You may want to pull up a chair and grab a cup of coffee for this one... This is exactly why I dont do these as much anymore. Cant quit adding to it once I start! This is a TSM report with results and a state of the race, state of the season and maybe even a state of the union in here somewhere... Tootsie Smith Memorial, Shane Hebert, 80 Limited Mods, 170 Total Cars Kick Off 2nd Half! (for action photos, click the attached link from Scotts Custom Art!) Vivian, Louisiana--August 9th. Car owner Joe Mahfouz fielded a fast Express Racecars Limited Modified at last years Tootsie Smith Memorial at Ark-La-Tex Speedway that ended with a 2nd place finish. Were it not for a caution flag negating a pass for the lead, that could have been a win. Cade Dillard was the driver of the then #97 Mahfouz entry but last Saturday, Dillard was off wowing a Wheatland, Missouri crowd with a 26th to 3rd run in USMTS competition. That circumstance set up the best plan B ever. Simply drop off a seven and bring car builder Shane Hebert up from Lafayette to drive #9 to victory lane! Step one was to get through one of 7 heat races and earn enough points to make the top 6 who would then redraw for the first 3 rows of the A-main. Theres an old face thats become a new face this year in the Limited Modified ranks and thats Hooks, Texas native Justin Whitehead, the four-time Cajun Classic winner. The Cajun Classic is the grandaddy of all the Factory Stocks shows that has paid $5000 to win now for the last 9 years at Ark-La-Tex Speedway! The 2014 edition is set for October 17th & 18th. Having no front fenders hasnt slowed Justin down any though and he proved it by being the top qualifier out of 80 entries and making the TSM A-main for the second time in his career. Hebert is focusing more and more on his Late Model program and has won big races all over the region including plenty of major Limited Modified wins but has been looking for some redemption in this one since the first TSM race came to Ark-La-Tex Speedway back in 2010. Six different drivers won the previous TSMs and the last 5 were Limited Modified shows but Shanes name is not among them -- a rarity indeed for any major Limited Modified event with any kind of history. He started his night off in a tie for 2nd in passing points to make that top 6 along with the man who is trying to bring back Hot Chassis to the dirt track world -- Joel Couvillion of Alexandria. It was the third time for both of these drivers to make this A-main at Ark-La-Tex while Couvillion also made the inaugural Tootsie Smith Memorial A-main in Texarkana for 4 A-main starts overall. Jody Prince of J&J Racing qualified 4th best and JC Howell represented the DFW-area well again with a fifth place qualifying effort. Howell made the A-main for the 4th time in the last 5 years while Prince was making his 2nd A-main start -- first one at an Ark-La-Tex TSM. Carthage, Texas racer Jimmy Byrd was the 6th and final competitor to make the redraw for his first TSM A-main start. The rest went to one of four 18-lap B-mains where the top 4 cars would advance from each one to the 40-lap, $3000 to win, $200 to start A-main and thats where some of the best racing would happen in the battles for transfer and unfortunately for some, bad luck or bad circumstances had either bit them in their B-main or in their earlier heat race action. One top contender had a bad break before he even got out of his hot lap session. John Whittington of Vidor, Texas -- one of three former winners entered -- had his car quit in hot laps and the problem caused him to miss his heat race altogether. Then after passing half-the-cars in the first B-main, Whittington made an early exit before it ended too. 2013 winner Derick Grigsby went on to win that first B-main and would start the A in 7th. Derick is the only driver now to have made all 5 Tootsie Smith Memorial A-mains at Ark-La-Tex. Cowboy Richard Blanchard had a great night and finished 2nd to make the A as did BJ Moore who was driving for race-founder and 2010 winner Mark Smith. Moore wound up being the only Arkansas driver to make the A this year. North Texas racer Nick Clinkenbeard was eliminated from his heat early by a wreck and had to start the B-main in 16th but rallied for the 4th and final transfer spot to start the A from 19th. The second B-main was all Brandon Ball and his IRP Chassis #B17 took the win. The 2009 TSM runner-up would start 8th. Modified & Factory Stock ace Bryan Mewborn just acquired one of these full-framed Limited Modifieds/Southern Sport Mods a hand-full of hours before this event but still managed a second place finish to make the show with first time visitor Chad Jones getting 3rd. With Hebert driving for Mahfouz, the steering wheel of Shanes regular ride -- the black #9 Express Racecars house chassis -- was handed over to the capable Ark-La-Tex Modified star Chris Henigan who then struggled with it a little early on. He started 4th in the B and ran out of the top 4 at times before rallying back to grab the fourth and final transfer spot. The third B-main saw The Hulk car -- Clint Batess #13B with another local Modified ace in David Winslet at the wheel -- win it to start 9th in the A. Farmerville, Louisianas Heath Wilson grabbed 2nd with Texan TJ Steele and Ada, Oklahoma racer Darrell Thompson finishing 3rd and 4th and getting in the show. In a bizare turn of events, 2012 winner and IRP Chassis builder Jason Ingalls ended up missing his heat. Two identical looking team cars with close numbers and back-to-back heat race draws, created a situation where Jason initially lined-up behind the wrong one in the staging area and then ended up blocked from reaching the track while his heat went green. That put him in the back of this B-main that had a big mid-pack wreck early. Ingalls got just enough of it to mess up his sharp-looking gold-wrapped IRP #12 for the night or as he put it, I would have bought my way in. (Referring to the 24th starting spot auction.) At this point only Grigsby had a chance to become the first repeat winner of the Tootsie Smith Memorial. After finishing 2nd three years in-a-row, Derick finally got it done last year. The 4th B-main win was claimed by 4th starting Josh Baucom which started him 10th in the A. He was looking to improve on last years 4th place A-main finish in this event. Cliff Tuppers solid 2nd place finish put him in the TSM A-main for the first time. Its been a bit of a roller coaster for Longviews Barry Hornbeck starting with last years Tootsie Smith race. Barry led a lot of laps early in the 2013 version before contact sent him around. Since then hes been upside down in the car and even had the car erupt in flames one night. Billy Jack Brutchin offered his #78 for Barry at this years TSM. Then earlier in the day, the family learned that Barrys father had passed away. Hornbeck did make it out to the speedway in time to qualify and ended up with the 18th starting spot in the A. Snaring the final transfer spot was Bossier Citys Kyle Ingalls to make his second career start in the TSM A-main. Eldorado, Arkansas racer Waylon Ball was trying to make the TSM A-main for the second straight year but his heat race ended in disaster as his #B75 went over, landed on its roof and ended his night in the most serious accident of the night for the Limited Modifieds. That wreck also involved another hard luck racer -- JJ Jennings -- who towed nine hours from Corpus Christi only to be eliminated early with a car too damaged to even run a B-main. Two other hard crashes on the night involved Justin Ingalls doing a quick snap roll with his Modified in turn two during his heat race and Robbie Hickman having a rough ride outside of turn two in the first Factory Stock A-main. North Caddo Ambulance service responded to all 3 of these but no one was transported due to wrecks. Limited Modified racer Larry Bell did end up getting transported by North Caddo after being found unconscious in his car in the staging lane awaiting his B-main. After spending a few days in the hospital, Bell was released but will be recovering from a heart condition for some time. Ark-La-Tex Speedway and the Mark Smith Racing family wish Larry a speedy recovery and appreciate him racing with us Saturday night. With B-mains completed, the lucky dog draw for the 23rd starting spot ended up going to Randy Thompson and then Billy Joe Brutchin outbid everyone else to obtain that 24th and final starting spot which made him the third #30 car in the A-main (Couvillion & Chad Jones were the other 2). 2014 marked the first time for 24 cars to start a Tootsie Smith Memorial A-main. Lots of non-qualifier cash and awards were also handed out at the break as part of this no-entry fee event as the TSM sponsors really stepped up this year. The sponsor list included returning sponsors Smileys Racing Products, Day Motorsports, J&J Racing, C&C Construction, Wicked Racecars, Team 5 Enterprises, Extreme Graphics, Roy Performance Motorsports, Crazy Horse Saloon and Fast Fuel along with new sponsors Race Logic Chassis School (Nathan Gaines of Gladewater, TX won a spot in one of their upcoming classes), WAR Shocks by CDR and Henrys Auto Salvage. After that and a Beginner Cruiser feature that saw a first time ever race winner in Keith Herring of Farmerville with Dylan Jones and Josh Greenwalt sharing the podium with Keith, it was time for the big show. By the way, the big race for the Beginner Cruiser class known as Racing for Ayden and Joe & Martys Cruiser Cup is set for Fan Appreciation Night on September 20th at Ark-La-Tex Speedway. It will use the same rules and format as the 2013 inaugural version did. The Southern DIRT Modifieds will also make their 2nd and final ALT appearance of the year on September 20th. The next event for Ark-La-Tex Speedway is the Labor Day Nationals on Sunday, August 31st with details to come on it. The other piece of business that took place during the break was the top 6 redraw for the upcoming 40-lap A-main. JC Howells best TSM finishes have been a pair of 9ths. After winning heat races earlier in both his Limited Modified and a Factory Stock, JC kept on rolling by drawing the pole for the A-main with Joel Couvillion drawing outside pole. The man on the move at the start was Justin Whitehead from his inside row 2 starting position as he quickly took the lead but not even a redraw of 6 could slow down the Cajun Express for very long as Hebert worked his way to 2nd in the early laps before Howells luck turned sour. The #103 came to a stop in turn four for the only caution of the feature on lap 13. On the restart, Hebert went to the top and Whitehead held the bottom and the battle for the lead was on. Meanwhile, good battles for position were taking place behind that duo throughout the field. Grigsby and Ball battled each other from their fourth row starting spots throughout the race until they got together some on the front straight. Grigsbys car did not handle the same after that and eventually he pulled into the infield and was scored as the 2nd DNF of the event which ended a string of 4 consecutive top two TSM finishes for Derick. That also meant there would indeed be a 7th different winner in this 7th annual event. Hebert made his move to be #7 on lap 15 and took the lead. Justin continued to keep the #36J IRP Chassis glued to the inside berm though while Shane worked the top and for a while, it appeared Whitehead was going to be in contention until the end but unfortunately the transmission broke and sent the #36J skidding into the infield as the 3rd DNF of the race. Brandon Ball entered the top 3 picture soon after and began challenging Couvillion for 2nd while lapped traffic came into play for Hebert. Shane found Justins inside lane to be pretty handy as his car was working equally well in both lanes so not even lapped cars were slowing his Express down. Hebert cruised it home for the win. Ball disposed of Couvillion and tried to reel in Hebert but with no cautions to aid him. it was to no avail. Brandon would have to settle for a repeat of his 2009 runner-up performance. Couvillion scored his best TSM finish with a 3rd place run for Hot Chassis. It was Joels 4th top ten finish in the Tootsie Smith Memorial. Josh Baucom brought a Dominator Chassis home in fourth after scoring a fourth in his trusty old Dirt Works last year in this race. Heath Wilson had a strong 13th to 5th run in a car not numbered A1 but 54X instead. Nick Clinkenbeard charged through a TSM A-main again and for the 2nd year in a row, ended up with a 6th place finish. That was good enough for an extra $100 put up for the hardcharger award by Ralos Lube & Auto. Hot on his heals in that category was Chris Henigan who found his stride in Heberts #9 late in the race and came from 20th to finish 7th. The night would prove even more fruitful later for Henigan as he used another late race caution in the Modified feature to make another late race pass on then leader Dustin Tater Hyde and grab that $600 win with his GRT Modified. 25 Modifieds had entered for the night. For the first time in many years, Ark-La-Tex Speedway will have a big fall Modified event this year as well as the 8th annual USMTS Winter Nationals comes to Vivian for the first time ever on November 6th, 7th and 8th. Weather dates will be November 13th, 14th and 15th. The Thursday race will pay $2000 to win for USMTS Modifieds with $3000 to win on Friday and $4000 to win on Saturday. Limited Modifieds race for $700, $1000 and $1500 and Factory Stocks will go for $500, $700 and $1000. There will be no entry fee for Limited Modifieds or Factory Stocks. Henigans GRT Modified teammate Ronald Ralo Pilkington -- the former track champion in Limited Modifieds, Cajun Classic champion and owner of Ralos Lube & Auto -- also rallied late Saturday for a runner-up finish with Hyde finishing 3rd in his TRE by T8R Chassis. Billy Jack Brutchin had a solid 4th place effort in his Sidebiter and TJ Steele won the B-main with his Hughes Chassis, started 13th in the A and finished 5th to get the Carzy Horse Saloon (Located in Texarkana) hardcharger award worth an extra $100. David Winslet, Kyle Cummings and Rusty Harris were 3-wide at the flag for 6th with Winslet edging out the other 2 for the spot. Winslet also finished 8th in the Tootsie Smith Limited Mod A-main with Cliff Tupper and Jimmy Byrd ending their first time TSM A-main appearances with top ten runs. Bryan Mewborne was 11th in a rare Limited Mod appearance and Randy Thompson had some fun and was the third Farmerville driver in the top 12 after obtaining that 23rd Lucky Dog starting position. In addition to Hebert becoming the first Louisiana racer to ever win this event, drivers from the Bayou State swept the top 5 and had 7 of the top ten spots. The best Louisiana drivers had ever done before this year was 2 in the top 5 last year (2nd and 4th). The home state racers (just barely as like the name implies, Ark-La-Tex Speedway is just a stones throw away from Arkansas and Texas) had been shut out of the top 5 at Ark-La-Tex for 3 Tootsie Smith A-mains from 2010 through 2012 after getting two racers in the top 5 at Texarkana in 2009. A field of 47 Factory Stocks also checked in Saturday and were given 5 heats and two A-mains instead of a B-main with hardcharger awards presented by C&C Construction in each A. Justin Whitehead took yet another Factory Stock win at Ark-La-Tex Speedway in the first A-main while Marcus Caudle of Maud, Texas who has four $1000 Factory Stock wins at four different race tracks so far in 2014, scoring the 2nd A-main win in the final event of the night. Runner-ups went to Doug Vick, Jr. and Johnathan Maxwell with third place finishes going to Lee Carver and Paul Lopez. James Thompson, Cody Myers, Bo Perry and Tracy Cundieff all had top 5 finishes on the night. Vick won the ProMod feature with Jason Beasley and Mike Morris continuing their strong ProMod programs with solid 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Tommy Kent and Jeffrey May rounded out the top five. The Mark Smith/Tootsie Smith racing family along with Ark-La-Tex Speedway want to thank all 80 Limited Modified teams and all 170 race teams for joining us this past Saturday night in Vivian as well as all the fans in the grandstand. Perhaps, like our Modified marquee event (Doug Murphrey Memorial), the Tootsie Smith Memorial has outgrown being a one-day show. Its difficult to pack this much racing into a one-night show. We ran hot laps in 5 classes, 17 heat races combined (for 4 of the classes), 5 B-mains (4 Limited Mod and one Mod), 6 A-mains in the 5 classes and had the necessary break in the middle. A lot of times we do not have intermissions unless necessary and with the way this event is structured, we have to. Everything went as efficiently as possible with this many cars and we finished at 2am. It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes will take place at the 8th annual TSM in 2015. 2014 Tootsie Smith Memorial A-main Finish Fin (Strt) Car#, Name, Hometown, $$$ 1.(6) 9 Shane Hebert, Lafayette, LA $3000 2.(8) B17 Brandon Ball, Farmerville, LA $1000 3. (2) 30 Joel Couvillion, Alexandria, LA $700 4. (10) 25 Josh Baucom, Benton, LA $500 5. (13) 54X Heath Wilson, Farmerville, LA $400 6. (19) 66 Nick Clinkenbeard, Mabank, TX $400 (Includes $100 Hardcharger) 7. (20) 9 Chris Henigan, Marshall, TX $280 8. (9) 13B David Winslett, Bossier City, LA $260 9. (14) 23 Cliff Tupper, Bossier City, LA $240 10. (5) 15 Jimmy Byrd, Carthage, TX $220 11. (12) 727 Bryan Mewborne, Texarkana, TX $200 12. (23) 47 Randy Thompson, Farmerville, LA $200 13. (15) 3 BJ Moore, Fouke, AR $200 14. (11) 75 Richard Blanchard, Coushatta, LA $200 15. (18) 78 Barry Hornbeck, Longview, TX $200 16. (21) 22T Darrell Thompson, Ada, OK $200 17. (4) 8T Jody Prince, Sibley, LA $200 18. (24) 30 Billy Joe Brutchin, Kilgore, TX $200 19. (1) 103 JC Howell, Mabank, TX $200 20. (16) 30 Chad Jones, , TX $200 21. (17) 4S T.J. Steele, Winnsboro, TX $200 22. (3) 36J Justin Whitehead, Hooks, TX $200 23. (7) 69 Derick Grigsby, Marshall, TX $200 24. (22) 81 Kyle Ingalls, Bossier City, LA $200 2010-2014 held at Ark-La-Tex Speedway for Limited Modifieds 2013: 1. Derick Grigsby. 2. Cade Dillard. 3. John Whittington. 4. Josh Baucom. 5. Taylor Frost. 6. Nick Clinkenbeard. 7. Kent Hollingsworth. 8. Adam Roy. 9. JC Howell. 10. Heath Thompson. 11. James Holt. 12. Casey Bagwell. 13. Barry Hornbeck. 14. Jason Ingalls. 15. Adam Penn. 16. Waylon Ball. 17. Steve Hailey. 18. Jimmy Day. 19. Brandon Ball. 20. R.J. Stroman. 21. Bo Day. 22. Lee Patton. 2012: 1. Jason Ingalls. 2. Derick Grigsby. 3. Chris Henigan. 4. Scott Hushelpeck. 5. BJ Moore. 6. Joel Couvillion. 7. Dustin Hyde. 8. Kevin Sustaire. 9. Ricky Burk Jr.. 10. Collin Hodges. 11. Bud Mullins. 12. Chad Moran. 13. Lee Patton. 14. Brandon Ball. 15. James Caskey. 16. Richard Anders. 17. Brandon Cook. 18. Kyle Ingalls. 19. Adam Roy. 20. Josh Baucom. 21. Bo Day. 22. Chase Allen. 2011: 1. John Whittington. 2. Derick Grigsby. 3. Jason Ingalls. 4. Tim Clonch. 5. Mark Smith. 6. Edward Oakes. 7. Josh Beckham. 8. Jimmy Day. 9. JC Howell. 10. Joel Couvillion. 11. Casey Penn. 12. Geoff Lary. 13. Brian Boram. 14. Jake Upchurch. 15. Wayne Melton. 16. Keith Martin. 17. Chris Henigan. 18. Justin Whitehead. 19. Billy Melton. 20. Kevin Dupont. 21. Shane Hebert. 22. Colton Sanders. 2010: 1. Mark Smith. 2. Derick Grigsby. 3. John Whittington. 4. Troy Taylor. 5. Sean Jones. 6. Chris Henigan. 7. Dennie Gieber. 8. Howard Willis. 9. Josh Beckham. 10. Justin McCoy. 11. Collin Hodges. 12. Brian Rye. 13. Chris Howell. 14. Adam Roy. 15. JC Howell. 16. Casey Hinton. 17. Keith Martin. 18. Michael Martin. 19. Cade Dillard. 20. Cody Simpson. 21. Adam Penn. 22. Shane Hebert. (DNS). 2009: (Texarkana 67 Speedway, Limited Modifieds) 1. Kris Rye 2. Brandon Ball 3. Tim Clonch 4. Dennie Gieber 5. Jody Prince 6. David Edwards 7. Joel Couvillion 8. Timmy Culp 9. Steve Crane 10. Kevin McCoy 11. Aaron Roy 12. Robbie Davis 13. Ronald Rollo Pilkington 14. Casey Hinton 15. Danny Hebert 16. Adam Roy 17. Mark Smith 18. Gene Posey 19. Bo Day 20. Jimmy Day 21. 50 Steve Ward 22. Jacob Pirkle 2008: Inaugural TSM. Held at Southwest Arkansas Speedway (Now Diamond Park Speedway) and was a $4000 or $5000 to win Modified race won by Jared Landers. If anybody has the feature results from this race, let us know via facebook. I lost my copy.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:56:05 +0000
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