GIBSONTON, Fla. (Jan. 27) — If Richie Stephens had never earned the right to go by his nickname “Rocketman” in the past, he certainly earned the moniker during the Rogers-Dabbs Performance Parts Crate Racin’ USA Winter Shootout Series Florida Winternationals finale held Saturday night at East Bay Raceway Park.
After taking a series provisional to join the 28-car field—which had been whittled down from 91 entries during two days of preliminary action and eight B-mains on Saturday—the 25th-starting Stephens blasted his way to the front. Driving by 22 competitors, he finished an impressive third behind winner Kyle Hardy of Stephens City, Va., and runner-up Ashton Winger of Hampton, Ga.
Stephens even appeared capable of overtaking the leaders until a pair of late cautions doomed his effort. A Rocketman indeed.
“They’ve called me that since I was a kid,” said Stephens while waiting for his No. 00 to be cleared by series officials during post-race inspection. “Some people give me hell about it. Some people like it, but I felt like I put on a show tonight. I raced everybody clean, with respect, just like they raced me. Just glad to come out not tore up this time. It's been a long, long week.”
It was a grueling trip to the Sunshine State for the Phenix City, Ala., native. Stephens flashed his speed during prelims at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., a week earlier, winning one of the qualifying features during the 604 Chevrolet Performance Circle Track Engines-powered Late Models that are part of the annual Sunshine Nationals collaboration between DIRTcar Racing and Crate Racin’ USA. But that potential was met with adversity when he tore up his primary car during the $10,000-to-win main event.
“We was really good at Volusia and was really good in that feature and got caught up (in a wreck),” said Stephens. “We made it from 22nd to 10th in like 11 laps. We was really good there at the end, and just got caught up in some mess.”
After a disappointing 24th-place finish in the Jan. 20 finale at Volusia, Stephens turned his focus to East Bay’s quirky third-mile surface. Unfortunately, the tough luck followed him across the state. After getting into another scrap during preliminary action, Stephens opted to switch cars, parking the Ron Seawright-provided Longhorn Chassis that he’d been running, and electing to use his Rocket Chassis.
“Same thing here at (East Bay). We got caught up in some mess here,” said Stephens. “The (Longhorn) car’s back and ready to go. I could have run it. I just chose to try this (Rocket) car because I’ve been having bad luck and couldn't really figure out the set up and handling on that one. So we broke out the Rocket, and here we go.”
With no hot lap session and preliminaries complete, the 41-year-old Stephens had to use his B-main to make sure he worked out any bugs the Rocket car may have had.
“I knew I had a good car in that B-main,” he said. “I was locked into the race. I just didn't want to go out there and get wrecked. So I just kind of rode around the back kind of seeing what I had, and played with it a little bit. Come in and made a few adjustments, thought a Hoosier 55 (compound) would be a tire that I could abuse coming from the rear. So I put a 55 on and was just kind of smart coming up through there. I just watched everybody, made sure I didn't get into wrecks, and dodged a bunch of stuff.”
The result was a dandy finish that left Stephens looking forward to the rest of this year’s Georgia-Florida Speedweeks.
“We plan on getting the Super [Late Model] car and coming back down if the work schedule would work out with us, and we have enough help,” Stephens said. “I just love East Bay. I've been coming here since like 2011 or 2012-ish. I told myself I'd race here until they quit, if I had to race a bicycle. I just love this place, and the money situation worked out for us to be able to come down here this time.
“I really wanted me a Modified to run down here and I would have bought us one, but I just (didn’t) think we could. When you’re done with Florida Speedweeks, you’re kind of stuck with them there in my home area. We're gonna try to come back here with the Super Late Model a few nights, and see what we can do.”