Texan James Buescher qualifies 7th for Daytona ARCA event
February 7, 2009
DAYTONA BEACH FL (2-6-09)-Justin Lofton earned the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell at Daytona International Speedway on Friday afternoon with a time of 49.418 seconds (182.120 mph) around the 2.5-mile speed plant. The Eddie Sharp Racing Driver starts Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race alongside Daytona Beach, Florida native Alli Owens. The race is live on SPEED beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.
“The car felt really good,” said Lofton. “Driving around here doesn’t require too much but a good handling car. We came here exactly with what Bryan Clauson sat on the pole with here in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race last year and it worked again.”
The top-five starters for Saturday’s ARCA RE/MAX Series race will all be sporting the Toyota nameplate, led by Lofton and Owens. Local favorite Owens, who is making her first career ARCA RE/MAX Series start with D’Hondt Motorsports this weekend, qualified a career best second in the No. 19 ElectrifyingCareers.com Toyota with a time of 49.584 seconds (181.510 mph).
“That was awesome,” said Owens. “I waited so long to be able to see my name up front at the top of the charts during qualifying and the crew and everyone over at Eddie D’Hondt racing has done a really good job supporting me. I want lots of pictures so all of you people out there taking pictures send them to me. I thought to myself ‘here’s your chance Alli. Here’s your chance to accomplish what you’ve been waiting for.’ And I went out there and hit my marks and I couldn’t be happier.”
James Buescher
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie Joey Logano qualified third in a Toyota owned by Bill Venturini, followed by Michael Annett in the No. 01 Visit Japan Campaign Toyota and Brian Scott in the No. 8 Venturini-prepared Albertson’s Toyota. Five-time ARCA Daytona winner Bobby Gerhart starts sixth in the No. 5 Lucas Oil-Slick Mist Chevrolet, followed by James Buescher, Will Kimmel, Craig Goess and Tom Hessert.
The Series will hold a final practice session from 5:10-6:15 p.m. Friday in which teams will only be allowed to make a limited number of pre-approved adjustments. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 is live on SPEED beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. A live radio broadcast of the race will accompany live timing and scoring on arcaracing.com.
For more information on the ARCA RE/MAX Series, visit http://www.arcaracing.com/.
Lauren Chamberlain, 14, prepares to launch “Phase 2″ of her racing adventures
February 4, 2009
A little over 18 months after making her debut in the racing world, 14 year old female racer, Lauren Chamberlain, prepares to launch “Phase Two” of her racing adventures.
Lauren and the CK Racing Team plan to travel to Northeast Texas for a huge event at the historic Superbowl Speedway in Greenville to compete in the Longhorn Round-Up on February 21st. Lauren will be competing with the Texas Young Guns Series, a series which travels to different dirt ovals across Texas and Oklahoma.
Lauren Chamberlain
Chamberlain who resides in Louise, Texas, started racing in June, 2007 in the 4-cylinder mini-stock division on her 13th birthday, the earliest she could compete at her home track - Texana Raceway Park in Edna. With racing in her blood, her parents originally planned to hold Lauren from starting competition until the 2008 season, but Lauren pleaded with them to let her begin as soon as possible, thus her 13th birthday.
“Lauren worked on us pretty persistently to allow her to start racing at 13. We knew this as a dream of hers, and we’ve been really impressed with how she’s matured as a driver with just a season and a half of experience,” said Lauren’s mom, Cindy.
And, improved she has.
As a matter of fact, Lauren improved from being a mid to back of the pack runner in her early races to running with the front pack after the midway point of the 2008 season. She even scored her first heat race win last June, and by the end of the season she wound up fourth in the final point standings out of 20 teen racers registered at Texana. She was also the highest placing female driver competing in any division at the raceway and won the track’s “Most Improved Driver” award.
As Lauren prepares for the trip to compete with the Young Guns later this month, it will be her first competition outside of her home track. According to Lauren “We’re calling this ‘Phase Two.’ I’ve been racing a season and a half at Texana and this will be my first opportunity to compete with other drivers. It’s exciting for me to know that I am going to be racing against some of the best drivers in the state with the Young guns.”
“I’m going to run for points at Texana in 2009 during the regular season with a goal (of becoming the) track champion, and I hope to compete at some additional tracks this year as well. I need all the seat time I can get this year because we have some exciting plans for 2010, ” said Lauren.
As CK Racing sets its sights on the 2009 season, the team is looking well into the future. CK Racing has already hired Outlaw Chassis of Magnolia to build Lauren a car for 2010 which will move her into full size stock car competition for the 2010 season. “My dad offered to get me a limited modified for 2010 (an open-wheel class),” Lauren said, “but I love the full body classes and we can keep it fun at the same time.”
According to Lauren’s dad, Monty, “There’s a lot of excellent chassis fabricators across Texas. Safety is our first focus, and after looking at some of the cars Outlaw Chassis has built, we decided that the safety components are there along with creativity in body designs. We’re real excited about heading to the Round-Up later this month, the rest of the 2009 season for Lauren in the mini-stock division, and debuting her 2010 car later this year”.
While Lauren has racing on her mind, she’s pretty much the “typcial teenage girl” who enjoys hanging at the mall and shopping as much as she loves racing. She is also an honor student at her high school and involved in several sports.
Texan James Buescher set for Daytona ARCA RE/MAX start
February 4, 2009
Last October’s race at Talladega should have been a standout day in James Buescher’s racing career. With the pole position in hand the Plano, Texas, native led the field to green shortly before suffering an irreparable transmission problem.
This Saturday, Buescher makes his return to superspeedway racing, taking on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway in the ARCA RE/MAX Series Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. With the Talladega pole-winning car in tow, Buescher hopes to secure his second career ARCA victory for Win-Tron Racing.
“Talladega is a race that we should have dominated,” said Buescher. “I hope Daytona brings more of the same. Our test in December wasn’t quite what we expected but the team has taken the car back to Minnesota [home of Win-Tron Racing] and worked all the way until this week, so hopefully, this can be a race to remember.”
The upcoming 80-lap trek certainly will be one to remember for Buescher, 19, who admittedly claims Saturday night’s race to be one of the biggest of his career. It also serves as a precursor to a race the following weekend in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event—his first career start for Circle Bar Racing.
Buescher’s Wolfpack Rentals-sponsored No. 32 will give him a final chance to hone his drafting technique prior to a slugfest of full-blown fender-to-fender racing in the grizzle-heavy Truck Series. The full-time gig (an announcement was made last week) is a new horizon for Buescher as he preps for Rookie of the Year honors in the series, a year after making six NASCAR Nationwide Series appearances (one which yielded a top-ten finish at Gateway International Raceway, another awarding him his first career pole at Memphis Motorsports Park).
It’s obvious that Buescher is excited. His signature smirk has grown to an all-out smile since joining Circle Bar.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity in the Truck Series,” voiced Buescher. “Rick Crawford [owner of Circle Bar Racing] is a great person to have running the team and driving as your teammate and I’m very happy to have Jamie Jones as a crew chief. This is a chance I’ve been wanting for a long time and now it’s here. I fully intend to make the most of it.”
But the Truck Series is a full week away. Buescher is also concerned about the now.
“We have some ground to make up, I think. I’ve worked with Kevin Cywinski [Win-Tron co-owner] and Mike Chaffee [crew chief] for the last two years and we’ve had the ability to do great things but for one reason or another, it hasn’t ever materialized. This weekend is a chance to come to a big track and show that we know what we’re doing. The whole Win-Tron team puts in a great deal of effort and if I can get just one more win for them and Wolfpack Rentals, I’ll be happy.”
“I’m not sure how many more ARCA starts I’ll make, but I know for sure I want at least one more win. A Daytona win could be a dream come true.”
Watch James on Television: SPEED will air the ARCA RE/MAX Series Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at 4 pm EST on Saturday, February 7.
Thunderhill Raceway sponsor nominated for honor by Goodyear and Time Magazine
February 3, 2009
San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz and the City Council honor Chuck Nash, President of Chuck Nash Auto Group, for his nomination for the 2009 TIME Magazine Dealer of the Year. Nash was one of a select group of 49 dealers out of 19,500 nationwide selected for recognition by TIME and Goodyear, in cooperation with the National Automobile Dealers Association. L-R are Mayor Narvaiz, Elizabeth Nash, Chuck Nash, and City Council Member Fred Terry; back row: Council Members Kim Porterfield, Chris Jones, Gaylord Bose, John Thomaides and Pam Couch.
Photo and story by Melissa Millecam
By Melissa Millicam
Red River Speedway Honors their 2009 Champs
February 3, 2009
Red River Speedway in Wichita Falls, Texas, honored their newly crowned 2009 Champions at the speedway’s annual banquet last Saturday.
A good crowd was on hand as Deann Young was crowned - literally - the 2009 Mod 4 champion by track owner Mike Nowels.
David Wright was on hand to accept the spoils of victory from Mike Nowels as the 2009 Red River Speedway Charger champion.
Several other competitors received recognition for their season-long efforts at the always-exciting quarter-mile paved oval.
Staff Report
Cowtown Speedway’s February Fast 50 to Feature $60K weekend purse
February 2, 2009
What’s sure to go down as sweetheart of a 2009 racing season, Cowtown Speedway’s first date with the dirt in ’09 is with a major racing event Valentine’s Day weekend.
The first annual ‘King of the Hills’ Midget Championship joins the traditional February Fast 50 line up on February 13-14, 2009. The event also marks the season point’s opener for the Southern Midget Racing Series. The full-blown midgets will compete for $1,000 to win on Friday and $3,000 to win on Saturday. Each of their feature events will start 24 cars.
And Cupid’s arrow doesn’t just land there on Valentine’s weekend at Cowtown. The first ever visit of
the ASCS2 Series will be on hand with the Winged Outlaw ‘Multi’ and Non-Winged ‘A’ classes (of what Cowtown fans know as the Winged 600’s, just without wings). With $1500 earmarked to win for each ASCS2 division, there’s sure to be full fields of top quality cars from throughout the region.
The always exciting Cowtown Modifieds will race 50 laps for $2,000 to win and the Limited Modifieds will be vying for the $1,500 winner’s share. Both features will start 24 cars.
With a staggering $60,000 weekend purse posted, another huge field of 200+ cars are expected. Drivers are urged to pre-register for this event at the track website on or before 2/7/09 to receive pre-entry discounts. Pre-entry also allows you to receive a reserved parking space for your hauler in the pits. And it allows the track to publicize drivers that will be attending.
Wrapping up the weekend racing card will be a special Young Guns Shootout on Saturday night. Visit www.YoungGunsShootout.com for all of the details.
Race fans, you can enjoy the entire weekend’s action by purchasing your 2-day tickets in advance at the track website by 2/11/09. 2-day adult grandstand passes are just $25, a savings of $5 off of race night pricing. This also would make a perfect Valentine’s gift for that special person in your life.
Just click www.CowtownSpeedway.com for the event flyer, driver pre-entry, advance 2-day passes,
track information and more.
The new ’09 season schedule can also be viewed at the track website. 30 additional race dates are set beginning with the March 14th opener featuring the first of two visits for the Sprint Series of Texas and the first of eight visits for the LSDCC.com Dwarf Cars.
A huge fireworks display will be a part of the racing action on July 4, with Cowtown’s annual 9/11
Memorial event on September 12.
Other highlights include the popular ASCS Sprint Cars on April 4, May 16, June 27, August 22 and
September 5.
This all builds up to the 2nd annual Cowtown Sprint Nationals October 9-10, which will be point’s races for the ASCS Sooner, Gulf South and Lone Star regions. Last year’s event had a whopping 49 sprint cars taking to the Cowtown high-banks. Further event details will be published when the racing season begins, but you can expect another huge purse and field of cars.
The ’09 season wraps up with the wildly successful and exciting 3rd annual November Sprint Shootout on November 13-14. Last year’s NSS saw 46 sprint teams from several sanctioning bodies and series invade Cowtown, and over 200 cars total competing throughout the weekend.
Make your first date in 2009 on Valentine’s weekend, and you’re sure to become a ‘steady’ with the
Fastest Li’l Dirt Track in Texas, Cowtown Speedway!
by Darin Short Marketing
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