Martin Outduels Hoelzle For TBARA Win
Published: May 17, 2007
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It's been the year of the rookies and young guns this season in the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association.
After nine races of the 24-race schedule, Tampa's Troy DeCaire, 19, and in his third year on the circuit, is the only driver this season to have won three events. Rookie points leader Brian Gingras, 32, from Winter Haven, had his first TBARA win at Bronson Motor Speedway in May. Steven Darvolics, 20, in his sophomore season out of Venice, got his first feature win at the last visit to DeSoto Super Speedway.
The third visit to DeSoto's high banks on Saturday night saw rookie D.J. Hoelzle, 31, from Dunedin, start outside the front row after winning Heat Two. Hoelzle is a past Open Wheel Modified champion at the track. He got the jump on polesitter Tommy Nichols of Tampa and was the class of the field in the early going.
Meanwhile, current points leader DeCaire started outside row six in 12th and made a bold move, high and outside, to move forward five spots at the drop of the green. He then patiently picked off cars to chase down Hoelzle. Taking the lead near halfway, DeCaire looked unstoppable.
Lapped traffic would be the downfall of the fast-moving youngster as his front bumper hooked the rear bar of Michael Smith's car. Both drivers went spinning off Turn Two and had to go to the rear of the field. DeCaire managed to make the best of the situation, moving back up to a seventh-place finish.
Danny "The Hammer" Martin, 20, of Sarasota, used the caution to roll up behind Hoelzle, who had inherited the lead. Martin, a regular on the O'Reilly United Sprint Car Series, pulled alongside Hoelzle out of Turn Four as the two drivers went under the white flag after the final restart. Martin beat Hoelzle into Turn One, taking the lead, and never looking back. He would win the event but did major damage to the car when the throttle stuck wide open under the checkered flag and he hammered the wall.
"That was a great race from where I was sitting," said a smiling Martin in Victory Circle without his car. "The damage is bad, but it's still a great win."
Rounding out the top five behind Martin, Hoelzle and Nichols were Dude Teate in fourth and Stan Butler in fifth.
Hoelzle tried everything to win his first TBARA event.
"I knew I had a problem early, as the car tightened up each lap," he said. "I used the cockpit adjusters to put all the weight into it I could and brought the wing as far forward as possible, but we found a tiny hole in the left rear and only 2.7 pounds of pressure was left at the end.""We have had seven different winners in nine races now," TBARA president Don Rehm said after Saturday night's DeSoto Speedway event. "The shows are getting better and returning to several tracks more this year than in years past seems to be working with the fans."
The next outing for the TBARA will be at New Smyrna Speedway on June 2. It will return to the Tampa area on June 23 for another visit to DeSoto Super Speedway. Visit TBARA.com for more Florida dates and 2007 information.
East Bay standings, Page 9
