VMCRA RACING SHENANDOAH SPEEDWAY 9/20/2008

Shenandoah 9/20

Ok, where do I start?   You all did the VMCRA proud Saturday night at Shenandoah Speedway.  Although the results may not have been what some of you had hoped for,  you still put on the best show out there.   The last laps had everybody in the stands on their feet watching as positions continued to change all the way to the checkered flag.

Congratulations Jason Atkins and Cusson racing for literally pulling that one off at the very last minute and getting another win.   What a finish to what ended up being a 54 lap event.   Following Jason was the #88 of Jason Moye who lead the entire race but found himself overtaken in the final turn of the final lap.   I’m sure he was disappointed but still that was an awesome finish.  Following Jason was another first for the VMCRA and for the track as well.  There was some question about who actually took the 3^rd spot and even though the scoreboard showed #24, Tyler Roach – the My Laps time chart and scoring sheet showed both Tyler and the #1 of  Matt Wade crossed the line at the exact same time – down to the thousands of a second and the lap chart shows Matt coming across the line in 3rd.  Obviously neither the scoreboard or the sheets were capable of listing 2 cars in the same position.    That’s some close racing going on.    You can go online to MyLaps to check it out but below is what you’ll see.

Tyler and Matt’s time’s at the line:

Lap chart of the last 5 laps:

So after seeing all of this and talking to several people,  we are officially giving 3^rd place  points to both drivers.   Like I said, it just can’t  get any closer than that!

As for the event overall, we had 14 cars show up for the 50 lap event.   It was a good turnout and  we had great weather for what would end up being a very exciting race.   We had 2 practices and the European Qualifying that all went fairly smooth.  Our newest member, David Williams, unfortunately found the wall during our 2^nd practice with a hard hit leaving him with some front end damage that wasn’t repairable in time to race but more important, he was ok.   Qualifying  again was very close with the fastest time from Jason Moye at 19.323 and the rest of the field very close behind.     The 2^nd fastest time was posted by #27 Justin LaDuke however, as we were preparing to race, Justin  found that he had no brakes at all and had to park his car and was unable to compete.   I’m sure that was a huge disappointment to him after posting such a good qualifying run.  So 12 cars would take the green flag and attempt to settle in for the long haul but it would take only 9 laps before we saw the first caution.   Matt says he got a little too low in turn 2 and took a spin on his own with no damage to him or contact from anyone else.   Kevin Berkstresser must have been saying to himself, “anything he can do, I can do better”, because on lap 22 he brought out the 2^nd caution for the exact same thing.   Not to be outdone – along comes Amanda Forney on the 27^th lap doing the same thing as well, only this time Kevin also had to spin to avoid contact.   It worked this time but the same two didn’t get quite as lucky 8 laps later.  After 35 laps of lots of 3 wide racing, it just didn’t go as smooth this time in turns 3 & 4 as Kevin and Amanda made contact and both of them ended up finished for the night.  Darrel Williams got a little tangled up as well trying to avoid their crash.   Amanda was carried off to the rescue squad with a painful, swollen foot but I have talked to her since and she is doing just fine.  So again, aside from the disappointment, everyone was ok.  Finally we’re seeing the end in sight when turn 3 got the best of two more cars,  the #97 of Andy Defilippis  and #5 Bryan Conklin – two very strong running cars, both having their best races of the season, both battling for the 3^rd position, but instead making contact bringing out the 5^th and final caution of the night.  They were both able to finish the race but neither ended up where they had hoped to be.  After getting everyone lined back up for the restart, it would be a green white checkered and positions changed on all three of those laps but coming out of turns 3 & 4, the #17 made it by Jason Moye to take the checkered flag, followed by Tyler Roach, Matt Wade and Tim Brown in the top 5.  Travis Roach took the 6^th spot followed by Bryan Conklin in 7^th, Timmy Brown in 8^th, Darrel Williams in 9^th, Andy Defilippis in 10^th (all 10 finishing on the lead lap) both Kevin and Amanda would get 11^th place points followed by Justin LaDuke and David Williams who were both unable to compete. The safety chip was pulled but weight and safety had all been checked prior to the race so everyone was able to load up and head home.    Congratulations to everybody, you all were the show and you had everybody in the stands on their feet at the finish.

Last race – October 4^th,  Orange County Speedway.  Watch for the times to be posted as this is going to be a day race.

Nomination forms - - turn them in please.   As of right now, unless someone willingly accepts to run for President or Sec/Treas.,  all names will be listed on the ballot for you to select from and then the top 7 will become your EBoard  and will decide amongst themselves who’s going to do what.

Banquet – November 1^st.     Get your tickets before the price goes up !!

See you at Orange County

Willie