Rob Warren Survives Night of Chaos on SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Opening Night
February 3, 2020 – New Smyrna Beach, FL…The Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), invaded the Sunshine State Monday night for round one of the SUPRS 2020 Florida Speedweeks, and when the night was done at New Smyrna Speedway Rob Warren ended up the surprised winner after a wild night. Warren won the race by virtue of just hanging on after second place finisher and late race leader Keith Powell ran out of fuel. Third place finisher, Brad Keysor led the most laps, but he too ran out of fuel towards the end of the race, but still managed to come home on the podium for the second straight year at New Smyrna.
Surprised by Win
“That entire race was chaotic,” exclaimed winner Rob Warren. “I’m as surprised as anyone to be in the broadcast booth right now.” His surprise was partly due to having been involved in a caution himself. With only a few laps left to go, and running in the top three, Warren collided with Dave Ohh on the backstretch. The collision sent both drivers for a wild slide into the infield grass. Warren was the lucky one in this incident as he was able to keep going, but Ohh was black flagged and out for the night for being over the SUPRS three incident rule. “I heard Dave high a few times, I just didn’t know he was under me and I was trying to keep my usual low and steady line,” Warren stated.
Wild Night at New Smyrna
The night was filled with chaos and crashes as drivers struggled to find traction on the bumpy, slick surface at New Smyrna. The race wasn’t five laps old before the first caution came out for rookie Sawyer Stout. That was just a harbinger of things to come on a long night where the caution flag flew on nine different occasions, and thirty laps were run behind the pace car as SUPRS officials tried to figure out, who, went were, in the lineup.
Tradition Kept Alive
The win by SUPRS defending series champion keeps alive the tradition of never having had a repeat winner at New Smyrna.
Warren is the seventh different driver to sit in Victory Lane in seven SUPRS contests here. This was Warren’s seventh Speedweek’s win as well, and he is now just two wins behind Ray Sand, Jr. at the top of the All-Time Speedweeks Win List.
Fuel an Issue for Some
Having enough fuel to finish the race became an issue for some of the SUPRS racers and as the caution laps wore on, it was first Brad Keysor that dropped low on the track. Relinquishing the lead while under caution and sputtering to a stop, the Liverpool, NY racer found himself being pushed to the pits by defending race winner Dave Ohh, who was told to head pitside, (per SUPRS rules), for having his third on track incident.
That allowed Keith Powell to inherit the lead and, as the only driver other than Keysor that had pretty much kept his car clean, looked to be headed to victory until the caution flew with two laps to go. As series officials struggled to make sense of the cause of the latest caution, Powell’s Mayfield Missle ran out of fuel and sputtered mightily as he coasted to the pits.
Rookies Hang Tough
Icings on Top Rookie of the Year contenders Zach Sears and Sawyer Stout may not have had a perfect race, but both kept digging and finished the crashfest when many of the veterans SUPRS racers dropped by the wayside with wheels and parts missing. Sears pulls down a fourth place finish while Stout, came home in sixth.
Keysor Breaks Track Record
Brad Keysor blasted to the top of the speed charts in Time Trials and broke the one-year-old track record set by Dave Ohh. Keysor flew around the New Smyrna half-mile in 13.459 seconds. He wasn’t the only driver to go faster than last year’s record of 13.621 though. Rob Warren and Ohh were both below the old mark, with Ohh turning in a time of 13. 470 and Warren stopping the chronograph at 13.536.
Headed Up to Black Creek
The Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series moves to Black Creek Raceway for the second night of the 2020 SUPRS Florida Speedweeks for a 25 lap feature at the big 3/4 mile. Rob Warren is the defending winner of this race.
Black Creek Raceway is one of only two tracks that have held a SUPRS Florida Speedweeks race every year that there has been a Speedweeks. This year’s show at the NASCAR Heat sim racing track is part of the SUPRS/HeatFinder.net Supermodified Challenge and open to anyone that has the track, the SUPRS modification, and has registered to race at SUPRS.net.
Join the Fun in Florida
Fans can join in the Florida Speedweeks fun by watching SUPRS LIVE! All week long you can keep up with your favorite SUPRS racer instantly with live streaming video, stats, and track telemetry by visiting www.SUPRS.net/site/live.
Get Social with SUPRS
Fans can learn more about 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.
SUPRS RACE RESULTS:
- SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Night 1
- Race 23 of 42
- Monday, February 3, 2020
- New Smyrna Speedway
- New Smyrna, FL
- SUPRS rFactor W v7.3 mod
- 50 laps
Time Trials (showing car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, lap 1, lap 2, best lap highlighted)
- 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Justice League: 13.609, 13.459 NTR
- 11-Dave Ohh; Union, CT; TMS Wolfpack: 13.644, 13.470
- 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1st to Finish Race Servers, Designs of Elegance: 13.553, 13.536
- 25-Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN; B&G Racing Photos, RW Woodworking 13.828, 13.695
- 41-Keith Powell; Carrollton, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: 13.759, 13.702
- 7-Nelson Rodgrigues: Stoneham, MA; Star Speedway: 14.035, 22.108
- 22-Zach Sears R ; Round Lake Beach, IL; Midwest Supermodified Series, Adkins’ Glass: 14.133, 14.172
- 42-Carl Becker; Lansing, MI; Wholesale Diamond Exchange, Michigan Hill Gang: 15.167, 14.656
- 40-Sawyer StoutR; Castilia, OH; S&S Cleaning, Kasper; 15.995, 15.251
Feature 50 Laps (showing car number, driver name, sponsors, bonus, starting position, fastest lap, distance behind winner)
- 35-Rob Warren: * | ! | P5 | 13.615
- 41-Keith Powell: * | P6 | 13.816 | +0.899
- 3-Brad Keysor: * | ** | P7 | 13.723 | +6.312
- 22-Zach Sears: P3 | 13.825 | +13.702
- 11-Dave Ohh: P8 | 13.659 | DNF (accident)
- 40-Sawyer Stout P9 | 15.269 | +12 Laps
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues: * | P2 | 13.773 |DNF (accident)
- 42-Carl Becker: P1 | 14.530 | DNF (accident)
- 25-Bob Gangwer: ! | P4 | 13.712 | DNF (accident)
Time of Race: 30:27.107
- * Denotes Lap Led
- ** Denotes Most Laps Led
- ! Denotes Fastest Lap of Race
****2020 SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Schedule****
Tuesday 02/04/2020
SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Race 2
- Black Creek Raceway-25 laps-3/4 Mile
- 8:00pm Practice
- 8:15pm Drivers Meeting
- 8:30pm Time Trials
- 9:05pm Racing
- Current Track Record: Ray Sand, Jr.; 17.016 sec. Set: 02/10/2009(NH)
- Defending Race Winner: Rob Warren
- NASCAR Heat platform SUPRS W v6 mod
