Opening night at HMP

[HORSEPOWER]

One last thing, starting in the back of the pack, you might not win as often, but it will make you a better racer in the long run. Again, I’m not looking to insult anybody, but I remember reading the post regarding the SNOWBALL Derby and the Texas drivers not fairing very well. I believe it’s because they don’t get enough side by side racing. You can become a great driver, but being a great racer is a completely different story.

The Texas drivers have faired well in the past at the Snowball, it's just a tough race to qualify for when you have the best against the best, qualifying is key. Had they made the race, their results would have been good. They have barely made the race in the past, but once they get racing, it's a different story. They missed being locked in to the field by the slimmest margin. Chris Davidson always has ran in the top 10 at the Derby. In 2004 he was in 6th place with about 50 to go, but got a flat running over debris, he has also led laps at the Snowball Derby and finished 4th in 2002, it was a green-white-checkered and was in the lead, but got moved up the track and lost some spots. T. Wade Welch also runs well there, he usually runs in the top 15 and seen him run in the top 10 a couple of times late in the race, but keeps getting caught up in accidents. Greg Davidson has qualified several times for the Snowball, he only attempted to race the Snowflake and qualified 5th or 6th this past year. Casey Smith has ran well also in the past. In 2003, he started 31st and finished 3rd. In 2004 he was in the top 5 late in the race, but I forgot what happened. I remember in 2003 with over 200 laps completed, Casey and Chris were in the top 10 and T. Wade was 10th or 11th, that was so cool, 3 Texas boys were kicking azz. Bubba Naumann Jr. was the Late Model Champion at Five Flags and has qualified for the Derby. They are racing guys who race for a living or who race as much as they can, with a lot of experience at these tracks. Look what happened at the Big Shot, Chris won the 1st and all of our Texans did well against several of these same guys in both races. They have also done well at several others tracks against the same guys. They just need to come down to Texas more often. I do understand what you mean about 1 car running away from the field. Just like this past weekend at the Nashville race, Eddie Mercer was killing these guys, kind of looked liked the SAS race when Casey won. The race was good from 2nd on back. I don't know what has to be done, but some of the veterans back there are a lot better than they are showing. At Houston, they should have attempted to dry the track off, for having to wait that long, if it could be done, at least they could have said they tried.

 

This is the Snowball qualifying results from 2005

 

1.Eddie Mercer (1st time winner after 16 years, home track)

2.Augie Grill

3.Johnny Brazier

4.Freddie Query

5.Mike Fritts

6.Justin Drawdy

7.Gary St.Amant

8.Donald Long

9.Chuck Barnes (2004 CRA Champ, All American 300 winner, non factor in '05 & Snowball)

10.Jay Middleton

11.Wayne Anderson

12.Jeff Choquette

13.Cale Gale

14.Steven Davis

15.Joey Senter

16.Randy Gentry

17.Bobby Gill

18.Clay Rogers

19.Kevin Cywinski

20.Ricky Turner

21.David Hole

22.Joey Miller

23.David Rogers

24.Hal Goodson

25.Mark Day

26.Ronnie Sanders (fromer winner)

27.Charlie Bradberry (former winner, former SE Series Champ)

28.Dave Mader III

29.Chris Gabehart

30.Scott Carlson (All American fast qualifier in 2005)

(Top 30 Locked In, the rest had provisionals, had to win qualifying races, or just went home)

 

31.Ken McFarland (won Early Bird at Birmingham)

32.Grant Enfinger (won qualifier, won a Blizzard race)

33.Josh Hamner (provisional finished 12th, BAMA Super Late Model Series Champ)

34.Ryan Foster

35.Wayne Niedecken Jr.

36.Stanley Smith

37.Landon Cassill (was running 3rd with 20 to go, got spun)

38.T. Wade Welch (sat out qualifier)

39.Ryan Mathews (dominated All American raced, wrecked)

40.Keith Cahela

41.Jeremy Pate (track record holder, ran All American race in top 3 until wrecked)

42.Matt Merrell (slammed the wall in practice, bounced back, good practice times, 1st visit)

43.J.R. Norris (finished 2nd in the SE Series points, won 3 times, $80,000 machine???)

44.Jack Landis (finished 3rd in 2004)

45.Bubba Pollard ( Driver X finalist)

46.Boris Jurkovic (2nd at Nashville this weekend, 2nd at All American 300 in 2005)

47.Stephen Wallace (provisional, won last year, finished 2nd)

48.Travis Kittleson (Speedweeks Champion 2006)

49.Dale Little

50.Matt Hawkins (2005 Southern All Stars Champ)

51.Chris Davidson (got wrecked in qualifier)

52.Scott Hantz (former CRA Champ)

53.Bradley Riethmeyer (ill handling car, was in the top 15 in practice at one time)

54.Dwayne Buggay

55.Ryan Crane (provisional, finished 7th, 2006 Rattler winner))

56.Keith Thorpe

57.Scott Smith

58.Danny Bagwell

59.Eddie Craig

60.David Hodges Jr.

[CommonSenseRacing]

The Texas drivers have faired well in the past at the Snowball, it's just a tough race to qualify for when you have the best against the best, qualifying is key. Had they made the race, their results would have been good. They have barely made the race in the past, but once they get racing, it's a different story.

 

At Houston, they should have attempted to dry the track off, for having to wait that long, if it could be done, at least they could have said they tried.

Horsepower,

 

I'll say it again, I wasn't looking to insult anyone or imply anything bad. It’s just having raced at tracks on the east coast from Florida all the way up to Oswego, little bull rings like the old 1/5 mile Islip Speedway up to the 2 ½ mile Pocono Super Speedway. Texas is the only place that I’ve had the pleasure of being at that the outside grove is not used. I’ve never driven at HMP, so maybe it’s true that you can pass on the outside, but it’s hard for me to believe that every other track that I have been to or raced on drivers have found away around on the outside.

 

I agree, HMP should have made an attempt, I believe the attempt would have been greatly appreciated by all who were at the track. HMP could have scored a lot of brownie points, unfortunately they didn’t.

 

[SVCMNGR1]

The topic, The good and the bad is missing something. Oh, UGLY. Did anybody else see Yale and Pollard sitting in the stands? LOL

[fast18]

So much for Damage Control ....Dave !!