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More names and chassis types added...

The TRE Brigade Marches Toward Houston!

TRE Chassis, led by 4th place points man and the chassis builder himself, Steve Holzkamper of Gentry, Arkansas will be on hand in force at the Houston USMTS Southern Series events.  Holzkamper's off to a good points start in the Southern Series with three top ten finishes.  He had to use one provisional to make a show in Enid but he advanced from 23rd to 14th in that one. 

Holzkamper will be joined by Keatchie, Louisiana's Jamie Burford in his black #19 TRE-by-Baby-Bone.  The M.O.D.S. champ from 2006 has done very well in qualifying but has had terrible luck in the A mains and currently sits 15th in points.  He's done so well in qualifying as a matter of fact, the he's only run one B-main and that was night 2 at West Siloam.  In that B, he finished 2nd while Shryock finished 3rd.  Of course Kelly rallied from from that 21st starting position to finish 2nd to Jay Noteboom while Burford went from 18th to finish 11th and was running better than than earlier in the race.  He also had a strong run going in the Friday race at West Siloam but hit the wall after going from 13th to 6th.  At Enid, Burford made the top eight redraw on Saturday by coming from 10th to 3rd in his heat and then he held off Jason Hughes to win his heat on Sunday and started ninth.  His A main luck was horrible though.  He broke an axle coming out of the 4-wide salute on Saturday and broke a motor at the start on Sunday and never made an A-main lap at speed the whole weekend.

Speaking of Johnny Bone, Jr., the Pea Ridge, Arkansas racer is currently 11th in the standings but will not run the whole Southern Series and will instead stay closer to home with his TRE and run the Lebanon-Midway $6000 to win Madness in Missouri on April 28th & 29th.  Joining the TRE Brigade in Houston though, will be Alexandria, Louisiana racer Joel Couvillion fresh off a runner-up finish at the Baton Rouge SUPR race this past weekend.  It will be Joel's first USMTS start of 2007. 

I'll check with TRE driver Dustin Hyde of Texarkana this weekend and see if he will make the trip.

Later, I'll look at who might be coming from the Hughes Chassis camp, the Shaw Chassis cars, those Krafty Kraft Kars and maybe a couple more Skyrockets too!

Randy Timms Heads List of Shaw Chassis Racers Headed for Houston!

Wheatland, Oklahoma's Randy Timms is off to a fine start with his Taylor-Shaw in the inaugural season of the USMTS Southern Series. He's second in points with finishes of 4th, 5th, 12th & 18th. That 4th came at the night race at Enid when he charged from 18th starting position. The Sunday race could have had a much better finish but that turned out to be his only DNF so far. Timms may have an ace-in-the-hole at his disposal too and the would be his USMTS Spec Motor which allows him to run an 8-inch spoiler vs. 5. That could be very important at tracks like Gator & 105. We'll see...

The other Larry Shaw Chassis in the top ten in USMTS Southern Series points is former Shaw employee Chase Allen of Midlothian, Texas in the Henderson #76N. Chase has made all 4 features so far with a best finish of 8th at West Siloam and is 10th in points.

Another guy who had some really good qualifying efforts in Enid is an ArkLaTex region racer -- David Mitchell of Ashdown, Araknasas -- in a former Bloomquist Taylor-Shaw. Mitchell is a former Boothill Speedway & Champion Park Speedway Modified track champion and also has many wins around southwest Arkansas dirt tracks. He is currently 13th in USMTS SS points. David started the year off with an 8th at West Siloam but missed the show by 3 spots on the second day at WSS. Qualifying was not a problem at Enid though as he made top ten in passing points both nights with a best finish of 14th in the A mains.

I'm sure sure there will be more Shaws down there so if you know of anyone running a Shaw there, chime in! I'll probably here about a couple more by next week.

Thanks Hook.

Glad to hear that Randy Timms is making the trip. Best of luck to him.

I like dirt!

Hous-ton May Become Hughes-town Next Weekend!

17-year old Rodney "The Rocket" Sanders will make the long tow and lead the Hughes Chassis parade into Houston next weekend. Sanders continues to impress racing fans around West Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico and looks to be one of the region's future stars in this point. He hails from the panhandle town of Happy, Texas. He's run all four features and sits third in SS points. The first night at West Siloam, he came from 17th starting spot to 4th. Good thing because he needed to use those points earned for a provisional on night 2 at WSS when he came from 23rd to 9th. The first night in Enid, Rodney qualified 9th and finished 8th for his 3rd top ten in-a-row after running in the top five. The next night, he had to use a provisional again and DNFed for a 19th place. Sanders was third in last fall's Southern Classic behind Shane Priddy & Jason Hughes.

Speaky of his Chassis builder, Jason Hughes of Colcord, Oklahoma will also be in town for the three shows along with his 2007 teammate Tommy Weder, Jr of Woodward, Oklahoma. Weder -- an $8000 winner earlier this year in Arizona -- is 6th in points while Hughes is 7th. Amazingly, neither driver made the West Siloam opener A main but both have made all 3 As since and both drivers had a top five and a top ten in Enid. Last time Hughes was in Texas for a A-main, he won the $4000 check at South Texas Speedway over in Corpus Christi Thanksgiving weekend.

Speaking of Corpus Cristi, another Hughes Chassis driver happens to hail from that town. Steve Whiteaker, Jr. has numerous wins himself at STS and scored a top ten at WSS before suffering motor trouble at Enid. Whiteaker is currently 16th in points.

And not to be outdone by all these guys, Hughes Chassis has one more representative in the top 20 of USMTS Southern Series points that also plans on being in Houston for the weekend and that would be lady racer Dena Wilson of Cowetta, Oklahoma. With Dena we don't need to say "lady racer" -- she's a racer, period, and prefers it that way. Wilson has a couple of Modified wins at Creek County Speedway in Oklahoma and has won track championships in other classes in Oklahoma and comes from a racing family. I've watched her several times and she's the real deal. She has excellent car control and she's not afraid to race guys or drive it in deeper than the next driver. Husband & crew chief JC Wilson will have her tuned up and ready for Houston!

But that's not it for Hughes Chassis. They will also have perhaps the hottest Hughes Chassis driver on UMP tires these days in the form of Shane Hebert from Scott, Louisiana who will bolt on some ARKK704s (G60s can also be used just no USMTS points awarded if you run the IMCA tire). Shane just won his first SUPR Modified feature last Friday night in Baton Rouge and just wore the UMP Mississippi Mods out last year when he raced with them. Shane has numerous wins at tracks like Pike County Speedway and Thunder Valley Speedway and had two runner-ups back in February at Southern Raceway's Florida Winternationals weekend. Shane is also bringing his Express Race Cars Limited Modified along to take a crack at that $1000 at Motorama on Friday night. Shane's been tough all year in that car having won the Big Star Classic in Many and Spring Nationals at Boothill.

Now that's a pretty stout half-dozen right there! Anybody know of more Hughes Chassis cars running these shows???

Those Krafty Kraft Kars!

There will be several Kraft Kar Chassis Mods in attendance at these shows too.  The Willy Kraft designed cars are now being built in Oklahoma with Shawn Kraft working out of the Ramirez shop in Woodward.

Derick Ramirez is the top Kraft Kar in USMTS SS points at the moment as is in 17th place with a top ten so far.

Brandon Kenny -- another Oklahoma racer sits in 20th spots and plans on making the trip south this weekend too.

Another Okie, Mike Roach just won at Enid Speedway Park's weekly show Saturday night and will also make the trip to the Houston area shows this weekend.  Mike is 27th in points but has been at 3 of the 4 events so far.

But perhaps KK's best hope in Houston may be Louisiana's Michael Robertson.  Robertson has been red hot all year.  He won in Milton, Florida in February and then took ArkLaTex Speedway's Qwik Race Cars Spring Nationals in March.  This past Friday he drove his Kraft Kar chassis to a $750 win at a Sabine Motor Speedway weekly show in Many, LA.  He's also been red hot in his JB Racing Smiley's Chassis Limited too having won at Fast Trax Speedway last Saturday, Sabine on Friday and Ark-La-Tex last night.  All 3 Houston area USMTS Southern Series events for Modifieds will be accompanied by $1000 to win Limited Modifieds.  In addition, I think Micheal's crew have a few tricks up their sleve's for this weekend so those Houston fields better be ready.  I think he's going to be leaving with a lot of Texas money!

Rinehart Trucking Kicks In $1000 point fund for the weekend!

I knew Mr. Ed couldn't stand it if he didn't do something like that. He's one of the best dirt track supporters I know of!

1st in Modified points for the weekend gets $500, $300 for 2nd and $200 for 3rd! Thanks Rinehart Trucking!

Other notes...

If you don't already know, all 3 nights will pay the Limited Modifieds $1000 to win. Entry fees at Motorama (Beaumont) & 105 (Cleveland) will be $50 for the Limiteds. I'll check with Randy at Gator for them or if someone knows what the entry will be there, please post.

Few more names, few more chassis makes to add for this weekend.

First, I left out a Shaw earlier -- actually, a Brooks-by-Shaw that with the way things have been going so far at 105 Speedway in 2007, just can't be ignored. John Armstrong has piloted his #39 to two wins, two seconds & has been in the top five in all 6 2007 features. Armstrong is definitely one of the locals that the road trip guys are going to have a hard time beating, especially at 105. John and Angel Armstrong will also be hosting a Brooks-Shaw driving school at 105 Speedway on June 2nd&3rd.

DrtTrkFan on whowon tells us that fomer USAC Silver Crown Champion Paul White of Temple, Texas will do double duty. He will drive the Bridwell Racing Dust Devil Mod for Jim and Penny Chapman and then a Limited Mod too. Paul drove that car to a couple top five finishes at the State Fair Speedway Xtreme Super National events back in 2005.

I may have left out an important Hoffman Chassis as well.

I think I was told that Chad Wheeler was coming down from Muskogee, OK with his #88. I need to call Wheeler Metals and check that out.

Anyone need directions?  Maybe there's some out-of-towners who do. 

Motorama is in a little town called China, just west of Beaumont off of US Hwy 90 on the left as you go west bound. 

From Motorama to Gator Motorplex in Willis, you can run US 90 west to Dayton (Howard Willis's home town) and join FM 1960 West to I-45 and head north.  Willis is north of Conroe and Gator is real close to the interstate but to get there, take the FM 1097 exit in Willis and turn right.  Follow to Hwy 75 and turn left.  (75 paralells I-45 on the east side).  Track will be 2 miles ahead on left.  I think you can see I-45 from the pits.

Again, a 2-lane alternate that keeps you more north of the Houston area is to go back down US 90 to 326 and turn right.  Go up to Sour Lake and turn left to go west on 105.  Follow 105 through Cleveland and on to Conroe.  You can take the loop around Conroe and get on I-45 north there.  There's also a loop you can take to avoid going through downtown Cleveland too.  I'd recommend it...

From Willis to 105 Speedway in Cleveland is the easiest one.  If you take my alternate two lane route above, you passed the road to 105 Speedway on your way.  Just get on 105 in Conroe and go east.  Before you get to Cleveland, look for Fostoria Road.  Turn left onto it, go over the railroad tracks (which will be able to handle the big rigs by tomorrow! -- and use caution at that crossing -- fast Amtraks I think -- don't want a repeat of Keith Craft at Jackson!) and the track will be about a 1/2 mile up the road.