American Sprint Car Series -- Tuesday's Top Ten
TULSA, Okla. (September 27, 2005) -- Just seven days
since the most recent edition, it's once again time for Tuesday's
Top Ten. A compilation of ten random items of varying degrees of
explosiveness from the past weekend's American Sprint Car Series
racing action, TTT is arranged in no discernible order.
Proceed.
1. Rowdy Rita -- Driving into the Dallas-Ft. Worth area on
Saturday, motorists were greeted with large alert signs indicating
"Massive Delays to Houston -- Gas Shortages", offering a
somewhat surreal surrounding to Saturday's Sooner Region event at
Cowtown Speedway.
Hurricane Rita created all variety of chaos over the weekend, forcing the
cancellation of ASCS Gulf South events at Waco and Willis as nearly three
million people were evacuated from Houston and the surrounding area.
Among those evacuees was Texas City, TX, racer Greg Rilat. Greg's
son, Travis, made the trip down to Texas City early in the week to assist
with the south Texas exit. The drive back to Forney (near Dallas) from
Texas City, typically about a four-hour jaunt, took 22 hours this time
around as interstates became parking lots.
Greg stuck around long enough to lend a hand in the pits and watch Travis
score his fourth ASCS Regional feature win of the season in a classic
Cowtown feature in front of a large crowd. It was Rilat's first
Sooner Region win of the season after three previous Gulf South triumphs.
2. Subbing -- With Foster Landon under the weather, his father
and car owner Joe Landon called upon 2001 ASCS National champion Zach
Chappell to fill the seat for Saturday's Cowtown card.
After a heat race win aboard the familiar black and blue No. 11f,
Chappell commented, "I'd love to give Joe a win, but we'll be
happy enough with a top five." Which is exactly what Chappell
delivered by finishing fifth.
3. Coming Through -- After suffering a broken spark plug in
Saturday night's Southern Tour heat race action at New 311 Speedway
in Madison, NC, Brooke Bowman found himself mired deep in the feature
starting field.
The Chestertown, MD, racer wasted little time working through traffic
though, needing just 15 laps to race from 15th into the lead. Bowman
made the six-hour haul worthwhile by becoming the fifth different winner
in as many ASCS Southern Tour feature events this season.
Bowman snared the lead from Coby Adams, who took the lead after 12 laps
when teammate and current series point leader Scott Young suffered a flat
tire while leading.
4. 490 Seconds -- From the drop of the first green flag to the
drop of the checkered, that's all it took to run Saturday night's
Sooner Region feature at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, TX. Just eight
minutes and ten seconds. And that includes a one minute and forty second
delay when the initial start was waved off for Eric Baldaccini's turn
two spin.
Restart number two was clean and green and the race was on. Lapped
traffic came into play after just five laps, and it was non-stop, two and
three wide racing action the rest of the way, with 19 of the 20 starters
taking the checkered flag.
Kevin Ramey pressured Travis Rilat over the first half of the race, even
taking the lead briefly, but Rilat caught a break in traffic and slipped
away to become the sixth different winner in as many ASCS events
contested in Cowtown.
According to a radar gun at the flag stand, Rilat was clocked at 101
miles per hour on the straightaway of the high-banked, quarter-mile dirt
oval.
5. I Must be on the Fifth Row -- Racers are generally shooting
for a front row starting slot come main event time, but f the past two
ASCS National Tour events at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway are any
indication, a fifth row slot may be the place to be this Saturday.
Tim Crawley came from eleventh to win the much-ballyhooed ASCS Speedweek
finale at I-30 on June 11, then Gary Wright matched the feat on July 9 by
coming from eleventh to take the win. Who will have the chance to make
it three fifth-row Little Rock winners in a row this Saturday night?
6. Wing Clipper -- Keller, TX, racer Eric Baldaccini had an
exciting night at Cowtown Speedway.
Baldaccini and Rodney Henderson, making his ASCS debut, got tangled up
racing down the backstretch on the opening round of the third heat race,
with Baldaccini getting some impressive airtime in the single flip.JBaldaccini completed the heat with a mangled top wing.
By "B" Feature time, Baldaccini sported a top wing on loan from
Kevin Ramey's No. 7m Commercial Music team, with photog Tim Aylwin
asking if he would be now be known as "Eric BaldaRamey".
A brief stumble on the start of the "B" Main resulted in
Baldaccini and Koby Barksdale getting tangled up entering turn one.JBarksdale somehow avoided a wild flip, while Baldaccini spun to a halt
minus a nose wing.Baldaccini battled into a transfer position to the main, then with
borrowed nose wing as well, climbed to 15th in the non-stop feature.
7. Cowtown Curse -- Don't blame Dex Eaton if he doesn't
salivate over the thought of his next journey to Cowtown Speedway.
The Owasso, OK, racer's first trip to Cowtown Speedway on April 9
resulted in a wild set of somersaults through turns one and two.After a 13th place finish in the combined National/Sooner event on June
25, the 16-year-old's third trip to the "Fastest Lil' Dirt
Track in Texas" bore more resemblance to the first visit than the
second.
After Baldaccini's heat race tumble, Eaton put his right rear tire
over the turn four lip as the field nearly completed the first lap on the
ensuing restart. Hard on the hammer, Eaton made vicious contact with the
wall exiting turn four. The wall won again, as Eaton's machine was
destroyed in the ensuing flip. Eaton was groggy for a bit ,but otherwise
alright.
8. Southern Finale -- With five winners in five races, the Heintz
Performance American Sprint Car Series Southern Tour wraps up the 2005
season with the first ASCS appearance at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's
Motor Speedway on October 28-29.
Scott Young maintained his point lead this past Saturday night despite
finishing outside the top three for the first time. Young holds a
20-point advantage over teammate Coby Adams entering the finale, which
will include heat races on Friday night (Oct. 28) and features on
Saturday (Oct. 29).
9. Championship Saturday -- Go ahead and mark down October 15 on
your calendar as "Championship Saturday", with the Sooner and
Gulf South Region titles both to be determined that night.
Sean McClelland extended his American Bank of Oklahoma ASCS Sooner Region
point lead to 50 markers over 2002 champ Danny Jennings. McClelland can
clinch the title by making the feature event in the October 15 season
finale at Mid-America Speedway in South Coffeyville, OK. If McClelland
were to miss the feature, Jennings would have to finish 12th or better to
snare the title.
To the south, Ray Allen Kulhanek leads the way into the final events of
the season for the Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores American
Sprint Car Series Gulf South Region. After this Saturday's event at
Houston Raceway Park and the strong likelihood of a makeup race on
October 8, the series wraps up the '05 season at Pike County Speedway
in Magnolia, MS, on October 15. Kulhanek holds a 104-point advantage
over Stephen Chevallier, with Lane Whittington and Greg Rilat both within
seven points of Chevallier.
10. Winners -- With 85 ASCS features in the books this season, Brooke
Bowman became the 37th different driver to claim at least one feature
win. Nineteen drivers have a single win to their credit, with 18
capturing two or more. Gary Wright has twelve wins to his credit, while
Ray Allen Kulhanek, Sean McClelland and Danny Jennings have each posted
five wins. Kevin Ramey, Travis Rilat and Randi Miller are next on the
charts with four wins.
Bowman also became the 15th different driver to win his first career ASCS
feature. Other first-time winners this season include McClelland,
Kulhanek, Brian Brown, Dusty Zomer, Jake Pierson, Lane Whittington,
Scottie McDonald, Roger Crockett, Jason Danley, Dennis Park, Johnny
Anderson, Steven Graham, Danny Martin, Jr., and Mike Brecht.
Putting the wraps on Volume I, No. XXI, of Tuesday's Top Ten. As
always, notes, comments, questions, suggestions and random requests are
welcome at ascsed@aol.com.
Until next week, any information you may desire regarding the American
Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.
-lw/ascs-
