Sergio Hexsel wins TPS race

[NeilTPS]

Sergio Hexsel wins TPS race at Thunder Hill Raceway

 

Thunder Hill Raceway, Kyle, Texas (July 22, 2006)

 

By: Neil Upchurch, Texas Pro Sedans – Race Director

 

Sergio Hexsel, the defending TPS Champion, won his first Texas Pro Sedans feature race of the 2006 season at Thunder Hill Raceway on Saturday evening. In putting his VW Rabbit into the THR winner’s circle, the new resident of Live Oak, Texas ended his victory drought, having not won a TPS race since last year. Current point leader Donnie Moore placed 2nd in the event.

 

In Qualifying Race action, Ariel Arredondo won the first Qualifying Heat at the wheel of his Ford Taurus. Sergio Hexsel won the second Qualifying Heat. Their wins earned them front row starting positions for the 20 lap TPS Feature Race. Sergio Hexsel started second and finished first in his #20 VW Rabbit. Only 1.50 seconds separated Hexsel and Moore at the checkered flag.

 

The 20 lap feature race was highlighted by two significant happenings. The race was run all green without need of a yellow caution flag. A near caution occurred on lap 11 when Jesse Sandoval’s Ford Pinto experienced a transmission shifter failure which caused his car to spin out of 2nd place on the back straight-a-way. Sandoval spun around and slowly recovered forward motion, but lost many positions to most of the field. A total of seven cars completed the all green race on the lead lap. Following Hexsel and Moore was 3rd place driver Joshua Tuttle who had his best TPS race yet in his Chevy Cobalt. Tuttle leads the Rookie of the Year title chase. In 4th place was John Wasek in his new VW Scirocco. Last years TPS Rookie of the Year, Tom Johnson guided his VW Rabbit to a solid 5th place. Jamie Garner was again at the wheel of his 2005 VW and placed 6th. Rounding out the top seven cars was the Ford Taurus driven by Ariel Arredondo of Kingsville.

 

The San Antonio based Texas Pro Sedans touring series will conduct it’s 9th race of the 2006 season at San Antonio Speedway on Saturday night August 19. Time Trials and a 25 lap Feature Race are scheduled to be presented by the four cylinder TPS stock car series in support of all three USRA classes, the USRA Super Late Models, USRA Modifieds and USRA Truck Series.

 

TPS will return to Thunder Hill Raceway on Saturday night, September 2.

 

Further details about this event are contained in the Official Race Results and Driver Championship Point Standings listed below.

 

Official Race Results:

 

Finish… Car # r Driver/Hometown… Car Type/Engine CC… > Heat 1 Heat 2 Laps

 

1 20 Sergio Hexsel/Live Oak, TX VW Rabbit/...1984 > … 1 ...20 Laps

2 70 Donnie Moore/Hutto, TX VW Scirocco/1690 > … 4 ...20 Laps

3 4 r Joshua Tuttle/San Antonio, TX Chevrolet Cobalt/2000 > … 6 ...20 Laps

4 74 John Wasek/Austin, TX VW Scirocco/1628 > … 3 ...20 Laps

5 15 Tom Johnson/Kingsland, TX VW Rabbit/1816 > … 2 ...20 Laps

6 33 Jamie Garner/San Antonio, TX 2005 VW Sedan/1715 > … 5 ...20 Laps

7 66 Ariel Arredondo/Kingsville, TX Ford Taurus/2030 > 1 … ...20 Laps

8 7 Jesse Sandoval/Corpus Christi, TX Ford Pinto/2338-arca > 2 … ...19 Laps

9 22 Harry Osburn Jr./San Antonio, TX Ford Mustang/2338 > … 7 ...19 Laps

10 48 Mike Knotts/Universal City, TX VW Scirocco/1648 > 8 ...19 Laps

11 72 Candi Hogan/Cedar Park, TX VW Sedan/2160 > 6 … ...19 Laps

12 55 r John Miesen/Marion, TX VW Sedan/1835 > 3 … ...19 Laps

13 19 Lloyd Hart/San Antonio, TX Honda CRX/1798/4-Valve > 4 … ...18 Laps

14 71 Bruce Mabrito/San Antonio, TX VW Scirocco/1648 > 5 … ...18 Laps

15 78 r Adam McCosh/Cibolo, TX VW Sedan/1835 > 8 … ...13 Laps

16 84 r D. J. Roggenkamp/Lumberton, TX Ford Taurus/2030 > 7 … …..0 Laps

dna 2 Jack Dishman/Devine, TX Ford Mustang/2060-svo

dna 1 Bryce Dishman/Devine, TX Ford Mustang/2349-svo

dna 94 Harlon Hatcher/Converse, TX VW Rabbit/1784

dna 38 Dave Parks/San Antonio, TX 2001 VW Sedan/1588

dna 29L Lalo Leal/Corpus Christi, TX Ford Mustang/2338

dna 23 r Harry J.J. Osburn III/San Antonio, TX Ford Pinto/2338

dna 97 Kevin Hallman/Cibolo, TX Ford Mustang/2338

dna 18 Lanny Young/Kingsland, TX VW Karmen Ghia/2275

dna 07 Mike O'Connor/Weatherford, TX Toyota/tba

 

TPS Points thru: Race # 6 - July 22, 2006

 

Position Car # r Driver Hometown Total

 

1 70 Donnie Moore/Hutto, TX … 124 points

2 20 Sergio Hexsel/Live Oak, TX … 83 points

3 15 Tom Johnson/Kingsland, TX … 81 points

4 48 Mike Knotts/Universal City, TX … 55 points

5 74 John Wasek/Austin, TX … 53 points

6 33 Jamie Garner/San Antonio, TX … 52 points

7 4 r Joshua Tuttle/San Antonio, TX … 51 points

8 53 Randy Larsen/Wimberley, TX … 51 points

9 2 Jack Dishman/Devine, TX … 50 points

10 1 Bryce Dishman/Devine, TX … 48 points

11 22 Harry Osburn Jr./San Antonio, TX … 38 points

12 66 Ariel Arredondo/Kingsville, TX … 36 points

13 19 Lloyd Hart/San Antonio, TX … 34 points

14 71 Bruce Mabrito/San Antonio, TX … 33 points

15 84 r D. J. Roggenkamp/Lumberton, TX … 29 points

16 94 Harlon Hatcher/Converse, TX … 26 points

17 29 G Rico Gutierrez/Corpus Christi, TX … 26 points

18 78 r Adam McCosh/Cibolo, TX … 23 points

19 7 Jesse Sandoval/Corpus Christi, TX … 18 points

20 38 Dave Parks/San Antonio, TX … 18 points

21 29L Lalo Leal/Corpus Christi, TX … 17 points

22 55 r John Miesen/Marion, TX … 15 points

23 72 Candi Hogan/Cedar Park, TX … 13 points

24 23 r Harry J.J. Osburn III/San Antonio, TX … 11 points

25 27F Todd Farris/College Station, TX … 11 points

26 11 Chip Harmon/Portland, TX … 9 points

27 97 Kevin Hallman/Cibolo, TX … 8 points

28 18 Lanny Young/Kingsland, TX … 5 points

29 27 E r Frank Eggers/College Station, TX … 5 points

30 89 L John Leonard/Universal City, TX … 3 points

31 89 D Rick Dawdy/San Antonio, TX … 3 points

32 07 Mike O'Connor/Weatherford, TX … 0 points

33 01 Eddie Orr/Weatherford, TX … 0 points

 

r - eligible for 2006 TPS "Rookie Of The Year" Award

 

REMAINING TEXAS PRO SEDANS RACES (Subject to Change, Additions, Deletions)

Aug 19 tba San Antonio Spedway Time Trials, 25 Lap Feature Race

Sep 2 tba Thunder Hill Raceway 2 Qual Heats, 20 Lap Feature Race

Oct 7 tba San Antonio Spedway Time Trials, 30 Lap Feature Race - SAS "Octobertfast"

Oct 28 tba Thunder Hill Raceway Time Trials, 30 Lap Feature Race - THR "Spectacular"

Nov 11 n/a 2006 TPS Awards Dinner 6:30pm - Carlos Kelly's Restaurant, Highway 87 East of San Antonio

 

Official Race Results and Point Standings certified by:

Neil Upchurch

Race & Administrative Director

Texas Pro Sedans

210/655-3222

[KISS_Racing]

Congrats to Sergio...

 

That #70 was coming... Given another 5 laps and Donnie may have caught him...

 

Neil and TPS drivers... Thanks for the great show last night! We really enjoyed watching ya'll....

[Crazyhorse]

for all the moaning and crying that sometimes goes on surrounding this series , i'll just say neil you do a great job and your drivers do to.

[top dog]

COULD NOT MAKE IT . GOOD JOB SERGIO, & ARIAL . TRY TO MAKE S.A.S. NO YELLOWS THATS GOOD DRIVING.

[NeilTPS]

KISS_Racing, Crazyhorse and top dog:

 

In behalf of all TPS drivers who raced at Thunder Hill Raceway July 22nd and especially myself, I want to thank you both for your positive and helpful comments.

 

I also want to thanks the dozens and dozens of supporters who posted last week. I couldn't get involved in a public debate of penalty items generated in the SAS race. I know you understand why I had to remain silent. You all were my public comments.

 

I appreciate all of you who like the racing that these "good guys" in Texas Pro Sedans bring to the Texas racing scene.

 

We will keep trying as TPS returns to SAS August 19 and as we are 2/3 complete in our 31st season.

 

Neil Upchurch

Race & Administrative Director

Texas Pro Sedans

[HiTech]

Sergio made a remark to me after the race he said what bad am i going to say about him .supprise sergio . nothing .good race .it was a good clean race . thought we could catch you after fighting off don . dam he.s fast .but so were we . side by side for a few laps .and jessie won that battle .just for one lap untill he got throttle happy and spun . and i like to thank don for giving us a good clean race could have gotten ugly but when you have two great drivers going at it .thats the way it should come out clean .cuz it was dog eat dog . didnt know our car could go in and hang in there ..we went home very happy and after 100 degree temps .you would think it would be a slug fest .and ariel did a fine job we.finished second and 8 . and neil i thought it was kind of funny that a competiter would be the one to teck our plate .so anyone wants to find out what our car has just become a teck man for neil . he did a great job neil . and btw neil . we as drivers and crew can have fun after the race behind your truck if we want to . i have got to say after burning up all day it was the most fun filled day with all the tps drivers .before and after .see ya. just missed one thing lalos cookin..i bet randy was just alittle un easy asking us to pull our plate .

[tps22]

mike,

sorry i missed you. was looking foward to bending your ear a little on the fords. hope everyone had a great time. was looking foward to running at corpus. hopefully next year. good run overall to sandoval racing and all nvolved.

 

ozzy

[HiTech]

where were you .and your welcome to bend my ears pull on my nose . stand on my toes .kick me in the bud .slap a knott on my head or just plain ask me a question .anytime for you the great wizard of ozz.

[HiTech]

what you say no zone 19 .

[1-Crew]

Oldtimer,

 

What do your want to hear?? The 19 team worked hard to finish a race (for the first time in a looong time). The motor gremlins mostly stayed away, still running hot and need to keep working on keeping that gremlin away as it was touch and go.. THe good news is we kept the head gasket in it and managed to take the checkered for both the heat and the feature.

 

We had a good run going in the heat until a cut tire took us off the podium. Once we had a different tire on, the car was just too loose to drive hard, something we of course didn't find out until the feature. Kudos to Lloyd for keeping it straight and avoiding the dreaded yellow. It would have been easy to park it and let the course go yellow to save going down a lap but it seemed the better choice to keep going and let the rest of the field stay green.

 

As for the rest of the field, once again the results speak for themselves in terms of how "fair" the racing was. Ariel had a great run, Candi made it to the podium in the heat race. Look at the number of cars on the lead lap and consider that it was an all green raceing and you get a goo dpictue of how even the field is..

[HiTech]

yep im glad he made it through the night .i tell you don and i and john were whatching him in practice .and we agreed that he has more dingles than we do for running lines that no one else would dare to .thats where no zone came from .and i told jessie in the heat race he may be the one to beat .so that saids something . i was just glad ya made it .eveytime i turned and looked over at ya .ya were working on it .

[tps22]

Lloyd,

 

Nice save last night. I was right behind you when she broke loose between 3 and 4. Great save. Was there a flash back of the old dirt track days??? lol. Just wanted to let you know you drove a hellava race.

 

Ozzy

[HiTech]

no fuel problems that has been our monkey on our back at kyle finished . im happy now we have to go after them next time if the monkey dosnt get that heavy foot again

[Hartracn19]

Wow, all I can say is what a night. Congrats to Ariel and Sergio, and to all the TS drivers for great heats and feature race!!

 

Thanks Mike and Ozzy for the kind words!!! Glad to see everyone is running better.

 

I had to keep one eye on the temp gauge all day/night, as she kept overheating. I think I am going to just go through the entire cooling system and replace everything...LOL... not sure what else to do. Talked with a ton of folks who are supposed to be in the know, and none can diagnose the intermittent overheating. It stays cool for a mixed amount of time, then suddenly, and without warning, gets hot, real hot. They all say that there is no reason for it. The problem is in the flow out of the block, as it is not making it from the engine to the radiator. The water in the rad is cool, but doesn't flow into the engine. The thermostat is new (tried 3 different new ones, and all Honda OEM.) I am leaning towards it being a hose collapsing issue, since I cannot think of anything else.

 

Other than that, like Jack said, we had a great run going in the heat. I was really hoping to give Ariel and Jessie a little more competition, but the carb gremlins (my first season nemesis) came back for the heat. I was content with the fact that I would finish third but picked up something that cut the left front tire during the caution, and it went down on the last lap. Oh well, that's racin', and at least I was able to keep it going to get a top five out of it...

 

The feature was weird. We had the carb better, but went into that first lap, and she just went around on me. I thought for sure I had cut another tire. Shook it out on the low side, and it stuck fine, but lost a lap due to that. Once it was sticking, I went racing. a few laps later, she would just step out on me. Not sure if someone was laying down oil, and I was the lucky one to find it, or what, but I was trying to run the same line and half the time it handled great and the other half it wanted to spin.

 

Looking forward to watching the video to see if I can see any tell tales. But wow that was fun. Lets see, like you said Mike, I ran the high side, the low side, the infield, and almost the outfield.

 

Candy, Mike Knotts, and I were racing hard and clean together for a lot of laps, and that was the best fun I have had in some time. I had almost forgotten why we do this with all the issues we have had this year.

 

Thanks to everyone in TPS and THR for letting us have some fun!!

[HiTech]

mike was leaving a stream of something when he came in after the race and sergio thought he hit some slick stuff in turn three and four dont know if we hit it ourselfs cuz jessie just snapped around. and thought he hit the gas to hard . who knows dems da breaks. and as far as your heating prob .you may have water pump problem i have seen the fins slip on the shaft before and do ya have a bleeder on the block somewhere to bleed out air when installing fluids . if not those motors can hide a air pocket . in the block . you have to burp those motors . which im sure ya know about .and we never run a termostat .not trust worthy .use a washer or make youself a restrictor for it if it gets an air pocket that thermostat wont open . untill and yes you could have a bad lower hose i test those by reving it to 4 or 5 thousand and hold it for a few seconds and whatch the hose .if it is bad you will see it . good luck .

[HiTech]

thanks lalo for that ugly inside looking motor .it ran good and helt up great 8000 rpms no problems

[top dog]

I WILL TAKE UGLY & FAST , OVER PRETTY & SLOW ANY DAY. GOT THE JOB DONE . LALOS "TOP DOG RACING"

[HiTech]

lalo it did a good job .it stayed in there . that motor has alot of hart it wont give up the gost we ll it atleast not yet . got a few more races to win before retirement .track record . stuck wide open in to a wall wiped out a car and still keeps on going . just like that rabbit .and to think its ugly and no one wanted it .

[top dog]

REMEMBER OLDTIMER SOMEBODY BOUGHT IT & SIAD THAT THAT MOTOR COULD NOT RUN LIKE THAT & WENT & BOUGT A 3,OOO DALLAR MOTOR .BUT STILL DID NOT GO TO THE FRONT. MAYBE THAY NEEDED "THE UGLY MOTOR"

[HiTech]

REMEMBER OLDTIMER SOMEBODY BOUGHT IT & SIAD THAT THAT MOTOR COULD NOT RUN LIKE THAT & WENT & BOUGT A 3,OOO DALLAR MOTOR .BUT STILL DID NOT GO TO THE FRONT. MAYBE THAY NEEDED "THE UGLY MOTOR"

well maybe you should sell it for 3000 dallors isnt nothing better than an aged stake . ive ran these motors for 25 years and best ones are the ones your scared to run we had a motor that had 100000...miles on it and ran that motor for two years and never touched it .tuff .son of a gun .

[adam78]

Well as far as I know the only person leaking fluids was me, lol. I got pulled off the track after I almost spun in my own oil in turn 2. Lloyd, I bet something off the 84 car probably cut your tire. He had a nice sized hole in his block and oil pan. Other than all that, my car was FINALLY handling right. I thought I was gonna have something for those other bugs, but I guess not. The feature was fun. Not only keeping up and racing Bruce, but you faster guys were making it fun to watch.

[tps22]

BTW, Mr Brazialian Nut.....Congrats on the first win in 06. Will there be a bounty out on you next?? See ya n SA

[97car]

TPS22 you're supposed to be watching the planes.

[HiTech]

TPS22 you're supposed to be watching the planes.

arent you suppose to be watching the k ids .and soaps on tv .

[Hartracn19]

Adam - I think you are right. I have always hated how the cars are directed to drive through the kitty litter to scatter it - understand why we have to, just don't like it. I have cut many a tire down that way. The crews do their best, and THR has some of the best, but it doesn't take a big piece to on these slicks.

 

You have that ole bug going pretty good. A little work and some good driving can have the field chasing that car!! I have had the "honor to drive it on two occasions, and it has the potential to be a front runner again. It just didn't like me. It would flood out while it was running. That's racin'!!??

 

Mike - Thanks for the advice. The weird part is that we have had the same problem on at least 3 different engines, and each had a different water pump. We have tried two different types of pumps. The current one is also a stock pump,

but is supposed to be good (solving the cavetation issue) up to over 10k rpm. The issue is the water isn’t getting to the radiator to be cooled. We have burped the engine and seem to have all of the air out of the system, but???? We have done the revs and not noticed the hose collapsing, but it is one of the only parts that has been on all three engines. Like I said, we are going to stare at it some more this weekend and see if that fixes it. Well every time we make a change it gets hotter sooner. Thought is if we just stare at it, maybe the problem will go away...LOL

 

Seriously, we are going to try, well, not sure what, but something!!