# racin southern sportsman



## mahorsc (Mar 26, 2008)

Southern Four
North Carolina International Speedway
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
November 21, 2009

“Some times you get the gator and some times the gator gets you”. There was more than one racer of the twelve in attendance that felt that way after the smoke cleared at NCIS Saturday afternoon.
It is always a great if not interesting show at Bob Weichbrodt’s home / HO museum and yesterday proved what I have said many a time, the November race before the holiday break is one that usually shakes things up. I’m not sure if it’s the racers who are pushing for a big gain as we hit the halfway mark in the year or that it’s the racers who have had things rolling their way begin to sit on their laurels. Either way, the goblins come out and they came out early as Kevin Browning’s Taco Bell Ford Fusion jumped lanes in practice and was pile driven into the wall spraying shards of his front clip through two turns. How he was able to get this car back on track, even though it was missing his “Bell” was nothing short of amazing.
The racing started with the “Southern Muscle” division on Bob’s roadcourse that stretches from Lexington to Wake Forest and only a few of us geared the cars with anything short of a twelve-tooth train. Those who did chose the nine were steady and had a big advantage in the corners but those corners are few and far between at NCIS and it’s almost always the long straights that determine the podium.
We typically run a European rotation in our classes but in an effort to save time and get the racers who traveled 5 hours or more to get there back on the road we opted for individual four man races with a straight through rotation and it worked better than I thought it would. The only draw back was you did have to run with the same 3 racers all day, but knocking off 3 to 4 hours from the day seemed to offset it.
Kevin Browning, Andy Lancaster, Dewayne Hoyle and Bill Kurtz kicked things off and Kevin set a total of 79 laps that everyone else chased all day. When Chris Walker got his shot he made the most of it hitting the 76-lap mark, one short of second place Bill Kurtz. Then the Goblins made their next move on last year’s winner Tommy Jakubowski simply shutting his engine down. A combination of oil and brushes put Tommy’s Barracuda behind the wall and out of contention for the day. West Virginia’s Gary Butner, local racer “Dusty” Roberts and the Grateful Dead’s Lewis Wuori all had great run finishing with 70 plus laps but nobody could catch Kevin’s Zoom’ in 12 tooth Charger and we were scored in the following positions.

Kevin Browning 79 laps
Bill Kurtz 77 laps
Chris Walker 76 laps
Gary Butner 73 laps
Lewis Wuori 72 laps
Dustin Roberts 70 laps
Andy Lancaster 69 laps
Skylar Spake 67 laps
Don Berbel 64 laps
Dwayne Hoyle 63 laps
Alan Moss 56 laps ( tracked out )
Tommy Jakubowski 53 laps (mechanical )

The Sportsman division had the largest “Goblin Intervention” of all and it happened to a racer who had the fastest and undoubtedly the car to beat this day. But first let’s set it all up:
The foursome that included Bill Kurtz, Dewayne Hoyle, Andy Lancaster and Kevin Browning hit the bullring oval with a vengeance. If Bill had anything for Kevin it would be today but what neither of them saw coming was Dewayne’s Chevy Monte Carlo who made the meat in this NASCAR sandwich and pushed everyone to their limits. 3.1 was a slow lap in this race and although fast it was somewhat uneventful. Kevin did have a uncharacteristic off and Dewayne suffered from some “getting used to” his cars speed but it was quiet until Andy’s #3 Chevy popped out in turn one and then all hell broke lose …. Bam, Bam and oh-no as cars sprayed against the wall and into the infield. The only racer to escape the carnage was Kevin who hit all three cars but stayed in the slot. It was one of the cooler crashes I’ve seen in the series but throw in a computer glitch that had us re-run the forth lane and it marked the beginning of the end of our run against Kevin as he simply drove away from us in the final heat, we all knew it would take a perfect day to bring him down.
It was now up to Chris Walker to end Kevin’s strangle hold on the series and he went to work straight away. Chris laid down top laps in his first 2 lanes but then he plugged into Red and the Goblin was waiting, the car stopped but seemed to want to go … a pick-up shoe? Nope, back on the track and the same results. A track was called and Chris given the time to make a quick repair, was it fixed? Nope, it was the controller and he was out of freebies, Kevin flew to grab him another controller but the damage was done and there would be no soup for Walker Racing this day. Chris did fight his way back for second by two laps over Bill Kurtz ( you could have taken a few more seconds getting Chris that controller, Kevin) and the Fly’n Dewayne Hoyle scored yet another high mark in the series with a forth place finish, only two back from Bill.
As we crossed the line the tower lined us up as:

Kevin Browning 370 laps
Chris Walker 359 laps
Bill Kurtz 357 laps
Dewayne Hoyle 355 laps
Gary Butner 354 laps
Skylar Spake 346 laps
Lewis Wouri 333 laps
Tommy Jakubowski 332 laps
Alan Moss 330 laps
Dustin Roberts 325 laps
Andy Lancaster 319 laps
Don Berbel 298 laps 

It was another fantastic day for the Southern region and I know I speak for all when I say Thanks to Bob for opening his home for us. We now take a holiday break for family and bacchanalia and we wish everyone a Holiday Season to remember.
The southern racers resume competition on January 16, 2010 at Electric Motor Speedway in Belwood, North Carolina.
See everyone next year and thank you to all for making this hobby so enjoyable


Bill Kurtz
Charlotte, NC


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## Ron Walker (Apr 8, 2006)

Hi Bill, my name is Ron Walker and i live in charlotte, outside of MintHill on 218.My Q ? to you is, is there any clubs in or near charlotte,and the cars your racing are they ho? and how do i get in? thanks Rocket Ron Walker


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## mahorsc (Mar 26, 2008)

hi ron 
my name is kevin 
i just posted bills race report 
we race with the Southern Sportsman(yahoo group) we are from SC-NC-WV-VA -TN we travel to each race one time a month bill is in Charlotte i am in Charleston sc you are more than welcome come join us 
we race t-jets fray/vhors and jl/aw cars with nascar bodies 
check out southern sportsman racing yahoo groups or my web site 
www.lchors.yolasite.com 
thanks kevin


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