Solon Springs, Wis. ~ The Brady Smith Racing team logged some miles this past weekend, as they competed in four races at four different venues in four states in four nights. Smith's best finish of the weekend came on Friday night at the Vermilion County Speedway in Danville, Ill. He posted the third fastest time in qualifying and finished second in the dash to earn a spot in the $10,000 to win feature. "The Deuce" ran among the leaders throughout the 50-lap feature and finished a solid fourth in the final rundown.

Saturday night brought the team to the Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. for a $10,000 to win event. Smith failed to make the starting field after hitting the wall hard in qualifying. He had to resort to a back-up car and finished seventh in his heat race and eighth in the consolation event. The Solon Springs, Wis. native is still tenth in the yearlong point standings even though he has skipped two events this year.

Sunday and Monday would bring two tenth place finishes to the driver of the AMSOIL #2 MasterSbilt from Mars / Pro Power Monte Carlo. Smith ran tenth in the $10,000 to win event on Sunday at the Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, IN after setting the second fastest time and finishing third in the dash. The weekend wrapped up on Monday night at the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. Smith took the "Dirty Dozen" head on and finished tenth in the $10,000 to win, World of Outlaws Stacker2 Late Model Series event after starting fifth. The 'Gopher 50' event at the Deer Creek Speedway on Monday was taped by the SPEED Channel cameras for airing on Saturday, July 16 at 4 p.m. EDT.

"It was a decent weekend for us, aside from wrecking the car at Florence on Saturday," said the young Late Model driver. "It was our first time ever at Florence and that place is hard to figure out. Danville was a good race for us on Friday night and that racetrack was very racy. At Haubstadt on Sunday, we qualified and ran strong during the dash, but I spun out on the opening lap of the feature. Then at Deer Creek last night, we just went too hard on tires. That track usually takes harder tires, but it held up better than I thought it would."

Smith is slated to be in action at the famed 1/2-mile, high-banked oval of the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio this Friday and Saturday evening.

In other news, Smith's website, located at www.bradysmithracing.com, has been fully renovated with a new look. The website, which reflects the new color scheme due to the new AMSOIL sponsorship, is always being updated with news, schedule information and results.

AMSOIL Opener

Hibbing, Minn. ~ After a rain-out during the opening weekend of racing in Superior, Wis., the AMSOIL Late Model Series headed north for the first race of the 2005 season. On hand were Team AMSOIL driver and defending champion Darrell Nelson. He was joined by other Team AMSOIL drivers Pat Doar and Kelly Estey. But the checkered flag and the first night of points would go to a newcomer to the event.
Terry Casey of New London, Wis. captured his first ever AMSOIL Late Model Series victory Tuesday night at the Hibbing Raceway. Casey started the 35-lap event from the inside of the second row and tracked early leader and three-time Series champion Steve Laursen of Cumberland, Wis. for much of the event before powering past into the lead and the win.

Pole sitter Caley Emerson and outside front row starter Laursen brought the 25-car field to the green flag with Laursen taking the edge at the line. Bob Reed and Casey trailed the leaders and those four quickly put some distance on the fifth place battle which was a stout one between Jeff Broking, 2004 feature winner Paul Brust and Jeff Provinzino. Broking was able to put a car length on the others and claimed the fifth spot. The top four runners still had nearly a straight away on Broking in fifth as Laursen was eyeing up the back of the field in preparation for some heavy traffic.

The first and only caution flag of the event occurred when Bill Byholm and Steve Vesel made contact in the fourth turn which sent Vesel spinning. Byholm was sent to the rear of the field and Vesel was restored to his place in the running order.

Laursen began to stretch out his lead as Casey quickly worked his way to the runner-up slot and set off in pursuit. The gap to Emerson began to widen, as it appeared Casey was intent on tracking down Laursen and making it a two-man shootout for the win and the early Series point lead. Behind the front-runners, Provinzino made his way to fourth with Broking fifth, while Reed slipped out of the top five in sixth. Laursen and Casey pulled a full straightaway lead on Provinzino, while further back Reed regained the top five in fifth and Doar was into sixth moving up from his 12th starting slot.

The battle up front turned into a war as Casey drew up on Laursen and the two went wheel to wheel for the point. Casey was able to draw alongside and power by into the lead. The laps flew by quickly as the race went without a caution flag to slow the action. Casey and Laursen closed quickly on heavy traffic at the back of the field as further back Provinzino held third, while Emerson and Reed skirmished for fourth, a battle that was joined by Doar.

Click Photo to see the Hibbing Late Model Race Photo Gallery

Casey began to work his way through traffic, which was very heavy as a number of drivers were in an intense battle for position. As Casey worked his way around cars, Laursen was able to close up at times to within a car length but was not able to make a run at Casey for the lead as the laps quickly wound down to the checkered flag. Casey held on to the lead to the line for the sweep with Laursen finishing second followed by Provinzino, Emerson and Reed in the top five.

For more on the heat winners and the series point's race go to http://www.amsoil.com/latemodelracing/2005/index.aspx. The AMSOIL Late Model Series continues on July 29 at the ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wis.

Checkered Flag Notes

· Ryan Posocco and his Eagle Leasing teams experienced several problems this past weekend at both the Thompson Speedway and Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Conn., but the two-time defending Late Model Champion says he could not be more "ampped" about his team's efforts and getting back on the track this week.

"Thursday night at Thompson we fought with an extremely tight car all day" stated Posocco. "Steve Litwin and the guys made several changes throughout the night but nothing worked. I am not sure what caused the car to be so tight. In our first race back in April the car did not drive anything like it did this past Thursday night, so Steve and his guys will go through the entire car this week and see if they can find anything wrong. Hopefully come this Sunday when we go back to Thompson the car will be better and we can see what we can do with it.

"All in all it was a tough two nights of racing. But a few things hit me on Friday night that made one of our worst nights at the track one of my best nights as well. First, no one on this team put their head down after the engine broke. We all know that stuff like that is going to happen. We've just been very fortunate over the past few years that we have not experienced much engine problems. That's because we have the best engine builder out there in Performance Engines and Billy the Kid. Also we've been missing the setup with the chassis, but again, no one has gotten down. We know we have the best chassis builder out there in BFR Chassis and Bob Fill and between him and our team working together to figure it out, it's only a matter of time before we get it right.

· Friday, June 3 saw FiveEights Racing competing in another USAC sanctioned Sprint Car race at I-69 Speedway in Gas City, Ind. Things were looking good early on as driver Bryan Stanfill qualified 22nd out of 52 cars. Starting third in the heat race, Stanfill had to "race his butt off" to hold off the challenges of a couple faster cars, but was able to finish fourth, transferring straight to the night's main event.

Starting 19th in the main, the number 53 DRC chassis was on, passing cars with ease and making it up to 10th place before running over debris after a lap 16 crash, cutting the right rear tire and relegating the team to a 22nd place finish for the second race in a row.

FiveEights Racing will be competing in the next scheduled USAC events, June 17-18 at Lima, Ohio and Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The current issue of Sports Illustrated has a great article on Eldora Speedway.

· The 10th Frame / Monday Motorsports Chevy Monte Carlo was on hand for the "Thursday Night Thunder" Late Model event at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wis.

In qualifying, they turned a 19.746 on a nearly flawless first lap. That was good enough for seventh overall, just .006 seconds out of the dash. In the fast heat race, they started dead last in the 10th spot. The car stayed in one piece and avoided trouble as many cars in front of them raced side-by-side, bouncing off the walls and each other. The number 10 car finished the heat race in ninth.

In the feature event, they started outside row two in the fourth spot. Early in the race, the maneuvered the car down into the inside lane to grab the third. On lap 12 the driver was able to make his way around the second place care, but was unable to track down the leader. The 10th Frame/Monday Motorsports car currently sits in seventh in the WIR Late Model Point standings.

· Rhett Urseth of Casa Grande, Ariz. has qualified for the Loretta Lynn's Amateur Nationals in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. in the 125 B Mod class. Urseth rode his Kawasaki KX125's and KX250F's to the transfer spots last weekend at Glen Helen.

AMSOIL is the Presenting Ssponsor of the 2005 AMA Air Nautiques Amateur National to be held at Loretta Lynn's Ranch August 1-6.

· Bill Leahy won his heat on Friday night and finished fourth in the feature at the Red River Valley Speedway in North Dakota. The modified driver also took home a third place feature win at the Norman County Raceway on Thursday night.

· Johan Hansen's #8H, AMSOIL modified won the main event at I-76 Speedway, Ft.
Morgan Colo. on Saturday May 28. Hansen had the weekend off from the BST Jasper Modified Series, where he is currently leading in the points.

· Mountain View Racing is has a strong year in the Northwest Formula Mazda Series. On May 29, Dave Gaylord qualified second at the Pacific Raceway in Kent, Wash. Gaylord was able to close the gap and held on for a third place finish in the main.

The next night was a more successful for the team. Gaylord again qualified for second. During the feature, he closely shadowed the leader for three laps before taking the win by a six second margin.

After five races, MVR has three wins and a narrow points championship.