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Steele Uses Late Pass to Win at CCMP
SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Florida Short Track Report
PUNTA GORDA - On a night saw a major accident and rain all over the Charlotte
County area, the TBARA still managed to get all of its races in Saturday night at
Charlotte County Motorsports Park.
The evening began with Gary Gimmler and Steve Heisler sharing the front row for
the first heat race. For the first three laps, the duo stayed wheel-to-wheel until
Gimmler finally getting ahead. Gimmler pulled away and got the win, with Troy
DeCaire coming in second and Heisler hanging on for third.
As the green flag flew for the second heat, the throttle stuck wide open on Wendy
Mathis’ car going into the first turn. The car struck a tire barrier and got airborne,
sailing over the outside retaining wall and completely ripping down the catch fence
in the process. Mathis landed upside down near pit road, just a couple of feet from
a large tractor. The safety team took its time removing Mathis from her battered
machine, and took her to a local hospital after she was complaining of some back
and wrist pain. Miraculously, no one was injured in the pit area, and Mathis even
wanted to try and find a ride for the feature if she could get back to the track on
time!
After a delay of nearly 45 minutes to cleanup the Mathis accident and repair the
fence, the second heat eventually got started, with Brian Gingras taking the win
and Dave Steele finishing second. Mark Gimmler took the win in heat 3.
Before the feature, the cars lined up on the main straightaway where each driver in
the field was given a quick interview over the track’s PA system. After the warmup
laps, 2006 TBARA series champion Bo Hartley led the field as the green flag fell.
Hartley took off and would dominate the first half of the race, but the man on the
move from the beginning was Steele.
From his 11th place starting spot, Steele worked his way up to sixth by lap 8. It was
here that he engaged with a thrilling battle Joey Aguilar, going nose to tail for three
laps and wheel-to-wheel for another three laps, before Steele finally got by going
out of the fourth turn.
“It was really great to be able run with a professional driver like that,” Said Aguilar,
who would eventually finish sixth. “When you have the confidence of the guy you’
re racing, and know that he’s not going to do something stupid - that’s what it’s all
about.”
“It’s kind of fun racing like that, when you race guys clean,” Steele added.
With Steele continuing his march to the front, Hartley saw his big lead shrink to a
couple of car lengths over Gary Gimmler as lapped traffic came into play. As
Hartley completed the 19th lap, Scott Adema’s engine blew directly in front of the
leaders. Unable to miss the oil on the track, Hartley spun in the first turn and
collected Adema and Gimmler in the process. All three cars were eliminated, with
Gimmler’s car suffering heavy damage to the left front suspension.
“I just couldn’t find the oil on the race track, and by the time I saw it, I was in it,”
Hartley said. “It really felt good being out front like that, and I was really looking
forward to getting a good finish…then this happened.”
After a red flag came out to give the safety crew time to clean up the massive
amount of fluid on the track, Mark Gimmler found himself leading with Steele right
on his tail on the restart. Steele took a couple of shots at Gimmler in the first
couple of laps, but Gimmler slowly started inching away.
With five to go, the handle started going away on Gimmler’s car, and it was only a
matter of time before Steele would make his move. On lap 28, Steele did just that,
diving under Gimmler going into turn three.
“I knew he was back there, and on that restart I just tried to be smooth and keep
the car straight as I could to keep him back there.” Gimmler said. “I could have
stopped him, but I spun my tires coming off of two. I kept getting looser and looser,
and that’s what allowed him to get up there to do that.”
Steele quickly pulled away over the final two laps and won in the TBARA for the
second consecutive week.
“We were worried there for a little bit, because we had to wait for our tire pressures
to come back up after that caution,” Steele said. “We had just enough laps to get it
done. It wasn’t easy tonight, but we were good enough to get the win.”
Gimmler was barely able to hold on to second, as a hard charging DeCaire tried to
get him on the outside coming out of the final corner. Stan Butler was fourth, and
Dude Teate rounded out the top five. With his third place finish, DeCaire
expanded his points lead over Teate and Keith Butler, who didn’t race at CCMP.
The next race for the TBARA is August 4th at New Smyrna Speedway.
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