Thursday notebook from Eldora

By T.J. Buffenbarger

Rossburg, OH — (July 15, 2016) — The 33rd Annual Kings Royal weekend started with great racing in Thursday’s Jokers Wild feature event. While the box score shows David Gravel leading all 30 laps in route to the victory the racing from first through around fourth just before halfway was exciting. At various points of the feature Gravel, Donny Schatz and Bell were sliding each other for position with Rico Abreu and Kerry Madsen also getting in on the action. You can check out the highlights from Eldora Speedway here and Bell’s point of view of the racing courtesy off the World of Outlaws here.

Here are some notes from the Thursday Jokers Wild program at Eldora:

• Bell’s Tony Stewart Racing entry for the Kings Royal weekend was the biggest surprise of the weekend. Largely kept under wraps seeing the second TSR hauler pull in and a plain #14 car roll out turned some heads early on Thursday afternoon. I even took advantage of the opportunity to troll the moment a bit on our twitter page.After making the walk down to the 14 car in the pit area I came Bell who was smiling like a kid that got his favorite toy at Christmas. “Every kid in American that wants the race would love to drive for Tony Stewart, and I get to do it tonight,” was Bell’s response to the deal to drive the TSR car that was put together a few weeks ago. The car is a Kistler powered J&J that had never seen the race track until Thursday. Bell was in the hunt before contact broke the Jacobs Ladder and ended his run. Despite the mechanical issues Bell asserted himself as a contender for the throne on Saturday.
• Up until the final caution flag of the event it appeared Logan Schuchart might drive the extreme bottom lane of the race track to victory lane. Schuchart moved up from 12th and was up to fourth at one point until dropping back to fifth at the finish. Schuchart also is sporting a new black and white paint scheme this weekend.

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  After not making the trip to Eldora in 2015 Brian Brown returned to Kings Royal this year and made some of the biggest moves of the night during preliminary action. Brown took advantage of his momentum on the start of his heat race to overcome qualifying 11th in time trial group one to rocket from sixth to second down the backstretch. Brown showed similar drive in the dash going from sixth to second. In the feature Brown was in contention for the win eventually finishing sixth.

• Another eye opening addition to Eldora Speedway are three digital screens that displays how much each car weight while going over the Eibach Springs scales on the front stretch. The three screens are highly readable from the pit area and about half the grandstands. It was interesting watching cars cross the scales after qualifying. Of the handful of cars that our staff recorded going over after qualifying the lightest was 1,418 pounds with the heaviest being 1,498 pounds.

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  Tasker Phillips laid eyes on Eldora for the first time ever on Thursday. Not seeing the track in person until pulling in the gate Phillips, a regular at the Knoxville Raceway, said the team did not decide to come to Eldora until after last Saturday’s program at Knoxville Raceway. Phillips had a rough night spinning out in turn two and collecting Caleb Griffith. Later in the C-Main Phillips pounding the wall between turns one and two and got upside down.

• Dominic Scelzi has had a rough go of it as of late during his swing through the Midwest. After a wild crash two weeks ago at Knoxville Raceway two weeks ago Scelzi and Paul May got together in the B-Main sending Scelzi into a wild flip up into the wall and nearly into the catch fence. Scelzi emerged from the car uninjured and was clearly unhappy with May when exiting the race car.

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• Trey Starks added the Kings Royal to his already busy racing schedule this year driving a multitude of different race cars. Starks was aboard the Jeff McCall owned 23 car on Thursday after winning the Western Sprint Tour Northwest Speedweek championship in the Rutz family owned car. Starks has also wheeled his family owned 55 car and Scott Gobrecht’s car on the Central Pennsylvania circuit this season. Starks indicated on Thursday the McCall entry will be his ride for the upcoming Knoxville Nationals.
• Dane Lorenc took on the daunting task of his first Eldora Speedway start Thursday in only his second race with a 410 cubic inch sprint car engine. Lorenc has raced the past several seasons with various 360 sprint car series. Lorenc finished sixth in the C-Main.
• The increased payout for the Kings Royal team was enticing enough for Chillicothe, Ohio’s Josh Davis to pull over to Eldora. “I figured if we were going to come watch we might as well race,” was Davis’ answer to why his team made the trip up to Eldora for the weekend. Davis experienced engine problems during hot laps and scratched for the evening, but indicated to World of Outlaws officials he would return for the remainder of the weekend.
• Ohio Speedweek feature winner Jac Haudenschild drove Jamie Miller’s #6 car on Thursday in route to winning the C-Main in his trademark style up against the fence. Haudenschild will drive Miller’s car for one more night before getting back in the Phoenix Racing #59 on Saturday.
• The C-Main during Thursday’s program was a bit of an adventure taking four tries to start the race with a red flag and two cautions added to another red flag on the final lap that set up a green/white/checkered finish.