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The Starstruck Report- 6/26/09 Notes
Hello friends and welcome again to another edition of the Starstruck report. This Friday suffered from low attendance and hot weather. The track did a good job of getting the races in before the rain came. However, there was some controversial calls which I will address. Let's get to the action.
Macka (20 laps): This was a very clean race. Stanley Holmes (38) started the race on the pole and looked strong. On the final lap, points leader and so far this season undefeated Brad Davis (18) took the lead in turn 2 to claim the victory. All karts finished the race and there is no tough luck award here. Here are the official results. 1. Brad Davis, #18 2. Stanley Holmes, #38 3. Tommy Chambers, #8 4. Wesley Givens, #12 5. Stan Holmes, #01 6. Buzz Moore, #11 7. Ricky Gum, #28 8. Wes Simmons, #16 9. Ryland Craze, #55
Street Stock I (30 laps): The street stock division rolled out second on the track for the first of their twin 30's. James Loving (97) started the race on the pole. Lap 3, Herbert LaRue (26) went in the pits. That same lap, Ethan Ayers (69) takes the race lead. Lap 6, James Loving (97) reclaims the lead. Lap 7, Kevin Lee (35) claims the lead for the race and wouldn't look back. Lap 8, Ethan Ayers (69) smokes and Brian Smith (06) was in the pits. Lap 10, Christopher Kantzler (01) was blackflagged. Lap 14, Josh Settlage (51) went in the pits. Mike Ganoe (82) car was smoking but he drew no black flag. Lap 23, Michael Sutphin (25) overheats and goes in the pits. Kevin Lee (35) would take the checkered flag but was disqualified in tech. James Loving (97) was declared the winner. There were no cautions in this race. This division is really improving. Here are the official results. 1. James Loving, #97 2. Justin Dunkum, #13 3. Ricky Stotler, #92
4. Gary Turner, #17 5. Paul Clemons, #29 6. Robbie Groome, #79
7. James Groome, #31 8. Nicholas Hemesath, #81 9. O.K. Wilson, #32
10. Jason Beck, #41 11. Shawn Sutpphin, #15 12. Chris Bryant, #6
13. Charlie Thacker, #70 14. Ryan Hudson, #07 15. Mike Ganoe, #82
16. Chris Jones, #59 17. Travis Nicely, #911 18. Michael Sutphin, #25
19. Brian Smith, #06 20. Josh Settlage, #51 21. Chris Kantzler, #01
22. Ethan Ayers, #69 23. Herbert LaRue, #26 24. Kevin Lee, #35 – DQ
LMS (75 laps): This is the race where alot of controversy starts. For starters, this was advertised everywhere as a 50 lap race. No one, including the drivers knew this would be a 75 lap race till they arrived. During the warm up laps, Brandon Hendrick (39) had his transmission go bad and went in the pits to change to the 11 car usually driven by Roy Hendrick. The tower ruled that all of the laps Brandon Hendrick would run would go to Roy Hendrick since they already started warm up laps. I will touch on this more during the commentary side. Shayne Lockhart (95) would start this race on the pole. Lap 23, Andy Kemp (27) goes in the wall on the front stretch after contact with the leader Shayne Lockhart (95) made contact. This brought out the caution. Lockhart (95) was not sent to the back for bringing the caution out since the tower ruled he didn't gain anything from the wreck. This was bad call number 2 in this race. Lap 40, Chris Dodson (0) takes the lead. Dodson would hold off a very strong challenge from Chris Hopkins (43) to claim his first win of the year. Here are the official results. 1. Chris Dodson, #0 2. Chris Hopkins, #43 3. Shayne Lockhart, #95
4. Jeff Oakley, #15 5. Shannon Marano, #6 6. Greg Fernandez, #02
7. Brad Davis, #18 8. Roy Hendrick, #11 9. Andy Kemp, #27
10. Brandon Hendrick, #39
Modfieds (50 laps): Mike Rudy (8) started this race on the pole. Lap 7, Aubrey Thruston (21) spins in the front stretch to bring out the first caution. Lap 32, Billy Morris (20) makes contact with Mike Rudy (8) and brings out the caution. Both cars were sent to the back. Chris Johnson (36) takes the lead as a result. First restart, Stacey Wilbourne spins in the back stretch. The next restart was clean. Lap 45, caution came out when Mike Rudy (8) spins after contact with Alan Purser (41). The first restart Stacey Wilbourne (23) spins in the backstretch. Chris Johnson (36) took the win after holding up a challenge from defending champion Thomas Stinson (4). 1. Chris Johnson, #36 2. Thomas Stinson, #4
3. Billy Morris, #20 4. Michael Johnson, #38 5. Mike Rudy, #8
6. Aubrey Thurston, #21 7. Stacey Wilbourne, #23 8. Kyle Wood, #19
9. Alan Purser, #41
Street Stock II (30 laps): Shawn Sutphin (15) started this race on the pole. First lap, contact with Ryan Hudson (07) and Paul Clemons (29) but no caution was called. Lap 3, Jason Beck (41) goes into the pits with a flat right front tire. Lap 8, Herbert LaRue (26) spins in turn 2. Christopher Kantzler (01) and Robbie Groome (79) also got some damage in this caution. Justin Dunkum (13) had taken the lead. Lap 12, we had a very clean restart. In this division, caution laps count. Lap 20, Kevin Lee (35) takes the lead after coming all the way from the back. He would win the race on the track but was disqualified in tech. Justin Dunkum (13) was declared the winner. 1. Justin Dunkum, #13 2. Gary Turner, #17 3. Brian Smith, #06 4. Jim Loving, #97 5. Mike Sutphin, #25 6. Paul Clemons, #29 7. Shawn Sutphin, #15 8. James Groome, #31 9. O.K. Wilson, #32 10. Charlie Thacker, #70 11. Chris Jones, #59 12. Ryan Hudson, #07
13. Christopher Kantzler, #01 14. Travis Nicely, #911 15. Chris Bryant, #6
16. Jason Beck, #41 17. Herbert LaRue, #26 18. Robbie Groome, #79
19. Nicholas Hemesath, #81 20. Mike Ganoe, #82 21. Kevin Lee, #35 - DQ
Now let's move on and analyze this week as well as some notes.
Tough luck award LMS: I am giving this award to Brandon Hendrick (39), but will digress, this is not completely deserved. Hendrick came into the race as the points leader. As you read above, he swaps rides with Roy Hendrick (11) during the warm up laps and from the tower's ruling, didn't score any points. Personally, I disagree with the call. Since there were warm up laps, the race wasn't officially started by that point. Therefore, I believe that Brandon Hendrick should have scored the points because the green flag had not dropped at that point and there was no race at that point. As a result, he lost the points lead and now trails Chris Dodson (0) by 100 points. What a totally unfair way to lose the points lead.
Tough Luck award Modifieds: This one goes to Mike Rudy. He started having the strongest race of the year by sitting on the pole and leading the first part of the race. The caution with Billy Morris took him out of contention. This has been a year of transition for Rudy after taking last year off and running a Late Model at Langley last season.
Tough Luck Street Stock: Kevin Lee (35) gets the nod on this one. It's hard to win both twin 30's and be disqualified in tech for both of them.
Our drivers on the road: Modified driver Chris Johnson (36) is really making some strides this year. At Langley, he has won 4 out of the 5 modified races this season. This third generation racer is showing great maturity early in his racing career. He told me after the modified race that he could have races Billy Morris (20) and Mike Rudy (8) for position earlier but was saving his equipment for the end of the race. Chris comes from a good family of racers that include Southside Speedway Hall of famers Cal and Eddie Johnson.
Points races: So far, no one is running away with any points races this year. Yes, you are reading this correctly. In the Late Model Sportsman, Chris Dodson (0) holds a 100 point lead over second place Brandon Hendrick (39). In the modifieds, defending champion Thomas Stinson (4) holds a 20 point lead over Billy Morris (20). Yes, this race is tight. Grand Stock will have a new champion this year. Keith Mackta (00) and Tommy Tatum (62) are tied for the lead. They hold a 140 point lead over third place Mark Simpson (35), who has been a hard charger this year. The UCars have the biggest margin. Mike Chapman (18) is leading the points in that division ahead of Daniel Thomas by 340 points. In street stock, Mike Ganoe (82) leads James Loving by only 60 points. Stay tuned, no race has truly been determined yet.
No coolers, big problem: The new no cooler rule continues to be a controversy at Southside Speedway and from what I am hearing, there is not much of a chance getting it rescinded. True, I can understand the argument that it's a bad economy and what about the folks who spent their last dollar to see a race. I was that guy 3 years ago. One of the track officials told me they were doing this because they wanted to increase the purse in the Grand Stock division and were having a hard time keeping the gates open. Some others in the pits told me the explanation changes each time. No matter what the reason, I still think it's the wrong move for this time. If they want to increase purses in the divisions, then advertising and doing everything to grow attendence is the long term answer. If you put people in seats and maybe get the rules more consistent, then the car counts we want will take care of themselves.
What's ahead: There will be no action at Southside Speedway on July 3rd. Next race is July 10th. Slated for this night is the Late Model Sportsman (75 laps), Grand stock (100 laps), Ucars (25 laps) and the MACKA champ karts (20 laps) in action. As always, I want to thank the drivers and crews each week for sharing their stories with me of the races and without them, there would be no Starstruck report. That's all for now, I will see you at trackside.
*Larry Starstruck*
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