Pro Late, Vintage, Pro Trucks, Bombers & Sportsmen Being on top of your game, often seems to come and go. Sometimes when you drop out of that position it’s like it takes forever before you return to being on top again. That is exactly what happened to one of the most popular drivers who has ever turned a lap here.. Do you know who that might be? You guessed it. Wayne Niedecken, Jr. He has been a huge crowd favorite at “America’s Favorite Home Track” for decades, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing with age. After going through what I call a slump over the last couple of years, he seems to be back with fire in his eyes, to prove to the youngsters that he can still get the job done. After a great run in last year’s Allen Turner Hyundai Snowflake 100 he has found new life. He is 3 for 3 in the Pro Late Model Division at Mobile International Speedway and hopes to keep that streak alive here at his home track. Will it be a cake walk you might ask? Absolutely not!! We expect a good car count in the Pro Lates for our first 20/30 shootout. Drivers from Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and of course our local driver’s will be out to stop Niedecken’s hot streak. Also racing will be the Sportsman, Pro Trucks, Bombers and Vintage. This is a great chance for some of our newer fans to compare the differences between the race cars from the past to the new modern versions. What a difference time makes. It doesn’t matter if its technology or race cars, everything changes in time.
Enough for now-! See ya at the races!!!
By Chuck Corder
Can Spears Threepeat? Ben Spears refers to Five Flags Speedway as “my Daytona.” For a man who has a special connection to the famed half-mile asphalt oval, racing Pensacola’s high banks always sends an adrenaline rush through Spears. He hopes to continue his winning ways Friday night at his beloved track when the Southern Vintage Racing Association returns. “It’s the fastest we go all season,” said the 36-year-old Spears, who won the last two Vintage features here. “It’s the biggest track we’ll see, too. There’s a thrill of going there. The fact that we get to go to an asphalt track is just a cherry on top of what we get to do on a normal basis.” The Southern Vintage Racing Association is comprised of 1934 Ford and Chevy coupes and sedans that typically compete on nearby dirt tracks, such as Flomaton (Ala.) Speedway and Southern Raceway in Milton. --Continued on page 2--
Spears Continued
“We’re trying to make it three in a row,” Spears said of his quest for a rare hat trick at Five Flags. “I don’t know what makes us so good. I’m still wondering myself why we’re faster than everybody else — some (drivers) that have been doing this a lot longer than I have. “I just drive it. We try to bring a very well-prepared car there. We want to be there at the end to win it.”
July 10 Pro Late Double 20/30 Super Stock, Sportsmen, and Bomber July 24 Super Late Blizzard #3, Plus Pro Truck, Sportsmen and Bomber 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 - Sunday Dec 6th 48th Annual Snowball Derby
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Founded by Bill Daniels and Jerry Venable in 2013, the Southern Vintage Racing Association started small and made it its mission to bring attention to a fun, affordable class. It quickly expanded from its original home track of Flomaton to include dirt tracks deeper in the Florida Panhandle.Sunny South in Grand Bay, Ala., and Mobile International Speedway — both asphalt surfaces — have come onboard this year. The Southern Vintage Racing Association’s season culminates in August at MIS and the Lee Fields Memorial. Spears, who was the series champion in 2013 and was five points shy of a repeat crown last year, is scaling back his racing schedule this season. “It’s all about getting the whole of the sum, making the whole organization bigger and stronger,” Spears said. “Winning that first championship and then finishing second, it was enough for us for a while. We never truly got to fix the car completely each time something happened to it during those two years.” --Read all of Chuck’s story on our web site.--
Jerry Bohlman will have all his tools at his disposal come Friday as he tries to follow in his father’s victorious footsteps. Bohlman will be a part of a deep field when the Southern Vintage Racing Association fueled by Sunoco makes its return.. The local touring series that competes on both dirt and asphalt tracks along the Gulf Coast is comprised of 1934 Ford and Chevy coupes and sedans. The throwbacks sit on open-wheeled frames and boast V8 engines under the hood.
By Chuck Corder Jerry Bohlman has fleeting visions of his father’s glory days on asphalt. Longtime fans of Five Flags Speedway might remember the name “Gary Bohlman” during the early 1970s. The elder Bohlman brought his No. 43 1968 Camaro — two facts the younger Bohlman recalls with ease — to Victory Lane several times until he left the sport in 1975. If Jerry Bohlman’s memory is a little foggy about those years, He was still in diapers when Gary Bohlman started racing; barely out of them when his dad stopped. “I remember being in the pits with the other kids playing,” Jerry Bohlman, now 44, said. “We didn’t care much about the racing. All we wanted to do was take the tools out and dig around in the dirt with them. And then, we’d get into trouble because we’d eventually lose some tools.”
“It puts the fun back into racing,” said Jerry Bohlman, who raced late models for a few years at Five Flags. “There’s no other way around it. They’re inexpensive, for one, and a lotta fun. I enjoy it for those reasons. Plus, everybody helps each other out at the racetrack. “Nobody fights or argues. That, I thoroughly enjoy.” While Jerry Bohlman struggles to reel off details about his father’s racing accomplishments, it’s easy to tell the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. A clear sign of the father-son connection comes when you notice the number on the side of Bohlman’s ’34 Ford Coupe. Just like his old man, Jerry Bohlman proudly displays the No. 43. “I like the feel of throwing it into the corners at Five Flags,” said Bohlman, who competed in both Vintage races staged last season at Pensacola’s high banks. “Driving it in there as hard as I can, it’s a blast. There’s a little slipping and sliding, but that’s just the thrill of the speeds we travel.” A regular pavement poet.
-Read all of Chuck’s story on our web site.
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Driver Jim Pokrant (in blue shirt) had some nice comments on Marty White’s driving 2 weeks ago.