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Merry Christmas! REMINDER: You folks can put that vacation request in for the first week of June this year -- June 3rd through 8th. This will be the second annual USMTS Southern Series Speedweek and the Wednesday through Saturday have already been booked. We're planning on racing Tuesday night through Sunday night. 6 tracks in 6 nights so plan one of those vacation weeks for the first week of June!
More Texans:
Of course the man of the hour on Thursday night was Temple's Paul White! And being from Temple, Texas, he just naturally knew how to win a rodeo in the Bridwell Racing, Jim & Penny Chapman-wrenched, Bills Built chassis #2W. White also had a good run on Friday night as he advanced from 16th to finish 6th. He was in a good position after Saturday's heats too as he started on the pole of the second B main (15th qualifier from 65 Mods) but wound up a DNF in it.
Rodney "The Rocket" Sanders from Happy (near Lubbock) graduates high school this May and in his rookie campaign with USMTS in 2007, he posted a ninth place points finish with his Hughes Chassis in the Southern Series. After a rough start in Houston on the rough night, he qualified for Friday & Saturday's show and made the top eight redraw for the barnburner. Sanders made it to 19 of the 22 events.
Red Oak's Bobby Malchus in the Rowland #5R Shaw had 2 top tens over the weekend. 8th at the rodeo and a 19th to 8th run in the train race (doesn't read like a train race when you type '19th to 8th'). Only a DNF in Saturday's B kept him out of the barnburner. Bobby made 15 of the 22 Southern Series shows and wound up 15th in points just behind Nicholas Littlejohn and John Whittington who ran 13 of the shows. Littlejohn made 18 starts in all but missed Houston. Heard the Henderson 76 bunch had a hard crash at South Texas 2 weeks before.
Clyde Dunn, Jr. of Sunnyvale put the #88xxx Skyrocket in the show twice down in Houston. He won a B main at the barnburner, missed the A by 3 spots on the slick track and charged from 20th starting position at the rodeo to a 4th place, top five finish. I know at least one USMTS show will be in Clyde's stomping ground next year!
Speedarama UMP champion Mark Smith of Lufkin was there on Thursday and was 16th in passing points out of 59 cars but must have broke something bad enough in his B at the rodeo that he didn't make it back the next two nights.
Devil's Bowl regular Chad Ewell from Forney had the 7JR car there but didn't have much luck on the ever-changing track from night to night but in his final B of the weekend on Saturday, he did advance from 17th starting spot to finish 7th.
Doug Cameron from San Antonio was there all 3 nights and was 21st in passing points out of 59 on Thursday and impoved to 17th in points on Friday and he came just 2 spots shy of making the A main. Georgtown's Steve Miller, Corpus Cristi's Lawrence Mikulnacek and Brazoria's Jesse Manning were just a few more of the Texans who supported the weekend. The Lasater gang from Garland was also there (Brad Lasater drove it this weekend -- is he Charles too? or 2 different drivers?) and were strong supporters of the Southern Series all season. Thanks guys!
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