HFRL: Battle at Bristol
- NR4
- Published ()
- Hurricane Force Racing League
Days of preparation are finished. Hundreds of practice laps have been turned. Tires have been scorched. It's time to "put up or shut up". Hurricane Force Racers are at the mighty bowl in Bristol. Drivers are quiet and focused wondering just one thing: "Am I going to make it to the end of this thing?" Attitudes have been left at the gates and the thickest skins are worn as drivers climb into their cars. Body shop personnel have no misconceptions that their cars will escape unscathed. There is nothing left to do but start. It's "Game On" and race fans are drooling with anticipation. The Battle at Bristol is about to start!
Bristol Race Racap
Steve Tanner took the Bud Pole Award in the #25 Sherwin Williams car and led the field to the start. Steve had a great car all day and showed everyone how to stay up front for much of the race.
Lap 6, #63, Don Miller, steps too hard on the gas and gets the car loose in turn 4. Don stayed out of the wall and everyone avoided him with no problem. Miller was able to straighten the car quickly and get back to racing.
Lap 14, #21, Troy Bouffard, opens the door for #05, Brad Burns, to take the low line. Brad shoots for it but Troy slides down to claim it also. The cars touch and Troy slides heavily up to the wall but keeps off it turning the wheel hard to the left. As he is sliding back down toward the inside groove, #30, Shawn Anthony, swipes him sending Troy into the wall. The car bounces off the wall lightly but enough to put it right in front of #86, Jerry Davenport for a solid broadside impact.
Lap 16, #05 puts his LF tire on the apron going into turn 1. As Brad gets the car off "the rail", the rear end goes high. Shawn has no where to go a plows into Brad putting him on his roof.
Lap 21, #40, Bob Brewer gets into the backend of #98, David Stickney in turn 3. David recovered quickly with very little damage.
Lap 27, Steve gives the fans a great show up front after the restart. The side-by-side action during restarts was always a very tense event.
Lap 27, Shawn and John Wilcko, #62, close up on each other on the high side out of turn 2. # 17, John McClaren, works the wheel violently but can't avoid the contact. All the while, John manages to roll the car over once completely.
Lap 32, Don gets into David after the restart out of turn 2. Troy is committed already to the impending doom and gets punted hard clockwise for heavy rear damage. One trip later down pit road and his car gets lightened up minus the rear bumper. In a port-race interview, David had this to say about his day: "Nothing much to say... taken out of contention again. Feel bad for the guys that put the car together... they will be working overtime on this one"
Lap 36, Jerry Davenport makes contact with the #18 car of Jim Russell coming out of turn 2. Jim did a great job of getting back on the track without further incident.
Lap 43, #27, David Graham and Steve Tanner enjoy some excellent clean racing in the turns.
Lap 66, Troy breaks loose and John gets into him quickly without a chance of dodging. #2, Rick Clark has trouble getting out of the way and gets into his first meeting of the day. (time to break out the briefcase of body parts-meeting adjourned).
Lap 74, Shawn brings it around as Brad sets the car straight into him for additional damages and headaches. (not even half way through yet!)
Lap 80, Mr. Anthony and John barely nick each other, but it was enough to create a good size pile-up on the front stretch.
Lap 89, Graham gets loose on turn 2. David has no problem recovering. After the race, we asked David what brought about the less-than-satisfactory finish: "I was the first car a lap down when the caution came out and to be courteous to the lead lap cars we went down pit road so that they could go at it for the final laps. The official had the stop sign up and when I slowed to stop, the guys behind me shoved me across the line causing me to serve a black flag. Its Bristol, we'll come back and get 'em next week."
Lap 117, #6 Gary Bell and Bob have fun in turn 3. Bob started out a lap down with communications problems in his car. His team quickly fixed it and he managed to get his lap back easily with the help of several courteous racers.
Lap 163, the drivers enjoy an excellent long run. This was the first time drivers had a chance to see how their cars truly measured up. Gary's car couldn't be slowed down after putting in several dozen laps. His car definitely was one of the strongest on the long runs. Unfortunately, his right front took a pounding and he had to pit, losing his commanding lead. After the race, we asked Gary what occurred and who made the call to pit: "It was the crew chiefs call.....I felt as if I had a right front going down...so we figured instead of wrecking, myself and other drivers, we would come in to get four fresh ones...and hope for the best"
Lap 167, Bob and Gary make contact in the turn. Gary's fresh tires got him moving too quickly for Bob to realize that Gary was NOT gonna be slowing down anytime soon.
Lap 171, John gets high out of turn 2 and swipes the wall. The following bounce off the retainer nudged Gary and John, sending them smacking into the pit wall for heavy front-end damages.
Lap 178, Shawn slides the rear end high in turn 2. Troy (mirror without hood), is directly in Shawn's path and adds to the collection. Bob goes low to dodge and nails the end of the pit wall, killing his engine in seconds.
Lap 192, Wilcko catches up to #2, Rick Clark, as he slows. John's momentum sends Rick on his turn finally. Rick was only 8 laps from having a perfectly clean race.
Lap 200, Dave Wallace, #33 took over for last part of the race and never looked back. He brought home a clean car and win breaking his winless streak with authority baby!
Following his celebration, we got with Dave to ask him about some thoughts:
Reporter: "Dave, how does it feel to win again?"
Dave:" It feels great to finally get a win after such a long dry spell"
Reporter: When did you decide you were going to get out front and stay?
Dave: During the long green flag run, I was committed to staying on the track until the checkered flag flew. I caught a break with a caution, which luckily put several other fast cars a lap down.
Reporter: Anything else?
Dave: "One final quote...I gotta thank my teammates from Down Force Racing, it is truly a team effort sharing setup information, and putting in the practice time during the week. This win would not have been possible without the total team effort."
Bristol managed, once again, to humble the best of us. Drivers did a good job of keeping feelings tucked away throughout the race. NASCAR Officials were ruthless with penalties flags the whole day. Communication between drivers, crew chiefs and officials was at a constant disconnect as drivers ended up eating several questionable black flags, but it's all part of racing. The gang is headed to Texas next for high banks and high G's. Most people quickly agree that Texas is the second fastest non-plate track in the Winston Cup Program. This reporter gaurentees that suspensions will be beefed up considerably for the gorgeous tri-oval outside of Dallas. Until then, blow a tire!