Texas Speedzone - Mikulencak, White, Moore take Texana Trophies

Mikulencak Avoids Late Melee for Modified Main

Sometimes lady luck falls in your lap when you're in the right spot at the right time. Corpus Christi driver Lawrence Mikulencak wasn't even planing on racing Saturday night, but had a last minute change of heart. That decision pocketed him the bonus payday in the Modified main event.

Mikulencak, showed up late and unloaded just in time to tag the tail of the second heat race, which he won. After starting outside front row, he then fell back to third and looked like he might finish there. A late caution would set up a final shootout that saw Mikulencak go to the front, while the lead duo of Paul White and Jesse Manning went to the back.

Polesitter, White jumped out at the start of the 20-lap, 17-car Modified main with Manning, Darin Leonard and Mikulencak falling in line. In the pack Nick Hardcastle got turned the wrong direction collecting Mickey Helms. On the second start, White again jumped ahead, while Mikulencak and Manning ran side by side for second. Manning took the spot and was quickly on the bumper of White, literally.

Dale Flanagan brought out the yellow on lap 2 when he spun, with Helms again being an unwilling victim. Once back to green, White and Manning put a little distance on Mikulencak. It was only two laps before Mikulencak had run the top two back down. The top three were running nose to tail at halfway, with Leonard and Art Rodriguez filling out the top five.

Mikulencak then began to pressure Manning for second, giving White a little breathing room out front. Manning was finally able to shake Mikulencak in traffic, while White was having issues with slower cars. For two laps White tried to put Brian Spindleman a lap down. This gave Manning the chance to reel White in with three to go. White had to check up hard in turn 1 to keep from running over Spindleman. Manning couldn't get stopped in time tagging White and spinning him self out.

The contact caused White to have a slowly deflating left rear. Manning, who was given his spot back when caution was charged to Spindleman, was also wounded with a bent right front suspension. White hoped to nurse the flat home the final two laps, but as he hit he gas when green waved, it blew the tire off the bead. Manning was also unable to go on green. Mikulencak, Leonard and others scattered to avoid the slow moving duo. Leonard gave it his best shot on the last lap, but half spun getting righted by A. Rodriguez. Hardcastle, who had worked his way back up, saw an opening and moved from fifth to second as a surprised Mikulencak was taking the checkers in the Ace Transmissions, Youngs Auto Repair, Texas Battery, homemade chassis.

“Sometimes you're just lucky,” commented Mikulencak. “I knew Paul(White) had a tire going flat. I'm not sure what happened to (Jesse) Manning. I just missed them both on the restart.”

“The last time I showed up late in Corpus I won too. Maybe I'll start doing that. I just wanted to try some stuff on my car. It didn't seem like it worked very well, but I got lucky and won. I've won a couple races like this before, but I've been on the other of it too”

“This is 1996 homemade car that Randy Young and Adan(Arambula) built. They threw it away and I ended up with. I was going to build a pavement car with it and it didn't look like it was going to work so it got put out in the backyard. The kids and I drug it out and cleaned it up. Now it's what I experiment with.”

Modifieds
1. 87 Lawrence Mikulencak
2. 94 Nick Hardcastle
3. 26 Darin Leonard
4. 22 Art Rodriguez
5. 12 Roly Rodriguez
6. 10 Wade Moyer
7. 29 Mickey Helms
8. 155 Vince Kacir
9. 3x Frank Fruia
10. 37 Brian Spindleman
11. 2W Paul White
12. 76 Jesse Manning
13. 66 Hunt Harrison
14. 52 A J Dancer
15. 85 Jeff Nix
16. 57 Dale Flanagan
17. 6 Vince Louden
9 David Meredith---DNS
96 Foster Ellison---DNS

Modified heat winners, 2W Paul White, 87 Lawrence Mikulencak

White Takes the Mighty Mopar to Limited Modified Win
The White family has long been a familiar name in central Texas racing. Paul, a multi-time All Star Winged Modified, NASCAR Regional, and Silver Crown Champion makes his way down to south Texas with the Bridwell Motorsports team. Brother Keith, a two-time IMCA Southern Sportmod Champion and current points leader, is usually tearing up tracks and competition around farther north.

Tonight was Paul's night to carry the White family banner as he patiently stalked early leader Aaron Hudgeons getting by on lap 14. White had to hold off Hudgeons until he broke, then kept a 10-car length margin on Corpus young gun, Josh Majek in the final laps to take the win.

At the start of the 18-car, 20-lap Limited Modified feature Adam Perks was first into turn 1 with the lead with a three wide battle for third. Hudeons had just gotten by Perks who got sideways in front of the field starting a chain reaction that saw Helms and Aaron Lunsford get together, while others pin-balled around in the pack. Hudgeons led the field back to green, with White getting by Perks for second, as Vince Louden got past Majek for fourth.

White quickly ran down Hudgeons for the lead while Majek took his spot back form Louden. Wade Moyer moved in on Louden and took over fifth on lap 3. Hudgeons and White began to put some distance on Perks, as Louden, J J Jennings, Hunt Harrison, Chris Carroll and Victor Lindsey slugged it out for sixth. Lunsford brought out the yellow on lap 8 when he looped it in front of the lead duo.

Once back to green Hudgeons got a good jump on White, while Parks, Majek and Moyer battled for third. At halfway the top five were Hudgeons, White, Perks, Majek and Moyer. Majek and Moyer both got past Perk on lap 10. Yellow waved on lap 13 when Greg Brooks spun in turn 4. As green waved again, White jumped to the high side getting along side Hudgeons and by for the top spot on lap 14.

Hudgeons tried to fight back on the bottom, but couldn't get th point back. Jennings and Perks ran side by side on lap 15 for fifth, with Perks holding the position. Hudgeons night came to an end with a broken transmission as he rolled of to the infield. This left White a 10-car length advantage over Majek and Moyer who had their own fight going on, now for second. At the checkers it was White in Bridwell Motorsports, Moper powered, Dust Devil Chassis taking the win.

“We worked and worked on (Aaron)Hudgeons most of the race,” said White. “I just kept working him until I saw a spot I thought I could take advantage of him and go on. It took almost the whole to do it, but we got there.”

“Vernon Bridwell owns both the cars. He spends all the money, while Jim and Penny spend the time getting these cars ready during the week. We have a good deal going with this team. It makes it a nice combination.”

“I like these Dust Devil cars because I know if I'm searching for something I can count of Jim(Chapman). It doesn't matter if we have to cut something off, we'll work at it until we get what we think we need. In the end we usually figure it out.”

In the Modified feature we were trying to get by that lapped car and Jesse(Manning) got into me a little bit. I knew I had a tire going down, but we elected not to change it and try to nurse it to the finish. It was going down slow, but when I got on the gas it came off the wheel. With two laps to go, we probably ended up the same position as if we had stopped to change it. It's no big deal”

“We may look for a car to run the IMCA Sportmod Nationals next weekend. It never hurts to go up and rub a little on Keith. We enjoy racing together. We don't get to do it to much. Some of the big races at the start and end of the year we get to run together.”

Limited Modifieds
1. 216 Paul White
2. 82 Josh Majek
3. 10 Wade Moyer
4. 12 Adam Perks
5. 26g J J Jennings
6. 211 Chris Carroll
7. 6 Vince Louden
8. 66 Hunt Harrison
9. 19 Doug Maxwell
10. 4PJoseph Penny
11. 69 Aaron Hudgeons
12. 17 Greg Brooks
13. 21 Victor Lindsey
14. 175 Mickey Helms
15. 25 Brian Brooks
16. 1 Jeff Moore
17. 12w Matthew Konvicka
9 David Meredith---DNS
3 Philip Cantu---DNS
888 Aaron Lunsford---DQ(Unsportsmanlike)

Limited Modified heat winners, 12 Adam Perks, 69 Aaron Hudgeons, 175 Mickey Helms

The Bomber feature saw the front row of Chris Shafer and Nick Moore stay side by side as they took the green for the 20-lapper. Monty Chamberlain got punted into the infield falling back in the pack. Shafer eked out the advantage as the two stayed door to door. Moore edged ahead on lap, finally securing the spot. Danny Bennett moved in to challenge David McBride for fourth.

Shafer didn't give up easily as he took repeated looks under Moore on laps 3-4. Kenneth Montgomery then closed on Bennett for fifth as they ran side by side. McBride, Bennett and Montgomery were almost three wide on lap 8 as they ran up on a slower car. Bennett tangled with the lapped car, bringing out the yelow and sending him to the pits with damage.

On the restart, Moore and Shafer pulled ahead while McBride looked high on Randy Kacir for third. Montgomery and McBride resumed their battle, with Montgomery picking up fourth on lap 9, while Chamberlain worked his way back up to sixth. Montgomery got round Kacir on lap 10 for third and began closing on Shafer.

Shafer slowed dramatically on lap 14, with Montgomery having to slow to avoid him. Kacir ran into the back of Montgomery sending him around to bring out a caution. Once back to green, McBride had to hold off Chamberlain for third while Montgomery was hanging on to Moore up front. Montgomery slid too high off turn 4 and slapped the wall with two to go. Moore got a good jump on green as McBride, Chamberlain and Brian King battled for second. At the checkers it was Moore scoring the victory by several car lengths over McBride.

Bombers
1. 1 Nick Moore
2. 26 David McBride
3. 55 Monty Chamberlain
4. 31 Brian King
5. 36 Randy Kacir
6. 01 Lane Tipton
7. 5 Jackie Burnett
8. 88 Sandra Hudgeons
9. 89 Matthew Konvicka
10. 10 Kenneth Montgomery
11. 04 Adam Ivory
12. 77 Chris Shafer
13. 101 Rickey Koopman
14. R4J Danny Bennett
33 Charlie Mills---DNS

Bomber heat winners, 77 Chris Shafer, 1 Nick Moore