Due to the circumstances of the race held at Lonesome Pine Raceway on May 30, 2009, we at ShoTime Motosports thought it would be in our best interest to use an article written by someone who is non-biased in this situation.

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 May 30, 2009.  Story written by Shawn Peters

The Super Cup Stock Car Series wrapped up the evening with a 100-lap event. An eight-car field took the green flag for the event, but there were clearly only two cars that were the class of the field. Tyler Nuckles (71) jumped out to an early lead, but by lap 16, Jake Crum (1) took the top spot. On lap 17, the yellow flag was waved for the first caution of the night, tightening up the field. However, on the restart, Crum and Nuckles pulled away once again until a lap 23 caution flag for Kevin Kromer (77) brought Harvery Harrison (51), Mike Mohelski, Jr. (12), and Jack Jones (9) back to their rear bumpers.

After the restart, the top two again began to pull away from the rest of the field, with Nuckles retaking the lead on lap 33. The yellow flag was displayed again on lap 35, this time for an incident involving Brian Harrison (15). The fans would then be treated to a 40-lap green flag run that would see a couple of lead changes between the top two drivers as they proceeded to lap the field. On lap 82 the caution flag was again displayed and Crum hit pit road for fresh tires. On the restart, Nuckles appeared to be slow on the gas, which resulted in Crum pushing Nuckles down the front stretch and around in Turn 1.

On the ensuing restart, Nuckles intentionally spun the #1 of Crum, resulting in a red flag as SCSCS officials warned both drivers and teams that they would be parked if further contact ensued. Despite being the only two cars on the lead lap, Harvey Harrison was shown as the leader while Nuckles and Crum were placed at the back of the field. The first lap of action went off without a hitch; however, at the cars passed by the front stretch grandstands the #71 moved down the track and made contact with the #1, which resulted in further contact entering Turn 1 and the subsequent spinning of both cars. Following this most recent altercation, SCSCS Officials parked both cars for the remainder of the race. Harvey Harrison led the final 16 laps to claim the victory, followed by Mohelski, Jones, Jimmie Nowell (55), and Crum.

             

May 17, 2009

ShoTime Motorsports and Jake Crum have entered into a driver development program for the 2009 racing season.  They will be entering all the races in the 2009 Super Cup Stock Car Series with focus on winning the championship.   With ShoTime's excellent reputation of putting together first rate cars and Jake's driving ability, this can be a great combination for putting together multiple wins this year.

    Their first race together was on May 16, 2009 at the Columbus Motor Speedway in Ohio.  ShoTime Motorsports has not been there in over 30 years and Jake has never been there at all.  With only an hour of practice time, Jake ended up second on the speed charts.  Before qualifying was to start, the rains came in and changed the format just a bit.  Super Cup Series directors decided to put some cars together on the track and do a European style qualifying.  Jake ended up third in qualifying.  With the rules of the top six doing a random pick to see where they will start in the race, Jake ended with the sixth starting position.

    When the 100 lap race went green, Jake wasted no time getting the Team Marines Racing Ford to the front of the field.  By lap four, he went from sixth place to second with some great moves.  Once Jake was there, the team wanted him to race the track and stay in touch with leader and wait to the end of the race before making his move for the lead.  Tyler Nuckles was leading the race and under long green flag runs, Jake was reeling him in.  Tyler is from Columbus and this is his home town track.   There was a caution flag with 30 laps to go and on the next restart, Jake was able to get to the outside of Tyler and they were battling for the lead.  They were beating and banging together for about 6 laps and just as Jake was about to take the lead, the caution came out as two cars got together in front of Jake and Tyler. Jake did an excellent job of missing the wreck. The officials went to the last completed lap and Jake had to restart in second place.  On the next restart, the tires just seemed to be worn out as Tyler was able to get away.  Jake Crum finished second in his first race with ShoTime Motorsports.

    Everyone feels this was a great day for the team as stated earlier that this was the first time Jake had ever seen Columbus Motor Speedway and Tyler Nuckles has been racing there for many, many years.   We feel very strongly that Jake will win multiple races this year and will be one of the contenders for the championship in 2009.  Shotime Motorsports would like to thank Team Marines Racing, the crew and all our fans for their support this coming year.   The next race will be May 30, 2009 at Lonesome Pine Speedway.  Jake Crum has raced there  before and all the other tracks that are left on the schedule this year, so the learning curve will be a lot easier and he we be able to get up to speed a lot quicker.  Thanks again to everyone and good luck to Jake and the team at Lonesome Pine!

       

Mike Kurkowski is mainly a car owner.
He took a different approach at Lonesome Pine Raceway in VA.
He became driver in the Super Car Stock Car Series.
Im sure he didnt know what was about to happen. The inverted start put him starting on the front row for the A&G Coal Company 100.
And he was no fluke. He led the first lap.
He would come home seventh in the race. Not bad for a man making his first race in Super Cup.
Perhaps he may want to start racing cars instead of providing them.
Here he races Jim Crabtree for position in the A&G Coal 100.

 

From what I understand, Mike Kurkowski was only .003 off of Jim Crabtree pole time, which would have put him the third fastest car. I think that is awesome considering Mike is a 52 year old Grandpa who has not been in a race car in 20 years. I think that says alot about the equipment that ShoTime Motorsports puts on the race track. This team does not have mechicanal failures due to the work that the team does back at the shop. They really pay attention to detail. It is a first rate team. Anyone who is looking to drive, be in a competitive car and needs seat time should consider this team becasue it is a winning team. I don't think you would be disappointed. Keep up the great work Mike and good luck in your next race!!

 

by Skip Wall 

Mike Kurkowski went to USA International Speedway with driver Daniel Johnson earlier this year to run a race in the Procup series. When he made the long haul back, an 10 hour drive back to his North Carolina home, he had plenty of time to reflect his disappointments within the USAR Hooters ProCup.

Johnson had blown an engine at the Lakeland Fl. track and found themselves coming back up I-95 early. Moreover the team had a steel bodied car and couldn't compete with the new fiberglass body that USAR had allowed this new season. Kurkowski, like other Procup owners find. its hard to get a sponsor, and more so this year because the USAR had altered its TV package down. USAR also shortened its schedule to try and make the series more affordable for race teams.

Some track promoters, drivers and sponsors are concerned. Some of them question the future of the USAR series.

One of the key elements Kurkowski paid attention to was the series plans to abolish the steel bodied cars next season. Kurkowski knows there are plenty of those teams out there that have these outdated steel bodied cars in their garages.

The drivers want a place to go race. Kurkowski and Shotime Motorsports has some solutions. As an independent owner, Kurkowski, knows there are plenty of those teams out there that has these outdated steel bodied cars in their garages. They cant afford the 5-6K new fiberglass body.

Some of them for various reasons cant afford to go racing in Procup any longer or haven't the past couple of years. Some because of the distance it takes going to tracks coupled with the rising costs of gasoline.

Kurkowski wants to get a group of drivers and race a couple of exhibition races this year and possibly form a series next year at a much more affordable price of racing.

Sherry Clifton, track promoter, for Hickory Speedway, and former ProCup official and businessman Joe Schmalling helped make it possible.

On October 13th at 2 p.m. Kurkowski and his group will get its chance to run in a 100 lap race. He has 12 drivers already entered and feels like that number will grow now that the group has its first race date.

"If we pull this off and other events off this year, it will open the doors up to run a series next year as stand alone events or even as companion events" says Kurkowski.

"We would run for late model purses but will run for much less expense. We will run on used tires or only one set of tires at each race."

If you did that Kurkowski says it would also dwindle down the total costs.

He also says the entry fees would be much lower than the current entry fee that USAR charges.

Kurkowski proposes to run 100 lap features to draw the attention of the fans.

There are lots of things to be decided and Kurkowski is very open minded about the whole situation. He insists he isn't he isn't trying to take away from the Procup but trying to open the doors for teams without the high dollars it takes to run in the bigger series. An affordable series and all for the fun of the sport is the target of this proposed new series.

Interested parties can contact Mike Kurkowski at ShoTimeMotorsports@juno.com

Skip Wall is Editor of Southern Motor Racing and a regular contibutor to KARNAC.com and Real Racin USA.