While sitting at work on Wednesday, January 26th, bummed out about missing tonight's opener for the King of the 360's Nationals at East Bay, I got a phone call from my son.
He wanted to go with a friend to a family function and would be out until about 10:00. The wheels in my head started spinning, and with a phone call to my sister, she would keep him overnight, and I could make it to the races. At 4:00, I was depressed, but by 5:00, I was on I-4, headed for Tampa.
Once again, Angels smiled on my racing habit.
Since I was a bit ahead of schedule, and passing right by Rt. 33 in Polk City, I decided to stop at USA Speedway and see what was happening there. Walking into to the beautiful ¾ mile asphalt track, I could see what a great field of high quality Late Models this event (Speedfest 2005) brought in.
After about ½ an hour of watching practice, it was time to hustle to the Clay by the Bay.
Of all the things offered during Speedweeks every year, this event is one of my favorites each year. The quality is always high, but you never, ever, know who will actually be there. Some are seasoned pro's, full-time racers trying to race for a paycheck, while others are freshman and sophomore's trying to get seat time for there upcoming season back home. This year was no exception.
Arriving just in time for time trials, I immediately found friends and die-hard Open-Wheel fans, Billy Badd, Lee (from Baton Rouge, La.) and Bob (York, Pa.), I grabbed a beer, my seat at the top near turn 1, and my pen.
Just as I figured, the Top Guns were there in full force. Terry McCarl, Chad Kemenah, Greg Wilson, Kelly Kinser, Jason Sides, Kenny Adams, Zach Chappell, Darren Stewart, Sport Allen, Gene Lasker, and King of all the 360 racers, Gary Wright, represented the veterans. On the "rookie" side of the entry list, were younger racers, Cody Geldart (who is running for Rookie of the Year in the All-Stars in '05), Bronson Maeschon, Ricky Stenhouse, Tony Bruce Jr., Kyle Patrick, Josh Higday, and Nick Fratto. All tolled, a nice field of 47 Sprint cars would enter, with 45 taking a time trial run. Jacksonville's Tighe Schloss, and long time East Bay Winternationals supporter, Terry Pletch each had problems, and did not run. When time trials were complete, defending All-Star champ, Chad Kemenah was quickest, followed by Johnny Anderson, Terry McCarl, Gary Wright, and Jason Sides.
Next up would be heat race action, with 4 heats for the Sprints, taken by Kenny Adams, Greg Wilson, Sport Allen and Gary Wright, and 2 for the 600cc/750cc Mini-Sprint class, won by Eddie Moss Jr., and John Craddock from Orlando in his #71.
With the size of the Sprint car field, a C-Main was run to qualify 6 cars to the B-Main. The C was won by Chad Layton from Pa., with Geldart, Frank Carlsson, Maeschon, Fratto and Patrick all moving on to the B-Main.
The B-Main would take 8 cars into the A-Main event. After failing to hit the top 4 in his heat, and despite his #1 qualifying position, Kemenah won the B, and took McCarl, Layton, Greg "Sticks" Leonard, Kelly Kinser, Mike Brecht, Stenhouse and local racer, Danny Jones (running his first "injected" race… he normally runs a Limited Sprint here), all to the A-Main with him.
The Mini-Sprints rolled out, and not being a big follower of this series, I really didn't know many of the competitors, but did recognize the always fast John Craddock, and FMSA President, Jesse Teed in the field. Jesse had some troubles (flat tire?), and Craddock started deep in the field, but made some spectacular moves to get into the top 5, before spinning on his own in turn 1. While Craddock was charging back though towards the front, the 11J of Jim Brookens was quietly ticking off the laps out in the lead. When the checkered flag fell, it was Brookens, followed by Dereck King, George Ulmer, Craddock and Duane Harbaugh.
At the victory podium, the winner usually gets out of the car, holds the checkered flag and gets pictures taken. All of this happened for Brookens, except for getting out of the car. Little did I know (nor most fans in the stands), that Mr. Brookens is a paraplegic with no use of his lower extremities. He is confined to a wheelchair and races with hand controls. To race as fast and as smooth as Jim Brookens races, he should be an inspiration to anyone who has faced adversity. He overcame his, by winning the Winternationals at East Bay. Truly, a cool story!
A-Main time for the Sprints found teenager Danny 'The Hammer" Martin on the pole. Danny had a great 2004 season with wins at home (EB), on the road with the USCS series, and some good runs on asphalt with the TBARA, but this field is tougher than most that he faces. With all the heavy hitters behind him, I figured he'd run respectable, but it's hard to beat World Of Outlaw racers and All Star champions, even if it is your home turf. But Martin showed the big time racers the fast way around for the first 6 laps before a caution came out for 2 separate problems. McCarl and Chappell got tangled in turn 1, while Jones, Lasker and Robert Pillon got crossed up in turn 4.
On the green flag, Martin again, opened a big lead he would never lose. Besting Darren Stewart, Jason Sides, Wright and Kemenah, Danny would take the win, in what may be his best accomplishment yet behind the wheel.
With plenty of dirt in my hair and exhaust fumes in my sinuses, it was time to get home. Getting into bed at 2:30 AM and working tomorrow, I would have a full day and a half to recover for Friday nights racing action.
By the way… Thursday sucked!
Friday should have been a great time. Met up with old friend, and occasional racer, John Smith, at the Lakeland track, who jumped in for the ride to night 3 of the 360 Nationals, along with my son Austin and I. Plans were to meet Billy, Lee, and Bob again, along with fellow race fanatic Carol Wicks. Mother Nature decided not to shine on our group. Arriving at East Bay approximately 2 seconds ahead of the rain, we waited to see what would happen. It didn't get any better, they called the show off, and with a Nextel call to Kim and Chris at Lakeland (who hadn't cancelled yet), we headed back northeast on I-4 towards USA. Ma' Nature didn't like us any better in Polk County than she did in Hillsborough County, and for the second time in an hour, we were rained out. Oh well, at least we're here early for the Saturday night Speedfest feature.
Guess what? Another twist of fate, as East Bay has decided to run the Friday show on Saturday afternoon at noon. So, now we're in Lakeland, but the next race will be in Tampa. Fire up old Air Hyundai and fly back to East Bay in time for night 3 (but on day 4) for the 360's. Most places would have just erased the rainout from their schedule and chalked it up to bad luck. East Bay decided that, with some hard work and a long day, they could still have 2 complete programs in 1 day. "Thank You" East Bay. I wish more places would try as hard as your staff does!
With the sun shining and wind blowing, a dirt track surface doesn't stand much of a chance, and this was no exception either. It was dry, got a little dusty, but these are still Sprint cars, which always provide action. With all else that had happened in the previous 15 hours, I wasn't complaining…. My son did enough for both of us!
After time-trials, Kemenah once again came out quickest, followed by Jason Sides, URC star Trevor Lewis (in Red Stauffer's #2 car that won multiple features last Speedweeks with Joey Saldana at the wheel), Zach Chappell and Paul Sides (Jason's brother, who had the only "open-trailer" in the pits). Wayne Johnson, Cody Geldart, Kenny Adams, and Kelly Kinser won the 4 heat races, with Jason Sides taking the B-Main. As the field was a little shorter today (41 cars), a C-Main was not needed. The Mini-Sprints ran their feature, which was won by Michael Dicely in a nice looking #44 that had not been here on Wednesday. He had been 2nd late in the race, chasing Darryl Willis, when the white flag came out. Dicley pulled behind Willis in turn 1, under him in 2, alongside in 3 and ahead in 4, to take the checkered flag on the last lap. The rest of the top 5, were Dereck King, John Craddock (another 4th), and Ron Taggart. Jim Brookens showed he's no fluke, by grabbing 6th tonight, hand controls and all.
Before the Sprint feature started, there was a meeting held in the pits. While we speculated on what was happening, the announcers finally broke the news. With the hard surface and a shortage of the correct compound tire, the race would be shortened to 20 laps (but no cut in the purse). The drivers strapped in, fueled up and got down to it.
With Greg Wilson and Kenny Adams on the front row, the field got the green, which very quickly turned to red. Kyle Patrick, was tumbling into turn 1, where Cody Geldart clipped someone, doing flips of his own into the outer fence. Ricky Stenhouse was also collected, tearing up his top wing. Nobody was hurt, and after doing a bit of tweaking on the wing, Stenhouse came back out. On the restart, Wilson took the lead, while Wright slipped past Adams early. On lap 9, Wright found his way under Wilson in lapped traffic, and was never headed. Wilson, Adams, J. Sides, and Trevor Lewis made up the top 5.
Gary Wright is nearly impossible to pass for the lead once he has it, and today was more of the same. He may possibly own more big 360 wins than anyone, and in my opinion, the last of the TRUE "Outlaws", that goes where he wants, when he wants, and is the man to beat wherever he shows up. With blue skies above, and yet another trip to Lakeland ahead of us, we hit the road once again. Meeting up there with Hugh and Gary (friends from Mt. Dora), and Matt and James from Ocala, we were ready for some wild asphalt action.
Getting in just after the Last Chance race began, we took our seats and saw the last few laps, as Eddie Massengill got the win over Jack Landis. A last minute decision by track officials jumbled the back of the field a bit, as Charlie Bradberry had to scratch, and once they filled his spot, only 2 cars were left from the consi that had not qualified. They gave those spots to Bill Rogers, who came all the way from Maine (and had a rough week), and Robert Yoho. A field of 38 would take the green for 200 laps.
With Justin Drawdy on the pole for the 2nd straight time, and Mike Fritts outside, we all knew it would be a good race. Fritts jumped out early, with Drawdy, Mario Gosselin, and an impressive Brian Finney close behind. Early troubles knocked out Ted Musgrave Jr., Gosselin, Dewayne Dempsey, luckless Bill Rogers, and on lap 99, Mike Fritts.
After a series of pit stops, Bubba Pollard, who hadn't looked all that fast early, lead the race for about 25 laps or so, until being chased down and passed by Charlie Menard. Following one of the mid-race cautions, CRA series champion, Chuck Barnes Jr., made up a lap and was back in contention. By the final quarter of the race, Fritts had broken, Gosselin blew a right front and was never the same, Wayne Anderson fought handling problems all night, Jeff Choquette pitted under caution before pit road was opened, sending him to the tail of the field. On his way back to the front, he and Drawdy got together off of turn 4, tearing up the nose of Drawdy's car, and Jacob Warren was the victim of a loose Choquette and was unable to finish.
By simply looking at the results, it doesn't appear that our Florida guys were able to run with the out-of-towners, but that was not the case at all. Our guys simply didn't have the luck riding with them. But if you look at the quality and diversity in the race, all of our guys should be proud of the race they put on.
At the finish, Charlie Menard (Wisconsin) took the checkers first, followed by Eddie Hoffman (Illinois), Pat Kelly (Illinois), Mike Rowe (Maine), and Jay Middleton (Lake City, Florida). Rounding out the top 10, were Justin Drawdy (Ft. Pierce, Fl.), Nascar Modified and Busch North superstar Ted Christopher (in Dick Anderson's #92) from Connecticut, Travis Kittleson (Merritt Island, Fl), Chuck Barnes (Kentucky) and Wayne Anderson (Wildwood, Fl.).
In my opinion, Menard didn't get the respect he should have for this win. People resent that his family has money (and plenty of it), and he has great equipment. But, in looking around that pit area, there was no shortage of big-money teams, large budgets and great drivers, from 11 different states and Canada. Still, someone had to drive that car, and he did a fine job of it. I can't take a thing away from this win. He drove smart, drove clean, used good pit strategy, and deserved to park in victory circle.
Although it was a big win for Menard, I think it was an even bigger win for the fans and organizers of this event. As it grows, it could rival the Snowball Derby as Florida's biggest Late Model race. This was a big deal, one of the best fields assembled since the Derby, or the All American 400 in Nashville. From all accounts, the promoters sound happy, and I hope the wheels are already turning for next year. Maybe our Florida guys can keep the trophy home in 2006.
After seeing 4 races in 6 days, at 3 different speedways, it's time to go home, regroup, and re-pack the trunk. Next week it's 2 days at Putnam County Raceway Park, for the 1st annual Renegade 100.
And just think…. It's still very early in Speedweeks 2005.
