Flashpoint: Pro Series Recap From Talladega Race #8
- NR4
- Published ()
- Flashpoint Racing Series
The noted superspeedway driver, Ian Kaul started on the outside pole position. He soon had his #84 Chevrolet for Blue Cobalt Motorsports out front for over sixty percent (130 miles) of the 76 laps event. But it turned out to be the wrong 49 laps at the end, as he unfortunately finished second just as he did at Daytona. Blue Cobalt also took the front row when William Hills grabbed the pole with a speed of 181.922 mph, but then only lead one lap in the #40 and finished fourth. Super Sport Racing 1 team member, Rick Geddes, up from the Semi-Pro ranks, started in third just behind Hill. The Atlanta, Georgia driver fought it out with the upfront pack, lead for two laps in the #27 Chevy, and finished not ingloriously where he started. Starting just to the right of Geddes was Joe Penland, Jr., also of Super Sport Racing 1, who weaved his way up front for a total of five laps, but by the finished was five laps down in the #1 Ford and finished a very disappointed seventeenth. Starting from the inside of the third row, the #68 Dodge of Michael Matthews moved up to the front to lead a total of two laps for Team Ordnance, but when the checker flew, Michael was thirteenth and one lap down. The winner of the last points race, Tom O'Hara started tenth, but did get his #11 Dodge out front for a lap for Excalibur Racing Sword. O'Hara finished in fifth for another top five, and is the only driver in an division to have eight top ten finishes, the most. Troy Worrick driving the #4 Chevrolet for Super Sport Racing 1 and our winner at Daytona, Las Vegas, and second place finisher last race, also got out front for a total of 8 laps, but his day ended fourteenth and two laps down. By the way, Worrick has the most top five finishes of any driver in any division with seven (David Johnson in the Semi-Pro Division is runner up with six). But as you can see, none of these excellent drivers, found the winners circle. They and several other contenders for the gold ring fell short. They all got waxed by the thirteenth place starter, who found the position a very lucky spot (unlike the starting positions for his teammates Penland and Worrick). After all the smoke cleared and all the debris and oil was removed from the tri-oval after three caution periods, it was Joe Simmons in victory lane for his first win of the season. He may have lead only eight laps, but one of them was for the gold. But it didn't come that easy.
Joe Simmons had this to say after his hard fought and exciting first win of the season, "This was the race of a life time. We had a great competitive race through the whole race. Before the race started, my concerns were engine temperature, gear selection, and losing the draft. I lost the lead draft early in the race and didn't really think that I would get back up there, but I got lucky with a middle of the race caution. I had minor damage but it didn't affect the handling of the car. After that, I knew I needed to gain some positions. With about 20 (laps) to go in the race, I was running third and Rick Geddes was running forth so I knew I had a chance. With the engine temp up to 230 degrees, I was worried, so I started to get some clean air on the high side and I knew that was going to be the only way around Ian Kaul and William Hills. So Rick and I started to make our moves and so did Ian and William. Every lap was so competitive. When the caution came out with 3 to go and we were racing back to the line we were on the backstretch and side by side I had Rick Geddes, Roger Hurley and Troy Worrick right there to push me by Ian and William on the high side. Rick Geddes, Roger Hurley, and Troy Worrick made this happen for me this week at Talladega and that is what make Super Sport Racing one of the best team all around because every week it is a total team effort. Thank you to all my teammates at Super Sport Racing and Flashpoint Racing for giving me a great place to race. The #86 Game Commander Super Sport Racing Chevy finally get in victory lane and wins against the King of Super Speedway racing Ian Kaul."
Our dynamic trio of Scott Gilroy, Steve Grehn, and Ray Meizoso, Jr., gave it their all again. It appears that Scott and Steve have made-up as they place their respective #6 Chevy and #76 Dodge together again by finishing eight and ninth, while staying on the lead lap. On the other hand the #77 Chevrolet of Ray Meizoso, Jr., started sixteenth only to move up to fifteenth and two laps down at the end. Speaking of trio's, three drivers besides Rick Geddes also finished exactly where they started: David Schaeffer's #56 Pontiac held on to sixth, Roger Hurley's #33 Chevrolet would not let go of eleventh, and Jeff Russell's #12 Ford match his car number and finished just behind Hurley in twelfth. And what of our come-from-behind artist, Dana "Sneaky"Lee, well the style work for the Excalibur Racing Sword driver, but only about halfway this time. The #48 Chevy started second to last in seventeenth and finished on the lead lap all right, but as the last car in tenth. Fans of our two-time winner Gary Truman saw their star give it a good shot starting eight, but finishing a somewhat thwarted seventh.
There were eighteen starters at Talladega and all where still running at the end, including the #26 Dodge of Dave Finkel (Dave, the Voodoo Majek Chicken is still sorry about what happened) and the #30 Chevy of Colin Hurd (And as to how Colin finished, the V.M. Chicken like Colin had nothing to say). The weather of central Alabama was "warm" at 85 degrees with a comfortable 9 mph from the Southwest, with clear skies. The margin of victory was 0.51 seconds. The average speed was 138.166 mph and the race took 1:27 hours.
The cheers reverberated around David Johnson in Victory Circle as he leaped out of his #49 Chevrolet for Super Sport Racing 2 team and had this to say, "I first have to thank everyone on the Super Sport team. I certainly wouldn't be where I am now without all the help and support they've given me to succeed. Joe, Troy, HH, Chris, Roger, Rick, and Scott have really gotten me on track and rolling. Also a big thanks to our new sponsors on the cars, Game commander has came on and are a official sponsor of Super Sport, a great addition to the team. Now to the race, I made the setup myself that I used in the race for the first time. The first half was real fun with the brake-out lead with Russ (Smith), me, (Daniel) White, (Richard) Perry, and Jason (Shomper), some of the best racing I have had in a long time. That green, white, checker (at the end) really got me worried, I knew Richard had a good car and I knew White would make a run if he could, but at the time I did not know the extent of injuries to the car. I knew Jason would get a draft with Richard and try for the pass. But when I came to the white flag lap I was so relieved to see that black dodge (of Russell Smith, Sr.) in my rear view in all my life. Thanks a lot there at the end, Russ. And a big thanks to all the competitors"
While there was a total of fifteen lead changes, Johnson's only serious competition for the day was put forth by Daniel White, although Rochester, New York's Jason Shomper would give serious argument to that as he placed his #03 Chevrolet in second place and ahead of White. Jason led a total of four laps and also picked up the first team point for Loose Cannons Racing. And Denver, Colorado's Richard Perry said, "Hey, wait a darn minute", or something like that, as he came up from twelfth to lead for six laps and finish fourth. And the pole setter Steve Richard, with a speed of 181.708 (which would have been outside the pole in the Pro race), said his #81 Chevy of Team Lightspeed could have won as he lead two laps and finished fifth. But these three nearly-wells aren't close to Daniel White in the #114 Chevrolet. Two-time winner, White stated second and lead a total of 26 laps and was in contention most of the time. Nevertheless, he finished frustrated in third.
The Semi-Pro drivers showed signs of improvement as they out did their Texas performance by scoring one less caution with only four. However, the bend sheet metal did hinder the day for several drivers. And while the official results indicated that everyone of the thirteen starters where there at the end, the lap count shows otherwise. Russell Freund started his #98 Chevrolet in fourth for TeamUSA Patriots. He appeared to have a very good car but in one of the early accidents tagged the wall hard and was effectively eliminated. He soldiered on to the end finishing in ninth and eleven laps down. The #5 Chevrolet of Glen Pittman saw his TeamUSA Stars ride damaged and he parked it on lap 23. Joe McKinley's #21 Chevrolet lead for six laps and was gone by lap thirteen, and was joined by Dean Day in the #29. And in an almost repeat of the last race, Andy Bacio's Loose Cannon Racing #58 Chevy was parked on lap one. But it wasn't his fault as a spinning car nicked him just enough to send him directly into the outside wall killing his engine. Then there was the accident after the caution, when the #118 Chevrolet of Rene Steinkamp and the #66 Ford of Steve Salvatore found the entrance to pit road a wee bit narrow for two cars to enter simultaneously. The resulting damage slowed these cars enough to finishes of seventh and eighth respectively. Russell Smith, Sr., who started seventh in the #63 Dodge of Team Ordnance finished sixth and one lap down to the leaders.
Six cars exchanged the lead fifteen times. The margin of victory was only 0.51 seconds. With four cautions the race was completed in 1:27 minutes with an average speed of 138.2 mph. Ditto the Pro weather.
With nineteen lead changes among nine drives the Stock race provided lots of thrills. The last time there were that many lead changes was back at the start of the season at Daytona, which was also recorded by the Stock Division with 24. The most excited driver of all was the winner. Bruce English in only his fourth start (this time for ninth spot) in the Stock Division took his second win of the season at Talladega Superspeedway. As his Arachnid Racing teammates cheered, Bruce had this to say in victory circle, "Well, I'm not gonna say that was easy because it definitely wasn't. Racing that last 20 laps with Perry Malavolta and Ken Vega nose to tail was a lot of fun and key to us finishing in the top 3, but those last few laps were sure exciting as I think we each led a lap there at the end. I was just fortunate enough to be able to complete that outside move for the lead in turn 1 on the last lap and hold off their charges on the final stretch. That was enjoyable. And I'd like to mention that this race was completed with only one caution. My hat's off to this division!! Very smart racing, guys." And just a note on the Arachnid Ace, for a third straight month Bruce English has won Flashpoint's monthly rankings contest. Once again, he received a prize from Finders...Sellers for being the top ranked driver out of 702 competitors. This months contest was resolved in a recount encouraged by Paul Travis, who had apparently won the month's contest on the first tally. Paul, however, didn't think the count was accurate and worked with CEO Joe Lomas to reexamine the results. The audit showed that Bruce had, in fact, won the contest. Paul should be given a prize for integrity. You're first rate Paul.Perry Malavolta with a speed of 181.550 took his third pole of the season for the CCS/RTR team in the #73 Dodge, but what the Cedar Lake, Indiana driver didn't know at the start was that he would also finish third in the race. Malavolta is now tied with Russell Smith, Sr., of the Semi-Pro Division with three poles each. They are the only multi-pole winners, as no other drivers have more than one pole (i.e. no driver has won two poles either). Ken Vega gave English the greatest challenge by leading a total of twenty-six laps, and Malavolta also got into the fight by leading for seventeen laps. Luis D. Sarabia in his first race of the season was impressive by taking the outside pole with a speed of 181.295 mph and then went on to leap two laps and finish with a top five in fourth. The #109 of Scott MacDougall placed the Team Storm Chaser car in fifth having moved up from seventh and leading a lap. The #31 Pontiac of Team Nemesis Silver driven by Rick Burdette placed just outside the top five in sixth. Rich lead five laps. Rex Adams also lead a lap in the #38 Chevy as did Thomas Stinson in the #97 Ford, but they finished respectively eleventh and twelfth. Starting eighth, tenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, and not leading a lap, and finishing respectively seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth were Wayne Hales, Chad Moore, Peter Ford (his first race), and Roy Wurgley. Mike Woodman, also a new starter to the Stock Division, had an impressive start in third spot, but finished second to last in fifteenth. Gary Vega placed the #35 Pontiac on the starting grid in fourth, but finished only two spots in front of Woodman, and just ahead of Kip Miller's #39 Chevrolet. But they were separated by many laps. Skip Carey completed the finishing order after completing only two laps.
With a field of sixteen cars, the Stock drivers old and new continued to show the other Division how to drive practically caution free. There was only one caution, resulting in the fastest race of the Series at 1:12 hours and the top average speed of 167.052 mph. The weather copied that of the Pro Division.
Excalibur Racing Sword after Talladega gained only one point in its attempt to capture the lead from Super Sport Racing 1, which now has a total of 197 points. Blue Cobalt Racing took back third place over Excalibur Racing Shield, with Super Sport Racing 2 team remaining in fifth. TeamUSA Stars got enough points to tie with Team Ordnance with 52 points each in sixth. BT Motorsports displaced Team Nemesis Black to take over ninth spot. Loose Cannons Racing got its first point of the season and moved into a tie with Sim Boyz Racing.
{So boss, how did your meeting with the Voodoo Majek Chicken's press agent go? Well, Chuckie, the Chicken's agent said Voodoo was upset at me for referring to him as a "two headed freak". I told him I did not recall referring to anyone, no less the three-headed freak as a two-header freak. But I get ahead of myself. The agent introduced himself as Purple Glaze. Ya, you heard me right. Purple Glaze. Can you believe it? Anyway, he went on try to impress me by indicating he was the one responsible for naming the formerly "unnamed entertainer" formerly known as "Prince", who is now know as "Prince" again, or something like that. To say the least, I was not impressed. Anyhow, he pulls out this contract and on page 352, section, 32, paragraph 6, line 3, proceeds to point out that it is an breach of the Chicken's contract to refer to him in any derogatory manner. So I up and pulled out our Employee Policy Statement that indicates on page 427, section 12, paragraph 36, line 112, that at anytime (and often too) I can refer to any person, place, or thing on the premises in any defamatory manner that pleases me, and that was that. He then said his "derogatory" outweighed my "defamatory", and well, it just got real nasty after that. At some point, I don't recall if it was before or after the pie throwing, I stuck a cigar in his ear and showed him the back door. Boss, we ain't got a back door. Precisely, Chuckie. So Boss, did you have a talk with the Chicken after that. Ya, I grabbed the stupid rubber bird by his legs as he tried to tiptoe out from under my desk and pounded his head on the desktop several times, breaking my good lava lamp in the process. But he seemed a lot more reasonable afterward. And I should felt a lot better too (that six-pack didn't hurt either). Say, you think the animal rights people are going to be on your back about waylaying the bird again. Na, the dumb cock has no brains in his head anyway. I'm not the least bit worried about that. It's not like I'm clubbing baby seals or something. ".. Later that same day the Chicken is overheard asks Chuckie how to spell the words "cruelty"and "indictment" as he fills out a PETA membership form. More to follow, we're sure.}
Well as you have no doubt heard, the Voodoo Majek Chicken successfully predicted the winner of the Semi-Pro race. That's right, David Johnson won. Yet another feather in the Chicken's hat. {What Chuckie?! Can't you see I am making a presentation to our loyal and faithful followers? But Boss, the Chicken indicated that Johnson would win the Coca-Cola race, not the Talladega race. Chuckie please! Formality, pure technical crap! The point is the Chicken predicted Johnson would win. The "where" just isn't that important. But Boss! Boss, nothing Chuckie! Now get out of my hair}. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Voodoo Majek Chicken was right again {Again? It's the first time he has even been close}. And those statements about it being an inside deal are pure, unadulterated hogwash. Believe me folks. Pure hogwash.
Now, on with next weeks winners. Our "Technique Expert", Chuckie, has come up with a much better approach to launching the Voodoo Majek Chicken on his prediction flights. Shall we bring it out and show it to our audience. {What do mean, they wouldn't bring it out until we paid the rental fee?} Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, we seem to be having technical difficulties. I'll be right back. {How what are we going to do? We can't use the bow again. Quick Chuckie, get the vacuum cleaner}. Sorry, for the delay folks. Don't be fooled ladies and gentlemen. It might look like a 1950's vac, but it is actually the most modern rubber chicken-launching device available to mankind since the last time we planted the Chicken on the moon. OK, plug it in and get the bird attached. Oh god, he got you again, Chuckie. Nasty bite that. OK. Aim. Fire. Voooooooooooooo. You got in on the right speed? Get out of the way, Chuckie. There. Now, it's on high. VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Look out; the darn bird is going to explode. Take cover everyone. Sheeeeessssssssssssss. POP!! All right folks, you can get from under your chairs now. It's all clear. You can shut off the all-clear siren too, Chuckie. Geez. Now, what are the predictions this time?! Pro Race: Dana Lee Semi-Pro: Steve Richard Stock: Peter Ford {shall we all bow our heads in a moment of silence for these inopportune drivers}.
Don't be alarmed folks. Those sirens you hear heading this way are just for the Voodoo Majek Chicken. Unlike last week, no one was hurt. We just want to be safe, and have him checked out at the Voodoo Majek HMO Clinic. We're sure he'll be fine. {Say Doc, you think we can get the pieces back together. I mean, his entire head blow-off. The pieces are everywhere. It's all stuck in what is left of Chuckie's hair. What a mess. And you think there is anything we can do, short of amputation, for Chuckie�s hand. I haven't seen a gash like that since last month when he bite off your left foot. Man, that must hurt.}
Newsflash: Flashpoint driver accused of making prediction deal with Voodoo Majek Chicken. Tune in next week (if you dare) for details.