by Andy Sandall, FASCAR Media
(03/13/10 – New Smyrna Speedway) The 2010 season finally kicked off at New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday night with a full schedule of races that included the opening race of the Bright House Challenge Series for Super Late Models, and the first chance for the local drivers in the weekly divisions to begin their nine-month campaigns for glory. For some this was a chance to renew rivalries and friendships from the previous year, while for many of the Super Late Model drivers this was a chance to put the controversy of February’s World Series behind them and start afresh with new rules and procedures in place.
Before the big feature race of the night could take to the track a couple of regular divisions made an appearance, led off by the mini-stocks who lined up for their race with #81 Cody Blair on pole, alongside #32 Jesse Powers. With the first green flag of the new season being waved by Ralph Miller on the flag-stand the anticipation was high, but no one was prepared for what instantly played out on track. Coming out of turn 4 to lead the field – and the 2010 season – away, Blair looked to start just as he finished last year by dominating the mini-stock division, but as he pinned his throttle to the floor he found no power coming through to the wheels, and as he cruised over the start line the rest of the field had already streamed round him to send him all the way to the back. His fellow front-row sitter Powers was also struggling for early pace as he was helpless to prevent #19 Rick Maguire and #11D Ron Dubeau from passing him to take the lead positions.
Blair was somewhat up to speed as he came up onto the back straight but was obviously suffering from a major mechanical catastrophe and was quickly onto pit-lane and heading back to his trailer, the defense of his 2009 mini-stock championship being postponed for a week at least. Back out on the track Maguire and Dubeau were now joined by #23 Wayne Wells as a lead group out at the front, with Powers, #09 Todd Haught and #24 Andy Giammalvo already falling back but enjoying a tussle between themselves for 4th place.
By the 7th lap the lead had changed, as Dubeau followed Maguire close before seeing his opportunity to slip down the inside line going into turn 3, leaving Maguire to defend his position from Wells who was now rapidly closing. Now with the empty track ahead of him Dubeau began to pull away and build a lead, while Wells was pushing his car to its limits as he looked to find a way around Maguire. As the flag-stand signaled 5 laps to go the two rivals were door to door, narrowly avoiding disaster as they came round to lap Giammalvo by splitting either side of him down the back straight, while Dubeau was clear away at the front.
Coming around for the last lap Wells was able to get ahead and slightly pull away in 2nd, while Maguire was now seeing Haught close behind him and applying enough pressure to force a mistake as the #19 brushed the back wall coming out of turn 2. In the end there was no more passing in the race, and Dubeau took the first checkered flag of the season with Wells behind in 2nd place ahead of Maguire and Haught. But this was the 2010 season, and the first regular night of racing after the 44th World Series, and so what had been common procedures during that event suddenly became a new reality for the local racers too. Before moving to victory lane Dubeau had to pull up to a halt on the front stretch and have his tires checked for hardness before moving on. And in a scene directly out of the World Series the fans again saw the car that finished first disqualified in the post-race technical inspection, meaning that after the following race had finished the mini-stock of Wayne Wells made its way around the track so he could take his deserved place in victory lane for the photographs and interview befitting his status as the declared winner of the race.
Next out came a small field of Sportsman, who put on a show at the front that any race would be proud of. Again the front-runners of the previous season were back out on track in the shape of #111 Donnie Williams and #23 Mike Pletka, and it was these two drivers who led the race off for their 25 lap feature. Williams was quickly out into the lead as Pletka set off in pursuit and the remaining 3 runners dropped back to become the supporting cast of the story going on ahead of them.
Williams would shoot away and position himself right in the center of the track, challenging Pletka to find a way around him. Pletka responded by swarming all over the back of Williams’ car, looking down the inside and around the outside with each entry into a turn, but on each occasion seeing his line blocked. By the 15th lap their early politeness was eroding and Pletka was letting Williams know he was there with a gentle nudge to his rear bumper. This still did nothing to force Williams off his line, and Pletka again was left looking high and low on the track for the speed he needed.
Hitting the backmarkers gave Pletka a chance to pull level as the race wound down to its final laps, but still the best he could manage was to get alongside Williams and thrust his nose just ahead on the outside line, only to drop back as they entered the turns. With the white flag being shown Pletka finally managed to get his nose in front down the back straight, only for Williams to pull back level as they exited turn 4. Coming down the front straight Pletka nudged his nose into the rear quarter of Williams, forcing both cars to brake hard to regain control. Williams was quickest to respond as Pletka lost momentum in the contact, and although both raced hard to the finish Pletka’s chance had gone and Williams won by two car lengths, with the cars of #1 Rusty Ebersole, #95 Glenn Garceau and #45A Adam Soukup well back and off the leader’s pace.
The headliners of the night came out onto the track next as the Bright House Challenge Series for Super Late Models set up for their 50-lap feature race. The initial entry list of 16 was already down a car by the time they qualified as afternoon practice claimed the #68 of Russ Shaw, hitting the wall hard after suffering a structural failure to a wheel and damaging his car past the point of a trackside repair. Qualifying has seen few surprises as track favorite #11 David Rogers set the fastest time, but the pre-race pill draw saw Rogers sent back to the 5thth fastest time that would ordinarily have seen him take pole position had he managed to pass the post-qualifying trip through the tech shed. Instead he was starting from last place on the grid. starting place, promoting #21 James Carter Jr onto the pole alongside #96 Ben Kennedy, making the move up to regular season Super Late Model racing after his successful Pro-Truck campaign in 2009. Handily placed on the second row were #9 Rich Clouser and #78 BJ McLeod, both capable of taking a win in the race. Biggest loser in qualifying was the #34 of Shaughn McCormick who had qualified with the 5
With a false start meaning the cars took two attempts to get the race underway, the green flag would see Carter drop back allowing Kennedy to take the early lead with McLeod breathing down his neck as Clouser found himself blocked behind the pole-sitter on the bottom groove and looking for a way around in his obviously quick car. The cars were still bunched together, but a spin for #5 Shane Snipes quickly saw the pace truck back out on track, and so under the new rules for the 2010 season Kennedy became the first driver to be allowed to pick his favored high or low groove for the restart. His choice proved to be a bad one as straight away McLeod was underneath him and into the lead as the cars again got up to full speed, leaving Kennedy in second ahead of a rapidly advancing #32 Michael Williams, with Clouser close behind in 4th.
Clouser would quickly be around Williams as the leading three cars slowly pulled away at the front, leaving Rogers, #07 Steven Simpson and McCormick, who had already made great strides through the field, to enjoy a close fight for 4th places just a few car lengths back. The action was soon halted as Snipes again had problems taking the turns, this time going hard into the turn 4 wall to see his night ending with substantial damage to the front of his car. This caution also saw Williams head to the pits with an overheating engine, reducing the field of cars even further.
For the restart McLeod chose the outside line, and quickly the order up at the front was rearranged as Rogers showed all his experience to leap into 2nd around Kennedy, the shell-shocked youngster also surrendering a position to Clouser to drop quickly back to 5th place behind McCormick. Now with Rogers and McLeod fighting at the front for the lead the race ticked over to 10 laps before McCormick’s spin in turn 2 brought out the yellow flags yet again.
With the pace truck out on the track, McLeod suddenly ducked down onto the pit road to meet his crew, who appeared to be frantically working on his front suspension. With McCormick’s spinning car soon back on track, time for repairs was limited and McLeod rushed back out onto the track at the rear of the field as the leaders came around to take the restart. But all was not well with the #78 and after just a couple of laps that saw the car visibly unsettled coming out of the turns, McLeod had to admit defeat and pull back into the pits to see out the final laps as a spectator.
McCormick’s night would also soon go from bad to worse as on the 13th lap he lost control coming out of turn 4, spinning as he hit the front straight and into the grass by the start/finish line. Thankfully again he was able to continue after getting himself free of the muddy infield and back onto the track. Less lucky was Carter who, just two laps later, suffered a worse fate as he too span out on the front straight. This time he was unable to catch his car before hitting the victory lane wall, demolishing the ‘Volusia Pennysaver’ sign that is rapidly becoming a favorite target of spinning cars, having been destroyed twice during the World Series and again on this opening night of the regular season. Sliding along the grass Carter would throw a plume of water onto the track as he plowed through the saturated infield, before taking a trip back to the pits on the chains of a tow truck.
Once the track had been cleaned up the racing could begin again, and this time the drivers were able to put laps into the books without the need for the pace truck’s services. At the front Rogers and Clouser were both looking the class of the field, and they were soon into a two-car battle that was quickly turning into a classic. Kennedy in 3rd place had the best seat in the house to watch the race in front of him as Rogers clamped himself onto the fastest line for his car, challenging Clouser to find a way around him. At first Clouser looked down the inside, but Rogers had this covered and with every look Clouser found the door quickly shut on him. By the time the race reached half-distance Clouser had to admit failure in his attempts to use the inside line, and he would now see if the upper groove had any more speed in it for him.
Now with backmarkers and lapped traffic in their way, the race between Rogers and Clouser had the added intrigue of their attempts to move around the slower cars. Rogers knew he had the advantage of his position and his car’s speed on the higher groove, and so the experienced campaigner expertly used the lapped cars to protect his inside line as he kept his momentum up around the high-banked turns. For his part Clouser was driving the wheels off his car to maximize his speed on the line left available to him, but every time he found some extra pace he had to jump on his brakes as he found a lapped car right in front of him and Rogers car to his outside protecting the high line.
With 5 laps to go Clouser knew he had to do something, and so he mustered up all the speed he could find to make one last push at Rogers, giving the #11 car a hearty shove in the rear quarter panel. Rogers showed composure to wrestle his car back under control without missing a heartbeat, and kept himself firmly on the fastest line, this time forcing Clouser into a drastic move high up the track to avoid a slower car underneath him. Now with just 2 laps left Rogers and Clouser were door to door, and as they took the white flag to signal the last lap of the race they were level and side-by-side as they crossed the start line for one last trip around the track.
Rogers held firm on his line, as if to demand Clouser find a way around using the rest of the track available to him. Clouser for his part decided to take one last trip on the lower groove and was keeping up with the leader all the way down the back straight to set up a dash for the line to end the race. But the race had one last twist as the two leaders flew into turn 3 only to find McCormick running mid-track in their way. Rogers quickly reacted to drop low, only to find Clouser unwilling to concede the groove he had been forced into for most of the race. Somehow Rogers managed to squeeze his car through the gap and keep the advantage as they pushed out of turn 4, taking the win narrowly as the two crossed the line. A classic race between two of the best drivers to take to the New Smyrna Speedway had produced an incredible finish, and one that Kennedy in 3rd had been lucky to witness up close as he notched up an impressive finish in his first regular season Super Late Model appearance.
Kennedy’s old division was next up on the schedule as the Pro-Trucks made their first appearance of the season for a 25-lap feature. Right from the start it was #20 Anthony Sergi and #21 Scott Reeves making the running at the front, but quickly moving up from the back came #15 Cody Blair, making up for his disappointment in the opening race of the night. It took Blair just 7 laps to make his way from the back of the starting line-up to the front and soon he was pulling away leaving Sergi and Reeves to contest 2nd place amongst themselves and well ahead of the field. With no cautions called the race soon reached the checkered flag as Blair claimed his first victory of the season with a convincing margin of victory over Reeves and Sergi, themselves nearly half a lap ahead of #63 Zach Curtis in 4th.
The Super Stocks put 9 cars onto the track for the penultimate race of the night, and again the front-runners from the previous season were quickly re-engaged in battle at the front of the race. With former track champion #56 Bobby Holley on the pole there was a battle ahead for anyone with aspirations of a win, although 2009 champion #01 Scott Smith was more than willing to take on that challenge and had soon made his way through the field from the back up to 3rd place. With Holley, Smith and #3 Jeff Colburn engaged in a fight for the lead at the front the real action was taking place right at the back as #388 Walt Kahrs battled his car in every turn, forcing a caution as he turned straight down into the helpless #86 Rich Goodrich in turn 3. Goodrich, making his first trip out in a new car after ending the 2009 season with a massive crash that destroyed his old ride in the final race of the season, had nowhere to go as he tried what should have been a simple pass on the low groove of the track, but thankfully he was able to rejoin the race and gain valuable track time without further incident.
From the restart Holley, Colburn and Smith were quick to pull away at the front, leaving #15x Joe Gerard, #15 Michael Wofford and #60 Ernie Tumeinello to race for 4th place and provide the entertainment for the crowd. This battle raged for a further 10 laps with each car taking their turn to lead the chasing pack before Tumeinello lost control in turn 4, clipping Gerard as they entered the front straight and sending the #15x backwards into the pit-lane wall. Gerard’s night would be over, and Tumeinello would be sent to the back for the restart. Once back underway Tumeinello quickly made his way back through the field to fight with #2x Michael Amato for 4th place as again Holley, Smith and Colburn raced at the front for the lead.
With less than half of the race left Holley was quick to stamp his authority on the race as he pulled away a lead over Smith, who was now trying to cement his 2nd place by beating back Colburn’s advances. After several laps of racing door-to-door Smith was finally able to pull away himself and make something of a dent on Holley’s lead, but with the checkered flag thrown Holley was able to start his 2010 campaign off with a win ahead of Smith and Colburn, with Tumeinello taking 4th place from Amato.
Finally the Strictly Stocks came out onto the track to end the night with their usual display of thrills and spills, although this time the small field appeared to be joined by a seemingly totally out of place #B1 Ford Mustang being driven by someone with a suspiciously made-up sounding name. Starting well at the back of a field of cars with significantly larger engines the #B1 somehow started to track down the bigger, faster cars who were now led by #13 Tony Candalino. Within 5 laps the driver wanting to be announced to the crowd as ‘Bob Sponge’ in the B1 had worked his way up to 3rd place thanks to a spin for #77 Bill Carringer and an outside pass on #21M Maureen Dahm.
Reports of debris on the track bunched the cars back together for a restart that saw Candalino again away at the front, this time taking #35 Gino Tumeinello with him for company, while the #B1 dropped all the way to the back but was again screaming after its outsized colleagues. A move up to 4th place followed, pushing Dahm back to 5th and Carringer was now under threat from the little Mustang. With Candalino beginning to slow at the front and reports of smoke coming from his car filtering through from the track, things were looking interesting as the race reached half distance. Suddenly the B1 pulled off the track and headed back to the pits. Conspiracy theorists in the crowd pondered whether this was just a ploy to protect the mystery driver’s identity, while others suggested the car’s number held some cryptic clue to the driver’s alter ego.
But the race was continuing without him/her, and although Candolino was now racing with reduced power he still had the speed to stay ahead of Tumeinello to take the first win of the season by 3 car lengths, with Carringer and Dahm taking the remaining places but both half a lap down.
Bright House SLM – Features
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 5 11 David Rogers Orlando , Fl 100.00
2 3 9 Rich Clouser Palm Bay, Fl 98.00
3 2 96 Ben Kennedy – 96.00
4 8 07 Steven Simpson New Smyrna, Fl 94.00
5 15 29 Mallory Harvey Baxley , Ga 92.00
6 9 12 David Green Ft Pierce, Fl 90.00
7 12 14 Martin Maresca Ft Lauderdale, Fl 88.00
8 11 7 Vince Keeler Sebastian , Fl 86.00
9 16 34 Shaughn Mccormick Oviedo , Fl 84.00
10 7 1 Matthew Stichmann Edgewater , Fl 82.00
11 1 21 James Carter Jr Bradenton , Fl 80.00
12 4 78 Bj Mcleod Wauchula , Fl 78.00
13 6 32 Michael Williams Mims , Fl 76.00
14 10 5 Shane Snipes Port Orange, Fl 74.00
15 13 13 Bob Greene Port St., Fl 72.00
16 14 68 Russell Shaw Lakeland , Fl 25.00
Trucks – Features
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 6 15 Cody Blair Winterpark , Fl 100.00
2 5 21 Daniel Scott Reeves Royal Palm, Fl 98.00
3 3 20 Anthony Sergi Geneva , Fl 96.00
4 4 63 Zachary Curtis Palm Bay, Fl 94.00
5 7 8 Bobby Kennedy Port Orange, Fl 92.00
6 1 99 Brent Tyler Chuluota , Fl 90.00
7 2 24 Bruce Bennett Orlando , Fl 88.00
Sportsman – Features
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 3 111 Donald Williams Tangerine , Fl 100.00
2 1 23 Mike Pletka Orlando , Fl 98.00
3 5 1 Rusty Ebersole Apopka , Fl 96.00
4 6 95 Glenn Garceau Palm Bay, Fl 94.00
5 4 45A Adam Soukup Farmington , Nm 92.00
6 2 38 Robert Glover Ft. Pierce, Fl 25.00
Mini Stock – Features
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 6 23 Wayne Wells Paisley , Fl 100.00
2 5 19 Rick Maguire Williston , Fl 98.00
3 7 09 Todd Haught Eustis , Fl 96.00
4 4 24 Andy Giammalvo Oviedo , Fl 94.00
5 2 32 Jesse Powers Edgewater , Fl 92.00
6 1 81 Cody Blair Winterpark , Fl 90.00
7 8 11D Ronald Dubeau Royal Palm, Fl 0.00
8 3 90 Cody Johnson Ocala , Fl 25.00
Super Stock – Features
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 2 56 Bobby Holley Deltona , Fl 100.00
2 6 01 Scott Smith Orange City, Fl 98.00
3 3 3 Jeff Colburn Port Orange, Fl 96.00
4 8 60 Ernie Tumeinello Deland , Fl 94.00
5 10 2X Michael Amato Edgewater , Fl 92.00
6 4 15 Michael Wofford Edgewater , Fl 90.00
7 9 86 Richard Goodrich New Smyrna, Fl 88.00
8 7 388 Walt Kahrs Sanford , Fl 86.00
9 5 15X Joseph Gerard, Iii Eustis , Fl 84.00
10 1 16 David Russell Enterprise , Fl 25.00
Strictly Stock – Features
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points
1 3 13 Tony Candalino Deland , Fl 100.00
2 2 35 Gino Tumminello Deland , Fl 98.00
3 1 77 Bill Carringer Winter Park, Fl 96.00
4 5 21M Maureen Dahm Deltona , Fl 94.00
5 4 B1 Rex Hollinger Titusville , Fl 92.00