Night #2 in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway saw TC and the Bear Motorsports team pursuing their second straight win. Although it was not meant to be on this night, a hard-fought third place finish was good enough to keep them in the points lead headed into Sunday night’s action.
In qualifying, Teddy’s fast lap of 17.729 second was fourth quickest as J.R. Bertuccio set the standard at 17.630. He drew the fourth starting spot but moved up to third when polesitter George Bock elected to start eighth.
The race began under a full moon and saw three different first-lap incidents delay the action. When the field was finally able to get the race started polesitter Charlie Pasteryak jumped into the lead with TC in hot pursuit. Caution was out on lap 2 as Bertuccio got sideways in turn two and collected John Blewett. Both cars suffered heavy damage and were out for the night.
On the restart Pasteryak remained in the lead followed by Ted, Eric Beers, George Kent and Donny Lia. He was putting heavy pressure on the leader. Off turn two there was contact and TC slid up the track, falling back to fifth at one point before settling into fourth as Beers picked up the chase. At the halfway mark Pasteryak had a four car length margin over Beers as TC was trying to move up. On lap 18 caution was out for a spin by John Jensen in turn two.
On the restart Teddy moved past Kent for third and set out after the leaders. A caution on lap 22 for Billy Anderson briefly interrupted the action. On the restart Pasteryak continued to lead Beers and TC while the battle was for fourth between Bock and Kent. Down the backstretch the pair tangled and spun, allowing Lia and several other cars to slip by. The green flag stayed out and at the finish it was Pasteryak, Beers, TC, Lia and Kevin Goodale. John White picked up his seco9nd straight SK Bonus.
“I had a good car at the start of the race,” noted TC. “I had a good run at Charlie off turn two and I think he stepped on the brakes. The front end got messed up at that point and we were loose after that. We were better than we showed but we still ended up with a decent finish. All we can do is fix the car and go after them again tomorrow night.”
Finish: 1. Charlie Pasteryak 2. Eric Beers 3. Ted Christopher 4. Donny Lia 5. Kevin Goodale 6. Buck Catalano 7. John Bush 8. John Jensen 9. Andy Seuss 10. Steve Whitt 11. Jeff Malave 12. George Kent 13. John White (SK Bonus) 14. Billy Anderson 15. Chris Young 16. George Bock 17. Jim Storace 18. Jimmy Winters 19. Stash Butova 20. Adam Horwith 21. Steve Malbach 22. J.R. Bertuccio 23. John Blewett 24. Bo Gunning 25. Mike Fitch 26. Justin Gaydosh
Current Point Standings: 1. Ted Christopher 240 2. Eric Beers 230 3. Charlie Pasteryak 226 4. Donny Lia 222 5. Jeff Malave 210 6. George Kent 210 7. John Bush 206 8. Andy Seuss 200 9. Jim Storace 192 10. Buck Catalano 192 11. John Blewett 190 12. Kevin Goodale 190 13. J.R. Bertuccio 184 14. John White (SK) 182 15. Chris Young 182 16. Billy Anderson (SK) 178 17. Mike Fitch 174 18. Justin Gaydosh 158 19. Stash Butova 156 20. George Bock 156
|
