Nelson 2006

By David McKenney Picture perfect weather and only 2 F500's in the race group made for excellent conditions for the FV race. Polesitter Jim Kearney lead the pack into Turn One, with Ed Womer, Ray Carmody, Justin Barker, Gary Blanarik, David Scaler, and Rick Shields making up the top 7. Ed took the point from Jim on the 3rd lap with a pass at The Kink; three laps later, Jim retook the lead and never again relinquished it. Ray Carmody and Justin Barker were right with Jim and Ed, with Justin getting past Ray on the 12th lap. Gary Blanarik kept tight with them in 5th. The front pack of seven became a quintet when Rick Shields and David Scaler dropped back a bit as they changed positions between themselves. Shortly thereafter, Rick began dropping back with unknown troubles, and David lost several positions with a bobble exiting Turn 13. Just behind the frontrunners was the trio of Dale Rader, Steve Batcha, and Glenn Tupper, and they were having a good old time trading positions amongst themselves. A quartet followed them, consisting of Doug Voss, Jim Rowland, Dan Voss, and Greg Davis, and they were likewise having at each other.

The turning point in the race came on lap 13 when a double-yellow was thrown. The "lead" F500 had lapped all but the leading quintet of Vees by that point, so the pace car picked up that '500 and Our Front 5 wound up at the back of the paceline 6 laps later for the green. As you may've guessed, the restart was not without trouble, with Steve Batcha off at the Carrousel and Greg Davis losing the nose on his D-13 in seperate incidents.

Saturday Qualifying (best of 2 sessions) 1    Jim KEARNEY             Protoform P3           1:16.033 2    Ed WOMER               Womer EV-3            1:16.272 3    Justin BARKER           Protoform P2            1:16.980 4    Ray CARMODY           Mysterian M2           1:17.016 5    Dave SCALER             Mysterian CM2        1:17.030 6    Gary BLANARIK          Caracal C                1:17.212 7    Kerry BOWMAN         Caracal D                 1:17.303 8    Steve BATCHA          Citation 98V             1:17.446 9    Rick SHIELDS             VDF-2                    1:17.562 10  Tim TAYLOR             Protoform P2           1:17.597 11   Ray PHILLIPS            Protoform P3           1:17.773 12   Dale RADER              Protoform P2           1:17.836 13   Glenn TUPPER          Protoform P2           1:18.001 14   Jim ROWLAND          Protoform P2           1:18.578 15   Doug VOSS              Protoform P2           1:18.993 16   Greg DAVIS             Caldwell D13            1:19.071 17   Dan VOSS                Protoform P2           1:22.515