Go to The News Item mobile
: NIsportsDrivers begin season in Florida
Published: February 9, 2010
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
e-mail this
share thisVOLUSIA, Fla. - Several local teams made the trip south to compete with the World of Outlaws (WoO) at Volusia Speedway Park, near Daytona Beach, as the 2010 sprint car racing season got under way last week.
Elizabethville's Mike Erdley called his trip to Florida a "disaster." It included burning up a motor on the first night of racing. The Randy Lisi team also struggled with the Goodyear tires that are now required in WoO and at most local tracks where the 410 sprint cars compete.
"We can't seem to get any drive in our car at all," Erdley said. "We'll keep working on it. This is so different here from anything we have at home. The new left rear tire has really changed the racecars around, it seems to have really loosened them up, or loosened mine up anyway, and we're chasing that right now."
Tower City's Mark Smith had a better time than Erdley as he qualified for some shows and recorded a best finish of 10th.
"We were doing a lot of experimenting with different stuff," Smith said. "We went back to basics and got a lot better.
"I like the feel of the tires, but they don't hold up very well," he added. "As far as the tire stuff goes, it's going to be totally different when we get home."
Lucas Wolfe, of Mechanicsburg, had some solid runs in Florida with a fourth, sixth and seventh place. The seventh place came after starting 22nd. Stevie Smith scored a fifth place finish as his best effort. Fred Rahmer had a 13th place and Lance Dewease scored two top 10s.
Cody Darrah, of Red Lion, hired over the winner as the driver of one of Kasey Kahne's sprinters, suffered a broken left leg as the result of an automobile accident on Saturday afternoon near Daytona Beach. The vehicle in which Darrah and his father, Joe,
were riding was struck head-on by another vehicle that had pulled into their path.
Cody Darrah, who had been in competition at Voluisa during the week, was scheduled for surgery Monday morning. His father suffered cuts and bruises, but was in the pit area at Volusia by Sunday night.
Craig Dollansky won the opening night feature for the All Star Circuit of Champions on Wednesday and Joey Saldana won the second night.
Four-time and defending champion Donny Schatz won the World of Outlaws opener on Saturday night while his new teammate, Steve Kinser, won the Sunday night finale. Schatz and Kinser drive for NASCAR star Tony Stewart.
The Outlaws will use double-file restarts for all events this season, with no restart cone.
The All Star sprints, and most of the local teams, head to East Bay Raceway, near Tampa, for three nights of racing this weekend.
Several NASCAR drivers, including Clint Bowyer, Kenny Schrader and Kenny Wallace, were on hand at Volusia for the open-wheel modified division races.
The local sprint car season was set to begin at Lincoln Speedway on Feb. 27, but will likely be delayed until March because of the heavy snowfall from last week and predictions for more.
Be the first to comment on this article!