A weekend of testing boiled down to Sunday morning practices that had seen young Winter Springs driver Sam Watts in his #73 Toyota Camry posting the fastest times, and a Sunday lunchtime qualifying session where each driver took two hot laps to post a quick time. Leading the way for this was #54 Johnny Clark from Maine who completed his second lap of the high-banked half-mile in 17.505s, just ahead of Watts and his 17.534. Local favorite #33 Jeff Choquette would be 3rd quickest, followed by #55 Brad Leighton of New Hampshire and #26 Preston Peltier of North Carolina.
With the fast times posted the top ten qualifiers were then called out to the start line for the pill draw, determining their starting grid position. The big winner in this lottery was Sam Watts who moved up from 2nd to pole position, having seen Clark draw the 4th place ball to guarantee himself a place on the second row. Watts was joined up front by #4S of Jeff Fogelman who had posted the 6th fastest time in qualifying, and it was all 3s for Choquette as he pulled the 3rd place pill, having qualified 3rd in his #33 car! Row three would see #62 Brandon Ward of North Carolina alongside reigning FASCAR Triple Crown Champion #36 Tim Russell, ahead of #88 Justin Larson, #48 Ben Rowe, Peltier and Leighton.
The pill draw had allowed for a good mix of PASS frontrunners from both series alongside experienced local Florida racers, and it really was anyone’s race as the drivers faced 150 green flag laps around New Smyrna Speedway. Where the Florida locals had the advantage of track knowledge, the PASS rules and regulations being enforced dramatically leveled the playing field, with the PASS racers having the advantage of knowing the American Racer tires and their tendencies much better, and having more experience with the flag-controlled restarts that could see a driver sent to the rear of the field and fined $500 for jumping the start.
With introductions done and the tires warmed up just enough despite the cold ambient temperature the flagman waved the green to send the cars into battle and quickly it was Fogelman and Clark who took advantage of Watts lack of practice with these starts to get around the #73 and relegate him back to 3rd spot. Behind them Leighton was already moving forward, nudging Larson out of the way to take the 6th place and quickly reaching Rowe to take the 5th spot by the end of the 5th lap. Watts was now having to fight the experienced Choquette to hold onto his 3rd position and there was plenty of contact that saw Watts sent wide by the #33 but he held enough speed from high out of turn 2 to fight back and keep his place. Choquette was quickly alongside and the two Florida racers went door-to-door for several laps before Watts confirmed his 2nd position by the 14th lap as the leaders began to hit the slower cars ahead of them.
Lap 17 saw the lead change hands again as Clark flew down the front straight and underneath Fogelman into turn 1 to take his place at the head of the field. A lead group of 7 cars had now developed away at the front, although #61 Mario Gosselin and Tim Russell were not far behind and catching quickly to make the lead group even larger. At the head of the group Fogelman began to drop back, first letting Watts through coming out of turn 4 and then seeing Choquette streak past. Fogleman would quickly be all the way back down to 7th and watching Russell closing in his mirror. The main focus of the spectators had now moved to Watts and Choquette’s fight for 2nd, taking up enough of their energy and concentration to give Clark the space to extend his lead out at the front.
Watts would again pull away in pursuit of the #54 car, leaving Choquette to battle the hard-charging Leighton in a fight for 3rd place, but with 41 straight laps in the books from the start the first caution of the day was called when #15 Clay Jones of North Carolina hit the turn 3 wall hard and skidded to a stop mid-corner, needing two wreckers to get him and his badly damaged car off the track. With no caution laps counting towards the 150 lap race distance plenty of cars took the opportunity to come in for adjustments, although in the case of Fogelman’s #4S it was more like minor surgery as he made the first of what would be numerous trips into the pits for attention.
Once the track was cleared the pace truck peeled off in turn 4 and the drivers awaited their signal from the flag stand to restart the chase. Again Watts showed his inexperience once the flag waved and he was quickly passed by Choquette and Leighton as Clark took advantage to get some space between himself and the pack. Things went from bad to worse for Watts as a bump to his rear from Larson got his car all out of shape and he was soon all the way back to 8th place. Right behind him the calm of the opening laps was already a distant memory as #35 Devin Jones made a hard move on the #6 of Dale Brackett towards the rear of the field. Brackett could do nothing to avoid spinning into the wall, causing several cars to take avoiding action behind him, bringing most of them to a halt mid-corner. Another restart was needed, with Jones being sent to the rear as punishment for his rough driving.
From the green flag it was Choquette who took advantage of the break in proceedings as he ran alongside and them passed Clark, who was now not only seeing his lead gone but noticing Rowe looming large in his mirror and daring to push the nose of his car alongside Clark’s door. The race at the front was hotting up as the cars started to count down to 50 laps gone, and another caution was avoided when #5 Kevin Ingram span out in turn 4 but was able to get going again without assistance or any need for the pace truck to come out on track. The reprieve was only temporary as just one lap later Larson and Gosselin hit each other hard at the back of the lead pack coming out of turn 2. The impact was hard enough for Gosselin’s hood to pop up and cover his windshield so he was left trying to find his way back to the pits through his side door window, and both he and Larson headed back to pit lane for attention as the caution flags came out. Larson would be able to continue in his dented and bruised car, but Gosselin would become the second retiree of the race.
Eddie Gainey in the #8 would the next driver out of the race immediately as the green flags were waved as his car began billowing smoke from the rear leading to a black flag and an order to leave the track. He pulled out of a race now being lead by Choquette and with Leighton in 2nd as Clark found himself under pressure from Rowe. Tim Russell had also made the best of the restarts and was chasing hard in 5th place although he too was under pressure, this time from Peltier who was showing impressive speed as the race began to settle down.
Rowe was soon to make his move as he first picked off Leighton in turn 2 as the #55 got loose in the corner, and by the 64th lap he was able to pull underneath and then past Choquette as they headed into lapped traffic down the back straight. A spin for Devin Jones brought the pace truck back out onto the track but with their engines and tires at their optimum temperatures and with all the drivers now having a feel for the track and conditions the restart saw a thrilling display as the top 10 cars all held position for the next few laps, taking the whole half-mile circuit with the front 5 rows racing in perfect side-by-side order. The order was broken when Choquette gave a nudge to Rowe to force his way past, but in the ensuing duel it was Clark who tried an audacious pass by looking to sneak between the two leaders down the middle, both cars reacting by blocking him hard. However this proved more of a distraction to Choquette than Rowe, as Rowe was now able to get ahead and pull away at the front. Indeed the #33 was soon dropping back further with Clark and then Peltier pushing him back down the field as the cars came into pit-lane for their obligatory half-distance pit stop.
With 19 cars left in the race the flag stand restarted the action but was quick to put on the yellow lights as Fogelman suffered a flat tire out of turn 2, spinning out on the back straight with cars behind him. With another chance at the restart it was Clark who took advantage and relegated Rowe back to 2nd, although Rowe was still strong enough to deny Peltier’s push down the inside and hold his position. The race was soon to get lively again as #04 Jerrod Foley and Larson got involved in a shoving match in turn 4, with Foley managing to hang onto an out of shape car as Larson streaked past. With 85 laps down the race really started to heat up as Florida drivers Russell and Ingram began a fierce fight that saw Ingram hitting Russell hard coming out of turn 4, sending Russell off into a spin down the front straight and putting both men at the rear for the restart.
Up at the front the restart saw a great battle between Leighton and Clark, with Rowe ready to take advantage at any time and Watts biding his time and steadily moving back into contention in 4th place. As the race reached the 100 lap point the lead group were still close together, Clark now back into the lead and with Peltier coming up fast and working his way up to 3rd. The racing was fast and decisive but with plenty of pushing and shoving as cars moved to position themselves for the last 3rd of the race, and occasionally this showed signs of boiling over, with Ingram being warned for rough driving from the flag stand. As the racing intensified a caution period cooled everyone down, this time after Brackett made contact with the back straight wall and span out of control.
Clark and Leighton continued their battle at the front from the restart but Peltier was quickly in to bisect them and take second place for himself. Behind them Watts was pushing hard, but perhaps too hard as hic contact with Rowe saw the #48 turned going into turn 1, forcing all the cars behind to take evasive action. Unfortunately many of the top running cars were too close and could do nothing. This saw Russell, Jones and #08 Joey Gase all going hard into the turn 1 wall and Brackett having to stand on his brakes to avoid the pile-up in front of him. Russell was far from impressed with the driver he saw as the cause of the wreck, and was quick to climb from his car and show his displeasure to Watts as the cars came back around behind the pace truck.
After a lengthy clean-up operation the racing was able to continue and Peltier took the opportunity to streak into the lead before the caution flags came back out as Rowe, who had been a contender throughout the race and shown great speed, hit the front straight wall hard and skidded across the infield grass before coming to rest in turn 2. The subsequent restart saw the pace truck in action again, this time as Foley, #127 Kyle Maynard and Larson came together out of turn 2 and got badly out of shape, hitting each other and leaving Larson seeing his day’s racing end on the chains of the wrecker.
The race was slowly working itself to a conclusion as the lead continued to change hands once the green flags were again waved. This time Choquette was able to get back to the front, Clark chasing him hard but with Watts breathing down his neck in 3rd place. At the 120th lap the lead group were now well ahead of the rest but Clark had made obvious ground on the race leader, and with just one more lap complete he was able to use the lapped Brackett perfectly to baulk Choquette on the higher line and slide down the inside into the lead. Behind them Leighton was able to use exactly the same maneuver using the same back-marker just a few laps later, this time claiming 3rd place from Watts.
Leighton now set his sights on 2nd place and with 10 laps to go he caught and passed Choquette by blasting down his inside heading into turn 3. As the flag stand signaled 5 laps to go the track crew sprang to life as the hard racing that had lead to this point saw debris strewn across the track in turn 2, needing a crew to be dispatched to remove the piece of errant bodywork and give the racers a clear track to race on.
From the restart Leighton was quickly to gain the advantage, as Watts made his presence known to Clark in 2nd, although the visitor from Maine was quick to block the Florida racer’s charge. Clark now pushed with everything he had as the laps ticked down, and was hitting turns with such speed that he was getting visibly loose on his way out of the corners. With the white flag out he tried one last push but again his extra speed saw him slide high up the track, start to lose composure and need to back off to regain control of his car, and so Leighton was able to take the checkered flag ahead of Clark and Watts, with Choquette and #23 Lonnie Sommerville, who had driven a smart race to keep out of trouble, rounding out the top 5.
As well as the PASS Winterfest 150 there were also a couple of local division on show for the brave fans who headed out into the cold. In the Superstocks the win was taken #51 Butch Herdegen who edged out former track champion #56 Bobby Hollley in a 35 lap feature. It had been #15 Cody Blair who had made the most of his front row starting position and lead for the first 13 laps, but a caution for a spinning car at the rear bunched the field back up and allowed HErdegen, Holley and #01 Scott Smith to get out in front and dominate the race. Herdegen would ultimately win by several car lengths, with Holley behind him a similar distance ahead of Smith.
In the Strictly Stock division the race turned into something of a grudge match as dual track champion #89 William Hindman took on the massed ranks of the Sanford Auto Dealers Exchange racing team and gave as good as he got for most of the race. After an audacious attempt to overtake the entire field at the start had seen Hindman sprint from 10th place right into the lead before the cars had even reached the start line, the Orlando Speedworld favorite was quickly sent to the rear of the field at the first caution. The restart saw the SADE cars of #95x Brannon and #95 Chuck Hill leading at the front, but it took just 10 laps for Hindman to be up into 4th and breathing down their necks, despite a quick trip to the pits under caution to dump the power-steering fluid that was causing his car to smoke out on the track.
Another caution gave Hindman his chance to join the fight at the front and he took it with an incredible burst past the leaders, only to be pulled back when a spin at the rear of the pack saw the #54 of Steve Pierce end up sideways on the start/finish straight. The race up at the front was now between Brannon, Hill and Hindman, although #13 Candolino was doing all he could to defend his team-mates by nudging Hindman mid-turn to let him know he was there. Hindman repaid the favor on the very next lap into turn 3, hitting Candolino hard and moving past back into 3rd spot.
A flat tire would end Hindman’s one-man crusade to prevent the SADE cars from taking all top 5 places in the race, although he stayed out on track to complete the race. The last lap flag somehow managed to signal an increase to the mayhem, as the checkered flag appeared to end the race for Hindman and his flat tire, Pierce with his side bodywork ripped off the car, and #60 Ernie Tuminello crossing the line on 3 wheels, having shed a front tire coming out of turn 4. Hill had won the race ahead of Brannon, and just for good measure the #9 of Curt Steere gave Hindman one last hard hit to the side as the cars supposedly set off on their warm-down lap, Steere pulling off into the pits before Hindman could find him to show his appreciation for this gesture.