Event: JConcepts Summer Tour – Race 3
Date: July 28, 2012
Track: Shiverville – High Springs, FL
The third, and final leg of the JConcepts Summer Tour was held this past weekend at Shiverville Raceway located just north of Gainesville Florida. The Summer Tour is designed as a fun, one day event, looking to get the racers out during the warm summer months and hit up a few tracks that they might not normally go to. With heavy rain on Thursday night, the track crew did an amazing job to give the racers a good surface to get some practice on before Saturdays’ qualifiers began.
Racers came out, to the tune of 138 entries, to tackle the track and the heat. After a brief drivers meeting by main man Ken Shriver things were underway. An unexpected small shower half way through the first round of heats, didn’t slow things down but ensured that the normally grooved track, would not reach that level of traction for this day. So put the Bar Codes away and clean off the 3Ds, because you are now going to be on them for the remainder of the day.
After two full rounds of qualifying of the 18 heat races, the show was moving straight into the main events. First up of the A’s would be Stock Buggy. On the grid, TQ Alan Wight led the laps with Tracy Carver following closely. A mistake on lap 4 would give the lead to Carver. Tracy would lead the middle portion of the race, with the bump up Bobby Horan working his way towards the front of the field. A mistake by Carver would allow Wight back into the lead and that is the way it would finish. Alan Wight 1st, Tracy Carver 2nd, and Bobby Horan moving into 3rd.
Pro 2 Mod was up next with Andy Darby in P1. At the tone, it was a train for the first lap with the front of the field getting a small break away. On lap 2 Darby went wide after clearing the triple, allowing John Piant to make the pass tight on pipe. Driving a mistake free race, Piant was able to take the win followed by Darby and Patrick Carlo taking 3rd.
Pro 2 Stock was on the track with John Bernard Jr. on the pole. On the second lap, a mistake by Bernard would drop him back and he would be playing catch up the rest of the main. Up front it was Daniel Castaneda with a comfortable lead, with Tracy Carver running in 2nd. With all of the drivers running similar lap times, it would take a mistake to really gain a position. Towards the end of the race, traffic played a factor to slow down the leader allowing Carver to get close enough to mount a charge. However it didn’t work out, for the veteran and Castaneda took the win, followed by Carver, and John Bernard Jr. rounding out the podium.
Mod Truck had JR Mitch in P1 for the entire day. Taking his JC equipped 22T to the front of the field, but the person to watch was painter extraordinaire Larry Genova, who was fast in practice, through qualifying into the 3rd spot. In the main, a mistake by 2nd place Dave Duncan would put Larry into the number 2 position and he would run clean, quick consistent laps to stay within sight of the leader and keep Duncan behind him. At the buzzer, it was JR Mitch with the win, Larry Genova 2nd, and Dave Duncan 3rd, all on the same lap.
2wd Mod Buggy had JR Mitch on the pole, at the tone the freight train ripped around the circuit, however on lap two, mid pack had some confusion on a 180, allowing the leaders to check out. With a comfortable gap between the front cars, driving and lack of mistakes would determine the winners. In the end, it was JR taking win number two, followed by Ryan Eckert and Jeremy Harris having a strong 3rd place run.
The winners were crowned and the race was completed just before 7pm, as racers packed up and said their farewells. The summer Tour was a fun way to spend a few weekends doing what we all love. Racing on a new, or different track. None of this would have happened without the hard work of FZRC in Sarasota, eXtreme Hobby Zone in Winter Haven, and Shiverville in High Springs, along with presenting sponsor JConcepts.
Thanks to all of the track crews, the race directors and all of the racers who attended each event.
