|
Tri State Outlook
by Duane Hancock
Excellent weather helped kick-off the first major
holiday weekend of the racing season. From what I seen
and heard, the crowds were pretty decent all over and
the car counts were good too. I hit 3 shows on the
weekend.
Friday was my first trip to Limaland Motor Sports
Park in 2008. The track was fairly heavy, fast, and
very smooth. You really could not have asked for a
much better surface. Track prep man, Mean Gene
Frankert, was telling me the first few weeks the track
got rough due to all the water that was just laying
under the walls. Once the dirt finally got dried out
enough not to effect the racing surface, a smooth
track came about. 32 NRA Sprints were ready for
battle. The heat race action was pretty good. With 32
cars on hand, there was 4 heats, transferring the top
4. Rick Boughan, Mike Brecht, Mike Dussel, and Dustin
Daggett took the heat race wins. Boughan held off a
late race charge by Jimmy Stinson. Brecht pretty much
spanked the field. Dussel hold on to a close one over
a quick Greg Wilson. Daggett had a good sized margin
of victory over last row starter Tim Allison. Tyler
McDonald got up-side-down coming off turn 2 in the 4th
heat. Tyler was OK. Mike Miller lead flag to flag in
the B Main. The 10th annual Memorial Cup Race was 25
laps in distance. Kent Wolters and Jimmy Stinson paced
the field to the green. Wolters quickly jumps to the
lead. Kent has been a long time supporter of the NRA
and always gets close to a win, could tonight be his
night? Kent looks good the first few circuits as
Daggett closes in. Lap 4, Daggett takes the lead. Soon
after lap 4 is complete, Chad Gullett spins. Restart,
Daggett looks strong and Wolters falls back quickly.
Lap 6, Allison stops with a flat left rear. Wolters
pulls in with mechanical woes. Restart, Daggett gets a
good one and the battle heats up from 2nd to 5th.
Wilson, Brecht, and Stinson battle towards the front.
Daggett is good but 2nd to 4th is catching him in
traffic. Lap 16, Brecht and Wilson make contact going
into turn 2, battling for 2nd. Brecht slows quickly,
after the contact collecting Stinson as well. Wilson
keeps going and will have a handful of laps to deal
with Daggett. Brecht shows his displeasure with Wilson
under the caution. My personal option is: it was just
hard racing through traffic. Nothing at all
intentional by Wilson. Restart, Wilson is ready for
Daggett. Meanwhile, Darren Long has worked into the
top 3 from 15th. The last 7 laps were excellent.
Wilson was running the rim then shoots low for a pass.
It won't hold as Daggett barely hangs on. Wilson is
high, Wilson is low and decides to stay low. Long
gains ground on the leaders as well. The last 3 laps,
Wilson gave it everything he could to try and make a
pass, wasn't going to happen, Daggett wins. Wilson,
Long, Dussel, and Dennis Yoakam round out the top 5. A
real good show and the sprint A was over around 10 PM.
Saturday it was off to Fremont Speedway for the All
Star's first visit of 2008. It was actually my first
visit to Fremont in 08 as well. Even thought I have
not been to Fremont this year, much talk was being
said about the track conditions so far this season.
Andy James and Rich Farmer would like to keep the
Fremont dust down, and keep it from being a skating
rink. So they have been putting something on the track
that it hasn't seen in many years, a bunch of water
during the week and tearing the surface up in between
races as well. The way it sounded, a little too much
the first few weeks. Each track's dirt is different.
Lets give them a little bit of time and it will become
right. Well, last Saturday, it was a lot closer to the
old Fremont than the 2008 to date. The track was
pretty smooth and very racy. The inside of 1 and 2 had
some weird looking bumps but, nothing that gave the
drivers any fits or caused any problems. 41 All Stars
and 35 305 sprints were pit side. 3 of the 4 heat
races were good races. Craig Mintz, Andy Shammo, Caleb
Griffith, and Mark Keegan took the heats wins. Mintz
held off a fast Brock Mayes. Shammo lead the train of
follow the leader in his heat. Caleb held off a
closing Brandon Martin. Paul Weaver hooked the turn 1
berm and took a tumble in the heat. Keegan held off
another Fremont vet, David Harrison in a good heat
race battle. 3 drivers that started out of the invert
spots raced to a transfer spot via the heats. Rob
Chaney, Mike Linder, and Lee Jacobs. Dean Jacobs took
the Dash. Phil Gressman ran away with the B. a great
thing I like about Fremont, 40 lap A Mains for the All
Stars. After the card draw, Dale Blaney and Dean
Jacobs make-up the front row. I really like the card
draw with the kids, great idea. Gressman has problems
before the green waves and pulls in. Green flag, John
Ivy loops it in turn 1, collecting Linder and Keegan.
Restart, D. Jacobs jumps to the lead. Dean is fast but
here comes Blaney. Lap 3, Blaney takes the lead.
Blaney is hooked-up and pulling away. Lap 10, Byron
Reed takes a tumble in turn 3. Blaney gets a good
restart and Jacobs hold tough. Past the half-way mark,
Greg Wilson is on the move and battle Jacobs for 2nd.
Wilson takes the spot and sets his sights on Blaney.
They enter lapped traffic. Lap 23, Chaney and Mintz
make contact, Chaney spins, Mintz goes off the top of
1, Blaney clips Chaney. Blaney goes up on 2 wheels,
bounces a few times, gathers it in and still leads.
His car looks good as the yellow is out. Wait under
the yellow, Blaney's tire goes flat. This ands Wilson
the lead. Wilson was already quick, now he is out
front and there is no traffic. Lap 27, Ivy spins
again. Wilson gets a good restart as Mayes starts to
make some noise. Greg is just too strong and takes
home his first All Star win of the year. Mayes, D
Jacobs, Harrison, and Randy Hannagan round out the top
5. A decent race with a few turning points. A struggle
for the All Star points leaders. Lance DeWease
struggled all night and Blaney bad luck struck on lap
23. Both fought back hard to place 9th and 10th.
We cannot forget the 305's. See guys, I didn't
forget to show you some love. 35 strong for some good
racing action. Josh Muntz, Dustin Dinan, Steve Rando,
and Bobby Clark all won their heats from front row
starting spots. That doesn't mean there wasn't action,
just tough customers starting upfront. Matt Merrill
took the lead on the last lap to steal the 1st B Main
win from Chad Wilson. The 2nd B, it was all Travis
Hoffbauer. The 25 lap 305 A Main was a dandy. rookie
Nate Dussel took the lead on lap 1 from Willie Keegan.
This would set-up a race long shoot-out between Keegan
and Dussel. Lap 2 a Brad Bowman spins slows the pace.
Restart, the battle is on. The rookie Dussel and the
veteran, Keegan race just feet apart. They swap the
lead many times, official, Keegan lap 8, Dussel lap 9,
Keegan again starting on lap 11. Keegan is leading but
Dussel won't go away. Duane Zablocki and Kevin Lee are
making it a 4 way battle upfront. Lap 22, Rando hits
the turn 2 soft walls. This sets up a 3 lap gun fight.
Willie Keegan uses some of his many years of
experience to hold the young guns at bay to claim his
first win in several years. Dussel, Lee, Zablocki, and
Muntz round out the top 5. An excellent race with a
dog fight for the lead 2/3rd of the race. A good night
of racing and the 410 A was pushed off at 9:30 PM.
Attica Raceway Park's Rex LeJeune had the honors of
flagman of the night.
Sunday you could find me at Tony Stewart's Eldora
Speedway. The ALMS Late Model headlined the show with
the NRA Sprints on the card too. The track was smooth
and had the making for a very racy surface. Dustin
Daggett, Ryan Ruhl, and JR Stewart took the heat wins.
Daggett showed why he had 1 win on the weekend already
in heat 1. Ruhl ran away with what had to be the worse
start in Eldora history in heat 2. The heat started
before half the field was even lined-up and ready to
go. It stood and we go on. Stewart held off a fast
Darren Long. All 3 heats seen drivers transfer from
last row starting spots. Yoakam, Wilson, Butch
Schroeder, and Dwain Leiber. Ron Blair lead wire to
wire in the B. Darren Long and Bryan Sebetto set the
pace for the 20 lap A Main. Sebetto, a 305 regular at
Attica and Fremont, is making just his 2nd Eldora
start and his first in 6 years. Sebetto slides to the
early lead. He quickly discovers the cushion right
next to the wall is the place to be and slings it on
the cushion. A quick pace is set and Sebetto is
looking strong. Long is in 2nd as Wilson is working
towards the front from his 8th place starting spot.
Lap 12, Mark Hery tags the turn 1 wall. This puts
Long, Luke Hall, and Wilson within shouting distance
of Sebetto. Green, Sebetto dives low but quickly
shoots up the banking in turn 1 and rides the cushion.
Long is closing in and getting ready to make his move,
Wilson is still in the hunt. 5 to go, Sebetto is
looking tough but lapped traffic is going to factor in
the last few laps. Sebetto looks to be slowing a bit
but is still leading. White flag, only Long has a
shoot. Going into 3, Long does a famous Eldora slide
job to take the lead. Wait!!! Sebetto looks like an
Eldora vet, makes the cross-over move, slides to the
inside of long into 4. Off 4, its Sebetto to the line
by less than 2 car lengths over Long. Wilson, from
8th, Hall, and Schroeder, from 11th, round out the top
5. Sebetto said he slowed a little to make sure he hit
his marks and to make sure traffic wasn't going to
hamper his run. He said he thought he heard someone
back there and was waiting for the slide job. Once he
sen the slider, he knew his only move was to cut down
and try to take the lead back over off 4. A great move
for someone who has only raced the track twice now.
Chuck Wilson has came out of retirement and plans
to run around 10 races in 08. His first one was Monday
in Crystal MI finishing 10th in the A...Speaking of
Michigan, former WOO traveler, Jeremy Campbell made
his 08 debut in the Fisher Brothers 75 last weekend.
JC brought the 75 car home 4th in the A at Butler
Speedway...Barry Ruble's 63 car was in action at
Fremont but a new driver was behind the wheel. Aussie
driver Roddy Bellbowen has teamed up with Barry to run
some shows in the states this summer.
UPCOMING: Touring shows this week.
FRIDAY:
WOO Attica
KISS Bloomington IN
SATURDAY
WOO Eldora
SOD Crystal MI
MSA Supers Sandusky
|
|
