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Oh What A Night!

Everyone in the pits sensed it was coming.

Everyone in the Five Flags Speedway grandstands felt it, too.

Bubba Pollard, running second, sized up then-race leader D.J. VanderLey in the Allen Turner Sonata 100 on Friday night.

The inevitable finally happened on Lap 69, and Pollard escaped for his seventh win of 2011, the second time he found Victory Lane at Five Flags this season.

But not before VanderLey fought back valiantly, with the two exchanging leads in the closing laps as they continued to beat and bang to get out front.

It led to some hot tempers between the two hotshoes after a race that was marred by 10 cautions, including two red flags.

“I don’t know what there is to work out,� Pollard said of his disagreement with VanderLey. “A lotta guys out here are inexperienced and all night the restarts were so slow. Driving like that with 10 laps to go is ridiculous. It was crazy.�

It was an insane finish.

VanderLey took the lead on Lap 90 when he “door-slammed� the No. 18, as Pollard put it, coming out of Turn 3. The two slid all over Turn 4 before both righted their pro late models down the front straightaway.

“I was doing my best to hold onto it,� Pollard said. “I just had to stay on the gas and I never lifted.�

It wasn’t enough to hold onto the lead, though, as VanderLey took control. That didn’t last long when Pollard got into VanderLey on the backstretch of Lap 93 and pushed him out of the way.

VanderLey eventually finished 13th when he ran out of fuel.

“I thought when I got under (Pollard) going down the back stretch that we had won the race,� said VanderLey, who still is in search of his first 100-lap win. “I thought we had a better car than him. We had played the entire night perfectly like we wanted to. We didn’t abuse the tires or the equipment. I thought once we got under him, that’d be the end of it.�

It certainly wasn’t the end of it then, just like their shared heated discussion wasn’t the end of Friday night’s feud.

As Pollard was accepting his trophy, VanderLey walked to the inside wall and called him over. The two said their piece, but nothing was resolved.

“I think he thinks I’m some kid,� VanderLey said of Pollard, “and he can bully me around to do what he wants but to come out in his favor. I’m not gonna let that happen. If it happens again, it’s not gonna end well.�

Pollard seemed unflustered.

“That’s part of racing,� he said. “You can’t make everybody happy. When it comes to racing, we all want the same thing and that’s to win.�

VanderLey just wondered at what cost Friday.

“(Pollard) intentionally tried to wreck me,� VanderLey said. “There’s no way in hell he can try to deny that. From his point of view, he was trying to get some retaliation. We aren’t ever going to agree on what happened.�

It was Friday’s last set of fireworks, including some that had everyone in the pits and in the grandstands clutching their hearts.

There was a lengthy delay with 87 laps complete when Mobile driver Donnie Hamrac crashed violently into the Turn 2 wall.
Hamrac was trapped in his No. 33 and the roof had to be removed while emergency personnel tried to tend to the veteran driver. He was conscious when two ambulances approached the scene, but was complaining of lower-back problems.
Paramedics put Hamrac on a backboard and taken to a local hospital. It was a scary note on a thrilling night that saw children from ages 4 and up get a taste of racing with the track's annual kids bike races.

The other storyline Friday at Five Flags concerned a pair of accomplished drivers who did not make it to Pensacola.
Hunter Robbins, who won the Allen Turner Elantra 100 in April, failed to make it down from Montgomery, Ala., when his hauler had issues. Augie Grill, who won the last Blizzard Series race last month, couldn't make it away from his Grand American Race Cars shop because his business of fabricating late models was too busy.
Allen Turner Sonata 100 Results—1. Bubba Pollard, 2. Brandon Bendele, 3. Kyle Benjamin, 4. Ryan Crane, 5. Dwayne Buggay, 6. Korey Ruble, 7. David Jones, 8. Thomas Praytor, 9. Shanna Ard, 10. Tommy Rollins, 11. Mason Mitchell, 12. Matt Montineri, 13. D.J. VanderLey, 14. Michael Leavine, 15. Troy Grisaffi, 16. Logan Boyett, 17. Joe Aramendia, 18. Kyle Bryant, 19. Eddie Craig, 20. Donnie Hamrac, 21. Keith Thorpe, 22. Ron McDonald, 23. Kevin Chase, 24. Junior Niedecken, 25. Kyle Sirizzotti

 

Super Stocks

Bubba Winslow made a nifty move and it was over.

Halfway through the 25-lap Super Stocks feature Friday at Five Flags, Winslow ducked down to the inside of then-leader Randy Thompson coming out of Turn 4 at the end of Lap 13.

Winslow squeaked past Thompson on the apron and never had to sweat the ending, winning his second Super Stocks feature of the season — first since Opening Night March 25.

“We had a little misfortune in the 50 lapper (May 21),� Winslow said. “We took a hit in the points. We needed be on top of our ‘A’ game tonight and we were.�

Thompson, the defending track champion, looked like he was at his best early on. He started on the outside of Row 1 and headed straight for the lead.

Thompson stayed out front until Winslow began to make his move all the way from fifth. By Lap 10, Thompson had a mirror-full of Winslow.

“He has pretty good car, but ours was a lot better than it has been all year,� Thompson said.

Super Stocks 25-lap Feature Results — 1. Bubba Winslow, 2. Randy Thompson, 3. Shannon Jackson, 4. Darin Matthews, 5. Mike Moore, 6. Joe Mahuron, 7. Jeremy Tassin

 

Sportsmen

Another Sportsmen race. Another win for Steve Buttrick, who has dominated the class for the last two seasons.

But the real battle down the stretch was to see who’d finish as the 20-lap feature’s runner-up.

Randy Thompson and Stevie Mercer raced door to door around the half-mile asphalt oval for several laps before Thompson finally got by the wily veteran on Lap 19 and Mercer fell off the pace to finish sixth out of 18 cars.

Mercer had raced Buttrick hard early on, but never could reclaim the lead he held at the start of the race despite having a shot when that duo hit lapped traffic on Lap 13.

Buttrick pulled away as Mercer battled handling issues.

“That was an interesting race,� Buttrick accurately summed up. “Again Stevie let me get by him. And I tried to pass a lapped car cautiously. Next thing I know, we’re three-wide. Anyway, that’s Friday-night racing.�

Indeed, it is.

Sportsmen 20-lap Feature Results — 1. Steve Buttrick, 2. Randy Thompson, 3. Jim Pokrant, 4. Bubba Winslow, 5. Brannon Fowler, 6. Stevie Mercer, 7. Jimmy Goodwin, 8. Mark Montgomery, 9. Tina Davidson, 10. Michael Couture, 11. John Ward, 12. Marty White, 13. Chris Nielsen, 14. Justin Babb, 15. Bo Resmondo, 16. Daniel Fleming, 17. Wayne Burkett, 18. Thomas Faddis

 

Bombers

Brandon Burks was exhausted from another long night of hard racing.

His first win of the year, though, surely gave him a second wind. Burks became the third different winner of 2011 when he found his way to Victory Lane in the 20-lap feature.

“Holy cow, that took forever,� Burks said. “Man, that was crazy. And, man, it feels good.�

Not so good for division points leader Curtis Faircloth.

Midway through the race, Faircloth shot through a gap between Burks and Bullard. The risky move paid off at first, and then Faircloth paid the price.

He got loose and got hooked up with Bullard. Faircloth spun coming out of Turn 4 and Bullard lifted him off the racetrack before dumping him into the outside wall.

“That was completely my fault,� Faircloth admitted. “I took a chance and it didn’t work out.�

One of the few times it hasn’t panned out for the Pace driver this season.

Bombers 20-lap Feature Results — 1. Brandon Burks, 2. Gary Goodwin, 3. Tracy Soles, 4. James Beal III, 5. Sam Mellema, 6. Robert Balkum, 7. Kenny Bullard, 8. Gary W. Burkett Sr., 9. Hunter Ward, 10. Charles Lathan, 11. Dayton Sidner, 12. Leonard Craig Jr., 13. Courtney Rodrigues, 14. Tom Lowery, 15. Curtis Faircloth, DQ. Kenny Williams

 

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