It’s never a good sign when the story of a given sporting event is something other than the on-field competition. Unfortunately, for 2011’s Second Night, the story of the night wasn’t what was happening on the track, it was the track itself.
Field conditions in any sport are subject to change, particularly when the venue is outdoors and the surface is an ever-changing combination of clay and water. However, that said, what happened Saturday night was beyond even this somewhat malleable inconsistency. The condition of the track was so bad, it significantly impacted the way the events were raced.
Contrary to what a lot of people have been saying and posting, the issue with the field was not one of it being too wet, but rather it was one of it being too dry. Drivers that I spoke to compared it to, among other things, racing in peanut butter. The track was so thick and sticky that the cars had trouble moving in it. Reckoning’s Brian Anderson stated that, “It’s so dry out there, you can barely turn. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Orange Crush’s Ryan Bleuer and Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr.—the league’s pre-eminent speed demons—both mentioned that you had to be careful when slowing down because you might not start up again for a while. “If you stop, you might not get going again for 10-12 seconds,” Gursky Jr. explained.
The first sign that something was going on with the field came before the stands were even half-filled. That’s when the water truck had some difficulty getting off the track after having sprayed it down. The second sign came when the Bad Company beauty car got stuck between the turn 3 and 4 tires. Beauty cars do occasionally crock out, but they don’t usually do so in the middle of a turn as the driver is accelerating. More cars began to have problems as they exited from the beauty contest.
By the time Reckoning and Stranglehold started off the night of racing, it was readily apparent that something was different. Though the Reckoning engines roared to life, the speed of the cars didn’t seem to match. It was like the race was taking place in slow motion.
The tackiness of the mud rendered big hits absent—the best hit I saw in the first round was when Johnny Ryan accidentally hit his own teammate, Pete Ryan after missing a Mean Green Machine car—and significantly slowed down the drivers.
The TDA officials noticed this and, at the first intermission break, had the bulldozers scooping basketfuls of mud off the track. This made racing conditions slightly better during the second round, but for the final event, things regressed again. During the set up for the Scarecrow’s crash through the flaming motor home, TDA bulldozers dumped mounds of dry dirt near the turn 1 tire in order for him to gain extra traction on his approach. They then put out the flaming motor home by spraying it with water. These two acts created a unique situation where, in one lap, Orange Crush’s runner, Bleuer, hit a huge puddle of water and then fifty feet later kicked up a massive cloud of dust while round the turn 1 tire.
Yes, it is tempting to think that field conditions impact everyone the same, but that’s not actually the truth here. Teams set up their cars differently depending on their preferences. Some teams might run with lower back ends than others, while other teams might run with taller tires than other teams. In the case of the track on Saturday night, the former would be a huge detriment for a team, while the latter would be a true blessing.
Knowing the competency of the new TDA owners, the poor track conditions will not carry over to Third Night. Nonetheless, they did have a noticeable impact on the races of Second Night and this is a story line that will permeate all of the following awards and commentary. I will try not to repeat it ad nauseum.
Race of the Night: Orange Crush vs. Reckoning
In a way, it was the only race of the night. The first round was an abysmal series of races thanks to the track conditions and the second round featured two races where the losing teams didn’t appear to collect a lap (Full Throttle vs. Reckoning and Bad Company vs. Orange Crush).
Once the green flag dropped for Orange Crush and Reckoning, all was seemingly right in the world again. The cars seemed to move faster, the engines definitely sounded louder, the hits were harder and more pointed and the slow-motion fog of the evening’s first six races had lifted.
Orange Crush and Reckoning have developed a nice rivalry over the last three years—there is absolutely no love loss between the two teams and the battles between Orange Crush’s Johnny Ryan and Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr. are truly worth the price of admission—but thus far, it has been rather one-sided in favor of Orange Crush. Over the last seven nights of racing, Orange Crush and Reckoning have met six times (five times in the finals) and Orange Crush is 5-1 in those meetings.
Reckoning is a very smart, very good team, as evidenced by the fact that they have appeared in an amazing six straight finals (of which they’ve won two). However, when they go head-to-head with Orange Crush, something seems to happen to them. The field conditions certainly took their toll on Reckoning in the finals—Gursky Jr. alone missed hits twice because of the field conditions and once came to a standstill after running into a huge clump of mud—but Orange Crush had to drive on the same field and didn’t seem that negatively impacted by it.
Here’s hoping that for Third Night, all of the races are of this quality and intensity.
Upset of the Night: Bad Company beats Seek-N-Destroy
On paper, Bad Company should have spanked Seek-N-Destroy. Seek-N-Destroy had two new drivers, Steve Shaeffer and a rookie, Emo XXXXX, and had suffered through a lot of off-track tumult between First and Second Night. Bad Company had raced very hard First Night, looked good even though they lost and had added the very solid Matt Pierce to their roster.
That’s on paper.
In reality, Seek-N-Destroy put up one hell of a fight against Bad Company, stretching out the race for nearly 15 minutes before losing in the end by about five feet of real estate.
So far, there is nothing about this scenario that even remotely suggests an upset; when the favored team wins, it’s hardly considered noteworthy and unique.
What sets this race apart is that Seek-N-Destroy’s Greg Mesich managed to complete 95% of the race in fine form before experiencing some car trouble in turn 4 of his last lap. At this point in time, Bad Company’s Pierce started slowly collecting laps, two and a half laps of which came in a fairly damaged car to eek out a countdown win by managing to complete 96% of the race.
Most Outstanding Driver: Reckoning’s “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht
“Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht is one of the most cerebral and fun drivers to watch in the TDA. He is something of an artist on field, effectively using his near trademark station wagons as his paintbrushes. What I admire most about Vollbrecht is the way he seamlessly moves between roles; whether he’s a runner, crusher, blocker or decoy, Vollbrecht seems equally adept at his position. And, like Johnny Ryan and Tom “Brickman” Lewis, Vollbrecht is exceptional at using his hits to his best advantage.
In Reckoning’s first round match-up against Stranglehold, Vollbrecht’s biggest (and smartest) contribution to the team came between turn 1 and 2. Brian Anderson had completed four laps when THE NUMBER 59 car smashed into him and locked bumpers with him. It appeared as though Anderson’s night was through. Vollbrecht noticed this and delivered a textbook hit on THE NUMBER 59 CAR, freeing Anderson. Seconds later, Anderson took the checkered flag.
In the second round race against Full Throttle, Vollbrecht grabbed the checkered flag himself after his teammates, Steve Gursky Jr. and Anderson were taken out.
In the final event against Orange Crush, Vollbrecht didn’t complete many laps as one of Reckoning’s runners, but he did meet Bleuer hard at the finish line. The Orange Crush runner may have won the race, but he will also have to build a new car for next month and will also be aware that Vollbrecht, like Bad Company’s Kyle Shearer, never gives up while on the track.
Vollbrecht had as good an all around night of racing as I can remember.
Please note: I would have given this award to Johnny Ryan (or Ryan Bleuer) if either of the two raced in all three of the night’s races. Before considering any on-field accomplishments, my criteria to be eligible for the night’s Most Outstanding Driver are two fold: 1) The driver’s team has to make it to the finals, and 2) the driver has to race in all three of the night’s races unless something REALLY special occurs during those two races he does race.
Team on the Rise: Orange Crush
This is the ‘Well, duh!’ award of the night.
After a surprising first round exit in First Night, Orange Crush returned to night’s winner’s circle this time. In doing so, they went from last place to second place and are now focusing on catching Reckoning.
Orange Crush shrugged off the track conditions, though they too were impacted by them, and went out and took trophies home.
Team on the Fall: Mean Green Machine
Mean Green Machine started out the night down a driver as rookie Kenny Prinner had left the roster between First and Second Night. They replaced him, with Dave “Repo” Swan. Yes, the owner of Damage, Inc. I’m going to assume that this is a temporary fix; I don’t think it’s a permanent solution to have the owner of another demo team racing as your fourth driver, but I could be mistaken.
But, in the long run, this minor roster issue isn’t that big of a deal. What I found far more perplexing was the situation surrounding Mean Green Machine’s first round loss to Orange Crush where they were only able to field a three-car team against the defending champions.
Mean Green Machine dropped a driver when John Clemmons starter—his brand new starter—failed just before the race. These things happen. Even with brand new equipment.
What doesn’t often happen in these situations involving mechanical failure is that teams then go out and race 3 on 4. Especially when they have another 8 or so cars waiting in their pit area.
Yes, it was a flip-flop night, meaning that 70s round cars would be raced first round as opposed to in the finals, but that didn’t seem like it would have precluded Mean Green Machine from racing one 80s round car in Clemmons’, now open, spot.
I spoke to Mean Green Machine owner, John Milette (who owns the team, but does not drive for them) and he explained that racing an 80s car wasn’t an option because, “Nothing’s ready.” Milette sighed and said, “They were planning on winning that race and then getting [their 80s cars] ready.”
So, while Mean Green Machine might have had 12 cars in their pit area, on four were drivable at a time. According to Milette, none of the Mean Green Machine 80s round cars had fuel cells and/or batteries in them. Without any kind of backup driver or car available—especially with a possible replacement, Swan, already racing for them—if anything were to happen to one of their four cars, they’d be in for a very ugly showing.
Mean Green Machine did put up a valiant fight against Orange Crush, but 3-on-4 is no way to attempt to put the hurt on one of the most talented teams of the last ten years.
MVP (Most Violent Player): Orange Crush’s Johnny Ryan
This is a new award for this month. The old MVP (Most Valuable Player) Award was changed to the Outstanding Driver and we usher in the new MVP (Most VIOLENT Player) Award. This award is designed to honor and recognize the driver who does the most damage on the track.
Johnny Ryan fit this billing in Second Night. Racing in his first race this year, Ryan made the most of it, repeatedly crashing into Mean Green Machine cars in the first round and, when he couldn’t find them, his own teammates. In the Finals against Reckoning, Ryan laid a huge passenger side door shot on Steve Gursky Jr. in the back straightaway, causing him to spin out and, ultimately, start crushing as opposed to running.
If you want to know what good crushing looks like, just watching Ryan and his teammate, Tom “Brickman” Lewis perform. They make their hits count and spin people out when they can’t get the right bead on them to deliver a kill shot.
Hit of the Night: Tom “Brickman” Lewis on Kyle Shearer
I know that the TDA is an action sport. I know that the fans like to see cars crashing each into each other and flames shooting out of the cars’ stacks, but there is a surprisingly mental part of the sport too that is often overlooked. The Xs and Os of a sport that hides this aspect of things by not involving clipboards anywhere.
I had two choices for Hit of the Night this event. Orange Crush’s Johnny Ryan vs. Reckoning’s Steve Gursky Jr. in the finals and Orange Crush’s Tom “Brickman” Lewis vs. Bad Company’s Kyle Shearer in the second round.
My initial reaction was to give it to Ryan, for obliterating Gursky Jr.’s side in the back straightaway. Upon further reflection though, I changed my mind and have to give it to Lewis for his shot on Shearer. There’s a bigger and more telling story behind Lewis’ hit.
The situation was this: Orange Crush lap runner, Elmer Fandery was just about to complete his fifth and final lap of the race. As Fandery was starting up the front straight away, Bad Company crusher, Shearer, began to accelerate in hopes of stopping Fandery’s car. Shearer never gives up on the track and also loves sending messages to opponents; crashing into Fandery on or just after the finish line would have been ideal for him. Lewis saw this and quickly angled into position to crash into Shearer’s front end.
(Correction notice: In the original version of this story, I had incorrectly labeled Ryan Bleuer as the Orange Crush runner. That has been corrected here).
The hit wasn’t highlight worthy—none of the hits this night were—but this showed me more than anything else: it was a driver looking out for his teammate, understanding what his opponents were trying to do and selflessly giving up his car to protect his runner’s… even though the odds were low that Shearer would have reached Bleuer in time to deliver a shot.
When I saw Lewis in the Orange Crush pits and mentioned this to him, he shrugged and said simply, “I was just trying to keep my runner clean.” And he did.