VMCRA RACING

Quinn Houff and the number 26 Green Machine gets his first win
at Shenandoah Speedway

VMCRA RACING

Koschara lead the race from the pole and motored away thru
5 cation flags to win the race.

VMCRA RACING

Hunter Koschara takes a win at Orange County Speedway setting off a three
way tie for second in the VMCRA points.

VMCRA RACING

Travis Roach takes the checkered for his second win at Shenandoah Speedway,

VMCRA RACING

Travis Roach takes the checkered at Shenandoah Speedway,
the VMCRA’s first race of the season. Followed by  Hunter Koschara, last years VMCRA champion and rookie of the year. New this season taking third is Shawn Walker.

MOTORMILE AND SHENANDOAH RECAP

Sorry for the delay everybody, it has been a busy couple of weeks but with that said, congratulations to Ryan Adams  for his win at Motormile on 6/27 and to Jason Watkins for his win at Shenandoah on 7/4.

Motormile started out with 10 cars making the trip but after both rounds of practice Andy Defillipis didn’t feel he could run competitively and loaded up his two cars choosing not to make the race leaving us with 8 cars taking the track for the main event.  Starting on the pole was the #11 of Hunter Koschera  who led the way until the 11^th lap when he turned it over to Ryan.  From that point on, all the racing was behind Ryan allowing him to take off and run with his lead all the way to the checkered flag.  Probably the highlight of the race came on lap 23 when the #27 of Justin LaDuke made a realy gutsy move and went low (very very low) in turn 2 to get around the #15 and #11 and moved into 2^nd place.  So the finish would be Ryan with the win, Justin in 2^nd, Hunter Koschera in 3^rd, Jerry Perdue in 4^th, Quinn Houff in 5^th, Corey Berkstresser 6^th (glad to have Corey back with us too), David Williams in 7^th and Tate O’Quinn, newcomer in the #21  who did a great job in his first time out with the VMCRA.   Hope to see more of you Tate.

Shenandoah also had a turnout of 10 cars with all 10 cars making the field and all finishing on the lead lap. So hats off to all of you for a great race.  It was good to have Jason Watkins back and behind the wheel of the #15 taking it to the checkered flag.  It was also good to have Shane Estes, Tommy Livengood, Darrel Williams and Jay Stover back at the track.  (If we could get all our members / drivers to show up at the same time, we would have a huge field of cars).   Rounding out the field was #11 Hunter Koschera in 2^nd, #77 Ryan Adams 3^rd, #34 David Williams 4^th (great run David),  #17 Quinn Houff 5^th, #00 Shane Estes 6^th, #9 Darrel Williams 7^th,  #57 Tommy Livengood 8^th,  #55 Jay Stover 9^th and #27 Justin LaDuke rounding out the field in 10^th.

Leading the points after our first 6 events is Ryan Adams and Hunter Koschara has the Rookie point lead.

Stay posted to the website for updates, newsletters, and points and photos.

Next Race – Sheanadoah 7/18,  Hope to see everybody there.   This is a 50 Lap event!

Thanks to our Sponsors who are helping make this season successful for us – we appreciate all that you do.

We are getting close to the give away date on the new car – it is starting to look good but we need you to keep selling and turning in those tickets so we can get our funds built back up.   We will have a “booth” set up at the fair being held at Eastside  August 5^th – 8^th.   Hopefully we will sell a  lot of tickets there as well and if anyone would like to volunteer to help out please let Chuck know as soon as possible.   The 8^th is the date of the drawing too so depending on how this works out – we may have the car at Eastside part of the day then bring it to Shenandoah for the race.   This was a very ambitious task but with everybody’s help, we can pull it off.

We have received purse money from Motormile but as of the writing of this newsletter, we have not gotten the money from Shenandoah for the 3 last races.  It has been billed and I’m sure it will be received but checks will not be written until it is so hang tight, it’s coming.  In the past I would write the checks before receiving the money but since we’re running tight on funds trying to build the car I can’t do it this year.

Any questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to contact your EBoard.

Until next time,

Robyn

After being rained out of our last event, the VMCRA would return to Shenandoah Speedway and complete the third race of the season.  As of now, the rainout hasn’t been rescheduled but we will let you know once it has.  Congratulations to team Roach on taking the #24 with Scottie at the wheel to Victory Lane.  I’m sure Tyler was both happy and sad at the same time wishing he had been in the car but glad to see it finish in the top spot. Following Scottie in another good run was #77 of Ryan Adams followed by #27 Justin LaDuke in third.  Good job all of you.

Other than a few minor spins, the entire event came off without any major mishaps and no major damages.  Kudos to the Roach team for leaving the track, going to get an axle, getting back in time to get the axle in and race to win.   The remainder of the field would consist of Travis Roach in fourth, Andy Defillipis in fifth, Kevin Berkstresser sixth, Hunter Koschara seventh, Tim Brown eighth, Quinn Houff in ninth and our newest driver Mark Clements taking the 10th place position.    Also on the track was the 55R car of Andy Reeves who wanted to get some seat time in but is not a member/driver of the VMCRA and will not receive points or pay for the event.    Thanks to everyone who did make the effort to be there and we hope to see you back for the next event :

This Saturday June 20th
PitGate Opens at 2:00p
Main Gate Opens at 5:00p
Green Flag drops at 7:00p

Important  -  Please read closely:

Pre-season and at the general meeting, we undertook the challenge of raffling off  a new car this year.  We are less than 2 months away from the August 8th date of giving this car away and so far 50 ($500 worth) tickets is all that has been turned in.  That’s 450 short of our goal which means our bank account has been depleted getting the car built and ready and it still is not done.   We’re getting down to “crunch” time now and we  need ALL of you to sell and turn in your tickets as quickly as possible to make this a successful project.   I’m pretty certain that most everybody has tickets to sell, so again I’m asking Please, please get those tickets out, make every effort that you can to sell them and get the money turned in.   If you have any questions or concerns contact any one of your eboard.

See you at the track!

VMCRA Racing - Shenandaoh Speedway 4/25/2009

Race two and our first 50 lap event this year is now in the record books with Ryan Adams finding his way to victory lane. Congratulations to the #77 team of Ryan, Chris and Bob – you may have only led one lap but it was the lap that counted in the end. Following soooo close behind and I’m sure just a little disappointed after having led the entire race was the #2 of Travis Roach. Still a great race and finish for Travis. A very new face to victory lane in the 3^rd spot with Hunter Koschara in the #11. Good job and congrats to Hunter who is now looking at the top spot in the Rookie points.

As for the entire event, we would have 15 cars make the trip to Shenandoah on a rather warm day and if you were on the track for the practices, qualifying and the race, you experienced over 90 laps of racing (not counting caution laps). That’s lots of good seat time if you took advantage of it. The #33 car of Tammi Cook made the decision not to

start the race after having some problems in practice so we had 14 cars line up for the main event with Travis Roach on the pole posting a time of 19.351 and Hunter Koschara on the outside at 19.477. If you checked out the qualifying times, once again, it was really close between almost all of the cars. We managed to complete a 50 lap race with fewer cautions than we had in our first event of half the number of laps so that was an accomplishment for everyone. Our first hard crash this year came on the 10^th lap with David Williams in the #34 taking a wild ride into the wall in turn 2 causing heavy damage to his car but walking away unhurt. Fortunately for him, we have this 3 week break giving him time to get everything back together in time for the next event. Other cautions would be for the #9 spinning on his own and the #97 stopping due to some front end issues bringing him in for the night. As in the first race – all the incidents again took place in turn 2…

Since I wasn’t able to be at the race, it’s a little difficult to give you the lap by lap results but here’s the final rundown:

Comment and announcements

That’s it for the race results except that the #33, Tammi Cook will receive last place points for attempting to make the race. The Valve Train chip was pulled – everyone ok. So, going into race 3, your current points leader is Kevin Berkstresser and after the completion of the next race, the points sheet will be posted with the drop race included but here’s how it looks as of now:

Some general information to pass on:

Next Race 5/16 – again at Shenandoah (working on payouts from 1^st two races and will have checks for you)

Raffle Tickets - - Keep Selling and turning them in – we would like to get the car finished and ready to display at the track so we need everyone’s support.

And Finally, for those of you that have been involved with the VMCRA over the years, you would know Jimmy and Judi Jones. They have been big supporters of ours for many years and have done a lot for the group, most recently the owner / sponsor for Jerry Perdue, co-worker and good friend of Jay Dodson and Jason Moye. Jimmy passed away suddenly and very unexpectedly on May 6^th and will be greatly missed by all that knew him. Flowers were sent from the group and Willie and I were able to attend the funeral service, but I would ask that you keep Judi and the rest of the family and friends in your thoughts and prayers through this very difficult time.

See you at the track,

Robyn

VMCRA Racing - Shenandoah Speedway 4/18/2009

Welcome back to season 13 of VMCRA racing.  We’re off and running and happy to report our first event winner this year at Shenandoah Speedway is Kevin Berkstresser in the  good looking #19 Lee Hi Truckstop car.  Congratulations Kevin and gang!  Although there were lots of position changes, Kevin was in the top three during the entire race, however, the last caution on lap 21 moved him to the top spot all the way to the checkered flag.   It was  great to see Corey and Dean at the track helping him out.   We also had another returning driver make his first trip to victory lane collecting the 2^nd place trophy.  Congratulations Andy Defillipis in the #97 on a great run.  Following Andy was Tim Brown in the #7 taking the 3^rd spot.  So again, congratulations to all of you on your great finishes in our season opener.

What a great day for racing.  The weather couldn’t have been better and we had 12 cars and drivers that were ready to hit the track. Welcome to our newest members that will be heading up our field of rookies this year.  Hunter Koschara, Quinn Houff, Tommy Livengood, Shane Estes and David Williams.  Although a couple of these you’ve seen before, they still qualify to run with the rookie status and are all out for that Rookie championship.  If this race was any indication of what’s to come, this should be an exciting year for these folks.

We were given two practice sessions followed by the European qualifying and in all of these, even though the times were extremely close, it was the #77 of Ryan Adams leading the way through all three, capturing the pole position  with a lap time of 19.122.  Ryan returns after a year off but still looking good on the track and it’s great to have him and the rest of the Adam’s gang back with us.  Taking the outside spot was Amanda Forney with a time of 19.326.  If you have access to the internet, you can go to www.mylaps.com,   search Shenandoah Speedway and you will be able to view the lap times from the practices, qualifying and the race results.

On to the race.  Although a bit of a rocky start with the first couple of cautions coming out just after the 1^st and 2^nd laps, everybody seemed to regroup and get straightened out.  When the green flag dropped, Amanda Forney took the lead on the first lap but then spun on her own coming out of turn 2 which moved Ryan Adams into the top spot.  Lap 2 would see the 2^nd caution with David Williams in the #34 also spinning out on his own also in turn 2.   It seems that this turn is going to be where all of our action is since that’s where all six of the spins and cautions happened.  So after getting through the first two laps, everyone would make it to turn 2 again on the 7^th lap except for the #17 of Quinn Houff who found himself in the spin cycle bringing out caution number 3, all the while Ryan Adams was leading the way.   After getting back to green, once again in turn 2 of the 17^th lap it would be David Williams in the #34 taking his turn spinning out for caution number 4 and also bringing Justin LaDuke in the #27 to the front of the pack.   With very tight racing Justin would lead laps 17-21 but contact between the two caused both of them to spin thus bringing out caution number 5 and opening the door for Kevin Berkstresser to move into the lead.  With a great restart,  Kevin was right where he wanted to be but guess what happened next…..Quinn in the #17 spun again followed by Ryan in the #77 also spinning  going into lap 24 and bringing out what would be the final caution of the night.   Again Kevin had a great restart and took it to the checkered flag for the win.   As already mentioned he was followed to victory lane by Andy Defillipis and Tim Brown.  4^th would go to Hunter Koschara in the #11 car who ran a great race, stayed out of trouble all night and was never any further back in the pack than 5^th, so way to go Hunter!  Another smiling face was that of Tommy Livengood who did finish 5^th and was tickled to death after suffering some major brake issues and missing out on a lot of practice time.  6^th goes to Amanda Forney who started in the front but because of her spin in lap 2, she had to deal with a very ill handling car the rest of the night still managing  to work her way back.   7^th goes to Cusson & Houff racing with Quinn Houff in the #17.  Quinn is another “young gun” you’re gonna have to watch out for.  It seems after the race they found several issues with the car that very well could have been holding him back, so look out next week!  8^th goes to Justin LaDuke only because of his misfortune on lap 21 but we all know what Justin is capable of.  9^th spot, Shane Estes in the #00.   Good to see Shane back with us.  10^th was Ryan Adams,  11^th Darrel Williams who also had some contact with the wall under caution after a little brake checking which broke his floor pan loose.  Rounding out the field was #34 David Williams who was involved in a couple of the spins not allowing him to move up through the field.  So that’s the race.   Even though we had cautions, none were serious, damage was minimal and all 12 cars finished the race on the lead lap with a lot of position changes and excitement throughout the entire event.  Looks like our challenge is to find the right way to get through turns one and two and everything will be ok.

Thanks to all of our sponsors – you know we can’t do this without you.  We appreciate all of our returning sponsors,  Terry Walters, Moody Brothers Jewelers, Mini Cup Supply, Affordable Marine Service, Blue Ridge Pictures (formerly known as Racer Tee’s) and welcome all of our new one’s,  Lightening Light Racing Bodies,  Houff Transfer, Inc. and Shenandoah Pharmacy.

Most of you should have your decals by now – if you don’t, let me (Robyn) or any of your eboard members know.  There will also be more decals coming.

Next race – April 25^th, Shenandoah Speedway – 50 laps.   If you need anything at all or there is anything we can do to help you get ready, give any one of your eboard members a call and we’ll do our best to make it happen for you.  We want you at the track.

Reminder – keep selling and returning your tickets and if you need any more, let me know.

Until next time…..
Robyn

p.s. Willie says Hi and if there’s anything he can do to help any of you out just give him a shout.

2008 Season Wrap-Up

November 1^st brought end to the 2008 VMCRA season with our post season banquet held at the Roanoke Moose Lodge.  Everyone who fought hard and were faithful to the end came out to reap the rewards.    Congratulations to all of you – especially our 2008 Series Champion, Jason Adkins  (Cusson Racing) and our Rookie of the Year, Tyler Roach.   Those of you that couldn’t make it or have chosen to move on to different opportunities, we missed you and wish you the best.  Special Thanks to all that made the season possible – Aztec Rental, Terry Walters, Aim Sports, Affordable Marine Service (Steve Forney), Moody Brothers Jewelers,  Jock – providing all of our photos and the website, and Kevin’s Signs.   We just couldn’t have gotten through another year without your support and it was great that most all of you were at the banquet to be recognized.  Last but certainly not least, Freddie Strickler – by far the best Engine Man I know who has managed to accomplish a task that no other group has – the best engine program out there.  Again, to all of you, we appreciate your support and hope to see you back again next year.  Thanks to all the volunteers from the Moose Lodge who helped with the meal, which was once again very good.  Watch for pictures to hit the website soon.

So now it’s on to 2009 and what will the new year bring?   I share this information for the benefit of all that did not attend.   Everyone that was nominated was included on the ballot unless you specifically stated that you did not wish to be – those that we were unable to contact or never received responses from were also on the ballot simply because I could not get an answer, but with that said, the 2009 eboard will be  Chuck Cusson, president,  Robyn Wines, Sec/Treas,  Scott Roach, Steve Forney, Darrel Williams, Kevin Berkstresser, and Andy Defillipis.       The impromptu meetings with these folks left me  assured that there will be good things in store for the 2009 season so stay tuned.

And Finally, on a personal note,  Thank you to everyone throughout the past many years for your support of this Association and of me.   We’ve had lots of great times, and a few “storms” but overall I leave  hoping that everything I did, and any decisions made by me and / or the eboard (although sometimes controversial)  was for the benefit of the group and for anyone who feels otherwise, I apologize.   I hope you will all step up and support Chuck and the rest of the board as they continue to move this Association forward.   If there is ever anything I can do to help any of you out, do not hesitate to call me and  I will also continue to keep the shop running as long as there is a need in this area.

Good Luck to all of You!

Willie