Dave Steele continues To dominate the TBARA Sprints in 2006
Bradenton, Fl. - With a beautiful sunset in the western sky and a capacity crowd on hand the the 2006 Magic in the Air Season kicked off at the High Banks of the South's Fastest Short Track.
All the talk on the DeSoto Super Speedway website Pit Board prior to the season opening was who was going to be the Big Dog of the Pure Stock class. A lot of smack was thrown out there for all to see. One of the most adamant was The BOSSMAN Terry Leiter owner of the car driven by Jimmie Best.
Tonite would be the show down of who could not only Talk the Talk but also Walk the Walk.Pills were drawn in all DeSoto classes to determine starting positions and Best was marred deep in the 19 car field.
From the drop of the green flag the #35 car was on a mission as Best made his way through the pack with only one thing on his mind, get to the front! As the laps wound down he had closed in the on the leader Duane the Scott Campbell. Former Cowboy Caddy track champion Campbell proved he would not go down easy as he and Best battled side by side putting on a barn burner of a show for the packed house.
Best was able to get by the hard charging Campbell to take the first victory of what looks like one of the toughest classes in the '06 season. Campbell finished in the second spot. With a solid third place finish last years Rookie of the Year in the Pure Stocks Tyler Lau who put his name in the hat as contender for the '06 Championship. Jody Collins finished in the fourth spot and rounding out the top five was '05 Champ Duane Best.
TBARA Winged Sprints Although 2006 is barely two months old the Superman Dave Steele has not lost a beat with two wins in TBARA series and a win in the first race for the USAC Silver Crown cars in Phoenix, Arizona he has put the Pavement Pounding Sprint Car world on notice.
Although he finished second in his first heat race he was relegated to a 12th place starting position in the 27 car field. When the field took the green Steele was the class of the field weaving his way through the pack.
Contrails coming off the wing of the #91 machine of Steele showed the speed he was getting down the straights. Unofficially the Supermanwas clocked at laps in the 12.90's as he made his way toward the front.
With a move in turn two Steele took the lead to the cheers of the fans and never looked back registering his third win in row for the TBARA Sprints. Second went to pole sitter Randy Woodall, third was Bo Hartley, fourth went to Troy DeCaire and fifth Charlie Ladner.
School Bus Figure 8 The house went ecstatic went the 16 School Buses rolled out onto the speedway for their 25 lap figure 8 race. With the fans on their feet the green dropped and the race was on. The drivers ran side by side lap after lap with plenty of close one's at the X.
Mike the Stickman Gamache moved his familiar #85 bus into the top spot and looked like he would run away with the win. That was before the #68 bus of James Sincoskie slowed stalling just before the intersection. Robert Coon in the FloridaBlackFlag.com #8up bus was racing side by side back in the field, coming out of turn one and headed toward the intersection.
Coon went to the outside of the stalled bus blocking his view of the on coming traffic. That traffic proved to be the leader as the inevitable happened, Coon slammed into the side of Gamache. The Thud could be heard out to state road 64 as the two collided sending Gamache's bus over on it's side. Coon's bus was shortened by a good 3 feet.
The crowd roared it's approval as both drivers emerged from the wreckage. They even got louder when Gamache's bus was righted, he climbed behind the wheel, fired up the bus and drove it to the start finish line. With a chant of Drive the Bus the Stickman strapped back in and rejoined the field with wobbling rear wheels and all. The Damage proved to much though as he retired a few green flag laps later.
The lead swapped many times through out the rest of the feature and it was Brian Conrad in the 4Q Uncle Ugly bus coming out on top to take his first win, Scott Brown came across the stripe in second, third was Bill McLeod, fourth was Brian Hayan and fifth went to Keith Brisson.
Esslinger Outlaw Modifieds Last season's Champion Raymond Jones 41 of Fort Ogden who by tradition got to pull the first pill for starting position in the season opening double points event. As his luck would have it, he pulled the pole position for the nights race. When the green flag dropped however Jones found himself fighting off threats from Robert Campbell in the 10 car. They did not stay up front alone for long as The trio of Robbie Bean, Cliff Steinman and Doug Hopper made their way through the pack to all contend for the lead as the closing laps of the 30 lap feature took place. It was a typical Outlaw Modified feature finish though, as the top 4 cars had the fans coming off their feet for the last two laps, as any one of them could have taken the race. Slipping and sliding and running two some times three wide, this group of veteran racers played give and take. Showing that you don't have to play rough, this group displayed some of the cleanest door to door racing for which this class has become known for. On the next to last lap, Robbie Bean of Miami in the 28 was outside of Jones going for the lead when lap traffic became a factor. Bean could have stuffed Jones behind the lap car but backed off to give Jones a lane around the car. They were hard at it again though, as they came out of turn four and ran side by side for the last lap, where Jones 41 barely nosed out Bean in the 28 car for the win. Robert Campbell of Dunedin in the Open MRI 10 car was only feet behind the pair to capture third. Cliff Steinman of Naples, driving the Bradanna Construction 23 car finished fourth. Doug Hopper of New Port Richey in the Quality Printing 15 rounded out the top 5.
USAC FORD FOCUS Craig Haack of Lewisburg, Tenn, concluded the 2006 Tangerine Midget Tournament with his wire-to-wire victory in Saturday nights 20-lap series finale at Bradenton, Fla.s DeSoto Super Speedway.
Haack, who also won Fridays race at Orlando, paced the field in his Okay Tire/A-Plus Collision Center Beast, beating Nick Wean, Mike Burt, Darin Coker and Stan Carman to the checkered flag. Burt won the eight-lap heat race.
Ryan Smith of Kunkletown, Pa. emerged as the Tangerine Midget Tournament champion despite not competing at Bradenton. Smith recorded two victories, two thirds and a sixth in his five starts to edge Coker, the only driver to start all six features, by 55 points.
Clear Channel Bombers Dandy Don Slack made the crowd take a collective gasp as his brand new ride slammed head on into the turn four wall. After several minutes Slack was able to walk to the ambulance to the applauding of fans. Although sore and a cut under the eye Slack made out better then his car. Jerome Sideways Watland went on to win the action packed 25 lap feature, James Crawford Jr. roared across for second, third was Radical Rick Germony, fourth Sean Cavanaugh and fifth Chargin Chester Lusk.
GoldenCorral Mod-Minis Rick Sirmans took the green and never looked back taking the win in the Mod Minis, Ray Folwell was unchallenged for second, third place was Dustin Perez, fourth Steve Booth, fifth Dean Butrum.
International Contractors Street Stocks Mike Amo had the handle on the Street Stock class as his car was un-beatable in the turns, but as the laps wound down his engine went south on him causing him to pull into the infield ending his night and opening the door for Casey Hall who roared to the checkers, Second was William Slack, third went to Bruce Riggio, fourth Wayne Dove and fifth Dave Turtle Blanchard.
