Twenty-four TBARA Sprint Cars made their way to the high banks of New Smyrna Speedway Saturday night, but in the end the only real question was who would finish second to Dave Steele as the Tampa veteran thoroughly dominated the action.
TBARA points leader Troy DeCaire was already in trouble as the engine in his car expired in a cloud of smoke during warm-ups. Fortunately, car owner George Rudolph was planning to also race his back-up machine and DeCaire was able to move over to the seat of that car. DeCaire had no problem adjusting to a different set of wheels as he topped heat race number one while Dave Steele blew the field away in heat two. Keith Butler claimed the win in heat three.
D.J. Hoetzle grabbed the point in the 30 lap feature and built up a large margin as Steele quickly worked his way up from his eighth place starting spot and began to chase down Hoetzle.
Mark Gimmler spun to bring out the caution allowing Steele to close in but Hoetzle had a good handling car and was able to hold off "Superman" for a few laps before Steele drove by him in lapped traffic.
From that point Steele just took off slowed only by a horrifying crash late in the going that brought out the red flag. Steven Bradley and Tommy Nichols tangled coming off turn four and smashed hard into the wall ending up literally wedged together against the concrete on the front stretch. Both drivers emerged unhurt but the cars were badly damaged and hauled off in a sling by the Tim's Automotive wrecker.
Steele was untouchable as he dominated the closing laps scoring yet another win for himself and car owner Lenny Puglio. Hoetzle was impressive in taking the second spot as he continues to battle Brian Gingras for rookie of the year honors in the TBARA. Dude Teate ran a steady race to claim third. Gingras actually crossed the line in fourth but said he didn't think he'd finished in the top five and failed to take his car through tech.
Thus Gingras was disqualified handing the fourth spot to veteran Stan Butler while DeCaire drove his back-up car to a fifth place finish. Jimmy Alvis took sixth while Larry J. Brazil, Jr. drove up to seventh after having problems, missing his heat race, and being forced to start near the tail of the field.
Mark Gimmler came back for eighth while Wendy Mathis was the last car running at the finish in ninth, not bad considering she was still hurting from her big over-the-wall crash at Charlotte County two weeks prior and was running an under-powered engine while her primary powerplant is still being serviced. Charlie Ladner was credited with tenth spot as attrition was very high.
The TBARA has a couple of weeks off before returning to action on August 31st at Orlando Speedworld for the Second Annual Bob Luscomb/Billy Yuma Memorial, a 35 lap event. The Sprints then go back-to-back returning to New Smyrna Speedway the following night, September 1st.
OFFICIAL RESULTS NEW SMYRNA SPEEDWAY AUGUST 4, 2007
TBARA Feature
POS Driver Car# 1 Dave Steele 91 2 DJ Hoelzle 15 3 Dude Teate 0 4 Stan Butler 18 5 Troy DeCaire 60 6 Jim Alvis 21 7 Larry Brazil Jr 21B 8 Mark Gimmler 51 9 Wendy Mathis 80 10 Charles Ladner 39 11 Steven Bradley 1 12 Michael Smith 9X 13 Tommy Nichols 55 14 Mickey Kempgens 14 15 Keith Butler 19 16 Matt Tiffany 19T 17 John Sambor 33C 18 David Slawiak 79 19 Dan Statter 159 20 Bill Pettijohn 44 21 Jimmy Kissinger 59 22 Kipp Beard 66 23 Brian Gingras 99 - DQ
Mini Stock - Features Pos Driver Car # 1 Dustin Perez 62 2 James Dixson 6X 3 Charles Goodson 16X 4 Kenny Padgett 16 5 Pat Wells 23 6 Jeff Pittsley 20 7 Chad Carpenter 31 8 Mark Broat 6 9 Benjamin Zell 10 10 Ted Vulpius 71 11 Pedie Allison DNS 92
Sportsman - Features Pos Driver Car # 1 Donny Williams 111 2 Dale Howard 63 3 Philip Luizzo 27 4 Ronald Lufcy 07 5 Phillip Bessette 21 6 Bruce McGonigal 6 7 Paul Kitner 911 8 Nevin Gainey 8 9 Jason Charette 1 10 John Nusbaum DNS 70
Strictly Stock - Features Pos Driver Car # 1 Rob Reynolds A-1 2 Sonny Pond 912 3 Eddie Rush 71 4 Gary Thomas 76 5 Doug Wolf 70 6 Brent Bruner 20 7 Richard Barrenchea 20X 8 Steven Streight 80 9 Harry Armstrong 77 10 John Layne 00 11 Kenneth Walker 61 12 Roy Lester 7 13 Eric Wolf 69 14 Jody Roberts 13 15 Wiiliam Skip Wager 43 16 Richard Goodrich 86 17 Dean Sarver 45 18 April McGowan DNS 39
Super Stock - Features Pos Driver Car # 1 Bobby Holley 56 2 Jeff Colburn 3 3 Michael Wofford 15 4 Steve Green 32 5 Billy Boggs 9 6 Scott Smith 01 7 Geno Smith 25 8 Bruce McGonigal 22 9 Edward Michalak 44 10 JT Tippins 31 11 Mike Dahm 21 12 Michael Amato 2X 13 Tobi Smith 8
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Trucks - Features Pos Driver Car # 1 Jessica Murphy 62 2 Logan Bordeau 33B 3 Jarrad Cawley 31 4 Austin Howell 96 5 Kevin Henry 99X 6 Jim Campbell 73 7 Tim Gertsch 29 8 Lee Murray 14 9 Ray Black Jr 4 10 Marty Wolf 9 11 Jesse Buchanan 22 12 Sonny Buchanan 7 13 William Stacy 32 14 Steve Thompson DNS 20
