Snowball Derby, or Roller Derby?

[Jimmy McKinley]

I can't wait for the red eye in Jan

Doubt you'll see the same quality fields like we saw the past two big races. Doesn't the RedEye typically only draw out the regular locals (Rogers, Russell, maybe Anderson, BJ, etc.)? Not sure if any out-of-state cars make the tow down here that early.

[ABYSS64]

I'm glad to here that she admitted to spinning the 7 car. Would of been cool to see her pass him on the outside for sure. To bad on jayski's website they made it out like she passed Wilson for the lead and never even mentioned that cassil was even in the battle. I know after the gov cup and the Derby I can't wait for the red eye in Jan. Lol

You have to remember, jayski is in the pocket of nascrap, they wouldn't know a real race if it ran thru their living room!

[Snowball]

Damn what a race! i've been to them all and although i agree there was a bit too much aggression, but Damn! it's the Derby! LOL There were more lead changes and comers and goers and just so many twist and turns! it was just amazing! Very exciting!!!

[Snowball]

Trust me! this was far from a terrible race! i mean there was side b y side racing the whole time and no one ever ever checked out the whole time! it was just non stop action! great race!!!

Sounded like a terrible race, with a bunch of cheap-shot moves. Supposed to be the best of the best, and they raced like it was Crash-A-Rama.

Johanna Long literally bulldozed her way to the front with only a few laps to go.

There ain't a driver there that isn't pissed off at someone else.

Top 5 (prior to the Tech Shed) are:

Johanna Long
Donnie Wilson
Scott Hantz
Landon Cassill
Dennis Schoenfeld

[Winger]

Quote:
Originally Posted by cfontfan View Post
I'm glad to here that she admitted to spinning the 7 car. Would of been cool to see her pass him on the outside for sure. To bad on jayski's website they made it out like she passed Wilson for the lead and never even mentioned that cassil was even in the battle. I know after the gov cup and the Derby I can't wait for the red eye in Jan. Lol

You have to remember, jayski is in the pocket of nascrap, they wouldn't know a real race if it ran thru their living room!

Looks like Jayski took the report directly from the Snowball site. You need to read the complete article to get the real story. I think Jayski is one of the best sites on the internet and you can see stories there that Nascar won't publish. JMO but as good as yours.

[ancrdave]

There are a couple of interesting sidelights to Johanna's win brought forth by a legendary NASCAR driver who was at the race (I'll let him go nameless for now)...
Robert Hamke was her crew chief and he was the one who ordered the late tire change... This guy swears it was a fourth set (only three were allowed in the race), but with all the late-race crashing and confusion, no one noticed. He also says that set was soaked to the point they were like Crazy Glue...
Anyhow, you can't take it away from her... she is a heckuva driver and probably has the best chance of any female driver to make it big in NASCRAP... I'm sure here dad is really proud... he was a great racer too...
Wonder how much money David Rogers spent over 4 days just to load up and come home....

[ronabneysr]

nothing like a little gossip

if she passed in spection and won the race it was not cool what you said guess she won cause she soaked her tires and used 4 sets of tires


do you thimk they ought to shave all her hair off and take trophy back

[bubba]

I dont buy it. The way it is laid out you can see all the tires. If they had more someone would have seen it.

Until names are listed and people step up w proof..I gotta call bullshit.

And Rogers was pretty disgusted..

[backrow]

I was there too and you could see everybody's tires lined up behind the pitboxes. The drivers were sending crew members up and down pitroad counting sets of tires and she wouldve been caught. As far as soaking is concerned, I seriously doubt that Ricky wouldve missed that.

I was amazed that so many drivers and car owners don't want to see the place repaved. I watched Travis Kittleson pass cars like crazy on the outside and within about 15 laps, his tires were trashed and he was barely hanging on.

Chase Elliott in the Snowflake was absolutely amazing. The kid raced his way into the big show through a b-main and methodically worked his way through the field againist some of the best pro late model drivers in the country. He was poised to do the same thing in the Snowball until Cassill punted him into the wall. So, those of you calling out Johanna for hitting Cassill didnt mention that he did the same thing to Chase 10 laps prior or so prior.

On the flipside though- Friday was the slowest slow Ive been to in my life. They qualified the Snowball cars, ran a consi for the modifieds, Super stock feature and modified feature. This took 6 hrs and more red flags than Ive ever seen in my life. Looked like a Crashorama without the boat trailers.

[bubba]

Friday's show was a picture perfect example of what not to do when the show is dragging on. They should have either cut the Sportsman feature to 25 laps or red flagged it and let the modifieds run - then got back to the Sportsman for those that cared to stay.

Every caution seemed to take a mandatory 5 laps regardless of the nature of the caution. Stalled car on backstretch - 5 laps. Quick spin - 5 laps. They should have altered course at some point.

They seemed to cleanup slower than molasses - the rollback trucks are neat, but they are sloooooww. I have seen more done with a regular hook at NSS many times.

I saw Mark from NSS in the pits on Saturday and was hoping they took notes on what NOT to do next time at NSS.

[bubba]

Just found this link - if it comes up properly - it shows Cassill just about to spin and probably most importantly - it shows that Robert Hart (with signature cowboy hat) and Mark (maybe) are in the bottom left with a perfect view of what happened. If we could only get them to comment....

http://finishlinephotography.smugmug...16453425_DT4HE

[Tim]

We were there and it was an amazing race just like our Gov Cup. All I can tell you is that with 14 laps to go in the Snowball Derby, the top 4 stay out and 5th thru 11th come in and get frest rubber, you could feel that everything just got hardcore.....and thats exactly what happened. It was wreckers or checkers from then on for all of them. We all had a blast at an amazing event and learned alot. The Bryants are very good people and opened up their house to us and we appreciated it. Looking forward to next year.

As far as the extra set of tires...The tire room at 5 Flags has a barcode scanner and each tire has its own barcode. When the tires are purchased, they are scanned and assigned to that driver as a "race" tire. I can assure you that the tires were scanned to ensure that they were her race tires after the race. If they were soaked, they were soaked right in front of their competitors. Didn't see any other place to do it. Not saying it couldn't be done but not likely. I was definately impressed with this technology.

[jacko241]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but which track is faster, New Smyrna or 5 Flags? I have a bet with a buddy.

[backrow]

Late Model Track record at Five Flags is 16.333 set by Cale Gale this year. Not sure what New Smyrna is....

[Tim]

Track record at NSS is 16.57? set by Mike Fritz when the track was paved.

The difference is lap times on lap 10, 20, 50, 75, and so on....At Pensacola you have to pick your battles on when to pass. 4 laps on the outside and your done being competitive. Chase Elliot put on a school for this, he never wasted more than one turn passing anyone. That's how he had tires in the end to win the race on Saturday.

At NSS you can go to the outside and race for lap after lap until you get the position (to a degree) and really not burn your tires off because its the better position.

Just two different types of racing strategy. Pensacola has a higher average speed with their big (Lakeland) sweeping turns, while NSS has a higher top speed with our long straight aways.....I would think???