Austin, TX 10/22/12– It’s been a few years since the people of the South Texas asphalt racing community had anything to cheer about, and the same can be said for Casey Smith, a driver apart of that community that has been winless over the last few seasons after several championship years in 2007 and again in 2008 racing outside his home state of Texas. Saturday night at the San Antonio Speedway, a track that has been closed down since 2007, roared back to life with an estimated 4,000 people in the grandstands and a familiar face in victory lane as Austin, Texas native Casey Smith lead flag to flag in his pro late model debut winning the 100 lap Octoberfast Pro Late Model 100 at the half-mile facility located just outside San Antonio, Texas.
Smith may have lead flag to flag for the win but it wasn’t as easy as it may seem as he was the benefactor of the top five cars being inverted after qualifying to set starting positions. Casey posted the fourth quickest time in Friday night’s qualifying session putting him on the outside of the front row to take the green next to Joe Aramendia. Casey got the jump and opened up a lead over familiar foe Brandon Bendele. Smith and Bendele played a cat and mouse game over the mid portion of the event until a late race yellow brought the field back together to decide the race winner. Casey quickly showed his hand and hammered down to the lead and never looked back picking up the much needed win for him and his Casey Smith Racing team.
“Standing right here in victory lane and looking out at the packed grandstands is the most amazing feeling,” replied Smith. “We came out here two weeks ago and did some testing and our car worked real well through the turns here. I really didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never raced with one of these pro late model motors before, but we worked on and it all came around for us tonight. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to not only race in front of a hometown crowd, but to win in front of one after all the traveling we’ve done over the last few years just to keep racing these type of cars. Chris Saathoff did an amazing job with the Chrudimsky’s out here to bring this place back to life and I hope this is an indication to show that asphalt racing is back alive in south Texas!”
Once tracks closed and racing series dried up in the area Casey and his Austin, Texas based race team would make the long haul to Florida and Alabama to compete in super late model events behind the wheel of his now familiar #99 SealMaster of Austin Chevy Impala. Once Smith heard that there was an effort to open what he calls “the greatest half-mile in the country” he knew he had to his part of not only spreading the word about the event but also competing behind the wheel.
“I wanted to race this race so bad that we went out there and got a pro late model motor from the folks at McGunegill Engines and changed everything else over rules wise for this one race to show our support,” mentioned Smith.”I hope this race is the start of racing making its comeback to the area because based on tonight’s crowd I’d say people want it back and that’s a good feeling. I can tell you if they have something going on here we’ll be here that’s for sure!”
For more information on Texas super late model driver Casey Smith and his Casey Smith Racing team visit his website at http://www.caseysmithracing.com.