July 26th, 2008
I was so excited when I found out that Chad Kinder was going to be going to CCS this weekend.... I love going to Flora and seeing all my Clay County people...
I, like everyone else has stopped traveling as much this year due to fuel prices...
The racing was great at all levels !!! The modifieds put on a great show...the street stock did as well....and the hornets were exciting !!! The Fastrak Event was disappointing ... There were only ten drivers there and I know that Fastrak had promised more cars........... you can't make drivers go where they don't want to go... with gas the way it is I am sure they choose to stick closer to home...but...it is going to kill the crate division in my opinion... they should travel together like the World of Outlaw Late Model did.......well until they get their division really started that is............. the drivers that I talked with and interviewed were all great people.... I got to talk with Billy James, the leader in points in the Fastrak Touring Series...Todd Hall who is 2nd in points and Shawn Rayfield who is 3rd.... could not ask for nicer guys.... AND they all like racing in the crate division although at least one of them race both crate and super late model... There was a young lady racing Crates as well..."Ashlee Lancaster".. she is only 19 ........ also interviewed Todd Hall's cousin Chris Hall
As I was going through the pit area I talked with JR Dunlap who just got his motor put together this weekend and his dad Lloyd..... Jr ran a really good race but could not catch Larry Anderson... JR and Tim Feldhake sure duked it out until Tim got his tire accidently ran over by MJ Wheat.....then Timmy started going backwards after running third.....after the race I talked with JR and he told me he was only running on six cylenders....said he wished he could get all the parts of his car working at one time...very frustrating for him.........but...JR.... you did look very strong out there....
Next I talked with Greg Dedrick.... wanted to know how he survived all the flooding in Palestine from the Wabash River.... he told me the water did get up to his mom and dads house.......glad they got through it ok.... that was a mess over there...
Not far from Greg was Jim Shipman.... I caught him duct taping something on his car and I told him that I was going to put it on the internet that I knew his secret weapon...."that his car is held together by duct tape"...he laughed and told me I was right....
Chad Kinder came walking by and I always have to talk to him
.. I took another picture of him to add to my collection..Chad said "CJ..you have more pictures of me then I do of myself".... I said "yep"......... I love this kid....Told him we would be going to Ohio next weekend to watch him race...And I want to apologize to JIm Cole for not getting over by his pit area.... I did get a picture of the new car and will post it shortly.... very nice looking hornet...I got a picture of it in the gateway getting ready to go out to carry the flag.. I was heading back to your area and ran into Chuck Bell and Rick Scott....by the time I finished up there racing was getting ready to start....hopefully I will catch you next time I am there...
And Chuck Bell!!!!! You sure put on a great race last night !!!! That is one of the best races I have seen..... I really thought you were going to take the checker....you, Heath Sharp and Mike Mandrell was all over each other....was very exciting.............
In the heats for the Hornets.... heat one Chuck Bell was flying...he was out in front the whole race..no one was gonna catch him...Cole crossed 2nd with Rusty Snyder crossing 3rd......................in heat two...wow is all I can say... Mandrell and Sharp was battling the whole race.... coming down the straight away in front of the grandstand they were side by side....it looked as if the BO got into #0 causing him to land on one of the dirt piles in the infield..... that was good driving by him just to keep his car from flipping over.... he got out and inspected his car and they got it off the dirt pile and started at the tail ... in no time he was back in 3rd spot... in the meantime the #30 of Lybarger got around Mandrell to take the win....................When the feature came Bell and Lybarger was on front row with Cole and Mandrell in second row..Snyder and Sharp were in third row... right at the start Bell and Sharp get tangled ..Bell keeps going but Sharp stopped on track..he has to go to tail.. Mandrell gets to the lead but has Bell all over his tail the first part of the race....
Starla Bailey brings out a caution with 8 to go..on restart the #35 and the #51 get into one another with the #35 getting the worse of the deal as he is rammed into the wall.........in meantime Sharp had worked his way back up to top three...it was Mandrell, Bell and Sharp.........it was a finger biting finish as the crowd went nuts when Heath Sharp pulled around Mike Mandrell for the win..........one of the best Hornet races I have seen.....!!!!
In the modifieds... in the first heat Michael Fox wins over Kelby Simmons, 3rd was Jay JOnes and then Brent Warner......the #77 of Jim Shipman had to pull off with only two laps to go...
In heat two Jesse Snyder and Chad Kinder started on the front row.....Kinder got out to the lead and in a short time the #28 of Boylard got around Snyder for second....... after running 3rd most of the race Jesse started slowing and almost coming to a stop on the white flag lap..........he come across last..
In heat three Michael Stryzinski was charged with two false starts and was put to the tail... he quickly moved back up the line to settle for 2nd..Chris Moore who had started in 4th spot crossed the line first....
In the Feature Fox and Kinder on front row...Moore and Simmons on row two..Boylard and Stryzinski third row......Kinder shot out to an early lead with Fox behind him.....with 18 laps to go Greg Dedrick spins out.........with 17 laps to go Easton, Dedrick and Kruk spins in turn four.........next caution comes out for the #00 of Vinnedge..he pulls off track.......with 11 to go the #47 spins....goes to tail...on restart the #28 of Mike Boylard takes the lead from Kinder.... Chad was slowly reeling him in when another caution comes out for the #33 of Kruk.....with 7 to go on restart Kinder takes the high side and gets around Boylard.....with two to go the #36 of Cox spins out..........on restart the #20 of Warner spins out!!! Seems like this race is never going to end and I have no fingernails left !!!!
Ends with Kinder, Boylard, Moore, Claycomb, Fox , Snyder, Jones , Adams, Stryzinski, Dedrick, Krup, Mehler, Cox, Easton, Warner, Simmons, Shipman and Vinnedge..................was a very exciting race..... Kinder and Boylard was really battling..... when Chad was interviewed he said that Boylard had a very fast car...while Chad was in winning circle Boylard came by and congratulated Chad..very good run by these two guys..................althought that Chris Moore...if he had a couple of more laps to go he could have made it even more interesting..he was giving some static to Boylard on the move for that second spot.....Claycomb had moved up from 8th to take 4th and Jesse Snyder who had started 17th made his way up to 6th..........was a great race by all....
In the first heat for the street stock the #99 of Larry Anderson won it hands down.....he had a big lead over second place Tim Feldhake...3rd was JR Dunlap...the #01 of Tim Rinehart was scheduled to race but dns..
In heat two the #01c of Chris Rinehart won with Rocky Berliew taking second and Simmons third.........the #22 had to pull off early in race losing his drive shaft...
In the feature the front row was Anderson and C Rinehart...2nd row was Feldhake and Berliew, 3rd row was Dunlap and Simmons...the #99 of Larry Anderson once again got out to the lead and stayed there throughout the feature... JR Dunlap looked like he was gaining on him a couple of times then faded away.......there were several cautions in this feature.............with 8 laps to go a caution comes out for the #88 of Bill Dugger..he pulls off track....on restart the #71 of Russel spins out...........on restart the #71 spins out again ..he pulls off track.....running order is still #99...79...32....01c...43...11L...01...18..51...94...76..26..35..
next caution comes out for the #26 of Carter and the #76 of Koontz in turn 4.....on restart the #18 of Berliew spins coming out of one.....
with 4 laps to go as they are racing the #43 and the #32 are very close...the #43 drove up over the #32's wheel.....both cars kept in control and kept going...but.... it obviously did something to the #32 car because after running 3rd he started slipping back and ended up 9th ...........Larry Anderson took first... at the start of the race JR Dunlap looked to be the car to give Anderson some problems but soon Anderson drove off leaving the rest of the pack looking on....later I learned that JR was racing on only six cylenders.........the real battle was going on between JR and Feldhake but Jr stayed in command over the 2nd spot while Feldhake lost his front running spot with the tire incident....this moved the #01 of Tim Rinehart up to third...Tim had slipped up from the 15th spot while all the battling had been going on up front....then Simmons, Berliew, Lodeke..Bible, Wheat...Feldhake, Koontz..Carter...Small...C Rinehart...Russell and Dugger...
You guys put on a great race...very exciting.............
In the Fastrak Series there were only ten cars that showed up ...they made two heats with five cars each.... in heat one the #17 of Billy James who is leading in the fastrak points got out to the lead and stayed til the checker with Britton and Chris Hall.........in 2nd heat Rayfield and Lyons started on front row and Montague and Cockrum on second row...the #99 of Todd Hall (second in pts) dns.... Nick got out to the lead and stayed there with Rayfied, then Casey then Shane...
In the feature James and Lyons on front row...Britton and Rayfield 2nd row..C Hall and Montague on 3rd row....Lancaster and Cockrum on 4th and tail was Rainey and Todd Hall..........with 12 laps down the #49 of Rainey spins out....James is in front with Lyons in 2nd, Britton, Cockrum, Montague, C Hall, Rayfield, T Hall, Lancaster, Rainey.............with four to go the #16 of Lancaster spins....the finish...
Billy James, Lyons, Britton, Montague, Cockrum, C Hall, Rayfield, T Hall, Rainey and Lancaster....
The drivers that showed were all good drivers ... you could tell that.... the top three in points were all in attendance....Billy James...Todd Hall and Shawn Rayfield..was glad to get the opportunity to see them race.....
I had a really good time... got to see a couple of my members..... one is a big fan of Casey Montague's and the other is the daughter of Phil Bible...he sure does have a couple of very cute grandkids......
I got to talk with Chuck Bell who is always the same everytime you talk to him...he always has a smile on his face and really enjoys what he is doing...always uplifting to be around a person like that....... and I got to meet Rick Scott and got an interview with him...
I talked with Casey Montague for a little while and took some new pics of him..very nice young man....
Ran into Jodie Brown in the stands.......she showed me the wedding pictures of Marty Lindemann and Heather...........Heather made a beautiful bride.........she promised to send me a pic so I can put it on here for all to see....
I want to thank Gennie Bare for helping with the results and taking some pictures for me...
I want to thank Jim the pr guy for CCS and Jerrica for giving me the lineups with the names of the drivers........and helping with the feature results that i kinda missed...........well shoot... I am human .. lol... and i was watching CHAD KINDER and Mike Boylard......... lol...........
anyways...thanks to all in the tower for their help!!! You guys do a great job...
And Jim , the flagman........nope........we need you in that flagstand..you got plenty of time to go fishing.....
Hoping to see all of you again soon..
Will be adding pictures shortly