Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Mother Nature evidently felt guilty about forcing so many area tracks to cancel last weekend, so she gave the large crowd and the 171 race teams that came to Eagle Raceway on Saturday night what can only be described as a near-perfect day for racing.

The only major incident in the preliminary races came when Nate Weiler’s 4w and the 18 of Terry Richards went flipping in turn 4 during the 4th heat for the Racesaver IMCA Sprint Cars.

The Racesaver IMCA Sprint Car Feature was the finale for the evening. Trevor Grossenbacher took off from the front row to put the #35 out front of lap one with Tim Fricke’s 62, the 5 of Ron Love and Ryan King in the 93 hot on his push bumper. Love took over second on lap 2. The next lap saw Toby Chapman jump all of the way up to third in the 7KX. Love took the lead after another circuit as Gene Ackland moved his 14G into fourth. King retook fourth on lap 8. The first yellow flag of the race came on lap 12 when debris was found on the track. Love slipped coming off of turn 2 with 13 to go, allowing Grossenbacher and Chapman to both pass him. However, Boyd Peterson’s 57B and the 4X of Jason Danley spun in turns 3 and four, putting Love back out front. Chapman overtook Grossenbacher on the restart. Chapman then passed Love the following lap as King also got past Grossenbacher to grab third. King passed Love for second the next circuit then grabbed the lead with 9 to go. Chapman took the lead momentarily the next lap, but King held the lead at the flag stand. Jason Martin cracked the top 4 with 6 laps left, putting his #36 in fourth. Grossenbacher regained third with 2 to go but was passed by Joey Danley’s 14. The final top 4 were King, Chapman, Joey Danley and Grossenbacher.

This was King’s first ever win in the Racesaver Sprints after being named the 2015 Rookie of the Year, and came from the third starting position. He was all smiles as he related “The monkey is off of my back! The car was awesome. The crew really helped me this week and the car was the easiest to drive that I’ve ever had. I fell back after the start, because my car wasn’t quite there early. I was running out of gear going into three, so I started moving down the track off of the cushion. The car would stick so I kept doing it”. When told that he was pulling away after getting the lead he stated “I wish I had a mirror so that I could see that, because I was driving 100% the whole time!! I love the track the way it was tonight. It kind of slows everybody down, and I’d rather replace tires than Jacobs ladders and bars and all of that. I like the track this way because tires are cheaper than cars. I want to thank Richards Machine who builds a hell of a motor. Home and Farm Insurance really helped us out a few times when we needed it. Sardeson Racing helps us out every single week. Big Deal Auto Care is another big one for us. My crew is awesome. They gave me a great car that was easy to drive. I’m going to take the car home and write down every single thing that we did because half of us don’t’ remember a single thing that we just did; we’re so excited. We had a great car in the heat, we had a great car in the feature. The crew makes my job easy. My birthday is Tuesday; I’ll be 32, so this was a great birthday present. I want to give a really big thanks to my dad for helping me with this interview too”.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

EPSG - what are the instructions given to the drivers regarding single file restarts?  I was amazed several times when the green flag was shown and cars were strung out half a lap behind the leader.  I appreciate getting the show done quickly, especially with 171 cars, but at least for the feature division, restarts should be a little tighter.  If they are that spread out at the start, they leaders are in traffic much quicker.

I also thought there were a few race starts that were very unorganized with guys jumping the start, especially at the back of the pack.

According to the rules, all cars must pass by the outside of the cone, single file in the order that they are lined up (No passing before the cone). It is up to the field to keep pace, and thereby keep from being lapped.

Also, the pace to be held is 30 MPH.

Hope this helps.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

Yes that helps.

While the field is on notice to keep up the pace, it was pretty obvious a few times that someone mid pack was not keeping up and causing those behind him to be further behind than they should have been.