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April 2, 1999 St. Augustine welcome USAR Hooters ProCup
In early October last year Mario Gosselin, of Lake Wales, Florida, came to the very first USAR Hooters ProCup race at the St. Augustine Speedway needing a win. And that is what he got by first winning the qualifying competition, and then winning the race in dominating fashion.
In the season opener at USA International Speedway, Gosselin had a godd run going, when he Justin Labonte and several others became involved with Ricky Sanders in a teerible crash in turn three. Then in the second race at Mobile, his Monte Carlo broke a ball joint, while running in fourth with just 25 laps left.
Thsi coming Saturday night the Gosselin team will bring a brand new car built specially for the USAR Hooters ProCup. Many drivers use Busch Grand National cars, as the only major difference is the Busch cars use radials. The team has been working feverishly all week to prepare the new car, acoording to one of Gosselins crew Terry "the Stick". The compettion this year according to Terry is just as ytough as last year. "The Stick said " this is not an easy series to run, it's always very tight".
In the first race Nashville's Chad Chaffin lost the win in a post race disqualification, supposedly for illegal wheel spacers. Bobby Gill collected the win after a solid performance, then went to Mobile and came in third behind Mike Laughlin Jr. of Simpsonville, SC and 1998 Rookie of the Year Michael Ritch taking the checkered flag in first place.
St. Augustine is a modern half mile D Shaped Configuration with 14 degrees banking in the turns and 6 degrees on straights. A far cry from the Mobile International Speedway in Alabama, which has no walls in parts of the track. That fact led to Terry Edwards suffering internal injuries and broken bones after his car left the track and nosed into the ground.
The Discount Auto parts 250 will start at 7:00 PM with 32 cars in the field. There are certain to be some who don't make the race, and the qualifying to determine the starting order will begin at 4:30 PM. An autograph session will be at 6 PM.
If you want to see first class stock car racing this is sure to be a great show, as usual with the quality of talent in the USAR Hooters Procup series. The track is located at 900 Big Oak Road St. in Augustine midway between Jacksonville and Daytona. For more information call 1-800-852-7223 |
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