Even without Ricky Brooks in charge, the Five Flags Speedway post-race inspection station remains the Room of Doom.
This time, it bit Anthony Campi Racing and a moonlighting William Byron after they crossed the finish line first on Friday night in the Southern Super Series Kioti 100 in Pensacola. Byron cleared the scales and was subjected to the mandatory post-race teardown where it was determined that the panning beneath the fuel cell was not in compliance with the rules.
Thus, the No. 24 was disqualified, and Jeremy Doss and Bob Lyons Racing inherited the win instead.
In real-time, Campi was too frustrated to speak on the record and the inspection crew was about to begin inspecting the support class but the gist of the disqualification falls under Section A4 of the Southern Super Series rule book:
No under car panning outside of frame rails and no further than drivers’ tub front or rear at the bottom of the frame. Maximum drivers tub length is 52 ½” and the maximum width of frame is 53 ½”.
In the heat of the moment, Campi effectively felt like his team has been unfairly targeted in tech this season due to their early season success. He says he’s been running this panning underneath the fuel cell for safety reason.
Other teams were unified in their assertion after the race that Campi had been warned about the panning but raced with it anyway. For what it’s worth, Campi offered via text message on Friday to explain more on Saturday once he gets back to the track.
The rule is written the way it is because teams had started to make inroads with increasingly sealed underbodies as far back as a decade ago and the major sanctioning bodies sought to undo those gains for both competition and financial reasons.
Sealing underneath the fuel cell could theoretically create a de facto rear diffuser of sorts for added rear downforce. At least, that’s the conviction in the garage.
JEREMY DOSS CLAIMS FIRST BLIZZARD WIN
At first blush, the night was about Byron winning a Blizzard Series race for the first time in his decorated career, but the disqualification bestowed that distinction to Upper Lake, California’s Jeremy Doss instead.
The Blizzard Series is a championship within a championship. The four Southern Super Series races at Five Flags Speedway count towards the track Super Late Model championship. The track champion at the end of the year also earns a guaranteed entry into the Snowball Derby no matter what happens in qualifying on the first Friday in December.
These races also have some of the toughest Super Late Model entry lists of the season. So, for Doss to back up his second place run from April with another second-place that turned into a victory in tech was extremely satisfying for the driver of the Bob Lyons No. 44.
“These are so hard to win so I’ll take one any way I can get it in this moment,” Doss said.
Racers generally say they don’t like winning this way but Doss felt no such aversions to the moment. They event went back to the frontstretch to take a traditional Victory Lane photo.
“It’s hard not to feel happy,” Doss said. “It feels really good. We ran second in the first race here and running second proved it wasn’t a fluke so whether we won or not, it proved something, but I do wish (William) was coming back to race tomorrow night so I could try to go for two-in-a-row but do it on the track too.”
THORN, CRAIG TRIGGER 17 CAR MELEE
The entire complexion of the race changed on a Lap 5 restart when Matt Craig and Derek Thorn came together to ignite a 17-car pile-up in Turn 2.
They were running sixth and seventh when taking the green flag on a restart the lap before. Craig was cleared by his dad and spotter, Jeff, on entry into Turn 1 and Thorn appeared to cut late on his corner exit and sent them on a collision course.
Once they got together, eighth on back either piled-into the crash or had to slam on breaks to avoid receiving any damage. The pile-up was caused by the Phoenix Racing No. 51, driven by Thorn, getting physically stuck to the car driven by Timothy Watson.
From there, cars had nowhere to go — Justin Crider, John Bolen, Boris Jurkovic, Stephen Nasse, Augie Grill, Clint Folsom, Dustin Smith, Billy VanMeter, Michael Hinde, Hunter Wright and Michael Goddard.
It's a parking lot in Pensacola after contact in turn one between Derek Thorn and Matt Craig.
Grab a subscription and watch ASA Southern Super Series / Blizzard Series race #2 live right now: https://t.co/Hfcx6TkeJy pic.twitter.com/CCpPiZgqgJ
— Racing America (@RacingAmerica) July 22, 2023
After the race, Jeff Craig walked over to Thorn, and they talked it out.
“I was just talking to Matt’s dad there, and I hate to say it, but I think it was just a racing incident,” Thorn said. “He was clear coming off the frontstretch and getting into 1, he was coming down, but not fast enough to close the hole up. By time he decided to go down, I couldn’t whoa up and once we made contact, it was game over.”
The younger Craig had his dad’s back on the spotting decisions.
“My dad spots and he does a good job, but I don’t know,” Craig said. “I was told clear and the next thing I know, I got hit in the left rear. Dad has been spotting a long time and does a good job, so I trust him there.”
Ultimately, it was just a disappointing finish for both of them, especially Thorn who won’t be back on Saturday due to the damage. He was set to race both nights for Phoenix Racing but their backup car will be driven by Jake Finch on Saturday when he returns from the ARCA race at Pocono on Saturday morning.
There are no scheduled future collaborations between the two parties.
Southern Super Series Kioti 100
Five Flags Speedway
July 21 2023
- Jeremy Doss
- Gio Ruggiero
- Jackson Boone
- Hunter Robbins
- William Sawalich
- Stephen Nasse
- Jett Noland
- Travis Braden
- Billy VanMeter
- Tony Elrod
- Matthew Craig
- Michael Hinde
- Bubba Pollard
- Boris Jurkovic
- Michael Goddard
- Stuart Dutton
- Conner Sutton
- Jordan Riddick
- Ryan Herbert
- John Bolen
- Derek Thorn
- Augie Grill
- Timothy Watson
- Hunter Wright
- Dustin Smith
- Justin Crider
- Clint Folsom
- William Byron
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