From CL Motorsports
HOLMESVILLE, Ohio. – September, 10 2012 – Stevie Smith thought he was in the clear.
After a tough start to the 45th Annual AB Autoglass Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal (PA) Speedway on Saturday, September 8, Smith had charged from 24th to 9th in his #19 CL Motorsports/DDNi/CJB Motorsports/Spectro Oils KPC and seemed to be headed for his eleventh consecutive top-10 finish until the final restart.
“It was a free for all,” said Smith, referring to the closing laps of the $11,000-to-win event. “Someone got into the back of me and that caused me to hit the guy in front of me and we both spun. What a run though. I can’t thank my crew and all of our help enough. We dug a tremendous hole when we qualified but dug ourselves out of it. We timed in 28th because we went out early on a track that was still slippery and had to race our way into the feature from the B-main. When you have to pass five cars in the B to make it to the feature, you know you’re facing an uphill climb.”
Ride along with Smith at Port Royal
Ride along with Smith at Port Royal
Smith went into the weekend at the half-mile with high hopes for wins. On Friday, September 7, the Pennsylvania native timed in sixth quick for the “Night Before the 50” and started the 30-lap feature on the outside of Dale Blaney.
“Dale had a rocket ship on the first night,” said Smith. “He took off from us in such a hurry I was wondering what he had under the hood. We eventually caught back up to him and then fell off a bit. The track changed an awful lot during those 30 laps and it seemed like you always had to be hunting around for a new line. We came home second which was a great finish for us since it was our tenth top-10 in a row”
Smith and the #19 team entered Saturdays finale as one of the teams that many fans and teams had their eyes on. However, the optimism was dashed once time trials got underway .
“I could tell as the times were being read off that we were going to be in trouble,” explained Smith. “We just had to really battle back throughout the night. We couldn’t really go forward in our heat race so the B-main was our last opportunity to lock ourselves in. We started ninth and picked off four cars in the opening laps. By the time the checkers flew, we had slid into fourth and made the feature.”
Smith rolled off 24th for the 50-lap event and wasted little time advancing into the top-20.
“By the time we got to the feature, we had the setup figured out,” said Smith. “We made it all the way up to 14th or 15th when the mandatory red flag came out for our pitstop. After a few adjustments, we went back out but the track was tricky so we weren’t able to get much further. Some guys started having tire issues and that moved us up the leaderboard. It was all looking great until we spun but I am so proud of everyone on this team for not giving up. We nearly pulled off a huge comeback and that makes me very happy as a driver. We really wanted to score a win at Port Royal but it just wasn’t meant to be. We’ll try to pick one up when we head to Fremont Speedway in Ohio next weekend.”
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PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY FRIDAY BOX SCORE:
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
6th 5th 2nd 2nd
PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY SATURDAY BOX SCORE:
Time Trial Heat Finish A-main Start A-main Finish
28th 7th 24th 17th
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