Battle at the Beach!

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
1

I had a great time tonight at Daytona! They ran a pair of 150 lappers, and each one was action packed.

What was not to love? Each race had a large field of cars, the track provides lots of varied and high quality concessions, and there isn’t a bad seat in the house either.

Hmmm…what else? How about a big scoring pylon that showed the top 15 spots? And don’t forget the two giant screen TV’s for replays.

I liked the fact that there is no wall in the corners. I someone spins or gets in trouble, they can easily get themselves out of the way. No outside wall saved lots of cautions, and that is fine with me.

A driver with a strong Florida connection, Ryan Preece was robbed of the win the Whelen modified 150. He led for 140+ laps, but was hit by a lapped car. On the restart, Ryan slipped (damage from the wreck?) and ended up forth.

The K&N race was won by the Mexican driver, Daniel Suarez. He also won two days earlier at New Smyrna, so he swept the K&N Florida tour. As well as Daniel drives, this one almost went a different way. Kenzie Rustin was passing Daniel for the lead when the yellow came out. She got into trouble on the restart, but he had certainly put herself in position for the “W”. Some talented young drivers are in K&N!

I’m not certain, but I believe this will be the last Battle at the Beach, at least in that location. The whole superstretch grandstand is coming down soon, so who knows what the future holds for this event. I will say the large crowd on hand certainly enjoyed this pair of hard-fought races.

Was it easy to pass? No, it wasn’t. But they did pass anyway, and besides, who ever said that passing had to be easy? They wrecked a bit too, but I don’t remember a single car going off on the hook, and I’ve seen much more wreckage from our Saturday night “backbone” classes, regardless of the track.

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Hey Boneman I respect your opinion but mine is completely different.

I skipped going this year because last year’s race was horrible. This year’s race was equally as horrible.

The track setup is awful, they all are forced to drive single file and then hard brake going into a sharper turn than at Martinsville. The track does not support 2 wide forget about 3 wide. The only way it appears to pass is to bump the person in front of you out of the way.

In my opinion Preece did not drive a great race. He put himself in position to be hit by the lap car and spun his tires on the restart as his car did not appear to sustain any damage from the bump.

Coby drove like a champion and deserved the win. It was a smart move on his part to hard brake as soon as the guy behind him tried to bump him out of the way. Slowed the whole field down.

They said on the TV broadcast that Coby would be running the Richie Evans memorial Friday night. Hopefully more of the big boys follow so we can have an actual exciting mod race at New Smyrna on Friday!

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After last year, I had no real plans to return, but I did. And im glad I did.

Both races were thoroughly entertaining. Yes, passing is tough, but it was being done. At one point, I had noticed that Ron Silk had moved from 16th to 4th, so he proved it CAN be done.

It seemed as though NASCAR put their foot down about jackass driving, and intentional cautions. A couple of times, when a driver spun out, they’d let them get a lap down before throwing the yellow, and most everyone did all they could to get rolling in the right direction as quick as possible. It was NOT a caution-fest.

Last year I wouldn’t have been disappointed if this race never ran again.

This time, I’ll be sorry if it never comes back.

4

Battle on the Track Apron part 2. NASCAR has billions of dollars and yet can’t manage anything better than that? Technically, a race can take place on any surface in any configuration in any location I guess. But this one has the very strong odor of cheap and easy. Almost as if NASCAR figures the hicks will go for anything that has NASCAR and Daytona Speedway attached.
Sounds like the racing was good, but i’ll pass on driving all the way over there to watch a cobbled together race on a parking lot.
And that answers the question of what next for this race. All they have to do is clear out any parking lot in Daytona and stack some tires up in the shape of a race track.

5

After having heard all the negatives about this track I was quite surprised at what I saw. Great racing action. Large crowd and as Boneman said first class concessions. Doubtful but hoping Daytona finds someway to bring this back next year. 30 cars in each division with 26 making the feature. Nice to see Doug Coby get the modified win in his #2. As mentioned Preece was robbed. Loved viewing the race with the start finish line on the other side of the track. Jason Myers #1 had a great run to finish second, with Luke Fleming third. Preece 4th and Burt Myers 5th. Ronnie Silk had come from his 17th starting spot to as high as 4th when a late incident relegated him back to 8th. As mentioned Suarez won the K&N. Ruston #96 went to the rear after bringing out the caution, she came all the way back to 6th. Gray Gaulding who had the early lead also had to start at the tail end after a caution but managed to race his way back to a 7th. #22 Austin Hill was second, with the Napa #16 of Brandon McReynolds rounding out the top three. The track had been reduced to 3/7 of a mile this year. #16 Preece won modified pole at 17.414 avg speed of 76.490. Ben Rhodes in the #41 won the K&N pole. Very enjoyable night and another friendly group of fans. Thanks to the fan who shared his Krispy Kreme doughnuts with our group…

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Live and in-person is a different experience that in front of the TV. I could see the difference by watching the track action, and then seeing the replay on the big screens. Things certainly looked smaller and slower on the screens, IMHO.

The funny thing was the amount of outside and 3 wide passing that went on. The outside often worked because the inside car would get so bound up trying to keep on the bottom while the top car could keep its speed up and blow around the bottom car. It happened all night long.

Do you know who was the “king” so to speak of the 3 wide pass? Kenzie Ruston! A lot of the cars took these corners the way they teach in SCCA: go in wide, turn sharp and mash it. That is all well and good for lap times, but it doesn’t work in oval track traffic. Kenzie proved that by repeatedly dive bombing the bottom. She did it cleanly too; her car looked spotless at the end. How she had the brakes left to do that is a mystery to me, but she passed a ton of cars that way, both 2 and 3 wide.

If all short track races were this well organized, this well presented and this well attended, we would have a healthy sport indeed. Hopefully some of the dozens to teams it drew to Florida will hang around and run a few nights at New Smyrna too.

7

Come On

I also had a good time BUT that was not racing more like a parade. That said the track down the road NEEDS this event. Let’s see:)

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Preece had major damage to the LR after contact with the lapper.
When FS2 showed it close up the rim looked like an egg and he did a great job holding on to finish. As for that wreck itself the replay showed the lapper just couldn’t get slowed up for some reason and never turned until contact with Preece.

In the K&N race I felt bad for Patrick Starapoli. He started near the rear and made his way to front only to get punted from the rear by a car 2 cars back. The 46 was behind the 98 and just pushed him right into Starapoli spinning him. Overall it was two good races especially when compared to last years races.

A bit of good news…

During the broadcast Mike Joy announced that Robert Hart was in attendance to sign a contract bringing that series back to NSS next Feb.

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[QUOTE=Frasson118;141526]After last year, I had no real plans to return, but I did. And im glad I did.

Both races were thoroughly entertaining. Yes, passing is tough, but it was being done. At one point, I had noticed that Ron Silk had moved from 16th to 4th, so he proved it CAN be done.

It seemed as though NASCAR put their foot down about jackass driving, and intentional cautions. A couple of times, when a driver spun out, they’d let them get a lap down before throwing the yellow, and most everyone did all they could to get rolling in the right direction as quick as possible. It was NOT a caution-fest.

Last year I wouldn’t have been disappointed if this race never ran again.

This time, I’ll be sorry if it never comes back.[/QUOTE]

My thoughts on a couple of issues Frasson raised. First, the spin into the infield with no caution. A couple of dirt tracks in S. Alabama have vacant infields and if you spin into the infield it is your job to get going again with no caution. Guess what they never have a problem getting refired and the races move much better. Second the desire to have it back again. I agree it could be a speedweeks staple but I feel it should be at NSS. They accept the NASCAR fees for the sanction then kill one of their race nights with this. Don’t ever kid yourself speedweeks is not about NASCAR it is about expanding the France families wealth.

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If anyone hasn’t noticed,asphalt modified racing in Florida has been on life support for some time.NASCAR does not have to run this race,I give them credit for sticking their neck out and doing so.The temporary track is a good way of testing the waters to see if it has the potential to become something bigger…All big things start small.

With the backstretch grandstands being torn down,it will be interesting to see what their next move will be.Would love to see a permanent facility built with a points race at both NSS & DIS…This would solve the issue of the drivers running the BATBeach only and then going home.

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[QUOTE=kendo;141544]If anyone hasn’t noticed,asphalt modified racing in Florida has been on life support for some time.NASCAR does not have to run this race,I give them credit for sticking their neck out and doing so.The temporary track is a good way of testing the waters to see if it has the potential to become something bigger…All big things start small.

With the backstretch grandstands being torn down,it will be interesting to see what their next move will be.Would love to see a permanent facility built with a points race at both NSS & DIS…This would solve the issue of the drivers running the BATBeach only and then going home.[/QUOTE]

Wasn’t much reason to test the waters, the tour mods have always been popular. Even the NASCAR guys must have wandered into NSS at some point over the years during Speedweeks and seen the crowd for the mods. Well, maybe not, they seem to live in a bubble.
The very last thing that area needs is a purpose built, NASCAR owned, asphalt short track. NASCAR would spend whatever it took to put all other tracks out of business and then schedule races twice a year, in Feb. and July. Actually, i’m not so sure that NASCAR isn’t in the process of buying NSS. Might be next year or the year after, but i’m betting theres something afoot there to explain this new found interest NASCAR has in asphalt short track racing in Daytona.

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I understand the reasons for throwing the yellow flag for one car spins that end up far from the racing surface, but damn it slows the show down. It’s a great idea to leave the green out until the spinning car ( who just can’t seem to get the engine started until the exact second the yellow comes out ) loses a lap and then throw the yellow. I just wouldn’t want the responsibility of deciding the safety aspect.

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The Nascar Camping World Truck Series would be a hell of a show at NSS.

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[QUOTE=Matt Albee;141547]Wasn’t much reason to test the waters, the tour mods have always been popular. Even the NASCAR guys must have wandered into NSS at some point over the years during Speedweeks and seen the crowd for the mods. Well, maybe not, they seem to live in a bubble.
The very last thing that area needs is a purpose built, NASCAR owned, asphalt short track. .[/QUOTE]

Dude,really?..Go to NSS tonight and you will see maybe 12 tour mods there and maybe 800-1,000 fans,sad at best for a special events show…Have you seen what goes on at Lowes Motor Speedway with their purpose built dirt track event???

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Yes dude, really.I haven’t seen the mods at Lowes. I’ve seen them at Loudon though.
You may have noticed that I said " over the years ". I’m aware that the last 2 years at NSS have been pretty sad as far as tour mod turnout. But I’ve been over there for Speedweeks many times when the place was packed with the best tour mods you could ever want to see.
If your thinking is crowd size makes the event, you sure wouldn’t want to put it in NASCARs hands. The reason the mod race has to move is because the backstretch stands at DIS are being removed. Why? Because NASCAR can no longer sell enough tickets to make those stands pay off. Want to see a big crowd for a short track race? How about the truck race at Eldora. All you have to do is bring in NASCAR drivers, tv cameras, and Tony Stewarts’ crew to run things.
If you’re looking for a successful short track show for the tour mods, run them at NSS during Speedweeks, bring in NASCAR drivers ( they’re all in town already anyway ) and even if they can’t or won’t compete you can have them on site to sign autographs. Make the NSS mod show a point paying race for the championship and you’ll have a car count.

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[QUOTE=Matt Albee;141556]
If you’re looking for a successful short track show bring in NASCAR drivers ( they’re all in town already anyway ) and even if they can’t or won’t compete you can have them on site to sign autographs. .[/QUOTE]

I think that they are all at the dirt track :wink:

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I don’t get it 14-15 mods at NSS the first few nights. I figured perhaps they were holding off after the Daytona show last night and a few would run the remainder of the week at NSS. Nope, 13 tonight, actually went down. Nothing like towing all the way down to FLA to race one night!

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$20,000 to win at DIS ,not so much at NSS…All about the $ and bragging rights in having raced at Daytona.

This is why they should have a points race at NSS :ernaehrung004:

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Check the payouts for the world series (pathetic) and you will know why they head home as soon as they are done at daytona.

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Ok, lets review.

Here was a race night that drew the largest crowd I’ve seen at a Florida short track race in several years. Maybe ever.
It brought dozens of teams from out of state to race here.
It was on live TV.
The fans left happy.
There was more passing and less crashing than most pavement tracks.

Try to convince me that I didn’t love it.