Completely Unofficial Auburndale 4/16 Partial Recap

Was in the #111 pits of the Patrick Thomas/Harris Storage car, and things were…busy, so the recap is even more hit and miss than usual.

Modifieds:
Saw the last part of the feature. Cody Stickler was leading with Josh Todd close behind. Very close. Get-Stickler-sideways close. It was was Dickie would have done, and what Josh should have been doing, and he always turned him loose and was not trying to dump him. But Stickler was a little stronger coming off the corner than Todd and is no lightweight himself, and handled the hits and went on to win the event.

Sportsman:
The #111 required significant changes to work best with the American Racer tires, and we were busy dialing it in most of the night.

The car qualified third, and presumably after the draw lined up fourth. In the feature Thomas was hit in the left rear during “normal” Auburndale action. Later while lining up on the outside of the leader on a subsequent yellow, the left rear tire went flat, resulting in a restart from the rear of the field.

After a considerable amount of Auburndale’s usual “abnormal” action and general loss of sheetmetal throughout the field, Patrick brought the car home in sixth–and largely in one piece.

Sean Bass was taken out by the accordion effect in an early accident. but his teamate “Mr. Smith” (apologies, did not catch his first name), stayed clean and in front to win the event. Only to get T-Boned by the supersized Fire pickup truck following the race. It came in on the hook.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of additional stories and details regarding this event, perhaps others can add.

Overall, not a good, but a great night at the track!

ps–Ms. Dora Thorne was there in a good looking car, drove well, and came home with a top ten (I think). But even more important was her lone bumper sticker in the center of the rear of the car which simply read “Don’t Be a Dick!”. There ya go…

track employees

This story and video brings back memories of the night one of there track employees caused 75-100 grand worth of damage to 4 supers. The guy at the back gate let a car out in front of the leaders, when the track was green, and destroyed 3 or 4 cars. Now a track employee T-bones a sportsman and destroys his car. Best part of it all, of course is no one was seriously hurt or killed.

This track continues to have a black cloud over it for some of the weirdest shit.

Vince P.

“T-boned by a firetruck”? Can someone fill in details on this?

I did not see it, but I heard it, and it sounded like a crash on the street. Never a good sound…

Am not sure what the driver was doing (burnout, headed for victory lane, headed to his pit, etc.). Nor am I sure what the fire safety truck was doing moving down the front straight after the race.

But I heard that it was the racecar that turned in front of the truck at the last minute.

I saw the car, which had significant damage, did not see the truck. The car appeared to be repairable.

Bottom line is no one is hurt, driver of fire truck no longer works for speedway and all parties involved are happy and speedway has stepped up to help fix car and owner of racecar is happy. Problem will be corrected and we will move on.

This was my first time back on a quarter mile in almost 2 years, and it showed, I was rusty. Fast as always by myself, but not as good in traffic as I needed to be, the car was better than the driver. We discovered a toe in issue after qualifying and corrected that, Thanks Oldschool for thinking of that one. Then the driver missed a shift and got the left rear quarter panel against the tire and cut it down on lap 24. My crew guys got it changed and the fender off the tire and I tried to get back to the front. I made 1 mistake on the commitment cone, and it cost me a coupe spots, but there just wasn’t enough time to get back to the front.

All in all a good night, a little rough, me included, but not too bad.

Thanks Jay, Scot, Don, Kristi, and Daniel for the help.

Patrick Thomas 111

That’s cool, it sounds like the track got right after the problem and made it right.

“bottom line”

With all due respect, a lot have racers and owners over the past years, have had the opposite results from the track. What I am trying to say it is nice to see the track stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing. But I would have to say without Ricky there, this probably would of had a different outcome. Ricky Brooks is good for the sport in so many ways!!

Vince P.

Scary incident, glad everyone is ok, nice to see the track help out with repairs. Looked like a good field of cars.