SAN ANTONIO. Texas Casey Smith made it look easy Saturday night at San Antonio Speedway. The Austin, Texas, native quickly jumped into the lead from his outside front-row starting position and never looked back, dominating the United States Racing Association Super Late Model 125-lap season opener at the famed high-banked, paved, half-mile SAS oval.
“This is the best race I’ve had in a long time,” Smith said. “To lead 125 laps and set fast time and have a dominating performance was just great. I’ll tell you what, this track has bit me a lot of times in the past and a lot of those times it was because of stupid mistakes on my part. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to make any tonight.”
And he didn’t.
Smith, who had an impressive fourth-place finish in last week’s Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway, timed in with a near-perfect 18.335-second run while Chris Davidson wasn’t far behind with 18.548-second timing. The entire starting field was very closely matched as well with all 17 drivers within one second of each other in spite of the mix of “crate” and “concept” engines present.
“I’m really proud of whole team,” Smith added. “We worked hard all off-season trying to get this thing to go faster. I especially have to thank (NASCAR Busch Series Crew Chief) Joe Shear, Jr. He’s the one who has really made a difference for our team. He’s always dreaming up new stuff to try and without him we wouldn’t be in victory circle tonight. This car is definitely the best car I have ever had.”
While Smith easily dominated – largely due to superior handling - the rest of the field provided the large opening-night crowd with some really entertaining racing. Especially exciting was the constant battles for the second through seventh positions that lasted virtually the entire race. Veterans Greg Davidson, (Greg’s son) Chris Davidson, Joe Aramendia, John Kelly, Thad Felton, 2005 USRA Rookie of the Year Todd McLemore and rookie Matt Merrell were all evenly matched and put on a driving clinic, running each other hard, but clean.
There were only two caution periods, but the one on the 43rd lap was spectacular. Multi-time SAS champion Larry Bendele was shaking down his new Super Late Model when a heim joint broke on the right front a-frame and he glanced off the back straight wall. The impact broke a fitting off the fuel pump and the entire front of the car was suddenly engulfed in flames that lit up the track all the way around turns three and four until it came to a stop near the pit wall on the front straight.
“It’s a new car and I couldn’t locate the (fire extinguisher) button right away,” Bendele said nursing a slightly singed hand in the pits after the race. “So I decided to concentrate on getting unbuckled and unhooked as I brought the thing to a stop.”
Almost as soon as the car came to a stop near the pit wall, crew members with fire extinguishers were there to greet him while others helped Bendele out the flaming machine.
“It got hot in there,” Bendele said in what has to be the understatement of the year.
Pearland’s Chris Davidson had an excellent run even though he had to start sixth due to the “hat draw.” Content to hang back and save his tires early on, Davidson waited until about halfway before beginning to patiently pick off the front runners one by one. By the 93rd circuit, he had slipped by Joe Aramendia for third and found himself following his father, Greg, who was running a distant, but solid, second. Eight laps late he got under his father going down the front straight and had position going into turn one to make the pass.
“My dad is always hard to get around and he made sure I had to work hard to get by him,” the younger Davidson said. “I was pretty good there at the end and was closing on Casey. I just wish I had some more laps or maybe a late caution.”
USRA Super Late Model Results – San Antonio Speedway – March 11, 2006
1 (99) Casey Smith, Austin, TX, 125 laps 2. (41) Chris Davidson, Pearland, TX, 125 3. (96) Greg Davidson, Pearland, TX, 125 4. (79) Joe Aramendia, San Antonio, TX, 125 5. (03) Matt Merrell, Portland, TX, 125 6. (29) Thad Felton, The Woodlands, TX, 125 7. (54) Todd McLemore, Austin, TX, 125 8. (13) T Wade Welch, Houston, TX, 124 9. (27) Jason Young, Houston, TX, 123 10. (7) Tuffy Hudson, Portland, TX, 123 11. (18) Tommy Grimes, San Antonio, TX, 123 12. (19) Kent Baltzell, Spring, TX, 123 13. (57) John Kelly, La Vernia, TX, 121 14. (35) Greg Davis, Waxahachie, TX, 76 15. (04) Cory Roper, Vernon, TX, 64 16. (39) Hal Martin, Galliano, LA, 54 17. (23) Larry Bendele, Adkins, TX, 42 18. (9) Gary Buchanan, Helotes, TX, Did Not Start
Margin of Victory 3.11 seconds
Casey Smith led laps 1-125
