ETVLive! Team Racing Series
July 23rd, 2013 by Jaime Baker
As the ETVLive! Team Racing Series reaches its halfway point of the season we can recap the action from the past six rounds of racing in the good ole Chevrolet Silverado. The series focuses on that aspect of stock car team racing and features eight, four truck teams that battling on Sunday nights to claim glory for their team. The series tours the United States, visiting a variety of courses throughout the season with the ETVLive! broadcast crew and race administrators Dakota Earman and Jerry Wolfe leading the way. Six races in and five drivers have won a race so, not surprisingly, the championship battle is extremely close.
The schedule started off with the ETV-EPLAY.net 150 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race was one of the cleanest of the season with only one caution and green flag pit stops during the race. After starting on the pole, Andrew Berger dominated the race, leading 97 of 100 laps to claim his first win. The teams lined up with the Super Speedway Cup North Union in first followed by their sister team Super Speedway Cup South Rebel and Last Lap Motorsports taking third place for the event.
The second round saw the teams head to Dover for the gmercer.com 150. This race was of a completely different breed as it was filled with close racing, multiple cautions, no green flag pit stops, and a massive crash that left only 10 trucks on the lead lap after a truck on two tires spun in front of the field on a late race caution. RSR Midnight Thunder capitalized on the mayhem and gained serious ground in the points championship, followed by Superspeedway Cup North Union, and RSR Outlaw Trucks.
Round Three saw the teams haul it to Daytona for the mtco.com 200. The race proved to be a good one, especially for Andrew Berger who picked up his second win with help from teammate Terence Donovan as they held off the Twisty Motorsport duo of Garrett Denton and Kevin Vann. This round saw Superspeedway Cup North Union collect their second team win, Twisty Motorsports in second, and Last Lap Motorsports with a solid third.
Race number four was another big one for the season as the glaciertv.com 150 at Kentucky Speedway saw long green flag runs, mixed with caution flag periods and yet another massive race-changing wreck. The Big One left only 14 trucks on the lead lap for the finish, with many of them stricken and looking to survive the shootout before it inevitably ended under caution . . . which it did. Zloop Racing/Darkhorse Racing capitalized on this for their first points win with a one-two finish for Larry Scott Jr and Jeff Baki Jr. They were followed by Last Lap Motorsports in second (with all three of their drivers in the top 10), and Super Speedway Cup North Union in third position.
Round Five saw the teams turning right for the first and only time of the season at Watkins Glen International Raceway for the insidesimracing.com 100. The event featured two competition cautions which drastically affected the race. Larry Scott Jr started on the pole alongside Matt A Kingsbury and ran at the front until an early mistake allowed Kingsbury to take a lead he held until the first competition caution. The race restarted with Kingsbury taking the lead quickly but before the end of the lap he was turned around by Larry Scott Jr. Many teams short-pitted to regain track position – including Kingsbury who restarted in the top five. Kingsbury overtook the two Darkhorse trucks enroute to the victory and Last Lap Motorsports’s first win of the season with a first, third and fourth place finish. Darkhorse Racing finished second overall followed by RSR Outlaw Trucks.
The sixth round saw the draft in another form as the teams duked it out at Michigan International Speedway for the bobearlracing.com 160. The race saw an early caution as a result of a grid stack-up but then went green most of the way. The Big One was bound to happen, and it did when the Crossed Up Motorsports truck of Larry Mullikin got into the rear of a hard charging Matt A Kingsbury. The duo flipped over on the backstretch, ending the race under caution even as Kingsbury and Mullikin miraculously landed on their wheels and took the checkered flag. Superspeedway Cup South Rebel won the race with Last Lap Motorsports second, and Crossed Up Motorsports third.
After six races the team point battle is down to a five point gap as Superspeedway Cup North Union team, consisting of Andrew Berger, Matt Bontempi, Rodd Flagg, and Terence Donovan lead the standings over Last Lap Motorsports who have closed the deficit in recent weeks. The Last Lap Motorsports roster includes Matt A Kingsbury, Ray Kingsbury, Jimmie Jones, Nathan Lamothe, and formerly Brandon Leonard. Third position team Zloop Racing/ Darkhorse Racing trails the leaders by 77 points, their roster includes Larry Scott Jr, Jeff Baki Jr, Joshua Haribson, Steven Cox, and formerly Aaron R Grosskopf. Fourth place team Twisty Motorsports trails by 110 to the leaders and consists of Garret Denton, Kevin Vann, Mark Gloy, and Mark Arthur. 118 points back in fifth position is Crossed Up Motorsports team which includes Billy Weeks, Larry Mullikin, Shawn W Brown, and Tony Bowling. Sixth is Superspeedway Cup South Rebel, which consists of Brandon Churbirko, Frank Buccialia III, Glen Hedrick, and Hunter Bowles. In seventh and eighth positions are the RSR teams as none of their trucks showed up for Michigan International Speedway.
The seventh week of the season brings the Silverados to New Hampshire Motor Speedway as the truckers duke it out again for the point lead and the glory of their team. Join the action live on ETV-eplay.net channel 1 at 8:30 PM Eastern Time.