DAYTONA BEACH, Florida, Nov. 10 – While Aaron Dudley ended the 2007 season with a dominating win at Daytona International Speedway today, Roger Reuse put an exclamation point on his championship with a convincing second place run.
Stamp it official. Roger Reuse is the 2007 Stock Car Road Racing champion.
Running on this weekend with the Historic Stock Cars of Historic Sportscar Racing, this was to be the showdown weekend between the Reuse brothers, Roger and Bobby, to determine the 2007 championship. After finishing ahead of his brother at Mid-Ohio, Bobby had cut Roger’s points lead down to just 65 markers. If the breaks went his way in Florida, Bobby had a real shot.
But fate stepped in, and the showdown was over before it started. On Thursday, a freak accident in the garage sent Bobby to Halifax Medical Center with an eye injury and his weekend as a driver was done. But ironically, his car would still figure in the race outcome.
After the last practice, Roger Reuse pulled into the garage with a broken transmission; very bad news for his hopes because the team lacked a spare gearbox.
But wait – with Bobby out, they had an entire spare car. The car came back off the truck, and with Bobby’s transmission, Roger was back in business.
Qualifying saw Aaron Dudley’s Dodge Charger serve notice of what was to come in the race, posting a qualifying time a full two seconds faster than the Ford of John Goodson, who would start second. Coming third was Roger Reuse’s Monte Carlo, followed by Marshall McLeod, also in a Chevrolet.

The field of 15 stock cars took the green flag at 1:00 p.m., and by 1:00 p.m. and about fifteen seconds, it was clear that the race would be not for first, but second place. Aaron Dudley took off like a shot, and was quickly long gone. But Goodson immediately had his hands full with Roger Reuse. The Ford had the edge in the infield and in the back straight chicane, but the Chevy was far stronger on the straights. Goodson wasn't ready to go willingly, but Reuse wouldn't be denied.
It only took three laps for Reuse to snatch the position. Dropping down off the tri-oval into the infield, Goodson was balked for only a moment by a slower Historic Stock Car. That was all Reuse needed to take them both on the outside of the tight turn one.
For the rest of the race Goodson tried everything he could to retake the position, closing up under braking to right on the bumper of the fleeing Monte Carlo, but it was never quite enough.
At the front, Aaron Dudley was still driving away, on this day in a class by himself.
In fourth, Marshall McLeod was coming. He could see the battle in front of him slowing both cars, and given enough time, he intended to make it a three car fight for second.
But time ran out on both Goodson trying to regain second from Reuse and McLeod trying to catch them both. Aaron Dudley took the checkered flag in a different time zone from the rest of the field.
Roger Reuse won the championship as soon as brother Bobby's car couldn't start the race, capping a successful year of consistency and one win (at Nashville Superspeedway).
Bobby Reuse hung on to second in the final points standings, and Marshall McLeod's fourth-place run vaulted him to third in the standings, followed by Steve Dunn in fourth. Aaron Dudley finished in the fifth position with Bob Davis coming sixth.

LEXINGTON, Ohio., Sept. 8 – ...and then it rained.
What had promised to be a great race with a full field – at a great track – was reduced by wretched circumstance and bad weather in only two days to an abbreviated field and the shortest race in SCRRC series history.
Eight of the series' best teams were set to collide at the SCCA's annual September bash at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this fall Saturday. But by race time, incredibly bad luck had cut the field in half, leaving it to the weather to finish it off. Prior to Friday practice, the Liesfeld brothers, Kenny and Chris, were eliminated by a wreck involving their trailer in Virginia, and 2006 series champion Steve Graham was sidelined at the last minute by a family illness.
It took just three minutes into the first practice Friday morning for the remaining five teams to be reduced to four, when Steve Dunn found the turn five wall with his new car on his second lap.
Now, the remaining four were left to qualify on a damp track Saturday morning: Points leader Roger Reuse and brother Bobby, both in Chevrolets, the Ford of John Goodson, and in his first appearance in the series, 17-year-old James Dunn in a Chevrolet.
The younger Dunn, son of long-time series participant Steve Dunn, comes to the series full of potential, having just completed a three-day Skip Barber school at Mid-Ohio in formula cars, where he was pronounced fast. This would be his first drive in a stock car.
With the weather threatening but holding off, Goodson put his Ford Fusion on the overall race pole, heading the 34-car field of GT-1 racers, A/Sedans, stock cars and other big bore iron.
Bobby Reuse would start 4th overall in his Monte Carlo, with brother Roger's Chevy going off in 8th overall. James Dunn came right behind Roger in 9th OA.
The sun kept coming and going all morning, and it looked as though the weather would hold off for the 2:30 start.
It did ... until 2:29 and a half.
The first sprinkles appeared on the competitors windshields literally as the cars rolled off for the pace lap. But all involved hoped the sprinkle would pass quickly.
Those hopes were dashed for good when the green flag fell on the front straight. As the field streamed under the bridge around turn one and blasted up the straight to the famous “keyhole” hairpin, it had already rained on that section of the track, which was wetter than it looked.

Leading the field, Goodson was the first to know.
Braking through the keyhole chicane, the Ford's rear end jumped out and tried to take the lead. It didn't – quite – but Goodson's long, lurid slide into the hairpin allowed the next ten cars to get by, including both Reuses and James Dunn.
Showing the kind of disregard for the wet that only a 17-year-old can appreciate, James Dunn charged past Roger Reuse down the back straight into the storm. Now Bobby Reuse led, followed by Dunn, Roger Reuse and Goodson.
Then the sky really opened up, and now all four stock cars on wide slicks were nothing but surf boards.
Showing the discretion that really is the better part of valor, Bobby and Roger Reuse broke for the pits at the end of lap one. Dunn and Goodson continued on in the downpour, and immediately wished they hadn't.
In the middle of the long back straight, Dunn's car jumped out from under him, and the wall claimed it's second Team Dunn car of the weekend. Behind him, Goodson wasn't doing much better. With a car that couldn't roll through a corner any faster that five miles an hour without skating straight off (which it did several times) and a windshield gone totally opaque from fogging up, Goodson's second lap timed out at a scalding five minutes plus, before he pulled into the pits to face a fuming crew chief (who had called him in the lap prior).
Both Reuses went back to the garage area to put on rain tires and returned to the track to follow the pace car around for the remainder of the race, but were disqualified under an SCCA rule that forbids leaving pit road for the garages and returning.
By dint of completing the most distance (two laps), Goodson ended up in first place, with James Dunn second and Bobby and Roger Reuse following in third and fourth.
One thing was settled. The 2007 series champion will definitely be named Reuse. But we'll have to wait for Daytona to see which one. By finishing one position in front of his brother, Bobby picked up 25 valuable championship points on Roger, and now trails by only 65 markers.
That's several race positions worth of points, but the field at Daytona is expected to be a big one, and as past experience has shown, anything can happen there. Stay tuned, film at eleven.

NASHVILLE, TENN., July 7 – So what if there were only three cars left to race Saturday night at Nashville? In what had to be the closest, wildest three-car race for the lead in series history, Roger Reuse took his first series win at Nashville Superspeedway, and he had to race for it every lap.
What started off as a depressingly small field at the beginning of the weekend dwindled to only three cars by race time, but the result was the most exciting race of the weekend, a riveting three-car match race with more high points than a five-alarmer in a fireworks factory.
You could have thrown a blanket over all three cars for almost the entire race.
It was an unusual lap that didn't have at least one lead change. On several laps the lead changed twice.
Each of the three cars led at least twice, often going from third to first in one lap (and vice versa).
The weekend kicked off with only six cars making the trip to Nashville, then three had to withdraw with various ills after the second practice, the quickest being Aaron Dudley's Dodge, which succumbed to internal engine problems.
That left only three cars to take the green, the Chevrolets of brothers Roger and Bobby Reuse and the Chevrolet of Steve Dunn. But after qualifying, the three were within half a second of each other, with Bobby Reuse first, followed by brother Roger and Steve Dunn. This could still be an interesting race.
That turned out to be the understatement of the year.
At the green, Bobby Reuse led the first lap and a half. That would turn out to be the longest-lived lead for the first three-quarters of the race.
On the second lap, Roger Reuse took his brother exiting the infield onto the front straight and led through the banking of NASCAR turns one and two. He held it for an entire lap before surrendering it back to Bobby.

Roger retook the lead at the entrance to the infield bus stop chicane on the back straight when Bobby outbraked himself and had to straight line the chicane, dropping to third.
Now, it was Steve Dunn's turn. Exiting the infield, Steve Dunn, with a great run off the corner, took Roger and led the field into the banked first turn.
And so it went for almost the entire race, a swirling three car dogfight, with the lead changing almost every lap and the leader never in front by any more than a car length. Lap charts showing lap leaders were meaningless – a driver could cross start/finish in first and be in third by the time the cars dropped off the back straight to enter the infield.
Alas, it couldn't quite last until race end like that. A scant few laps from the end, Bobby Reuse's throttle linkage began to hang up, dropping him off the pace. Then five laps from the end, it broke, ending his run.
A couple laps later, Steve Dunn spun at the infield entrance, dropping him several seconds back of Roger Reuse. It seemed over.
Or was it? Dunn came storming back, turning his fastest laps of the race, just as Roger's tires were beginning to go off. He was knocking more than a second a lap off the lead. This wasn't over yet. Could he catch the fleeing Reuse?
The answer? Not quite. The checkered flag settled the question, with Roger Reuse winning by a little over two seconds. As if to put a final exclamation point on the dogfight, Steve Dunn cut a tire on the final lap, and he almost spun it after coming across the line.
It may not have been quite as close at the flag as the first three-quarters of the contest, but what a race!
The win moved Roger Reuse into the points lead (610 points), followed by Bobby Reuse (565 points) and Steve Dunn (530 points). Aaron Dudley and Marshall Mcleod follow in fourth and fifth.
The next stop for the Stock Car Road Racing Championship LMSC cars is Road Atlanta July 21-22.

DANVILLE, VA, May 12 – Bob Davis took advantage of Jack Finch's second-lap misfortune to grab his first win of the season at the annual SCCA SAARC-MARRS Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.
Coming to the start Davis's Monte Carlo lined up second among LMSC road racing stock cars, racing in a huge SCCA field that started 52 big-bore cars that included GT-1 cars, other stock cars, Corvettes, Mustangs and Porsches. On the LMSC pole was the always-fast Dodge Charger of Jack Finch, the same car that won here in March. Going off third was Marshall McLeod's Chevy, continuing to show new speed in 2007. The remainder of the LMSC field, in order, was the Monte Carlo of Bobby Reuse (also continuing to get faster each race), Ron Read's Pontiac Grand Prix, then Steve Dunn, Roger Reuse and Chris Liesfeld, all in Chevrolets. Liesfeld would start shotgun on the huge field in brother Kenny's Monte Carlo after his car broke an engine in practice.
At the green, everyone got away cleanly. Bob Davis, starting in the outside row, made up several spots in the overall field when the inside row jammed up going into the 180-degree first turn. He could see Finch, but could he catch him?
The issue was settled on lap two, when an SCCA car blew up at the end of the long back straight and oiled the track right in front of Finch's Dodge. Already committed to a braking line in the fastest spot on the entire race track, there was nothing Finch could do. The Dodge went skating in the oil and spun off to the right. Arriving on the scene just after, Davis went sideways and almost collided with Finch, but managed to stay on the pavement and continued.

By the time Finch got back on track, Marshall McLeod had gotten by for second place. It took Finch one lap to retake that spot from McLeod, and he set off in pursuit of Davis. But there were over eight seconds and six other cars in between them.
Meanwhile, Bobby Reuse, Ron Read and Steve Dunn, running fourth, fifth and sixth in LMSC were coming up through the overall field.
The crowded, short qualifying session relegated some fast cars to the back of the pack at the start, and they would quickly carve their way through the field. Steve Dunn, starting 51st overall in the field and sixth in LMSC, would pick up 23 spots in the overall field by race end. Roger Reuse would do even better, gaining 31 places in only ten laps. Chris Liesfeld would pick up even more spots at first, going from last overall to 23rd in the field on lap eight. But on lap nine, Liesfeld and Ron Read would get together going into the uphill esses and go off, relegating both cars far back in the field.
At the checkered flag, Jack Finch could only close to within six seconds of Bob Davis, who took the win, repeating his win at this same race last year. Finch had to settle for second.
Third was Marshall McLeod, in a relatively uneventful run. Fourth was Bobby Reuse.
After his charge through the field, Roger Reuse picked up fifth and the Hoerr Racing Products Charger award.
Steve Dunn came sixth, and their incident dropped Ron Read and Chris Liesfeld to seventh and eighth.
With his third-place finish, Marshall McLeod picks up the points lead, with a 35-point advantage over Bob Davis in second place. Roger Reuse, Bobby Reuse and Steve Dunn follow in third through fifth.
Due to SCCA cancellation of their June race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, which was scheduled to be the next stop of the SCRRC Tour, the next race will be at Nashville Superspeedway July 6-7.

DANVILLE, VA, March 25 – Aaron Dudley survived an early-race battle with Kenny Liesfeld to cruise to the win at Virginia International Raceway in the SCRRC season opener. But for a failed alternator on the Liesfeld Chevrolet, the outcome might have been very different.
For the first eight laps of the one-hour race, you could have thrown a blanket – a small one – over the top two cars.
The largest field in two years unloaded at VIR for the first Stock Car Road Racing Championship contest of 2007. Saturday, in the second of two qualifying sessions, Aaron Dudley’s Dodge Charger blistered the 3.27-mile VIR course in 1:57.761, a new LMSC record lap. Ron Fariss put his Monte Carlo on the outside pole, followed by Kenny Liesfeld in third.
Qualifying fourth was Bob Davis’ Monte Carlo, followed by Marshall McLeod, Chris Liesfeld and Roger Reuse, also in Chevrolets, Ron Read’s Pontiac and Bobby Reuse’s Monte Carlo. Steve Graham came 10th in a Ford Fusion, and Steve Dunn’s Chevrolet started shotgun.
At the green flag, it took Kenny Liesfeld just two turns to get past Ron Fariss, another two turns to catch Aaron’s fleeing Dodge, and then it was on.
For the next seven laps, it was anyone’s guess who would come around any given turn in the lead. Says Dudley, “We must have swapped places at least four or five times. There was never more than a car length between us.” At one point, the two raced all the way down VIR’s famous twisting “roller coaster” esses side by side, neither driver willing to give an inch.

But then, on lap eight, Liesfeld’s car began to falter. Liesfeld thought he might have a fuel pickup problem: “I thought I was running out of gas,” and broke for the pits. But after fueling, the car failed to start. The alternator had died. His day was over.
Meanwhile, after starting second, Ron Fariss spun off at Oak Tree, dropping back to ninth and moving Bob Davis into third. Davis would take over second after Kenny Liesfeld’s retirement before also becoming a victim of mechanical failure.
From his fifth-place starting position, Marshall McLeod stayed out of trouble and found himself in second spot. Fariss would work his way back up to challenge McLeod after pit stops, but in the end, McLeod prevailed to come home second.
At the checkered flag, Dudley came home with a comfortable 23-second lead followed by McLeod. A steady drive brought Roger Reuse home third, and Steve Dunn came all the way from 11th starting position to finish fourth. For picking up the most race positions, Dunn won the Hoerr Racing Products Charger award.
Bobby Reuse finished fifth, with Chris Liesfeld crossing the line sixth. Following them were Bob Davis, Kenny Liesfeld, Steve Graham and Ron Read.
After a month off in April, the series returns to VIR for the second race of the season, at the SCCA’s annual SAARC-MARRS Challenge May 11-13.