ASC FINISHES ROUND 8 AT THUNDERHILL RACEWAY

WILLOWS, California -- September 6 & 7th, 2003. Round 8 of the American Stockcar Challenge (ASC) championship chase proved to be full of excitement as the ground pounding stockcars took to Thunderhill Raceway. The National Auto Sport Association (NASA) which sanctions this race series grouped the ASC cars with American Iron (AI) and Camaro Mustang Challenge (CMC), both of which are made of production based race cars. This made for a very large field of cars with three staggered starts. With ASC cars circling the three mile road racing circuit over ten seconds a lap faster than some of the AI and CMC cars, traffic management took on an increasingly important role for ASC drivers. But when the dust finally cleared, rookies Brian Colodny and Michael Arnheiter picked up their first ASC wins on each of the races held on Saturday and Sunday.

ASC #14- Brian Colodny (Best Lap: 1:58.743)
ASC #5- Alan Huston (Best Lap: 1:58.895)
ASC #34- Jeff Glowniak (Best Lap: 1:59.200)
ASC #80- Michael Arnheiter (Best Lap: 1:56.932)
ASC #28- Chris Strom (Best Lap: 1:58.379)
DQ: ASC #90- Steve Carvajal (Best Lap: 1:57.201)
DQ: ASC #33- David Arnheiter (Best Lap: 1:57.164)
ASC-X #76- Ken Lowell (Best Lap: 1:58.999)
ASC-X/ProTruck #55- Ken Stinnett (Best Lap: 1:56.893)

ASC #80- Michael Arnheiter (Best Lap: 1:56.283)
ASC #90- Steve Carvajal (Best Lap: 1:56.261)
ASC #33- David Arnheiter (Best Lap: 1:57.021)
ASC #34- Jeff Glowniak (Best Lap: 1:59.098)
ASC #14- Brian Colodny (Best Lap:1:58.914)
ASC #5- Alan Huston (Best Lap: 1:59.278)
ASC-X #76- Ken Lowell (Best Lap: 1:55.590)
ASC-X/ProTruck #55- Ken Stinnett (Best Lap: 1:56.564)

Saturday September 6th: I crossed the checkered flag first both days, and walked away without a win. We were racing close on Saturday. Ken Lowell in a Craftsman truck, #76 (running in Exhibition Class), myself, Dave Arnheiter, Mike "Mikey" Arnheiter, Ken Stinnett, (in a Protruck), and Chris Strom. (Mikey's new car is a rocket by the way!!!). From what I gathered, we went into (I believe) turn 9 three wide with two CMC cars dicing it out, side by side. Ken in the #76 truck, and I slide through, Dave Arnheiter tries then reconsiders, Mikey thinks this is the time, goes left into the dirt into Turn 10 and T-Bones brother Dave, right in the armpit, knocking him sideways, Stinnett checks up, only to be hit in the rear by Strom. Stinnett then hits Mikey in the right door, knocking him back into his brother's front left corner. Out of the race with damage are Mikey, Stinnett, Strom. Dave and I are able to continue. Alan Huston, Brian Colodny, Jeff Glowniak follow us to impound. Later Dave and I are disqualified for passing under a yellow in turn 3 on an earlier lap. Brian, Alan, Jeff end up 1, 2 & 3. Congrats to Brian Colodny for his first ASC win!

Sunday September 7th: Mikey qualifies on the pole for ASC followed by Dave A., myself, Strom, Brian, Jeff, Alan. Stinnett is the fastest but has to start from the back. Mikey gets a good start, but bobbles a bit in Turn 2 and I take him. This group is WAY too close to make any mistakes. I take the lead and stay in front the whole race. Stinnett gets by, as does the Craftsman truck, but since they're running in Exhibition class, I'm not concerned. Mikey chases hard the whole race, but can't close the deal, or so I think... I cross the flagstand and take the checkered flag, back off the gas, Mikey pulls alongside to congratulate, (so I think...) BUT NO! NO ONE Bothered to mention that the finish line is NOT at the flag stand but 300 yards further down the track. Congratulations to Mikey on the SNEAKIEST win ever. It was great racing! The Arnheiter brothers are going to be tough and Chris Strom was well within the hunt. Brian and Jeff both improved bunches during the weekend. I just can't wait until I have Mikey in my sights again.

I had a great time at Thunderhill. It was good to finally be able to race against some cars and not just play follow the leader. Alan and I had a great side by side race to the finish on Saturday. We thought we were racing for 3rd and 4th and did not know that it was going to be for 1st and 2nd. I don't think that we would have been able to race any harder in that I went through the last turn sideways! Jeff was a great competitor on Sunday where we had some good side by side events. As usual the rest of the ASC group was fun to race with, for the first 3rd of the race on Sunday, we were pretty much in a follow-the-leader group until we started to catch up with the AI/CMC group. I need to get a few more ponys (and not get caught behind a couple of side by side pokey CMC's) to really be competitive. We're going to see what we can legally figure out between now and Buttonwillow.