Derek Kraus fastest at Pensacola, Cleetus buys a Super Late

Seeking his second career victory in the ASA STARS national Super Late Model tour, Derek Kraus topped the timing charts on Friday evening for the Sunshine State 200 at Five Flags Speedway.

It’s a sign, he says, of building more speed into his still-new VanDoorn Racing Development No. 9 program.

“We got really good speed in our VanDoorn Racing car so looking forward to tomorrow,” Kraus told Short Track Scene after the second session. “I feel like we got a good baseline for the race and just need to qualify up front and get good track position and go from there.”

Also near the top of the single lap speed charts was Tristan McKee of Wauters Motorsports, Jade Avedisian of Wilson Motorsports, Jake Garcia of FR8 Racing and George Phillips of Wilson.

Kraus believes the track should be pretty similar for qualifying tomorrow as it was in the evening when he posted his fast mock lap.

“Yeah, I mean obviously there was a lot of grip in the last session,” Kraus said. “I feel like when we mocked the sun was still up, it was setting, but it was still up so I think temperatures will be similar as tomorrow morning.

“Tomorrow is going to be hot and slick and I feel like we had good longer run speed here too. We had a good stable race car for the race and hopefully things don’t change too much and we have a good run tomorrow.”

Despite posting the second fastest lap, McKee is still looking for more.

“We’re struggling a little bit,” McKee said. “I think the tires are a little bit different from when we were here for the Derby and testing so just trying to get a hang of it. Five Flags is super tough for us.

“There’s not a lot of grip. It’s abrasive. The corners are pretty long so we’re just trying to get the car turning and we’re struggling with that a little bit. The speed is there. Just trying to get more handling. The mock run speed is there, obviously, so just got to get the handling a little better for the race.”

Avedisian won a World Series of Asphalt race last month and says that speed carried over to Pensacola.

“We just need to manage our race the we can,” Avedisian said. “I haven’t done many day races in the past so I’m just looking forward to it. I think managing our track position is going to be  a big deal because it’s hard to pass here.

“Getting track position in qualifying early and managing that is going to be the most important thing.”

Cleetus is getting a Super Late

Garrett Mitchell, better known by his YouTuber name Cleetus McFarland, has made headlines for joining Richard Childree Racing for an O’Reilly Series race at Rockingham Speedway next month.

But, in addition to that, his intentions to take his race craft more seriously also includes purchasing a new Port City Race Cars straight rail Pro/Super Late Model for use later this summer and beyond.

Mitchell sold a power boat to fund the purchase of the turn key race car, as publicized by his own social media channels, and has the great fortune of already owning a race track (Freedom Factory) in Bradenton, Florida to turn laps whenever he wants.

The YouTuber turned NASCAR media darling is very tall, well over 6’, meaning that the car is actually needing to be built custom to accommodate his height. He had hoped to have this car ready before his Rockingham start but team owner and Port City co-owner Mark Rette is building one specifically for him.

Mitchell is going to race with Rette, who also has managed his ARCA program over the past two years, and intends to have the car ready for him to race the two big UARA Super Late Model races at Freedom Factory this season –

October 17 — The Bigley Tune-Up Race
November 27 – Bill Bigley Memorial 128

Rette says Mitchell is asking all the right questions and that they are just trying to be as smart and methodical as possible so that they can get the most out of having this car. It will be built as a Pro Late Model first but can be swapped out for Super competition once Mitchell is ready to push even further into his race craft.  

Snowball Derby winning vibes

Stephen Nasse thought he would feel something upon coming back to Five Flags Speedway for the first time since officially winning the Snowball Derby in December.

The adverb was important because Nasse realized he didn’t feel much differently because as far as he is concerned, he won the race back in 2019, when it was stripped away for a titanium brake component deemed illegal by then inspector Ricky Brooks.

This weekend, Nasse says, is business as usual.

“It’s tough (because) I thought there would be like a certain feeling of like accomplishment but I already been there, because I feel like I won it in 2019 and that one was special to me, even if it’s nice to finally have the trophy back home,” Nasse said. “It’s nice to have it displayed at my parents’ and the grandfather clock next to it, so at the end of the day, I just want to come back and do it again.

“I want multiple and multiple Snowball Derby wins and silence any backlash there might be. I want to dominate this race and it’s very possible with some of the cars we’ve had over the years and didn’t get it done.”

Nasse won the race with Anthony Campi Racing’s HAMKE program but he is entered into this race with his personal car, which is also a HAMKE, with some support from the Campi team, which is now fielding P1 chassis.

Davis, NEXUS, GMS mull title run

Spencer Davis enters this weekend at Pensacola fourth in the ASA STARS championship standings and 38 points back of leader Carson Brown.

If he stays in contact through the next two races, at Pensacola and Dominion, he thinks that will be enough to get his NEXUS Racing and GMS Race Cars program to go full-time.

“Hopefully we do,” Davis said. “We kind of had a similar approach with our CARS Tour championship chase. We were top-three and kind of top-fived them to death. Once we got that first win, we rolled off three of them, so hopefully a similar thing happens here.

“I’m pushing to run the full season, and I know our NEXUS and GMS guys want to race, but it’s got to make sense and we don’t want to catch our chickens before they hatch.”

ASA Race Day

The Sunshine State 200 is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. Central Time, with qualifying taking place at 11:00 a.m. The race will air live on TRACKTV.

Subscribe to TRACKTV here.

Practice results