GMP DRIVERS CASH IN AT FIRST-EVER ‘STOCKERAMA’
A total of six drivers came up with both some hard cash and some hardware as Gresham Motorsports Park opened its 2014 racing season Saturday evening.
The storied Jefferson, GA motorsports complex hosted its first-ever Stockerama – a six-division battle on both the GMP quarter-and half-mile ovals in one evening.
In all, four divisions – the Mini-Stocks, Sportsman/Renegades and Front-Wheel Drives competed on the GMP quarter-mile.
Veteran Mini-Stockers Scotty Beck and Steve Hill put on a spirited race swapping the lead three times in the final 10 laps of the quarter-mile lid-lifter. On the final circuit, Hill spun allowing Beck to roll under Waylan Nicholsen’s checkered flag as the winner.
In the Sportsman/Renegade showdown, Jackie Daniel’s 1979 Chevy Camaro came home with $400, a GMP hat and a trophy for top honors in the Sportsman Division while Bryan Beckner rally crossed his way to first-place money, a new cap and some hardware too. (more…)
Tampa, FL – Limited Late Models, Gagel’s Open Wheel Modifieds, V8 Warriors and the Motorstats.com 4 Cylinder Bombers were all on hand to find out who will be in Victory Lane at The Clay By The Bay tonight.
New Smyrna Speedway was the place to be Saturday night for some outstanding racing as the NASCAR Whelan All American Series continued for 2014 featuring 100 laps for the Super Late Models as leg number two of the 2014 Bright House Challenge. Twenty-five Super Late Model cars went through afternoon tech inspection, but before time trials could be held, three top teams already had their cars in the trailer after suffering mechanical woes in practice. All Wayne Anderson, Daniel Keene, Jr. and Kevin Dicks could do was sit back and watch the action as the 22 remaining drivers hit the track for qualifying. Defending Bright House champion Travis Cope of Weeki Wachee was first out to take time and he set the standard at 17.333 seconds that no one would be able to touch. T. J. Duke was the closest at 17.413 followed by a 17.459 second lap for Rich Clouser. David Rogers, Brad May and Daniel Webster rounded out the top six qualifiers. Cope’s luck was not so good when it came to the inversion pill draw as he pulled a ten to invert the top five rows for the start of the century grind placing tenth fastest qualifier Jesse Dutilly on the pole and Stephen Nasse on the outside pole after an uncharacteristically slow time trial lap for the young driver out of Pinellas Park that would ultimately work in his favor. 
There was no full moon Friday night at Orlando SpeedWorld but it sure seemed like it as the fans saw plenty of slam-bang action that kept wrecker driver Tim Cordell busy most of the night. A very nice field of Sportsman cars saw their pair of heat races won by Richard Fiore, Jr. and Daniel Conlin, Jr. but it would be pole sitter Ron Gustafson jumping out to an early lead in the 25-lap feature. Gustafson would lead the first five circuits before Earl Beckner got by to assume the point as he was looking to make it two wins in a row. Timmy Todd, Jr. spun his brand-new mount coming off turn four to bring out the first caution flag on lap seven. Beckner continued to set the pace until yellow flag number two was thrown for debris on the track at the completion of lap ten. On the restart, Gustafson found himself in the backstretch wall, coming to rest in turn three with a badly crunched car and out of the event. By this time Derrick Wood, who started deep in the 14 car field, had worked his way to second place and looked like he might have something for leader Beckner. However, Wood’s car suddenly slowed coming off turn two during the 12th lap and he coasted to the infield. Two laps later Fiore and Roger Blevins collided going into turn one with Blevins’ car in the wall and ultimately done for the evening. On the restart Conlin, now up to second, got into the back of Beckner’s car going down the backstretch sending Beckner’s machine hard into the wall. A not so happy Beckner walked back to the pits, done for the night. It was even more frustrating for the Orlando driver as he and his crew had to thrash for several days just to get here for the action after blowing an engine and crashing the car badly at Auburndale Speedway two weeks ago. 