Texana Raceway Park Results

April 25, 2009

 

It was touch and go yet once again with the threat of rain all around Texana Raceway Park on Saturday night.  Near 4:30 pm, it appeared it was time to throw in the towel as large drops fell.  However, they only lasted about 45 seconds.  All the way until race time, a few sprinkles here and there, but nothing ever materialized.  A few drivers may have wished the rain had come after their experiences.  It was one of those nights that although you couldn’t see the moon, you’d swear it had to be full.

 

Before the features, all classes held their qualifying heats.  The teen mini-stock division (drivers 13 to 16 years of age) was the first out. A scary moment for everyone who was watching, and Fruit of the Loom will have some increased business this week. Right out of chute heading into turn 1 & 2, the fourth, fifth and sixth place cars were very close together.  Coming out of turn 2 Ashley Perks was pulling ahead of Justin Sickle, with Perks on the inside and Sickle on the outside.  Sickle’s left front tire and Perks right rear tire came together and Sickle bounced back to the right into the back straight wall, and then went up the wall, and ended up jumping it with good amount of air.  He ended up coming down on all four.  Quick thinking Sickle exited his car from behind the wall, ran up to the wall and waved to let everyone know he was ok, which was definitely a relief to everyone.  Hoping he’s able to get everything fixed quickly and make it back soon.

 

Getting the excitement of the heats out of the way, it was time for some feature action.  On this night, the Texana Classic Dwarf cars were scheduled off so the Bombers would run right after minis.   The theme from the mini’s to the bombers could be quoted as “like daughter like father and like daughter like mother”, with the Chamberlain’s scoring 2nd in each class and the Perks’ scoring 3rd in each class.

 

When the green flag dropped, it was Jason Bloom and Zach Tesch leading the field.  Coming down the back straight on Lap 1, Tesch gained momentum and was able to position his nose on the inside coming into Turn 3,  Bloom came down and the two rubbed with what would eventually cause Bloom to exit having a flat left rear tire.  Once in the lead Tesch started pulling away from Lauren Chamberlain and Ashley Perks who in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Later in the race, Sarah Konvicka had to exit with overheating problems and Travis Manning went to the infield with some sort of mechanical failure also.   The race pretty much followed the pattern that it started with Tesch winning the feature and Chamberlain and Perks in 2nd and 3rd.


Mini Stocks
72 - Zach Tesch
55 - Lauren Chamberlain
12 - Ashley Perks
22 - Patricia Lucas
24 - Sarah Konvicka
76 - Travis Manning
49 - Jason Bloom
03 - Justin Sickle (dns)

 

As the Bombers rolled out it was Chris Shafer on the pole with the “old dirt track veteran” Randy Kacir on the outside of row 1.  Under green Shafer got the bite and took off.  Coming into turn 3&4, Janet Perks was on the inside of Kacir and Monty Chamberlain was on the outside creating a 3 wide situation going into 3.  Generally never a good situation, as Kacir became a ping-pong ball, first bouncing off Perks on the inside and then off Chamberlain to his outside.  Somehow the three made it through without a caution while Shafer started pulling away.  Chamberlain backed off and this allowed David McBride to pull up into 4th position.  As the first 8 to 10 laps progressed, it was basically three races on the track.  Shafer in a race by himself up front, Perks, Kacir, McBride and Chamberlain in race 2, and a whole host of cars in the third group.    Moving along through the feature Shafer continued to have a race of his own.  Chamberlain passed McBride and then Kacir, and set his sights on Perks who was a good distance away at this point.  Chamberlain inched closer to Perks with each passing lap but would not have caught her without a caution.  The caution flew and this bunched the field back up.  On the restart, Chamberlain got the point on Perks.  When the checkers flew it was Shafer with the win, Chamberlain 2nd and Perks in 3rd. 

Bombers
77 - Chris Shafer
55 - Monty Chamberlain
12 - Janet Perks
36 - Randy Kacir
26 - David McBride
88 - Sandra Hudgeons
05 - Jackie Burnett
75 - ?
58 - James Hoss
71 - Nic Priem
11 - Shawn Kline
81 - Aaron Ivory
76 - Gary Wright

For the Limited Modifieds, it was Vince Louden on the pole and Paul White on the outside of row 1.  Some excellent talent in this feature.  White got the point on the start and Louden was in hot pursuit.  Coming up on traffic quickly after the first few laps, White cleared and Louden went very low and appearing to be in the grass on the back straight.  As he was recollecting, he moved up into the groove and pulled in front of one of the cars being lapped.  This caused Louden to try and match Sickle’s X-Game demonstration from earlier in the night as Louden launched off the back exit getting airborne and coming to rest behind the wall.  Louden was ok, and surprisingly his car looked to only have suffered some body panel damage.  With the race back under green, Mickey Helms started putting the heat on White.  Helms was determined to not let White get away and he was glued to White’s bumper just waiting for a bobble.  Unfortunately for the “Last Minute Racing” founder, you really never see a bobble when you get behind White.  Helms stayed right with White for the majority of the race, doing some of his best driving of the season thus far.  The consistency of Shane Hoefling was showing as he was in third for most all of the event.  Wayne Brooks with over 700 feature wins was moving up the field and would finish 4th.   For the most part a great race with some good driving talent.


Limited Modifieds
216 - Paul White
175 - Mickey Helms
63 - Shane Hoefling
82 - Wayne Brooks
15 - Andy Van Blarcum
66 - Hunt Harrison
888 - Aaron "QTip" Lunsford
04 - Jacob Burnett
00 - Derick Flora
36 - Cody Hildebrandt
9 - Dr. David Meredith
42 - Ricky Konvicka
6 - Vince Louden

 

In the Hot Stock Trucks, it turned out to be a survival to the finish event.  At the end of the feature, there were only three of the competitors remaining. But, all along the way in the feature, some real good racing.  John Leita won the feature with no real pressure.  But most notable throughout the entire event was the extremely close competition between Justin Bloom and Bob Ort.  Watching Ort demonstrate his veteran experience, he tried his truck out on the low groove.  He tried his truck out on the middle groove.  Waiting patiently, he watched Bloom use the low groove lap after lap.  Then Ort went from the high groove and found the sweet spot.  He wound up the #43 and took 2nd place from Bloom.  He set his sights on Leita, but by this time, Leita had pulled a good distance away.  Had a caution flew, Ort may have had something for Leita, but that didn’t happen.

 
Hot Stock Trucks
24 - John Leita
43 - Bob Ort
84 - Justin Bloom
8 - Larry Paris
13 - Greg Turner
55 - Russell Bloom
39 - Nathan Kildair
15 - Gordon Boehm
38 - Chris Shafer

A small field in the Super Stocks didn’t mean that there couldn’t be some excitement.  It appeared throughout the event, that Randy Stevenson would have an easy time with winning the feature, but Sonny Hammond had a different plan.  As the laps were closing down, Hammond had caught Stevenson, and came into turn 1 & 2 low.  Hammond’s front right wheel was up to Stevenson’s door.  Stevenson not realizing Hammond was there, cut down low and the two bumped.  Stevenson got the worst end of the deal and Hammond shot for the lead.  Soon after, Stevenson spun and GW Hessong moved up to 2nd.  Initially, Mike Davenport looked like he would be hanging with the front group, but appeared to experience some handling problems later in the race.  Hammond went on to win the feature.


Super Stocks
67 - Sonny Hammond
47 - GW Hessong
83 - Randy Stevenson
70 - Mike Davenport
5-0 - Jerry Neal

Fifteen of the ground pounding Modifieds made the call to the feature.  Just under green Josh Majek and Jesse Manning tangled on the back straight, which sidelined both cars.  Back under green, Paul White started pulling away, but Elias Anderson was determined to let the gulf coast crowd know that he had come down from Austin to do a little racing.  Anderson did an excellent job throughout the race.  Scooter Bates from Killeen made the haul down and was super consistent lap after lap.  The hard charger award would have to go to Arkansas’ Wayne Brooks who started on the tail of the field and flat drove his tail off to finish with a 4th.  Corpus Christi’s Nick Hardcastle pulled off a 3rd.  Yet again, another great race with a lot of good hot shoes.


Modifieds
2w - Paul White
31 - Elias Anderson
94 - Nick Hardcastle
87 - Wayne Brooks
57 - Dale Flanagan
12 - Scooter Bates
39 - Jed Rollins
1 - Lawrence Mikulencak
26 - Darin Leonard
174 - Max Helms
155 - Vince Kacir
96 - Foster Ellison III
55 - Danny Brown
82 - Josh Majek
76 - Jesse Manning

 

Texana Raceway Park’s next event is scheduled for May 9th. The highly anticipated Spectator Races are scheduled on the 9th, and as it will be Mothers Day Weekend, there will be a flower provided to all mothers in the grandstands.  See ya on May 9th.