By Andy Sandall – FASCAR MEDIA
Day 2 – Saturday, 6th February 2010
The 44TH World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing kicked off in style at New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday night, just one day late after heavy rains across central Florida forced the postponement of Friday night’s racing. Cars from all over the United States and Canada made their annual pilgrimage to the high-banked half-mile to take on Florida’s finest racers in six divisions showcasing the cream of the Super Late Model, Late Model and Modified racing worlds.
The packed stands were matched by jam-packed pits both in the infield and all around the track as haulers and trailers squeezed into every available space to camp down for the most anticipated week of the season. Two days of testing, tweaking and tuning finally ended and nearly 120 cars finally got out onto the track in anger for afternoon qualifying and a cold Florida evening of racing. But with much of the country covered in a blanket of snow, the fans that crowded into the stands and huddled together for warmth knew how lucky they were to be out watching racing while the rest of the country froze.
But before the racing could get underway there was an emotional moment for all present as Robert and Jane Hart, along with the other FASCAR officials led a ceremony that dedicated the whole of the 44th World Series to the late Peggy Kincaid, the much missed scorer at New Smyrna Speedway for 45 years who sadly passed away in 2009 and was known to everyone simply as ‘Miss Peggy’.
First up onto the track came the fastest cars on show, the Tour-Type Modifieds. Early evening qualifying had seen #58 Eric Goodale post the fastest time of the day with a quick time of 17.105s, ahead of #59 Matt Hirshman and #19 Rowen Pennick. An invert for the top 6 qualifiers would mean that the field was lead off by #14 John Jensen, #00 Ted Christopher and #22 Chuck Hossfield, but not before a stoppage caused by the #71 of John Zacharia spinning on cold tires out of turn 4 during the hot laps designed to get the cars and their rubber up to optimum racing temperature. Zacharia would become the first retirement of the World Series as he left the track with zero laps on the board strung between two wreckers.
Christopher would be in the lead by the time the cars hit turn 1 although Jensen was not giving up his place without a fight. Behind him there was plenty of contact to shower sparks into the dark night sky as the midfield settled down into line knowing that this race was merely the first battle in a weeklong war, and that bigger races were still to come.
By the 10th lap Christopher had cemented his lead at the front, leaving Jensen the job of fending off the rapidly charging Pennick, while behind him Hirshman was also locked into a battle with Goodale and Silk at the back of the lead group. The crossed flags were soon out but even the sometimes tricky job of navigating through lapped traffic did little to slow Christopher, who continued to pull away from the field and carry on his dominance of this division at New Smyrna.
The checkered flag confirmed Christopher’s first win of the 44th World Series by a couple of car lengths from Jensen, with both cars well ahead of the 3rd place Pennick as the first of what would be many photo sessions and interviews for the drivers on victory lane.
Crate Late Models were next onto the track, with afternoon fast qualifiers #28 Sean Bass relegated back to the 5th row of the 27 car field. The pole position would be handed to #9 Kurt Jett alongside #98 David Wagner with #39 Justin Delaney and #4 Thor Anderson on the second row looking to take advantage of the inversion. Teenage sensation #51 Stephen Nasse impressed in afternoon qualifying to post the third fastest time, putting him back onto the 4th row with #93 Brandon Johnson at the green flag.
Nasse made the early moves to get up to 5th place, seeing #91 Patrick Laperle also showing real pace as he looked down the inside of turn 3 on the 5th lap to power his way into 3rd place and quickly make his presence felt behind Jett in 2nd. The first back-marker to be encountered saw the top 3 head into turn 1 three-wide, and also gave Nasse the break he needed to join the lead pack, and as the race ticked over to half-distance Nasse made a blast around the outside of the back straight to threaten 2nd place.
Bass would join the group up at the front as the top 5 cars put on an incredible display, lapping the high-banks three-wide and bringing the crowd to their feet on the 15th lap as all five cars ran within inches of each other around the track. Something had to give and the constant contact between the leaders saw Laperle being the first to break as he dropped back after a hard bump to his rear. Nasse would use this opportunity to make the lead his own, but with Bass breathing VERY hard down his neck.
The fight between Bass and Nasse would dominate the closing laps of the race, albeit with any of the 3 following cars close enough to snatch the lead should the two at the front make a mistake. Bass would make the inside line his home for the closing laps, with each turn giving him the opportunity to push his nose down the side of Nasse’s car, but on each occasion Nasse was able to produce enough speed to pull back ahead down the straight.
The white flag waved with Nasse still holding a slim lead, but with Bass trying everything he could to pressure the youngster into a mistake. Again Bass nudged the #51’s rear quarter into every turn, but the 14yr old Nasse showed maturity beyond his years to hold firm, defend his position and take the checkered flag, shooting past a grandstand filled with spectators on their feet in appreciation at the race they had just witnessed. Nasse led the way ahead of Bass and Jett, and touchingly dedicated his win to the late Eddie Brann, the builder of his car who passed away in 2009, in his victory lane interview.
There was barely time for the crowd to catch their breath before the SK Modifieds were out in the pit lane ready for their first appearance of the week. The #03 of Patrick Emerling would lead the cars out onto the track alongside #55 Nichole Morgillio, and ahead of #59 Dave Crammer, #5 Ronnie Silk and the fast qualifier #88 Keith Rocco. The other story of the line-up was right at the back of the field in the shape of the #33 of Gary Fountain – a car he had purchased in the parking lot during the practice sessions held earlier in the week.
The fast qualifiers were quickly up to the head of the field as Rocco and Silk moved up to 1st and 2nd places by the third lap, both darting up the inside of Morgillio out of turn 2. The two quick qualifiers shot away to get into a race of their own, but this quickly came to an end when the #44 of Jeffrey Gallup span out at the rear of the field coming out of turn 2 on the 7th lap. Seemingly not picked up by spotters or track staff Gallup sat like a sitting duck in the middle of the track and was just starting to limp back to life to get off the racing surface as the leaders turned the corner and headed out.
Both Rocco and Silk had nowhere to go, with Rocco slamming into Gallup at full speed, Silk somehow missing the worst of the crash and making much less serious contact. Such a large pile-up saw other casualties as racers took evasive action as best they could, but the red flags were soon on show to bring the 7 cars not involved in the wreck to a halt on the front stretch. They were soon joined by Morgillio who had luckily avoided serious damage in the incident and was able to continue after changing a flat tire.
The lengthy stoppage eventually saw the damaged cars off the track, leaving #71 Jimmy Zacharias on pole alongside #59 Cramner, and it was Cramner who got the drop from the green flag to take the lead and shoot off into the distance. Silk was left with the job of fighting from the back to get his position up at the front again, and the #5 was quickly slipping through the field to be back up into 3rd place with 14 laps gone. Silk was in an obviously quick car, but was again involved in controversy when his hard move on Zacharias pushed the 2nd place car high up the track in turn 2 and into the wall. The #71 would need a trip on the now overworked wrecker back to the pits, and Silk would again be restarting from the rear of the field, this time having been sent there by the race director for rough driving.
Cramner roared away at the resulting green flag but again Silk carved through the pack and with 2 laps to go was already back up to 3rd place. By the exit of turn 2 the #5 had shot past #53 Sazarulo to take 2nd and was looking increasingly likely to snatch an unlikely victory. He seemed to have timed his charge perfectly, coming into turn 3 of the last lap on a wide line before crossing over and shooting down the inside as they headed out of turn 4 to race for the line, but Cramner knew he was coming and slammed the door on his rival to take the checkered flag by a car length for just his second career win, making his long trip down to Samsula from Hanover, NJ a very worthwhile one!
Some familiar faces made their way onto the track next for the first appearance of the week by the Super Late Models, this division pitting the cream of Florida drivers against their rivals from all across North America. The locals had made their presence felt in qualifying as #36 David Russell, #33 Jeff Choquette and #11 David Rogers posted the three fastest times. Even the invert left Florida drivers up at the front, albeit with #23 Lonnie Summerville of New Brunswick on pole position ahead of #78 BJ McLeod, #2 AJ Curreli and #21 Kevin Ingram, all well known names in Florida racing.
The field of 27 cars soon took the green flag and McLeod was quickly up into the lead with Choquette following him and relegating Summerville back down to a distant 3rd place. The two local New Smyrna regulars looked set for a classic battle but their fun was quickly curtailed by 3rd lap contact between #24X Zach Germain and #5 Shane Snipes that put both cars up into the turn 1 wall. Snipes was able to leave the track under his own steam, but Germain was less lucky and became the latest car to take a trip back to the pits on the wrecker’s chains.
Taking advantage of the restart was Choquette who was quickly into the lead and pulling away from the field, but behind him were the ominous figures of Russell and Rogers, both moving rapidly up the field and looking to have their cars well tuned for the track. Again the race was quickly back under caution, this time for contact on the back straight between #63 Austin Pickens and a couple of the much slower back-markers who were circulating well off the pace at the rear of the field. Pickens would skim the outside wall, doing enough damage to his car to justify a visit and tow from the wrecker with just 7 laps down.
The restart saw Russell and Rogers pushing their way around the outside of McLeod and setting off in pursuit of Choquette as the field finally began to settle down and separate. Reaching half-distance without further incident the leaders now set about dealing with lapped traffic, knowing that open spaces on the track were now at a premium, and the blue and yellow flag would be on permanent show from the flagstand as the slower and faster cars were mixed up all throughout the field.
With 10 laps to go Russell was now out on his own in 2nd and finally making some headway in his pursuit of Choquette, leaving Rogers out on his own in 3rd totally unpressured by McLeod in 4th several lengths back. Most of the field were now settling for track time and using the race as preparation for the more important races coming later in the week, concentrating on getting a feel for the track and avoiding the trouble posed by the slower cars cruising around on the inside line. This was successful for the most part, until the white flag was shown and Ingram failed to avoid the traffic, spinning up to the wall in turn 4 after contact with another car and bringing out the caution flags.
This put Choquette and Russell back together for a green-white-checkered shootout for the win, now with Rogers and McLeod back in striking distance right behind them. As the green flag was shown both Russell and Choquette accelerated hard off turn 4, the #33 visibly squirming under the power being pushed to its rear wheels. Although spectacular for the fans this was robbing Choquette of traction and ultimately speed, giving Russell enough of an advantage to get his nose out in front and take the lead. With one trip around the track complete Rogers was now close behind in third and became just enough of a distraction to Choquette to see him drop slightly back in defense of his position, leaving Russell to win, the 2009 Triple Crown Champion taking the checkered flag with his arm aloft through his window net.
More familiar faces came out on track in the next division, this one seeing the Florida/IMCA Modifieds out for their feature. An interesting twist to this race saw the afternoon’s three fastest qualifiers all failing to pass the tech inspection successfully, and so #22 Jason Boyd, #15 Tank Tucker and #23 Mark Chrudimsky would all start the race at the rear. This stroke of luck for the field would see #57 Timothy Moore fortuitously up on pole alongside #13 Kevyn Terry.
Terry quickly took the lead on the green flag as the faster cars at the back soon shot off through the field, but with just two laps completed Boyd’s evening was done as contact between his car and #09 Charlie Barrett saw both cars spinning down the front straight and skimming the outer pit-lane wall. Barrett was able to avoid damage and was quickly back facing the right way and circulating the track ready for the restart.
A bad attempt at a restart meant the cars would take a second go at getting back to green flag conditions, but this time it took just half a lap before Terry felt a hit from #78 Travis Eddy while exiting turn 2, spinning the lead car out and sending both cars to the rear for the subsequent restart. Now Terry was at the back there was space for Moore to take the lead and make it his own, but the New Smyrna regulars were now watching the familiar #4B of Alan Bruns making his way up through the field and around into 4th and then quickly 3rd place.
Between Bruns and the lead was #66 Jerry Symons who was pushing Moore hard, nudging and pushing to create a way past, but with Bruns large in his mirrors and using every bit of his extensive track knowledge to find a gap to exploit. A brief caution period bunched the cars back together and allowed Symons and Moore to swap places at the restart, but this was quickly brought to a halt by big contact between #29 Joe Yarborough and the #09 of Barrett down the back straightaway, Yarborough getting airborne as he hurtled into turn 3 to quickly bring out the track crew to check on the drivers.
The red flag period obviously did little to calm the drivers down as the restart saw Symons, Moore and #99 AJ Winstead barging their way through turn 2, hitting each other hard to cause sparks and spins up high in the corner, and yet another period under the yellow caution flags. This would have the effect of putting the erstwhile leaders all the way to the rear, leaving Bruns up at the front alongside #71 William Skaggs. Yet again the red mist accompanied the green flag and without even reaching the start line Skaggs had moved across Bruns, spinning the popular local driver out and onto the grass on the front straight. With three bad restarts all leading to wrecks now in quick succession, enough was enough for the race director and single file restarts became the order from the tower for the rest of the race.
This had the desired effect as the race finally managed to put another complete lap into the books, ironically now seeing Chrudimsky and Tucker right up to the front after starting at the rear of the field. Finally the race settled down with lap after incident free lap getting the scoreboard ticking over, all the time with Tucker looking for a way around Chrudminsky, probably not wanting to risk a move down the inside that would involve braving the flailing bodywork flapping off the left-side of the #39’s body.
Despite heavy pressure, the Texas-based Chrudminsky was able to hold off Tucker’s advances, both coming home ahead of #41Doc McKinney in 3rd place after a lengthy race not helped by the constant wrecking on the restarts that blighted the middle of the action. As is often the case the race is not necessarily won or lost out on the track, and the customary trip to the tech inspection would have the final word on this result, with Chrudminsky failing to pass the inspection thereby handing the victory to Tucker.
Last but not least the Limited Late Models finally got their chance to take to the track as the clock ticked over to 11.30pm. The hardy fans who stayed late for their racing fix saw plenty more New Smyrna regulars out on the track, the familiar #9 of Zack Donatti leading off from pole ahead of #119 JR McMickle, #55 Todd Allen, #26 Jessica Murphy and #96 Ben Kennedy, the young racer making a rare appearance in a Late Model rather than his usual Pro-Truck.
McMickle made the break for the lead from the green flag but was quickly pulled back after a spin in the first corner for #20 Anthony Sergi, giving a reprieve for Donatti as a full restart in the original order was called from the tower. This proved to be no problem for McMickle and he repeated his feat a second time to be well away in the lead by the 3rd lap, bringing Murphy through into 2nd ahead of a chasing pack led by Donatti.
Murphy was quickly within striking distance, just a car length back and with Donatti also gaining behind them to become a factor in the fight for first place. The half-distance flags saw this 5 car battle staying in order and seemingly settling down for the rest of the race, but the idea that the race would finish incident free literally went up in smoke as Tom Malloy saw the engine of his #119X give up in a big way down the back straight, billowing smoke as he desperately tried to pull off the racing line and prevent a lengthy clean-up. This proved to be in vain as the track still required substantial attention before racing could continue.
Even with the long caution period waved away the race still took several attempts at a restart, firstly for a bad break from the corner by McMickle and then for a spin by #47 Davey Gibbs down the back straight, this second incident denying Murphy the lead after she had made a break to the front from the green flag. She was able to repeat this feat on the third restart, pulling ahead of McMickle down the front straight. Another 4 laps were in the books before the track crew leapt into action again, this time for contact between Donatti, Kennedy and #4B Alan Bruns, doing his usual double duty for the night and racing in back-to-back races. Donatti and Bruns suffered race-ending damage on this incident in turn 4, but Kennedy was able to return to the race after a quick trip down pit-lane.
Yet another aborted restart, this time for #63 Austin Pickens spinning out on the start line, saw the single file restart order again coming from the tower in a bid to get the night’s racing completed before the day 3 program was scheduled to start, and this did the trick as the race finally got underway again despite McMickle’s hard nudging of Murphy to try and unsettle her as she took the green flag out of turn 4.
The white flag eventually came out and Murphy took what she thought where her final turns around the track, but again the race had a twist in its tail as way down the field a hard race between Kennedy and Gibbs boiled over seeing Gibbs turned in the middle of turn 1, spinning out in a cloud of smoke and bringing out the pace truck yet again.
Just one lap to go from the restart and Murphy was quickly defending her position up at the front, neatly blocking McMickle around the first corner, but the extra pace she needed to keep her place having the effect of sliding her higher up the banking than she would like. McMickle took advantage of this to come alongside Murphy going around turn 3, and in a classic drag race for the line McMickle was able to get his nose ahead to cross the line just inches ahead of the #26 for the win.
And so the first day of racing came to an end – a day that had stretched into a second day, seen some incredible racing only matched by a spectacular amount of caution periods. The highlight of the night’s racing had surely come in the incredible victory by Stephen Nasse, a race that saw some terrific 3-wide clean racing that was not matched in the petulant, incident-filled later races that dragged the long night into the early morning.
| UNOFFICIAL SUPER LATE MODEL RESULTS 1. Tim Russell 2. Jeff Choquette 3. David Rogers 4. BJ McLeod 5. Lonnie Summerville 6. AJ Currelli 7. John Long 8. Jack Landis 9. Brian Finney 10. Dave Pletcher 11. David Green 12. Gary Passer 13. Bruce Gowland 14. Ricky Wood 15. Stephen Weaver, Jr. 16. Frank Albertson 17. Kevin Ingram 18. Russell Shaw 19. Kelsey Steele 20. Austin Pickens 21. Driver Unknown 22. David Russell 23. Bob Greene 24. Karl Willard 25. Zach Germain 26. Shane Snipes |
1. Stephen Nasse
2. Sean Bass
3. Patrick Laperle
4. Brandon Johnson
5. Dustin Delaney
6. Thor Anderson
7. David Wagner
8. Kurt Jett
9. Austin Kirkpatrick
10. Dustin Dunn
11. Rebecca Kasten
12. Bobby Good
13. Jerick Johnson
14. Erik Jones
15. David Rigan
16. Cardell Potter
17. Cole Powell
18. Shaun McWhirter
19. Chad Atkins
20. James Novak
21. Shane Snipes
22. Michael Pilla
23. Donnie Varcoe
24. Wayne Smith
25. Brandon Sweet
26. Robert Petrus
27. Brandon Watson
1 David Cranmer 59
2 Ronnie Silk 5
3 David Sazarulo 53
4 Chris Jensen 79
5 Rob Schutlz 10
6 Nichole Morgillo 55
7 Russ Savoy 17
8 Gary Fountain 33
9 TJ Zacharias 48
10 Jimmy Zacharias 71
11 Keith Rocco 88
12 Patrick Emerling 03 1
13 Jeffrey Gallup 4
TOUR MODS UNOFFICIAL FINISH
Position Driver Car
1 Ted Christopher 00
2 John Jensen (father) 14
3 Rowan Pennick 19
4 Chuck Hossfeld 22
5 Ronnie Silk 6
6 Matt Hirschman 59
7 Eric Goodale 58
8 Rob Fuller 17
9 J.R. Bertuccio 2 (green)
10 Kevin Goodale 50
11 Ed Brunnhoelzl 8
12 Tommy Cloce 69
13 Bobby Grigas III 09
14 John Chris Jensen (son) 91
15 Barry Callavini 4
16 Eric LeClair x6
17 Kevin Flockhart 80
18 David Royce 12
19 Russ Savoy 2 (white)
20 George Bierce 9
21 Jimmy Zachrias 71
1. JR McMickle
2. Jessica Murphy
3. Todd Allen
4. Kirk Hooker
5. Ben Kennedy
6. Anthony Sergi
7. David Weaver
8. Carl Thomas
9. Derrick Wood
10. Davey Gibbs
11. Christian Hickman
12. Shawn Thibeault
13. Zachary Donatti
14. Alan Bruns
15. Austin Pickens
16. Merle Diem
17. Tom Bolloy
OFFICIAL FL/IMCA MODIFIED FINISH
1. Tank Tucker
2. Doc McKinney
3. Travis Eddy
4. Johnny Allen
5. Robert Deal
6. Jerry Symons
7. Kevyn Terry
8. Timothy Moore
9. Nevin Gainey
10. David Hite
11. Al Mamande
12. AJ Winstead
13. William Skaggs
14. Art Kunzeman
15. John Zidek
16. Alan Bruns
17. Charlie Barrett
18. Joe Yarborough
19. Denis Pierce
20. Jason Boyd
21. Mark Chrudimsky (DQ)