{"id":6714,"date":"2011-05-25T19:07:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T19:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=6714"},"modified":"2011-05-25T19:07:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T19:07:41","slug":"florida-mini-sprints-plus-five-divisions-at-volusia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/tracks\/florida-mini-sprints-plus-five-divisions-at-volusia\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Mini Sprints Plus Five Divisions At Volusia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: x-small;\"><\/p>\n<div>\nby BJ Cavin- VSP  Media<\/p>\n<p>BARBERVILLE, FL-\u00a0 Saturday night will bring another full  slate of quality racing to Volusia Speedway Park, featuring the\u00a0highly  popular Florida Mini Sprint Association, plus action from Volusia&#8217;s own Late  Models, Sportsman, Street Stock, Thunder Stock, and Challenger divisions.\u00a0  In addition to the traditional racing action, the top ten Daytona Dodge Chrysler  Jeep Ram Late Model racers in the season points race will participate in a Late  Model Elimination Event where the drivers will battle each other head to head  until only one is left standing.\u00a0 And after racing every weekend since the  season began at VSP, the Budweiser Modifieds will take this Saturday off for a  little R&amp;R.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most popular series to visit Volusia Speedway  this season is the Florida Mini Sprints, as these little winged monsters blister  the clay of the big half mile at over 130 miles per hour.\u00a0 So far Jesse  Teed has dominated the Volusia appearances, but that won&#8217;t be the case this time  around.\u00a0 Teed is recovering from a tangle with a wayward power tool\u00a0in  a work related accident, and that will take him out of his mini sprint this  weekend, thus opening the door for anyone else who might feel the urge to step  up in his place.\u00a0 And there are a host of others who could fill the role,  as the FMSA competitors are evenly matched and always competitive.<\/p>\n<p>Donnie Chappell continues to win races, and that has him sitting solidly  on top of the points battle coming into this weekend&#8217;s Late Model events.\u00a0  He will again be the man to beat when the green flag waves from the flagstand on  Saturday night in both the feature race and the elimination contest as well, but  Matt Hartley continues to be his chief competition and although Hartley may be  in second place, he is fully capable of stepping up and taking one from the top  dog.\u00a0 Other Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Late Model competitors to watch  include Bobby Richardson, David Clegg, and Lawton Minchew.\u00a0 Those guys may  not be current threats to Chappell in the points race, but on any given night  one or more could finish with a trip to the Destination Daytona Victory  Lane.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Barsness got the job done last weekend as he outpaced the  Daytona Machine Shop Sportsman Division and picked up a win, and it is certain  that the 11 car will most likely be a factor this coming Saturday no matter  which driver might be behind the wheel.\u00a0 Both Barsness and Scott Lagasse  have risen to the top of the competition at present, but Corey Holley and Blaise  Hetznecker remain above the 11 tandem in the points race, but just barely.\u00a0  Holley was a no show for last Saturday&#8217;s race, while after picking up his first  win the previous week, Blaise Hetznecker suffered an engine failure before he  ever got onto the clay this past weekend and ended up doing a lap in a borrowed  Thunder Stock just to get some points.\u00a0 So things are now very tight at the  top of the heap, and certainly this Saturday&#8217;s race will provide some changes in  the rankings.<\/p>\n<p>The lure of money caused some of the Daytona Sportswear  Street Stock racers to be MIA at VSP last weekend, and that opened the door for  Phil Brown to grab a win and solidify his perch at the top of the points  standings thus far.\u00a0 Although Brown runs in the front pack every Saturday,  his win total hasn&#8217;t reflected his consistent performances that had him leading  the points in the first place.\u00a0 Meanwhile Mick Kulack ran his second  impressive race in a row on Saturday night, only this time he failed to get the  win and settled for second place. That keeps him second in points behind Brown  while Chris Brown&#8217;s third place finish puts him on an even keel with Bubba  Christian.\u00a0 Depending on how things go this weekend there could be more  changes coming at the top of the points ladder, especially if any other racers  decide to go missing on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>As of late the Thunder Stock  racer to beat seems to be Alan Peacock, who raced his way to yet another  Destination Daytona Victory Lane celebration last Saturday night despite the  best efforts of an equally determined Donnie Birdwell.\u00a0 Birdwell has strung  together a series of impressive finishes as of late and that has enabled him to  make some serious gains in the season points race, but Tom Hughes is still the  points leader with Peacock a not so distant second.\u00a0 And consistency has  placed Alan Lane in the top three\u00a0in points so far with the potential to  move up further if his fortunes on the track continue to be solid.\u00a0 The  competition seems to be catching up to Peacock&#8217;s superiority as of this past  week as Peacock had to work for his win, so maybe by this Saturday someone like  Birdwell will be poised to outpace the 13 car.<\/p>\n<p>The friendly rivalry  between Casey Feaster and RJ Glaser heated up as the Sparkle N Shine Challengers  raced under the Sunday afternoon sun this past weekend.\u00a0 Feaster found  something to his liking at the very top of the big half mile and used it to hold  off Glaser, who was determined to make the shorter route around the bottom work  to outpace the faster route at the top.\u00a0 But in the end it was Casey  Feaster who prevailed again thus remaining at the top of the points totals with  RJ Glaser close enough behind him to reach out and grab the leader.\u00a0 This  battle is not going to end anytime soon, and as Feaster admitted after Sunday&#8217;s  race, Glaser&#8217;s moment is coming.\u00a0 Its just a matter of when.<\/p>\n<p>Volusia  Speedway Park will open the grandstand gates at 5:30PM this Saturday evening  with races slated to begin at 7PM.\u00a0 Fans who attended the Sunday afternoon  races from this past weekend can present their ticket stubs for $5 off of their  admission this Saturday, while prices will remain the same for everyone  else.\u00a0 For more details on this weekend&#8217;s action, or to see the complete  and updated schedule of events at the World&#8217;s Fastest Half Mile, please visit us  online at <a href=\"https:\/\/gmx.com\/dereferrer\/?target=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.TheVolusiaSpeedway.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.TheVolusiaSpeedway.com<\/a>.<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by BJ Cavin- VSP Media BARBERVILLE, FL-\u00a0 Saturday night will bring another full slate of quality racing to Volusia Speedway Park, featuring the\u00a0highly popular Florida [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tracks","category-volusia-speedway-park"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6716,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714\/revisions\/6716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}