We hope you enjoyed your Independence Day Holiday, and this week certainly is another big one in our area. Red, White, and Blues Week is here and what a way to follow up the 4th of July. For those of you who may not know, Red , White and Blues Week is a Military based celebration highlighted by the World Famous Blue Angels Pensacola Beach Air Show. And it also rates as one of the biggest nights of the year at 5 Flags Speedway, as many of the thousands of extra people in town will make their way to the Speedway on Friday Night as a prelude to the Saturday beach activities. And 5 Flags has a great night planned for all you race Fans.
With the cancellation of the TBARA Winged Sprint Cars due to low participation, 5 Flags was able to nab the Southern Motorcycle Asphalt Racing Series as a more than suitable replacement. A strong turnout of both Novice and Pro riders are expected, and it will be interesting to see if anyone can “bring it” to Pensacola’s Rob McClendon, who has been on a real hot streak as of late.
The Open Wheel Modified race for Friday has been “amped up”, with a larger than normal purse up for grabs in the 50 Lap Main event. The points chase is very tight in the Modified division as just 13 points separate leader Donnie Hammrac and 4th place Chris Cotto. Scooter Grice (2nd) and Korey Ruble (3rd) sit just 4 and 11 points back, respectively. And 5th place Brandon Howell is coming off 2 consecutive wins at South Alabama Speedway in Opp, Alabama. This event promises to be interesting.
Speaking of interesting, Brannon Fowler and Steve Buttrick have been having a real battle royal in the West Florida Coatings Sportsman Division, and don’t look now but Randy Thompson has been getting closer every week to top form. These guys always have us on the edge of our seats.
After a 4 race Gary Goodwin win streak was broken by Curtis Faircloth on June 22nd in the Butler U Pull-It Bomber Division, it looked as though Curtis was set to become the next “dominator”. That thought was short lived however, as Brandon Burks came back on June 29th to score his 2nd win of the season. And congratulations to Leonard Craig Jr.. who has quietly worked his way to 2nd in the Championship chase, just 35 points behind Goodwin.
What a great week to be here in Pensacola. We hope you can catch all the action, both in the air and on the track. And if you want even more racing action, our friends at Mobile International Speedway will be running the 2nd half of a doubleheader program on Saturday Night.
The Jets will be flyin’ high, the cars and bikes will be fyin’ low….hope to see ya at the races!!