One thing that is certain when it comes to the Daytona Sportswear Street Stock Division is that the reign of Joe Belkey as the constant winner seems to be over, at least for now. After his disqualification last weekend, Belkey was determined to prove that it was skill and not cheating that earned him all of those celebrations in the Destination Daytona Victory Lane. But a drive train failure caused his car to be pulled to the pits on a hook early in the feature race, so Belkey was unable to get his point across this week.
And with Belkey watching from the pits, a four way breakaway ensued as Mike Tovet, Phil Brown, plus Bubba and Grady Christian, all outpaced the rest of the field as they continually mixed it up with each other. Tovet and Brown seemed to be the cream of the crop this week, as Brown stayed glued to the rear end of Tovet's 98T and drove him nuts with repeated passing attempts. But Mike Tovet managed to prevail while Philip Brown settled for second on the night, and Uncle Grady Christian outpaced his nephew, Bubba, for third and fourth places. Fifth place went to Scott Haas who had a consistent night outrunning the rest of the field, but was unable to catch the front four.
Coming into Saturday night's Budweiser Modified feature, Jeff Mathews was already standing over the rest of the division with his boot poised to clamp down on the throat of his victims. And as the feature race unfolded not only did Mathews bring that boot down with authority, but he ground it in a little just for good measure. While Mathews did not have the best starting position in the race, he patiently worked his way through the field, setting himself up in the top three by the halfway point. Wayne Hammond was at the controls of Mathews' backup machine, the 33X, and held the lead until a hard charging Jared Allision wrestled it away on lap 8. But once Allison assumed the lead he found that Mathews was all over him, and within a couple of laps Mathews had knocked Allison back to second.
Once Jeff Mathews had control he then stretched his lead into a solid win, with Jared Allison coming across the line in second place after a respectable run. Third place went to James Smith, who recovered from an early race loop in turn 4 by working his way up from the back of the field, and Wayne Hammond managed to salvage a fourth place finish as the handling on the 33X went south late in the race. Bruce Harvey finished in the top five as well.
Donnie Birdwell had complete control over the Amsoil Thunder Stock field from start to finish on Saturday night, but behind him things were in a constant state of flux. The big mover was Alan Peacock, who was again driving the 13 car but found himself in a far less than preferable spot on the starting grid. Peacock used the traffic in front of him as motivation and put on a passing clinic, making his way up and into the top three. Meanwhile Birdwell's only real threat came from Robert Shrunk, who later in the race found misfortune in the form of a racing incident that slowed his machine and knocked him out of the top contenders. Jim Shaw also looked strong early in the race as he fought off Scott Brumfield for third place, but was relegated to the rear of the field after a turn 3 incident involving another car sent him looping around.
Even though Alan Peacock worked his way up to where he could challenge for the lead late in the race, he was unable to find a solution to Donnie Birdwell in time and had to settle for second place as Birdwell enjoyed his time in the Destination Daytona Victory lane. Tom Hughes avoided trouble in front of him and patiently made his way to a third place finish, while Alan Lane recovered from being sent to the rear for spinning out and grabbed fourth place. And with all of the spinning, contact, and other mayhem sending cars to the rear, Brian Shrunk kept his nose clean and was rewarded with a top five finish.
The three way rivalry that has dominated recent weeks with the Sparkle N Shine Car Wash Challengers got sort of sidetracked on Saturday night as a couple of upstarts got involved in the "three-for-all" and changed the outcome. In the case of Denica Hetznecker it was a beating and banging session with Robert Graham that finally got out of control in turn one, sending both cars to the outside barrier and making a mess of both of them. For RJ Glaser it was Nathan Rhodes in the 8 car who was contending for the lead with Casey Feaster, and who had no intention of allowing Glaser to interrupt his fight. Glaser wound up out of control after contact with Rhodes and zig zagged all the way down the frontstretch before smacking the wall in turn one, ending his race a lap early.
In the case of Casey Feaster, his only saving grace was getting in front of everyone else and staying there while all of the drama played out behind him. Not that he had it easy as Billy Peterson harassed him through the first half of the race, and later on Nathan Rhodes and RJ Glaser kept Feaster's head on a swivel. But Casey Feaster managed to outrun the mayhem behind him and got another win as Nathan Rhodes followed in the second spot. Reid Christensen had issues early on that effected his race, but he prevailed over the drama to claim the third spot on the night, as did James Smith, as the "over 60" driver recovered from misfortunes to finish fourth. And also in recovery from mid race disaster was Daniel Wolf, who after hitting the inside backstretch wall hard was able to drive away and round out the top five.
Volusia Speedway Park will again host the Daytona Harley-Davidson Sprint Cars on May 14th, as Danny Martin Jr. will try and keep his 2011 winning streak alive at the World's Fastest Half Mile. The night will also feature a sprint car elimination event, pitting the fastest of the fast against each other for cash and starting positions. In addition to more alcohol fueled fury from the sprinters, fans will see more hot action from the Quality Brands Budweiser Modifieds, the Daytona Machine Shop Sportsman Cars, the Daytona Sportswear Street Stocks, the Amsoil Thunder Stocks, and the Sparkle N Shine Car Wash Challengers. For more information, visit us online at
www.TheVolusiaSpeedway.com.
