Salina Spring Fling 4-13-2012

 When I got to the track, I was so busy looking at the track itself I didn't even notice the infield at first. The guardrail was gone!! That thing made the corners VERY hard to shoot in. If you got close enough to shoot over it, the cars were only a yard or two away, and when you backed up enough to actually get the cars in frame the rail was in the way. This new layout is great. There's a little bit of an inside berm, but it isn't bad at all. Then there's the HUGE press box. I was only in it long enough to talk to Jerry Jones a while, but it is really nice. If they can get grass like Dodge City has in the infield, that will be a very nice facility. My hat's off to Tommy and the whole gang for transforming that place into such a nice facility in such a short time.

  The forecast wasn't good at all, and heavy clouds had things looking pretty doubtful, but the clouds cleared up just in time for hot laps and it turned out pretty nice for the whole show.

 It was a clean night of racing, for the most part. A little sheet metal got reshaped and there were some damaged suspensions, but there were no major incidents and nobody got hurt....physically at least. There was one serious case of punting, but they dealt with it well. I didn't go around the pits afterwards so I don't know who got PO'd at whom.

  The feature winners were  Braden Stoner (Hornet), Pete Beaumont (Hobby), Kyle Vanover (Stock), Jeremy Chambers (Sport Mod), & Jeremy Mills (Mod).

  Go to Salina Speedway to see the complete feature results.
  You'll notice there are just Stock & Hobby solo pics. By the time the mods came out, the sun was setting and the light was gone.

After using the top row of seats as the press box/announcer's booth, this monster must seem pretty cushy.

Justin Murdock

Talk about rim ridin'.

Nice job of backin' it in.

Turn three seemed to be just a tad slick for the first session or two.

At least they have a nice flat runoff space up there.

Pete Beaumont

The Hobby Stocks ran 3 wide a lot.

The stocks did the same, but........

.....they didn't always get away with it.

Justin just barely avoided one here.

Watts & Nelson in their B Mod heat.

Smith & Pihl

More 3 wide.

Hafner & Belvill

I really watched this car close. I didn't want that tire to come off and roll into the infield.

One of the nicest paint jobs I've seen on a Hornet.

Nate Moore & Shane Hutson.

The start of a chain reaction

Bloch & Welsh were both knocked out of the heat, but came back for the A.

Rodger Peck had a nice new paint scheme.

I'd been hearing about Jeremy Mills brand new BMS. It flew.

Corey Lagroon.

What a mixed bunch.

Braden Stoner, Hornet feature winner.

The Hobbies were back at in the A.

Early leader GW Fuller works through traffic.

Pete Beaumont was lurking right behind the leaders when...

...Roy Armstrong drilled Fuller coming into turn 1. The landing knocked his right rear off the rim, but he restarted in the rear and worked his way back up to 9th. Armstrong got the black flag.

4 wide.

Pete Beaumont and some ornery kid from Concordia H.S.

The Sport Mods had some good racing too.

Dustin Daniels (6) looked to have the field covered until Jeremy Chambers caught & passed him near the end of the race.

More scrambling at the start of the Stock feature.

Once things got sorted out, Kyle Vanover dominated the race.

Morrison & Mills at the start of the Mod A.

Nice lineup guys.

Bloch got the car fixed after his heat incident, but he was off the pace.

Mills wasn't as dominant as he'd been in the heat, but he was still fast.

It looked like something Rodger Peck had changed slowed him down. After winning his heat, he ran 17th in the main.

After Lagroon took a few shots down low, Mills started coming into #1 on the bottom.

Spring Fling winner Jeremy Mills of  Garner, Iowa.

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