This message was edited on
November 25, 2007 at
09:54:52 AM by hook
But for how long? 
Skyrocket Chassis cars are tough to beat in USMTS shows. Whether it's the new National champion Jason Krohn, Iowa's Zack VanderBeek, Oklahoma's Greg Skaggs, local Houston boys Chris Brown or David Horner (both now with USMTS Southern Series wins in this inaugural year of the series) or the master chassis builder himself, 8-time National Champion Kelly Shryock, the Skyrocketeers are tough to beat!
Shryock may have lost out in this year's Hunt to Krohn and missed being National champion for the first time in the nine-year history of USMTS but he can make up for that disappointment by simply averaging 5th place over the final 3 races this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Houston Raceway Park's USMTS Texas Winter Nationals. If he does that, he's the first ever USMTS Southern Series champion no matter what anyone else does.
In second place in the points standings, is Wheatland, Oklahoma's Randy Timms who drives a Shaw-by-Taylor Chassis in the series. Timms got his first USMTS win this summer in Louisiana during the Southern Speedweek -- a stretch of four races in Arkansas and Louisiana which got Randy into the points race. Timms is 119 points behind Kelly and needs to average a 40 point gain in each of the last three races. While it's not impossible for Shryock to miss an A main, it is highly unlikely. Assuming Kelly starts all the As, there will be a possible swing of 74 points per race.
A lot has to happen to get all 74 of those. To gain 74 points, Shryock would have to finish last without leading a lap and Timms would have to start 22nd, take over the lead before halfway and keep it to the end in order to get the maximum passing and bonus points. Without the bonuses though, Timms could gain as much as 50 points by just winning the race and having Kelly finish last. What Timms doesn't need is what happened on the third night down in Corpus -- a rain out. Rain out's make Shryock that much more likely to lock the Southern Series title up.
The other two nights in Corpus weren't that great for Timms and the other Shryock-chasers either though. Timms was trailing by 101 points before Corpus so he lost ground. It seemed like they had Kelly where they wanted him on the 2nd night has he was forced to use just his second provisional start of the year which meant no passing points for the #3. It's a good thing for everybody else that he didn't get passing points because he came from 23rd to finish 3rd. That 3rd combined with the 4th he had the night before was the best combined finish of the USMTS regulars in Corpus. Kelly really has to make sure nothing goofy happens in Houston where he doesn't make a race by running out of provisionals. If that happens, the picture could change quickly.
If there is a Chassis that has challenged Skyrocket's supremacy this year it's been the Hughes Chassis with it's builder Jason Hughes, third in the standings at -167 and having to average a 56-point gain over the final 3 races. A possible match of his National finish -- 2nd -- is much more likely as he is just 48 points behind Timms. Hughes scored $3000 USMTS wins at Boothill and Motorama and also won the big $20,000 race out in California. Hughes also won the first South Texas Speedway race last weekend.
Jason's Hughes Chassis teammate Tommy Weder, Jr. -- a 2-time Southern Series winner -- is fourth in points at -179. Kansan Scott Green (7th in points), Texas panhandle teenager Rodney Sanders (8th) and USMTS's lady racer, Dena Wilson of Coweta, OK (10th) also run the Hughes Chassis brand.
Bixby, Oklahoma racer Greg Skaggs (Skyrocket) is 5th in points at -214 and is joined in the "barely mathmatically alive" category by TRE Chassis builder Steve Holzkamper of Gentry, Arkansas who is 6th in points at -221. Holzkamper scored a USMTS win at Motorama in Beaumont in October while Skaggs got his 2nd USMTS Southern Series win at Monticello, Arkansas over that field of 73 back in July.
When Thursday night's race is over at HRP we'll know better if anyone has a realistic shot at catching Kelly or if we're just going to be battling it out for second but it'll be fun to watch anyway!
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