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Tuesday’s Top Ten
– It’s Back… by Lonnie Wheatley |
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TULSA, Okla. (February 7, 2006) – It’s
the dawn of a new racing season, and with that comes the initial installment of
Tuesday’s Top Ten for 2006. And
in bonus fashion, this first edition of TTT includes not only ten random items
of varying degrees of interest from the ASCS opener at East Bay, but ten other
items from the Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless triple. The Doors have opened upon the 2006 season, walk on in. 1.
Day in the Sun – Three nights of scheduled Sprint Bandits
TNT racing action turned into one day and two nights when rain washed out the
Monday night, January 30, opener. You
know life isn’t all bad when you find yourself at a dirt track on a Tuesday
afternoon watching wingless sprint cars battle it out. And Indiana’s Brady Short, last year’s
National Non-Wing Rookie of the Year, obviously found it to his liking.
After battling past Zach Chappell to win his heat from fifth, Short
climbed to third in his qualifier to earn the pole position for the feature,
where he wired the field to notch his biggest win to date. 2.
Hot Hot Heat – Go ahead and chalk up Tuesday afternoon’s
fourth heat race as perhaps the best that will happen all year, as Terry McCarl
and Cory Kruseman swapped the lead at least a dozen times in the 8-lapper before
McCarl finally took the win in just his second career wingless start. 3.
More Hot Heats – Tuesday night’s heats and qualifying
races offered more thrilling finishes, leaving fans little opportunity to
actually sit in the seats they paid for. Among
the barnburners was Bryan Clauson’s last lap pass of Greg Leonard to win the
second heat race, Cory Kruseman’s last corner charge around Casey Shuman to
take the fourth heat, Bud Kaeding edging Jon Stanbrough to take the third
qualifier after a handful of lead changes and Brandon Petty’s last lap steal
of qualifier number four from Zach Chappell. 4.
Look at that 360 Go – After three consecutive third place
finishes in the ASCS portion of East Bay’s Winter Nationals, Jason Sides
decided it was time to make his wingless debut.
“This just seems like as good a place as any to do it,” the
Memphis-area racer commented. And
he did it with his 360-ci powerplant in place. After missing the Tuesday afternoon
feature, Sides decimated the competition in Tuesday night’s fifth qualifying
race to earn a fifth-row starting position.
Sides quickly moved forward and ran third much of the way before settling
for fourth at the stripe. Sides
finished up the wingless portion with an impressive sixth place run in the
Wednesday finale. 5.
Radar & The Modern Cowboy – Chicken strips at East Bay
Raceway Park – Cost: $4.50; Tampa Motel Rooms - Cost: More than they should
be; Witnessing a pair of improbable, fearless, rim-riding charges from eleven
and ten rows deep all the way up to second on successive nights by 57-year-old
Roger Rager and 22-year-old Daron Clayton – Priceless, Simply Priceless. 6.
Aches & Pains – A pair of drivers took nasty tumbles
during the set of TNT races, with local shoe Joe Melnick and Arizona’s Charles
Davis, Jr., each exiting East Bay Raceway Park by way of ambulance. Melnick slapped the backstretch wall during
Tuesday night’s qualifying race action and flipped violently into the third
turn. Melnick is now recuperating
at home after being treated for a broken collarbone and broken vertebrae. Davis took a horrific ride into the turn
one fencing after hopping the wheel of a lapped car entering turn one while
running second in a Wednesday night “B” Main.
Shaken and sore, Davis was otherwise uninjured but still skipped
Saturday’s USAC/CRA event in California. 7.
Nomadic Ways – The Saturday event in Perris, CA, couldn’t
keep Cory Kruseman and the Crossno No. 38 team from taking in the TNT triple.
After proving that passing is quite possible on a daytime surface by
charging from 16th to fifth in the Tuesday afternoon opener, Kruseman
found himself in victory lane a few hours later. Kruseman doubled up by taking Wednesday
night’s $10,000 winner’s share, surviving a rush from Clayton in the
process. The Crossno team made the
40-plus hour trek back to Southern California, where “The Kruser” finished
fourth on Saturday night. 8.
Back in Time – It had been 25 years since the upper echelon
of wingless Sprint Cars had kicked up the clay in Florida. While
Doug Wolfgang won that last feature on February 10, 1981, it was Indiana’s
Danny Smith that chased him to the line that night.
Smith was back in action as the Sprint Bandits brought “tradition”
back to Florida, posting finishes of second, seventh and eighth. 9.
Little Guys – Perhaps “Little Guys” isn’t the correct
terminology, but with household names such as Kruseman, Darland, Kaeding, McCarl,
Gaines, Stanbrough, Sides, etc., lesser-known guys including Ed Hassler and Jake
Scott each enjoyed shining moments during the TNT set. A Tuesday afternoon heat race winner,
Hassler scored a strong third place finish in the afternoon feature behind Brady
Short and Danny Smith. Hassler was
checking out on his Tuesday night qualifying race field when the driveline
snapped. Hassler limped away, done
for the night, but was enjoying strawberries by feature time as he was fortunate
to escape with little more than a throbbing ankle.
Hassler rebounded for a solid top ten finish in the Wednesday night
finale. Jake Scott made a surprising surge past
both Travis Rilat and Dave Darland to win Tuesday afternoon’s third heat race,
opening some eyes along the way. After
making the cut for both Tuesday main events, a late spin while dicing for the
final transfer position while in “B” Feature lapped traffic cost him a
starting berth in the finale. 10.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time – After 16-year-old Bryan Clauson
was nipped at the line for second by veteran Roger Rager on Tuesday night, the
recently-signed Chip Ganassi Racing development driver held a strong second in
Wednesday night’s finale and had eventual winner Cory Kruseman in his sights.
That is, until he was haplessly collected by the flipping mount of lapper
Kyle Nicholas, with Brandon Petty caught up in the melee as well.
Clauson restarted at the tail and salvaged a 14th-place
finish. Putting the wraps Volume II, No. I, TTT is done
for the week. As always, notes,
comments, questions and suggestions are always 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, while Sprint Bandits TNT-related info can be found at www.sprintbandits.com. |
