard coming off turn four, flipped upside down and slid on his roof finally coming to a rest 100 feet past the flag stand. Amazingly he was unhurt, though naturally appeared a little disoriented for few minutes. Even more amazing was the fact that his crew got to work and with the help of several different colors of duck tape, he was able to take the green flag in the number 33 Monte Carlo, though considerably slower than much of the field. To top it off the seventeen year old was the last car running, finishing 16th and will remain in the top ten in the Championship chase. As the crew was wrapping up (no pun intended) the repairs to the race car, Oliver observed that "I think I'm changing that 'Thrillin' Dillon to 'Flippin' Dillon." On a more serious note he told us "It scared me to death actually, I have never been on my top. The first thing I thought to do was shut my motor off, after I shut it off I slid all the way down the front stretch and I was pushing the pedal through the front of the car, thinking I was going to stop it but it wasn't doing any good." 'Thrillin' Dillon Oliver after his scary crash off turn four, with Real Racin' USA. Eleven cars raced for 25 laps in what one young driver called the "conservation race" while being interviewed during the autograph session. More than a few media types familiar with New Smyrna found a touch of irony in the mis-statement. Chad Akins and Wes Burton were on the front row of the race, a good place to be with only the top two drivers being able to move on the main event. Akins pulled away and won handily, but it was a veteran of New Smyrna Speedway, Earl Beckner, who made the most of his opportunity. Beckner drove from the fifth position to earn his chance with the top drivers in the south. After the inversion of eight cars, Travis Cope had the pole, making his first ever ASA Late Model Series start. Brandon Johnson of Longwood, FL was outside pole. As the green flag waved it was expected that Jeff Choquette or perhaps David Wilson would make a early move to the front, but instead Johnson drove his #41 Monte Carlo past Cope and took a lead on the first turn, a lead he would never relinquish. As expected Jason Boyd in his first ASA Late Model Series start made his presence felt, and only race attendees can appreciate the strength of his third place finish. Boyd had worked his way to fourth place in the first ten laps and was passing Cope for third when he cut a tire around lap 15 forcing him to pit and have to start at the rear of the field. Boyd drove through the field, patiently picking off cars one at a time and by the halfway point was in fourth. Another hard charging racer was Beau Slocum, winner at Watermelon Capital. He and Boyd got together in turn four around the lap 58 mark. Slocum was ordered to the rear, and Boyd's car, which had been showing smoke from a bad tire rub, magically seemed to be fixed after the incident. Boyd tried several times to get by Choquette but wisely did not force the issue and was more than satisfied with a third place run in his first start. Brandon Johnson was hooked up all night "on a rail" as he described it. Jeff Choquette said he tried several times to follow Johnson's line and found his car would not turn on the same groove. The race was held under red flag condition for 25 minutes for a nasty wreck involving Tommy King, driver of the number 16. The incident involved King and #62 Travis Wilson and occurred about 12 laps in. As King explained it, "We shouldn't have been back there in the first place, we qualified poorly, and got stick back there in the back." King was walking a little gingerly long after the incident. "I got the wind knocked out of me for a while", he said. The front end of King's car was destroyed. As is usual New Smyrna ate up some cars, sixteen managed to finish all 100 green flag laps. Jimmy Lang leads Rob Partelo and Anthony Campi through turn four at New Smyrna David Wilson had a excellent chance to finally get a complete race in when an altercation with a lapped car caused a collision which damaged Wilson's #83 too much to continue. Wayne Morris, one of "the elder statesmen" of the South Division had a good outing taking a sixteenth place start and bringing his 56 machine home 7th. A run good enough to keep him in the top ten as the series heads to Birmingham, Alabama on July 14th. Travis Cope, son of former ASA series racer Mike Cope, hung in there kept his car intact and got a ninth place finish. But the big story was the car brought to New Smyrna and the effort of Brandon Johnson keeping it out front all night. Johnson was out the race early at Bronson back in March, but rebounded at Watermelon Capital with a 4th place finish. Johnson said after the race, "I had a great experience out there, it was the best car I ever had here, it was on rails all night, it was awesome." Johnson, from Longwood, Florida seemed a bit surprised by his success, "The longer the run was the better the car was, it had a real good bite". The motors of the top three teams were removed from the cars and taken by the ASA for inspection, part of the ongoing efforts of the series to ensure a level playing field. The next race for the South Division is the Crimson 125 July 14th at Birmingham International Raceway in Birmingham, AL. Birmingham is a .625 mile semi-banked speedway and will be another tough test for the teams. More Interviews: Tommy King (After his wreck) Brandon Johnson (After the race) Jeff Choquette (after the race) Sean Bass (After the race) Brian Blum (After the race) Chris Fontaine (after the race) NEW SMYRNA GENERAL MANAGER TERRY ROBERTS(After the race) ASA OWNER AND PROMOTER RON VARNEY (After the race) FLORIDA 100 PHOTO GALLERY ASA Thanks to Michael Fettig at www.ActionShotsPhotography.com Tune in to "ASA FASTLANE" each Wednesday eveing 8-9 PM ...in depth driver interviews...meet the stars of the ASA. OFFICIAL RESULTS: Florida 100 Presented by FLF Racecars OFFICIAL Results Pos,,Start,,Car#/Driver,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Laps,,Status 1,,,,,,2,,,,,,,,41 Brandon Johnson-R,,,,,,100,,,,Running 2,,,,,,4,,,,,,,,170 Jeff Choquette-R,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 3,,,,,,10,,,,,,3 Brian Blum-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 4,,,,,,7,,,,,,,,28 Sean Bass-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 5,,,,,,6,,,,,,,,141 Jason Taghikhani-R,,,,,100,,,,Running 6,,,,,,20,,,,,,56 Wayne Morris-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 7,,,,,,15,,,,,,08 Beau Slocumb,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 8,,,,,,1,,,,,,,,26 Travis Cope-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 9,,,,,,9,,,,,,,,47 Chris Fontaine-R,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 10,,,,11,,,,,,86 Jimmy Lang-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 11,,,,21,,,,,,62 Travis Wilson,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 12,,,,27,,,,,,60 Chad Akins-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,,Running 13,,,,16,,,,,,93 Rob Partelo-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,95,,,,,,Running 14,,,,18,,,,,,119 Dalton Zehr,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,95,,,,,,Mechanical 15,,,,17,,,,,,33 Dillon Oliver,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,94,,,,,,Running 16,,,,5,,,,,,,,09 John Wes Townley,,,,,,,,,86,,,,,,Accident 17,,,,26,,,,,,75 David Odell-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,86,,,,,,Accident 18,,,,24,,,,,,12 Tyler Townsend-R,,,,,,,,,,78,,,,,,Running 19,,,,13,,,,,,81 Anthony Campi-R,,,,,,,,,,,63,,,,,,Accident 20,,,,14,,,,,,17 A.J. Fulgenzi-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,63,,,,,,Accident 21,,,,3,,,,,,,,83 David Wilson-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,48,,,,,,Accident 22,,,,12,,,,,,8 Michael Seeright-R,,,,,,,,,,,30,,,,,,Accident 23,,,,28,,,,,,36 Earl Beckner-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,26,,,,,,Accident 24,,,,19,,,,,,16 Tommy King-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6,,,,,,,,Accident 25,,,,25,,,,,,20 Kyle Eastham-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6,,,,,,,Accident 26,,,,22,,,,,,59 Dustin Dunn-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6,,,,,,,Accident 27,,,,23,,,,,,6 Devan Hall-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6,,,,,,,Accident DQ,,,8,,,,,,,,126 Jason Boyd-R,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,100,,,Disqualified Lap Leaders: 26 Travis Cope-R Pole, 41 Brandon Johnson-R 1-100. Cautions 12 for 0 Laps. Time of Race: 1 Hour, 49 Minutes, 34.069 Seconds Keep up with all the action in "America's premiere Short track series" at www.asalatemodels.com Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on The Real Racin USA Florida Fan Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!