Texas Speedzone - Tommy Darity Memorial 75 @ Thunder Hill Raceway 5/12/07

Tommy Darity Memorial 75, Texas Super Racing Series, Thunder Hill Raceway 5/12/07
By J M Hallas
Kyle, Texas.(May 12th, 2007) The third stop on the Texas Super Late Model Series Late Models was back at Thunder Hill Raceway, the semi-banked, 3/8 mile track just south of Austin. The race carried the title name of a long-time Austin area racer, Tommy Darity sr. who recently lost his life due to an unexpected heart attack. Also on the nights racing program, were the Pro Modifieds, Texas Trucks and the local Thunder Hill Raceway classes.

Aramendia Aces Austin Mobile Marine Qualifying
After qualifying for the 19 TSRS Late Models it was former San Antonio Speedway Late Model track champion, Joe Aramendia setting fastest time turning a lap of 15.467 in the Aramendia Plumbing Company, Southwest Paint & Body, Royal Purple, Premier Minerals, Andy’s Custom Welding, Penske Shocks, Port City Chassis powered by a Kutzer/Owen Race Engine. Last race winner, Chris Schild was second, with Bobby Teer jr., Craig Sellman, Kyle Sirizzotti, and Brian Moczygemba. Aramendia would draw the second starting spot, with Teer grabbing the pole.
“This is just qualifying, not racing,” replied Aramendia. “The car qualified well, I hope it races well. A good qualifying car is just that, a good qualifying car. I don’t know how it’s going to be in the race. The only thing we’re allowed to do is adjust the air pressure. I’ll do my best to free it up a little bit.”
“ We drew a two for the invert, so I’ll be starting outside the front row. This isn’t known as an outside groove track, but I’ll try the outside move first. However, my teammate and nephew, Brian Moczygemba is starting second row inside so I told him be prepared to get some paint rubbed off. Let me put it this way, I own the boys car.” added Aramendia jokingly. “He better give me some room.”

“We’d like to get up front and lead,” said the young Moczygemba who had his best starting spot. “I like to just have a good top three and bring the car home in one piece. You try to shake a bad race like the last one I had here. We seemed to get caught up in nearly every skirmish. I think they had to calm me down a little bit for this next race.”
Moczygemba added in reply to his uncle’s statement, “Mary Ann stated in the drivers meeting it was tire to wheel to determine position. So as long as I have my tire ahead of his wheel it’s my position. I’ll give him a little room since he’s my car owner and uncle, but not much.”

Schild Scores Two in a Row in TSRS Tommy Darity 75.
For the second time, former series champion Chris Schild and local hero, Bobby Joe New battled for the win in the 75 lap Tommy Darity Memorial 75 lap main event for Texas Super Racing Series Late Models. Schild, who qualified second, patiently worked his way to the front, then held off New in the final laps to take his second win in a row.

The race began with rookie Bobby Teer jr getting the jump on fast qualifier, Joe Aramendia going into turn 1 to get the lead. As predicted, Aramendia was given room by nephew, Brian Moczygemba to drop into second. Aramendia had trouble on the back stretch and as the field bottle-necked in turn 3 it caused a multi-car melee with 8-10 cars spinning. Aramendia and Gary Chancellor jr both pitted for repairs and returned for the restart.

Teer again got out front, this time on Craig Sellman who dove into second, with Moczygemba third. Schild got by Moczygemba on lap 3 to take over third as he methodically worked his way to the front. Yellow waved on lap 7 for debris at the same time that Leland Waddell slowed and Kyle Sirizzotti pulled off. The top three stayed nose to tail on the restart with Schild looking low on Sellman for second. The yellow was quickly back, this time for fire to car sitting in pit road out.

Teer got a couple car lengths once back to green, while Schild continued to look under Sellman for second. Schild finally got under Sellman on lap 26, but he and Moczygemba made contact in turns 3-4 sending Moczygemba to the back and Sellman to the pits with damage. Schild hounded Terr on the restart, with current points leader. Bobby Joe New now in third and Beau Bukowski fourth.

The top four stayed together with former THR Late Model champion, James Reeder challenging Bill Hamilton for fifth. Reeder would half spin but keep going without losing too much ground. On lap 36 caution would wave again for Tony Stewart’s favorite, debris. The crossed flags were shown under yellow with Teer, Schild, New, Bukowski and Hamilton running in the top five spots.

Once back to green, Reeder had just gotten under Hamilton for fifth when yellow was back again for debris yet again. The top four got away clean as green came back out until Aramendia and Jason Stanley made contact sending Stanley around. The top three played a little bumper tag when green waved and Reeder finally got the spot from Hamilton, who slammed the door on Adam Haugh who tried to sneak in for sixth.

Schild, whose car was better getting into the corner, gave Teer a tap that was enough to get him to slip up and Schild by for the lead. New and Bukowski freight-trained the rookie for second and third who tried to dive back in line. Teer and Reeder made contact sending both spinning, with Haugh heading through the grass to avoid contact. Schild, New and Bukowski were nose to tail on the restart until the final caution waved on lap 67 when Stanley got into Scott Lowery.

This set up a final 8 lap sprint to the finish. As green waved, New was on Schild looking for the lead similar to the last race, while Bukowski lurked in third. New saw a chance on lap 71 and took it, but got loose losing ground to Schild. From There Schild was able keep his tw0 car edge over New and pick up the checkers in the Splash Water System, JT Schild Enterprises, American Performance, Vinyl Graphics LLC, Ohlin Shocks, KAM Race Engines, Schild Chassis.
“It was a tight race,” said Schild. “The cars and the field are so equal. It was good hard racing. It was fun, a lot of fun. Bobby(Teer) did everything he had to do. His car was there. We noticed on a couple runs that his car would start washing up on him. After a couple of cautions we said that it’s show time, we saw our opportunity, kind of got into him unintentionally and finally made the move.”
“We had such a disastrous first race that points aren’t on our minds. Bobby Joe(New) is running consistently first or second every race so far and we’ve got a 16th. The wins are great and we like getting them. I’m here for trophies at this point. Last year we tried to run for the points, but things didn’t fall our way. I want to go back to having fun. Racing for points isn’t fun, you’re always concerned about your finish.”
“I’m just going to go out and race hard. We’ve got a good group of guys to race against. It’s fun and I want to keep it that way.”

Unofficial TSRS Results Tommy Darity 75

1. 7 Chris Schild, 75 laps
2. 1 Bobby Joe New, 75
3. 00 Beau Bukowski, 75
4. 4 James Reeder, 75
5. 5 Bill Hamilton, 75
6. 12 Adam Haugh, 75
7. 2 Bobby Teer, Jr., 75
8. 44 Gary Chancellor, 75
9. 49 Robert Walton, 75
10. 38 Craig Sellman, 72
11. 79 Joe Aramendia, 72
12. 13 Ian Webster, 71
13. 6 Jason Hollander, 70
14. 50 Brian Moczygemba, 68
15. 92 Jason Stanley, 67
16 19 Scott Lowery
17. 23 Ugo Bovione, 10
18. 28 Leland Waddell, 6
19. 93 Kyle Sirizzotti, 5