Full Throttle

Tom Hessert III rose to the top of the speed chart Saturday morning, as day two of the ARCA RE/MAX Series open test forged on under sunny skies at Daytona International Speedway.

Hessert, in Andy Belmont’s #14 Ford, circled the famous 2.5-mile Daytona tri-oval in 49.738 seconds, for a top speed of 180.948 mph.

“We didn’t miss today,” Hessert joked, referring to the day before when he was listed second on the speed charts. “This is a good car; it gets better every time we go out.”

The fast lap was turned late in the morning session in a set-up Hessert said was “almost” a qualifying set up.

“It was close to a mock run…not everything we would do for a qualifying set up.”

While that was the fastest lap of the session, it was not the fastest turned so far this weekend. Steve Blackburn is still quickest overall with a speed of 180.995 mph set Friday afternoon.

J.R. Heffner was second quickest in Saturday’s morning session at 180.901 mph, but he quickly brushed off the fast time.

“That single lap is no big deal,” Heffner admitted. “I think I caught a draft off another car coming through four, which probably gave us a tenth of a second.”

Despite admitting he might have had help on the fast lap, Heffner liked his car.

“We’re good, though,” Heffner stated. “We were top 10 all morning, and happy with that.”

Heffner has partnered with veteran ARCA competitor Howard Bixman to form BCR Racing, and together they intend to run 6-8 races in 2009.

The morning session was slowed by a single yellow flag after Brett Butler lost a driveshaft on the front stretch. Butler, driving an Andy Belmont-prepared Ford, rolled onto the grass after the drive shaft came off, and the hot exhaust under the car started a small grass fire, which was quickly extinguished by the Daytona International Speedway safety crew.

The remnants of heavy morning fog once again delayed the start of the on-track activities, as track and series officials worked to dry the damp racing surface. Unlike yesterday, when the first session was delayed by almost 3 hours, today’s efforts resulted in just a 30 minute delay.

The Saturday session will continue at 1:00 p.m., with the first drafting of the weekend on the schedule.

For live timing and scoring, along with live audio, go to http://www.arcaracing.com/.
ARCA RE/MAX Series Open Testing
Daytona Int’l Speedway, Daytona Beach FL
1st Session, Sat, December 20

POS NO NAME TIME SPEED MAKE
1 14 Tom Hessert III 49.738 180.948 Ford
2 74 JR Heffner 49.751 180.901 Chev
3 60A Patrick Sheltra 49.813 180.676 Dodge
4 19 Alli Owens 49.849 180.545 Toyota
5 30B Dominick Casola 49.861 180.502 Dodge
6 69 Steve Blackburn 49.903 180.350 Dodge
7 09 John Wes Townley 50.006 179.978 Ford
8 1A Brett Butler 50.026 179.906 Ford
9 00 Ed Kennedy 50.038 179.863
10 5A Bobby Gerhart 50.088 179.684 Chev
11 25 Joey Logano 50.099 179.644 Toyota
12 32B James Buescher 50.111 179.601 Toyota
13 44 Will Kimmel 50.164 179.412 Ford
14 5C Jonathan Gomez 50.167 179.401 Chev
15 71B Beau Slocumb 50.195 179.301 Chev
16 20 Steve Arpin 50.205 179.265 Dodge
17 51 Eddie Mercer 50.318 178.862 Chev
18 99A John Ferrier 50.393 178.596 Ford
19 33 Ricky Carmichael 50.434 178.451 Chev
20 47 Peyton Sellers 50.446 178.409 Chev
21 07A Matt Lofton 50.475 178.306 Chev
22 15A Ryan Fischer 50.528 178.119 Chev
23 11A Bryan Silas 50.552 178.034 Ford
24 15B Justin Lofton 50.564 177.992 Chev
25 37 PJ Jones 50.574 177.957 Chev
26 95 Chase Mattioli 50.625 177.778
27 9 Derek Murphy 50.630 177.760 Dodge
28 29 Mikey Kile 50.728 177.417 Chev
29 9A Matt Merrell 50.748 177.347 Dodge
30 96 Todd Hoddick 50.764 177.291
31 77 Parker Kligerman 50.788 177.207 Dodge
32 4 Nur Ali 50.791 177.197 Dodge
33 32A James Buescher 50.801 177.162 Toyota
34 81B Craig Goess 50.965 176.592 Toyota
35 0 Butch Jarvis 51.107 176.101 Dodge
36 75B Benny Chastain 51.312 175.398 Ford
37 80C Alex Ciompi 51.340 175.302 Ford
38 81A Craig Goess 51.447 174.937 Toyota
39 27 Dicky Williamson 51.895 173.427 Ford
40 2 Tim George Jr. 52.094 172.765 Toyota
41 48 Leilani Munter 52.141 172.609 Ford
42 80A Barry Fitzgerald 52.437 171.635 Ford
43 14A Marcus Fux 52.674 170.862
44 54 Roger Carter –:–:–.— - Dodge