Derek Thorn Will Start from Pole in 52nd Snowball Derby
PENSACOLA, Florida (December 7, 2019) — Derek Thorn took advantage of the Florida weather tendencies to strike hard with and blistering lap that placed him on the pole for the 52nd Snowball Derby.
All was well at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida for the majority of the day. Late in the afternoon, however, Florida did Florida things. A shower made it’s way over the area, dumping just enough moisture to delay on track events by about two hours.
After lengthy track drying efforts, and Modifieds of Mayhem Tour qualifying, the Super Late Models took center stage for Country Pleasin’ Sausage Pole Night at the Derby.
The shower and accompanying moisture in the are hung around just long enough to give some teams trepidation going into the session.
For Derek Thorn, however, the precipitation situation went in favor of the California driver as he laid down a pole winning 16.277 second lap early in the session.
“The Snowball Derby Queen drew a nine for me,” said Thorn. “I didn’t think that was going to be the best time to go out but I think the conditions we were under helped. We were 30th today in our first practice session.”
“We did plenty of mock runs trying to get some speed and the team worked hard to find something for us and it paid off in qualifying,” he added.
Thorn bested Cole Butcher, who will start on the Snowball Derby front row for the second year in a row.
Other notables on the qualifying results list include Josh Berry, making only his second Super Late Model start and the “hotshoe” Corey LaJoie.
The PixelatedPICKS all finished well in qualifying, with Bubba Pollard claiming the top spot, Casey Rodderick in ninth, and Giovanni Bromante in 14th.
52nd Snowball Derby Qualifying Results:
- Derek Thorn 16.277
- Cole Butcher 16.379
- Corey LaJoie 16.381
- Kyle Plott 16.387
- Bubba Pollard 16.398
- Josh Berry 16.401
- Matt Craig 16.412
- Jeff Choquette 16.419
- Casey Roderick 16.427
- Chandler Smith 16.454
- Jesse Dutilly 16.457
- Jeremy Pate 16.461
- Preston Peltier 16.476
- Giovanni Bromante 16.480
- Jake Garcia 16.497
- Kaden Honeycutt 16.497
- Hunter Robbins 16.510
- John DeAngelis Jr 16.528
- Jeremy Doss 16.533
- Derek Griffith 16.534
- Augie Grill 16.545
- David Gilliland 16.553
- Ty Majeski 16.556
- Michael Atwell 16.558
- Connor Okrzeisk 16.563
- Cole Moore 16.570
- Corey Heim 16.572
- Derek Kraus 16.579
- Dalton Zehr 16.582
- Travis Braden 16.590
- Carson Hocevar 16.619
- Casey Smith 16.624
- Michael House 16.640
- Johnny VanDoorn 16.642
- Trey Bayne 16.659
- Stephen Nasse 16.672
- Dan Fredrickson 16.679
- Harrison Burton 16.682
- Mason Mingus 16.689
- Rodrigo Rejon 16.699
- Jett Noland 16.701
- Kyle Bryant 16.710
- Lucas Jones 16.722
- David Rogers 16.725
- Brad May 16.725
- Austin Nason 16.748
- Jack Dossey III 16.751
- Rich Bickle 16.753
- Chris Davidson 16.772
- Boris Jurkovic 16.808
- Jordan Anderson 16.809
- Steven Davis 16.835
- Jerry Artuso 16.841
- Colten Nelson 16.856
- Tim Curry 16.934
- AJ Wernette 17.904
The top 30 advance to Sunday while everyone else will have one more opportunity to make the race in the Last Chance race on Saturday.
– Daniel Vining, Twitter: @danielvining
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