San Antonio Spwy. results 8-9-03

[rebelracewriter]

Heres the final results, I'll get the recaps up later.

 

Media Night at San Antonio Speedway 8-9-03

By J M Hallas

Late Model points lead tightens up

San, Antonio, Tx., Coming into the nights action, Larry Bendele held a slim four point lead over his nearest rival Donny Horelka. By nights end point would be as close at it could get. After both finished third in their respective heat races, Horelka would start inside row two, while Bendele, in his sons car, started outside row three.

Last years SAS track champ, Mike Balzer and Scott Jerkins paced the 10 car field green, with Balzer getting the early advantage. Horelka moved inside Jerkins on lap 2 to grab second, pulling Danny Garcia by as well. By lap 4 Bendele was inside Jerkins and grabbed fourth as Jerkins continued to slip back. The Smith’s, Ronnie and Jason(no relation) both got by Jerkins on the next circuit.

The top three were separated by three car lengths as Bendele was pulling the next three car pack up. Balzer started edging away Horelka by lap 10 with Bendele and the Smiths reeling in Garcia for third. Balzer suffered mechanical problems on lap 11 and slowed, handing the lead over to Horelka. While battling for third, R. Smith got into Bendele who made a save that only a crafty veteran could make, while R. Smith backed off giving him time to recover. This gave Garcia some breathing room, but Horelka was getting away.

The races only caution flew on lap 16 when the Smiths got together, sending R. Smith spinning on the back stretch. Both pitted for repairs and made a couple more laps before retiring for the night. As the crossed flags were shown, it was Horelka, Garcia, Bendele, Jerkins and Todd Farris in the top five, with the top three pulling away to settle it amongst themselves.

From laps 25-35 Bendele tried everything he could to get by Garcia, occasionally getting a look inside. But a look was as close as he could get, and Bendele’s tires starting giving up with five to go. Horelka would take the win, putting his Opiela Mechanical/Mobil Oil/Premier Minerals/Jeffs Auto Rebuilders/Chevy into victory lane. With his win and Bendele’s third the two are now in a virtual tie for SAS Late Model points lead.

 

Late Model

1 Donny Horelka

2 Danny Garcia---in Jesse Salazars car

3 Larry Bendele

4 Scott Jerkins

5 Todd Farris--after crashing hard in practice

6 Ronnie Smith

7 Jason Smith

8 Mike Balzer--broke while leading

9 Jesse Salazar---in a Horelka back up car

10 Jeff Moore--in R. Smith's back up car

 

 

Back to Back for Becka

The eighteen car 25 lap Sportsman feature started with Garfield Shanklin and Charlie Earnhardt on the front row. On green Earnhardt grabbed the point, while Tater Mason, Shanklin and Billy Becka were three wide for second. Points leader Marcus Bellino moved from his eighth place start to get fourth by lap three, as the top four started to break away. Mason got by Earnhardt on lap five making the move down the back stretch. Mason, Becka and Bellino then did a little bump drafting as they ran nose to tail. Justin Oates ran down the top three, just as Mason got loose and spun in turn 2, with the field bearing down. Fortunately everyone was on their toes and no one made contact.

With Becka now on the point, he and Bellino quickly got six car advantage over Oates on the restart. At the halfway mark the top five were Becka, Bellino, Oates, Earnhardt and Frank Johnson. Lap 15 saw caution fly, when Greg Rohmer spun and collected Oscar Solis in turn 2. Tom Casey was forced to pit after picking up the bumper cover from Rohmer, dragging it under his car. Becka got a two car gap on the restart, but cautions seem to breed cautions, as the yellow flew again on lap 17 when Earnhardt spun while trying to hold off Johnson for fourth.

Back under green, Becka again got a slight advantage as the top three separated themselves from the pack. Mason was charging back to the front after his early spin moving into sixth with five to go. Mason’s charge came to end a lap later when he broke the left front suspension, and pulled to the pits in a shower of sparks. Mark Rahn brought out the caution with three to go, spinning in turn two. On the restart, SAS’s infamous turn two, claimed another as Earnhardt spun leaving a green, white, checker shootout to the finish.

Becka and Bellino were bumper to bumper as green came out, but Becka slowly inched ahead and went to grab his second win on a row. This was Becka’s sixth win of the season in his Ray’s Auto & Truck/Grimes & Sons Automotive/ TGR Parts/Insurance Auto Salvage/181 Truck Stop/Mission Racing/Power by Teds/Monte Carlo.

 

Sportsman

1 Billy Becka

2 Marcus Bellino

3 Justin Oates

4 Frank Johnson

5 Garfield Shanklin

6 Tom Casey

7 Rodney Rodriguez

8 Craig Crawley

9 Charlie Earnhardt

10 Dwayne Markgraf

11 Steve Ramzinski

12 Tater Mason

13 Mark Rahn

14 Greg Rohmer

15 Oscar Solis

16 Vince Trietch

17 Paul Delgado

18 Paul Casey jr

 

In the Road Runner main, current points leader Homer Pitner led flag to flag to take the victory over JR Eichelberger, Irish O’Leary and Anne Freudiger.

 

The Allison Legacy cars were on hand as part of the media presentation and ran a short feature race. James Lee got the lead on lap one and held off Frank Johnson, Mel Krauss and Mike Knotts to get the win.

 

Media Blitz

As part of a promotion to get the local media more involved in short track racing, the local TV and big print media were invited to come out, meet the drivers, get a feel for racing, and take a few laps in car on the famed SAS high banks. This begs the question, “How did I get invited?” Actually it was through the efforts of FASCAR representative, Debbie Williams, who invited me due my knowledge of short track racing in Texas.

Also on hand were NASCAR Busch driver, Joe Aramendia, past ROMCO points champion and part time ASA driver, Tommy Grimes. Both were long time SAS drivers, that are making the move up to some of the elite series. The TAMS was represented by James Cole and Larry Smith.

Unfortunately only a few of the SA/Austin TV stations invited showed up, though not because of lack of effort from Williams and SAS. It’s shame that the same TV channel that carries NASCAR racing, won’t come out to help support local racing in the community. Several stations were involved and did driver interviews, shot some racing action and took a few laps in cars graciously given up by the local drivers.

My SAS debut took an early wrong turn, when the car I had hoped to drive, Larry Bendele’s point’s leading car was not in the pits. I spoke with Larry and he (jokingly)said he was going to let me drive the 23 car, but didn’t have it ready since it got wrecked and blew the motor a couple weeks back. Uh-huh! So with help from Debbie and Steve Jung, I went in quest of another ride.

Enter Rodney Rodriguez, when asked his face showed a little concern, but he agreed to let me in once it cooled down a little after hot laps. The Rodriguez family has long been involved in racing on a local level, and they use the time as a family outing. His dad, Ben raced SAS for several years, with Rodney starting his racing at Longhorn Speedway. Rodney then moved over to Thunder Hill Raceway after Longhorn closed, and then to SAS last year. His dad and uncle, Martin Tello, build the motors as part of the family racing crew.

Rodney, despite missing 5 races this season is still in the top fifteen in points. Currently thirteenth in points he is within striking distance a possible top ten finish, while holding a good margin over the fourteenth place driver. He has garnered 7 top ten race finishes in only his second season of racing at SAS. His best points finish was a fifth at THR during the ‘99 season, with three feature wins. Rodney also grabbed two checkered flags while running at Longhorn.

Rodney’s , who has used the #22, from the first time I saw him race is sponsored by Outlaw II Motorsports, Martin and Dora Tello and Austin Countertops. He makes the haul from Lockhart every weekend with his biggest supporters, daughter Kendall Paige and wife Jennifer. Thanx again for giving me the opportunity to get a few laps in.

Now for my debut, after reassuring Rodney I did have some past racing experience and asking to use as much safety equipment as I could get, I climbed in. The fit wasn’t the best as the car wasn’t built for a short-legged person like myself and I could just get enough of the accelerator. We fired it up and I rolled out to pit lane. Unfortunately the track was under red as they scraped the Late Model of Todd Farris off the wall.

With temperatures nearing 100 it got uncomfortably hot real quick as I waited for my chance. This little voice kept popping up in the back of my head saying, “Stay away from the infamous turn 2 wall”. This part of the track seems to work like a car magnet and I really didn’t want add my name to list of victims.(I’m sure Rodney didn’t either)

Finally the track clean up was done, we refired and I rolled out. My first impression was that of awe as I drove into the banking for my first time. It had been 19 years since I last raced a high banked pavement track back in South Bend, Indiana and had truly forgotten that feeling.

I had three goals, turn a few respectable laps, stay out of the infamous SAS turn 2 wall, and return the car(to Rodney) in one piece. I felt I accomplished all three. While my lap times were certainly not world record times, and I would have been a back marker/lap traffic in the Sportsman class, I thought I did rather well. With some more seat time, in a car that wasn’t borrowed, who knows..... SPONSORS NEEDED!!

First lap was 29.99, second 28.60, third and fourth identical 27.47's and the last lap was 26.87 . I wasn’t going to pull off until I was forced to, it was way too much fun. The 26.87 would have at least made me competitive in the Roadrunner class. And I was the fastest of any of the other media guys that made laps. So much so, that Larry Bendele couldn't believe it was just a media guy out there.

The poor guy from Galavision 41 watched me and commented to Debbie, “You don’t expect me to go that fast do you?” She informed him that he didn’t need to run at my pace, and that I had previous racing experience, which I’m sure made him feel better about his laps. All in all I’m sure the other guys that did take laps got a new appreciation for what it’s really like, other than what they see on TV. Me, I kept the adrenaline rush well into the early morning hours.