{"id":21680,"date":"2014-05-20T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=21680"},"modified":"2014-05-20T14:10:50","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T14:10:50","slug":"keene-speeds-to-50-lap-pro-late-model-win-at-new-smyrna-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/keene-speeds-to-50-lap-pro-late-model-win-at-new-smyrna-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"KEENE SPEEDS TO 50-LAP PRO LATE MODEL WIN AT NEW SMYRNA SPEEDWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"DanielA great field of 18 Pro Late Models filled the pits <\/span>Saturday<\/span><\/span> night at New <\/span>Smyrna Speedway for their second 50-lap event of the year, but when all was <\/span>said and done, Daniel Keene, Jr. had pretty much dominated the evening.  <\/span>Keene, who hails from Weeki Wachee, came out 11th for qualifying and blistered <\/span>the track with a time of 17.635 seconds, over two-tenths of a second quicker <\/span>than Jacksonville driver Ray Black, Jr. who ran a 17.849 second lap.  Cody <\/span>Blair of Winter Park was third fastest at 17.880 seconds.  <\/span>Keene drew a six for the inversion placing he and Black in row three for the <\/span>start while Ricky Anderson and Jarrett Snowden lined up on the front row.  <\/span>Snowden moved out to the early lead only to see Tyler Thomas loop the Tim <\/span>Russell Driver Development car in turn two during lap three.  <\/span>On the restart, Cody Blair drove by Snowden for the top spot but it was Keene <\/span>on the charge, taking the lead for good on lap ten.  Being in front of <\/span>everyone else would prove to be advantageous for Keene in this race.  Lap 16 <\/span>produced the second yellow flag as Michael Williams did a solo spin in turn <\/span>one.  A lap after the restart, a multi-car tangle took place in turn four <\/span>involving Alan Bruns, Tyler Audie and Rich Clouser.  Clouser's car was towed <\/span>to the pits but he would return to the fray a bit later, although eight laps <\/span>down.  <\/span>Keene continued to set the pace, leading easily.  Just as the field took the <\/span>crossed flags for half-way at lap 25, Blair and Black tangled on the front <\/span>stretch.  David Rogers had nowhere to go and he plowed into Blair's machine as <\/span>Will Carroll hit Rogers' car from behind.  Both Blair and Rogers were done for <\/span>the night.  Black had minimal damage but was sent to the rear of the field for <\/span>the restart.  Carroll's car suffered some front end damage but he checked the <\/span>car out after the red flag period was over and determined it to be just <\/span>cosmetic and he continued without pitting.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t

\n\t
\n\tOn the restart, Bruns and Williams tangled going into turn three.  Williams' <\/span>car hit the wall a ton going backwards, hard enough to split the fuel cell <\/span>open but fortunately there was no fire although track crews had to burn off <\/span>the spillage before racing could continue.  Keene led easily the remaining <\/span>distance slowed only by a lap 37 caution as Chad Pierce spun and hit the turn <\/span>one wall.  Will Carroll did an incredible job with his damaged machine as he<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tdrove steadily into second place late in the going although Carroll, of <\/span>Warrambool, Victoria, Austrailia, had nothing in the end for Keene who became <\/span>the fourth different winner in four Pro Late races this year.  Despite his <\/span>earlier miscue, Tyler Thomas turned in an outstanding performance to round out <\/span>the podium.  18-year-old Thomas, of Collinsville, OK, was making his <\/span>first-ever race start in a full-bodied Late Model stock car having previously <\/span>competed in Karts, Midgets and, most recently in Sprint Cars, mostly on dirt <\/span>tracks.  Car owner Tim Russell was very impressed and said "Keep your eye on <\/span>this kid, he's going places" after the races were over.  <\/span>Ricky Anderson drove a steady race to claim fourth spot just ahead of Black <\/span>who came back from the penalty to the rear of the field to net fifth place.  <\/span>Sixth through tenth were Jerry Symons, Snowden, Anthony Sergi, Daniel Miller <\/span>and Colby Clements.  Also running at the finish were Zach Jarrell, Audie and <\/span>Clouser who actually picked up five spots by making repairs and coming back <\/span>out to turn some laps in his new car.  Rounding out the field but not running <\/span>at the finish were Pierce, Blair, Rogers, Bruns and Williams.<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tAlthough Chris Brannon led every lap of the E-Modified feature, it was not an <\/span>easy victory as he had to fight off the challenges of both Cody Blair and <\/span>Jarrett Korpi the entire distance in what proved to be the best race of the<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tnight.  The caution waved just once as Matthew Green looped his car in turn <\/span>four on lap 15 just as the engine let go in Jon Compagnone's car in turn one.  <\/span>On the restart, Chad Pierce found the turn one wall, ending his night.  <\/span>From that point it was a crowd-pleasing three-way battle with Brannon holding <\/span>on over Blair and Korpi.  Green recovered to finish fourth ahead of Roger <\/span>Benton.  Completing the finishers were Jim Higginbotham, Matt Wheeler, Earl<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tBeckner, Mike Dahm, Pierce and Compagnone.<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tDavid Russell led the opening ten laps of the Mini Stock feature race but <\/span>could not hold off a hard-charging Ted Vulpius who took over the front <\/span>position on lap 11.  Russell would subsequently bring out the caution as his <\/span>car slowed to a stop on lap 17 putting him out of the running.  A late race <\/span>yellow flag for a spin by Daniel Brown did not slow Vulpius as he claimed his <\/span>second win of the year over Jeff White, who made a great charge to second <\/span>after the final restart.  Pat Wells was third ahead of Jason Reynolds and <\/span>Tyler Simpson.  Rounding out the top ten were Reid Christiensen, Brad Blanton, <\/span>Brown, Mark Broat and Russell.  Levi Hammond did not start.<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tMike Trocki made his second start driving Butch Herdegen's car in the Super <\/span>Stock feature, and, for a second time, found himself in victory lane.  J. T. <\/span>Tippins led the first three laps before Trocki made a bold three-wide pass on <\/span>the backstretch to take over and lead the remaining distance.  The only <\/span>caution of the race came on lap 19 for a slowing Joe Gerard who was able to <\/span>figure out his problem and continue.  Trocki took the checker well in front of <\/span>Mike Amato who scored his best finish of the year.   Shannon Kelly was third <\/span>trailed by Becca Samsoe and Tippins.  Rounding out the finishers were Preston <\/span>Hunt, Gerard, Robert Pence, Warren Schurr, Mike Dahm and George Dahm.<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tAaron Overman won his first career race in the Strictly Stocks over Johnathon <\/span>Murphy.<\/span>

\n\t
\n\tThere will be no racing <\/span>next Saturday<\/span><\/span> night at New Smyrna Speedway as all the <\/span>action will be taking place at Orlando SpeedWorld for the Spring Crash-A-Rama.  <\/span>All the events there including the world famous School Bus Figure-8 race and <\/span>RV Demo Derby start at <\/span>7:30 pm on May 24th<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,16,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-new-smyrna-speedway","category-race-results"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21680"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21684,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680\/revisions\/21684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}