txtom Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 Noticed on the forum board that serves Pensacola that ROMCO racer John Heil qualified 7th at Pensacola Saturday night, and the unofficial results had him finishing 7th in the race. Not sure if he has ever run there before, but that is a solid finish. The forum for Pensacola is currently maintained by a engine shop in the area. It is the one linked to the Pensacola web site maintained by the promoter MacNaughton. Five Flags Speedway Nine Mile Machine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SASPEEDRACER24 Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 It might be me but on the front page of Five Flags page there is a pic of Scott Carlson and in the background of that pic is Heil's #3 car I think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted September 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 That is John's car. The cars in the foreground, #11 Norris, and #38 Carlson were the 3rd and 4th qualifiers. 5th was #118 Mader, which is the orange and white car you can just see between Norris and Heil. Would like to hear a recap of this one from someone who was there. Sounds like Heil took a quick liking to that track. They had about 26 cars there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerboy2002 Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 glad to hear that another local boy has done good at five flags. u can probably add hi mto the list to show up in florida around snowball time, if that show even happens this year. that would be a true shame if the snowball derby isnt raced it is one of the famous races in the south. good to hear john hiel ran well witht he best of the boys from around the south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hray Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 I wasn't there, but engine man Derry Burlington called me yesterday on their way back. Heil has never raced FFS, and as you know, this is his 1st year in ROMCO. They were afraid their motor (stock stroke 355) wasn't up to the task, plus they only had 3, 15 min. practices, but they turned a 15.57 and qualified 7th. About 35 laps into the race, Heil was spun by the #72 and Heil was put to the back (no all involved rule - the one causing the caution goes to the back). Over the next 75 laps he worked his way back to 7th. About lap 110 a caution allowed the field to pit and Heil had nothing but problems. They could only get one impact to work at a time and the jack wouldn't work. After borrowing a jack they went out and one of the new tires went down so he had to come back in. When he went back out, he had lost 2 places (back to 9th). Over the next 30 laps he worked his way to 6th, but the #18 car jumped Heil on the restart of a caution at about lap 140 putting him back to 7th where he finished the race. Evidently anything goes inside 10 laps at FFS. A good lesson for any of us that are going down for the Snowball. As far as the Snowball is concerned, they will try to get enough sponsors to run, but they had to use all their money, borrow a pull truck, borrow a trailer, use members of 2 other ROMCO crews just to get to this race. It doesn't look promising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted September 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 Thanks for the update, Rusty. The #72 that spun him is Eddie Mercer, and I have made my comments about his driving before; I'll be nice and not bring them up again. Anyways, sounds like Heil was top five material until the pit problems. The thing about P-cola--Rusty mentioned on another thread that Heil was down on horsepower. While it hurts you a little at P-cola during qualifying, during the race it can be an advantage, as you have better throttle control after the tires start wearing. Tires go away there very quickly, faster than any other short track I've seen. Congrats again to Heil and his guys, they did Texas proud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
looneedude Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 that was a pretty close recap the 3 car was on pit road three times once for the spin w mercer (who spun just cause he could) to fix fender damage and twice for tires and fuel, could have made the 4 tire stop with no problem but the regulator messed up and the jack wouldnt work very good every one kept there cool and we just made two stops. john did a great job on the track passing alot of cars wile still trying to save tires.. 22 of jermy pate was thew one who jumped the start the only car to pass john for a real pass was the 18 of ronnie sanders with fresher tires.......hope he has the funds to run derby weekend...if every one who reads this could donate 1 dollar he could buy some tires lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hray Posted September 23, 2003 Report Share Posted September 23, 2003 Thanks for the corrections. I was trying to remember all the details from a cell ph conversation Sunday. I also found out the "illegal" pass on restart came 4 laps before the finish, and Heil pulled a magic trick to get back in line instead of getting freight trained. Sounds like the whole crew weren't breathing the last 10 laps. The $1 sounds like a great idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickin_it69 Posted September 23, 2003 Report Share Posted September 23, 2003 I just wanted to say good job at five flags. i also wanted to thank the three or four guys that do not normally crew for john. lynn who is greg davidsons crew chief and chris s. who is chris davidsons crew chief. with out those guys we would not have done as good as we did because we had never been there before. i really wish i could have been there. maybe next time. rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLegend96 Posted September 23, 2003 Report Share Posted September 23, 2003 Lynn and Chris S. are my HEROS!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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