A moment to regret
After a night off, Donny and the crew were hoping to return to action Tuesday night and build on their Sunday victory in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway. But a momentary lapse in judgment nearly spelled disaster.
In qualifying Donny was fourth fastest at 17.776 seconds behind fast qualifier Charlie Pasteryak at 17.576 seconds. He drew the sixth starting spot but was confident his racecar was good enough to move up.
Ted Christopher started from the pole and grabbed the early lead over Charlie Pasteryak. Donny was correct in his assessment of the car, quickly climbing to third. After a brief caution he used a lap six restart to drive under Pasteryak and began to pressure the leader. Headed down the backstretch on lap eight he saw an opening on the inside and made his move into turn three. The opening quickly closed and as he drew alongside Christopher in the corner there was contact. The two cars hooked together and slid up the racetrack with the Bear Motorsports #14 making contact with the outside wall. The caution was out and Donny was able to pull away but TC needed the assistance of a wrecker.
This put Eric Beers in the lead over Buck Catalano and Pasteryak up front. Further back Donny was trying to gain positions with an ill-handling racecar. He managed to move back up to seventh but the charge stopped there. At the checkered flag it was Beers with his first win of the Series over Catalano, Pasteryak, J.R. Bertuccio and Mike Fitch. Donny was credited with seventh while Christopher struggled to finish 22nd. Billy Anderson picked up the SK Bonus with a 17th place finish.
“It was an error of judgment on my part,” admitted Donny. “I saw an opening and just went for it, but there wasn’t enough room. I should have been more patient because we were faster than Teddy and I think we could have passed him cleanly. You know it’s a short race and you want to get things done in a hurry, but I should have waited. The car was bent up and we were lucky to finish as well as we did. It kept us in the points. I guess you can chalk it up to a learning experience and we’ll fix the car tomorrow and try to do better.”
A rollercoaster ride
Donny and the LMI crew were looking forward to Wednesday night’s 50-lap Modified feature in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway. They knew they had a fast racecar and were hoping to grab a good finish and close in on point leader Eric Beers. They did gain ground overall, but an up-and-down night left them with mixed feelings afterwards.
In qualifying Donny posted the fifth fastest lap at 17.763 seconds behind Ted Christopher’s quickest lap of 17.434 seconds. Things turned brighter when he drew the 2nd starting spot in the main event.
Lined up alongside polesitter John Blewett, Donny got hung up on the outside on the initial start and fell back to fourth as Eddie Flemke took the lead. He was trying to settle into a comfortable pace but it was obvious the handling of the car was much too tight. On lap 8 Christopher dropped him another spot to fifth and you could see Donny was struggling. The longer the race went on, the tighter the car got. The crew talked it over on the radio and decided a pit stop to change rear tires was a worthwhile gamble.
They had hoped to pit on a lap 19 caution but the race went back to green too quickly. Donny could only hold on and wait for the next yellow as he slipped back to eighth. Finally on lap 35 Justin Gaydosh spun to bring out the caution and the LMI #18 headed down pit road. The crew pulled off a quick stop and Donny headed out to rejoin the field at the rear with just 16 laps remaining.
While the leaders battled up front, Donny was charging back through the field. He was running out of time when an accident up ahead involving John Blewett, J.R. Bertuccio, John Bush and George Bock brought out a much-needed caution. He was able to close back up on the leaders and with four laps to go he was seventh. On the restart Donny received a double dose of good luck as Beers fell by the wayside. With his fresher tires he was able to make some passes and found himself up to third behind the lead battle between Flemke and Christopher as he took the white flag. On the final circuit there was contact everywhere and Donny was in the midst of most of it. He held on to finish seventh as Flemke took the win over Christopher, George Kent, Charlie Pasteryak and Chuck Hossfeld. John White’s 15th place finish earned him the night’s SK Bonus.
“It was a wild night for us,” recalled Donny. “We had a good starting spot but I got hung up on the outside. Then as we raced the stagger closed up and we kept getting tighter and tighter. We were falling back and the only thing we could do was pit for rear tires and open the stagger back up. There was only about 15 laps to go after we pitted but I knew my fresher tires would be a big advantage. We caught a break when the red flag came out for the wreck in turn four, because now we were back running with the lead cars. My tires were better than the guys ahead of me were so I knew I could make a few passes and see what happened. We were up to third on the final lap and I was trying to go around Teddy when he and Flemke touched. I decided to go low and it was probably the wrong move, but you only have an instant to make up your mind. Then someone ran into us as we came off turn four to take the checkered and we lost another spot or two.
“It was a night where we had some good luck and some bad. The fresh tires got us back into a position where we could win and then on the last lap we got bounced back. Still, we got a decent finish and with Beers dropping out at the end we gained some points. We’ll have to figure out what went wrong tonight and make a few changes, but we’re right in the thick of things with three nights to go.
