ron.brown11

It took almost an hour to get that 35 lap feature completed. I could tell that Ryan had a fast car, they just couldn't get more then 3-4 laps without a yellow. At halfway Ryan had a great restart, and the rest was caution free. That should put him in good shape for tomorrow's main. I think tomorrow's race is longer, but no sure on that. Ryan has been fast all week though. Hopefully he can keep it up.

Except for the young lady I that interviewed Ryan, 3rd place finisher Connor Jones the was first person to Ryan's car. He genuinely seemed happy for Ryan. It was those 2 that were racing each other on the first night, when Ryan cut a tire down. Nothing that Jones did, as it appeared that Ryan ran over something. Jones has a big lead in the championship in the Pro Latemodels. Good to see Ryan get another podium finish, and the win.

Ryan took the lead on the restart, and ran away with it. His lead at the end was almost a straightaway. Nice run!!

Well Ryan had a bad qualifying lap today. He only qualified 2nd. He started 5th due to the invert. It has taken 30 minutes just to get the first 5 laps completed. After 18 laps, there have been 6 cautions. The good news is that Ryan is up to 2nd, and was beside the leader on the front stretch when the yellow came out. We'll see how the rest of the race goes, but Ryan is looking race.

Very impressive!! So exactly which one of those many endeavors did you give up on? Were you told to quit any of them? I'm going to take a guess and say not many of them. But wait, there's sooo many of them, something had to be given up on. So who told you to give up on them? I'm also certain that through all of your resume, you discovered something. Racing is hard, unless you've got a silver spoon/shovel shoved up your ass. And even then it's still hard, but that's usually because the silver spoon holder isn't that smart, talented, or dedicated. So exactly why would you tell people to give up on what they want to do? I will give you that you probably have more laps than me, as I only raced asphalt, drags, and some stupid stuff I did on a rice rocket on the street. But I also managed to be a really good fighter jet crew chief (I never lost a jet), Quality Assurance inspector on those fighters, and an aircraft crash investigator for the Air Force. Then I spent the last 5 years of that supervising the entire work force at Laughlin AFB before retiring. I had to manage approximately 360 workers, with 255 jets. Trust me, working on jets is a lot easier then trying to get a bunch of useless union workers to do their job. That too took about 35 years. Yeah, those things weren't easy either. I don't claim to be the best at anything. I'm just willing to work harder and smarter than most. As my late parents found out about 6 decades ago, don't tell me I can't do something. Because if I want it bad enough I surely will, and I'll figure out how to do it, and do it well. But since I've have 25 surgeries over the last 15 years (18 have been orthopedic, I'm probably done driving. But with the right circumstance, I could get back into ownership, if I so desired. But I'd want a driver & crew member that wouldn't quit, just because racing is hard, or someone told them to quit. So Josh42, we can disagree, and I'm fine with that. But I am not good with you trying to tell me I can't do what I wish to do, or try to accomplish. You don't get to do that. As I said the very first time I ever commented about dirt & asphalt racing on this site. I love asphalt racing best.I like dirt racing ok, but don't want to watch/participate. I have no problem if you want to race dirt, watch dirt, or play in he dirt, as I hold no animosity toward those that wish to, or even dirt spectators. And I would never tell someone that they can't race what they want to race. So the odds are long at getting an asphalt track up & running. But I will tell you this, it is infinitely harder do get something done, if everyone is telling you no, it's not going to happen, or if they are openly trying to stop. But I promise you this. I won't stop posting the longing to bring back asphalt racing to TX. If that is troubling for you, My give a damn is busted. But I will wish you well in your dirt adventures.

Well, I guess that's it! Asphalt racing is now on life support in TX, and Josh 42 says to pull the plug. So anybody that wants to see asphalt racing in TX now must just give in and go to the dirt tracks. Well I choose not to. I will instead choose to watch what I choose to watch. If that's online, so be it. It's not my first choice, but it will have to do. I'm sure that the dirt tracks will survive without my money. Unlike you Josh, I hope they do survive. As Nick can attest to, I used to make a 400 mile roundtrip from Del Rio to CTS. I worked on Friday nights to midnight (sometimes even later), and had to be in Uvalde by 6:30am. I usually didn't get back home until about 4am Sunday morning. There were many 24 hour days on about 3 hours of sleep. Hell, even after I wasn't crew chilling for a modified anymore, I still made as many trips to CTS as I could. There were a lot of weekends that I didn't see my family, so my wife was pretty happy about that. But I did it for the love of it. And I have never told anybody to just give up on what they wanted, because I didn't think it was possible. It begs the question, are you a racer Josh42?

I still think that a track at COTA makes the most sense. We were discussing the ROI on investment a few months ago. I said then, and don't see anyway to make it better. It will take at a minimum OF 5-10 years to get ROI. So those owners would have to be in it for the long haul. Unfortunately there just aren't a lot of people with that kind of cash that will stick it out. The only thing that I can think of to get that ROI faster, is by making that venue another source of revenue, with something that the track isn't already bringing, to go along with the stock car racing.It can be done if the TMS/COTA footed the bill to build the track. I truly believe that between Austin, SA, Houston & Corpus, could give a good car count to get it started. I'm sure that there are folks that Nick, Rodney, Mike Peters that do have contacts. If they could give that support, I think the DFW area would also be able to join us here eat COTA. If done right, I'd be willing to bet that getting some cars from the Deep South is a real probability of drawing cars. If that happens, then OKC becomes a possibility. If this "new" track can have similar rules packages, to the other tracks, it wouldn't be hard to attract out of staters. Get the purses right, and don't try and cut the other tracks' throats. Hell if done right, I could see a series that runs say at COTA, Houston, South Alabama, & Five Flags. Or put together shows that rotate like once a month to each of the tracks, and then have a championship to for that want to run them all. Have a separate points found for it. With a common sense rules package, that doesn't obsolete what racers all ready have, and decent purses, it can be done. Make the tire package a very hard compound, so that spending a $100 grand a season on big engines and expensive shocks won't be necessary. But even if they do want to spend like that, the tires are going to be the great equalizer. I truly do believe that this is possible, but even under the best circumstances, it won't be easy

Again, Ryan was fast qualifier for tonight's 50 lapper. Started 8th due to the invert. He made his way uptown 2nd. The car definitely looked better then last night. John Aramendia's car looked like last night.He finished in the mid 20s I think. The scoring crawl wasn't working very well.

Ryan was fast qualifier tonight. With the invert he started 7th. He only made it up to 5th though by the end. The car didn't look as hooked up tonight as it did last night before the flat. John Armendiawas in this race, but went a lap down about lap 18. He finished in the mid 20s.

Saturday's races were rained out in Tampa.

Kayden found a line with about 25 laps to go, that I had never seen anybody run before, and lived to tell about it. He would run the entire lap a half groove up from the second groove. He was fast there. Said after the race that he wished he'd have found that much sooner. I was sure that he was going to go off roading at any minute. It shows that he's good at racing dirt, because he looked like he was ripping the top on dirt. They don't have walls around the outside the track except for the front straight. The broadcast announcer mentioned that Kayden was running a truck at Daytona next week. This guy has a great future, if he can keep putting the finances together. There was a nice article on him a few months ago in Speedway Illustrated.

I know that's who he ran for before, I just hadn't seen a complete entry list to see the team owner for this year. It's a shame that he cut down that tire, as he was looking good even though he had dropped back to 2nd.

Ryan led the first 17 laps in his first main event at New Smyrna. He got passed on lap 18, then blew a right front tire a couple of laps later. He did a great job of not pounding the turn 2 wall. It looks like he doesn't have too much damage, and should be ok for the next night of racing. I'm not sure who's car he is driving, and will try and find out.

Honeycutt finished 3rd at Florence SC in the Ice Breaker125. Good, clean race!

Erb had a good race going at East Bay in Tampa. With 18 laps to go he shredded a right rear. He made it back to 16th. Before the flat, he was ripping the top, and passed a lot of cars. Hopefully he'll have a better night tomorrow. Hudson O'Neal won his second race in 24 hours there. A lot of people were saying that Rocket chassis' aren't that great anymore. Don't tell Mr Richards, as they won all 5 features so far.We'll see if they get the sweep tomorrow. Had it not rained out at New Smyrna, I doubt that I'd seen this race.

Rebelracewriter, I've lived on the border in the 70s & 80s, then again in the 2000s. The difference between those periods is like going from the middle of Iowa to Bagdad. One of my wife's cousins, his wife's parents had 4 restaurants in Acuna. They closed them up because it was a daily event to either have someone shooting into the windows, or cartel members coming in. When they'd come in they'd take everybody's cellphones, eat/drink whatever they wanted (of course without paying), and then remind anybody inside that they'd kill them and their families if they said anything to the military. They don't worry about the cops, because they are all on cartel pay, or the cartel had already had an up close & personal conversation about what would happen to them if they snitched. Before I sold my Harley (after 5 spins surgeries), I used to ride with a few Del Rio or Eagle Pass cops. Well, some of them were still cops. The ones that had changed careers had the same reason for doing it. The corruption on the US side was getting so bad, that if you weren't on the take, your life could be in at risk. That was in the early 2000s. The ones that were still cops stayed only because they were too close to retirement. All have now retired. My wife graduated at the same time as the current Val Verde County Sherrif. I got to be friends with him. When we'd talk, I was always be shocked with some of the stuff he'd tell me about. Things that never made the local paper. He's a retired DPS captain/investigator, and has spent the last 15 years as the sheriff. He told me that he's going to retire at the end of this term. He said that between the absolute chaos of an open border, and the drug cartels, he's had enough. He's a dedicated, honest guy. In all his years in both departments, he's never had incidents that required an investigation against him. That ain't easy in a 35+ year career in law enforcement!

Read some interesting things from Hamlin & Busch about the Clash. Both stated that the line might be getting blurred between racing and entertainment. You Think?? Busch said he thought the Clash was a disaster, because everybody was just driving through anybody. This coming from a guy that isn't shy about running through others. Hamlin is all in favor of having to actually be a pole sitter to be in the Clash. Hummm, that sounds familiar. Actually having to be a pole sitter to qualify for the Clash. Isn't that how that race started? I wonder if the heads that be in Daytona are listening? They are, but not about that. They're trying to figure out how to shut them up or fine them.. Anybody that has ever watched a modified main race from Bowman Gray knows what the Clash will look like. Twenty seven stock cars on a 1/4 mile track, that is barely 20' wide is insane.

Getting people involved keeps them coming back.

Rodney, just about everything in Mexico is about payola. It used to be just the locals trying to make a buck. Now it's more about losing your car, life's savings, or your life. The Gypsies motorcycle "club" used to have an annual St Patrick's Day rally in Del Rio. We lived just off the road that goes the the bridge. Man, the volume of bikes going and coming from Acuna at all hours of the day & night seemed endless. The Gypsies still have the rally there annually, they just don't go to Mex. anymore. I guess it scared them too. I honestly didn't think they were scared of anything. The local Gypsies were well known to the Del Police & Sherrif's officers. They seemed tame to compared to some of the out of towner bikers.

Mike, I promise you that a lot more money changed hands then the $1000 fine. You have no idea the level of corruption that exists in Mex. A friend of mine's daughter was killed in a quad accident in Rocky Point (Port Penasco). They wanted him to pay them $10,000 to get her body to take back to AZ. He flew into Rocky Point on a small 4 seater Cessna. He and a friend basically kidnapped his daughter's body from a local doctor's office (where her body was), Put her into that plane and flew back to Tucson. They were on the ground less than 2 hours. He's from Mexico, and he was terrified of being caught, because he knew what a Mexican prison is like. He told me how relieved he was when they flew across the border. He then had to explain the dead body to the Border Patrol at the airport. Yeah, any direct flight from Mexico, via private aircraft, gets searched by either Customs, the Border Patrol or both, when flying into Tucson. Thankfully he had taken the notification that a government agency had sent him, informing him of his daughter's death. I'm betting that Busch's judge got quite a bit of pocket change from that encounter. When I lived in Del Rio, we would occasionally go to Acuna. I'd stand by the car and look for a cop. I'd offer him $10 to watch the car. They were always happy to do it, as $10 was more than he would make a day being a cop. I sure wouldn't do that now. Acuna is completely run by the cartels. Now the cops will tell someone with them and you're liable to be kidnapped, and held for ransom. Their mentality is, that if you're willing to pay $10 to watch a car, your family must have some money. Kidnapping along the border towns is not an uncommon thing. But you rarely hear about it in the news, if it's somebody that doesn't live on the border. Our house in Del Rio was less than 2 miles from the international bridge. Sure glad we don't live there anymore...

Not that anybody cares, I misspelled the modified driver's name that I raced against there. It's Harrington. Farrington is the defending supers track champion at Tucson. Harrington nearly bought my mod before I left Tucson.

Thanks Nick. I didn't find out until driver intros Sunday, that Barrett is from Wimberley. I did get the starting spots way wrong for Barrett & Kenny. I don't know if I misunderstood what they said was the guidelines, or my math skills are slipping. Probably both lol. The FloRacing announcers for the Chilly Willie race weekend were hard to listen to at times. They acted like it was their personal play time, which is ok if it's during a caution or between races. Just in the Sunday race coverage, I think they commented 7-8 times at just how much they made Tucson look like Irwindale Speedway. TRP was built nearly a decade before Irwindale. Bob Molder, when still alive, owned Wide World of Maps. His company did a lot of topographical mapping in the western US. The group that built Irwindale hired them to map TRP. Everything at Irwindale is an exact copy of TRP except they stretched it from 3/8 to a 1/2 mile, and the track exit happens in turn 1 instead of turn 2. All the banking etc is the same. When John Baker, a Tucson super latemodel racer was killed at Irwindale, Bob bought most of John's Southwest Tour race cars & equipment. I sat in between Bob & Tom Baker (John's brother), at John's funeral. Nick, I'm trying my best to help promote asphalt TX racers, when I run across info on them. I know that it isn't much, but I'm trying. I don't follow dirt racing as much, so I'm sure that there is someone out there that can do that much better than I can. I know that this is the "off season", but there is still racing happening out there. I'm sure that TX racers would appreciate that.

Preston Peltier, from Colorado won the 2023 Chilly Willy 150. It was a very close clean race at the end with Cole Raz, who finished 2nd. Sean Hingarani from Ca finished 3rd. Barrett Polhemus ran a good race, getting as high as 6th, but finished 10th at the end. He had a couple of close calls, but a good run. Kenny Bumbera had a rough day. He finished 25th, had some damage, and he did not finish the race. But thanks to our TX racers making the trip to Tucson! One of the things that I miss the most, besides not racing at Tucson, is that you can run 3 wide cleanly. Which they did numerous times throughout the race. After some restarts there were even 4 wide a few times, and nobody wrecked. I really love and miss racing there. I do hope that the repaved it soon though. Too much tar sealant in too many locations. That track is why I have advocated for a progressive 3/8 mile asphalt track to be built at COTA. Looking forward to this coming Friday, and the 8 nights that follow. New Smyrna Speedway will be holding 9 straight nights of racing in the World Series of Asphalt. Super & Pro late models run nearly every one of those nights. The Whelen Modified Series will have 3 shows, with Sat the 11th being the season opener for the Northeast Modified Touring season. There will also be 2 other modified series running as well. I also believe that they are going to have a truck series too. If you subscribe to FloRacing, next week should be a lot of fun. Plus, FloRacing will also cover the Volusia Co Speedway, and their weeklong dirt races. There's a whole lotta racing over the next 12 days in the Daytona Beach area.If you can't be there, watch it on FloRacing!

By listening to the announcers (they were bad and I don't know how much I trust them), Bumbera should be able to start the 150 lap main event tomorrow. But both drivers have a lot of work to do, as neither car looked that good in their 50 lap qualifying race. No battle damage happened for either, just a much better setup is needed. As I said above, the 2 top qualifiers on time didn't have to run their 50 lap qualifiers if they didn't want to. Preston Peltier was fastest, and he didn't run race #1. A 15 year old driver named Higanori timed in second, but chose to run the second qualifier. He won it. His crew chief/car owner/driving coach is Derek Thorn. Thorn just won the Snowball Derby at Five Flags a couple of months ago. The team he drove for decided to retire from racing after the Derby. Derek has the most SRL Super Latemodel Championships (5) than any other driver. My friend Jim Pettit II has 3 SRL titles. But Jim also has back to back NASCAR Southwest Tour Championships to go along with those SRL titles. Only 2 drivers ever had had back to back Southwest Tour Championships, Ron Hornaday Jr & Jim Pettit II. Jim has shown to be quite the wheelman throughout his racing career. NASCAR voted him one of the top 25 Weekly Racing Series Drivers of all time. He's had many championships over the years, in different types of cars, and on dirt & asphalt. They also ran a 75 lap modified feature. It was won by the reining 2022 SRL Modified Champion, a guy named Gianini. He also won this race last year. He never put his car in danger, and took really good care of his tires. Made it look easy. A guy named Farrington finished third. I raced against him my last season in Tucson, and it was his first season racing a modified. He was the biggest mover in the race, starting in 12th. Late in the going, he passed both of the Bonnett brothers, Neil Bonnett's grandsons. Tucson has never been repaved since it opened in 1993. The sun there really cooks the asphalt, so the 150 lap main will require a lot of tire management. It's very abrasive. The track is a 3/8 mile progressive banked track. There has been a lot of tar sealer placed throughout the track surface. That has really shifted the fast groove from where it was when I raced there. I hope that they can repave it soon, as hitting some of those tar seal jobs really seem to upset the cars if hit at the wrong angle.

#79 Barrett Polhemus finished his Sat qualifying race in 9th, 1 lap down. The number 00 Bumbera finished 12th, 2 laps down. These cars will start on the inside rows for Sunday's 150 lap feature. The outside rows will be set in the second qualifier race. The two fastest qualified cars will take the front row, and don't have to run the Sat qualifiers if they don't want to. Just like the Daytona 500 for the 2 fastest qualifiers. So that should put Polhemus starting 19th. I am not sure how many cars they will start in the main, so if Bumbera #00 does get in, he should start 25th.