April 24, 2015 #2
Let’s Kick Start the 2015 Blizzard Racing Season Last week our fans were treated to a great 2015 season opener as the “King of the Wing” Sprint Cars made their first appearance at Five Flags Speedway. They really thrilled the fans with some fast paced action. Congratulations to Bobby Santos on his victory. All of last weeks winners are on the back page. Don’t expect any less tonight as the Super Late Models invade the track; This is a class of race cars that don’t take a back seat to any other class. This will be the first of four Super Late Model races this year. It will be a Southern Super Series/Blizzard series show so you can expect a great and very competitive field of cars.
Casey Smith of Austin, SSS Points Leader.
Casey Smith will come in as the Southern Super Series point’s leader after two races. Casey has started the season off on a good note with top five finishes at Opp, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee, with plans to take the first place trophy back to Texas. There is no doubt that Smith can get the job done, but he will have to outrun some mighty stiff competitors such as Donnie Wilson, Bubba Pollard, Augie Grill and a host of other drivers with the same thing on their minds…to be the first to the checkered flag. This weekend will also be a double header as the Supers will travel over to Mobile International Speedway to do it all over again on Saturday night. Jimmy White, owner of Deep South Cranes, has stepped up and will be the new sponsor of the Blizzard Series and the Super Late Models starting tonight.
It just seems fit for Deep South Cranes to be the sponsor, as long as they have been affiliated with the speedway. Jimmy is a “Die Hard” fan of racing and his company is a welcome sight at the track. He and his dad have been in business for many years and are well respected by all. Their business is located just a couple miles from the speedway. I just want to say WELCOME ABOARD BOYS!! Also on the schedule for some exciting racing tonight are the Pro Trucks, Sportsman and Bombers to round out the evening. See storyi inside on Branden Harris moving to the Pro Trucks. We will return in two weeks, May 8th, for a 100 lapper for the Allen Turner Hyundai Pro Late Models. Until then, stay safe, stay well and we’ll see ya at the track!!!
2015 Schedule May 8 Pro Late Model 100 Plus Super Stock, Sportsmen and Bomber May 22 Rubber & Specialties Blizzard plus Pro Trucks, Sportmen and Bombers June 12 Modifieds of Mayhem #5 Plus Super Stock, Sportsmen and Bomber
National Anthem by Susette Sebeck
June 26 Pro Late Double 20/30 Pro Truck, Sportsmen, Bomber, Vintage July 10 Pro Late Double 20/30 Super Stock, Sportsmen, and Bomber July 24 Super Late Blizzard #3, Plus Pro Truck, Sportsmen and Bomber
Chuck Corder Looks at.....
G ar r e t t
Jones
Aug 7 Modifieds of Mayhem #7 Super Stock, Sportmen, Bomber PLUS Faster Pastor and Demolition Derby Aug 28 Pro Late Double 20/30 Plus Pro Truck, Sportsmen and Bomber Saturday, Sept 19 Pro Late Model 100 Allen Turner Tune-Up , Super Stock, Sportsmen and Bomber Saturday, Sept 26 Blizzard Pro Truck, Sportsmen and Bomber DSC Night of Champions Friday-Sun Oct. 23 NOPI Nationals Saturday, Nov. 21 Snowball Preview Thursday, December 3 -Dec 6th 48th Annual Snowball Derby
Just do a quick click through Garrett Jones’ social media platforms. Check out his recent photographs. It’s easy to tell the pint-sized wunderkind, who made a splash as a 13-year-old track champion at Five Flags Speedway two years ago, has hit a growth spurt. When he took the famed halfmile asphalt oval by storm in 2013, winning the Allen Turner Pro Late Model Series track championship, Jones had a voice that wouldn’t stop cracking and a talent that wouldn’t stop blossoming. Jones now finds himself behind the wheel of a Super Late Model. He would love nothing more than to get a breakthrough first SLM win here tonight. Jones hasn’t experienced many
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growing pains since making the leap to SLMs. A pair of fifth-place finishes in the first two Southern Super Series races has him comfortably seated third in the points standings. (Read the rest of the story on our web site.)
While he might be a relatively new face at the famed half-mile asphalt oval, Branden Harris has plenty skin in the game when it comes to racing.
A 12-year veteran of local dirt tracks, Branden Harris rarely lets anything or anyone rattle his cage. The 25 year old has seen a lot in racing and doesn’t easily crack in pressure situations or if other drivers feebly attempt head games. But there is one guy, a go-kart driver no less, who won’t be silenced and constantly needles Harris whenever there’s an opportunity.“He talks a little bit of trash, anything he can,” Harris said of the heckler. “He thinks he runs the show.”
It’s simply that Harris has spent his 13 years on the dirt tracks of Southern Raceway in Milton and up at Flomaton (Ala.) Speedway, places he is by no means abandoning in favor of Five Flags. “We’ll still be racing on dirt,” ensured Harris, who co-owns the truck along with his father, Ronnie. “An opportunity came up and the trucks class has been really cool to watch and develop, and I wanted to be a part of that. Plus, they only race once a month.” On dirt, he competes in the Street Stock class, which is somewhere between a Sportsman and a Super Stock, but “closer to the Super Stocks,” according to Harris.
So who is this pain in Harris’ side? None other than Landen Harris, Branden and wife Whitney’s 6-year-old son.Branden’s toughest critic will be front and center Friday night at Five Flags Speedway to see his daddy make his Pro Trucks debut.
He got one taste of Five Flags in the mid-2000s, driving a Bombers ride.“But that was a one-race, one-time deal,” Harris said. “I think we converted it over to dirt and somebody else drove it.”
For all his miniature bloviating, Landen is a fixture in his father’s shop. “He’ll go get wrenches, screwdrivers, whatever you need,” Branden Harris said of Landen, who competes in go-karts at Pensacola Kart Raceway on Old Corry Field Road.
A graduate of West Florida High School, Harris was born and raised in Pensacola. Now a Molino resident, Harris’ time on Friday nights is typically spent at a dirt track and away from the grandstands of Five Flags.But like Ronnie Harris did for his son, Branden Harris has instilled a love for racing in his son’s genes.
Sportsmen and Bombers, who made their season debuts last Friday, continue their seasons, tonight. The Pro Trucks are making their first race of the new year.
Read the full story on Branden Harris by Chuck Corder on our web site:www. flagsspeedway.com
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FINAL
1 26 Bubba Pollard 2 112 Augie Grill 2 Donnie Wilson 3 4 98 Daniel Hemric Mike Garvey 5 1 29 Anderson Bowen 6 7 11 David Rogers 8 18 Hunter Robbins 21 Johanna Long 9 10 79 Kyle Bryant
FINAL
FINAL 1 10 2 13 3 17 4 8 5 66 6 57 7 7 8 117 9 88 10 99
654 570 394 321 309 Jason Huffmaster 218 Robert Chason 185 Michael Swilley 173 Joe Thornton 170 Brandon Howell 127
Okie Mason David Beale Chris Cotto Donnie Hamrac Heath Mills
FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
6 98 99 1 16 50
26 72 47 56
441 420 397 378 352 303 301 274 259 245
763 633 594 385 314 312 298 284 Andy Wojtaszczyk 281 Darryl Rudd 254
Okie Mason Jay Jay Day Teras Hodivsky Howard Langham Jessie Reid Ty Roberts Ray Hoey Greg Leachman
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 88 99 14 21 30 4 33 9 51
Johanna Long Garrett Jones Jr. Niedecken Ryan Luza Larry Blount Rusty Sanford Elliott Massey
Dustin Smith Ronnie Osmer Perry Patino
765 763 747 623 568 540 538 496 454 450