Let’s start this off right. As of Sunday night, both Matt Wilson and Nick Hartung were released from the hospital and are resting uncomfortably at their respective homes.
Wilson reported that his neck hurt, his ribs were really sore and that he found it hard to move, but that he was well on the road to recovery. He spent less than 4 hours in the hospital before being discharged. Hartung was released after about 18 hours of tests with a headache and post concussion symptoms.
Given the severity of both situations—Wilson had to be sawed out of his car after a hard driver’s door hit and Hartung collapsed in the Stranglehold pits after knocking his head against his steering wheel in the third round—the fact that both men are simply out of the hospital is an enormous positive.
Wilson even managed to keep his sense of humor throughout the ordeal. When I asked him how he was feeling, Wilson half-chuckled and said, “It only hurts when I move.” He paused for a second and finished off his thought, “And sometimes when I don’t move.”
Hartung and Wilson both expect to be on the track of Fourth Night’s races.
* * * * *
Race of the Night: Mean Green Machine vs. Bad Company
Second Night of racing was marred by track conditions that varied between bad and Transformers 3 bad. The hits were muted, the drivers occasionally hit chunks of mud that stopped them cold and everything looked as though it were taking place in slow motion. Prior to Third Night, the big question was: how will the track conditions be?
When Mean Green Machine and Bad Company lined up to start the night off, everyone’s collective fingers were crossed. About twenty seconds later, it became quite apparent that everything was back the way it should be.
Mean Green Machine and Bad Company are two of my favorite teams to watch because they are out for mayhem. They go fast, they deliver hard hits and they have fun on the track. Not surprisingly, their first round match-up featured quick cars, crushing blows and a lot of entertainment. It was like something out of the movie Fast Five; all that was missing was Mean Green Machine’s Ryan Decker and Dave “Repo” Swan driving through the streets of Brazil dragging a huge safe behind them.
Decker’s hit on Bad Company’s Kyle Shearer was a hit for the ages (more on this in a minute) and the overall action was a fantastic way to begin the night of racing. This particular race is exactly what the TDA wants all of its races to be.
Upset of the Night: Stranglehold vs. Orange Crush
Stranglehold entered Third Night in last place, having not won a race yet this year. Orange Crush entered Third Night in second place, on the heels of an impressive Second Night victory over Reckoning. Orange Crush seemed like it had finally found its mojo again, while Stranglehold seemed to be doing something south of floundering.
The two teams faced off in the second round and, lo and behold, Stranglehold came out on top, winning a surprisingly even contest. It’s true Orange Crush was probably distracted by the drama surrounding the ejections of Johnny and Pete Ryan, but that had nothing to do with Ryan Bleuer’s car crocking out or Stranglehold’s Bill “The Hammer” Mcmahen pulling away from Orange Crush’s Ron Tyrakowski in the straight aways.
“It was great going up against Orange because we needed to beat them,” Mcmahen
jubilantly told me after the race. “We needed to get that win behind us and put them in their place. Anybody can get beat out here. The track was really rough, but fast!” Mcmahen takes a breath and accepts a handshake from teammate Wally Hartung. “Let these be the final words,” Mcmahen tells me, “The Hammer had one thing to do: Hammer down!” And he lets out a whoop of joy that belies Stranglehold’s impressive accomplishment.
Most Outstanding Driver: Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr.
Through the first two rounds, Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr. kept a relatively low profile. In the first round, he completed a first lap for the ages against Seek-N-Destroy, but ultimately let fellow runner, Brian Anderson, grab the checkered flag. In the second round, he did take the checkered flag, but did so with surprising ease as Mean Green Machine’s crushers seemed to leave him relatively untouched. It was in the finals though where Gursky Jr. made his mark.
“Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht is Reckoning’s ‘switch’ driver. Vollbrecht generally starts out as a crusher, but, in the event that Reckoning’s two runners are taken out, he stops crushing and starts running. He’s won two races this year for them in this fashion. Unfortunately, thanks to a hit he sustained in the second round race against Mean Green Machine, Vollbrecht was unable to race in the finals. (A hit, coincidentally, that came from his teammate, Gursky Jr.).
As the Reckoning/Stranglehold race began, Reckoning looked to be in trouble. Brian Anderson had lost steering and Gursky Jr.’s car was also struggling; he’d lost his back driver’s side tire and was having problems with his front passenger side tire too. Had Vollbrecht been racing, it would have been at this point that he was have switched roles and started collecting laps. For whatever reason, neither of Reckoning’s crushers, Steve Gursky Sr. or Chris McGuire, ever took over the ‘lead runner’ mantle from Gursky Jr. As such, Gursky Jr. had no choice but to keep going.
And go he did. He completed 3 laps without a back tire, blowing up his radiator and motor in the process. But in doing so, he almost single-handedly won the race for Reckoning. Without his superhuman effort to get his car started, go fifty feet, restart, go fifty feet and so forth, Stranglehold would have taken the race in the countdown.
As it was, Gursky Jr. ignored every sign that a driver is not supposed to ignore—he had no oil pressure in his engine and could hear it beginning to fail—in order to eek out just enough real estate for Reckoning to grab the night’s title.
Team on the Rise: Stranglehold
I don’t think many people would have believed prior to Saturday that the key to making Stranglehold relevant again was to rejigger their lineup with a rookie (Michael Noble) and a veteran who hadn’t raced on a consistent basis in about ten years (Wally Hartung). However, that was exactly what happened.
Stranglehold drivers Nick Hartung (Wally’s son) and Noble both told me that the roster moves worked not just because of the driving abilities of the new blood, but because of the ancillary effects too. With the Hartung father/son pairing and the Noble brothers (Michael and Mel Jr.) working together on the field, all men quickly found new, never before experienced levels of trust.
“Knowing my dad is out there,” Nick Hartung says, “I know I don’t have to worry about anything. He’s on it.”
Michael Noble concurs. “My brother and I looked out for each other and I knew he was going to do exactly what he had to and vice versa.”
If Stranglehold can build on the momentum they created here, they will be in fine position to make a run for a Top 3 finish for the season.
Team on the Fall: Damage, Inc
It’d be easy to put Orange Crush here. Easy, but not accurate by any stretch of the imagination. They are a veteran team filled with good, veteran drivers and they’re going to bounce back and come out strong. That isn’t something that anyone has to worry about. Instead, this designation goes to Damage, Inc.
I know what you’re wondering: how can the last place team be the team on the fall? Well, I’ll tell you. Despite an extra week between races—five weeks instead of four—Damage, Inc couldn’t field a team of four painted cars. What’s more, not only did Damage, Inc not have a car take the track for the beauty contest, but they didn’t even have a car in line that failed. There just wasn’t one there.
If there was a bare minimum set of requirements to participate in the night of racing and painting your cars and showing up for the beauty contest are two things that would be very high on that list. And Damage, Inc didn’t hit either of them on Third Night.
MVP (Most Violent Player): Mean Green Machine’s Ryan Decker
I am rapidly becoming a big fan of Ryan Decker. He drives at top speed all the time, will hit anything that moves of the opposite team’s color and takes pride in what he and his team do on a nightly basis. For all the reasons I like Bad Company’s Kyle Shearer, I like Ryan Decker. These are men around whom marketing campaigns should be built.
Decker topped himself Third Night, causing damage all over the track and being a pesky thorn in the sides of both teams that Mean Green Machine faced. In the first round against Bad Company, Decker demolished Shearer in turn 2 and also took out Brice Martin. Against Reckoning, Decker hit Steve Gursky Jr. in the side in a hit Gursky Jr. called “the hardest side shot I’ve ever taken,” and continually bothered “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht.
This is only Decker’s fifth night of racing and he’s growing by leaps and bounds with each race. With a few tweaks to his car building and a few less welds here and there, Decker looks poised to finish off the season in fine form.
Hit of the Night: Ryan Decker on Kyle Shearer
There are very few things sadder in the TDA that a driver sitting in an obviously dead car attempting to make sense of things. After Mean Green Machine’s Ryan Decker blasted Bad Company’s Kyle Shearer in turn 2, Shearer had no recourse but to sit in his car and glumly wait things out. Occasionally, he’d try to figure out if there were a way to right things, to get him racing again, but there wasn’t.
There are several types of hits that are noteworthy.
• The Spectacle Crash.
This hit looks amazing. The crowd oohs and aahs and it makes the highlight reel. The issue with The Spectacle Crash is that it doesn’t always mean anything or help anybody get closer to winning. Reckoning’s “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht nearly flipped Seek-N-Destroy’s Charlie “Sarge” Turnbaugh in the first round, much to the delight of the crowd. Nobody really noticed that Turnbaugh was then able to back away from the hit and continue racing.
• The Meaningful Hit
This hit might not be lifted out of a Michael Bay movie, but it’s a smart hit and will help a team win. It could be something as simple as a small nudge on the back quarter panel that will push a car in a slightly different trajectory than he wanted to go. Orange Crush’s Tom “Brickman” Lewis hit Shearer last month to keep his runner, Elmer Fandery clean. It might not have looked like much to the crowd, but it meant a lot to the team.
• The Kill Shot
This hit knocks out on opponent’s vehicle. Plain and simple.
• The Impressive Aftermath Hit
This hit takes on new meaning after the race is over when people can examine the cars and gape at the damage that was done to the receiving car in question.
What made Decker’s hit on Shearer so fantastic was that it was a combination of all four types of hits. It looked amazing, was meaningful in that Shearer was completely knocked completely out of commission and the aftermath was jaw-droppingly amazing. Decker hit Shearer’s car so hard that Shearer’ steering column was knocked well above it’s normal resting place. How far above? Far enough that Shearer could not reach it while sitting in his driver’s seat.
Yup. Think about that. He had to reach up to get to his steering wheel.
Now that’s a hit of the month.
Most Expensive Hit of the Night: Steve Gursky Sr. on Wally Hartung
The TDA’s video guru, Jason Twite, put an on board camera into Stranglehold driver Wally Hartung’s car for the final race. Reckoning crusher, Steve Gursky Sr. broke the camera when he and Brian Anderson double-teamed Hartung and folded his car.
Worst Teammate: Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr.
After the night of racing was over, Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr. went over to teammate “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht’s wife, Katie, and said, “I’m sorry I tried to kill your husband.”
Contrary to the popular opinion, the worst driver’s door hit of the evening was not Orange Crush’s Johnny Ryan on Damage, Inc’s Matt Wilson, but rather Gursky Jr. on his teammate Vollbrecht.
Vollbrecht was attempting to block a Mean Green Machine car from hitting Gursky Jr. in the front straight away. In doing so, Vollbrecht got directly in front of his runner. When a Mean Green Machine driver trunked Gursky Jr.’s car, Gursky Jr. ended up crashing directly into Vollbrecht’s driver’s side door. Seconds later, another Mean Green Machine driver smashed into Vollbrecht’s passenger side door. There was so little room in the car at that point that Vollbrecht laughed, “I was trying to get my arms up to have the officials stop the race, but I couldn’t get them above my head.”
“We can avoid this very easily in the future,” Gursky Jr. smiled at Vollbrecht. “Next time, just get out of my way.”
Mr. Persistent: Full Throttle’s Ron Johnston
In the first round race between Stranglehold and Full Throttle, one thing stood out about all else: Full Throttle’s Ron Johnston was a man who wasn’t going to rest until he took out as many of Stranglehold’s cars as possible. His main focus though was on Stranglehold’s lap runner, Michael Noble.
Noble chuckles at this. “Johnston just kept coming at me,” he grins. “I was like, ‘Geez, you again?’ He must have hit me four or five times before he finally stopped me.”
It started in between turn 1 and 2 when Noble and Johnston played a weird game of chicken. Johnston lined up in front of Noble, blocking him… but never quite touching him. After a couple of love taps from Johnston, Noble made it passed him only to meet him again and again in a series of big hits. Finally, with his front end pushed up high, Johnston met Noble just before the turn 2 tire and got his bumper stuck on Noble’s passenger side window ledge.
Full Throttle may not have won, but Johnston’s dogged persistence was a sight to behold.