Daryl Grief Gets First Feature Win In Classic Cars
By Dave Westerman
"The Bald Bomber," Deland's Daryl Grief, started his third season in the Classic Auto Racing Series with his first career feature win Saturday night at Thundercross Motorsports Complex near Okeechobee.
Grief, who credited his dad T.K. with having the perfect setup on his '32 Ford sedan, had a near perfect evening starting with a win in the opening heat race which put him on the pole for the 15-lap feature.
Second heat winner Frank Conrad of nearby Ft. Pierce easily claimed heat two and had the outside pole for the main event.
Conrad got the early jump on Grief and led the opening two laps, but new daddy Grief, whose son Hunter was born just a few days ago, went to the high side and powered by Conrad for the lead in turn three on lap three.
From that point, Grief stretched his advantage to almost a straightaway before lapped traffic allowed Conrad the opportunity to make one more run for the top spot. Grief handled the lapped traffic well and raced on to the victory as the race ran caution free. Conrad nabbed second spot.
It was Grief's first win in the series since joining the traveling road show in 2001.
Joey Strehle made a last lap pass to snatch third place from Ben Booth, who was behind the wheel of a brand new race car. Actually, the two swapped third and fourth spot several times during the race. Strehle's third place earned him the Door Operating Systems Rookie of the Race award over fellow rookie challenger Booth while another rookie, Greg Helton, had his best career finish, coming home fifth.
Bud Spencer, Al Hagan, E.B. Carr, George Hall, Jr., and Patrick "Bam Bam" Sanders rounded out the top ten.
Florida State Senator Bill Posey of Rockledge jetted down from Tallahassee to race at Thundercross but had an evening he'd rather forget.
Running well in his heat race, Posey had the steering wheel come off in his hands and he spun in turn three for the only caution flag displayed during Classic Auto Racing Series action all night.
Then the ignition switch failed when he was getting set to line up for the feature. Posey got his car started, but was not allowed on the track while the race was under green. Since there were no cautions, Posey was left sitting in the staging area.
The popularity of the Classics, or "gangster cars" as some of the Thundercross fans like to call the CARS machines, have led officials of both Thundercross Motorsports Complex and the Classic Series to be looking at booking a fourth date during the season. If it can be worked out, that date will be announced shortly.
The next race for the Classic Auto Racing Series is Friday night, March 28th, at Orlando Speedworld.
