Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings from FLA
Monday, January 30, 2006
There seems to be three tracks that Terry McCarl is especially tough to beat: Huset’s, Knoxville and East Bay. He proved that once again this weekend by winning Friday’s prelim over Travis Rilat and Saturday’s finale over Greg Wilson. McCarl claimed the $10,000 winner’s check on Friday night for Nebraska car owner Mark Burch in a Wolfweld Chassis. He is eligible for a $50,000 bonus if he can win the non-wing Bandits finale on Wednesday and the 410 finale on Saturday. It is a bit of a long shot as McCarl has just one previous wingless start, albeit an impressive one at Knoxville…Rilat, for his part, was the only driver consistently able to run with McCarl throughout the preliminary nights. His weekend ended badly, however, when he caught the berm in turn one and flipped hard, badly crunching the front of his racer. Rilat will run the full ASCS National tour this year, dubbed the ASCoT (American Sprint Car on Tour)…This was the kickoff for the new series and there seems to be plenty of interest among the teams in pursuing it. After talking to teams in Florida, there seems to be around 15-20 teams with solid plans to run the schedule…Sean McClelland plans to run the whole tour but he got off to a rough start. The Okie destroyed his only racer in a high-altitude act in turn one on Friday and skipped the finale.
Oklahoma micro sprint graduate Brad Best made his Sprint Car debut at East Bay and looked good before tangling with Tyler Godwin in the Saturday B-main. Best was quite impressive, all things considered, and will mix in several ASCoT races into his Sooner Region schedule. Best’s car owner is Allen Murray, a central Pennsylvania transplant to San Antonio, Texas, and the duo has several cars and engines, including one from Sam Hafertepe Jr., ready to go for this season…Roger Rager put Kevin Frey’s 2k into the Saturday finale. The team once again plans to run the Masters Classic this year and will make periodic starts throughout the season…Two-time ’05 Knoxville winner Johnny Anderson looked good throughout the weekend until Daytona Beach teenager Matt Tiffany blew a left rear and flipped in front of him in Saturday’s heat races. Anderson pounded the underside of Tiffany’s car and completely crushed the front of his car. As for Tiffany, he was uninjured in the incident, although slow to climb from the wreckage.
A press release issued last week has the NST going to Cedar Lake on Monday, July 10…Jesse Hockett will head out onto the road with the ASCoT as the VKCC Motorsports team has reloaded with new equipment. He will switch to DRC Chassis this season. Hockett salvaged a poor weekend with a great drive on Saturday night to ninth and was one of the few racers to make the high side work during the locked-down finale. Hockett is skipping the non-wing portion because he has to return to Missouri in time to fly to Perris Auto Speedway for next weekend’s opening day…Terry Pletch affixed a wing for this weekend’s action and related that 2006 will be his final season of driving. Pletch has been racing for nearly 40 seasons, including his motorcycle days, and will be 60 by season’s end. It will be a sad day when Pletch straps in for the last time…A bizarre incident happened on Saturday when a wrecker inexplicably began rolling towards the raceway in turn two while the cars were in full racing mode! The red flag was quickly flown as the hapless driver chased his runaway wrecker, which was apparently left in neutral. Everyone stopped safely and aside from a reddened face, there was no damage done. Everyone was laughing at the end although the incident easily could have proved tragic…As a resident of Minnesota, I was glad to see Floodwood, Minnesota, resident Dustin Lindquist win the first heat of the 2006 winged Sprint season in the United States…Another Gopher Stater, Scott Winters, made his East Bay debut this weekend in successful fashion, winning a heat race and narrowly missing the A-main finale. Winters will chase the ASCS Northern Plains title and make several runs at Knoxville, as well. He could mix in a few IRA shows if a 410 engine deal goes as planned.
Brock Mayes put Ron Hammons 7B into the A-main and reported he’ll once again chase the All Star title in 2006, in his family 11B. The All Star season starts on Tuesday, February 7, at Volusia Speedway Park…The Pennsylvania Speedweek schedule was released this week and Lincoln has the opener and the closer while the shuttered Big Diamond and Silver Spring dates have been replaced by Bedford and Hagerstown, even though that is technically in Maryland…Tim Montgomery continued to shed his underdog label as he drove Donnie Cooper’s 01 to fourth and fifth in preliminary action, including a run from the last chance heat to fifth on Friday night. The team missed it in the finale but Montgomery is still as tough as they come in Cooper’s car…Jason Sides’ results are easy to report. Third, third and, in the finale, third…Jerrod Hull brought out his brand new yellow and black 94 car to begin his title hunt with the ASCoT. Hull has teamed with Herring Motorsports to chase the title but will bring along long time wrench Scott Bonar.
James Mosher towed from Albuquerque, New Mexico, for three nights of racing. Mosher plans to chase as many ASCoT races as possible and mix in events with the ASCS and World of Outlaws and NST throughout the summer…New York teenager Jessica Zemken turned heads with her performances. The affable young lady has around a dozen starts in Sprint Cars, although she managed two top-fives with the ESS and one with the Patriots in ’05. This year, she’ll chase the ESS title…Ken and Cheryl Pelkie, the couple behind Kenetic Photos, have been hired by Glenn Styres to manage Ohsweken Speedway in Canada. They are already promoting the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals on September 15-16. Pelkie reports that the Southern Ontario Sprints could have over ten rookies contending this season.
Cody Branchcomb had a camera man following him throughout the weekend, working on a reality show that will hopefully find a home on the Outdoor Channel or Speed…Nick Smith had his most impressive showing in some time, finishing fourth on Friday and fifth in the finale…Glenn Freeland was a busy guy, wrenching Jesse Gianetto in the Saturday finale and helping his brother John Koller in his return to the seat. A Florida native, Koller has been retired for nine years before returning for 2006…Pennsylvania’s Dan Carrozza made his Florida debut in his 358 Sprint Car. Carrozza jumped right into the 358 division last season with no previous racing experience and is eagerly anticipating his second season, even though the 358s do not start racing until late March in Central Pennsylvania.
That wraps the first three nights of racing at East Bay and tonight the Sprint Bandits non-wing series makes their debut at East Bay. In the meantime, keep me posted, and corrected, at Justin@mompub.com.
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