|
Call this event a Tale of Two Tracks. Despite starting track prep immediately after Friday night's show, the North Florida Speedway surface was very dry and took rubber instantly. Passing in the heats was at a minimum. I suspect the full sun and higher temps caused this since the track received a healthy dousing of rain on Friday morning. The track crew did work the track before the feature and added some water, but it really didn't help much (but it did help).
That said, tonight's show had 31 entries.
Quick time (and new track record): Lance DeWease
Heat winners: Bob Felmlee, Paul McMahon, Ryan Myers and Dustin Morgan (again)
Dash winner: Danny Smith. Shuman slipped into tonight's feature with a fourth place finish. Geoff Dodge had the spot, but struggled to keep the car going straight in 3/4 with a sizable lead over Shuman. Lee Stark was fifth and just missed making the show. But, Stark's night was much better than Friday.
B-Main: Brock Mayes
Feature was a Posse Stomping as Fred Rahmer picked up his first win of the new season. He was followed by Lucas Wolfe and Lance DeWease. Danny Smith was a distant fourth. Brandon Martin fifth and Randy Hanagan sixth.
Rahmer jumped to the front at from his outside front row spot and never gave it up. One caution after the first few laps when Casey Shuman lost power in 3/4. After that, the race went green all the way. Wolfe closed toward the end and was looking inside Rahmer but couldn't make it stick. In the last few laps he got slowed trying to get around the lapped car of McMahon and Rahmer had clear sailing after that.
On the second lap, Rahmer's motor pushed some oil out onto the headers which erupted into fire and smoke causing many to think he blew. NOT.
Again, another safe night with no reds. Kaley Gharst did break a motor in his heat race driving Webb's car.
Overall, North Florida was a good host and the All Stars have indicated they will return next year. Also, rumor is that the All Stars will add Ocala Speedway next year to fill in between North Florida and Volusia. Ocala is being converted back to dirt.
Also, kudos to the UMP Mods. They brought a good field of 30+ and their events (except the B-Main) ran quick and clean with a lot of good racing. Lot of good drivers from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Other notables were Buzzie Reuttimann (Friday only). Florence regular David McWilliams and PA late model ace Dave Hess. Most impressive were the young Tyler Thompson (I believe they said he was 15yrs old) and Julie McDermid who finished third tonight.
Well, a few days to soak this action in and then, if all goes to plan, I'm off to Volusia for the first three nights for the All Star action. After that, I'll pack it in because I don't care to pay the inflated ticket prices just because the sanction changes name from All Star to WoO. And, on Friday, all hotels and everything else jumps up in cost because the NASCRAP crowd will descend on the beach area like a plague of locusts for the Saturday night Bud Shootout (do they even call it that anymore?).
For those who think I've gone completely wing crazy, don't worry. I'm keeping the faith by wearing a Damion Gardner T-shirt (in honor of his Chili Bowl win), a Sheldon Kinser Memorial Sweatshirt and my faithful USAC cap. Of course this brought some questions from locals who wanted to know why they weren't getting any non-wing action in Florida this year. While I had no answer to that question, I did tell them that Indiana is a great place spend summer vacations.
|