Tucson Raceway Park's Winter Thrill Round 4 began with the TVT 24/7 ASA Speed Truck Challenge qualifying and when it was complete, there was a new Sheriff in town! A very young one at that! Chris Buescher, all the way from North Carolina had put the United Nissan #3 on top of the charts less than 24 hours since his first ever look at a Speed Truck. Buescher, a David Ragan development driver was here at Tucson Raceway Park to get his feet wet in the highly competitive Spec series that fields Spec built trucks in 100 lap competition throughout the Southwest. The Lucas Oil Trophy Dash was next on the card and the six quickest trucks in qualifying would do battle on the high banks of TRP for six Edge Of Your Seat laps of fierce side by side action. When it was over, Buescher was on top again and so overwhelmed with excitement that he drove to his pit instead of stopping at the Start/Finish line for the customary trophy presentation. When he found his way back to the front stretch, Dan Ryan, Tucson Raceway Park's announcer, presented the young lad with his well deserved trophy and TRP’s General Manager Dan Ruth asked him if he could find this location again and he said, I will remember where to go next time!
The NASCAR Sport Compact heat race was next up and Joshua Davis would beat Late Model Driver Rick "The Butler" Butler to the line with Karen Heyse a distant third. The NASCAR Factory Stock heat race was hotly contested between Fast Racing and D & D Racing Teammates and at the end of eight laps, Tom Mikla had won another one over Loren "Shef" Sheffield and Duane Hunt Jr. After a brief intermission racing resumed with the NASCAR Sport Compact feature event. Rick Butler whom finished a strong second in the heat race failed to make the race due to being swamped by fans on the midway during intermission and Davis would again be the class of the field in his Toyota Pick up over Jon and Cindy Martinez.
The NASCAR Factory Stock 20 lap feature event was very exciting as Mikla would tag the field at the start and thread the needle through the pack in turn 1, lap one, making it four wide. At the end of lap 2 it was all Mikla whom had been given a 40 lb weight addition due to his dominance in the class with his GM Crate engine kit. Mikla, in his McQueen #95 would go into another time zone at the completion with teammate Sheffield and “Cowboy” Ken Hunt a distant 3rd. Looks like it's time to go to the dyno and see if Mikla has an advantage in performance with his Crate engine or if he is the real "Lightning McQueen". Stay tuned.
The Empire Power Systems Speed Truck Challenge 100 would stage for 100 laps of four wide action with the kid back in row 3 due to the invert. Buescher would go down low and take the lead until lap 83 while young Dallas Colodny, veteran Darren Young and former Southwest Tour competitor Todd McLaughlan would trade positions lap after lap. It was obvious that McLaughlan's racing experience was beginning to payout as virtually all the competitors in the field were getting loose by the lap and McLaughlan's beautiful #38 was coming in as the fuel load depleted. It was looking as though the race would go the distance without a caution waving until lap 98 when Ray Hoffman spun off turn 2 collecting Buescher and Colodny while being lapped. Buescher had received left side damage, Colodny right side damage, but both were able to retain their positions for the green, white checkers restart with McLaughlan leading lap 99 over Buescher and Colodny fighting for position with Young and points leader Jason Black. Going into turn 3 of lap ninety nine McLaughlan took the high line as the young Buescher dove to the bottom of TRP's compound banking. At the line, the kid had beat McLaughlan by inches to the thrill of the standing crowd with young Chris Buescher receiving the Thrill of Victory and McLaughlan experiencing the Agony of Defeat. By the way he did find his way to Victory Lane this Time!
Stay tuned to www.speedtruck.com for the TV replay of this exciting event!
