Completely Unofficial New Smyrna 8/08 Recap

Modifieds: Tank Tucker was back on his game Saturday night and won going away. Symons reportedly had differential problems, and made it back for the feature, but there were more problems, and he was not up to speed.

Super Late Models: A close but follow the leader race for the late models. Anthony Sergi, David Rogers, and Brad May ran nose-to-tail for much of the latter half of the race, and finished in that order.

(Late Model) Sportsman: Once again Patrick Thomas prevailed, and from the pole, but there was much more to the story than that. Patrick runs a “crate” motor, and one that has seen many laps to boot. At different times of the race he was challenged by #09 of John Emerson and actually passed by #71 of Earl Beckner, who led a significant portion of the event. Beckner was fast down the straights, and fast into the turns, but apparently intentionally loose coming off, a set up that is popular right now at NSS, especially by the modifieds. But Thomas stayed in the hunt and kept the pressure on, and eventually his tire management payed off, and he got back by for the win.

Sean Bass was there and very quick in the beautiful #28, but an early altercation with Emerson resulted in a spin and then the car was collected by the #11 of Daniel Conlin Jr., who tried hard to avoid him. Conlin was able to continue and finished 5th, Bass was not. I did not see the incident, but “the word” in the pits was that Bass felt Emerson intentionally spun him out. “The word” further was that Emerson felt similarly about a move that Bass made on him in a recent race at NSS.

The Move of the Night:
Although super late model driver Brad May drove a hard race, his car owner Bobby Sears indicated the car was seriously loose. That said, he worked on getting under the #56 of Gus Dean for several laps. Within moments of clearing him going into three, a lapped car spun and was moving up the track in four. Brad smoothly moved high and cleared the still-moving lapped car, the hole then closed up for the unfortunate Dean.

But Wait, There’s More: A “grudge match” was held during intermission between Sean Bass and Patrick Thomas which involved rolling a race tire down a portion of the front stretch and back. Sean is younger and more… aerodynamic, but Patrick is very experienced and cagey. Thomas asked about the rules and was told there were none.
The green was waved and after an altercation between racing tires Bass pulled out to an early lead, but Patrick lifted his tire, ran a portion of the distance, and then threw a hail mary and his tire crossed the line first. He was promptly disqualified, but everyone was nevertheless happy with the “results”.

Props to New Smyrna:
There was rain everywhere and it rained for the last 5 miles on my way to the track, but NSS was committed to getting the show in and they did.

I had a great time at the track Saturday night! I love the Sportsman division! The cars a really fun to look at and the support of the drivers is amazing! there were 24 cars there and it made for a great race! I have a question though, how do they determine the starting line up for the features? When I heard Patrick Thomas was starting on the pole, I was like come on really? I wish they had some kind of handicap system as it would be a lot more fun watching the fast cars come from the back.

That’s unacceptable starting a guy like him on the pole.

Oddly, the competitors all accepted it just fine.

What kind of guy is him, anyway?

It was a very good race, even with Senor Thomas starting up front. He never had an easy lap because of the constant pressure from Jr. Beckner, and later John Emberson. I have to give credit to 71, he was very aggressive, and showed excellent car control with his dirt tracking set-up.

Add in several other fast cars, and the overall result was very good.

I had to chuckle on the tire race grudge match. Patrick finished with a hail-Mary tire toss the 10 yard line, but was still DQ’d based on a non-existent rule book.

Didn’t the Bombers race?? :huh:

Kendo-

They did indeed.

Per Kim Brown:

  1. #8x Greg Bruce
  2. #37 Charles King
  3. #180 Richard Tyner
  4. #03 Aaron Overman
  5. #45 Travis Soukup
  6. #60 Matthew Boner
  7. #58 James Skinner
  8. #54 William Barrington
  9. #15 Thomas Koch

I believe the winner was in the slammed semi-flat black Saturn.

I was busy with tech and loading the tow vehicle during their event.

It was a very good race, even with Senor Thomas starting up front. He never had an easy lap because of the constant pressure from Jr. Beckner, and later John Emberson. I have to give credit to 71, he was very aggressive, and showed excellent car control with his dirt tracking set-up.

Add in several other fast cars, and the overall result was very good.

I had to chuckle on the tire race grudge match. Patrick finished with a hail-Mary tire toss from the 10 yard line, but was still DQ’d based on a non-existent rule book.

Drivers draw for starting positions for the heat races and feature starting spots are determined by a re-draw by the heat winners… Patrick did not win his heat (I think he finished third), but the re-draw put him on the pole… By the way, the $400 bounty went uncollected and the track gave Patrick a $200 bonus for winning yet again… very fair I think…

It is very fair!

Props again for New Smyrna!

[QUOTE=OldSchool+;163778]Oddly, the competitors all accepted it just fine.

What kind of guy is him, anyway?[/QUOTE]

A guy like him is a guy that is dominant. There is no way anyone who wins almost every week should ever start on the pole. I can think of a much better way of doing it. Sounds like it wasn’t a cakewalk this week, but just the same there is a much better way to handicap a field. Of course, a win is a win and Patrick doesn’t make the rules, he just has to exist within them. So my congrats to him.

Way to take the high road, Weftcoast.

I have seen races, heck, I have seen years where a car would dominate at NSS and “win” championships by winning every week going away.

That has never been the case with Thomas’ wins.

In fact, most every week I think, “Man, they are all running the same speed, how will he ever get to the front?”, or this week “Well, this is New Smyrna, the 71 got by, that typically is that.”

But it just doesn’t work out that way by the checker.

The car works well, and Patrick is a good driver, most of all though, he puts a lot of heart in it.

Put him on the pole every week. Make them EARN that bounty! :slight_smile:

You can’t fault a guy for being smart with a chassis. I’m sure it irritates the hell out of those spending big dollars to keep up with him and failing in the process. Pretty sure they have done everything short of disassembling his motor and he was always to the rule book, which is probably doubly as irritating. I take nothing away from him. I just think they could have a better handicapping system. Fans come to see battles and fast cars come through the field, not follow the leader. While it sounds like it was a good race, it’s better watching them come through the field.