Shadow Report - Delaware Preseason Shootout

Howdy folks!  ;D ;D ;D

Well we've shaken off the winter blahs, and some of the spring ones too. Sure felt like summer tonight pulling into the speedway for opening night, and the pits were full of new cars. Of the 3 divisions on hand tonight, the Late Model lineup was the one that grabbed my attention first off. 23 cars answered the bell tonight for the main division, and they were all lined up on pit row when we walked into the speedway. What a sight that was...and more so than many other seasons, you needed a scorecard to keep them all straight.

That held true for the other divisions too. Looked like lots of new trucks and a few new Super Stocks too. The transition in SS appears to be nearly complete as you could count on one hand the number of guys sporting old metal bodies...and still have a finger or two left over.

Now initially the format was to be three sets of 15 lap races for each division, however with the Late Models they decided to split them into two fields of 12 cars for two 15 lap heats, as well as a 20 lap main. Bear in mind there were no points tonight for finishing positions in any of the divisions, simply some "show-up" points that each team got for being there. I'd heard it was 100 pts, but then they said it was 75. Regardless, every team got the same for being there.

So in Coca-Cola SS, in the order they came by in practice.
84 - Pee Wee Smith, new blue Camaro livery (driven by a crewman tonight as Steve wasn't there)
99 - Nagy sporting his old familiar Monte
17 - McNichol
23 - Greg Dadson (Nova)
44 - Jeff Showler in the black Camaro
19 - Chant - new camaro skin, same paint scheme as last year
16 - Kathleen Hosang - new camaro, liveried the same as their old truck
51 - Matt Robblee
47 - McNichol Sr
04 - Humphreys, new camaro - spiffy black and blue
78 - Jo Lawrence BT Nova
28 - Kris Lawrence BT racing Nova, with a Monte Carlo front end? The announcers kept calling it the Nova-Carlo
81 - Shawn McGlynn (Lucas Oil Sportsman car)
33 - Fothergill
48 - McGregor (old style steel camaro...Jimmie Johnson paintjob)

Demar Aggregates Truck
33 - Sid McDonald
77 - Zagarodny
39 - Brady Smith
55 - Adriaensen
7 - Blaauboer
01 - Bloemendal  
(these last three guys keeping alive the truck division's tradition of driver names that give reporters fits:)
15 - March
95 - Andrew Pocs
48 (?? Didn't get the name)
22 - Jeff Denboer
51 - Trevor Collver
18 - Adam Swales
6 - James Marche
25 - Tyler FIndlay

FT Garage Late Model
1 - Jaxon Jacobs
72 -Thompson
38 - Tyler Hendricks
5 - Jay Christie
77 - Jeremy Reid (in Dion Verhoevn's old wagon)
8 - Marc Jacobs
96 - Dan Prudhoome
51 - Rookie Phil Nyssen
28 - Steve Robblee (livery not so much different as in the past, except the car is blue instead of red)
21 - Pritiko
22 - Cox
6 - Quarrie
81 - Gresel, sporting black instead of white
37 - David Elliott
43 - Jay Doerr
100 - Doug Stewart (HB Beal Secondary celebrates their 100th this year)
99 (Yep you heard em right) Russ Urlin, subbing for son Jon.
3 - Mark Watson (looked like the car that DJ sometimes drives.)
25 - Powell
38H - Kirk Hooker
24 - Stephen Richmond
27 - Mat Box
83 - Jim Holland

Notably absent from the Late Model ranks were Ron Sheridan and Jesse Kennedy

Coca-Cola Super Stock

Super Stock 1 - 15 laps
17-McNichol is on the pole with Nagy alongside, followed by Fothergill and Robblee. McNicol takes the lead straight off but Fothergill powers past him in short order. The two front runners get a bit of a lead and the real race is for third, where Robblee, Nagy, Kris Lawrence and Showler are racing in tight formation. Lawrence get the better of the tilt and toward the end is battling McNicol for 2nd. Then Showler throws it in too deep to get under Lawrence and they both get loose. Lawrence gets out of line and drops back. He makes up some ground, and by the time its over its Fothergill, McNicol, Nagy, Showler and Lawrence.

Super Stock 2 - 15 laps
Polesitter on this one is the 84-Smith car with 48-McGregor alongside. Smith is slow on the draw and ends up backing up the whole inside lane. Once it shakes out, its Kris Lawrence in the lead, followed by McGregor, Nagy, Robblee and Showler. Lawrence puts some distance down and has it well in hand when Robblee ends up doing a 360 in turn 1 to bring out the caution. Under caution, there's a rather bizarre moment where Nagy is weaving to keep the tires warm and something breaks in the steering. He crashes into the back of Lawrence, then the 99 car just dies on the frontstretch. Lawrence has to bring it in for a look, but it seemed nothing serious on his end.

On the restart, its a great multi lap drag race between McNicol and Showler, which Showler gets the better of. 1st to Showler, 2nd to McNicol, 3rd to Fothergill, 4th to Humphrys, 5th to Jo Lawrence.

Super Stock 3
This one starts with Robblee on the pole. He's a rocket this time around and is never seriously threatened. McNicol is once again near the front, then Fothergill catches up to him to take 2nd. Ther was an interesting moment late in the race when Fothergill, who was easily the class of the field tonight, was passed quite decisively by Showler. The final was Robblee, Showler, Fothergill, McNicol, Kris Lawrence

Demar Aggregates Trucks

Trucks 1 - 15 laps
The trucks kick off with a little mayhem, when polesitter Zagarody gets shuffled out of line before the green flies, then 6-Marche goes looping in turn 1, then Colliver and Dunboer get together in a turn 2 spin. Between all this theres a great drag race between Bloemendal and Adrieansen that Adrieansen gets the best of. However the class of the race was rookie 39-Brady Smith who scored the win followed by Adrieansen, Bloemendal, Sid McDonald, and Zagarodny.

Truck 2 - 15 laps
We had our first real bent metal of the night here at one point where Bloemendal, Zagarodny and McDonald all got together on the frontstrech. (Too many trucks to fill the width maybe?) Anyway, in the end Bloemendal made it out without any damage, but Zagarodny was up against the outside frontstretch, and McDonald was around on the inside frontstretch. Much finger-pointing ensued.

After the restart, its Adrieansen, March and Smith, until Bloemendal powers thru the field, making it back up to 2nd by the time its over. (Bloemendal has a pretty eventful night all told)
Final is Adrieansen, Bloemendal, Smith, March, and Blaauboer

Truck 3
Starts off 15 March in front, then a great drag race between Bloemendal and Smith for 2nd, with Adrieansen tucked right in in behind them. Bloemendal gets out of line in 1 and drops back to 4th. Soon Adrieansen muscles past Smith to take 2nd, and then goes to work on March. Bloemendal keeps coming though and gets back to 3rd. Adrieansen gets past March for the lead and now the battle is between Bloemendal and March for 2nd. There is contact on the fronstretch and Bloemendal goes spinning in turn 1 to bring out a caution. March is deemed responsible and is black flagged.

Now off the restart, Bloemendal and March aren't done with one another yet. Bloemendal's going a-hunting and keeps after him. On the last lap, with March sitting 5th, Bloemendal spins him around in turn 4. Crossing at the checkers its Adrieansen, Smith, Colliver, Blaauboer and Bloemendal. (Bloemendal might have been penalized after however)

In the pits, the festivities commence when the 15 truck chases after the 01 down the backchute, and finally catches him in the middle of the truck pit area where he runs into Bloemendal. I would presume a melee ensued, however I wasn't in a spot to see much.

FT Garage Late Models

Late Model 1- 15 laps
This featured one half of the LM field for the evening.
Great battle between Cole Powell and Shawn Thompson. Cole looked like he had it for Shawn, but couldn't seal the deal.
1st Thompson, 2nd Powell, 3rd Quarrie, 4th Robblee, 5th Cox

Late Model 2- 15 laps
This race featured the other half of the field, including Russ Urlin driving the Siskinds car for Jon. Russ looked like he was just in points-collecting mode and not pushing too hard. The initial battle was between Doerr and Dave Elliott. Great drag race by the two of them, however it ended badly with both of them around in turn 3, leaving the lead to Pritiko. Pritiko got a good restart and managed to build quite a lead by the time it was all over. Notable mention of Watson in that 3 car. He was just-a-flying, going from back to 2nd in 15 laps. That car is fast.
Final 1st Pritiko, 2nd Watson, 3rd 8-Jacobs, 38-Hendricks, 69-Rawlings

Late Model 3- 20 laps (full field)
We've heard that Stephen Richmond suffered an injury in the pits before the LM feature, so instead of taking the green, he took a ride to the hospital. We understand its nothing life threatening, but probably quite painful. (as of this writing we haven't heard for sure) We're hoping he's mended in no time.

So...let's welcome back Kirk Hooker shall we? After a couple of years of sporadic appearances here, it looks like he's on side to go for the Delaware Championship, and he served up a preview of that by starting on the pole and staying there. The battle of the race was really for 2nd between Elliott and Powell, which Powell got the better of.
1st to Hooker, 2nd to Powell, 3rd to Elliott, 4th to Christie and 5th to Robblee.

Final thoughts

OK....the track renovations in turn 3-4? They're totally working. 🙂 That inside line is still a little iffy, but lots of the guys are using it. Its doing what its supposed to: putting guys side by side in 3-4 again. From the cheap seats it looks really like 3-4 now has a similar line to 1-2.

Also, double file restarts = awesome. That's nothing new really.

Only think I'm not sold on is the actual go-line. Now the green doesn't drop until the guys are almost at the start line, and they're not allowed to get on it till they get to the pylon. I kinda liked em roaring off of 4, but I get what they're trying to do.

And you know...the whole preseason shootout idea wasn't too shabby at all. I thought it was sort of fun. Might be fun to have some Australian pursuit races thrown in for giggles too. Anyway, I liked it!

So there ya go...there's the first report of the season. Please discuss!

See y'all next week.

Trev