ASA/Texas 250 full story

[rebelracewriter]

ASA/Texas 250 @ Houston Motor Speedway 4-12-03

By J M Hallas

First Texas ASA Show, Big Success

Houston, Tx. The first ever ASA(American Speed Association) race held race held in Texas, played to a near capacity crowd, on a Chamber of Commerce day. 40 teams, including 6 from Texas rolled through the gates of renovated HMS, in search of one of the 32 starting positions for the 250 lap race on the 3/8 mile banked track.

Robbie Pyle in his CITGO/MDA/WalTom Racing/Chevy led Saturday practice, and continued to show he would be one to beat as he posted fast time of the 39 qualifiers with a 14.396 @ 93.776 MPH. Four of six Texas teams made their way into the field, with the young Austin phemon, Casey Smith(8th) leading the charge. Other Texas qualifiers were, veteran John Silverthorne(26th), Kenny Bumbera(19th) and Doug Hooks(21st). Kyle Burts and 2002 ROMCO Champion, Chris Davidson failed to make the show. Burts couldn’t find the speed to make the show, while Davidson, in a borrowed car, fought an ill-handling chassis and withdrew from his qualifying attempt.

With an added provisional start 33 cars started, paced to green by Pyle and Mike Garvey. Garvey got the jump and quickly snagged the lead going into turn one, while several drivers got hung on the high side and fell back spots as the field sorted out to the low groove. Pyle took one look early but fell back in line as the top five began to put some distance on the pack.

By lap 14 the leaders caught traffic and Garvey became an innocent victim as Kris Stump and Troy Wangerin got tangled in turn four, collecting Garvey, Bryan Reffner, John Webb and Greg Williams in the process. Garvey was forced to give up the lead, pitting with damage to the left front. Garvey was able to make repairs with a number of stops, but not losing a lap to the new leader Pyle.

Shortly after the restart, the top three had separated out by about six car lengths, until the leaders again ran up on traffic by lap 34. This gave Kevin Cywinski the chance to close back in on Pyle. Again as the leaders fought their way through the yellow came out. This time when Stump got spun(lap 37), with Brett Sontag and Glenn Allen getting together and Sontag spinning coming to yellow. It wasn’t long after going back to green when Wangerin got turned around by Reffner. Wangerin refired and as Reffner came back around the next lap, Wangerin looked to take a shot back at Reffner. Either through better judgement or poor planning, Wangerin missed and spun himself again.

On the restart, Pyle got a good jump and the top three spaced themselves out until lap 61, when a caution again slowed the action, this time for a spin by Reffner.(Wangerin was nowhere in sight) Pyle edged ahead again as the green flew, while Garvey was fighting his way back to the front. Garvey’s progress came to an end when he slid high turns 3-4 and lost ground. Garvey got a break, when yellow flew again on lap 75 for a spin by Bumbera on the front stretch.

Back under green, with Cywinski hanging on to Pyle this time, while Smith got hung on the high side going around a lap car falling from 7th to 12th. By lap 89 the leaders were in heavy traffic, but Pyle got through quickly and gained an advantage over Cywinski. Yellow flew again on lap 93 for a spin by Silverthorne, with Peter Cozzollino spinning coming to the flag. All the leaders headed to pit road during the caution, with some deciding to take fuel only, while other took tires. Joey Miller was first off pit road(gas only), but Chris Wimmer, who stayed out with a few others, assumed the lead.

As the green came back out, Davin Scites hung on to the bumper of Wimmer, with an occasional bump. As the top two ran into traffic, they were three wide around a lap car. Wimmer got kicked high and got freight-trained to the back of the pack. Scites was unable to shake Allen and Ed Brown as the trio sliced through the back markers coming to the mid point. As the crossed flags were shown, it was Scites, Allen, Brown, Chad Wood and Cywinski running in the top five.

Allen was able to wrestle the lead away from Scites on lap 127, just before a caution on lap 130. Reed Sorenson spun between three and four and as he dove for pit road, J. Miller drilled him causing major damage to both cars. But not enough damage to keep J. Miller from giving Sorenson a little, “what the heck was you doing” rub. The portion of the field that didn’t pit earlier took this opportunity to make their stop.

Allen got out to a big lead on the restart, using a lap car as a buffer. But the pace was quickly slowed again for a lap 142 spin by past ASA Champ, Gary St. Amant. During the yellow, Allen pitted handing the lead over to Brown. As the green flag came out, Brown spun his tires and quickly fell back, with Wood grabbing the point. The top seven were running nose to tail until Webb and Smith got together and spun on lap 155.

Cywinski inherited the top spot when Wood pitted during the caution. Cautions breed cautions, as the yellow was back out quickly on lap 167, when Scites spun after contact with Sontag. Cywinski and Rick Beebe got a jump on the green as the pack tried to get around the lap car of Reffner. Again, another quick yellow halted the action on lap 177 when Boris Jurkovic went for a loop. Cywinski got a slight edge on the restart, with the pack stacking up when Wangerin got into the back of Ryan Hemphill.

Wangerin finally spun a few laps later, Williams spun to miss Wangerin and poor J. Miller again became the victim as he slammed hard into Williams. The race restarted with near 50 laps to go, and any of the top six of Cywinski, Beebe, Pyle, Mike Cope, Garvey and Butch Miller in contention for the win. Cozzollino got into Todd Kluever and sent him for a spin on lap 201 to slow the pace once again.

Shortly after the green flew Kluever got together with Travis Kittleson, stacking up the field, while the top six pulled away. Garvey was able get around Cope on lap 210 to grab fourth spot, while Cywinski used lap cars to gain a little distance on Pyle. B. Miller then began working on Cope’s bumper, finally getting fifth position on lap 216. Traffic slowed Cywinski, who almost got pinned in by lap cars, with Beebe closing. Cywinski regained a 5-car edge as the others negotiated through traffic.

With 25 to go, Cywinski still had five cars on Beebe, who was trying to hold off Pyle for second. Pyle got under Beebe in traffic with 20 to go. Cywinski’s lead shrunk quickly as Pyle ran him down in traffic. Pyle took a peek, with 15 to go, but fell back into line as he and Cywinski pulled ahead to settle it amongst themselves. The top duo had a good advantage as 3rd-6th tried to fight around three lap cars.

With 10 to go Cywinski had a mere car length over Pyle until the final caution came on lap 243 when St. Amant spun again. No yellow flag finishes in ASA, as the lap count stopped at 245, leaving a five lap shootout to the finish. As the green came back out, Cywinski got a good jump, but Pyle closed to his bumper with 2 to go. But that was as close as he could get as Cywinski piloted the Great Clips/SK Hand Tools/Ranger Boats/Countryjoeracing.com/Cywinski-Howe Chassis to the victory.

Cywinski’s win was the 11th of his career, by 0.175 second over Pyle. “I knew Robbie was going to be a tough one to beat,” the winner said in Winner’s Circle. “I followed him a lot early in the race and couldn’t do a thing with him. We made and adjustment on our pit stop and we knew we weren’t coming in again. I wasn’t getting off the bottom of the race track. The only way Robbie or anybody else was going to get by me was on the outside. “Robbie is a heck of a racer,” Cywinski continued. “I knew he wouldn’t bump me or do anything to get by me. It was awesome, it’s fun to win here in Houston for the first time and hopefully we’ll come back next year.”

 

American Speed Association

Texas 250 Houston Motor Speedway, .375-mile oval

Results from April 12, 2003

1)(3) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 250 2)(1) Robbie Pyle, Chevrolet, 250 3)(11) Rick Beebe, Ford, 250 4)(2) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 250 5)(10) Butch Miller, Chevrolet, 250 6)(28) Glenn Allen Jr., Chevrolet, 250 7)(5) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 250 8)(8) Travis Kittleson, Chevrolet, 250 9)(20) Todd Kluever, Chevrolet, 250 10)(4) Chad Wood, Chevrolet, 250 11)(21) Ryan Hemphill, Chevrolet, 250 12)(16) Greg Stewart, Chevrolet, 250 13)(8) Casey Smith, Chevrolet, 250 14)(12) Brett Sontag, Chevrolet, 250 15)(13) Davin Scites, Chevrolet, 250 16)(14) Boris Jurkovic, Chevrolet, 250 17)(29) Peter Cozzolino, Chevrolet, 249 18)(23) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 249 19)(19) Kenny Bumbera, Pontiac, 249 20)(33) Bryan Reffner, Chevrolet, 249’ 21)(25) Doug Hooks, Pontiac, 249 22)(18) Shane Sieg, Chevrolet, 249 23)(27) J.C. Beattie Jr., Chevrolet, 248 24)(7) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet, 246 25)(26) Troy Wangerin, Chevrolet, 243 26)(15) Ed Brown, Chevrolet, 242 27)(22) Kris Stump, Ford, 215 28)(6) Joey Miller, Chevrolet, 204 29)(30) John Webb, Chevrolet, 197 30)(17) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 191 31)(24) John Silverthorne, Chevrolet, 189, transmission 32)(32) Greg Williams, Chevrolet, 188, suspension 33)(31) Tracy Gordon, Chevrolet, 3, rear end

Race Statistics: Time of the Race: 1 hour, 47 minutes, 19.027 seconds Average Speed: 52.415 mph Margin of Victory: 0.175 seconds Lead Changes: 7 among 8 drivers Lap Leaders: Garvey, 1-15; Pyle, 16-95; Wimmer, 96-109; Scites, 110-126; Allen, 127-144; Brown, 145-149; Wood, 150-157; Cywinski, 158-250 Cautions: 14 for 77 laps

 

 

Writers notes.

Trips Down Memory Lane

This was my first ASA race since moving to Texas from Indiana back in 1984, and it brought back images from the past while growing up in the Midwest. For many years I watched the ASA grow up racing around the area including; Illiana Spwy.(Schererville), Winchester Spwy., Baer Field Spwy.(Fort Wayne), Grundy Country Spwy.(Morris, Ill.), and Slinger Spwy.(Slinger, Wisc.) While many of the mainstays like Dick Trickle, Alan Kulwicki, Bob Senneker, Mike Eddy, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, et.al. are gone or have moved on, the quality of the racing and competition remains.

Drivers now in the spotlight are multi-time champs like Butch Miller and Gary St. Amant, 97 champ and Rookie of the year, Kevin Cywinski, Mike Garvey and Mike Cope. A large crop of young guns and rookies now challenge the ranks, with 1/3 of the field sporting the yellow stripes.

The track itself served as a reminder of the old Big H Spwy. though I could hardly recognize the place now. Gone is the dirt, now from the time you enter to the back of pit road is fully paved. New buildings dot the facility, along with new lighting, stands, fencing, etc. Easy to see a lot of money has been put into the place since my video filming days of the 80's. Certainly one of the premier tracks around the south.