Shadow Report - Delaware Speedway - May 21, 2010

Well the evening started off with a little hint of rain in the air, but in the end Mother Nature once again graced us with a fine evening for racing at Delaware. Sitting in the stands during practice it looked like a pretty light crowd, but it swelled considerably once we got closer to race time.

Demar Aggregates Trucks

Heat 1
Heat 1 starts with 99-Koricina on the pole with 00-Johns alongside. Really this was a 2 truck race, as the two waged an awesome side by side duel for the opening laps. Johns was staying right with her, and Koricina was in no way leaving Johns any wiggle room, coming down into his lane a number of times over the course of the race. (one would not have been surprised to see Johns begin to take exception...but it never happened) By the halfway point, Koricina's got it well in hand though, while the remainder of the field fights it out over 2nd spot.
1st to Koricina, 2nd to Johns, 3rd to 56-Showler

Heat 2
Its a heartbreaker right off the get-go for 31-Howard. As they come down to the start line for the green, he breaks something on the front end and the 31 truck cants over to the left and right into the pit wall. The impact wasnt so bad, but the failure was enough to take them out for the night. 88-McDonald takes an early lead but moves over to let 33-Fothergill through. Before too long, McDonald loses a tire going down the fronstretch, and does a weird zig zaggy thing down into turn 1, where he stops, and then goes around again in turn 1...looking like he's doing some kind of victory donut before exiting the racetrack. (It was a bit of a headscratcher.)
Win to 33-Fothergill, 2nd to 75-Depuis, 3rd to 82-McCaw

Truck Feature
Well, you would have thought the truck division had the night off with all the truck competitors hanging around up in the grandstands tonight. Saw Kathleen and Mike Hosang, who are apparently serious about selling their stuff. (anyone wanting to go truck racing, that 16 truck's a good piece!) Also saw Derek Clark, who sustained massive damage last week in his impact with Showler and couldnt have it ready for tonight. Derek figures he'll be good to go for next week or the week after. Also, just after the truck heats, saw Mike Howard coming thru the crowd in his driving suit. He was heading up top where he'd parked his street vehicle, in hopes of scooting home and getting some parts to get the 31 truck functional for the feature. It wasn't to be however. Better luck next week guys!

So the quote of the evening came from last weeks feature winner. When interviewed just before the race, 55-Gary Adriaensen was asked about his 9th place starting position this week. He quipped that to get to the front again, he was going to have to "Part the waves and make like Moses" If only it could have been that easy!

We start with Depuis on the pole with Showler alongside, then Fothergill/Johns, then Koricina/82-McCaw. Right off the start, Depuis is in the lead with Fothergill behind. After only a lap or 2, Depuis is up and out of the way, scrubbing the wall and coming away with a flat tire. No caution.

Fothergill makes short work of everyone once he gets out there, but he's followed by Showler, Koricina and and McCaw. On the 6th lap, caution flies when 88-McDonald loops it in turn 4, again apparently a tire issue. At the restart, Koricina appears to drop off just a little bit and McCaw gets past up into 3rd.

Now the top 4 begin to spread out a little and the real battle of the race is for 5th spot, and its a 3 way tilt between Johns, Adriaensen, and 8-Porter. Johns ends up coming the better on this deal followed by Porter. Then there's a debris caution about lap 15.

After the restart, rookie 93-Matt Koricina is up into the fray and challenging Porter hard for position. (kid showed no fear!) then there's another caution as McCaw has something go wrong and ends up coasting to a stop in turn 2.

On the restart, 93-Koricina drifts high and out of line and now McDonald is back into the game and challenging Adriaensen for 6th. He makes the pass then goes to work on Porter for the 5th spot before running out of laps.
1st to Fothergill, 2nd to Showler, 3rd to Michelle Koricina, 4th to Johns, 5th to Porter.

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Powerade Modifieds

Heat 1
Heat 1 saw the debut of Garry Kallies in the 87 mod. Most of us at Delaware know Garry as our track photographer, and according to our announce team, he's decided to strap on an open wheel modified at 70 years of age! Garry has not competed since the 60's. (Rumor has it that Garry's car is the old Shipway car from a number of seasons back.)

On the 1st lap, 70-Saunders and 54-Limon get together in turn 1 leaving both of them sitting on the racetrack. Limon goes back on the hook and is done for the night. This leaves the 1st spot to 1-Newman and he manages to keep it.
1st to Newman, 2nd to Saunders, 3rd to the lime green 6 car (Vieria?? sorry, didn't get his name...not on the roster and the results page for tonight at Delaware.com is currently blank.)

Heat 2
Heat 2 Saw the debut of of 82-Justin Demelo and the return of the 31 Mod from Wiarton (again, not on the roster, and no scoring results up yet.) 88-Shipway takes an early lead and keeps it while 39-McCullough and 38-Hendricks battle it out for 2nd.
1st to Shippy, 2nd to McCullough, 3rd to Hendricks

Powerade Mod Feature
We start with 38-Hendricks on the pole with McCullough alongside, then Newman/Shipway and 3-Cox/24-Richmond. Hendricks takes the early lead followed by McCullough, while Cox and Newman have a side by side race for 3rd. Cox slips right back into his old ways, making a fast outside pass to take 2nd from McCullough.

So now the order is Hendricks, Cox, and McCullough, with Shipway in 4th and on the move. Before too long Cox has grabbed the lead, and Shippy is past McCullough up into 3rd.

At the halfway, Cox is well out in front with Hendricks, Shipway, McCullough and Newman all running nose to tail for 2nd. Then disaster strikes for the 88 car as he's trying to get around Hendricks and ends up spinning out in turn 2.

There's one failed restart, as 70-Saunders goes around in turn 3. Then one more to set up the final 5 laps. No one seems to have anything for Cox tonight, and in the end its
1st to Cox, 2nd to Hendricks, 3rd to McCullough, 4th to Newman and 5th to Shipway.
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NASCAR Late Models

Heat 1
22-Ramsay jumps out to an early lead and leaves 27-Box and 72-Thompson to battle it out for 2nd. Thompson takes 2nd but is pushed in the late going by 81-Greisel. Its a runaway for Ramsay, but unfortunately the 22 team's good fortune didn't extend to the feature.
1st to Ramsay, 2nd to Thompson, 3rd to Greisel

Heat 2
20-Lindsay was supposed to start pole for this race but had pitside troubles and was unable to answer the bell, leaving the pole spot to 8-Jacobs. Jacobs didn't hang on too long, being relegated to back-marker within 2 laps.

For a heat race, this one was fairly intense. 28-Robblee jumps out in front with 10-Kennedy stuck to him like glue. 52-Sheridan is sitting in 3rd, looking like he's just waiting to see how the Kennedy/Robblee thing is gong to pan out. Kennedy sticks to Robblee for all 10 laps, rubbing him a number of times but keeping it basically clean. Robblee holds on for the win.
1st to Robblee, 2nd to Kennedy, 3rd to Sheridan.

There was an interesting moment on the cooldown lap where Kennedy guns it and basically shoots up and past Robblee, leaving the crowd and the announcers to speculate that Kennedy was either A-frustrated, or B-didn't see the checkers and thought it was still on. Great show though, and a harbringer of what was to come in the feature.

NASCAR Late Model Feature  

20 NASCAR Late Models answer the call for night 2 of LM action. Your polesitter is 78-Watson with 37-Elliott alongside, then Kennedy/Thompson, then Robblee/Ramsay and 08-Jason Parker and 25-Powell.

Watson takes the lead and makes it his, but he's followed closely by Kennedy. Once it all shakes out, its Watson, Kennedy and Robblee all running close, followed by Elliott, Ramsay, 2-Stewart and Sheridan.

Stewart seems to be having a strong night in the early going, staying in reach of the front markers for quite some time. Sheridan eventually gets around him while Ramsay is turning up the heat on Elliott....finally wresting 4th spot from him.

By lap 10, the war for 2nd is beginning in earnest, as Robblee is pushing hard to get around Kennedy. Kennedy is strong though and manages to keep Robblee at bay. All the while Watson is beginning to creep away just a little. Sheridan picks off Elliott for 5th and begins to home in on Ramsay.

Watson is setting a great pace, and its the battle for 2nd that has everyone's attention. Then the top 3 suddenly begin to tighten up to the point where they're all running bumper to bumper. Back a little further, Sheridan's up to Ramsay and pushing hard for 4th.

Now Kennedy looks like he's sizing up Watson and begins to take a couple test runs at him. Gets a bumper under a couple times but keeps it clean. Watson is good tonight and Kennedy wisely doesn't push too hard, because Robblee's ready to pounce if something goes wrong. And besides, now the 52 car is past Ramsay and homing in on the leaders to make it a foursome.

Right about lap 27 theres a caution when 08-Parker goes around in turn 4 to bring the field back together. Then disaster strikes for Elliott on the restart.

Coming down to get the green, something goes wrong on the 37 car, and he's right in the middle of the pack. He gets squirrelly on the fronstretch, someone gets into him, and he goes spinning 360 and headlong into the turn 1 wall. Ouch. Turned out his brakes were gone completely and it was a pretty good hit. David was understandably annoyed and his frustration got the better of him in his interview when he claimed it might be time to retire. So its a bit of a cleanup caution there.

Then on the next restart, Lady Luck points her ugly-stick at someone else, an teh recipient this time is 5th place Ramsay. Rounding turn 2 after green, something lets go on the frontend of the 22 car and he just comes to a stop on the backstretch. Another caution while the 22 car is removed.

Now the setup is on for the closing laps. The order hasn't changed up front yet, but everyone knows it could at any point. Watson is still hanging on and Jesse is still trying to get by somehow. By lap 31, Robblee is tight with them in 3rd, but now he has Sheridan to contend with. Sheridan wants it bad, laying a bumper on Robblee a couple of times, once moving him up and out of the way, but Robblee flexes his muscle and stays ahead anyway. Back in 5th spot is Stewart and in the last laps, he's overtaken by 21-Pritiko.

Kennedy gives it the old college try, but it is to be Watson's night.

1st to Watson, 2nd to Kennedy, 3rd to Robblee, 4th to Sheridan, 5th to Pritiko.

And theres an awesome moment when Watson does some hot-dogging and brings the checkers to the fans. He grabs the flag as though for a victory lap, but gets down to turn 1 and does a couple smoky donuts, then heads back the other way to do the same in turn 4.  Hey...you only win your FIRST EVER LM feature once!

Congrats big time to Mark and the whole of the Watson team. (I think they'll be sticking with 78.)
Also congrats to both Stewart and pritiko for putting in solid runs. Pritiko looks like he's coming into his own, and Stewart looked tonight like he might be getting back on his game after a couple of rough seasons. We'll see how the next few weeks pan out.
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Final Notes

Notes - Just sending out a couple shout outs.

Nice to meet Gary Adriaensen at the end of the night!

Also had a chance to say hey to Mike Howard before things went south for them.

And an extra howdy to Lloyd Rawlings, who I'd also never got around to meeting before tonight. Hey Lloyd...at least ya got to tow it back to Windsor in one piece this week!

And of course, a birthday shout out to JWO. Hope you had a good one Jim.

We'll tally the Pic-3 points before the weekend's out and make the announcement soon.

See ya's all next week for the return of the Super Stocks, another heaping helping of Demar Trucks, and the first Delaware Triple Crown race of the season. Don't you dare miss it!

Shadow out