Shyanne Mathers wins Powder Puff at New Smyrna Speedway

The crowds filled the stands for an early Mother’s Day celebration on Saturday night at New Smyrna, with every Mom getting free admission and a flower as a thank-you for all they do, and for one Mom in particular it was an incredible evening as she watched her son complete a perfect weekend of racing. The action out on the track was fast and furious with plenty of cars finishing races minus several pieces of bodywork, and the busiest guys at the track were the wrecker crews!

 The week 9 action started off with a Super Stock 25-lap feature that saw the initial 10 cars that took the green flag quickly reduced in number as the cars slid, span and wrecked their way through a race that took the best part of 45 minutes to complete. The first lap would pass without incident as #56 Bobby Holley made his way up from the 2^nd row to pass pole-sitter #86 Richard Goodrich, and he would be joined by #1 Chad Pierce before the caution lights were back on after #21 Mike Dahm’s car went up in smoke on the back straight. Although the quick-thinking Dahm did his best to pull off the racing line and back into the pits as soon as possible, the potential for fluids having been dropped meant the track buggy was quickly dispatched to check on the condition of the track surface.

 The restart would again see Holley and Pierce running at the front, leaving Goodrich to tussle with #60 Ernie Tumminello for 3^rd place. Goodrich would concede his place a lap later, losing a further position quickly as #211 Jarrett Korpi powered underneath him through turn 4. Korpi now had his sights set on 3^rd place and would make his move on Tumminello heading into turn 1, sending the #60 high up the banks to slide through on the low side and claim the place. Tuminello fought back, but as Korpi’s car got loose in turn 4 Tumminello had no choice but to slam on his brakes, losing control of his own car and hitting the side of the unlucky #15 Michael Wofford who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wofford would get pinned between the nose of Tuminello’s car, who pushed him low down the track, and the rain barrels that protect the entrance to pit road, but thankfully after being pulled apart both cars were able to continue.

 The restart would claim a second car, this time as #35 Chuck Hill got loose in turn 2, headed high up the bank and rode up the back straight wall, only to bounce back down onto the track with the telltale concrete scrapes down the side of his body and tires, and he would retire on the next lap. By now Korpi was fighting it out with Pierce for 2^nd place, but coming underneath his car would again slide, bang wheel’s with Pierce’s car and spin him out coming onto the front straight. Thankfully Pierce was able to quickly gain control of his spinning car and pull it away from the front wall, but again the pace truck was called back out to bring the cars back into formation.

 Pierce would restart strongly on the outside line but suffered more contact, this time with #22 Bruce McGonigal, and would again taste the concrete as the pair hit the high turn 2 wall. They were soon joined by Korpi, who had nowhere to go and plowed into the stranded cars, but was able to get clear and head into the pits. Pierce would also be swiftly pulled away from the wall by track staff and head back to the pits for new tires, while Korpi would retake to the track once the badly damaged front bodywork had been pulled from his car. Sadly McGonigal’s night was done as he left the track aided by the tow-truck.

 Incredibly the race had still only managed to complete 7 laps and by now only 6 cars remained out on the track. Holley would once more take off at the green flag and shoot away into the lead, but just 2 more laps would be completed before Korpi lost yet more bodywork, this time thanks to a sliding Tumminello in turn 4 who clipped Korpi’s car to remove the last remaining panel from the front of Korpi’s car, and forced the buggy back out again to retrieve the debris from the track. The lap-count would finally hit double figures on the next restart, although the obvious looseness of Korpi and Tumminello in the turns was a cause for concern, and so it was that with just 10 laps down Korpi slid up into the #60 car in turn 2 and pushed Tumminello up into Goodrich, forcing him high and into the wall. Amazingly Goodrich was also able to continue once pulled clear by the wrecker crew, but enough was enough for the race officials and Korpi received the dreaded black flag from the flag-stand as he passed under caution, ordering him to return to the pits and sit-out the rest of the action courtesy of the rule that removes any driver who causes three cautions in one race.

 Thankfully the rest of the race ran trouble free, helped in no small part by the lack of cars now out on the track, and Holley was able to put on a show as he raced with Pierce for the win. Pierce would set himself up for a last-lap effort and came out of turn 4 hard to race Holley to the line, but it was too little too late as Holley brought his car home by 2 lengths. Tumminello fought his ill-handling car to bring it home in 3^rd, ahead of the steady but determined Goodrich and his own brother #60T Gino Tumminello. Even thought the action on the track had finished the battle for the win had only just begun, and so it was that well after the crowds had headed home the race result was settled in a post-race engine teardown that saw both Pierce and Holley disqualified for motor rules infractions, handing Ernie Tumminello the win and bumping Goodrich and his brother Gino up into 2^nd and 3^rd places.

 The carnage of the Super Stock race also had a knock-on effect in the evening’s scheduled ‘Powder Puff’ race, where friends, relatives, wives and girlfriends of the drivers raced the Super Stocks for 10 laps in a special Mother’s Day event, but with so few of the cars making it to the end of the race the field for this was missing few of the expected entries. It was actually the most badly damaged car of all, the #211 of Jarrett Korpi that was still missing all it’s bodywork, that took an easy win at the hands of Shyanne Mathers. Right from the start she blasted away from the field for the win, lapping some of her competitors multiple times before taking the checkered flag. Her only real competition of the night came from the mysterious #51 Willamena Franscesca Montoya, who kept up for most of the race despite being in a much underpowered car, but pulled off the track with just one lap to go and disappeared into the night before anyone could find out who she was. This gave 2^nd place to #56 Tracy Holley, ahead of #60T Dawn and #60 Valerie Tumminello.

 Perhaps the best Mother’s Day present of all was delivered by Cody Blair to his Mom and family in the grandstands as he attempted to build on his two Orlando Speedworld wins the previous night with two features at New Smyrna. First of all he brought his E-Modified out for their 25-lap race, where it took him just ½ a lap to move through from the 2^nd row to the lead and begin to pull away. The battle behind him would quickly split as #54 David Hite eased away from the pack, leaving a good race behind him for 3^rd between #6 Rich Clouser, # 5 John Compagnone and #00 John Hodge.

 It would be Hodge who bought out the first caution of the race with 15 laps gone after his best outing of the year came to a premature end thanks to the slippery track conditions, his low spin in turn 2 being followed by a push back to the pits with his night’s racing over. Blair would again take the lead from the restart, and despite another caution after a spin from Hite with 2 laps to go he had the race sewn up, winning by several car lengths from Clouser, who just held off Hite in a race for the line.

 That made it 3 wins out of 3 for Cody Blair, but the best was yet to come as he climbed through the window of his Mini Stock for the 4^th race of his weekend. This time it took his #81 car 9 laps to pass leader #09 Todd Haught, although this was partly due to what was nearly a much worse incident on the front straight as Blair misjudged his distance from Haught’s rear-end as they drafted into turn 1, Blair driving the nose of his car right under Haught’s car, lifting him off the ground and dropping him back down. Haught would bump the wall as he regained control, and Blair would lift off the gas to prevent a bad accident, but once settled back down again both cars were able to resume their race at the front.

 A late caution for reports of debris on the track pushed Blair and Haught alongside each other one last time, and the restart was nearly disastrous for Blair as he missed a gear as the green flag waved, giving Haught the advantage with just 3 laps to go. Blair dropped back into 2^nd place and bided his time, even though there was barely 1 ½ miles of racing to go, but his patience was rewarded just one lap later as Haught’s got loose in turn 2 allowing Blair to capitalize on the ill-timed slide and power around the outside and back into the lead. There was no looking back as Blair completed an incredible feat to win by several car lengths, followed home by Haught and #23 Wayne Wells. But the story of the weekend was Blair that included two wins in his E-Modified, a hard-fought win in a battle-scarred Pro Truck and finally a tight battle to claim another Mini Stock victory. Fittingly on this weekend he was joined in victory lane by his Mom and family to take the applause from the appreciative crowd.

 The other feel-good story of the night came in the Sportsman race as a New Smyrna regular who can always be found in the pits helping anyone who needs a hand, but who rarely gets the opportunity to climb into the driver’s seat himself, managed to claim a tremendously hard-fought win in a race that went the whole distance without a caution and saw the lead change hands several times. With #57 Anthony Sergi up on the pole the young driver making his 3^rd start of the weekend in three separate divisions would hold the advantage until the 5^th lap when track regulars #11 Donnie Williams and the #23 car, this week not in the hands of owner Mike Pletka but being driven by Rusty Ebersole, came through to relegate the youngster back to 3^rd. Behind the leaders the #45 of Mike Soukup, complete with an outrageous rear-quarter wing that looked more like it would be more at home on an ocean-going yacht than on a race car, had moved forward from the rear of the field to pass Orlando Speedworld points leader #66 Andy Nicholls, himself making a rare start on the half-mile track.

 As the race settled down Soukup would quickly join the fight up at the front in 3^rd place, tucking in behind Williams and Ebersole as laps ticked over. By the time the 17^th lap was in the books Ebersole had decided to make a move, nudging Williams hard to the rear in turn 3 and passing through on the low-side to take the lead. With his car obviously unsettled Williams would drop back to 3^rd on the next lap as Soukup used the extra grip his massive wing was obviously giving him to blast around the high line and take 2^nd place. One lap later Soukup would try an audacious move under Ebersole down the back straight, only to suddenly find back-marker #51 Ed Kennedy cruising around at the bottom of the track, forcing Soukup to back off the gas and drop in behind Ebersole until a better opportunity afforded itself.

 This came with just three to go, as Soukup found himself much faster in the middle of the turns than Ebersole, and able to use his aerodynamically superior car to accelerate away much earlier than his rival. So as the cars hit turn 2, Soukup floored his gas pedal and powered away to take the lead with just two laps to go. Ebersole would use all his experience to fight back, but his clever crossover move was blocked by Soukup, leaving the #45 to take an unlikely win that saw him run all the way from the rear of the field to the front in 25 green flag laps.

 With more flexibility in their body rules than any other division allowing the ludicrously-sized wing on the rear of his Sportsman car – that later caused problems as his team attempted to load the car back into their enclosed trailer! – there could be no doubt that the wing that had everyone talking had obviously given him extra grip and speed in the turns. But on this night there were plenty of smiles and congratulations being passed around the pits for this popular pit-side regular and his team. Of course, it now remains to be seen how quickly word of his win gets around the other Sportsman racers, and just how big these wings will become over the coming weeks!

 The night ended as usual with the Strictly Stocks, and another win for a driver who is rarely seen taking to the high-banked half-mile. This time the win went to young #51 Wes Railing, more usually seen getting faster and better with every passing week at Orlando Speedworld. Railing would take the lead early on and never look back as the field strung out all around the track. He would be followed home by #9 David Brannon in a distant second place, with #21M Maureen Dahm picking up a well-deserved 3^rd place on her return to the track after sustaining damage in a crash a few weeks earlier. 4^th place – and most of the crowd’s applause – would go to #35 Chris Brannon, who again dropped off the pace midway through the race to thrill the crowd with a display of drifting around the turns, sending tire smoke and molten rubber up into the stands with every passing lap.