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| BEACH BOYS HAVE GOOD VIBRATIONS ON NIGHT TWO AT WINTERNATIONALS | by Dave Westerman
It was quite an evening for Ohio's Beach Boys Motorsports as 2002 NAMARS Regional Champion Teddy Beach topped the 30-lap Midget feature Wednesday night at Orlando Speedworld with teammate Matt Westfall taking third.
Action was hot and heavy and spiced with several hard crashes on an evening that left several teams thrashing on cars late into the night to get ready for Thursday's program.
The eight-lap heat races fell to Mike Roselli (coming back after a hard flip on opening night), Dave Steele, Shane Hollingsworth, and Justin Overfelt. Jimmy McCune took a hard lick from the turn two wall after tangling with John Batts in heat two. Both drivers were OK, but their cars were done for the night.
A frightening crash took place in the Semi when Steve Craig and Joey Coy locked wheels sending Craig's car head-on into the wall at the exit of turn one. Craig's car bounced high in the air, flipped, and landed on it's side at the bottom of the track. After a few anxious moments, Craig limped from the car but was alright after getting a whiff of oxygen. Coy's car was not badly damaged and he continued on to finish ninth, but not good enough to transfer to the main event.
Dave Baumgartner led most of the way to win the Semi over David Gough, Paul Perkins, and Steve Thinnes.
Dave Steele had the pole for the feature in Dino Tomassi's Stanton-Mopar Beast and most of the insiders figured this one was over before it started... but they were wrong.
Steele zipped into the lead but caution would fly early and often in this 30-lapper. Outside polesitter Roselli spun on lap two and was hit by opening night winner Jason Leffler. Roselli was out for the second night in a row while Leffler tagged the rear of the field.
Steele continued to set the pace as the second yellow flag came out for Rich Corson's spin in turn four. Teddy Beach was on the charge following the restart, dusting off Shane Hollingsworth for second and passing Steele for the top spot just as Hollingsworth suffered mechanical woes and pulled to a stop on lap 11 to bring out the third caution. It was obvious at this time that Beach had the field covered as Steele now had to contend with Westfall. Caution number four was displayed on lap 13 for a spinning Rex Norris III in turn two. The only major incident of the race took place three laps later when Paul Perkins and David Gough tangled in turn three with Perkins getting a big chunk of the concrete. Both cars went off on the hook, but the drivers were not hurt.
Beach was in control at this point and the only thing slowing him down was the final caution for Aaron Pierce on lap 19. Beach was unofficially clocked on lap 27 of the feature at 12.92, well under the track record of 13.16 set the previous night by Hollingsworth.
Beach took the checker well ahead of Steele who had several car-lengths on Westfall. Bobby East took a solid fourth spot while Sondi Eden impressed everyone as she drove a steady race to round out the top five.
Leffler came back from the rear of the field to net sixth ahead of Justin Overfelt while John Nervo, Steve Thinnes, and Dave Baumgartner completed the top ten.
NOTES: Both Beach and Westfall were driving Gaerte Ford powered Beasts sponsored by Beach Manufaturing, Gaerte, Weld, and Fram Autolite....
The scheduled ladies challenge race was postponed to Thursday as two of the cars scheduled to be used had problems and were out for the night....
Tracy Hines, who finished second on opening night, never got on track tonight as the defending USAC champion finished dead last in his heat and fifth in the semi, failing to transfer to the main....
Mel Kenyon had a good night, finishing second in his heat and having a solid feature run until a mechanical problem forced the veteran driver out of action...
Jason Leffler's win on Tuesday was especially sweet for his car owner Keith Kunz. It was the debut of his own Kunz chassis and it won it's very first race....
IN SUPPORTING ACTION: Rick "Sock-It" Tumey avoided most of the altercations to take his second straight Mini-Stock win. Leaders Tim "Missleman" McPhail and Corbin Gibbs tangled while lapping a slower car. McPhail spun and was tagged by third-running Tumey. Despite the damage, Tumey raced to an easy win over Tim Clark, Tom Clark, and Chris Thornton with Gibbs racing back through the field to claim fifth.
Rich Clouser dominated the Super Stock field for the second night in a row taking an easy win over Bill Loomis, Ron Whaley, Ted Head and Bobby Bell.
Brian Gingras also made it two-for-two in the Dwarf Car feature topping Dan Nyhan, Bob Quick, Rob Roney, and Don Rene.
Night number three takes the green flag at 7:30PM Thursday. In addition to the NAMARS Midgets, Mini-Stocks, Super Stocks, and Dwarf Cars, the Classic Auto Racing Series will be on hand with a big field of cars.
RESULTS - 2/20/02:
NAMARS MIDGETS:
HEAT #1:
1. Mike Roselli #98
2. Mel Kenyon #61
3. Rich Corson #15C
4. Sondi Eden #15E
5. B.J. Manson #18
6. Paul Perkins #63P
7. Jason Willis #25J
8. Steve Craig #55
Heat #2:
1. Dave Steele #29
2. Teddy Beach #25B
3. John Nervo #21N
4. Aaron Pierce #26
5. David Gough #5
6. David Thompson #7T
7. Jon Batts #6
8. Jimmy McCune #21M
Heat #3:
1. Shane Hollingsworth #7H
2. Matt Westfall #25W
3. Jason Leffler #67
4. Adam Nuetzel #17
5. Dave Baumgartner #38
6. Joey Coy #77C
7. Jim Libby #77L
8. Stuart Birkinbine #2
Heat #4:
1. Justin Overfelt #78
2. Gene Lee Gibson #0
3. Bobby East #4
4. Rex Norris III #63N
5. Bryan Kobelarz #49
6. Steve Thinnes #48
7. Tracy Hines #11
8. Rory Price #99
Semi:
1. Baumgartner
2. Gough
3. Perkins
4. Thinnes
5. Hines
6. Price
7. Willis
8. Manson
9. Coy
10. Birkinbine
11. Libby
12. Kobelarz
13. Craig
DNS: Thompson, Batts, McCune
Feature (30 Laps):
1. Beach
2. Steele
3. Westfall
4. East
5. Eden
6. Leffler
7. Overfelt
8. Nervo
9. Thinnes
10. Baumgartner
11. Gibson
12. Pierce
13. Gough
14. Perkins
15. Norris III
16. Nuetzel
17. Hollingsworth
18. Kenyon
19. Corson
20. Roselli
Top ten in points after two nights:
1. Dave Steele - 171
2. Teddy Beach - 167
3. Jason Leffler - 163
4. Matt Westfall - 153
5. Justin Overfelt - 145
6. Bobby East - 138
7. Steve Thinnes - 132
8. Sondi Eden - 129
9. John Nervo - 124
10. Tracy Hines - 124
MINI STOCK FEATURE (15 Laps):
1. Rick Tumey #55
2. Tim Clark #15
3. Tom Clark #99
4. Chris Thornton #24
5. Corbin Gibbs #2
6. Tim McPhail #7
7. Tom Rose #43
8. Gary Green #46X
9. Rick Sirmans #05
10. Mike Gonzalez #46
11. Matt Watts #3
12. Mark Gonzalez #47
13. Bobby Orr #30
14. Waylon Flynn #6
SUPER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1. Rich Clouser #32
2. Bill Loomis #32
3. Ron Whaley #2
4. Ted Head #81
5. Bobby Bell #16
6. Bobby Simcox #92
7. Rob Watford #17
8. Robert Skinner #08
9. Clint McKean #79X
10. Bob Wines #7B
11. Rip Dyal #79
12. Darren Gould #67
13. Scott Tyler #27
14. Duane Yeomans #55
15. James Adams #29
16. Dick Owens #1
17. Paul Hudson #08X DNS
DWARF CARS (15 Laps):
1. Brian Gingras #21
2. Dan Nyhan #09
3. Bob Quick #06
4. Rob Roney #911
5. Don Rene #1J
6. Rick Lundeen #04
7. Tom Sliwa #1
8. Bill Burback #77
9. Phil Krauthoff #2
10. Kevin Baxter #69
11. Jim Biglin #07
12. Allen Davis #74
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