by VSP Media
All photos courtesy Jim Jones
BARBERVILLE, FL- Scattered showers peppered many areas around Volusia Speedway Park throughout the afternoon on Saturday, but after a rainout the previous weekend the speedway managed to escape with a few near misses, but no actual rainfall until after dark.
That opened the door for the Budweiser Modifieds to chase a $1000 cash carrot, and for fans to see action from the Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Models, the Taylor Racing Products Sportsman Division, the Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants Thunder Stocks, and the 4 Cylinder Challengers.
Unfortunately for the Volusia County kids who will find themselves back in classrooms on Monday morning, their chance to fulfill a need for speed was washed out by a pop up shower that hit the track right at intermission, and which sent the track staff scrambling to get the program moving as more showers loomed off to the west on radar. Those other showers fell apart before arriving at the track, thus allowing the feature races to run as scheduled, and as things played out many points leaders might have preferred that it continue to rain.
Jamie Carter still held a firm grip on the Budweiser Modified points lead as their $1000 to win feature got underway, but the man who supposedly was going to collect the cash was on the front row and wasted zero time in taking control, while Carter began what became a forgetable night at the races with a last place finish. Any betting person might have put it all on Jeff Mathews at that point, but Wayne Hammond would have taken their money. Hammond ripped past Mathews before the halfway point and held the lead for several laps, with Mathews challenging him at every turn and finally wrestling the lead back from Hammond within the final 6 laps. But with two laps to go Hammond saw an opening and pounced on it on the backstretch, passing Mathews for good to seal the win.
Wayne Hammond enjoyed the moment in Victory Lane, plus collected a $100 cash bonus from Astor Recycling on top of his $1000 paycheck, while Jeff Mathews drove to his hauler in second place. The third place went to a hard charging Garrett Stewart, who after suffering every sort of setback imaginable throughout the season, grabbed a heat race win and performed exceptionally well in the feature event. Larry Burkins fought hard to place fourth, while Kent Corbin followed in fifth place.
Donnie Chappell has paid his dues to the Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Models this racing season, gradually improving and gaining ground on the points leaders. And as the rest of the field took the green flag on Saturday night, Chappell was third in the points and poised to close the gap between himself and points leader Joe Kump. And with David Clegg, who in was second in the points race, not present to race, Chappell was effectively in second place by simply taking the green.
Lawton Minchew grabbed the early lead, but Chappell snatched it from him after a first lap restart and held it virtually the entire race. Meanwhile Kump had problems of his own, running over a piece of debris on the front stretch under caution and cutting down his right rear tire. In the rush to get a new tire on and get back to the race before the restart, his crew apparently put a left side tire on the right, leaving him limping on low air pressure and unable to catch the race leaders.
Minchew would briefly pull ahead of Chappell as they dealt with traffic in the final laps, but Donnie Chappell prevailed to score the well deserved win, and collect the night’s second $100 bonus from Astor Recycling. Lawton Minchew followed in second place, while Jason Kimball placed third. Andy Schell and Bobby Richardson rounded out the top five finishers.
The Taylor Racing Products Sportsman Division saw a Chinese Fire Drill of sorts play out on the frontstretch before the green flag could wave in their feature race, as points leader Aaron Barsness developed problems with his number 11 machine and came to a stop. Teammate Scott Lagasse pulled alongside and the drivers quickly switched race cars, leaving Lagassee to be unselfishly towed to the pits in Barsness’ 11 car while Barsness went to the rear of the field in Lagasse’s number 22. Barsness would pick his way through the field and challenge for the lead in the final laps before the 22 car succumbed to damage and mechanical problems and left the race.
Matt McGillivray was in the early battle for the lead until he spun exiting turn two and was penalized to the rear of the field on the restart. That opened a door for Shaun Daugharty to make some moves as he took the lead, but he failed to hold off a hard charging Stanton Mills who snatched the lead away midway through the race. Mills held off Barsness’ late challenge to finish first, as Shaun Daugharty followed him under the checkers. Steve Shead had an impressive run to finish in the third spot with Paul Shead right behind him, and Collin Wright rounding out the top five. However, those results remain “unofficial” until further notice, as post race tech inspection turned up some issues that require further review. Those issues must be resolved after consultation with manufacturers, so official results will be posted sometime in the coming week.
Problems for points leaders persisted on Saturday as Casey Feaster struggled in the 4 Cylinder Challenger feature, fighting to salvage an 8th place finish. With weather cancellations and schedule changes effectively ruling out any real chance for Tony Laporta to defend his 2009 championship, Laporta would have to prove his superiority by winning and that meant catching three tough racers who were battling for the lead. Sonny Espy and Davey Wolf took turns with the early lead while Denica Hetznecker chased them in the third spot, but Laporta weeded his way past all of them.
Late in the race things strung out and left ample space between the top four cars as Tony Laporta led the way. That turned out to be a saving grace for Davy Wolf, who saw his oil pressure dropping and felt the car begin to run sour in the final laps. While Laporta was winning the race, Wolf’s engine grenaded in turn four and he coasted to the checkers in second place while Denica Hetznecker placed third behind Wolf’s smoke screen. Sonny Espy was the fourth place finisher and Dustin Childress drove Nathan Rhoades’ 51 car to fifth place.
There was a time earlier in the 2010 racing season at VSP where the sight of Scott Mooers’ 10 car on the pole of a Amsoil Thunder Stock race meant that the winner’s check could be signed over before the green was waved, but not anymore. And on Saturday night Mooers led the race from the pole for only three laps before Philip Brown drove the number 13 machine past him and brought Chad Scranton along behind him. From that point Mooers was forced to watch as Scranton challenged Brown with everything he had, but Mooers was unable to join in the fight.
Scranton’s efforts paid off midway through the race as he got past Brown for the lead, but Brown quickly recovered and repassed Scranton on the following lap, and rebuffed all future challenges. Philip Brown scored the win as Chad Scranton followed for a close second place. Scott Mooers was the third place finisher while Wally Douglass claimed a respectable fourth place and Robert Donaly was fifth.
Volusia Speedway Park is taking some well deserved time off over the next couple of weekends as the Florida rainy season peaks and the racers need time to rest and make repairs. Racing returns to the south’s fastest half mile on Saturday, September 4th, as the Labor Day Shootout arrives for the Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Models. Fans will also see action from the Budweiser Modifieds, the Taylor Racing Products Sportsman Division, and the Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants Thunder Stocks.
Weather and other factors have created some schedule changes for Volusia Speedway Park over the remainder of the 2010 racing season, and fans are urged to check the updated schedule at www.VolusiaSpeedwayPark.net before trekking to the track.
Volusia Speedway Results for 8/14/10
Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Model
1- 25 Donnie Chappell
2- 23 Lawton Minchew
3- 79 Jason Kimball
4- 88 Andy Schell
5- 45 Bobby Richardson
6- 36DH Daniel Hancock
7- J17 Joe Kump
8- 46 Hamp Conlay
9- 41 Barry Sheffield
10- 145 Jason Davis
11- 10 Win Ingersoll
12- RP1 Bug Rose
DNS- 26W Dillon Wood
Budweiser Modified ($1000 to win/25 laps)
1- 66H Wayne Hammond
2- 33 Jeff Mathews
3- 67 Garrett Stewart
4- 54 Larry Burkins
5- 7 Kent Corbin
6- Z06 Larry Mott
7- 11P Charlie Phillips
8- 1G Gary Sexton
9- 66 Dale Murray
10- 64 Austin Sanders
11- 15 Jamie Carter
DNS- 8 Steve Whitener
DNS- 5 Richard Ferry
Taylor Racing Products Sportsman
(results unofficial pending further tech review)
1- 57S Stanton Mills
2- 00 Shaun Daugharty
3- 10 Steve Shead
4- 80 Paul Shead
5- 38 Collin Wright
6- 95 Matt McGillivray
7- 05 Dan Lane Sr.
8- 7 Dalton Lanich
9- 77 Wayne Allen Jr.
10- 17H Blaise Hetznecker
11- 18 Justin Merry
12- 57 Heinz Haas
13- 22L Aaron Barsness
14- 5 Alan Peacock
15- 18S David Showers Jr.
16- 17K Marc Kinley
17- 66C Kyle Chappell
18- 99 Danny Vogel Jr.
19- 8 Chris Day
DNS- 11 Scott Lagasse Jr.
DNS- 2H Cory Hupp
Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants Thunder Stock
1- 13 Philip Brown
2- 27 Chad Scranton
3- 10 Scott Mooers
4- 6 Wally Douglass
5- 9R Robert Donaly
6- 03 Robert Shrunk
7- 35 Austin Stamper
8- 15 Luke Sadler
9- 29 Tom Hughes
10- 22 Kelly Snyder
11- 65 Bobby Giles
12- V1 Delbert Moyer
13- 16 Brian Shrunk
14- 114 John Thorpe
DNS- 32 Jim Shaw
DNS- 4 Richard Calmes Jr.
4 Cylinder Challenger
1- 3T Tony Laporta
2- 48W Davie Wolf
3- 16 Denica Hetznecker
4- 16E Sonny Espy
5- 51 Dustin Childress
6- XX Jordan Myers
7- 004 R.J. Glaser
8- 20 Casey Feaster
9- B12 Brian Smith
10- 66 Leonard Underwood Jr.