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Steele Scores Top 3 Finish At
New Smyrna |
The Tampa Bay Area Racing
Association Winged Sprints were
the highlight of this night of
racing at the newly paved New
Smyrna Speedway. The half-mile
near Daytona now boasts one of
the fastest half-mile asphalt
circuits in the country and
seeing the open wheel cars on
the pavement was just simply
spectacular.
The TBARA Winged Sprints gave
the fans a little extra tonight,
needing a B Main to set the
field for the feature.
Rookie TBARA racer D.J. Hoelzle,
driving the Dave Steele machine
of 2006, won the B Main, but his
thrill was to be short lived, to
say the least.
After enjoying a visit with the
New Smyrna fans to sign a few
autographs fired up their bad
machines, did their four wide
salute and then thundered into
action, vapor trails off some of
the wings. Amazing stuff. No
matter how many times we see
these cars in action, it never
ceases to amaze how talented
this group of drivers are.
The tires for the winged sprints were not holding up so good on the new
pavement and made things a
little trickier than usual for
this bunch. When these cars get
wound up at New Smyrna, it can
be a breathtaking experience,
especially from the vantage of
the pits or the turn three
stands.
The turn three fans got a close
up encounter on the first lap as
Hoelzle wacked the wall hard
enough to twist his black number
15 and bring out the red flag
for about 15 minutes. D.J. was
unhurt, the car not so lucky.
On the restart pole sitter Wendy
Mathis took the green but as on
the first try the John Gilbert,
Jr number 7 was out front with
(#0) Dude Teate in hot pursuit.
By lap 15 Troy DeCaire was able
to scream by Gilbert for the
lead and then DeCaire pulled
away from the field.
One official pointed out that
five more laps and DeCaire's
tire would have been gone. The
race was cut to 20 laps due to
the tire wear issue on the TBARA
Sprints.
The TBARA Sprints race again
Monday night at New Smyrna
Speedway and will appear at
DeSoto Super Speedway in
Bradenton, Fl. on February 17th.
NEW SMYRNA WORLD SERIES 2007
PHOTO GALLERY
TBARA Race Results New Smyrna
Speedway, February 11, 2007
FEATURE
1) 68 Troy DeCaire; 2) 7 John
Gilbert Jr.; 3) 91 Dave Steele;
4) 0 Dude Teate; 5) 19T Matt
Tiffany; 6) 19 Keith Butler; 7)
41 Shane Butler; 8) 80 Wendy
Mathis; 9) 21 Jim Alvis; 10) 29
Gary Gimmler; 11) 99 Cameron
Dodson; 12) 9X Michael Smith;
13) 55 Tommy Nichols; 14) 98F
Kevin Feeney; 15) 55R Doug
Berryman; 16) 51 Mark Gimmler;
17) 39 Charles Ladner; 18) 14
Hank Lower; 19) 7A Doug Elliott;
20) 1B Brian Maddox (DNF); 21)
96 Bo Hartley (DNF); 22) 15 D.J.
Hoelzle (DNF); 23) 5W Randy
Woodall (DNF); 24) 66 Kipp Beard
(DNF)
HEAT 1
1) 91 Dave Steele
2) 14 Hank Lower
3) 0 Dude Teate
4) 29 Gary Gimmler
5) 99 Cameron Dodson
6) 39 Charles Ladner
7) 15 D.J. Hoelzle
8) 16 Ben Fritz
9) 59 Dan Statter
10) 18 Stan Butler
HEAT 2
1) 68 Troy DeCaire
2) 5W Randy Woodall
3) 21 Jim Alvis
4) 19T Matt Tiffany
5) 55R Doug Berryman
6) 41 Shane Butler
7) 98F Kevin Feeney
8) 96 Bo Hartley
9) 56 Ryan Myers
10) 21P Larry Brazil Jr.
11) 47 Richard Waddell - DNS
HEAT 3
1) 19 Keith Butler
2) 7 John Gilbert Jr.
3) 55 Tommy Nichols
4) 80 Wendy Mathis
5) 51 Mark Gimmler
6) 9X Michael Smith
7) 1B Brian Maddox
8) 1 Steven Bradley
9) 88 Frank Neill
10) 66 Kipp Beard
B-MAIN
1) 15 D.J. Hoelzle; 2) 98F Kevin
Feeney; 3) 1B Brian Maddox; 4)
7A Doug Elliott; 5) 66 Kipp
Beard; 6) 96 Bo Hartley; 7) 56
Ryan Myers; 8) 59 Dan Statter;
9) 21P Larry Brazil Jr; 10)18
Stan Butler
The 16 of Ben Fritz, 47 of
Richard Waddell, 21B of Larry
Brazil, 88 of Frank Neill and
the 1 of Steven Bradley did not
start the B-main |
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