Whelen So. Mod Tour News & Notes: Caraway
Sophomore Jinx Plaguing Bohn
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Thirteen simply isn’t working for Danny Bohn.
The 2012 season ended on a high note for Bohn with Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors and a championship runner-up finish in the point standings for the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. He also performed well in a couple non-NASCAR events last Fall. The second-generation driver out of Freehold, N.J., was anxious to take the next step in 2013, but it has been a nightmare, so far.
“After the way that last season ended I was really stoked about 2013. We spent hours and hours on the car and had it right where we wanted it,” said the 24-year-old Bohn. “Some bad luck has made us put it back together a couple times now.”
So many times the first race of the season sets the tone for the tone for the year and that tone was more than a little flat for Bohn. His run at the UNOH Battle At The Beach on the .4-mile oval at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway ended when his car flipped on the frontstretch. The incident has proven to be an omen for things to come.
The points season got underway at Caraway Speedway near Asheboro, N.C., on March 16 with another accident that caused quite a bit of damage to his No. 65 Rifenburg Construction/Rustoleum Chevrolet.
“We got a lot of help and got the car put together after Daytona and basically destroyed it again at Caraway,” Bohn said. “It hasn’t been a good start to the season, but there’s time to turn it around.”
An eighth-place finish on March 23 at Southern National Motorsports Park in Kenly, N.C., provided some optimism heading into the April 13 event at South Boston (Va.) Speedway.
“Last year, South Boston is where we got our season on track,” he said just prior to the event. “Hopefully, we can do that again.”
Well, not so much. The 150-lap South Boston race ended on Lap 130 for Bohn when his car spun on the frontstretch and made contact with the inside retaining wall. More repair work is in store for the Bohn camp this week as the Southern Modifieds head to Caraway for the Spring Fling 150 on April 20.
On the bright side Caraway was the site of Bohn’s first tour win last October.
“Caraway is a tricky track,” said Bohn. “You have to do well there in this tour to have a good points finish. It’s tough on tires and that’s the key. Saving something for the end is critical there. I think we’ve made some gains there and we’re getting it figured out despite the accident last month.”
In a season that very little has gone right, Bohn remains optimistic.
“No one is off to a blazing start for the most part, so we’ll keep digging see what we can do. It’s not where you start. It’s where you finish.”
RACE: Spring Fling 150
PLACE: Caraway Speedway, Asheboro, N.C.
DATE: Saturday, April 20
TIME: 8 p.m. ET
TRACK LAYOUT: .455-mile semi-banked asphalt oval
2012 WINNER: George Brunnhoelzl III
2012 POLE SITTER: George Brunnhoelzl III
EVENT SCHEDULE: Practice 3:20-3:45 p.m., Final Practice 3:55-4:15 p.m., Qualifying 5:45 p.m., Driver Autograph Session 6:30 p.m.
TRACK CONTACT: Renee Hackett, 336-629-5803, carawayspeedway@embarqmail.com
TRACK TWITTER: @CarawaySpeedway
EVENT TWITTER HASHTAG: #SpringFling150
NASCAR CONTACT: Jason Cunningham, 704-201-6658, jcunningham@nascar.com, Twitter: @NASCAR_NE
FAST FACTS:
The Race: The Spring Fling 150 is the fourth race of the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. It is the second of five tour events at Caraway Speedway.
The Procedure: The maximum starting field will be 26 cars, including provisionals. The first 23 starting positions will be based on two-lap time trials and the remaining three will be filled through the provisional process. The race will be 150 laps (68.25 miles) with a 10 minute break at or near the conclusion of Lap 75.
The Track: Caraway Speedway has played host to 44 events in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour history, dating back to the tour’s first race on March 26, 2005. Caraway Speedway was originally opened in 1966 as a dirt track. The track was paved in 1972 and became NASCAR-sanctioned shortly after. The track was owned and operated by Russell and Valastra Hackett from 1977 to 2010. Operations were turned over to Darren and Renee Hackett prior to the 2011 season. There is 13 degrees of banking in the turns and the straightaways are banked at nine degrees. The track has a capacity of 6,800 spectators.
The Records: The one-lap qualifying record for the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour is 15.648 seconds (104.678 mph), set by George Brunnhoelzl III on April 21, 2012. The 150-lap race record is held by Junior Miller at 44 minutes, 31 seconds was set on Sept. 9, 2006 for an average speed of 90.977 mph.
CARAWAY RACE NOTES:
Title Implications: In seven of eight previous seasons, the eventual NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion recorded at least two wins at Caraway en route to the title. Brunnhoelzl won three of the five races there last year, giving him eight wins in 17 starts in his three title runs. Junior Miller won five of 11 races during 2005-06 in back-to-back championship seasons, while L.W. Miller (four wins in six races) and Brian Loftin (two in five) used Caraway to springboard to NASCAR championships. The outlier is Burt Myers, who only had two top fives in three races in his 2010 title season.
Introductions Are In Order: Ford and a member of the Myers family were in Victory Lane in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour’s last visit to Caraway Speedway for the first time in a while. The win for Jason Myers was his first on the tour at the track while brother, Burt, won on April 9, 2005 for his only Caraway triumph. The Ford win was the first since Sept. 2009 with Brunnhoelzl behind the wheel.
Spring Fling: Caraway Speedway will be a busy place. In addition to the 150-lap Whelen Southern Modified Tour race, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series will be in full swing with the Late Models and Limited Late Models having features. Additionally, the Legend, Mini Stock, U-Car and Hornet classifications are in action.
HOME TRACKS: Moore Leads At Caraway
Through April 8, Dan Moore has a couple late model wins under his belt and leads the Division I point standings for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series at Caraway Speedway. Ryan Brown holds the top spot in limited late competition. In the Mini Stock division, Mark Baker has a win and the points lead while Jimmy Wallace paces the Southern Modified Lite classification.
LAST TIME OUT: South Boston
Coast-To-Coast: George Brunnhoelzl III went wire-to-wire for the fifth time in his Whelen Southern Modified Tour career. Three of those wins came at Caraway Speedway while the other occurred last October in the season finale at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Trending: Brunnhoelzl and Kyle Ebersole have finished inside the top 10 in each of the three tour events. Brunnhoelzl ran his streak of consecutive top 10s to 28 with his South Boston win.
In A Lump: Brunnhoelzl leads the point standings and holds a 12-point advantage on Ebersole. However, just nine points separate Ebersole in second and Andy Seuss in sixth. Jason Myers, Tim Brown and Burt Myers are the others in the knot.
NEXT TIME OUT: Caraway
The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour is on hiatus until a July 5 return to Caraway Speedway for a tour record 46th race at the .455-mile oval. George Brunnhoelzl III is the defending winner of the race and also had a victory in this July 4th Weekend event in 2009.
Sources: Shon Sbarra/NASCAR WSMT PR