Two Hot Days Of Racing at Volusia Speedway

by BJ Cavin- VSP Media

BARBERVILLE, FL- Things heated up over the weekend at Volusia Speedway Park as the first two day event of 2011 spanned both Saturday night and Sunday at the World’s Fastest Half Mile. Five racing divisions hit the clay on Saturday night, and on Sunday race fans were treated to the Blackwater Inn Enduro race, plus two regular division feature events.

Jeff Mathews has been in firm control over the Quality Brands Budweiser Modifieds at Volusia as of late, but even “The Repo Man” is not immune to bad luck and unfortunate situations as Saturday night’s events demonstrated. In just five quick seconds of racing Mathews’ fortunes went south in a complicated deal that began in turn one and ended at the end of the backstretch, and that sent three competitive race cars to the pits in pieces.

Mathews had grabbed the lead from Dale Murray on lap 5 and was attempting to race away from the field when Kent Corbin spun in turns one and two. As the yellow was coming out for that incident Mathews had the unfortunate circumstance of his steering wheel detaching from the column, almost causing him to hit the turn 2 wall and leaving him struggling to reattach it. That left Mathews well off the pace and coasting down the middle of the backstretch as the rest of the field tried to split to get past, but in the jumble of cars darting up and down the track David Pollen and Dave Barber failed to see the disabled 33 in time. Both hit Mathews almost simultaneously, with Pollen’s mod literally climbing over the top of Mathews before all three came to rest at the entrance to turn 3. The three drivers walked away, but Mathews’ and Pollen’s cars were all but destroyed in the dramatic mishap.

In yet another aspect of the mess on the backstretch, Larry Burkins had been running second to Mathews when all of the trouble started, but he failed to escape from the mayhem unscathed. Burkins had a tire going down and slipped into the pits as the red flag was displayed, and thus was relegated to the rear of the field on the restart, which handed the lead to James Smith. Smith took control and held off all challengers from there to seal a win, as Jared Allison got second place and Austin Sanders raced his way to third place. Dalton Lanich and Scott Mooers rounded out the top five finishers.

After stepping up and notching his first Daytona Machine Shop Sportsman win last week, Blaise Hetznecker only got to take a couple of laps for points on the race track this weekend after engine woes left his 17H machine on jackstands in the pits. But Paul Shead was ready to go, and he bolted to the front at the start with Steve Shead all over him in the second spot. Kyle Chappell was also in the mix with the frontrunners early on, but the big mover was Aaron Barsness, who picked his way through traffic and eventually wrestled the lead away from Paul Shead late in the race as Shead slid up the track in turn 2. Barsness held on to get the win leaving Paul Shead to settle for second place, and Kyle Chappell followed for third. Steve Shead held off Mike Haney as they finished fourth and fifth.

Donnie Chappell has climbed to the top of the Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Model division and Saturday night’s action proved that Chappell is not going to be easy to remove from the top spot. Matt Hartley gave it everything that he had, even to the point of risking a crash in order to reel in Chappell, but it wasn’t enough as Chappell got another winner’s interview in the Destination Daytona Victory Lane. Hartley was second, while David Clegg held firm and came home with a solid third place finish. Lawton Minchew was fourth, and Kenny Monahan drove the 311 to fifth place.

A multi lap battle between Donnie Birdwell and Alan Peacock had the crowd cheering and on their feet as the Thunder Stocks took their turn on the big half mile. Peacock rocketed to the lead early and was running a high line around the track when Birdwell grabbed his attention at the bottom near the inside wall. As Peacock stated later, he thought that he was home free until Birdwell appeared, and from there it was a heated, yet clean side by side battle for the majority of the race. The battle for the lead raged on as Tom Hughes, Pete Close, and Alan Lane, all mixed it up for third place along the way behind the frontrunners. In the end Alan Peacock got the better of Donnie Birdwell and sealed the win while Birdwell placed second. Tom Hughes bettered his competition for third place and Pete Close got his second fourth place finish of 2011 in two appearances at Volusia. Alan Lane finished fifth.

Phil Brown is used to running with the leaders when the Daytona Sportswear Street Stocks race, and on Saturday night that is where he was, but actually in front instead of battling with the lead pack to get there. But Brown was far from taking it easy in the leader’s role as Mick Kulak was still feeling confident after his win the previous weekend, and was right there to keep Brown looking over his shoulder. Unfortunately for Kulak, Brown had the slightly faster car and won the race, thus getting his moment to shine in the Destination Daytona Victory Lane while Kulak went to the scales in second place. Chris Lane had a fight of his own early in the race as he got past Robert Donaly , and while Donaly never eased off on the pressure he was unable to repass Lane, leaving Lane in third place and Donaly fourth.

Sunday afternoon’s races were headlined by the Blackwater Inn Enduro, which featured everything from Mini Stocks to Challengers when it began, but wound up with a modified racer overcoming some crazy obstacles thrown out by the Volusia Speedway staff in order to grab a win. The race began from a standing start with Jared Allison in control behind the wheel of his enduro car, but on lap five officials stopped the field and reversed them on the track, forcing them to race clockwise and taking the advantage away from the racers with cars more powerful than the 4 cylinder bombers that were in the race. And with the cars running backwards around the track, Reid Christensen got past Daniel Wolf and took control of the race. If that were the end of it then Reid Christensen would have been the runaway victor, but race officials had one more crazy trick up their sleeves and stopped the racers on the front stretch with only one lap remaining.

Racers were informed that the last lap would be run in the correct direction on the track, but in reverse, which had all of them scrambling to figure out just how to accomplish backing up for a half mile when many of them had little visibility behind them. And that lack of visibility bit Reid Cristensen as he got to the first turn, as he backed his car into the wall. Christensen watched as Jared Allison went by him, then rolled down the track and into the pit area. Allison continued on around the track to the checkered flags, as did Casey Feaster and RJ Glaser, and after the others had crossed the line Christensen backed out of the pits and completed his lap. That gave the win to Jared Allison who collected the entire pot of money, but since Casey Feaster was five laps down at the finish and RJ Glaser was 9 laps down, Reid Christensen went home in second place with Feaster and Glaser taking third and fourth places. RJ Arnone rounded out the top five finishers.

The All Quality Products Mini Stocks were in short supply on Sunday afternoon, but the three cars that managed to start the race ran 10 laps for points and for their payouts. Despite chronic overheating problems that had him ducking into the pits to resupply his boiling race car with water, DJ Nobles managed to score a victory and celebrate with his crew in the Destination Daytona Victory Lane. David Lebeau was the second place finisher and Wade Lear overcame earlier mechanical issues to start the Mini Stock feature and finish in third place.

The ongoing rivalry between Casey Feaster and RJ Glaser continued on Sunday afternoon as the Sparkle N Shine Car Wash Challengers ran for points and money, and despite starting at the front of the field on the pole, Glaser failed to keep the speedy 20 car behind him. While Glaser used the middle and bottom of the track thus taking the shorter route around, Feaster went up to the wall and built momentum, passing Glaser on the second lap and keeping the 004 at bay throughout the race. So Casey Feaster grabbed yet another win as RJ Glaser settled for second, and Daniel Wolf raced hard for third place. Brandon Haseleu struggled with the handling of his car as the racetrack was too wet at the bottom and too dry at the top for his liking, but he held on for the fourth spot while Lance Allison grabbed fifth place.

Saturday, May 28th, will provide a night off for the Budweiser Modifieds, but the Daytona Dodge Chrysler, Jeep Ram Late Models will be back on the track and will be running a special Elimination Race for the top ten in the points battle. Late Model racers will take on each other in a process of elimination until only one is left standing as the sole survivor. Fans will also see another visit from the always exciting Florida Mini Sprint Association, plus hot action from the Daytona Machine Shop Sportsman Division, the Daytona Sportswear Street Stocks, the Thunder Stocks, and the Sparkle N Shine Car Wash Challengers. Complete details can be found at www.TheVoulsiaSpeedway.com.

Volusia Speedway Park Results for 5/21/11 and 5/22/11

Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Model

1- 25 Donnie Chappell
2- 11 Matt Hartley
3- 07 David Clegg
4- 23 Lawton Minchew
5- 311 Kenny Monahan
6- 24 Dennis Williams
7- 31T Stephen Thompson
DNS- 33 Jeff Mathews

Quality Brands Budweiser Modified

1- 40 James Smith
2- 18 Jared Allison
3- 64 Austin Sanders
4- 12 Dalton Lanich
5- 10 Scott Mooers
6- 0K Kent Corbin
7- 66 Dale Murray
8- 34 Jim Passino
9- 54 Larry Burkins
10- 33 Jeff Mathews
11- 88 David Pollen
12- 56 Dave Barber
13- 67 Garret Stewart
DNS- Z06 Larry Mott

Daytona Machine Shop Sportsman

1- 11 Aaron Barsness
2- 80 Paul Shead
3- 66 Kyle Chappell
4- 10 Steve Shead
5- 22 Mike Haney
6- 17K Marc Kinley
7- 54 Tim Hughes
8- 57H Heinz Haas
9- 40 Steve Branton
10- 17H Blaise Hetznecker
DNS- 77A Wayne Allen

Daytona Sportswear Street Stock

1- 13 Philip Brown
2- 2S Mick Kulak
3- 5 Chris Lane
4- 9R Robert Donaly
DNS- V1 Delbert Moyer

Thunder Stock

1- 13 Alan Peacock
2- 31 Donnie Birdwell
3- 29 Tom Hughes
4- 4 Pete Close Jr.
5- 05 Alan Lane
6- 32 Jim Shaw
7- 23 Jim Nichols
8- 16 Brian Shrunk
9- 03 Robert Shrunk
DNS- X Justin Dean
DNS- 09 Jim Goempel

Blackwater Inn Enduro (25 laps/winner takes all)

1- 1A Jared Allison
2- 30 Reid Christensen
3- 20 Casey Feaster
4- 004 RJ Glaser
5- 1 RJ Arnone
6- 01 Daniel Wolf
7- 3 Brandon Haseleu
8- 3 DJ Nobles

All Quality Products Mini Stock

1- 3 DJ Nobles
2- 777 David Lebeau
3- 11 Wade Lear

Sparkle N Shine Car Wash Challenger

1- 20 Casey Feaster
2- 004 RJ Glaser
3- 01 Daniel Wolf
4- 3 Brandon Haseleu
5- 1A Lance Allison
6- 30 Reid Christensen
7- 48 Mark Comitale
DNS- 6 Sonny Espy

Photos courtesy of Bob Perran:

James Smith celebrates his Budweiser Modified win