Thursday night, February 4th, the Volusia Speedway Park was in action once again and on this night the All Star Circuit of Champions would wrap up their two night stand here at VSP while the Modifieds would begin night number three with another full racing program.
It was another sunny day in central Florida and the temperatures are slowly but surely warming up as the effects of the latest Northern blast are gradually wearing away. However, once the sun goes down it is still heavy coat weather in the damp swampland West of Daytona Beach.
Thirty two Sprint Cars signed in for a repeat of last night's program with the class wrapping up their stay with a quick twenty five lap feature. Both Kraig Kinser and Jason Sides were on the grounds but opted not to race on this night while Carson Short left seeking more speed. The lone new entrant was "The Steel City Outlaw" Tim Shaffer driving the #72 car this year.
On the other hand, the Modified class keeps breaking car count records each night. Thursday night a new record ninety six cars signed in to race. New entrants included two generations of the famous Reutimann family with both Buzzy and Dave racing along with Brian Foy while Craig Shaw jumped back into his own car after having Ricky Thorton Jr race it last night. All these cars racing in twin feature races again on this night and again for just a grand to win.
Sprint car qualifying would see David Gravel once again top the charts with a lap of 13.234 seconds while the early going for the Sprints would produce some drama. Donny Schatz shut down quickly after turning the fastest lap in practice with smoke coming off the left bank of the engine and they raced back to the pits to make repairs. He was kind of vague later in his explanation of what happened so I don't know whether or not a motor change was necessary but he managed to get back to the track as qualifier number thirty and produce a lap which is most important for lineups.
Danny Dietrich blew a motor in time trials and he had to change that power plant but made it out for his heat. Not a good start to the night with probably one hundred grand worth of equipment ruined before the first cash paying race would start!
Once again in this night, the Sprint Car portion of the program would be inserted early in the show with the Sprints wrapping up their feature before the Mods would finish their last change qualifying and run their main events.
The track was very smooth once again with this new clay they have again being very slick. The to side was the way to go and from the start of the feature, that is where just about everyone would run. Carson Macedo would get the jump from the outside and take the early lead in a race that would be a three car contest between Macedo, Logan Schuchart and Brad Sweet. They were tearing around the upper cushion and about the only way to make a pass was with either a slide job or to catch someone in traffic who was bottled up.
Sweet tried a couple times to get past Schuchart but couldn't quite pull off the move and late in the race, Logan pressured Macedo for the lead. It was close at one point but Macedo worked the lapped traffic beautifully and didn't allow Schuchart to get the run at him he needed. The top three crossed the line close together but Macedo didn't make any mistakes which is what Schuchart would have needed. The Sprints ran off their main event nonstop and the twenty five laps was accomplished very quickly. Twenty of the starters were still on the track at the finish with five a lap down.
There was plenty of action also before the races in the Modified pit area. Todd Neiheiser was changing a motor while Shawn Reiss, who has been beating away on his car for two days, continued his work. For the second straight night also, he was entered in the action but his car never saw the track.
Four sets of qualifying took place and Jason Hughes and Mike McKinney tied for quick time in group A, Justin Haley topped group B, David Stremme topped group C as well as setting quick time at 18.298 and Justin Allgaier topped group D. There were eight heat races and four Last Chance qualifiers that set the field for the features and just like last night, they ran twin features to give more drivers a chance to run a main. And while there might have been ninety six cars in the pits, the same few drivers seem to run up front and do the winning as the "super teams" from the various chassis builders dominate the action. It almost reminds me of the old days in snowmobile racing when the factory teams would beat up on everyone and the "independents" struggled to keep up.
The first feature race saw previous night winner Tyler Nicely take the early lead with Jason Hughes moving up from the second row to take over the runner up slot. Nicely moved out to a good lead but was soon slowed by a pair of early yellows. The restart following yellow number two would prove to be costly to the Kentucky driver as he would push out coming out of turn four and Hughes would drive under him and take over the top spot.
After that it was just a matter of Jason running smooth laps while Nicely drove hard to try and catch back up. However, Hughes would make no mistakes and would cover the lower groove on a blackened up track that saw most everyone running on the bottom after the Sprints laid down plenty of rubber. Steve Arpin would continue to improve on his return to dirt racing as he would drive into the third and final podium spot. Only three minor yellows would slow the action.
The second Modified main would see of the heavy weights battle for the win. David Stremme would take the early lead with Kyle Strickler and Nick Hoffman chasing him. They were setting a torrid pace as they pulled away from the pack and ran their own battle for the win.
Stremme might have set just too fast a pace as he was really leaning on his car in the turns and eventually that would hurt him as he started to push out in the corners with both Strickler and Hoffman driving under him. There was only one yellow flag in the second main and that set a five lap dash to the finish.
Strickler would pull away on the green with the top three once again pulling away from the field. They would run in the same order to the checkered. Both feature races were run off smoothly with no big wrecks and only a few cars that didn't finish the distance as cars nearly surrounded the oval at VSP during the Modified mains.
On Friday night the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars will replace the All Stars with many of the same drivers anticipated to remain while the Modifieds will participate in their night of feature races with the drivers lined up by points accumulated so far this week and then divided into five feature events with everyone getting to run a main.
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