News Feed
Sept. 20, 2011
BY DAVE GRAYSON
The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, made a highly anticipated September 17th appearance at the Las Vegas Bullring that did not disappoint the race fans. 16 year old Austin Barnes made a heads up move on lap 20 that moved him from first to third and it turned out to be the winning pass that led to his series high third win of the season. The Rockstar 75 also turned out to be the Escondido-California driver's second, consecutive, win of the season.
There was never any question that Austin Barnes wasn't going to be a very tough competitor in this event. The first major sign of came during the Saturday afternoon qualifying when he ripped off a lap of 15.263 seconds around the Bullring's three eighths of a mile oval. The lap was approximately three tenths of a second faster than the entire field and more than enough to earn the driver the $100 bonus for setting the Budweiser fast time.
The pre race inversion ceremony turned up the number three and that placed Las Vegas favorites Dylan Kwasniewski and Doug Hamm on the front row for the Rockstar 75. At the initial green flag Hamm jumped into the lead with Kwasniewski and Barnes right behind him. From the very beginning it was apparent that Hamm was going to be strong in this race. The five time Bullring track champion made quick work of putting a few car lengths between himself and the competition.
However, the leader's race rhythm was disrupted on lap 17 when a car, attempting to make it to pit road, stalled on the speedway to bring out the first of four yellow flags. On lap 19, Hamm's stronghold on the race lead unraveled when he sailed into the second turn and drifted to the high side of track. A very alert Barnes saw it coming and dived to the low side of the track to move from third to first. It turned out that this would be the last pass for position he would have to make.
The Rockstar 75 moved on with Hamm doing everything he possibly could to retake the race lead. Unfortunately the bad racing luck, that has on occasion hampered this team throughout this season, reared its ugly head again. With approximately ten laps left in the race, some blue and white smoke began to emerge from the rear end assembly of his modified. It was a race ending situation that turned a rock solid second place into a 15th place finish.
In the final moments of the Rockstar 75, Austin Barnes divided his time looking forward at the clean air ahead of him while, at the same time, keeping a close watch in his rear view mirror for the presence of Kwasniewski and Scott Winters. That fight for second turned out to be highly entertaining. But, in terms of catching the race leader, time and laps simply ran out and the top three crossed under the checkers intact. They were followed by series points leader, and reigning series champion, Jim Mardis while Tim Morse completed the top five.
In some post race series bonus awards, Tim Morse received $200 for winning the Dart Machinery trophy dash earlier in the evening. Brian Collins, who finished ninth in the race, earned the $100 bonus for winning the Magnaflow Exhaust Systems clean pass award while Scott Winters won the $100 E3 Spark Plugs hard charger bonus after turning a 12th place start into a third place finish.
After parking his Master Craft Safety, STR, Electro Tech Powdercoating racer into the J E Pistons/Roush Yates Performance Parts Victory Lane, a very happy race winner said: "our night started off really great. We qualified on the pole by about three tenths so we were pretty fast. The invert had us starting third and we just stayed in line at first. Luckily we had a restart. I don't know if Dylan didn't pump his brakes enough or what, but he went into the corner and got Hamm in the rear. I was able to get below both of them and we just kind of cruised from there. The circumstances just went our way and we got really lucky right there. Hamm got hit hard enough and moved up just enough for me to get under him."
After bringing his Rockstar Energy Drink/Royal Purple/Phil's Phabrication/Off The Wall Designs modified to his second place finish, Dylan Kwasniewski commented on an evening at his home track saying: "I was a little bit loose at times. I don't know if there was an oil leak out there or what but (crew chief) Chris Bray and all of our guys did a great job on our car tonight and I really appreciate that. The Rockstar Energy Drink Modified was pretty good tonight, we just couldn't quite get there at the end."
After bringing his Ferrari Farms/Hal's Transmissions modified to a third place finish, northern California's Scott Winters commented on his evening in Las Vegas and said: "we really love racing here at this track. The Lucas Oil Series is just fabulous with a lot of great competition. We didn't qualify well. We put a set of stickers on and it turned out to be a mistake. We paid the penalty by qualifying 12th. So we had to come from behind and work past some pretty good cars. We made it to the front at the end but there two pretty tough cars in front of us and we just ran out of time trying to get around them but we gave it a shot."
The Rockstar 75 had 21 cars taking the green flag despite the fact that this race had 27 entries. In a rather stunning development, it turned out that the race attrition was actually higher during the Friday night and Saturday afternoon practice sessions than the race itself. Crashes and engine failures were the reported culprits.
Series Race Director Bill Rozhon admitted he was a little surprised by this occurrence and said: "we started this weekend out with 27 cars. Then we lost a car Friday night when (former series champion) Andrew Phipps crashed his car really hard. We heard that, for some reason, his throttle stuck open. He tired really hard to save it but sadly a beautiful car got destroyed. We also had some cars suffer blown engines Friday night plus problems with a couple of cars on Saturday. This, (the 21 cars), was probably the smallest starting field that we've had in three years but we did start with 27 entries and I'm pretty proud of that."
Commenting on the actual race itself, Rozhon said: "Austin Barnes did another superb job. The racing was really good tonight, the guys really raced hard with the top ten really racing their hearts out. I'm really proud of them."
Series General Manager Greg Scheidecker said "we started off, when we got here on Friday, with 27 race cars in the pits and right then I told myself boy this is going to be the big weekend. However, it was disappointing that only 21 of those cars started. I've never seen a weekend like it. But those 21 cars that started the Rockstar 75 were racing hard from 15th all the way to the front. It was a great race. Scott Winters, passing nine cars, to get the hard charger award and then there was Brian Collins, also passing nine cars, to get the clean pass award. How about Austin Barnes? That was no give me race. When you've got Dylan Kwasniewski and Scott Winters on your back bumper that's when you've got to get up on the wheel and run hard. The Barnes team has the total package with Austin, Ted Barnes, Steve Teets and Jimmy Dickerson this year. They really have their act together."
The series returns to action on October 1st at the always challenging Lucas Oil I-10 Speedway in Blythe-California. Championship implications are still on the line for this race with only 22 points separating Jim Mardis and Austin Barnes.
The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, is strongly supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas." Team members include: Lucas Oil Products Inc, Magnaflow Exhaust Products, E3 Spark Plugs, General Tire, K&N Performance Filters, GEICO, CANIDAE All Natural Pet Food, MAV-TV, Dart Machinery Ltd, Rockstar Energy Drink and MasterCraft Safety Equipment.
The series is also strongly supported by a group of associate sponsors including: Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort and Casino, Sunoco Race Fuels, Frank's Radio, Racing Plus, Roush Yates Performance Parts and J E Pistons.
