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It Was Lights, Camera, and Action as Tyler Lau Wins the Desoto Pro Truck Feature Race at Desoto Super Speedway
By:Tom Blakeley
March 28, 2009, Bradenton FL. It was all there, the makings for a historic night at Desoto Super Speedway. Historic it turned out to be. Young Mr. Tyler Lau gave demonstration on how to win a race from flag to flag. In only his second time in the #12 truck Tyler Lau jumped into an early lead at the drop of the green flag and held it the entire 50 laps. Lau’s talent showed and his patience took him to the checkered flag and Victory Circle. What a match, the #12 Truck and talented Tyler Lau.
It looks like Truck Fans are in for a great season of racing if tonight is any indication of the future. Taking second place was Todd Bontrager in the #8 Truck and winning third place was J. R. Garcia III in the #13 Truck. Steven Darvalics in the #41 Truck had to pit about halfway through the race and did not return. Danny Anderson in the #50 Truck was in a position to battle for the lead several times but his truck broke and it ended his run at the win.
There was great racing between many of the drivers including Bontrager and Garcia as they battled for the 2nd and 3rd spots. Earlier the Trucks ran two heat races. Kyle Mussleman in the #07 Truck won the first heat and Nick Hernandez (Rookie) in the #37 Truck won the second heat. It was a great show for the Desoto Pro Trucks.
The film crew from The Outdoor Channel got plenty of action for their upcoming show about short track truck racing. They were setting up for hours to get some great shots of the racing action. They had a camera mounted to a boom that was out over the track to get in the middle of the action. The show’s Producer Greg Underdahl said that the show will air on Monday’s at 6PM, 9PM, 12midnight. Underdahi went on to say that the time between shooting and airing will only be a couple of weeks. So watch for Tyler Lau and all of the Desoto Pro Truck drivers on the outdoor channel. Talk about great exposure for the drivers of Desoto.
It was Fan Appreciation and a Fan Participation Night at the speedway. The decent size crowd was very enthusiastic about the races, and enjoyed a hilarious intermission treat as two fans got to drive their personal cars onto the track to race against each other. Well, it was a young gun in a hot V8 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup versus Grandpa in his full size 4 cylinder Buick.
It was decided to give Grandpa a head start of a half lap, but it didn’t help. It was never close, but it was sure FUN to watch. Watching Grandpa decided to take a short cut on the way and only do a half lap was very funny. The crowd loved it and was in stitches laughing. We look forward to more Fan Participation nights in the future, bring your helmets.
Magic 4’s. The 6 lap Heat Race was won by Kyle Best in the #3 car. The Feature race was also won by Kyle Best in the #3 car, Kyle is really becoming an accomplished Magic 4 driver with some very impressive driving. Justine Carlbert took second in her #11 car and looked like the most improved driver we have seen in some time. Stephanie McClough in the #41 car winning third place. The field was small as most of the Magic 4 drivers are on Spring Break this week.
Street Stocks. The first Heat Race for Street Stocks was won by Duane Best in the #3 car. The second Heat Race was won by Jimmie Best in the #67 car. The Feature Race was won by Jimmie Best in the #67 car; Dennis Wilson took second in his #42 car. Duane Best took third place in the #3 car. Dennis Wilson did some spectacular driving as he avoided crashing his car on several occasions as being bumped or pushed.
At the end of the race all 3 lead drivers shook hands and congratulated each other showing very good sportsmanship. Joey Barnes in the #66 car went into the wall backwards and unfortunately had to be towed into the pits. There was a lot of action in this race and lots of great driving skill shown.
Pure Stocks. The Pure Stock class showed up in a big way tonight. After a week of smack talk on the DSS website pit board the drivers did very well on running a clean, hard race. The first Heat Race was won by Troy Thiem in the #18 car. The second Heat Race was won by Billy Carlbert Jr. in the #47 car.
The Feature race was won by Dave Davis in the #6 car; Dave seemed to really have his car dialed in. Troy Thiem in the #18 car took second and challenged for the lead many times. In the third spot was Richie Shepherd in the #30A car. Shepherd had to work his way through the entire field as he started at the rear and at one point lost his bumper and had to start from the rear again. Billy Carlbert Jr. in the #47 car and Robert Yoho in the #75 car locked bumpers and had to have the tow truck separate the cars, both got an invitation to the rear.
Flyin 4’s. The winner of the Heat Race for the Flyin 4’s was Duane Best in the #3 car. Duane also won the Feature Race in the #3 car while Brad Steger in the #11 car took second place and Gene McClough in the #41 car won third place. This class had a low car count but will be back in force next time.
Join us next Saturday April 4th as the gates open at 5:00PM with the racing action starting at 7:00PM sharp. Racing will be The second of 8 races in the Race Car Engineering Hoosier Elite Series 75 lap race, Bombers, Street Stocks, Legends, Magic 4’s and Flyin 4’s.
Please call us with any questions at 941-748-3171 or check us out at www.desotosuperspeedway.com we are located just 9 miles east on SR 64 in Bradenton. The entire staff of Desoto Super Speedway will do everything possible to make your visit with us a pleasant one.
DS TRUCKS - DS TRUCKS 50L Pos Driver Car # 1 TYLER LAU 12X 2 TODD BONTRAGER 8 3 J R GARCIA III 13 4 NICK HERNANDEZ 37 5 LANCE DAUBACH 77 6 BRENT HUBER 64 7 BLAIR PONTIOUS 39 8 KYLE MUSSELMAN O7 9 DANNY ANDERSON 50 10 MARK GILL 75 11 TATE LINDSAY 1 12 STEPHEN DARVALICS 41
DS TRUCKS - HEAT 1 Pos Driver Car # 1 KYLE MUSSELMAN O7 2 BLAIR PONTIOUS 39 3 J R GARCIA III 13 4 DANNY ANDERSON 50 5 LANCE DAUBACH 77 6 MARK GILL 75
DS TRUCKS - HEAT 2 Pos Driver Car # 1 NICK HERNANDEZ 37 2 TODD BONTRAGER 8 3 STEPHEN DARVALICS 41 4 TYLER LAU 12X 5 BRENT HUBER 64 6 TATE LINDSAY 1
FLYIN 4s - FEATURE Pos Driver Car # 1 DUANE BEST 3 2 BRAD STEGER 2 3 GENE MCCLOUGH 41 4 CHRISTOPHER DODSON 17
FLYIN 4s - HEAT Pos Driver Car # 1 DUANE BEST 3 2 BRAD STEGER 2 3 GENE MCCLOUGH 41
MAGIC 4S - HEAT Pos Driver Car # 1 KYLE BEST 3X 2 STEPHANIE McCLOUGH 41 3 JUSTINE CARLBERT 11
PURE STOCKS - HEAT 1 Pos Driver Car # 1 TROY THIEM 18 2 KEITH THORBIN 2 3 MARK PICKLESIMER 17 4 JASON GRAHAM 30G 5 DAVID DAVIS 6 6 AUSTIN CRAIG 10
PURE STOCKS - HEAT 2 Pos Driver Car # 1 WILLIAM CARLBERT JR 47 2 RICHARD SHEPHERD 30A 3 CASEY HALL 11 4 MIKE FANNIN 75 5 RICHARD McCLOUGH 14 6 CHELSEA LAU 13
PURE STOCKS - PS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 DAVID DAVIS 6 2 TROY THIEM 18 3 RICHARD SHEPHERD 30A 4 MARK PICKLESIMER 17 5 WILLIAM CARLBERT JR 47 6 JASON GRAHAM 30G 7 MIKE FANNIN 75 8 AUSTIN CRAIG 10 9 CHELSEA LAU 13 10 RICHARD McCLOUGH 14 11 KEITH THORBIN 2 12 CASEY HALL 11
STREET STOCKS - HEAT 1 Pos Driver Car # 1 DUANE BEST 3 2 GUS COORSSEN 81 3 DENNIS WILSON 42 4 JOEY BARNES 66 5 CASEY HALL 11
STREET STOCKS - HEAT 2 Pos Driver Car # 1 JIMMIE BEST 67 2 JAMES NANNEY 6 3 JAMES BRENNER 57 4 DEREK LUCAS 88
STREET STOCKS - SS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 JIMMIE BEST 67 2 DENNIS WILSON 42 3 DUANE BEST 3 4 DEREK LUCAS 88 5 JAMES NANNEY 6 6 JAMES BRENNER 57 7 GUS COORSSEN 81 8 JOEY BARNES 66 9 CASEY HALL 11
