Caveat-these reports are a fan-in-the-stands eye view of the nights events, and are in no way to be construed as official. Sometimes I get it wrong, and the names are the names I get off the roster. If I've made a mistake, please feel free to correct me. If something is REALLY glaring, please write it down on a 20 dollar bill and send it in. My complaints department will get back to you...eventually.   😉

Shadow Report - Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Sprints, Demar Aggregates Trucks and Powerade Modifieds. June 5 2009

Well, had our good luck charm, 9 year old Em, with us tonight. (The nights when I've brought her with me have been the only nights thus far with no rain.) So...there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Richmond Row was full. And on the racetrack, well....lets just say there was a close-to-full moon, and it certainly showed through in the racing!

The crowd was good, and because of the NCTS race tomorrow night, the campground was full too. The place was bustling, NASCAR tractor trailers all over the place, and it was good to see the place in full special event mode!.

We began the nights events with time trials for all divisions. Trials were earlier and I missed most of that, being unaware they were going to do it that way, but I did catch some of the AVSS trials. Ryan Litt set a new track record at a blistering 15.62. Gonna be a while before they top that I think.

Demar Aggregates Truck Feature Number 1

Started with 81-Hilborn and 16-Hosang on the point. On the first curcuit, they fell into line with Hosang out in front with 01-Bloemendal a close second. Bloemendal makes the pass and 56-Showler and and 88-Fothergill go with him, relegating Hosang to 4th. Again they fall into line, and the real battle takes place for 5th between 77-Zagorodny, 00-Johns, 82-Demelo and 33-Rijnen, all 4 of them running in a tight bunch. Up front, Fothergill makes the pass on Bloemendal and begins to run.

At the halfway, Fothergill's got the lead firmly in hand, and the battle is now for 2nd between Bloemendal and Showler. Showler's trying everything, even laying a bumper on occasion but can't get past the 01. This gives Demelo the chance to work up and make it a 3 way battle for 2nd. Disaster strikes on lap 23, when Showler and Demelo tangle and spin in 3-4 to bring out the caution. Both go to the back. Demelo has a fender rubbing and smoking the tire pretty badly as they come around on the caution laps, and as they come down turn 4 to get the white flag, there's a loud pop as Demelo's tire lets go.

So now on the restart with 3 laps to go, Rijnen is in the hunt and sitting in 3rd. Now he's all over Bloemendal for 2nd but cant quite make the pass.

At the checkers its Fothergill in 1st, Bloemendal in 2nd, Rijnen in 3rd,  75-Dupuis in 4th and Showler in 5th.

Powerade Modified Feature Number 1

Starts with 38-Hendricks on the point with 57-Brooks alongside. Its a good drag race between the front two for the first couple of laps, with 72-Thompson tucked right in behind them, but by lap 3, the order is Hendricks, Thompson, 39-McCullough, Brooks and 1-Newman. Caution flies on lap 7 when 72 bobbles and slows, which causes McCullough to bounce off the backstretch wall, and lets Newman slip past him into 3rd. No big damage at this point and all cars are still running. On the restart, the order is Hendricks, Thompson, Newman, McCullough and 3-Cox.

After the restart, Newman gets past Hendricks and brings Cox and McCullough with him. Lap 14, and Thompson appears to be having some trouble, putting up a fair bit of smoke and slowing down, while 88-Shipway jumps into 4th and 54-Limon into 5th. Theres a bad moment when Shipway, trying desparately to get around McCullough, gets squirrelly coming out of 4 and almost hits the frontstretch wall.

On the 20th circiut, Newman has it well in hand, and there's trouble in the back half of the field when 24-Richmond gets around in turn 1-2 with a little help from 59-Finlay. Caution.

Now on the restart with 5 to go, Newman has to contend with Cox on his bumper, while Shipway does his damndest to get around McCullough. Cox is trying everything short of dumping Newman to get around, and just can't manage it.

At the checker, its Newman for the win, 2nd to Cox, 3rd to McCullough, 4th to Shipway, and 5th to Limon.  

Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Sprints

Now its time for some Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Sprint car action. Now the field for these guys was pretty slim, with 12 cars in attendance. There was word of some passport problems that kept a number of teams home. Essentially the story I heard was that while these guys weren't going to have any trouble coming into Canada, the lack of passports was going to keep them from getting back into the US, so quite a few stayed home. Regardless, the ones that came showed up large, loud and extremely fast!

Heat 1 saw 26-Bloom jump into an early lead with 07-Litt tucked in behind. Looks like Litt is toying with him for a little while, and near the end of the race, Litt makes the pass and is followed by 55-Ling and 24-Tyler. 1st to Litt, 2nd to Ling, 3rd to Tyler.

Heat 2 saw 20-Flint up front followed by 9-Goff. The battle was for 3rd between 42-Blonde and 99-Eden, and at the checker, it was Flint, Goff and Blonde.
 
Truck Feature 2

The full moon effect loomed large in this race. We start with Zagarodny on the pole with 99-(?) alongside. Zag jumps to the early lead while 99, Rijnen, and Showler duel for 2nd, at one point going three wide around the speedway. Rijnen wins that one and begins to put the pressure on Zagarody, getting alongside turning it into a drag race while Showler tucks in behind the two.

On the 6th go around its disaster for Fothergill (I'm pretty sure it was Fothergill - why oh why do teams insist on painting their trucks the same??) He and Showler, running side by side, get together coming out of 4, and Fothergill hits the tire at the beginning of the pit wall dead center, leaving him sideways on the track. 99-Koricina tags Fothergill on the way past leaving her truck dead on the frontstretch. Looks bad, but no serious damage for Fothergill, and he drives away.

Showler is shown the black flag at this point. (I saw it and I'm not 100 percent sure he deserved it in this case - I wouldn't say it was a bad call, but it was an iffy one.) Now still on the caution, the 33 truck is in the pits for some reason.

At the restart, its still Zagarodny in front, now with Bloemendal in 2nd, then Hosang, 75-Dupuis, and 00-Johns. Fothergill, now toward the back, gets together with 97-McDonald and comes out with a flat tire. Up front, now its a drag race between Zagarody and Bloemandal, with Johns jumping up to 3rd. Bloemendal wins the drag race, but then Zagarody turns right and spins him around to bring out another caution. Zagarody sent to the back.

Now the weirdest moment in this race comes while still under caution. McDonald and Rijnen get together in turn 1 and just come to a stop. Someone told me that McDonald instigated this but I didn't see it and I'm not sure. Neither truck looks hurt too bad, but they seem to be locked together. McDonald just hops out of the truck and walks back to the pits without looking back. Apparently there's a little kerfuffle between some involved lads back in the pit area, but agian, we couldn't see. The McDonald truck is back out on the track before too long.

Now Johns is out front. After we go green, Zagarodny and Showler are at the tail and working their way up fast. Demelo's up into the fray now as well.

In the end, its checkers for Johns, 2nd for Demelo, 3rd for Dupuis, 4th for Showler and 5th for Fothergill.

Mod Feature 2

We start with 38-Hendricks on the pole again alongside 59-Finlay. Hendricks takes the lead followed by 72-Thompson, and a 2 car drag race for 3rd between Finlay and Shipway. (Shippy owns that outer groove tonight) The first caution flies and 3-Cox is around. No biggie and no damage.

Now after the restart there's a show-stopper of a wreck. Thompson gets by Hendricks on the backstretch for 1st, then Hendricks and Finlay get together and both go hard into the turn 3 wall. Kee-RUNCH. 19-Scott comes in after the fact and goes into the wall too, but in his case didn't hit too hard.

Red flag. Hendricks looks bad, but Finlay's car is spaghetti. (Both drivers were A-OK. But I bet they're both moving a little slow come morning.)

Now, there is something that actually worked in Hendrick's favor. The impact had been so hard, that it knocked a section of the turn 3 wall and angled it out onto the speedway. These concrete barriers are huge and it takes quite some time to A: figure out how to fix it, then B: fix it. Unbelievably, by the time the delay is over, Hendricks is wheeling back down pit road and out onto the speedway. Never say die, eh?

So, after about, say...a half hour or so, the race gets back under green. Shipway is up to Thompson and working him outside. McCullough and Cox are up into 3rd and 4th. Shipway drops off a bit, and McCullough gets by to take 2nd. Then another weird caution as Cox's roof just flies off.

After the restart, they're announcing the race is going to a time limit. Thompson is using up as much racetrack as he can to keep his lead, and Shipway and McCullough are still dueling. With Shipway on the inside and McCullough outside, there's contact, and McCullough careens off the frontsretch and into the wall in turn 1. Endgame. the 39's dmaged pretty bad, and McCullough isn't too happy with the result - and says so on mic. I only caught a glimpse, and I can't say it looked deliberate. I only hope cooler heads prevailed afterward.

1st to Thompson, 2nd to Shipway, 3rd to Newman, 4th to Cox, and 5th to 70-Saunders.

Sprint Feature

Now its sprint car time. I'm not going to be an apologist. I know the boo-birds are going to gripe about the car count...all I can say is "what are you going to do?" I will say this much though: the ones that showed, showed up to race. And after the 3 wide sprint car salute, race they did. It was awesome just to feel the thunder down your spine when those guys (and girls) took to the track.

On the pole was the "other" 07 of Jeff Banyas, with 99-Sondi Eden alongside. (Litt and Ling started near the tail) Eden was fast off the get go, and she managed to build an impressive lead during the first part of the race. She was followed by Banyas and 4-Underwood while Litt and Ling battled it out for 5th. Ling prevailed and began to go to work on the top 3, but Litt stayed tight with him, managing to pass at one point before Ling took the spot back.

At the halfway point, Ling shoots past Banyas into 2nd, then the next lap he's rocketing past Eden for 1st. Litt's in 4th and using the whole racetrack trying to get around Banyas and finally managed to get up to 3rd. Ling's got a rocket tonight though, and will not be denied. He's built up a straightaway lead by the time the checkers fell.

1st to Mike Ling, 2nd to Eden, 3rd to Litt, 4th to Banyas, and 5th to 24-Tyler

It was a perfect night under a perfect sky, and an awesome 1st half of a doubleheader weekend. I'll see you all tomorrow at the NCTS race. And remember the Super Stocks go at 6 with a $1000 to win 50 lapper, then you have some time to wander the NASCAR display/midway/whatever you call it. Autograph session at 7, with NCTS driver intros at 8.

As Billy "Red" Lyons used to say: "Don't you dare miss it."

PS-Special shout out to the NCTS folks in the campground. (I know a few of you have laptops.) Be safe tomorrow and if you're still up now, drink another beer for me!

Shadow out.