The racing action moved North about two and a half hours on Sunday, February 12th to Phil and Elizabeth Guadagno's North Florida Speedway near Lake City. The Sunshine State Mod Tour had spent three days last week running at Lake City and they returned on Sunday for one last non point show. Joining them were the UMP Late Models, many of them on their way to other destinations for further racing this week and next along with the local Thunder Stock class.
Last year this event was scheduled to be my first race of the Florida series but heavy over night rains caused this event to be cancelled so the local track management was very eager to get the Late Models in particular on the track.
Before we begin with this report however, there are a few things that must be cleared up from last night's East Bay finale for the Mod tour. And for whatever reason, it seems like there were several big announcements relative to important finishing positions that were never really publicized for the public. Kyle Strickler's surprising non appearance for the Modified feature was explained due to the fact that his car was disqualified after he won a B feature event. Mufflers were an issue all week at East Bay and after warning the drivers at three straight drivers meetings, the rule was enforced on Saturday and Strickler's car did not comply with the rules so it was disqualified. This allowed the third place finisher in that event, Buzzie Reutimann, to move up to the main event.
The other disqualification on Saturday was to the B Mod feature winner David Reutimann whose car failed to pass technical inspection and was removed as the race winner. This allowed Kevin Adams to claim yet another feature win in the B Mod class along with making his point championship total even more substantial.
And now on to North Florida. The track is some where in the range of being perhaps a three eighth or fourth tenth mile oval. It has wide, sweeping turns and medium banking. The surface is entirely different than that of the Florida tracks farther South as it almost looks like beach sand. For certain, the pits are covered with white powdery sand that most lake property owners would kill for to have on their beaches. With the sun and wind, I was worried that it would dry up and produce a dirty, one lane night of racing but that proved to be totally incorrect. A week earlier they ran their Sunshine State Mod Tour race in the afternoon and it was a dusty disaster, so dusty in fact that many of the drivers simply pulled off because it was too dangerous to race on. This event was earlier also scheduled to be a 2 p.m. start but early this week they backed off on the starting time and it proved to be a very wise decision indeed. Instead of a possible debacle, they ended up with some very good racing and two excellent feature races.
Car counts were not expected to be earth shattering with the Mod race being a non point show and many of the open wheel drivers already on their way home while many of the Late Model drivers are trying to save their equipment for two hard weeks upcoming. However, there were still a solid field of twenty each in the top classes and a number of very good cars on hand. They produces a couple of very competitive main events.
Heat race action went off smoothly after qualifying for both Mods and Late Models with only the heat winners redrawing for the main events. The Modified feature went first and it produced some very hard, side by side racing action. Kenny Wallace was the early leader and in fact led the first twenty four laps of the main event. He was trailed by Nick Hoffman and Strickler and those two were really getting after it as they raced for the second spot very hard. A couple of times it appeared that neither lifted going into turn three but somehow they managed to clear the corner without disaster taking place. They caught Wallace just before the yellow waved and their three car battle for the top spot was wild and woolly.
Hoffman took the lead on the green as they continued to jockey for position and following another late race yellow, Allen Weisser came out of no where to pass Strickler for the second spot after starting twelfth. Hoffman managed to gain just a bit of breathing room but the battle for second was wild with Strickler leaning pretty hard on Weisser on the final corner to take second back. Curt Myers moved into fourth late in the race as he passed Wallace for that spot. It was a hard fought and entertaining event. There were only four yellow flags in the race and only five of the twenty starters failed to complete.
The Late Model feature might have seen quite as much shuffling for the lead spots but there was a constant battle for the top position throughout the race. Tyler Erb took the lead right at the start and was actually scored the leader for all forty laps but it was not nearly as easy as that might sound. Early on, he had constant pressure from Kyle Bronson and then later Brian Shirley replaced Bronson as the chief challenger. Several times Shirley got right to Erb and made challenging moves for the lead, only to be repelled by Erb.
Several other drivers made nice advances including Frank Heckenast Jr and Austin Hubbard who came from ninth to fourth. Brent Larson also gained a number of positions. Shirley continued to hound Erb until he pulled up lame just as the white flag came out. This set up a two lap sprint to the finish but Erb was up to the challenge and held off Bronson and Frankie. Only three yellow flags slowed the forty lapper.
The track slicked up very nicely and allowed the drivers to drive deep into the corners and ride up the banking and there was much side by side racing without a lot of banging. There was very little dust and the track produced good racing with all on hand seeming to be very satisfied with the evening. With the positive vibs that the night produced, perhaps a few more drivers will drop by on their way elsewhere next year although quite frankly, with it being a Sunday night everyone was probably hoping that the show would materialize just about as it turned out.
The Thunder Stocks has just enough cars for one heat and while winner Shane Taylor drove a solid race, the majority of the field had a tough time keeping their cars pointed in the right direction. Apparently hood pins are in short supply in North Florida as more cars than not has hoods flapping in the breeze come feature time.
The evening turned out to be a very pleasant surprise in many ways. While the North Florida Speedway is not a fancy track by any means, the racing action was good which is what the bottom line should be at any facility. The program moved along crisply thanks to local track officials and the UMP crew that was administering the race meet and after starting shortly after 6 pm, the final checkered waved before 9 pm. Thanks to the Guaragno's for their help in producing a night of racing that exceeded all expectations.
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