1. DUCTWORX 75 – Langley Speedway

    August 17, 2008 by Winstead

    Thomas Stinson motored into the lead on lap 55 and drove on to his second victory of the season in the DUCTWORX 75 for the B&C Seafood Modifieds, the featured event of Saturday evening’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series program at Langley Speedway.
    Championship contenders Rusty Wood and Joe Scarbrough qualified on the front row. Wood nabbed the pole, at 85.885 mph, while Scarbrough clocked in at 85.544 mph. Stinson was third on the starting grid, followed by Buster Horne Jr. and Michael Leech. Shawn Balluzzo, the points leader coming into the race, was seventh-quickest among the 19 drivers who made qualifying attempts.
    As the race got under way, Scarbrough maintained his position on Wood’s flank and shot into the lead as the field rumbled onto the back straightaway for the first time. Wood settled into second, while Stinson emerged in third place. By lap 5, the front three had pulled away from fourth-place Horne by nearly half a straightaway.
    The first 30 laps were interrupted by three caution flags — at laps 6, 17 and 30 — as Scarbrough, Wood and Stinson continued to show the way. Horne ran fourth, followed by Leech. During the third caution period, however, Leech made the turn onto the pit lane, handing fifth to Balluzzo.
    As the race resumed, Scarbrough bolted to a three-length advantage as Stinson moved up to challenge Wood for second place. Behind them, Balluzzo went after Horne for fourth, grabbing the spot on lap 33.
    Passing the halfway mark, Stinson offered a glimpse of things to come when he began sneaking peeks to the outside of Wood. On lap 43, he finally worked his way alongside the second-place runner and took the position in Turn 2 on lap 44. Before that circuit was officially in the books, though, the fourth yellow flag appeared and Wood was returned to second place for the restart.
    Back under green, Stinson renewed his high-side attack on Wood. He pulled to the outside of Wood on the backstretch on lap 47 and cleared Wood’s machine on lap 49. The exchange allowed Scarbrough to extend his lead to five lengths. In the meantime, Chris Johnson slipped past Horne on lap 48 to crack the top five.
    Caution #5 was unfurled on lap 51 when debris was spotted in Turn 3. Setting the lineup, Scarbrough, Stinson, Wood, Balluzzo and Johnson made up the top five.
    Returning to green, Scarbrough hauled the field into Turn 1 with Stinson hot on his heels. Within a couple laps, it became obvious that Stinson was looking to repeat his high-side maneuver on the leader.
    The move came on lap 54 as Stinson powered to the outside of Scarbrough through Turns 1 and 2. The two went side-by-side for a lap with Stinson gaining the upper hand off the second corner on lap 55.
    On lap 57, Johnson slipped around Balluzzo for fourth place. It quickly became apparent that Balluzzo was in trouble as he slowed and began to tumble down the running order. He finally pulled into the pits on lap 62, retiring to a 17th-place finish.
    With caution flags flying at frequent intervals, the leaders didn’t have to deal with packs of lapped cars for much of the event. That wasn’t the case on lap 68, though, as Stinson ran up on slower machines. Working patiently, he freed himself on lap 70 and drove away, extending his lead to almost half a straightaway over Scarbrough.
    The sixth, and final, caution flag waved on lap 74, setting up a two-lap sprint to the checkers. It also negated A.J. Winstead’s pass of Horne for the fifth spot.
    Under green for the last time, Stinson leaped out to a two-length edge over Scarbrough. By the finish, that margin had grown to three lengths as Stinson rolled to the victory. Wood tailed the lead duo to the line, in third, while Johnson and Horne completed the top five.
    Winstead was sixth in the rundown, followed by Bubba Farmer, Todd VanGuilder, Kyle Wood and Hunter Slayton. Positions 11-14 went to Darrell Bryson, Danny Baker, Donnie Medlin and Leech, who all finished on the lead lap.
    In Victory Lane after the race, Stinson offered a salute to Scarbrough and Wood for allowing him room to race up top: “My hat’s off to them two guys in front of me. They’re really fast. I tell ya’, the top three cars were really fast. I tried Rusty on the inside and I knew he won’t gonna give me nothing, but he knew that, if I won’t there, I was gonna back off and I did. So, I made up my mind, early in the race, I gotta go to the outside. Didn’t want to, and I don’t want to, but I had to go, so I really said a couple prayers and I tried it. on the outside. And, Rusty, the sportsman that he is, and Scarbrough, they gave me the outside. My hat’s off to them two guys. They’re running for championships and I really don’t want to mess ‘em up.”

    1. (4) Thomas Stinson; 75
    2. (93) Joe Scarbrough; 75
    3. (69) Rusty Wood; 75
    4. (36) Chris Johnson; 75
    5. (9) Buster Horne Jr.; 75
    6. (99) A.J. Winstead; 75
    7. (11) Bubba Farmer; 75
    8. (02) Todd VanGuilder; 75
    9. (19) Kyle Wood; 75
    10. (77) Hunter Slayton; 75
    11. (01) Darrell Bryson; 75
    12. (21) Danny Baker; 75
    13. (34) Donnie Medlin; 75
    14. (5) Michael Leech; 75
    15. (65) Jimmy Kibler; 74
    16. (39) Toby Davis; 71
    17. (57) Shawn Balluzzo; 60
    18. (20) Cameron Patrick; 44
    19. (14) Ronnie Davis; 29
    20. (22) Tim Layne; 1
    Pole: R. Wood – 85.885 mph.

    Category: Langley Speedway, RacesComments (0)

  2. WRECKERS OR CHECKERS – East Carolina Motor Speedway

    August 15, 2008 by Winstead

    The Rolling Thunder Modified event at East Carolina Motor Speedway was a wild one right down to the finish.

    Doug Paasch and A.J. Winstead qualified on the front row, and would be inverted the to 6th and 5th starting positions respectively. On the start it was the #42 of Chris Hoylman in the Kimmotorcars.com sponsored car getting the jump on the #14 of Ronnie Davis. The top 6 cars then raced nose to tail for a good 15 laps until Davis had engine troubles and dropped from the mix. Joe Scarborough in the Toliver House #30 machine quickly began to take up where Davis had left off and apply the pressure to Hoylman. These two where followed closely by visiting Whelan Modified driver Buddy Emory, A.J. Winstead in the SunTrust Mortgage, Commonwealth Environmental associates sponsored car, and the orange #2 of Paasch.

    As the racing continued Winstead worked his way into third by passing Emory coming out of the 4th turn. In addition, the #21 of Aubrey Thurston was making a charge towards the front as he started deep in the field. As the #21 cleared the Darrell Bryson, the #47 of Bryson (7 time Lanier Track champion) was collected into the wall causing a huge 7 car pile up off of turn two. The race was then red flagged for 15 minutes so that the track crew could get the track cleared.

    Once back under way at lap 45 it was Winstead making his move past Scarborough and he set out after Chris Hoylman. Hoylman, who had been making his car wide as possible to keep the #30 behind him; continued once the #99 started to apply the pressure. The two leaders raced for 5 laps battling; with Winstead moving inside of Hoylman on several occasions only to have his attempt blocked by the #42. On lap 59, Winstead made his move on the inside of Hoylman coming out of turn two and as Hoylman’s car broke loose the two drivers bumped wheels causing Hoylman to spin to the inside of the track. Both drivers in the incident ended up being relegated to the rear of the field, and Scarborough inherited the lead.

    On the ensuing restart with 15 laps to go; Scarbourgh was leading, Emory 2nd, and the Strutmaster’s car of Thurston was 3rd, while Hoylman and Winstead were deep in the field. Hoylman’s good night was ended when he was attempting to pass the lapped 2x machine of Larry Penny. The two came together on the back straight which ended Hoylman night in the 3rd turn. Winstead was able to dive to the inside and miss the incident.

    The caution flag flew once more at lap 70, when Johnny Davis lost control of his machine collecting both the # 9 of Tony Ingram and the #99 of Winstead. All the drivers involved were able to continue.

    At the end it was Scarborough taking his 3rd win of the season.

    In a special event for the evening the RTM hosted a special Crew Chief Challenge race in which the crew chief’s of their respective car races one another for a 10 lap shoot out. The crew chiefs were started in order that their cars finished the feature event. It was the #99 SunTrust Mortgage/Commonwealth Environmental Associates sponsored car driven by Neil Culley Jr. that was victorious.

    ECMS OFFICIAL FINISHING ORDER

    1) #30 Joe Scarborough
    2) #44 Buddy Emory
    3) #21 Aubrey Thurston
    4) #8 Mike Hanbury
    5) #06 Gary Wheaton
    6) #2 Doug Paasch
    7) #99 AJ Winstead 8) #77 Hunter Slayton
    9) #27 Andy Kemp
    10) #80 Damian Jenks
    11) #9 Tony Ingram
    12) #2x Larry Penny
    13) #19 Johnny Davis
    14) #42 Chris Hoylman
    15) #47 Darrell Bryson
    16) #75x Johnny Petrozelle
    17) #7 Tony Ingram II
    18) #34 Ted Montague
    19) #14 Ronnie Davis

    Category: East Carolina Motor Speedway, RacesComments (0)