Brad Keysor Closes Out 2020 Speedweeks with Five Flags Speedway Win, Rob Warren Seals Second Florida Speedweeks Championship
February 7, 2020 – Pensacola, FL…Brad Keysor of Liverpool, NY became the fourth different winner in five nights of the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), Florida Speedweeks 2020 when he took advantage of a late race restart to secure victory in the 50 lap feature at Five Flags Speedway. In a finish that had the top taking the checkered flag separated by less than a quarter of a second, Dave Ohh came home in second with Bob Gangwer third.
Although he struggled in the feature race, going a lap down to the leaders, Rob Warren finished exactly where he needed to, taking his second SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Championship by only five points over Keysor.
Winner Gives It All
Brad Keysor knew he had to win, and the other two Speedweeks title contenders had to have a really bad night if he had any shot at the Speedweeks Championship. He gave it his all, leading for three laps early in the race, running in second for most of the 50 laps, then passing Dave Ohh at the end to lead the last four laps and take the win.
“Heckuva run,” said an out of breath Keysor. “I knew I had to win and I saw Rob had issues, then Keith had issues. Dave ran real hard and was burning his right front up.” Keysor found himself in a prime position after a spin by rookie Zach Sears brought out the caution with 17 laps to go. On the restart, Ohh struggled with cold tires, but still pulled away slightly. As his tires heated up, Keysor began to methodically reel Ohh in. With just four laps to go, Keysor pounced. “I knew I had to take a shot at him,” Keysor stated. And he did, passing Ohh coming out of turn four while the leader slid towards the wall.
Keysor is now the 27th different driver to win a SUPRS Florida Speedweeks feature event.
Warren Has Rough Night, Narrowly Claims Speedweeks Championship
Although somewhat different than last year when he won his first SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Championship after tying with Keith Powell, Warren still had to sweat this year’s “Gator Grind” out right to the wire, even though he came into the final night with a 20 point lead. With that big of a cushion all he had to do was finish fifth or better, and he could beat his closest competitor in the chase, Keith Powell.
However, as has been the case so many times before in this 13 year history of Speedweeks, the Championship battle went right down to the finish.
From the drop of the green flag Warren was faced with a myriad of problems including a long slide where he ended up backed into the turn four wall and no caution fell. He got the car rolling but had dropped to eighth place. Now it wasn’t just Powell he had to worry about, because Keysor was running in contention for the win up front while he was mired in the back.
WATCH the 2020 FLORIDA SPEEDWEEKS YouTube VIDEO PLAYLIST
Powell was having plenty of issues of his own, having nearly spun out once which put him just in front of Warren at the back. Then much to Warren’s surprise, and relief, he suddenly found Powell going around coming out of turn two after contact first with Carl Becker, then the outside wall. The trouble is, in the ensuing caution, Warren AND Powell both went a lap down to Keysor.
Speedweeks Champoinship
Fortunately for Warren, and even though Keysor was able to sneak by Dave Ohh for the win, his fifth place finish gave him enough points to avoid another tie-breaker and is now the second driver to go back to back as Florida Speedweeks Champion, and is the fourth different driver to win the Speedweeks Championship more than once. “This one was hard earned,” said Warren. “It’s been awesome racing all week long. Thanks to BreezeGraphics.com, Hairbag Studios and Kevin for all the hard work, Cindy Lou-who at Icings on Top for the awesome awards, and to SUPRS for all they do.”
Warren led the Speedweeks points battle from the drop of the checkered flag on Monday at New Smyrna Speedway where he also won. Throughout the week he finished no lower than third place in the features except at Five Flags the final nigh Warren also had one fast qualifier award and led 48 of 200 total feature laps.
SUPRS All-Star Classic 200 Next
The SUPRS racers head up the eastern seaboard to New Hampshire for the 10th Annual SUPRS All-Star Classic 200 on Tuesday, February 11, 2020. Modeled after the real supermodified “Star Classic” held at Star Speedway, this race is the first of the 2020 Icings on Top Triple Crown of Supermodified Sim Racing.
Just 12 drivers make the show, and that alone makes it something special. Add in the facts that the racing is contested within the confines of Star Speedway’s quarter-mile, there’s heavy traffic almost from the drop of the green, the track tends to get slick as the race wears on, and drivers become fatigued turning 10 second laps, you can bet that this is one of the toughest races on the SUPRS schedule and in all supermodified sim racing.
Watch Supermodifieds at Star Speedway
Cheer on your favorite SUPRS racers while you view timing, scoring, track telemetry , stats and live streaming video of all the racing from the 10th Annual SUPRS All-Star Classic 200 at 9:00pm est via the SUPRS LIVE! page.
The SUPRS LIVE! experience includes two in-car camera views as well as the main video screen and it’s a great place to cheer on your favorite SUPRS racer while hanging out with friends.
Get Social with SUPRS
Fans can learn more about the supermodified division and the original supermodified sim sanction, the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, by visiting www.SUPRS.net. Join SUPRS active and vibrant Social Media channels by “Liking” SUPRS on Facebook, Following @SUPRSOnline on Twitter, and viewing SUPRS videos on YouTube. See us live and join our chat on Twitch.
Speedweeks by the Numbers
- 2: Green to Checker Speedweeks Features
- 3: Different Drivers were Fast Qualifiers
- 4: Different Speedweeks Feature Winners
- 5: Total Hours of Live Speedweeks Video
- 9: Different Drivers to Lead a lap during Speedweeks
- 9: Different Drivers to Compete During Florida Speedweeks 2020
- 14: Cautions Total for Speedweeks
- 51: Laps under Yellow Flag
- 200: Total Green Flag Speedweeks Feature Laps
- 1 hour, 18 minutes Total Time to Complete Speedweeks Features
SUPRS RACE RESULTS:
- SUPRS Florida Speedweeks 2020 Night 5
- Race 27 of 42
- Friday, February 7, 2020
- Five Flags Speedway
- Pensacola, FL
- SUPRS rFactor W v7.3 mod
- 50 laps
Time Trials (showing car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, lap 1, lap 2-best lap higlighted)
- 11-Dave Ohh; Union, CT; TMS Wolfpack: 14.040, 13.833 NTR
- 41-Keith Powell; Carrollton, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: 14.083, 14.044
- 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Justice League: 14.100, 14.055
- 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1st to Finish Race Servers, Designs of Elegance: 14.335, 14.154
- 25-Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN; B&G Racing Photos, RW Woodworking 14.229, 14.274
- 22-Zach SearsR ; Round Lake Beach, IL; Midwest Supermodified Series, Adkins Glass: 14.564, 14.233
- 40-Sawyer StoutR; Castilia, OH; S&S Cleaning, Kasper: 15.137, 14.657
- 42-Carl Becker; Lansing, MI; Wholesale Diamond Exchange, Michigan Hill Gang: 15.507, 15.115
Feature 50 Laps (showing car number, driver name, sponsors, bonus, starting position, fastest lap, distance behind winner)
- 3-Brad Keysor: * | P6 | 14.179
- 11-Dave Ohh: ! | * | ** |P8 | 13.803 | +0.078
- 25-Bob Gangwer: P3| 14.221 | +0.241
- 22-Zach SearsR: * | P2 | 14.231 | +2.753
- 35-Rob Warren: P7 | 14.289 | +1 Lap
- 41-Keith Powell: P5 | 14.383 | +1 Lap
- 40-Sawyer StoutR : P4 | 14.313 | +1 Lap
- 42-Carl Becker: P1 | 14.726 | +1 Lap
Time of Race: 15:32.632
- * Denotes Lap Led
- ** Denotes Most Laps Led
- ! Denotes Fastest Lap of Race
