PLOVER, WI – Gabe Sommers Racing made the 1,400 mile trek from a bitterly cold Plover, Wisconsin to take on some of the best that Super Late Model racing has to offer at the New Smyrna Speedway’s World Series of Asphalt this past week. Competing in the two longest races of the week, the Clyde Hart Memorial 200 and the Orange Blossom 100, it gave Gabe and the crew a solid chance to shake down their new chassis and build a notebook ahead of the Midwestern racing season.
Unloading on Sunday, GSR hit the track for the first time to start dialing in their new Fury chassis, showing some pace right off the bat. The Travis Sauter led crew diligently worked on the No. 15 as they learned what the car and driver required before calling it a day after just a couple of practice sessions. Monday was the only official day for ASA STARS Tour practice, with only three sessions available to get the car prepped for qualifying on Tuesday. In the first practice of the day, Gabe would put his No. 15 Ford Mustang sixteenth of 34 total cars, still working on the overall feel of the car. A flurry of changes later, Sommers cut off over a tenth in the gap between himself and the fastest lap of the day, but still sat seventeenth on the time charts after the second practice session. With only one more chance to improve the car for the day, GSR would turn 25 laps in the final session while moseying up the scoreboard to a very respectable eleventh place as the time wound down.
Tuesday would bring the first race day of the week, with the ASA STARS Tour’s Clyde Hart Memorial 200 as the headliner of the program. With no practice sessions available for teams, all that was required for them to accomplish by 4:00 PM local time was to roll through pre-qualifying tech inspection. GSR made it through scrutineering without a scratch, and was now ready for Gabe to lay down a flier in qualifying. Sommers understood the assignment, heading on track and knocking down a blistering 17.831 second lap, good enough to hold the top spot in qualifying until the final few cars made their attempts. Missing the pole by just 0.022, and parking himself firmly in second place at the end of time trials, Gabe felt pretty good about his chances later on during the Clyde Hart Memorial 200.
Night fell, and Gabe strapped into his trusty No. 15 for a truly long haul of a feature event. As soon as the green flag waved, Sommers would shoot out ahead of the pack by about a fender length, leading the first lap of the race. Not wanting to use it up to clear the bottom lane, Gabe would drop back to second, riding tight in line. Unfortunately, long green flag runs would be extremely hard to come by in the first half of the race, and a tight racecar made worse by heat cycles on tires handicapped Sommers’ efforts greatly. Falling as far back as sixth early in the going, Gabe would manage to claw his way back up to fourth place by the end of the first stage on Lap 75/200 after obtaining some right front nose damage when two cars wrecked hard right in front of his windshield.
Now restarting in the 27th spot after staying on pit road to fix damage. GSR had their work cut out for them to have a chance of a good finish. Not one to shy away from a challenge, Gabe would start picking his way through the hornet’s nest in the rear of the field, setting his sights on the front of the pack. It took less than ten green flag laps for the No. 15 to find itself inside of the top twenty, playing offense against many ill handling cars. The strength of the competition would only get better from there, and with the help of some yellows, Sommers would quietly slide into a top ten running position by Lap 145/200. Four more yellow flags in the next forty laps would bring Sommers all the way to the fifth spot on the leaderboard, but the short dash to the finish did not allow a great long run car to develop for one final time, and Gabe would roll across the line in seventh place, twenty spots better than where he was on Lap 75.
Loading up in one piece Tuesday night and taking Wednesday to regroup and get some much needed R&R, Gabe Sommers Racing was now prepared for one final night of racing action at New Smyrna Speedway. The Orange Blossom 100, usually considered a race of pretty fair length by most, seemed like a quick sprint to Gabe and the crew after doing double that just 48 hours prior. Two practice sessions in quick succession would get the team back in the swing of things, with the No. 15 placing 4th and 8th before a nasty squall of rain rolled its way into town, drenching cars, teams, and the racetrack for the better part of an hour on and off. This would push the officials to cancel qualifying entirely, using the World Series of Asphalt points standings to set the starting grid for the Orange Blossom 100. Now rolling off from a distant fourteenth place in a seventeen car field, the ability to save tires and play the track position card was well out of the window. Going for broke from the drop of the green would be the only strategy that could be played, and Sommers took full advantage. By the eighth circuit, the No. 15 was already inside of the top ten and continuing to march forward. The car was just on another level, cruising to a plus ten margin from Gabe’s starting position by Lap 40. Now planted inside of the top ten and no threat of yellows, the field began to spread out, with the lead trio breaking away by multiple seconds over the nearest battle. Sommers would begin to slowly reel in third place, with a very stable racecar underneath him and confidence growing inside of the helmet. 52 laps of cat and mouse ensued before Gabe would force the door to the podium open, slotting into the third position on lap 93/100. With the lead pair so far ahead after taking advantage of a clean racetrack in front of them, the hope of grabbing another spot was quickly diminished, and Sommers would cross the line in third to close out the Orange Blossom 100 and his week in Florida.
Gabe Sommers and his crew overcame adversity during both the Clyde Hart Memorial 200 and the Orange Blossom 100, making the best of two unique and bad situations to rally forward in the standings. After the official results were tallied, Gabe sits third in the ASA STARS National Tour, and will look to continue an upward trajectory on track across the Midwest this summer.