Flashpoint: Pro Series Recap From Darlington Race #5
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- Flashpoint Racing Series
Darlington Moved by Urbanale, Iowa’s Jeff Russell in Pro Race
Jeff Russell of Excalibur Racing Shield took his #12 Ford to victory lane for the first time this season. Russell lead a total of 76 laps, more than 50 percent. The usual competitors gave him chase.
There was twelve lead changes among seven of the seventeen drivers, including the likes of further winners this season of Troy Worrick, William Hills, and Gary Truman, who led seven, one, and six laps respectively. Also in the fray were Joe Penland, Jr., who has had a lock on second place finishes over the last several weeks, but this time finished sixth after leading thirteen laps in the #1 Ford, and Tom O’Hara in the #11 Dodge of Excalibur Racing Sword, who lead for fifteen laps. Penland and O’Hara remind second and third respectively in driver points and all the above drivers are in the top six in driver points after Darlington. But it was Joe Simmons of Super Sport Racing 1 team that gave Russell the most concern. Simmons placed the #86 Chevrolet on the pole with a speed of 173.076 mph, thereby being the only driver to break the 173 mph barrier. But Russell was able to keep a close eye on Simmons by placing his Ford just outside the pole with a speed of 172.857.
- Nickname: “The Lady in Black” and “Too Tough to Tame”
- Banking/Turns: 25/23 degrees
- Distance 1.366 miles
- Shape: Oval (Egg-shaped)
Jeff Russell was interviewed after the race and gave this statement, “It is still hard to believe that I actually won a Flashpoint race, and the funny thing is I really didn't have any plans on running the race at all. I am not very good at Darlington because I have a hard time getting the nerve to pass, I don't want to wash up into them entering a turn. But I am pretty sure that I ran a clean race so I can feel very happy with the win. I know I wasn't the fastest car today but I happen to be in all the right places the whole race. It is a real honor to win a race with all these guys, and I think that is why this win means so much to me. I know almost everyone of them on a personal basis, and they are truly some of my very best friends. I would like to congratulate William Hills on a great run, after his almost spin in turn two and saved it, you knew he had to be on his way to a great finish with that kind of luck. William actually finished second to me on my last win I had almost a year and half ago, so it was real nice seeing him right behind me again at the finish. What a great guy he is. I also want to congratulate the whole field today on a very clean race, anytime you run a full race at Darlington with only six cautions you know it was a great race. Most of all though, I want to thank all my teammates at Excalibur for giving me great setups to run; and more important, being such great friends that make this whole thing so much fun.”
While it was Excalibur Racing Shield (Russell), Blue Cobath Motorsports (Hills), and Excalibur Racing Sword (O’Hara) finishing one, two, three, it was Super Sport Racing 1 team that decided to have a team meeting on lap 147, as the team members of Troy Worrick, Joe Simmons, Joe Penland, Jr., and Christian Blalock finished respectively fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh.
Three Excalibur Racing team members followed them. One of them, Dana Lee, continued his custom of starting at the back of the field, this time second to dead last in seventeenth, and finished eighth. His Sword teammate Dave Finkel place started in the top five and finished ninth. Last week’s winner, Gary Truman got another top ten finish in tenth. He is with Excalibur Racing Shield. Speaking of finishing in the top ten, only Troy Worrick and Tom O’Hare have top ten’s in all five races. Five other drivers have four and all are in the top seven in driver points. Two of them, Gary Truman and Dana Lee each missed one race.
You may have overlooked that William “Shfty40” Hills finished second. It would be a mistake to overlook him on the track. Hills started the season with an eighth place finish at Daytona. He followed that the next week with a win at Rockingham starting from outside the pole. That win placed him in second in the driver points race, where he remained after Las Vegas with a very respectable fourth place. He was competitive at Atlanta and lead for two laps, but ran out of time and finished a disappointed fourteenth. This is where Joe Penland, Jr. and Tom O’Hara over took him in the points race, but not by much. Strong finishes by Penland and O’Hara at Darlington keep them slightly ahead in the race to the Championship, but Hills second in the #40 Ford tells the top contenders to keep a sharp lookout for this Moncton, New Brunswick maple leaf Canadian.
Last week you may recall (another near beer or three might bring it back) that we were asked to look into the goings on of drivers Ray Meizoso, Jr., Steve Grehn, and Scott Gilroy. The smoking gun concerning these drivers, or should I say, guys was seen at Las Vegas where Scott finished thirteen, followed by Ray and Steve in fourteen and fifteenth respectively. So what do these guys do at Darlington? And keep in mind that they don’t even belong to the same team, but they might want to consider forming their own. Well, at Darlington they had the nerve to start fifteenth (Steve), sixteenth (Ray) and eighteenth (Scott). Then they had the audacity to finish fourteenth (Ray), fifteenth (Steve), and sixteenth (Scott). Sure they tried to disguise their closeness by finishing on different laps - 144, 142, and 140. Gilroy even left the race with a burned piston to further the masquerade, but it is to no avail. Clearly these gentlemen have something going and we are determined to get to the bottom of it. Stay tuned.
There is a nasty rumor going around after the Darlington race that at least one of the Pro drivers did not scrape the wall at anytime before or during the race. The driver that put in this disgraceful display of disrespect for the “Lady in Black” is herewith asked to come forward and admit his cowardly shame. But if he were smart, and what Flashpoint driver isn’t, he would continue to deny it.
Rain threatened the track with heavy dark clouds, a mild 71 degrees temperature, and a slight 7 mph wind from the Southeast. The race took 1:35 hours with an average speed of 126.6 mph and six caution periods. The rains never came, but that is not to say that several drivers were heard to wish for it. Just ask the driver of the #07 Chevrolet. He started third and was the only former Semi-Pro driver from last season to compete at “The Track to Tough to Tame” with the rest of the Pro’s. A good hard rain before halfway would have been merciful to him. But it was not to be.
Daniel White Puts In Sterling Performance to Win Darlington in Semi-Pro
Last week Rich Ganser showed the way by coming from dead last to win at Atlanta, how Daniel White demonstrated just how easy it is to do, but does it at Darlington. Easy?! Am I nuts or what? The #114 Chevrolet driven by White was denied a win at Atlanta. White lead there for 58 laps, which was more than twice as much as the winner.
But White was not to be denied at Darlington. He took a provisional start and started last on the field of fifteen. He fought his way to the front and passed five other drives that also shared the lead at one time or another. Not the least of which was Russell Smith, Sr., who was out front for a total of 58 laps. Russell also took the pole with a speed of 172.016 mph. He was strong all day and finished only second to White. But it became obvious at some point that White’s #114 was the car to beat. Daniel of Sim Boyz Racing had a beautifully setup Chevrolet. It was at the head of the pack for at total of 75 laps (51% of the time).
This is how White summed it up, “After getting glued to the wall in qualifying, I started the race in last position. I decided to hang back, exercising patience and caution, until the race smoothed out, (thereby) letting all who were going to wreck do so without interfering. After the first caution, I found myself in eighth place. I continued to exercise caution and drove through several more yellow flags. Once I made my way into third place I knew I could drive my line and that future wrecks would be behind me. The key to the race was to avoid physical damage to the car. I did, however, get some spoiler damage driving through a wreck. I pitted, added twenty pounds of wedge, and the result was no apparent affects to the driving of the car. After this we ran a few good green lap runs and I found myself battling with car #63, Russ Smith, Sr., for the lead. I knew if I drove my line I could make it difficult for him to pass by and take the lead. A caution soon came out and I made the decision to pit hoping that the rest would follow my lead. The majority did so, including car #63. When I came out of the pit I found myself in second place behind a car that did not pit. At the green flag I had no problem overcoming this car due to the fact that I had a fresh set of rubber. For the remainder of the race I drove my line to the best of my abilities in order to keep car #63 behind me. My strategies for this race worked, and I took home the win. Great race!!”
After his win at Atlanta, Rich Ganser took first in the driver points race. He started fourth at Darlington and lead for two laps. But his not up to scratch twelfth place finish slid him down to third in this hotly contested race for the Championship of Semi-Pro. Taking over first place is David Johnson in the #49 Chevrolet of Super Sport Racing 2. His fourth place at Darlington was sufficient to put him there, although a mere one point ahead of Russell Smith. But don’t make slight of Johnson. He got to first in the points by running in only four of the five events run so far this season. The Ragin Cajun Chevrolet driven by Rene’ “Majek” Steinkamp actually moved forward in points but slid back to fourth, a mere 5 points out of first place. His #118 Loose Cannons Racing team car took an ass-backwards approach to qualifying by crossed the start/finish line backwards, also continued it’s dominance of the eighth place finishing position by during so for the fourth start race. By doing so he became the only driver to have a top five finish in all five races. Only two drivers have four top ten finishes, the points leader Johnson and the driver in the eight position in points, Steve Richard. Richard took the checker in fifth at Darlington in the #81 Chevrolet for Team Ordnance.
Richard Perry, who is still driving injured in the #42 Chevrolet, started in eleventh spot. The Denver, Colorado driver of WorTuk Motorsports 2 team is now fifth in the points. One wonders where he would be if not driving hurt. Tre Landry who won week before last in his first race started on the outside pole position. He took a powder (i.e. disconnected) and found himself several laps down. With help from cautions and follow drivers he made most of the laps up but had to retire on lap 126 and finished ninth. Mick Chrisman survive an early encounter (i.e. wreck) with his TeamUSA teammate (actually Glen Pittman of that other USA team) and finished in third in his #09 Chevrolet. Glen Pittman got a top ten in his #5 Chevy in tenth.
The Semi-Pro drivers who have an infinite for all things yellow, particularly flags, where not up to their past performances in this regard and totaled only 13 caution periods. This performance still outpaced the Pro and Stock drivers who managed only six apiece, or if you rather, a full dozen together. Still there was enough pandemonium to eliminate Scott Thomason’s #39 Chevrolet and the TeamUSA Stripes #40 of Mike Barlow by accidents. Besides Landry, four other drivers had to retire and all before the race was little more than halfway over.
One of these was Joe McKinley, who most fall under the old saying of, “If he didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all.” McKinley’s #21 Chevrolet of TeamUSA Stripes had an excellent qualifying lap and started third. But it was not to be again. Yes, again. Joe didn’t complete one lap in the race. That would be bad luck enough, but there is more. McKinley missed the Atlanta race, but a week before at Las Vegas he had another fine qualifying but completed only one lap. He also missed the North Carolina Speedway race, but was present at Daytona. It was at Daytona that it all started. There McKinley got the outside pole, but then broke the camshaft and did not complete a lap. Obviously, there is a very ugly pattern to all this and according to it, Joe will miss next weeks race (say, who could blame him) and at the following event will qualify well but will retire early, very early. Bud, you got to make Bristol next week to break this horrific chain of events. Otherwise, --- will, you know. P.S. McKinley is also way out front for the Goody’s Headache award for the season.
With six caution flags the race took 1:35 hours and saw 12 lead changes and an average speed of 126.6 mph.
Scott MacDougall Stays Out Front and Leaps to First Place With Win at Darlington
As Scott MacDougall drove his #109 for Team Storm Chaser over the finish line to take his first win on the season, he not only took home the Darlington trophy, he leaped from third in the Stock driver points race into first. Perry Malavolta, who has occupied the first place position in failed to enter his #73 Dodge of CCS/RTR in the event and thereby slide to seventh in the points.
MacDougall, who has been in the top five in points since Rockingham also jumped over Gary Vega of Arachnid Racing, but not by much --- only 2 points. Vega has been cased in second since the beginning of the season and saw the opportunity to take over first with Malavolta’s absence, but it was not in the cards. Vega in the #35 Pontiac gave it his all by finishing only second to MacDougall. Vega lead for 24 laps, but MacDougall took home five more bonus points for leading the most with 59. But for those bonus five points, Vega would be first in the points. It pays to be out front time and again.
It was the smallest field so far this season in the Stock Division. Only nine drivers contended for the victory at Darlington (the largest field was seventeen at Daytona). Sonny R. Freeland in his first Stock Division race took the pole with a speed of 170.077 mph; however, after 32 laps he retired from the race, but did manage to lead for eight laps. Last week’s winner, Chad Moore started sixth and finished third in the #13 Dodge just behind his teammate Gary Vega. Fourth place went to Ken Vega of VEGCO Racing in the #8 Pontiac, but one lap down.
Two laps further back, the #38 Chevy of Rex Adams took home his fifth top ten after leading for 54 laps. Rex has lead the most laps so far this season with 174. Roy Wurgley of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania also took home his fifth top ten for Fantasy Racein in the #60 Dodge. He retired on lap 99 in seventh where he started when the green flag dropped. Rick Cunningham of Chester, South Carolina in his first Stock event took home sixth, one position back from his start. The Goody’s Headache award was presented to Wayne Hales in the #44 Chevrolet, who got a top ten finish and 138 points by showing up, starting in ninth and finishing there after retiring two laps into the race. Hales moved from eleventh in driver points to eight and just behind Perry Malavolta, last week’s points leader. A free more headaches like that and Wayne might find himself in the top five.
The race took 1:37 hours with an average speed of 123.766 mph. The margin of victory was only 0.19 seconds. There were only six cautions in the thin field, but there were nine lead changes among five drivers.
Team Points Race Sees Little Movement and One Unlikely Addition
Excalibur Racing Shield took home 24 points from Darlington, which was just a little more than enough to dislodge Blue Cobalt Motorsports from third place. Blue Cobalt Motorsports got 17 points out of its effort at Darlington. Super Sport Racing 1 maintained its first place position by taking home the same amount of points (i.e. 24) as Excalibur Racing Sword, which remained second. The rest of the teams maintained their positions, but Sim Boyz Racing joined the race in twelfth spot earning one team point by virtue of driver Daniel White’s win in the Semi-Pro event.
Voodoo Majek Prediction for Bristol
In memory of my new car sponsor, Voodoo Majek, we will be digging up the old dead rubber chicken from the backyard each week and boiling it in a vat of select southern Cajun seasonings (mostly dead things and not so dead things) in order to predict the Pro Division winner of the next race.
As you know, the next event is at the bullring of Bristol. Just surviving this race is an accomplishment, and since luck plays more than a big part in whom the eventual winner is, the rubber chicken's prediction is a good as any. OK, the chicken has been boiling for several hours and the stench is now overwhelming, it's time to spin dry it and load it in the old strong-bow. All right, it’s now loaded and the gut is pulled back as far we dare pull it, so let it rip. Wang! And the loser is? I’m really sorry. Rather the winner is, ---Tom Hammond?? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Tom, I believe is no longer competing. Load her up again boys. OK, shot! Wang!!! Now that is more like it. The predicted winner of the Bristol race is Jonathan Frey, driver of the #51 Chevrolet of TeamUSA Stars. No, I didn’t say to fry the chicken. I said the winner of the Bristol race would be Frey. Geez, do we have to do this next week?! Say, didn’t the Cajun recipe call for five dead swamp rats and only one ear of elephant. Get me the cookbook. The book, please! See, I told you it called for side orders of gumbo, jambalaya, and shrimp etouffee.