June 6th Summary

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Texana Raceway Park Results

June 6, 2009

 

Whiteaker Warms Up For Long Stretch of USMTS Southern Speedweek, and Brown Gets a Tough Break

 

June 6th was the first of two opportunities for kids go bring their go-karts out and give the Texana dirt oval a run and a chance for fans to see the stars of tomorrow. Go-Kart races were held at intermission. After two heats, the winner from each paired off and Cody Leonard won over Hunter Tesch. Before the night’s racing began, there were announcements of several extra bonuses for the evening. Mickey’s Auto Service and Towing along with Nematek Computer Solutions sponsored several items, including a certificate for a free night at Americas Best Value Inn and Suites in Victoria for any mod or limited mod competitor, $50 extra for 4th place in limiteds, $50 extra for 5th place in limiteds, a free oil change to 8th place in limiteds, and a free computer performance upgrade to 10th place in limiteds. They also sponsored $100 that was drawn for any limited starting the feature. Jed Rollins won the free night at the hotel, and Vince Louden won the $100. Cindy Chamberlain, owner of Cabin Creek Design sponsored $20 for every mini-stock racer entering the gate to race and she shelled out 11 twenty dollar bills to the mini-stock drivers entered for the night.

 

If that wasn’t enough there was a $200 bounty added to the $800 winners purse in modifieds if anyone could beat Paul White fair and square in modifieds. It was an exciting night and Texana Raceway Park was priviliged to have staff from Lone Star Speed Zone on hand covering the night’s events. Special thanks to Nick Holt for sharing his race notes for this write up.

 

The eleven ministocks pulled out first for their feature. Ashley Perks was on the pole and Zach Tesch to the outside of Row 1. At the start, Tesch took the lead with Perks falling into 2nd and Lauren Chamberlain in 3rd. Chamberlain, passed Perks to claim 2nd and set her sights on Tesch. Getting a hard run into 1&2, Chamberlain, who celebrates her 15th birthday on June 9th, looped her car with the right rear coming around and getting into the burm which popped it off the rim and ended her night. Near the same time, Roger Churan got up on two wheels tilting his mini-truck on its side but somehow coming back down on all four. Shortly after the race resumed, Tesch spun down the front straight handing over the lead to Garrett Hayes followed by Chase Sanchez. Sanchez raced his way up to Hayes and ended up taking the lead from Hayes and then Jason Bloom moved past Tesch into 3rd. Sanchez held onto the lead and carried it all the way to the checker. Unfortunately, at the tech pad, it was determined that Sanchez had a particular racing tire that was not allowed and Hayes was awarded with the win.

9 Garett Hayes

49 Justin Bloom

72 Zach Tesch

22 Patricia Lucas

12 Ashley Perks

55 Lauren Chamberlain

14 Roger Churan

03 Justin Sickle

24 Sarah Konvicka

 

A lot of excitement was on hand for the Texana Classic Dwarf feature. Doug Schmidt and Andrew Cline were on the front row to start the event. Cline was out to the lead first with Schmidt and Brad Wright battling for second. Mike Christians was in fourth. Karl Veach spun in in two to bring out a caution at the end of lap one. Cline, Schmidt, Wright, Christians and Victor Vargas were the top five on the restart. Cline again out first with Doug Schmidt, Wright and Christians getting after it for second though fourth. At this point, Jim Scribellitto moved up to sixth. There was a caution on lap 5 for a solo spin by Brian Breaux. Jim Scribellito moved into fourth after battling with Doug Schmidt for a lap or two after a restart. The top three strung out a bit as Cline opened a bit of a gap back to Wright.

Near lap 12, it was Cline, Wright, Christians, Scribellito, and Hunt on a restart. At the checker it was Cline, Wright, Christians, Scribellito, Snow and Gilbert.

19 Andrew Cline

1 Brad Wright

13 Mike Christians

57 Jim Scribellito

01s Joseph Snow

7 Steven Gilbert

15 Gary Faris

79 Douglas Schmidt

97 Brian Breaux

99 Brice Baros

82 Brandon Dorsey

4 Karl Veach

8 Donnie Hunt

24 Victor Vargas

 

The Bombers were next to roll out, ready for their 20-lapper. Janet Perks and Chris Shafer were on the front row. Brian King and Monty Chamberlain were in row two, David McBride and Brad Hayes were in three. As the race started, Perks and Shafer were side by side for a lap with Shafer taking the lead. Brian King got by Perks for second. At the first caution, Shafer felt a handling problem and it was determined he had a broken ball joint which sidelined him for the remainder of the feature. Brian King inherited the lead spot on the restart followed by McBride and Chamberlain, Hayes and Perks. Chamberlain got past McBride for 2nd and went in pursuit of King. A couple of laps later Chamberlain went in pursuit too hard and looped it in turn 3&4. Brad Hayes moved up into 2nd. Chamberlain went to the tail of the field, but worked his way back up to 4th quickly, and then had a flat and had to exit. King who won his first ever feature on Memorial Day weekend at a visit to South Texas Speedway decided he liked the taste of victory. He graduated from high school on Friday night and decided to give himself an extra graduation present as he drove consistent and smooth never giving up the lead once he secured it and took the win.

31 Brian King

5x Brad Hayes

12 Janet Perks

76 Gary Wright

33 Charlie Mills

26 David McBride

05 Jackie Burnett

58 James Hoss

11 Shawn Kline

55 Monty Chamberlain

71 Nic Priem

81 Aaron Ivory

77 Chris Shafer

36 Randy Kacir

 

Shane Hoefling and Dustin Butcher let the Limited Modified field to green in the feature. David Meredith and Paul White were lined up in row two. Hoefling took the early lead with Butcher falling in close behind. Butcher glued himself to Hoeflings rear bumper until Hoefling started pulling away a few laps later. Paul White would move up to second and Mickey Helms then worked up to third with Butcher in fourth. Helms closed in on White placing pressure on White for several laps. As field started approaching lap traffic, Hoefling could do no wrong carefully choosing his path. Hoefling led from start to finish and secured the win by several car lengths over White.

63 Shane Hoefling

216 Paul White

175 Mickey Helms

90 Dustin Butcher

6 Vince Louden

888 Aaron Lunsford

66 Hunt Harrison

9 David Meredith

36 Cody Hildebrandt

21 Victor Lindsey

7k Kevin Parker

47m Ruben Montes

04 Jacob Burnett

15 Andy VanBlacum

18 Roger Strickland

 

In the Super Stocks, Randy Stevenson cruised to an easy victory over Sonny Hammond. Also showing was Jay Sauter who is a fan favorite across the Houston area and many will remember him driving the MOO Thunder Bomber in the past.

83 Randy Stevenson

67 Sonny Hammond

6 Jay Sauter

47 G.W. Hessong

33 Barry Major

 

When the ground pounding modifieds pulled out on the track, a quick inventory of the drivers in the feature would clearly indicate that this was a field of outstanding talent. If you were to try to place a tag line on this feature, you’d be hard pressed to pick between “impressive driving”, “hard luck”, and “Simply Wow!!”.

 

Some driver had the chance to carry home up to $1,000 by collecting the feature money and the extra $200 in bounty money. Paul White was on the pole and Danny Brown was on the outside with Steve Whiteaker Jr. and Joshua Majek on Row 2. As the green flew, a spin by Jed Rollins aborted the first start. The second start was the charm, and Brown flew into the lead followed by White and then Whiteaker. A wreck in Turn 1&2 collected several cars back in the field, but most were able to continue. Back under green it was Brown to the lead again and Whiteaker moving up to the second position. Josh Majek was now in fourth and staying right on White who was in third.

 

As the race continued with several laps under green Whiteaker close behind Brown looked low with the door being closed a couple of times. Whiteaker demonstrated his USMTS learned talent racing Brown clean lap after lap. Eventually Whiteaker experimented with the high side, but each lap, Brown would keep the lead. Brown and Whiteaker started pulling away from the rest of the field and when the lapped traffic was approached is when things got interesting.

 

On the closing laps Brown and Whiteaker started encountering several lapped cars. As they approached the last lap with Brown on the low side and Whiteaker on the high side, Brown got hung up behing one of the lapped cars. When the checker flew, it would have been impossible for the human eye to tell who the winner was. To some, it apeared as if it was Brown, but to others it looked like Whiteaker took the win. Texana Raceway Park utilizes transponders and on this night it couldn’t have paid off more. When the data was pulled, it was Whiteaker by .056 of a second ahead of Brown at the line. Very tough luck for Brown who led the entire race, but as they say “It ain’t over til it’s over”. Whiteaker, who heads out this week to compete in the six day straight USMTS Southern Speedweek kicking off in Oklayoma, utilized the night as a warm-up and placed $1,000 in his pocket to get the week started. This modified event was definitely something for the memory bank!

89 Steve Whiteaker

55 Danny Brown

2w Paul White

82 Joshua Majek

1 Adan Arambula (???)

8g Greg Dinsmore

94 Nick Hardcastle

96 Foster Ellison

39 Jed Rollins

76 Jesse Manning

57 Dale Flanagan

155 Vince Kacir

55b Wesley Anderson

26 Darin Leonard

174 Max Helms

721 Doug Cameron

 

The next scheduled event will be on June 20th. It will be the first of three series events of the South Texas Championship Modified Series at Texana Raceway Park featuring series points for both Modifieds and Limited Modifieds. The series consists of three tracks and nine races. Each track places $10 for every car that shows for an event race building up to the final event of the series, where all of the money collected will be paid out through a point fund to be determined by the three track operators. With one series event in the books, which was held on May 24th at South Texas Speedway, it is STS’s Danny Brown in 1st and Texana’s Jesse Manning in 2nd in modifieds. In the Limited Modifieds, It is the Valley’s T J Huston in 1st and the Valley’s Bobby Maupin in 2nd. All eyes will be on Texana on June 20th for this event as the big dogs roll into town.

 

Also on June 20th, it will be the return of fifty cent sodas and fifty cent hot dogs until sold out. Last year was the track’s first time to try this and hot dogs were sold out before intermission. We’ll plan on stocking a few more this time. See everyone on June 20th

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Check out the audio interviews by Lauren Holt. Copied the following from another thread on LSSZ posted by Nick Holt:

 

"My daughter, Lauren Holt, is on summer break from college and she accompanied me to Texana Raceway Park in Edna, Texas, this weekend. She had never been to a dirt track before but I gave her the digital recorder anyway and pointed her towards the pits. She interviewed:

 

Greg Dinsmore

Steve Miller

Ashley Perks

Mike Davenport

GW Hessong

Jason Fox

Victor Lindsey

Lauren Chamberlain

Sarah Konvicka

Justin Sickle

Susan Stevens

Beverley Rowe

Buddy Shepard

Paul White

 

To listen in click http://www.lonestarspeedzone.com/category/audio