| Saturday, September 29, 2001 | |
| Sonny Hartley Holds On For Sunshine TBARA Win | By Rick Anges
St.Petersburg,Fl. (KNS) Twenty-one cars lined up for the feature race of the Winged Out-Law T.B.A.R.A. Sprint cars on a chilly night at Sunshine Speedway. Jimmy Alvis #21 jumped out to the early lead with Robert Yoho #00y following close in second.
But on the backstretch Yoho tangled with #87 of Kevin Cahill sending Yoho slamming into the wall and bending up the "Showtime" ride, ending both drivers night. On the restart Alvis again jumped out quick and pulled out to a several car length lead. Dave Pletcher #75 past Late Model champ and very familiar with the quick quarter mile track was working hard on the second place car #32 veteran Sonny Hartley. Pletcher was diving the 700 hp Sprint on the inside groove but was unable to get by.
Meanwhile behind them the racing was hot and heavy, #18 Shane Butler, #00 Wayne Reutimen jr., #0 Dude Teate, and #19 Kieth Butler all were battling hard for the fourth place spot.
As the race wore on the track became a little slicker allowing Butler to slide by both Pletcher and Hartley to move into the second spot. Butler then moved in on the leader. On lap thirteen in turn one the #18 took a stab at the lead but ended up on the back tire of Alvis going airborne and spinning both cars out, Pletcher had to get on the binders hard to avoid the melee and stalled the car. Under T.B.A.R.A. rules any car that has to be pushed off has to start on the rear of field sending the top three cars to the back.
Hartley assumed the lead and never looked back leading the final twelve laps to take the win. The son and father duo of #00 Wayne Reutimann jr and #22 Wayne Ruetimann finished second and third respectively, Keith Butler #19 took fourth and fifth driving for Shawn Farr in the #68 was Stan Butler. After the race an excited Hartley who had won the "83 Championship at this very track was a happy man exclaiming, "Sunshine was his favorite track!"
It took four heats and a Consi-race to make the twenty-four-car field Street Stock Feature event. Jeff Haven #7 jumped from his pole position to an early lead but got loose coming out of turn two and fell back in the pack. #44 Rob Perry assumed the lead and pulled away while the rest of the pack ran two and three wide looking for the second place. #22 Mike Hill and #56 Jim Kelly ran door to door for several laps before Hill was able to take the second position away. Meanwhile Kelly was stuck on the outside allowing a lot of the field to get by on the inside. #75 Craig Robinson smacked the front stretch wall hard showering sparks high into the chilly night but was able to keep it going. The #25 of Kirby Kitzman made his way up to the rear bumper of Perry trying high and low lines but Perry was not to be denied taking his first feature win. Jimmy Kruse held off a fast Jay Coleman #12 for third and #77 Bryan Rogers came across in fifth.
A full field of twenty three ground pounding Open Wheel Modifieds roared to the green flag with the #33 of Chico Alberto sliding into the lead on the green. Chris Robinson in the #88 cracked the wall coming out of turn four and eventually was part of a wreck on back stretch that took out several cars including #1 Wayne Jefferson and #81 Howard Skaggs. All drivers escaped unscathed. After several cautions it was Alberto crossing the stripe first, Allyn Summers #56 drove hard to take second, Ron Campbell #5 placed third, fourth went to #8 Randy Rhodes and the fifth spot was the # 80 James Houle who finished ahead of a ball of flames #7D.
Door to door bumper to bumper action was the name of the game for the first several laps of the 12 car Out-Law Late Model feature. The #1 of Scott Holley and the #77 of Rick Haugh traded paint all the way around the track until #69 Tim Henault blew past them both and was able to hold off a hard charging Robert Crisp#2 to take the win. #112 Corky Craver held on for third, fourth went to #6 Ed Kidd and rounding out the top five was Robbie Mcauliffe #56.
Mini-Stock action saw Macky Mongold in the #6 car of Michelle Mongold hold off #15 Doug Hopper to take the checkered flag. Tom Zimmerman #55 came across the stripe ahead of a tough running Mike Birk Jr. #10 and #72 Shane Woods.
Bobby "Zeebo" Moctezuma #17 led flag to flag in the figure eight feature with the #15 of Joey Catarelli right on his bumper, third place went to Mark Thomas #40, fourth was #7 Wayne Calkens and fifth across the stripe was #21 J.R.Meyer.
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