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2001
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| Monday, February 11, 2002 | |
| Hanley Disqualified, Super Late Model Win Goes to Kittleson | NEW SMYRNA SUNDAY RACES CUT SHORT BY RAIN
By Jane Smith
 (KNS)Thirty five Super Late Models took the green flag on Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway with Justin Drawdy on the pole. Night two of the World Series of Asphalt Racing was not quite as cold as night one but the action did not cool down. Drivers worked all day replacing blown motors and hoping that Saturday night would be kinder than the night before.
Before the first lap was in, a caution was thrown. The field was realigned once again with Rogers jumping to the lead over Drawdy only to see the caution again for Shane Sawyer in the #38. Sawyer's car was totally destroyed in turns 3 and 4 and at the end of the night, Sawyer went home. The race was then restarted in single file with Rogers, Drawdy, Hanley, Kittleson and Anderson filling out the top five spots.
Eric Black, the #10, had something break in his rear-end which sent him hard into the turn 3 wall. Black was sore and bruised but his car was gone. When the green came out again, Hanley was there making his move on Rogers for the lead. At one point, Drawdy, Hanley and Rogers made a perfect Oreo cookie, racing three wide. Drawdy goes spinning and ends up in the rear of the lead lap and Hanley takes the lead with Rogers, Kittleson, Anderson and Cope chasing the leader.
By lap 21, Kittleson had taken the second place spot from Rogers who was shuffled back to fifth. Hanley took the checkered flag but in tech was disqualified for being 14 pounds light. Hanley is an expert at fuel calculation but with all the cautions of this race, he ended up short. The win was given to Kittleson with Jimmy Cope, Wayne Anderson, David Rogers, Dan Fredrickson, James Powell, Matt Hogan, Freddie Query and Chris Wimmer filling out the top ten.
LATE MODELS: Late Models saw the #5x of Gary Artuso on the pole but it was the #23 of Jerick Johnson who jumped to the lead. Mike Murphy took the lead from Artuso and kept it for a few laps but Artuso won it back. But in the pack, coming up fast, was the #15 of Jason Boyd who is on a run at this time. Boyd passed the top three cars to take the lead and win his second race of the nine nights of racing action. Filling out the top ten were Jason Boyd, Larry Osteen, Mike Murphy, Joey Miller, Don Thomson, DeWayne Bryan, Jerick Johnson, Kirk Hooker, Rob Howard and Gary Artuso.
MINI STOCKS: In the Mini-Stocks with 28 cars in the field. The #3 of Matt Watts sat on the pole but it was the #96 of Frank Welch, 2001 Champion at Charlotte County Speedway, that took the lead from the beginning of the race and never let go. Welch, who is moving up this year to Super Late Model plans to run the Racecar Engineering Sunbelt Super Series, has worked hard to get where he is now in the Mini-Stock division. The #96 is really hard to beat since Rick Sirmans, Ted Vulipus, Matt Watts and Rick Tumey did their best to try and pass or catch up for the lead. But Welch held on for his second win with Ted Vulipus, Rick Sirmans, Matt Watts, Pete Jacobs, Waylon Flynn, Clint Foley, Scott Reeves, Terry Cady and Ron Dubeau filling out the top ten.
OPEN WHEELS: A few of the Open Wheel Modifieds were missing on night two as they traveled to Columbia Motorsports Park for the annual Blue/Grey Modified race but still 18 cars filled the field. The #1 of Steve Johanneck sat on the pole but it was the #2x of Jason Boyd jumping to the lead. Tank Tucker, in the #17 which was the new car for Mark Vandevender, was moving up fast but he and Boyd tangled sending Tucker into the wall and Boyd to the rear. This gave the lead to the #1 of Johanneck with Bobby Blake, Wayne Parker, Jimmy Crowe, Chad Poole, Mark Vandevender, Bob Bauer, Gary Artuso, John Compagnone and Jason Boyd filling out the night's top ten.
 On night one, the NASCAR Tour Type/SK Mods ran a caution free 25 lap race but on night two, that was not to be seen. With 31 of these mean, hard charging, flying machines in the field, the noise level was definitely up. Eric Beers, #19, sat on the pole and did a great job of holding off the #13 of Ted Christopher for much of the race. But Christopher never let up on Beers and eventually ended up with the lead. Beers, Rob Summers, Charlie Pasteryak, George Kent and JR Bertuccio did alot of shuffling between themseves for the top five but in the end, Kent and Beers were both shuffled back. Night two went to Ted Christopher with Rob Summers, Charlie Pasteryak, JR Bertuccio, John Blewitter, Eric Beers, Jamie Tamaino, Tim Arre, Terry Zacharias and Jim Winters filling out the top ten.
SUPER STOCKS Rich Clouser, 2001 Street Stock Champion at DeSoto Speedway, sat on the pole for the Super Stock feature. Mike Wiezoreck in his new #30 ran second to Clouser but as new motors go, lost his motor giving second place to Darren Gould's #67. But coming up was the #08, the car that Clouser won his Championship with at DeSoto Speedway and sold at the end of the season, with Robert Skinner at the wheel. Skinner passed Gould to take second place and was chasing his car's old owner but could never quite catch him. Clouser held on for the win with Robert Skinner, Darren Gould, Michael Soukup, Ron Whaley, Joe Evans, Dean McGolthin, Charlie Collins, Bobby Giles and David Gould filling out the top ten.
After and before the races tonight, Ford shot a commerical using the #31 of Jeff Sloan, #61 of Jimmy Cope, #27 of Mike Good and #77 of Robbie Dean. The track was closed down after the races for an hour so the film crew could film these cars racing. Fans and drivers were invited to watch and quite a few stayed to see just how commercials are made.
As the night was over for the fans, many crews worked until the wee hours of the morning repairing their cars for the Sunday's action. The #64 crew of Garrett Evans gets the "hard worker" award as they worked feverishly for the first two nights repairing that car. And for the first time ever, this writer and her son spent the night at the racetrack in a tent being softly lead to sleep by the humming of generators working hard.
Sunday night the rain won, but not until Jerry Symons smoked the field again in the Open Wheel Modifieds and Matt Mercer won the TBARA feature.
-Jane Smith
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