3/16/2025
New Smyrna Speedway
Pro Trucks & Super Stocks Steal the Show on Opening Night
Pro Trucks & Super Stocks Steal the Show on Opening Night
New Smyrna Speedway
3/15/2025
We were blessed with beautiful weather and a great crowd to kick off our 2025 track championship chase!
The Ashley Homes JAX Pro Trucks would give the fans their monies worth with a spectacular 25 lap feature to open the main event portion of the program. One of the strongest Pro Truck Fields in the state delivered action throughout the event with multiple lead changes, side by side racing and plenty of drama too. After early race leader Jeffery White dropped out with mechanical issues, Canada’s Anthony Lessard and local standout George Gorham Jr. went to war for the top spot! The Two showed they were the top dogs after they each picked up wins earlier in the year and they showed strength yet again on Saturday Night. The Two would trade paint several times throughout the event and raced each other extremely hard thrilling the fans in attendance. When the Dust settled Anthony Lessard would score the win over a very unhappy George Gorham. Lessard said they “just came here to win”, while Gorham said, “We don’t race like that here in Florida”. It was a wild way to start the season and proves again why the Ashley Homes JAX Truck Division has become a fan favorite!
Top 3;
1 192 Anthony Lessard.
2 M5 George Gorham Jr.
3 28 Nolan Mesa.
A nice field of Super Stocks put on a great show as well as they would run green to checkers without incident. That may sound like “nothing happened” but the race for the lead was prenominal all the way through. Tyler Prenesti, in search of his first win, would battle door to door with George Spears and eventually take the top spot all to himself. But, with about 6 laps to go George would reel him back in and quickly work back by Prenesti. As Prenesti would fade, George’s brother Justin Spears would work his way to second. George would lead to the white flag with his brother on his back bumper and Justin would race hard trying to get by George, but ultimately it would be George Spears Picking up the victory in a one, two finish for the Spears Brothers. George Spears praised the field for a fantastic race and thanked his team for getting him to victory lane, while Justin Spears was happy to have his car “Wrinkles” running competitively but he wanted the win, Tyler Prenesti would settle for third but was content with his performance considering he had very little help in the pit area. The Super Stock division seems to be on a resurgence for 2025!
Top 3:
1 23 George Spears.
2 48 Justin Spears
3 15 Tyler Prenesti
The J&C Gradall Modified division had a rough start to the 2025 season with Eric Purcell suffering a scary incident in the morning practice session and Matt Jarrett experiencing mechanical woes, taking him out of the event early as well. A returning Tank Tucker set fast time in time trials, but it would be Richie Smith cruising to victory easily in race one as they went green to checkers with the only “incident” in the event being Jerry Symons mechanical woes that took him out for the rest of the night. Tank Tucker would come home second and Bubba VanDevender third.
In race Two, it would be same song different verse as Richie Smith would scoot by VanDevender for the lead early and set sail to victory lane. Both Smith and VanDevender would show great effort this week, racing Friday night in Alabama and then stopping here “on their way back home” to race! Once again, Tank Tucker was second and VanDevender third. For Smith, he was proud of the speed in his car and felt good with what he had for the rest of the year and was looking forward to getting some sleep. Tank Tucker said it felt great to be back behind the wheel and Bubba Vandevender said New Smyrna is a whole different animal but was happy with his team’s performance all weekend long.
Top 3 Race 1:
1 42 Richie Smith
2 15 Tank Tucker
3 86 Bubba VanDevender
Top 3 Race 2:
1 42 Richie Smith
2 15 Tank Tucker
3 86 Bubba VanDevender
The Bomber B division showed up strong with 15 cars in attendance throughout the day. A big crash in the 2nd heat race would sideline Chase Symons and Chuck Brewer for the main event. Zachary Curtis showed he had the car to beat in the heat races and once he got out front in the feature, it became a race for second place and what a race it was. Five cars would battle hard to be the bridesmaid to Curtis’ domination and it was fun to watch. Larry Masters and Chuck Rush would battle wheel to wheel for much of the race for 2nd but on a late restart Masters got the best of the rest of the field to take the checkers behind Zachary Curtis in second with Chuck Rush third to the line, however Masters was tossed in post-race tech with a carburetor issue moving Rush to second and Mike Gamache to a career best third. While he dominated the race Curtis said he was looking for more speed to go compete for wins in some big money Crown Vic races throughout the region, while everyone else on the podium was happy with their efforts.
Top 3:
1 63 Zachary Curtis
2 K9 Chuck Rush
3 85 Mike Gamache
After a great start to the 2025 regular season, we are back at it next Saturday Night (March 22nd, 6 PM) with the Sunbelt Series Twin 50s featuring the David Rogers Super Late Models. Plus, the Sportsman, Bomber A and Ground Pounder divisions in action too! BE THERE!!
Full Race Results: https://www.newsmyrnaspeedway.org/schedules/event/544212
Full Event Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@SpeedwayVideo
Event Photos: https://jimjonesphoto.photoreflect.com/
Article Credit: Ryan Stevens
Submitted By: Ryan Stevens
Article Media
