1. WINSTEAD CONTINUES HIS DOMINANCE OF ORANGE COUNTY – Orange County Speedway

    August 26, 2007 by Winstead

    It is hard to argue whenever AJ Winstead and his #99 SunTrust Mortgage/ Commonwealth Enviromental Associates mod roll off the hauler at a race at Orange County Speedway that he will not be a contendor for the win. This was evident again this past weekend as once again the #99 car found itself in victory lane for the 5th time this season and the 4th time at the Rougemont track.

    In similar fashion, the #2 mod of Doug Paasch remained equally as stedfast and consistant at OCS by finishing in the runner-up position followed by Aubrey Thurston coming in third.

    The next stop for the touring series, the RTM will play the support role for the PASS Southern Late Models for the first time this year at the historic Hickory Motor Speedway.

    Unofficial Results:

    1. AJ Winstead
    2. Doug Paasch
    3. Aubrey Thurston
    4. Dustin Bryson
    5. Dean Slappey
    6. Warren Lipford Jr.
    7. Ted Montague
    8. Tony Ingram
    9. David Kendall
    10. Andy Kemp
    11. Larry Penny
    12. Rodney Brooks
    13. Michael Johnson

    Category: Orange County Speedway, RacesComments (0)

  2. BALLOS PRECISION MACHINE 50 – Southside Speedway

    August 22, 2007 by Winstead

    Midlothian, VA – Thomas Stinson looked to be in his element last Friday night as he took his 7th modified victory at Southside Speedway this year in the Ballos Precision Machine 50. Stinson held off a returning John Thorpe, fellow Southside regular Mike Rudy, and points leader A.J. Winstead in a race which had everything a race fan could possibly want.

    Action began quick at the Southern Virginia bullring when on lap one a multi-car incident collected the cars of Tim Maxey, Chris Hoylman, and points leader AJ Winstead driving the Suntrust Mortgage/ Commonwealth Enviormental Associates car in between turns 3 and 4. The caution came out and a full field restart was ordered since the field was unable to make a complete lap.

    Once the cars were lined up for the restart, trouble started again, this time involving the #10 car of David Winslow. Appearing to have cut a tire on the restart, the #10 car’s front right wheel locked up and the car plowed into the turn 1 wall, bouncing off of it and bringing out another caution. Winslow would replace the tire and run a few more laps but would eventually park the car for the rest of the night.

    Green flag waved and Mike Rudy would lead the field by several car lengths in his yellow #8 car, being chased by a charging blue #63 mod of Thorpe and the red #4 of Stinson quickly en tail. After several laps of green flag racing, Rudy, Thorpe, and Stinson managed to break away from the rest of the pack with all three cars running single file. As the top three began to start lapping the teams in the back of the field, the 2nd place car of Thorpe made contact with the lapped #27 car of Andy Kemp sending Thorpe way loose, allowing Stinson to dive and take away 2nd from Thorpe. Not taking it loosely, as well as suffering from the toe being knocked out, Thorpe saved the car and continued chasing after Rudy and Stinson.

    Meanwhile Stinson was able to catch Mike Rudy’s car and managed to make a clean pass for the lead coming off turn 2 and began pulling away. That margin would soon evaporate as an incident involving TJ Guthrie and Aubrey Thurston occurred in turn 2 which left Guthrie with a bent up rear end and stopped sideways in the corner. Both cars were able to pull away and continue.

    On the restart, Stinson and Rudy were able to pull away from the 3rd place car of Thorpe when the lapped car of David Wheeler got in between him and Rudy. After a few laps, Thorpe managed to pass Wheeler and would make up several car lengths to catch and pass Mike Rudy for 2nd place.

    As the top three leaders were contending, a little further in the back of the pack, the action was just as intense. Emotions rose to critical mass when after the #38 car of Michael Johnson got into the back of the #11 car of Irvin Bell coming into turn-2. After several bumps by the #38, the #11 car was sent spinning to the apron of the track. Not taking this lightly, Bell waited for the #38 to come back around where he then proceeded to butt the front of his machine up to Johnson’s machine and then proceeded with a burnout which completely engulfed both cars into thick white smoke.

    The fans went ecstatic and received their money’s worth; Irvin received a black flag for actions detrimental with racing and was parked for the rest of the night. Michael Johnson was also black flagged and sent to the end of the longest line for the restart.
    Penalties for both drivers are expected and will be handed down at a later time when the RTM Officials come to a collective agreement on proper disciplinary actions. Those penalties will be posted officially on the RTM website when the decision comes down.

    After the smoke cleared (literally) and the 1va car of Lin O’Neal was towed off the track for an unrelated reason while the race was stopped, the green flag came out with 5 laps to go. Stinson managed to get a good restart and was able to keep the #63, #8, and #99 in his rearview mirror and take the checkers.

    The tour returns to action next weekend at Orange County Speedway for their 5th installment of the Orange County Speedway Track Championship By Racing Electronics and Stock Car Products.

    OTHER NOTES:

    - Business picked up early in the day when in practice when Robert Conner ended up driving his car up the turn-2 wall and coming to rest right in front of a phone pole. Conner was ok in the incident and was able to recover in time for the race.

    Not to be outdone, last race winner, Dean Slappey also got vertical at Southside as he took the wildest ride of the night when in the same practice session, he got his car riding sideways on the backstretch wall, then sliding across it, and then spinning off into turn 3. The crash resulted in Slappey breaking his rear end housing and was unable to compete in the night’s race. Slappey was ok and shrugged it off.

    OFFICIAL RESULTS:

    1. #4 Thomas Stinson
    2. #63 John Thorpe
    3. #8 Mike Rudy
    4. #99 AJ Winstead
    5. #2 Doug Paasch
    6. #72 Robert Conner
    7. #50 Ryan Boggs
    8. #36 Chris Johnson
    9. #38 Michael Johnson
    10. #27x David Wheeler
    11. #42 Chris Hoylman
    12. #46 T.J. Guthrie
    13. #21 Ryan Wilbourne
    14. #27 Andy Kemp
    15. #23 Stacy Wilbourne
    16. #11 Irvin Bell
    17. #1va Lin O’Neal
    18. #21t Aubrey Thurston
    19. #43 Warren Lipford Jr.
    20. #19 Kyle Wood
    21. #10 David Winslow
    22. #12 Tim Maxey
    23. #04 Larry Penny
    DNS #91 Dean Slappey

    Category: Races, Southside SpeedwayComments (0)

  3. 3rd PLACE FINISH RESULTS IN RTM POINTS LEAD – Shenandoah Speedway

    August 6, 2007 by Winstead

    Dean Slappey took home the trophy and the Winstead bounty after a dominating performance at the Rolling Thunder Modifieds race at Shenandoah Speedway this Saturday. Slappey started on the outside pole for the race and from there led all 50 laps of the race.

    Trouble started early when on lap 2, Robert Conner’s #72 mod was struck with a flat tire and Larry Penny spinning out in his #04 mod on the restart.

    Scary moments came shortly after when the #2 mod of points leader Doug Paasch got into the #71 of Steve Denning resulting in Denning slamming hard into the turn-3 wall. The race was red-flagged and track emergency workers quickly got to the scene as they came upon an unconscious Denning. Denning regained consciousness and was responsive to rescue workers after a few long minutes. Due to his car being heavily damaged and safety concerns, the rescue workers had to cut the top of the #71 mod to get Denning out. As he was removed he signaled a thumbs-up to the fans and drivers letting them know that he was ok. Once he was removed from the car, Denning was sent to the hospital in Harrisonburg for observation.

    The other car involved in this crash, #2 Doug Paasch had damage to his car and after pitting and restarting the race at the end of the field, was not a factor for the rest of the race.

    Once the green flag commenced, Dean Slappey went back to leading and left the rest to fight for 2nd place…a position which was heavily contended between the #10 of David Winslow, #99 of AJ Winstead, and the eventual runner-up #46 of TJ Guthrie.

    The event ran caution free until lap #33 when the #3 of David Kendall spun out. After which the race ran green for the rest of the duration.

    Slappey celebrated in Victory Lane for the first time this season, knocking off AJ Winstead’s hot streak of 3 consecutive wins and collecting $125 in bounty money in the process.

    As for Steve Denning, RTM Officials have been in contact with him since the accident and has said that he is okay but very sore and groggy.

    The Rolling Thunder Modifieds will take a week off and return to action in a homecoming of sorts as they take to the bullring of Southside Speedway on Friday, August 17th for the Ballos Precision Machine 50.

    Results:

    1.) #91 Dean Slappey
    2.) #42 TJ Guthrie
    3.) #99 AJ Winstead
    4.) #42 Chris Hoylman
    5.) #10 David Winslow
    6.) #38 Michael Johnson
    7.) #16 Ernie Dettbarn
    8.) #72 Robert Conner
    9.) #9 Tony Ingram
    10.) #12 Tim Maxey
    11.) #14 Marty Hanbury
    12.) #2 Doug Paasch
    13.) #3 David Kendall
    14.) #27 Andy Kemp
    15.) #04 Larry Penny
    16.) #71 Steve Denning
    17.) #8 Mike Hanbury
    18.) #47 Dave Botkin
    19.) #43 Warren Lipford

    Category: Races, Shenandoah SpeedwayComments (0)