By BILL FOLEY
David Schilling really got folks talking with his total domination performance in night two of the latest edition of the Sunshine Swing at All Tech Raceway.
Schilling scored his first Short Track Super Series victory and became the 38th driver all time to achieve that feat.
Within four laps he had a full straightaway lead over the runner-up battle between eventual third place finisher Tyler Siri and Mike Gular.
As the race continued the yellow flag remained in the holster and Schilling was tearing through the field like a Modified running against Sportsman.
Before the only yellow flew on the 32nd lap for the spinning Francois Bellemare, the No. 20 had lapped up to the seventh-place car.
The restart bunched the field with the lone cars in the lead lap being Schilling, Matt Sheppard, Siri, PEter Britten, Gular, Billy Pauch Jr. and Larry Wight.
However, Sheppard had nothing for a car that had been a half second quicker than the rest of the field all night long.
So as the checkered flag flew there was Schilling taking the win in the 35-lap event.
Looking back at the moment, David said, “Clean air helps a lot as I was able to move around and do what I needed to do. I was telling myself to be patient over and over again. There were a couple of guys who got a little squirrely and I didn’t know where the best place on the track was. Actually, Tanner Van Doren showed me the top was better down there and I started running there.”
Continuing he said, “I couldn’t be happier with the car. I can’t say enough about my guys as they busted their ass this week and in the shop. Brett Deyo and my dad do so much for me. The motor was smooth and had all the power it needed when I needed it.”
The moment didn’t come easily as Schilling told Dirt Track Digest, “I feel like we made adjustments on this. We are making adjustments constantly. I knew we had a good car in the heat race, but I did the same thing I did in the heat race last night. Tonight, I tightened it up a bit because I know we were way too loose last night before the track locked down. We made the right adjustments. Dave Reedy from Penske has been super helpful this week. Joe Matthews and Mike Wall and all those guys were super helpful on the shock set up as well as Mike Maresca.”
He added, “It means a lot. I’ve been going to these races for a long time. I’ve been a lapped car, back marker, not qualifying and it was exciting to win a consi up to last year sometime. The last few months of last year and this year the program has really turned around. Brett Deyo, obviously, has done so much for us. Penske Racing Shocks helped a lot. Casey Wegner is just unbelievable, he worked so hard with us to get this motor what it needs to do. We’ve been sending motors back and forth, testing and changing stuff and I think we have a new combo now.”
In regard to whose car he was racing, David explained, “Actually this car is my dad’s, the other car over there is Brett’s, the motor is Brett’s. He does so much for us. Everything on this car is my dad’s except the motor.”
In conclusion he added, “This thing was so good it is so hard for me to imagine as I’ve never been able to drive a car that was that good when the track was that slippery before. We have to puff the motor and prove that it is 434 cubic inches and then we can celebrate.”
Matt Sheppard started outside of the second row and really never had a shot at the point.
Much like everyone else he was attempting to keep the leader in sight, but the biggest battle he would have was in chasing down then runner up Tyler Siri just seconds before the only yellow of the race.
He had one last chance on the restart with just three laps to go but didn’t have much to say as he restarted on the bumper of Schilling.
As the final laps rolled off Schilling pulled away.
Matt, on the track told announcer Jeff Ahlum, “I don’t think it really mattered. The track was a lot of fun. We had a really good race car and we got rolling there right up to that last caution but I don’t think anybody had anything for Deyo’s car tonight. I mean he’s had everybody by a half a second all night long so congrats to them guys. He’s got a great series here, we really enjoy coming down and now he’s got the fastest race car on the planet too.”
Siri made his first appearance of the week as business commitments kept him home.
Starting in eighth he made quick order to get himself to second by the midway point.
He was matter of fact about the podium finish saying, “I’m not really surprised with it. I wish I had had a couple of days like these other guys did to test and tune, but the Teo Pro Car was really good since we unloaded it. We had a carburetor issue in the heat race, but we changed it and that is all we did. The car was really good. Really happy with the Pro Power motor, the Teo chassis and Integra Shocks. It was fun out there. The track was really good to race on.”
Continuing he said, “Honestly, I thought I was leading the race and then the caution came out, but Matt had gotten past me just before that. I saw Schilling and I was third. We started eighth. Great run for him and kudos for the track crew. Top, bottom or middle you could go anywhere you wanted to go. I probably should have gone to the high side in one and two at the end, but we were passing the lapped cars on the bottom and the car was feeling pretty good. Hindsight I should have stayed on the high side and rolled the bottom in three and four. “
Peter Britten had a tough night on opening night and didn’t achieve the finish he desired.
However, he knew he needed a good draw and “seven” was an improvement.
He ran toward the front all race long and ended up fourth.
Peter said, “Yeah, it was good. I think today I was talking to someone and started to question why I do this as I don’t run the Deyo stuff enough to get really good at it. Seems like it’s a burden, but tonight we came out and had a good night. I guess I feel better about it now. It’s nice to have a good run. Makes us feel good and hopefully we can race tomorrow to see what we can do there.”
Larry Wight had been lapped, but when the yellow came out he got that lap back and made a bonsai run on the top side for the final three laps and it paid off with a run from eighth to fifth.
Larry, talking to Dirt Track Digest, said, “It was kind of a Hail Mary. The track was strange tonight. It started to seal up a little bit, but all of the holes from the sheep’s foot started to pull up slime. We were basically on ice skates unless you had a little bit of ground that you could grab hold of. Finally enough guys went to the bottom and threw some crumbs up on top, fluffed it up a little bit and I was able to get some traction between three and four to make it work. I think we were a third-place car, but I don’t know if I had anything for Sheppard, but we were definitely better than the two guys in front of us. It’s tough when we have to run these hard tires and Brett car gets to soften tires and makes it sort of obvious something is going on there.”
Continuing he said, “I don’t think it had anything to do with the motor. It was obviously a tire deal. He was going places where the other 23 cars couldn’t think of going in the corners. Down the straightaways he wasn’t pulling anyone, but soft tires make it easier in the corners.”
Of the late race run he was asked if he was on a mission?
“Mission, pissed off whatever,” he said. “We haven’t been running as good as we should be down here, so we are just trying to make something of it. We got to do some more homework and figure out where we are lacking on this.”
It was one of those nights.
A driver no one expected put on a run that won’t soon be forgotten and in the pits, some Modified drivers were left wondering exactly what just happened to them.
