NASCAR Thunder Special Suzuka: Race Report
24 November 1997
SUZUKA CITY, JAPAN -- In front of an underwhelming local crowd, NASCAR sent its best competitors gathered from a wide group of disciplines for the second annual NASCAR Thunder Special - Suzuka. It was Mike Skinner in the Lowe's Chevrolet that was able to notch the win. Skinner not only won but he beat one of the best NASCAR road racers - Mark Martin - by a healthy 3.724 second margin. Those following Martin across the line were 1997 Busch series champion - Randy LaJoie, David Green, Michael Waltrip and New Zealand native - Australian racer Jim Richards. The NASCAR Thunder Special - Suzuka started off with a bang as a goodly part of the field never got through turn one clean. The action started when the contestants tried to go three-wide into turn one. The first off the track, into the sand trap, was David Green. As the field started to check-up the ,cars started to spin out of one. The driver that got the worst of it was Kenny Irwin in the #28. Irwin spun off the track and about had the Texaco/Havoline whoa'd down when the #14 of Jeff Davis came along and tore the nose off Irwin's ride. Many cars suffered damage but most was considered light in nature. After the mess was cleaned up the field was given the green and sent back to racing on lap five with Mark Martin on the point. The action wasn't long lived as lap eight saw two of the race favorites suffer problems in unrelated incidents. The first lap eight casualty was Rusty Wallace. Wallace, who looked to be having a fair run going spun a bearing and his day came to an early end. The second lap eight incident came when Dale Earnhardt tangled with Keiichi Tsuchiya in the turn. The shunt ripped the valve from Earnhardt's right front tire. Earnhardt though kept his foot in it - that is until the next turn. When Earnhardt tried to make the left hand turn in the #3 ACDelco but the car went straight - right into the wall. Earnhardt's ride suffered fairly heavy damage and needed to be towed back to the garage for repairs to be effected. When asked if the #3 car would return to the race Earnhardt said, "I can't win the race. What the hell would I do out there?" Car owner Richard Childress had the car repaired and Earnhardt returned to the track laps down to the leader Mark Martin. Earnhardt put on a little show for the fans on his return when he went up front and diced it up with Martin. The action though was short lived as Earnhardt again spun off the track after a shunt with Martin. Earnhardt would return to the track one more time but motor problems finished him off . Earnhardt was credited with completing 29 of the 125 lap event. It looked like Martin would be the class of the field - almost untouchable really. Martin held on to the point for the first 45 circuits and only gave up the lead when he came to pit road for fuel. The flag man was terribly busy around lap 61 as 3 of the 5 total cautions flew during a ten lap period. The first came when one of the cars took a run through the gravel. Once that was cleaned up and the field was green it was Wally Dallenbach's turn for disaster. Dallenbach's problems came when Lance Hooper ran the #46 into the wall. Dallenbach, not pleased with Hooper's move, waited by the edge of the track for Hooper to come by. As the #1 drove past Dallenbach - Dallenbach started a pointing motion towards his head - trying to tell Hooper to use his head for more than a helmet stand. The last caution of the period and day came when the #4 of Bobby Hamilton went sailing into the sand. The Kodak Chevrolet was undamaged but it was out of contention as the wait for the wrecker put him down 2 laps. It was the #24 DuPont - Budweiser Chevrolet piloted to the point by Ricky Craven. Craven took the #24 over for Jeff Gordon, who had a minor surgical procedure done on his throat this week to remove a polyp from his vocal cords. Craven handled the #24 like a pro - for a while. Craven had leads in the 3 second category over the field but he soon fell off his setup and before Craven knew it he was receiving heat from Mike Skinner. Skinner got up on Craven and beat his way past and got the lead on 103. Once Skinner got by it was like a flood gate was opened as one after another the leaders went by the #24. Craven's day came up a few laps short when he plowed into the turn 3 wall mashing the right front of the DuPont - Budweiser Chevrolet. Once on the point all Skinner had to do was keep Mark Martin behind him. That sounds easy but we're talking Mark Martin - noted Winston Cup road racer. Martin would close up on Skinner and give him a bump or two. But Skinner just used that as a wake up call and would drive away from Martin. Martin would then let his tires cool and then go give it another try. Skinner was patient enough with that but the last time it happened Skinner just drove off and left Martin to languish with the rest of the field - fighting for his second spot finish. Skinner said after notching the win, "I told our guys our car was a little bit loose to the right. When Mark got out there and I was in clean traffic, I was a tick faster than anybody else. I chose to not work on the car. I told them if they wanted to change the air pressure or whatever, that was OK. But just leave the car alone." The pilot of the #6 Valvoline Ford, Mark Martin, called the closing laps by saying, "My car was pretty fast especially down the backstretch. That is until I got to racing with Mike and found out he was a little bit better on the frontstretch and that's where you pass. For a long time, I ran kind of behind him on the backside of the race track and then, when I got to part where I could pass, he pulled out on me a little bit. I worked and worked and worked and did everything the book and get by him. There just wasn't anything. I finally just started abusing my car more and more trying to fine something and try to sneak in there on him somewhere. I used up the left rear tire." Third place finisher, Randy LaJoie said, "My goal today was to stay on course and we did. A lot of cars started dropping out and then I found myself fifth while Michael Waltrip ( in the #21 CITGO Ford) was fourth. I passed Michael and went into third. I'm just tickled to be here in third place." The NASCAR Thunder Special - Suzuka took 2 hours twenty minutes and thirty seconds to complete. The average speed was maintained at 74.537 miles per hour. Skinners margin of victory was a huge 3.742 seconds ahead of Martin. Skinner got $98,750 of a $564,500 purse. The second NASCAR Thunder - Suzuka field was made up of Winston Cup regulars, the 1997 Busch series champion Randy LaJoie, all three NASCAR Craftsman truck series champions, the 1997 Winston West champion as well as leading drivers from the Pacific rim. This will be the next to last adventure NASCAR will make to the far east. NASCAR's last races on the three year contract will be run next year at both the Suzuka road course and the new Twin Ring Motegi 1.5 mile superspeedway. Mike Snow -- The Auto Channel