ROMCO @ SAS Results 8-16-03

[rebelracewriter]

ROMCO @ San Antonio Speedway 8-16-03

By J M Hallas

Big points shake up in series standings

San Antonio, Texas. Twenty three of the twenty fours took times, with Eddy Wallace(fifth in points) on the trailer early after a practice crash. Former SAS shoe and Busch series racer, Joe Aramendia led qualifying early with a 18.416. Points’ leader, Brandon Bendele was second to last one out and bested that time with a 18.346 in his Lone Star Light/Premier Minerals/Oval Components/RTM/Mission Racing/Longs Machine/Dodson House Moving/Alexanders House Leveling/Burris Construction/Monte Carlo. Mark Chrudimsky found the turn three wall after a good first lap. Chrudimsky got loose coming across the back gate crossover and lost control, ending his night early.

Past ROMCO champions, Greg Davidson and Donnie Wilson led the 22 car starting field to green, with G. Davidson getting lead going into turn one. Aramendia tried Wilson on the inside for second, but Wilson held the position. As the top four inched away, T Wade Welch and Doug Hooks battled for fifth. Wilson gave G. Davidson several looks on the inside and fell back to ride it out and save the tires.

Tommy Grimes, who started deep in the field made some early moves getting up to 13th by lap 5. Grimes had to check up and got rear-ended by Colt James, but was able to hang on. By lap 15 the lead duo were tied together and pulling away from Aramendia and Bendele. Welch and Hooks were both closing on the second pack as the leaders hit traffic.

G. Davidson got a slight advantage trough traffic, with Aramendia closing back up on Wilson. Bendele saw his points lead go up in smoke, literally, as he was forced to pit with rear end problems. He would return after a lengthy pit stop only to fall out again with the same trouble. Wilson used heavy traffic to close back in on G. Davidson and was able to cool his tires after caution flew on lap 26 when Eddie Butt and Michael Denman made contact on the front stretch.

On the restart the top three stayed together as they pulled ahead of Welch in fourth. G. Davidson and Wilson then slowly started to ease away from Aramendia. John Kelly and Hooks battled it out for fifth, while Grimes, Tommy Grothues and John Meyer were fighting for 9th-11th. The lead trio separated themselves by a car length, with a big gap back to fourth.

Meyer spun and got T-boned by Robert Richardson after contact with Grothues to bring out the yellow on lap 57. The crossed flags were shown just after the field went back to green showing G. Davidson, Wilson, Aramendia, Welch and Hooks in the top five positions. The lead trio once again pulled away from the second pack as they battled to get by the lap car of Jay Watson.

As G. Davidson and Wilson crept away from Aramendia, Welch started to close the gap and pulled away from Hooks and Kelly. Colt James got around Bradley Riethmeyer for seventh as Reithmeyer began to fall back with a sick sounding motor. Welch’s charge slowed with 30 laps to go, as his tires started to give up.

With 25 to go, G. Davidson had a second and a half lead over Wilson, but Wilson charged back to close the gap with 15 to go. Kelly and James both got by Hooks to move up into fourth and fifth. Aramendia brought out the final yellow on lap 112, when he ran over some debris and blew a tire, slamming the turn two wall. During the caution Kelly was forced to pit with overheating problems ending his good night.

Wilson grabbed G. Davidson’s bumper on the restart and held on, while James got into Welch battling for third. Welch made a great save and held on to the place. Wilson looked low out of every corner but was unable to get enough forward bite to make a move. With 5 to go the lead duo were still nose to tail as they fought it out to the finish. On the last lap Wilson drove hard into turn three, lighting up the brake rotors. G. Davidson was able to hold Wilson off as the checkers flew as he put the Manhiems Big H Auto Auction/Westside Performance/Davidson Electric/Plylox/Ron-Jovi De-kals/Monte Carlo in victory lane and moved into the points lead.

 

1 Greg Davidson

2 Donnie Wilson

3 T Wade Welch

4 Colt James

5 Doug Hooks

6 Tommy Grimes

7 Jay Watson

8 Eddie Butt

9 Joe Aramendia

10 John Kelly

11 Tuffy Hudson

12 Chris Davidson

13 Bradley Riethmeyer

14 Bubba Naumann

15 John Heil

16 Tom Grotheus

17 John Meyer

18 Jim Blevins

19 Brandon Bendele--Fast Qualifier, broke rear end (twice)

20 Robert Richardson

21 Michael Crafford

22 Michael Denman

Eddie Wallace---DNS---destroyed car in practice

Mark Chrudimski---DNS---crashed in qualifying

[NickHolt]

Oficial results of the ROMCO SLM feature at San Antonio Speedway, 8/16/03

 

FP CAR # DRIVER_NAME HOMETOWN ST LAPS GLL FRL SP QT PAYOFF POINTS

 

 

1 96 Greg Davidson Pearland TX 125 108 18.86599922 1 18.59700012 $3,600 90

2 82 Donnie Wilson Oklahoma City OK 125 0 18.89599991 2 18.50699997 $2,000 87

3 13 T Wade Welch Houston TX 125 0 18.94400024 5 18.59700012 $1,600 84

4 15 Colt James Buda TX 125 0 19.210 14 18.900 $1,400 81

5 99 Doug Hooks Dripping Springs TX 125 0 18.9489994 7 18.6590004 $1,200 78

6 22 Tommy Grimes San Antonio TX 124 0 19.15500069 15 18.90600014 $1,000 75

7 48 Jay Watson Midland TX 124 0 19.09600067 17 19.03300095 $800 72

8 41 Eddie Butt Corpus Christi TX 119 0 19.690 22 19.76099968 $750 69

9 50 Joe Aramendia San Antonio TX 112 0 18.9279995 3 18.41600037 $700 66

10 57 John Kelly San Antonio TX 112 0 18.940 6 18.60099983 $600 63

11 0 Tuffy Hudson Portland TX 111 0 19.46699905 21 19.310 $600 60

12 14 Chris Davidson Pearland TX 110 0 19.22200012 11 18.85199928 $500 57

13 49 Bradley Riethmeyer Hutto TX 97 0 18.97400093 8 18.69300079 $450 54

14 40 Bubba Naumann Pensacola FL 79 0 19.21199989 18 19.06299973 $400 51

15 3 John Heil Floresville TX 66 0 19.1420002 9 18.6989994 $375 48

16 11 Tom Grothues San Antonio TX 63 0 19.24699974 13 18.88400078 $350 45

17 79 John Meyer Floresville TX 56 0 19.470 20 19.2689991 $325 42

18 24 Jim Blevins San Antonio TX 53 0 19.50300026 19 19.09900093 $300 39

19 8 Brandon Bendele Adkins TX 52 0 18.900 4 18.34600067 $250 41

20 33 Robert Richardson Mc Kinney TX 51 0 19.245 16 18.99300003 $200 33

21 51 Michael Crofford Houston TX 36 0 19.410 23 DNQ $175 30

22 28 Michael Denman Corpus Christi TX 27 0 19.153 12 18.85499954 $150 27

 

# 55, Eddy Wallace, unable to compete due to a crash during practice.

#39, Mark Chrumdinsky, unable to compete due to a crash during qualifying.

 

FP Finishing Position GLL Green Laps Led FRL Fastest Race Lap

SP Starting Position QT Qualifying Time

 

Fastest four (4) qualifiers were inverted. Car # 8, Brandon Bendele was the fastest qualifer at 18.346, gets 5 extra points.

 

Crew Chief award, Ringer Gloves, goes to the winning vehicle # 96, sponsored by American Performance and Services.