THIS is the way to end a season! - At the annual Texas Winter Nationals in Houston!!!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

7th and final part covers a very important group: The LOCALS!!!

Part 6 covers Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Ark-La-Tex Racers along with the BIG 3 USMTS Chassis Manufacturers at the annual Texas Winter Nationals at Houston Raceway Park!!!

Part 5 includes Jack Sullivan, Duke Whiseant, Jon Catman Mitchell, Chris Henigan, Clyde Dunn, Bobby Malchus, 16-year old Tyler Townsend and the NW Arkansas drivers.

4th Installment ~ includes Paul White, Derrick Ramirez, Scott Green, Morgan Bagley, Dustin Duncan-JustSayYes RotY John Whittington, Chris Brown, Keith White, Eddie Martin and Kevin Sitton

Part 3 has been added (3rd post down) featuring Jason Hughes, Steve Holzkamper, Howard Willis and more at the Annual Texas Winter nationals!

You might want to keep Nov 27th, 2009 (Friday after Thanksgiving) through Dec 5, 2009 open for some racing dates. You'll be kept busy for about 7 of those 9 days.

The USMTS sanctioned Texas Winter Nationals were held at the Houston Raceway Park dirt track for Open Wheel Modifieds (USRA/IMCA/UMP-type) on December 4th, 5th and 6th. It was the final 3 points races in the 2008 USMTS Southern Series season. The USMTS Modified count on Thursday was 82, Friday was 85 and Saturday was 80 with 95 different Mods participating over the 3 nights. Limited Modifieds (full-framed, SIMS/So. Sport Mod types) counts were 55, 62 and 62 with 76 different Limiteds over the 3-days. USMTS format each night was 7 heat races ran with the top 12 in passing points locking in and the top 8 redrawing for the first 4 rows. The rest went to one of 4 B-mains with the top 3 from each one transferring to the A. 2 Southern Series provisionals were then added to make 26-car fields each night. The Limited Modifieds raced 6 heats each night. Top 2 from each heat transfered with those 12 redrawing for the first 6 rows. 3 B-mains were then run with the top 4 from each transferring to make 24 car fields each night. Each night's show was an independent one-night show with it's own payout paid that night in both classes.

Houston Raceway Park's Season Ending Texas Winter Nationals is an Annual Must-Do!

No doubt now! The annual USMTS Southern Series season-ending event at HRP in Baytown, Texas on the first weekend of December is the way to end any serious Modified racer's year. This year was even bigger than last and now boasts the second largest car count of any USMTS event. Only the Featherlite Fall Jamboree at Deer Creek Raceway in Minnesota has attracted a better count.

-- In 2008, the pay went up from $1000, $2000 and $3000 to win in '07 to $2000, $3000 and $4000 to win over the three nights -- the biggest paying weekend for Modifieds in the state of Texas all year and one of the top ten or maybe even top 5 paying shows in the country. The late date of this show -- first weekend in December -- meant the Texas Winter Nationals and the Soup Bowl in Mississippi were the only two places between central Florida, southern Arizona and the north pole where you could even race a Modified on that weekend. That means the Texas Winter Nationals & The Soup Bowl are the closest December Modified races to you guys in states like Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, etc. See if you can join us next year. Maybe fuel prices will still be as low as they were this year.

-- The show in Deer Creek, Minnesota pays $2000, $4000 and $6000 plus a $2000 to win non-qualifiers feature on the final day. What the Texas Winter Nationals needs next is a "Featherlite", a big sponsor, to help bring the purses up to the Fall Jamboree levels. IMO, this year should serve as a big step in helping achieve that goal.

-- The other thing the Texas Winter Nationals needs is attendance. While the pits were packed, the stands were empty. The Baytown area is still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Ike and the cooler than normal weather hurt too. Hopefully, this will change in '09. If you are a Modified fan, it doesn't get any better than this. Even a Late Model, Sprint Car or any kind of racing fan period can appreciate the driving talent that attended this year's show. They would also enjoy the USMTS organization that ran the Texas Winter Nats show at a rapid pace for the 2nd year in-a-row and the facility and staff of Houston Raceway Park who really worked hard to make this year's Texas Winter Nationals a successful event even with all the Hurricane Ike devastation around them just 3 months earlier. The track conditions were a lot better on Thursday and Friday this year than last and most of Saturday -- especially the heats -- was spectatcular once again. I can tell you that the HRP staff wants to add a tiller machine in 2009 like the one they use at Deer Creek and like Lanny Edwards has for State Fair, Devil's Bowl and the Chili Bowl to help break the rubber up and rework the track between races. This year, they immediately went to work right after the races, grating and preparing the track for the next night. There were around 140 cars racing per night (171 different cars over the whole weekend with just 2 classes racing!) for 3 straight nights on the wide, 1/4-mile oval and overall, the HRP track surface performed real well. Each night featured hot laps, 13 heats, 7 B mains and 2 A mains. Modified As went for 30, 35 and then 40 laps on the final night.

-- Facilty-wise, HRP is as good as it gets with all-paved pits, a huge grandstand, great lighting, awesome suites and it's located in a geographical area that on the first weekend of December, averages mid 60s for highs, mid 40s for lows and pretty much 50s during race hours. That's warmer than some of the Deer Creek shows have had in those Minnesota falls! Sometimes it's even better than that, last Tuesday in Baytown (Dec 9th) it was 77 for a high and today's forecast, Dec 14th? High 74, low 62 and just a 10% chance of rain. Wouldn't that have felt good last Saturday night! For this year's Texas Winter Nats though, we got highs of 56, 51 and 65 and lows of 44, 39 and 39. Although quite a bit cooler this year, for the second year in a row, no rain! I bet the folks at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth are hoping for at least that and would take it too come February 27th and 28th for the Texas World Dirt Track Championships featuring many of these same Modifieds and Limited Modifieds PLUS the SUPR Late Models on Saturday!

-- The 3 shows at both HRP and Deer Creek all feature independent one-night shows. The three HRP shows had a payout that included non-qualifier tow money each night. This means that while some finished their weekend early on Thursday night and left with their pay for that night, others who couldn't make it sooner, didn't even show-up until Friday or Saturday night and they start out even with everyone else that night as far as qualifying goes. While the car counts were 82, 85 and 80 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the 9 new arrivals on Friday and the 4 new arrivals on Saturday added up to 95 different Modified teams in all pulling through the gates over the 3-day period.

I have a lot more notes and posts coming about this show. It'll give me somethng to do on the slower days during this holiday season!

 

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PART 2 of the Texas Winter Nationals recap from Houston Raceway Park

More notes from the 2008 Texas Winter Nationals...

-- That count of 95 also came from 11 different states too: Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana. Our Montana racer was a Mike Wickham from Miles City driving a #99W. He may have had a Texas connection though or perhaps it's just coincidence that there was also an Edward Wickham in a #88W from Baytown entered? Either way, glad to have both of them! Edward got a best B-main finish of 13th on the weekend while Mike had a 14th. Don't see your state listed here? See if you can change that in 2009!!!

-- Iowa's Zack VanderBeek in the Skyrocket Chassis #33Z was this year's biggest winner at the Texas Winter Nats. Not only did Zack win the $4000 finale Saturday night, but he also had a 3rd on Friday and a 5th on Thursday and was the only driver to have a top 5 finish on all three nights. His heat race qualifying was very strong all weekend and even though all but 12 of the cars had to run in 1 of 4 B mains each night, Zack never had to run a B all weekend. Including last year when Zack was a Southern Series points chaser (he wasn't this year), he is 6-for-6 in qualifying for HRP features and only once did he have to run a B main last year. His finishes last year were 16th, 14th and 3rd so has actually has a streak now of 4 straight top 5 finishes now at HRP.

-- But the wealth was also spread around pretty good this year too. The other two winners -- Oklahoma's Tommy Weder, Jr. ($2G on Thursday) and Arkansas's Johnny Bone, Jr. ($3G on Friday) -- also missed an A main each over the weekend. Weder missed Saturday's A main by just one spot in his B after taking his first Southern Series win of the year the night before and was not eligile for a provisional as he already used his allotted ones earlier in the season. That alone is testament to how tough it is to make these shows and how even the competition can be. Bone was not a Southern Series regular this year but the win came one night after missing Thursday's show and was his second win in just 8 attempts with his B&B Racing TRE Chassis #12. Johnny won Fast Trax in Chatham, LA during the Southern Series Speedweek in June. Bone was 12th on Saturday while Weder posted a solid 6th and ended up third in the final Southern Series points standings in the Boom Drilling Hughes Chassis #02.

-- There are actually now seven different HRP winners in the seven USMTS features that have been run there so far. There was a May Southern Series event at Baytown oval where 2008 USMTS Southern Series champion Jason Hughes took one of his six series wins this year over a field of 52. The three winners from last year were Texan Paul White, Minnesota's Alan Mundus (who did not return this year) and 8-time USMTS National Champion and last year's Southern Series champion Kelly Shryock.

-- Kelly's record at HRP ain't too shabby either. He won the Winter Nats finale last year by just a few feet over Greg Skaggs. His finishes in this year's Texas Winter Nats were 2nd, 8th and 5th and that 8th was Kelly's first Winter Nats finish outside the top 5. That also means though, that out of 14 attempts at Southern Series races in 08, the defending champ didn't get a win this year although he did have 8 top 5s and 11 top tens. He also was 4th in money won in the Southern Series (over $10,000) even while missing 7 events and finished 13th in points. Shryock is also 7-for-7 on qualifying for HRP A-mains and has yet to run a B-main there. The six Winter Nats events were in his own #3 Skyrocket while in the May event he drove one of local racer David Horner's #56 Skyrocket Chassis. (finished 22nd with a DNF) Skaggs, from Bixby, Oklahoma was back at HRP for this event too with his #27 Skyrocket even though he didn't chase the points this year like he did last year. He qualified for 2 of the features -- one through the B on Thursday and the other by making the top 8 redraw for Saturday. Unfortunately, the As didn't go as well this year for Greg and his best finish of the weekend was 21st.

-- But where were the other two USMTS national champs -- Minnesota's Jason Krohn from 2007 and this year's newly crowned National Champion Tim Donlinger? Love to have them at the Texas Winter Nationals. Maybe we can entice them down next year.

 

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Part 3 of Houston's Texas Winter Nationals recap......

Part 3....

-- 38 different Modified drivers competed in at least one A-main at this year's Texas Winter Nats. 26 cars started the As each night which was 2 more than advertised. 24 spots were open to qualifying each night: 12 from passing points in the heats plus the top 3 cars from one of 4 B-mains. 2 provisionals each night. 2 others that didn't make any A mains also collected more than tow money thanks to USMTS's Top Dog program for Southern Series regulars with perfect attendance. Texarkana's Dustin "Tater" Hyde who has had some great qualifying efforts with the Ducote Motorsports TRE Chassis #8J this year -- including the pole award at Bellville, Kansas USMTS national event -- came up one spot short in both his Thursday and Friday B mains and 3 spots short on Saturday. One spot short is qualifying 25th to 28th from a field of 80 or 85 cars! With the Top Dog in effect for Friday or Saturday and Dustin being tenth in points without missing a show this year, he was guaranteed $300 anyway. Missing that last A on Saturday hurt because Corpus Christi racer Steve Whiteaker, Jr. in the Hughes Chassis #89 finished the season strong, made 2 of the As at HRP and finished 16th on Saturday -- good enough to pass Hyde for tenth in the standings. One of Louisiana's brightest young stars -- Tim Culp of West Monroe -- scored a top ten when USMTS came to HRP in May but was shut out of the A mains this trip with a best B-main finish of 5th. Culp was guaranteed $200 on Friday/Saturday because of a top 15 Top Dog bonus. Some others like Weder who missed that Friday A but made the other 2 features still collected a Top Dog bonus of $300 for the feature they missed making. This all brings the total to at least 40 cars who got more back than they paid in entry fees over the weekend. The other 55 got more than half their entry fee money back in tow money. In the Deer Creek/Fall Jamboree model, another 24-30 would get money from a Saturday non-qualifiers feature.

-- 13 drivers competed in all 3 A mains with 9 of them qualifying for all 3 and 4 others using one provisional while qualifying for the other 2. The two Iowa stars -- VanderBeek & Shryock -- made it through the heat races every night and never ran a B. The other seven to qualify for all 3 were:

-- 2008 USMTS Southern Series Champion Jason Hughes. What another great year Jason had. The Hughes Chassis builder from Colcord, Oklahoma never used a provisional in 21 Southern Series races (there were 25 events scheduled this year but 4 were rained-out) although he could have. He missed the A at 105 Speedway but chose not to use a provisional. The next night was the May HRP event which Hughes won. In addition to his 6 wins, his runner-up finish on Saturday gave him his 13th top 5 of the year with 15 top tens overall. His margin of victory in the point standings was 114. At HRP, he only had to run one B main in the 3 nights. Hughes finishes were 6th, 15th and 2nd.

-- Steve Holzkamper. This longtime rival of Jason's was his closest competition in the Southern Series this year. The TRE Chassis builder from Gentry, Arkansas had to run two Bs this weekend but never needed a provisional at HRP although he did use provisionals 3 times this year. That hurt Steve a little in the points as provisional starters don't get any bonus points for passing cars in the A main like the other starters who qualified do. (One point per position gained in each A main.) After finishing 18th and 10th, Holzkamper ended the year with a 4th at HRP giving him more top tens than Hughes at 17 and only two less top 5s at 11 but only scored the one Southern Series win this year. (Gator Motorplex in Willis back in April.)

-- Rodney "The Rocket" Sanders. This west Texas teenager who drives a Hughes Chassis #20 didn't even need a B-main on Saturday to qualify. In spite of missing one show this year, Rodney almost made the top ten in points but his 14th place finish on Saturday left him 14 points short of Whiteaker and one point ahead ahead of Hyde's 12th place points finish. Sanders also had a 17th and 9th on the weekend giving him 6 top tens on the year.

-- Howard Willis. The Evolution is on! Known by many around southeast Texas dirt track racing circles as simply "the Man" when it comes to wheeling any kind of race car, the 60-year old Willis from Dayton had a great Texas Winter Nationals weekend driving the newly designed Evolution Motorsports Chassis developed by Howard, Andy Claiborne & Russell Moore. At HRP, Howard was a passing machine in the "E" car. On Thursday, he went from 8th to 5th in his heat, 5th to 2nd in his B and 18th to 9th in his A. After some bad heat race luck on Friday, Willis came from 17th to 2nd in the B main and 18th to 12th in the A. Finally on Saturday, Howard went from 10th to 3rd in his heat to make the top eight redraw and avoid the B. He drew the pole and then swapped the lead around with Weder in the A before VanderBeek and then later, Hughes went by. Willis and Hughes have had some classic December battles before down in McAllen. Howard ended up 3rd in the bigger money A on Saturday but he also had a 3rd, a 4th and an 8th in Russell Moore's Evolution House Car #148 Limited Modified -- first time out for that new Limited chassis brand! Willis raced nine Southern Series events in all near home this year and won the series opener in April at Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont. In those 9 races, he had 3 top 5s and 6 top 10s. Claiborne from Fort Scott, Kansas but who also spends a great deal of time in Houston at Moore's "The Driving School", drove Russell's #148 Modified on Friday & Saturday and missed the A by just 2 spots in his Friday B.

-- Jon Tesch. This South Dakota driver had a pretty solid weekend himself in the Kraft/Ramirez Chassis #14. He made Friday's A through the heats, won a B on Thursday and finished 2nd in one on Saturday. After a 4th and 5th in his first two A mains, Jon's attempt for a third straight top five came up short with a 19th place finish. You'd have to say it was a typically strong USMTS weekend for Tesch though.

-- Randy Timms. Wheatland, Oklahoma's Timms probably passed as many cars in his Texas Winter Nats heat races as anybody with runs of 7th to 2nd, 8th to 2nd and 9th to 5th on Saturday. That last one forced him into his only B main of the weekend and Randy just took care of business and went from 5th to win it. Thursday's A ended in 21st but Friday was a solid runner-up to Bone's win. Randy then ended the weekend with a more than respectable 7th on Saturday in his Taylor-Shaw Modified #5.

-- Bumper Jones. The only New Mexico entry in the field also made all 3 A mains and only had to run one B main (on Friday) to do it. His best A main finish was a 7th on Thursday followed closely by an eighth on Saturday on Timms's heals. Friday's A was a 19th place finish. Last I heard, Bumper was in a Shaw Chassis #111.

 

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Part 4:

-- The six provisionals on the weekend were used by six different drivers from the top ten in points. Paul White, Dustin Duncan-JustSayYes RotY runner-up Dereck Ramirez, Kansan Scott Green who joined the features winner list in Edna in November and the 3rd place rookie Morgan Bagley were the four who needed just one provisional over the weekend to make it to all 3 As. Bagley missed the A on Saturday by just one spot in his B but made the most of his provisional as he came from 26th to 10th in the Stan Roland #5R Shaw-by-Brooks Chassis. He made the other two As through the Bs and ended those As with finishes of 13th and 14th. Morgan wound up 7th in Southern Series points. Green also scored a top 10 in his Hughes Chassis #25. That came on Thursday when he made top 12 through the heats. He used his provisional on Friday and then ran a B on Saturday and got finishes of 18th & 20th to end the year, 8th in points. Ramirez started off the weekend by having to use a provisional and finished 19th. He took the B main route the rest of the weekend and improved his finishes each night with a 13th and 9th -- his 9th top ten of the year in the Ramirez Chassis House Car #4R -- and finished 6th in points. White had one off night sandwiched between two good ones. He used his provisional (only his 2nd all year) on Friday and finished 21st but that was the only night he ran a B as he made it through the heats on Thursday & Saturday and scored a 12th and an 11th. The former USAC Silver Crown champ rode 3 top five finishes in 2008 to a 5th place points finish in the Jim & Penny Chapman wrenched, Bridwell Motorsports Bills Built Chassis #2W.

-- The 2008 Dustin Duncan-JustSayYes Rookie of the Year winner John Whittington in his Bob Pierce Race Cars Chassis #5W from Vidor, TX had an up & down weekend. He started off on Thursday by missing the A-main by just one spot and didn't get a provisional. John-O had a much better showing on Friday, made the top 12 in the heats, finished 11th in the A main and all but sewed up the rookie title then. On Saturday, John-O started 16th in his B after a bad heat result and made it up to 5th -- 2 spots shy of the A-main. This time he had a provisional to burn though and advanced from 25th to finish 15th and finished 4th in Southern Series points with 2 top fives and 9 top tens.

-- South Louisiana racer Shane Hebert who made his name known by dominating some UMP racing such as the Mississippi Modified Series and SUPR Modifieds over the years around Baton Rouge, Thunder Valley and the south Mississippi tracks, also had an up and down weekend in the Express Race Cars #9 Kraft/Ramirez Chassis. Thursday started out by missing the feature by just one spot in his B and having to use a provisional to finish 20th. Shane missed the A on Friday but was one of the top 12 cars from Saturday's heats but must have been a DNF in the A as he finished 24th. Hebert ended up 9th in So. Series points with 1 top 5 and 3 top 10 finishes on the year.

-- Those last two mentioned along with several mentioned earlier were a big part of the "second" show at Houston Raceway Park. For those who don't know, the SIMS/Southern Sport Mod/UMP-type of Limited Modified originated in the Houston area and there are still plenty of these full stock-framed race cars with Modified bodies over them in and around Houston. Throw in the travelers including quite a few double-duty USMTS Modified racers and you end up with car counts of 55, 62 & 62 for $500, $700 and $1000 to win, all one-night shows. The Thursday and Friday counts were up from 49 and 57 in 2007 while Saturday's count was the only one to go down from 2007 in either class from 64 to 62. Like in the Mods, it wasn't the same cars each night for the same reasons. 76 different Limiteds in all raced over the weekend.

-- Chris Brown of Cleveland, TX was one of those double duty guys. If you were at the 2007 version of this show, you saw Chris put on a passing clinic in both his #21 Skyrocket Modified and the #65 Limited Modified team that races out of Baytown. This year's Winter Nats wasn't bad either. The only A out of 6 that Chris missed was Thursday's USMTS race. After that, he didn't even need a B main with the Mod as he was top 12 in the heats, back-to-back on Friday & Saturday and finished 6th and 13th. In 7 2009 Southern Series tries, Brown had 4 top tens, 2 top 5s and a USMTS win at his home track of 105 Speedway for the second year in a row. Chris is one of only a couple of Texans to have traveled to Minnesota and made some of the Fall Jamboree A mains in recent years too. Brown had some tough draws in the Limiteds though and never made top 3 in any of the heats and therefore, missed out on all the top 12 redraws but still made all 3 As through the Bs. His Limited Mod A main runs included starting positions of 17th, 15th and 13th with respective finishes of 9th, 7th and 3rd!

-- Keith White, Eddie Martin and the Big Chiefs. The Big Chief Limited Modified Chassis were on the war path again in 2008 at the Texas Winter Nats. If you remember 2007, Keith White of Academy, TX took two of the wins and had a 6th in the other one driving one of the Eddie Martin-built Big Chief Chassis. Well this year Keith was back big and took the $1000 win on Saturday for the second year in a row while his chassis builder from Stilwell, Oklahoma got in on the act too. Martin won the Friday night, $700 to win feature and finished second to White on Saturday after starting 9th. Eddie also had a 7th on Thursday. Keith didn't make it to Baytown until late on Friday. He rallied for a 4th in his B main but after starting 23rd, ended up 18th in the A. Martin -- a 2-time USMTS Southern Series winner in 2008 at Tri-State during Speedweek in June and at Texana Raceway Park in November -- did double duty. He missed Thursday's A with his #51. His Modified owner Alan Sharpensteen of Amarillo in the Sharp Racing Products Chassis #21 made Thursday's A with a heat race win but after missing Friday's A by just 2 spots in his B, he put Eddie in the #21 for Saturday. Martin made the A with an 8th to 2nd run in the B main. Unfortunately, they were early outs in both A mains.

-- Kevin Sitton. This 2nd generation Baytown racer had a break out year in SUPR Late Model competition. He posted two wins on that tour and earned the 2008 SUPR RotY title. He returned to his roots of sorts at his hometown track this week. He won the first Limited feature of the weekend on Thursday night, had trouble on Friday and then went on a passing binge in both the Limiteds and the USMTS Mods at the Saturday night finale. After a couple of bad luck nights in the TRE Chassis #211, Kevin put the Mod in the USMTS A main with an 8th to 3rd run in his B and finished 20th in the A. Then back in the #3 Limited, Sitton went from 14th to 2nd in the B and then 18th to finish 5th in the A main!

 

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PART 5

-- Like Willis, Whittington and Hebert were double duty guys who also had some good runs in the Limiteds too. John-O had two sixth's in the Limiteds and a 9th to 2nd run behind Martin in Friday's A main and never had to run a B in the class all weekend in the #8M Hot Chassis. Hebert had the #9 Express Race Cars Chassis Limted running well all weekend. Shane went from 12th to 2nd in his B and then 16th to 5th in the A on Thursday and then on Friday, it was 6th to 1st in the B and 13th to 6th in the A. 2007 SUPR Modified Champion Danny Hebert parked his #99 Modified after an 8th place USMTS B main finish on Friday night (19-car field in that one!) and jumped in the #9 Limited on Saturday. Danny made top 12 redraw and drew 8th starting spot but unfortuantely was the first car out of the event in the A main. Another Louisiana racer Michael Robertson of Minden was also doing double duty at HRP and just had miserable luck on the Modified side of things as his primary Modified was totaled in a B-main wreck on Thursday. The Wingfield Enterprises team sent down another car for Friday and Saturday but they couldn't get that one to come around at all and Michael was shut out of all the USMTS As. The Limited Mods went much better though for the 05 team. After more Thursday bad luck in the Limited B, Robertson rebounded with a solid 4th on Friday and then had a 21st to 8th run on Saturday. Tim Culp ran in both classes some too. He won a B main with a #19 Limited on Thursday but was first out of the A. Doug Maxwell was listed as the driver for the #19 on Friday night and he missed the A by just one spot in his B. Culp was back in the car for Saturday but ran into trouble in his B.

-- Jack Sullivan. Late Model racers have been competing more and more in USMTS Modifieds. We already mentioned the likes of Bone, Willis, Timms, Brown, and Sitton all who have some experience -- some more than others -- in Late Models. Well, after a USMTS So. Series win at I-30 Speedway in the June Speedweek, Greenbriar, Arkansas's Jack Sullivan -- no stranger to Late Models or Modifieds -- put in a solid effort at TRP in November in the Salazar Motorsports #18 with a 2nd behind Martin's win and another top ten on the first two nights but ran into trouble and missed the A-main on the 3rd night. HRP went similar for Jack. After strong heat race runs on Thursday and Friday put him in the top 8 redraw both nights, Sullivan posted a 3rd and a 7th in the first 2 As. Unfortunately, Sullivan missed the A by just 2 spots in his B on Saturday. In 12 So. Series starts in 2008, Jack had 4 top 5s and 6 top tens.
Texarkana native & 2008 AMP Late Model Champion Jon "Catman" Mitchell -- now racing out of Greendriar, AR -- had his GRT Modified #5 on hand at HRP and went 10th to 5th in his Thursday heat before missing the show with problems in his B. Mitchell rebounded with two 3rd place B-main finishes to make the As on Friday & Saturday. Unfortunately for Jon, he was the first car out of the A both nights. Another Texarkana racer Duke Whiseant made his 2nd & 3rd appearances of the year at a USMTS event after his Speedweek win at Ark-La-Tex Speedway with his Larry Shaw Chassis #A1. Duke went 0-for-2 on making As at HRP the first two nights and didn't enter on Saturday.
A 2-time SUPR Late Model Regional Champion and builder of the IRP Racing Chassis from Longview, Texas, 3rd generation racer Jason Ingalls was on hand with backing from Duncan Transportation but had no luck making the A mains. Jason believes that his Ingalls Racing Products #12 was fast enough to make the shows. Motor issues gave him problems in the B when he was in a position to qualify on Thursday then he came up 3 spots short of a transfer on Saturday where Jason reports, "the driver just picked the wrong line." More bad luck for Ingalls with the motor they put in the Dustin Duncan-JustSayYes 2-seater as it blew over the weekend. The good news for Ark-La-Tex area racers though is IRP is getting into the Limited Modifieds/Southern Sport Mod building business. Look for those cars to have an impact in 2009 along with the IRP Modified Chassis.
Thought we might see the GRT team of Terry Phillips and Jeremy Payne or maybe the Shaw guys, Jared Landers, Jeff Taylor and/or Peyton Taylor down for this purse but still had plenty of Late Model talent at this show as it was. Former SUPR Late Model champion turned Whynot Motorsports Park race promoter Rodney Wing from Meridian, Mississippi was busy winning $3800 on Friday & Saturday at the Soup Bowl. Maybe next year...

-- Chris Henigan. 2-time defending ABC Auto Outlaw Modified Tour Champion and 2008 Ark-La-Tex Speedway Track Champion Chris Henigan of Marshall, Texas had another superb outing at the Texas Winter Nationals. Henigan drove the Career Search TRE Chassis #16 to his 5th straight Winter Nats top ten finish at HRP with his best ever USMTS run on Friday. First, Chris went from 11th to 2nd in his heat to make the top 8 redraw. He started 7th in the A and finished 4th. Last year it was 3 straight top tens at the first Texas Winter Nats and Henigan kept that going with a B main win and 14th to 8th run in this year's Thursday A. He had a real shot at six-straight HRP A-mains but a spin in Saturday's B while running near the front sent him back and he could only recover up to 6th place -- 3 spots short of transfer. Obviously though, Henigan has something working on #16 at Houston Raceway Park! In 6 2008 Southern Series starts, the HRP results gave Chris 4 top tens and the one top five.

-- Clyde Dunn, Jr., Bobby Malchus & Dunn Motorports. Dunn Motorsports brought two entries down from Sunnyvale for the Texas Winter Nats with Clyde Dunn, Jr and Bobby Malchus behind the steering wheels of a pair of #88xxx Skyrockets. They made good on 4 of the 6 opportunities to make Winter Nats A mains. Both drivers made it through the heat races on Thursday. Bobby won his from the pole while Clyde went from 8th to 2nd in his. On Friday, Malchus made it through a B main while Dunn missed a transfer by three spots in his. On Saturday, Clyde won his heat while Bobby missed out by one spot in his B to Sitton & others. Their best A main finishes came on Thursday with Dunn, 11th and Malchus, 15th. Another DFW area racer Mike Dillard didn't make it to HRP until Friday but put his TRE Chassis #66 in the show by grabbing the final B-main transfer spot. After going from 9th to 4th in his heat on Saturday, Dillard slid from 3rd starting spot to 7th in the B and missed that A-main. Other DFW area racers and their best B main finish of the weekend included Brad Lasater who raced Thursday & Friday and missed the A by just one spot on Friday but was not entered on Saturday and John Ewell who raced all 3 nights with a best B-main finish of 10th.

-- East Texas Youngin'! The youngest driver entered on the USMTS side of things appeared to be Longview's Tyler Townsend in the #12T. (It may have been a Donnie Powers Larson Chassis or a new Hughes, not sure...) Tyler is 16 but has experience in ASA Crate Late Models on asphalt and Mod-Lites on dirt in addition to his Open Wheel Modified starts. He made nine Southern Series events this year and after Houston and Edna, Townsend has now raced in at least 4 USMTS A-mains. He used a 5th to 3rd run in Thursday's B and then a 7th to 2nd run in his Friday heat to make top 12 and his 2nd A-main in as many nights. His best finish was 22nd. On Saturday, Townsend went from 10th to 5th in his heat and finished 8th in his B.

-- Northwest Arkansas racers. With Holzkamper and Bone leading the way, the northwest part of the Razorback state was well represented in Houston this year just like they used to be in McAllen every December. Melvin Pilcher went from 10th to 6th in his Thursday B main but that turned out to be the only A the Springdale racer would miss. Pilcher used B main runs of 5th to 3rd on Friday and 10th to 2nd on Saturday to qualify. 22nd was his best A main finish. Another Springdale racer, Glenn Bratti, had a good night on Friday when he won his heat and B-main. Bratti won the 7th heat from the outside pole but there was so much passing in the heats on Friday that he was 13th in passing points and started the first B from the pole as a result. He wound up 17th in the A main. Like Pilcher, he went 10th to 6th in his Thursday B and finished 7th in Saturday's B.

 

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6TH PART.....

-- Missouri. The Show-Me state put a couple cars in some Houston A mains at this year's Texas Winter Nats. Leading the way was Hermitage driver Eric Turner in the #99T. (Last I heard, Turner was driving an Allen Motorsports Chassis.) After a 12th to 6th run in his Thursday B left him a few spots short, Turner went 7th to 2nd in Friday's B, 11th to 4th in Saturday's heat and then won his Saturday B to go 2 for 3 on making A mains. He posted A main finishes of 16th and 17th. Mark Dotson from Cameron, who has spent some time down south working and running tracks like HRP and Pike County in Mississippi and Matt Dotson from Sturgeon were also on hand. Mark made Thursday's A in the #85D with a B main run and Matt's best B-main finish on the weekend was 8th.

-- The big three chassis makers... The big 3 chassis makes in USMTS -- Hughes, TRE and Skyrocket -- each won a race at this year's Texas Winter Nats. Weder's Thursday win was in a Hughes and unofficially, I showed 3 Hughes, 2 Skyrockets, a GRT, a Kraft/Ramirez, a Shaw, a TRE and an Evolution in the top ten. Friday was TRE night as Bone won, Henigan got a top five and Holzkamper a top ten. Mike Dillard also made the A and Jamie Burford and Wes Armstrong just missed making the A. There was also 3 Skyrockets, a Taylor-Shaw, a Kraft/Ramirez, a GRT and a Hughes in the top ten. (again, unofficial) VanderBeek's Saturday win came in a Skyrocket with a Hughes, an Evolution, a TRE and a 2nd Skyrocket following in the top five. Unofficially, there was also a Shaw, a Taylor-Shaw and a Shaw-by-Brooks in the top ten along with another Hughes and a Ramirez.

-- Ark-La-Tex area Modifieds. Other ALT area drivers on hand included Jamie Burford from Keatchie, LA. Burford had a good November weekend at TRP with his Calhoun Longhorns/Burford & May Motorsports TRE Chassis as he made all 3 A-mains there without a provsional and had a best finish of 7th but came up short in all his HRP B-mains at this year's Texas Winter Nats. He missed the A by just one spot on Friday and by 2 spots on Saturday. Burford had a top five and 3 top tens in 2008 So. Series action and finished 14th in points while only missing the I-30 Topless race in October. Marshall, Texas racer Wes Armstrong in another TRE also had 3 close-but-no-cigar B-main runs. He missed by one spot on Thursday, came from 16th to 5th to miss by two spots on Friday and missed by 3 spots on Saturday. Wes attempted 8 So. Series events this year and had two top tens and a top five that was just one lap away from a possible win at 105 Speedway. Other area racers and their best B-main finish include Texarkana's Jeff Huckaby (16th to 9th), Marshall's Derrick Grigsby (18th to 10th), Jeremy Ishmael from Tyler, TX (10th), Billy Robinson from Blanchard, LA (12th), Andy Clower from Grand Saline, TX (13th twice) and BJ Robinson of Shreveport who seems to get good runs in every kind of show except the 2008 USMTS Southern Series events (16th - no luck). David Mitchell of Ashdown, AR -- the Champion Park USMTS winner from May -- would have been at HRP but he lost a fight with a power-saw this summer and won't be able to race until 2009. He is also expecting twins (well, his wife is -- now that would be a scoop!) so there is a lot happening at the Mitchell household these days!!! David finished the year, 20th in So. Series points even though he missed the last six events.

-- Other Okies. With Hughes, Weder, Timms, Martin, Skaggs and company, Oklahoma always seems to be well represented at Southern Series events and other big Mod shows as well. Others from Oklahoma at the Texas Winter Nats included Okarche's Allen Chickering who went from 9th to 4th in his Thursday heat but missed out in the B. He then ran 7th in his Friday B and missed by just 2 spots (5th) in Saturday's B. Jay Sale of Edmond had a best B-main finish of 7th while John Webb of Paul's Valley had a 9th and Ron Gould, Jr of McLeod had 2 11ths. Shawn Brassfield of Ada ran the first 2 nights as well and had a best B-main finish of 17th. Three surprising no-shows if for no other reasons than they all made at least 14 or 15 So. Series races this year and were in the top 21 in points were Woodward's Brandon Kenny and So. Series rookies Bryan Rowland also of Woodward and Jeremy Ross of Locust Grove.

-- Minnesota long tows. Darrell Nelson, Ryan Aho and Todd Scharkey came down from Minnesota and were hoping the be this year's "Alan Mondus" -- the Minnesota racer who won a Texas Winter Nats feature last year. Aho from Chisholm also competed at Texana Raceway Park in November and qualified for 2 of the 3 shows down there. Ryan made top 12 in Friday qualifying with a heat race win but was an early DNF in the A main. He posted B-main finsihes of 7th and 9th on the other two nights. Nelson from Hermantown scored a B-main win from 5th starting position on Thursday and ended up 14th in the A main. Nelson also had a 9th to 4th run in his Friday heat but his remaining 2 Bs of the weekend and his Saturday heat didn't go as well. Scharkey from Kasson raced the first 2 nights with a best B main finish of 14th. In addition to Green and Claiborne, Kevin Patton also pulled in from Kansas and race all 3 nights. The Wichita driver had a best B main finish of 14th.

 

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Part 7: Local Houston racers and other Texans!!!

These are the guys that you really need to put on a show like the Texas Winter Nationals: THE LOCALS!!! Can't do it without 'em!!! Some areas -- not going to mention which ones -- don't show-up very well when the USMTS boys come to town. Not a problem in Texas!!! And certainly not a problem at Houston Raceway Park or any other Houston area track...

-- Local Texans. We've already pointed out the successes of Willis, Brown, Whittington and Sitton at this year's Texas Winter Nats but there were plenty more HRP and Houston area regulars on hand that we haven't mentioned yet that really made that record car count and therefore, played a huge part in the show. After all if VanderBeek, Bone and Weder are winning over fields of just 50 instead of 80+, it's not near as big a deal. Phil Dixon of Crosby put his Fast One Chassis #A1 in the show on Thursday night with an 8th to 4th run in his heat and a runnerup B-main finish. He was 16th in the A. Dixon finished 7th in Friday's B and then missed what would have been his 2nd Modified A of the Winter Nats by just 2 spots on Saturday. Houston's David Horner ran all three nights and came up just one spot short on Saturday with his Skyrocket and 2 spots short on Thursday with another 11th place B-main run between those 2 finishes. Horner scored a USMTS win in Corpus Christi last year. Kevin Batterbee of Houston who drove the Delta Flange Modified to an 11th place finish in last year's Texas Winter Nats finale, didn't enter until Friday night. He had a 12th to 5th run in his heat race and came up just one spot short of transferring in his B main. Kenny Batterbee drove the car on Saturday night and after a 7th place finish in his heat, had problems in his B. Other locals and their best B main finish for the weekend were: Brennan Poole from The Woodlands who missed by just 2 spots with a 5th on Thursady night (Poole was at the 105 Speedway USMTS So. Series race back in May and led 28 laps before finishing 3rd!), Chris Holley of Higlands had 6th & 7th, Adam Epperson of Onalaska, 6th, Tracy Denby, Jr of Liberty, 7th & 8th, Brian Boram of Orange didn't race till Friday and had a 7th, Andy McClelland of Beaumont, 7th, Tracy Denby, Sr. of Vidor, 8th, Rocky Willis of Beaumont, 8th, Corey Neil of Beaumont, 9th, Steve Pugh from Willis, 10th, Alan Drewry of Magnolia, 10th, John Baker of Silsbee, 10th, Darryl Seals of Vidor 11th-twice, Bryan Vollmer of Tomball, 11th, Kalif Sellier of Katy, 11th, Tommy Stanley of Highlands, 12th, Kevin Pratt of Houston, 12th, Corey Babbitt of Channelview, 12th, Brian Spindelman of Brookshire, 12th and Marcus Elder of New Waverly who only raced on Friday had early problems. Jeff Wood of Willis, Craig Rayon of Vidor and Glen Grant of Houston didn't race until Saturday night and posted respective B main finishes of 8th, 10th and 12th. Glad to have them too. Late's better than never!

-- Other Texans. There were a few other drivers from other parts of Texas that we haven't mentioned yet. Steve Miller of Georgetown who raced 9 times with the Southern Series in 2008 had best B-main finishes of 8th & 9th at this year's Texas Winter Nats. Mike Gerardo from Elkhart posted a BBF of 9th. Veteran Keith Green came in from Waco on Friday and had a BBF of 7th and Jeese Manning of Brazoria only raced on Saturday and finished 9th in his B. Mark Smith and Danny Barringer both from Lufkin raced on Thursday but had problems. After taking Friday night off, Smith returned for Saturday but had issues in his B main again. Mark made it to 6 of the So. Series races this year.