Just under 50 teams arrived Saturday morning for the Fast Series Part 2 “Salute to the Fans” at the beautifully maintained Ocala Speedway. The evening’s format had a twist designed to give the fans a different kind of show, where by each division would run twice during the evening, “Twins” with both finishes being combined to determine the overall winner.
The Twins had the Fastkids running Twin 20 Lap features, the Fastruck Pro’s Twin 40’s, and the Fast Late Models ran Twin 50’s all green laps.
Promptly at 7PM all three divisions rolled out on the track for a 30-minute autograph session. The kids had the opportunity to sign the 33 Fastkids truck of Casey Caudill, which is going on display at the Lakeland Cobb Theatre 18 Cinema Thru August 26th. and were given raffle tickets for a drawing for two bicycles.
Rick Bristol was given an opportunity to publicize the Hopkins Family Truckers 200 Charity Race which will be held in December, an event this reporter is sure will unite the race truck community for a weekend of fantastic racing and fun.
The Fastkids were up first. In their Qualifying Round John Kidwell was on top followed by Anthony Campi, Brian Blum, Drew Brannon and Cody Benoit, and that’s the way the first race started as John pulled a 0 Pill for the inversion.
With an inversion of 4 for the second race the final results were almost the same as how they qualified. John Kidwell in the 7NY took the win, followed by Anthony Campi #81 in second, Brian Blum # 31 took the third spot, fourth went to the #08 of Drew Brannon and rounding out the top five was Casey Caudill in the # 33 Machine.
Less than 1.5 tenths separated the top five qualifiers in the Fastruck Pro Division as the JR Garcia in the #36 took the top spot. The second spot went to Travis Roland in the 01, followed by the 05 of Mike Powers in third, the #25 Foxworth Flyer earned the forth spot and Levi Hobbs in the #9 Get-R-Done machine took the fifth spot only 2 hundredths behind Gary Foxworth.
It might have been the camouflage paint job that kept the timing light from tripping 3 hundredths quicker. Excitement was on the menu for the pro race however, as both times the inversion pill was 10 and the race was on. Some hard racing and a few spins in the first round kept the fans entertained.
The second twin had more of the same until a lap 28 front stretch incident scattered the trucks behind looking for a hole to get through. At the end the Chevrolet Powered #05 of Mike Powers would take the top finishing spot overall, followed by the #9 of Levi Hobbs, the pole winner JR Garcia took third place, Travis Roland in the 01 Machine finished fourth and the 78 of Austin Hopper rounded out the top five.
Fast Late Models Twin 50’s had it’s own share of excitement as the pole winner Sean Bass # 20 and second place qualifier Spencer Taylor in the #46 would have to start in the back of the inversion after taking first and second place in the last outing.
The third place qualifier Brandon Johnson in the # 41 and fourth position on the timing board went to Cody Pitts, with Dalton Zehr rounding out the top five in the #119 machine.
The inversion was 6 for the first race and fans found Johnson and Pitts swapping the lead back and forth until the #20 Sean Bass worked his way up to the top spot.
The second twin had a 0 inversion and the # 20 Bass would lead wire to wire while the race was on for the second thru fifth. The final results had the top 5 qualifiers also in the top 5 overall finishing spots with the #20 Sean Bass Last Years Fastruck Pro Champion winning the overall, the # 41 piloted by Brandon Johnson took the second place honors followed by Spencer Taylor in the # 46 Late Model last years Fastkids Champion taking third place, the 01 Cody Pitts the series current point leader took the fourth position while another former Fastkids Champion Dalton Zehr in the #119 rounded out the top five.
This reporter is looking forward to the August 5th event at The Citrus County Speedway. The points races are close in all three divisions as we go back to the conventional format and watch these divisions do battle on the banked quarter mile which gives you two grooves to settle the score.
FAST LATE MODELS 20-Sean Bass 41-Brandon Johnson 46-Spencer Taylor 1-Cody Pitts 119-Dalton Zehr 28-Steve Smith 59-Dustin Dunn 40-Brock Burns 8-Michael Seeright 111-Donny Williams 16-Tim Garrod 2-David Hartin
Fast Late Models Twin 50’s had it’s own share of excitement as the pole winner Sean Bass # 20 and second place qualifier Spencer Taylor in the #46 would have to start in the back of the inversion after taking first and second place in the last outing. 