Texas Speedzone - Harcastle, Whiteaker, Sr, Voight score South Texas Speedway wins

Doggett Heavy Equipment Weekend @ South Texas Speedway featuring the ASCS Gulf South Region Sprint Car Series

By J M Hallas

Neither Rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night......

Corpus Christi, TX (August 29, 2008) - Alright so there wasn't any sleet, but just as the ASCS Sprint Cars were ready to hot lap, Mother Nature had other plans. Rains pelted the track for about a 1/2 hour, but die hard racers, teams and fans stuck it out in anticipation of some all out, high flying Sprint Car racing.

Hardcastle Holds Off Challengers for Modified Honors
A long time Corpus Christi racer, Nick Hardcastle has recently been showing his strength at Texana Raceway Park in Edna. With recent Modified rules changes, Hardcastle has returned to his home track and found his groove. Hardcastle inherited the lead from Adan Arambula who broke on a restart, then flexed his muscle holding off Lawrence Mikulencak, and a late charge by Steve Whiteaker jr. to take the win.

Arambula was out front first as green waved on the 14-car field, followed by Hardcastle, Mikulencak and Rowdy Flanagan, while Whiteaker quickly moved from the tail to eighth. On lap 1 Danny Brown was along side R. Flanagan for fourth, as Josh Majek spun to bring out a yellow. The top three got away clean on the restart with Dale Flanagan and Whiteaker getting by Eddy Ross for fifth and sixth.

D. Flanagan and Whiteaker continued their march forward getting by R. Flanagan on lap 5. Yellow waved on lap 7 for a multi-car tangle between Bruce Barber, Ken Hobbs and Neil Flanagan in turn 4. On the restart Mikulencak got along side Hardcastle and as Arambula had problems, were forced to take evasive actions as th field scattered.

Hardcastle assumed th point for the restart as he, Mikulencak, and Whiteaker got away on green. Hardcastle then began to inch ahead of the second place battle. Whiteaker got inside Mikulencak on lap 10, but spun himself on lap 11 collecting R. Flanagan and bringing out a caution. On the restart, Mikulencak took a quick look inside Hardcastle, but a sniff as as close as he would get.

Coming to halfway it was Hardcastle, Mikulencak, Ross, David Schury and N. Flanagan in the top five. D. Flanagan, N. Flanagan, Barber and Majek all got together in turn 2 to bring out the yellow on lap 14. On the restart Schury had trouble taking off and rolled to a stop bringing yellow back out. Once back to green Whiteaker was again charging to the front getting third from Ross after the two ran wheel to wheel.

Whiteaker then caught Mikulencak for second and got along side on lap 18. The Corpus young gun took the spot from the veteran on lap 19 and made one last charge for Hardcastle. Coming to the checkers, Whiteaker would do a half spin through the field losing a couple spots as Hardcastle in th Dubs Garage, Skyrocket Chassis was taking the checkers.

“We came back down here a few weeks ago and finished third,” replied Hardcastle. “It's good to be lucky sometimes. I didn't think there was anyway they were going to get this in when it started raining. With the Sprint Cars here, they made a good effort to get it in. We seem to have had pretty good luck with rain delayed nights. Everything just worked out.”

“We knew it(the track) wasn't going to slow down any tonight. We threw every adjustment at it to loosen it up. It was pretty good. We almost got it there. We got it as loose as we could and I just stayed on the gas.”

Outlaw Modifieds
1. 94 Nick Hardcastle
2. 1 Lawrence Mikulencak
3. 35 Eddy Ross
4. 89 Steve Whiteaker jr.
5. 55 Danny Brown
6. 17b Bruce Barber
7. 13 Ken Hobbs
8. 5 Neil Flanagan
9. 58 Rowdy Flanagan
10. 38 David Schury
11. 82 Josh Majek
12. 57 Dale Flanagan
13. 26 Darin Leonard
14. 7 Adan Arambula

Modified heat winners, 7 Adan Arambula, 1 Lawrence Mikulencak

Whiteaker Wins “Seniors” Battle in Limited Modifieds
Now days there's a lot of young guns strutting their stuff in the Limited Modified class, but tonight was a battle between two of the veterans of Corpus Christi racing.

Steve Whiteaker sr. and Lawrence Mikulencak have been racing each for 20+ years around Texas tracks and found themselves on the front row of the 20-lap feature. Whiteaker got the advantage on lap 1, then stretched out his lead comfortably grabbing the win in car owned by Jim Meyers who was away at a wedding

At the drop of the green, Whiteaker sr. out-raced Mikulencak into turn 1. In the pack, Chuck Perry got run down onto the mud berm backing up the field with Joe Barnec, J J Jennings, and David Routon getting tangled in turn 2. On the next start Whiteaker and Mikulencak got away clean as the top four singled out leaving Perry and Miguel Mendoza side by side for fifth. Steve Whiteaker jr. closed on Chris Carroll and took third on lap 3.

Eddy Ross brought caution on lap 4 when his borrowed ride rolled to a stop. Once back to green, the top four pulled ahead, while Perry and Mendoza continued their fight for fifth. On lap 6 Whiteaker jr. had problem and pitted from third, with Perry pulling off as well. This left Whiteaker sr. and Mikulencak with huge lead over Carroll, who had a good margin back to Mendoza, James Lee and Dwayne Norvell.

Mendoza's car failed just before halfway sending him to the pits from fourth. At halfway it was Whiteaker sr., Mikulencak, Carroll, Lee and Norvell in the top five. Whiteaker sr. had a brush with a lapped car when he made contact with Josh Majek on lap 14 then was forced three wide around two lappers. Neither slowed the long time racer down as he built a half straightaway lead over Mikulencak easily taking the checkers in the Jim Meyers Repair, Allied Waste, Hydrolic Systems, Lone Star Welding, Jeff's Performance Engines, Rush Chassis.

“I have to give a big thank you to Owen and the track crew for even getting this race in,” said Whiteaker. I also want to say thanks to Jim Meyer, this is his car, but he had a wedding tonight and he asked me to drive it. I've been working with Aaron(Hudgeons) on these Rush Chassis' and I wanted to drive it since we changed some things.”

“I didn't use our set up, we just ran what was on the car and adjusted from there. We just gave it what it needed to make the car go around the track. Th BFI team did a great job getting the car ready. I really enjoyed driving the car. I just drove it like I stole it.

“The best thing was out running, the Legend, Lawrence Mikulencak,” he added jokingly. “I talked to him before the race and told him I didn't care what he did on he first lap, but I knew 8 tires were going to corner better in turn 1.” I had a lot of fun out running the other “old” people like Joey Heinaman and Eddy Ross.”( Ed. note, Man it's tough doing an interview with a crowd of hecklers)

Limited Modifieds
1. 47 Steve Whiteaker sr.
2. 87 Lawrence Mikulencak
3. 211 Chris Carroll
4. 56 James Lee
5. 22 Dwayne Norvell
6. 44 Joey Heinaman
7. 26g J J Jennings
8. 21 E J Gilpin
9. 82 Josh Majek
10. 09 David Routon
11. 75 Flint Brown
12. 99b Joe Barnec
13. 18 Larry Jernigan
14. 39 Miguel Mendoza
15. 90 Steve Whiteaker jr.
16. 115 Chuck Perry
17. 2 Eddy Ross
34 Michael Walker---DNS
69 Aaron Hudgeons---DNS
10 Wade Moyer---DNS

Limited Modified heat winners, 47 Steve Whiteaker sr., 87 Lawrence Mikulencak

Paul Voight jumped out front at the start of the 20-lap Pure Stock feature, while polesitter, James Starry fell back to fourth. Voight, Eddie Valdez and Curtis King quickly began to pull away, with King getting second from Valdez on lap 4. Hector Aguirre brought yellow on lap 6 when he rolled to a stop in turn 4. Shortly after green waved again, Daniel Norvell found himself stuck on the turn 3 berm to bring out the yellow.

Once back to racing, Starry tried to retake the lost positions as he rubbed his way by Valdez for third. Starry then used a diamond move off turn 3 to get under King for second on lap 12. The top four separated themselves from the field with five to go. Starry gave up the spots he just regained getting lose in turn 4 on lap 18. Out front, Voight in the Ace Transmissions, Flanagan;s Muffler sponsored car was going unchallenged to the win.

Pure Stocks
1. 49 Paul Voight
2. 42 Curtis King
3. 17 Eddie Valdez
4. 74 James Starry
5. 42d Billy Denton
6. 3 David Royal
7. 72 Manny Trevino
8. 20 Daniel Norvell
9. 127/6 Hector Aguirre
33 James Park---DNS

Pure Stock heat winner, 74 James Starry

Go-Karts, canceled due to infield conditions