Local Headlines

by BJ Cavin- VSP Media

BARBERVILLE, FL- The Daytona Harley-Davidson Sprint Cars will highlight another action packed Saturday night of racing this weekend at Volusia Speedway Park, including a Sprint Car Elimination Race that will pit the fastest of the fast against each other in head to head racing on the World's Fastest Half Mile. In addition to the alcohol fueled winged fury of the sprint cars, fans will also see action from five of VSP's other exciting racing divisions.

Sprint car racing fans across Florida know that Danny Martin Jr. is on a literal tear, winning every race that he has entered so far in 2011. His only close call has came at Volusia Speedway when he got a little too close to the turn 3 wall and almost ended the streak in a spectacular crash, but managed to power himself out of that jam and continue on to another win. Sport Allen, Mark Ruel, AJ Maddox, and Terry Weatherspoon, have all finished in the top five at VSP this year, but none of them have gotten very close to Martin in the end, mainly because Martin has taken advantage of long green flag runs to build his huge leads. But sooner or later the caution may fly late in a race, and that could set someone up to force Martin to finish second. The question is will it happen this Saturday night as Daytona Harley-Davidson Sprint Cars will again blister the clay on the World's Fastest Half Mile?

Danny Vogel had wrapped up two wins in a row with the Daytona Machine Shop Sportsman Division when the 11 car suddenly got on track and began stealing his thunder. Scott Lagasse drove the 11 to a victory two weeks ago while Aaron Barsness repeated the feat last Saturday night, and both times Vogel has wound up finishing in second place to the Lagasse/Barsness driving tandem. Meanwhile Kyle Chappell has a win from earlier in the season and is running well, and could be poised to return to the Destination Daytona Victory Lane in the near future. And David Showers has re entered the Sportsman picture as well, and is also running strong, so Vogel and whoever is driving the 11 car might want to worry less about each other and a little more about who might be behind them.

The Quality Brands Budweiser Modified Division is under the firm grip of Jeff Mathews at the moment, as repeated wins have left him high atop the points ladder at this point in the season. At the same time Larry Burkins continues to run well and has already gotten the better of Mathews once so far, and could easily do it again on any given Saturday. Jared Allison gave "the Repo Man" a run for his money this past weekend but wound up second, so he is within reach of the top dog as well. And then Mathews sometimes can be his own worst enemy as he lets other competitors drive his backup machine, and those fellow competitors have come close to making Mathews wish that he hadn't been so generous. So the question is who can step up and keep Mathews from winning, and when will it happen?

The division with the most drama at this point of the season seems to be the Daytona Sportswear Street Stocks as the relationship between Joe Belkey and Mike Tovet has become very strained and could easily break. As for Belkey, he is determined to prove that he is a winner because he possesses superior skills, and not because of anything else. But last Saturday Belkey's first shot at proving his point came up short after the drive shaft broke on the 119 machine and Tovet went on to another win. The bad blood seems to be reaching a boiling point in this dispute as last week's shouting match in the Destination Daytona Victory Lane would indicate, so look for more fireworks this weekend as both racers again hit the track and take on each other.

Things got kind of rough with the Amsoil Thunder Stocks last Saturday, but Donnie Birdwell outran all of the paint trading behind him and scored himself a win. The turnover rate in the top five in that race was constant as racer after racer either spun or hit something and was relegated to the rear, and in the end Alan Peacock and Tom Hughes also avoided all of that mayhem and finished in the top three. Peacock has been tough at the controls of the 13 car and is threatening to take the car to a victory soon, while Tom Hughes is running just as well and is poised to return to the Destination Daytona Victory Lane. But as long as Birdwell is running as strongly as he did on Saturday, it could be a mute point.

There has been a three way rivalry going with the Sparkle N Shine Car Wash Challengers, but on Saturday night some upstarts got into the middle of the fray and more or less broke things up for the time being. Denica Hetznecker got the worst of the three rivals as she and Robert Graham tangled and smacked the turn one wall. That nasty incident left Graham with a broken leg and made a complete mess of Hetnecker's race car, so much so that she reportedly is shopping for a new one in order to return. RJ Glaser also had his misfortunes as Nathan Rhodes muscled in and interrupted his rivalry with Casey Feaster, and Feaster yet again managed to rise above it all and get another win.

The grandstand gate will open at 5:30PM this Saturday with racing slated to begin at 7PM. For more information on this Saturday's races, or to see the complete 2011 racing schedule, visit www.TheVolusiaSpeedway.com.

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