A great field of 18 Pro Late Models filled the pits Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway for their second 50-lap event of the year, but when all was said and done, Daniel Keene, Jr. had pretty much dominated the evening.  Keene, who hails from Weeki Wachee, came out 11th for qualifying and blistered the track with a time of 17.635 seconds, over two-tenths of a second quicker than Jacksonville driver Ray Black, Jr. who ran a 17.849 second lap.  Cody Blair of Winter Park was third fastest at 17.880 seconds.  Keene drew a six for the inversion placing he and Black in row three for the start while Ricky Anderson and Jarrett Snowden lined up on the front row.  Snowden moved out to the early lead only to see Tyler Thomas loop the Tim Russell Driver Development car in turn two during lap three.  On the restart, Cody Blair drove by Snowden for the top spot but it was Keene on the charge, taking the lead for good on lap ten.  Being in front of everyone else would prove to be advantageous for Keene in this race.  Lap 16 produced the second yellow flag as Michael Williams did a solo spin in turn one.  A lap after the restart, a multi-car tangle took place in turn four involving Alan Bruns, Tyler Audie and Rich Clouser.  Clouser's car was towed to the pits but he would return to the fray a bit later, although eight laps down.  Keene continued to set the pace, leading easily.  Just as the field took the crossed flags for half-way at lap 25, Blair and Black tangled on the front stretch.  David Rogers had nowhere to go and he plowed into Blair's machine as Will Carroll hit Rogers' car from behind.  Both Blair and Rogers were done for the night.  Black had minimal damage but was sent to the rear of the field for the restart.  Carroll's car suffered some front end damage but he checked the car out after the red flag period was over and determined it to be just cosmetic and he continued without pitting.

(more…)

The Tampa Bay Area Racing Association Sprint Cars made their first appearance of the year Saturday night with Scotty Adema of Ft. Myers holding off a hard-charging Sport Allen to take the victory at what he describes as his


favorite race track.  Twenty-one Sprint Car teams made the tow to the high-banked half mile with 19 cars still around for a trio of heat races after both Matt Alfonso and Mickey Kempgens had trouble during hot laps and parked their machines for the night.  Heat race victories would go to Ben Fritz, Dude Teate, and Brian Gingras setting the stage for the 30-lap nightcap.  One driver who had a rough go was "Flyin" Ryan Partin who had the brakes fail on his mount going into turn three during the second heat race.  Partin hit the outer wall virtually head on, then, with no way of stopping the car, slid back down the track and crashed hard into the inside railing.  Even though the car was shortened up a good two feet, Partin climbed out unharmed.  Partin was racing a second Sprinter for eventual feature winner Adema who got to experience both the highs and lows of being a race car owner on this night.  Dave Retzlaf and Larry J. Brazil, Jr. brought the field down for the start of the feature with Retzlaf leading the opening lap.  Adema, who started sixth, was on a roll right from the get-go and took the lead during the second lap bringing Fritz with him by Retzlaf.

(more…)