417 Southern Speedway Super Late Model Race 1/21/2017
Punta Gorda, Florida, January 23, 2017:
The SSCS Super Late Model Series requires that all tires be impounded. After tires were released to the drivers it was brought to the attention of series race director Ricky Brooks and track owner Joe Gentry that tire selection for several drivers was a challenge.
Prior to the start of the SSCS Davidson Memorial 100 driver Steve Dorer was unable to make any tires work out for the stagger needed. Brooks and Gentry made a mutual decision to allow for Dorer to start scratch of the twenty-three-car field.
After the race Dorer would find himself in third position, from his 23rd starting spot. Dorer would announce during is on track interview that he was on practice tires sending competitors in a fury to tech to protest. Ricky Brooks was forced to disqualify the Dorer machine, ?It was a bad decision on our part? stated Ricky Brooks. We had no other option but to take away his finish. ?We feel really bad for not putting more thought into our decision? said track owner Joe Gentry.
It was a learning experience for both the SSCS Series and 417 Southern Speedway. ?It will never happen again? said Brooks. The disqualification was on a technicality and nothing that was done by Steve Dorer and his team.
Thank you for all your support to the SSCS Series powered by Sunoco and American Racer and 4-17 Southern Speedway.
Wow! So you allow a driver to use his practice tires when every other car was able to get tires to work or they just dealt with it. Then you disqualify the driver after you say its ok to run his practice tires. I sure hope he still got paid! It also seems that you are Just like every other tech guy in central Florida except at the derby!!
417 Southern Speedway Super Late Model Race 1/21/2017
Punta Gorda, Florida, January 23, 2017:
The SSCS Super Late Model Series requires that all tires be impounded. After tires were released to the drivers it was brought to the attention of series race director Ricky Brooks and track owner Joe Gentry that tire selection for several drivers was a challenge.
Prior to the start of the SSCS Davidson Memorial 100 driver Steve Dorer was unable to make any tires work out for the stagger needed. Brooks and Gentry made a mutual decision to allow for Dorer to start scratch of the twenty-three-car field.
After the race Dorer would find himself in third position, from his 23rd starting spot. Dorer would announce during is on track interview that he was on practice tires sending competitors in a fury to tech to protest. Ricky Brooks was forced to disqualify the Dorer machine, ?It was a bad decision on our part? stated Ricky Brooks. We had no other option but to take away his finish. ?We feel really bad for not putting more thought into our decision? said track owner Joe Gentry.
It was a learning experience for both the SSCS Series and 417 Southern Speedway. ?It will never happen again? said Brooks. The disqualification was on a technicality and nothing that was done by Steve Dorer and his team.
Thank you for all your support to the SSCS Series powered by Sunoco and American Racer and 4-17 Southern Speedway.[/QUOTE]
Well Ricky here ya go…The truth will set you free…Bad call and you owned up to it. That is hard to find today.
I got him for 2% to much left side 17 years ago and he is still mad at me…LOL
I would say the difference is about 20 spots in the finishing order.What I don’t understand is why there was a problem with having the right tires in the pits for the entire field to find suitably staggered tires.This gives a big black eye to a new series trying to get off the ground. If the tire situation was that big an issue pre race then the impound rule should have been waived pre race and all teams made aware of that fact.If you tell a guy it’s okay to run what he has then you use the post race interview to DQ him then you need to either quit having post race interviews, keep the finish as it crossed the stripe or have no rules.
We had no idea they open the track up again?? We all would have drove out for this one - bummer! I hate when tracks don’t use the city/county name in their name. I guess I didn’t pay attention to 417 whatever that number means as this local track. I hope they can get the word out to others like me who had no idea its green flag up there again!
The American racer tire is junk plain and simple! They have trouble wearing out to the cords and blistering! Only person benefiting is the tracks! These guys pushing American racer tires think they are so great! So why aren’t they ran at big races! Ricky Brooks thinks these tires are good for racers well push to have them instead of Hoosiers at the derby! Nobody would show! It’s simple American racers are junk and tracks are making more money!
While this night was obviously handled wrong by the track/series directors…the fact that used practice tires could start at the rear and run to the front (in a crate car no less) would be encouraging to me. Only problem is if you require the racers to buy tires at each race, then the fact the tire doesn’t seem to fall off after having a few laps more on them, doesn’t really make a difference.
Now if a racer “could” run used tires, with some type of inspection procedure, then you are saving the racer money.
We really had trouble getting the stagger we wanted, same for everyone. Not sure what tires are available as the sizes marked on the tires do not match up when you mount them. They are 1-2 inches smaller than marked. Don’t know who sizes them when sold to the track but that’s the problem we have had with these tires. I heard Dorer refused to have the tires poked for softness and thats why he was DQd, not sure thou as Ricky didn’t state that in his press release. Those who protested thought they were soaked. That’s what I heard but may not be actually true. To Old Timer Joe chose 4-17 as that was the date he got awarded the lease. I didn’t see or hear much advertising about the track other than Facebook and word of mouth. But word must be getting around as the stands have been packed since they opened. They now have a website up too.
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