| Gainey Wins Modified At Charlotte - Heveron Repeats In The T.B.A.R.A. Sprints | By Jack Smith
Over 100 race cars came to put on a show for the 2500 race fans at Charlotte County Speedway Saturday night, highlighted by the thunderous Tampa Bay Area Racing Assn. Winged Sprints.
The first feature of the night saw Wayne Jefferson, fresh off his twin 50 lap wins in the Open Wheel Modifieds, defend his three-race streak against Steve Gainey, a long time veteran and champion racer from Bradenton.
Steve Gainey after a solid victory in the Open Wheel Modifieds
Early in the race Jefferson, starting in the 4 spot, slipped off the pace to avoid a wreck and had to fight his way from dead last in the 14-car field, after slipping and sliding his way into a turn two spin. Gainey also went backwards to the 10th spot, but not for long.
After one long caution which turned into a red flag when the Prompt Towing wreckers and other staff had a difficult time getting the Steve Duerr 93 and Phil Morrison's 63 machines separated in turn four, Gainey began his assault on the top spot.
Eric Rudd was the early leader until Gainey flew to the front and grabbed the lead by squeezing underneath the leaders on lap 12 and then he was gone, losing the lead briefly on lap 15, leaving only Jefferson to contend the last 20 laps.
In the last 10 laps Jefferson was right on Gainey in the turns but the silver and black #1 was faster on the straights and able to block Jefferson in the turns to hold on for the win.
The win for Steve Gainey was well received by the Charlotte fans, who can expect to see a lot more of the Gainey Land Development and Alert Core Drilling sponsored racer.
He said in a post race interview that he loved the track and will be back on a regular basis in 2003, which may be good news for the fans and bad news for the competition.
Doug Heveron won the T.B.A.R.A. feature going away and also took his heat race for a clean sweep on the new pavement at the Punta Gorda track with times a full second faster than the last outing for the short track monsters.
The last time the Winged Sprints were at Charlotte in 2002 Heveron took the feature as well.
Joey Aguilar continues to run well with a solid second place finish and Dude Teate held down the third spot. We will have more coverage of this race and the Series in a separate report.
Danny Caylor backed up his winning performance last week with another solid victory in the Best Coast Insurance Super Stocks division, while Chris Oncken seems to be unbeatable in the Road Warrior class. Oncken muscled his number 61 past Bob Waltz coming out of turn four in the closing laps to take his third straight win.
Another surprise in the Thunder Trucks with veteran DeSoto racer Gus Coorssen winning the feature in the Rossiter Harley Davidson sponsored black #10 truck. Coorssen was later disqualified in tech giving the win to #24 Justin Bryant.
Coorssen has always been a tough competitor and has won championships in Pure Stocks, Street Stocks and Sportsman and has run some good races in the FASTRUCKS.
He and Bryant ran nearly half the Thunder Truck race side by side until lapped traffic enabled Coorssen to get by, with the fans loving every minute of the intense battle between the two racers.
Bill Moody was also on hand with the Dwarf Cars and the Mini Cup Cars.
Stan Hope, Ft Myers, was a popular winner in the Dwarf Cars, seen in the photo below with series organizer Moody.
The fans were treated to some craziness as five would be racers took to the track in a Honda, Camaro, Ford F150 and even a bright yellow Corvette for some Spectator Drags. The Corvette won, beating a 'stolen' Honda owned by Connie Davidson, the track promoter's wife.
Next week the Speedway will welcome the Florida Pro Series Super Late Models and a 50-lap Open Wheel Modified race.
Full Rundown:
TBARA Sprints
1. 22 Doug Heveron
2. 96 Joey Aguilar
3. 68 Dude Teate
4. 18 Shane Butler
5. 3x Bo Hartley
6. 56 Bobby Rose
7. 29 Gary Gimmler
8. 2 Scott Adema
9. 88 Allen Sport
10. 19 Keith Butler
11. 33c John Sambor
12. 5w Randy Woodall
13. 51 Mark Gimmler
14. 15 Murrah Hall
15. 6 Skeeter Faulconer
16. 47 Richard Waddel
17. 6F Bill Pettijohn
18. 80 Wendy Mathis
19. 61 Scott Steffy
20. 32 Sonny Hartley
Open Wheel Modified
1. 1 Steve Gainey
2. 1j Wayne Jefferson
3. 19 Bart Corleito
4. 71 L. B. Skaggs
5. 98 Johnny Allen
6. 18 Sean LeMaster
7. 80 Chris Dean
8. 31 Kurt Riley
9. 12 Eric Rudd
10. 22 Caleb Rashar
11. 63 Phil Morrison
12. 93 Steve Duerr
13. 55 Dan Atwell
14. 2 Kevin Brickley
Road Warrior
1. 61 Chris Oncken
2. 5 Bob Waltz
3. 30 Chris Huntoon
4. 19 Brandon Anderson
5. 31 Willard Hedden
6. 40 Don Justice
7. 18 Shane Leonard
8. 11 Robert Hendry
9. 1 Jesse Gargus
10. 09 Doug Raastad
11. 17 Fred Wilson
12. 92 Richard Dupont
Thunder Trucks
1. 24 Justin Bryant
2. 22 John Garrett
3. 8 Mike Bialecki
4. 56 Bob Charette
5. 44 Raymond Tucker
6. 00 Ronnie Grimes
7. 13 Jay Bryant
8. 14 Randy Layman
9. 37 Cheryl Weaver
10. 16 Wally Smith
11. 9 Ray Scott
12. 7 (DNS) Bob Maine
13. 10 Gus Coorssen (disqualified)
Road Warrior
1. 61 Chris Oncken
2. 5 Bob Waltz
3. 30 Chris Huntoon
4. 19 Brandon Anderson
5. 31 Willard Hedden
6. 40 Don Justice
7. 18 Shane Leonard
8. 11 Robert Hendry
9. 7 Jonathan Abraham
10. 09 Doug Raastad
11. 17 Fred Wilson
12. 92 Richard Dupont
Best Coast Insurance Super Stocks
1. 7 Danny Caylor
2. 31x Elbert Butts
3. 56 Walt Korkiner
4. 13 Randy Miller
5. 23 Brian Richardson
6. 11 Doug Spitzer
7. 10 Eric Smith
8. 8 George Tanner
9. 4w Wayne Wilson
10. 04 Chuck Stevens
11. 14 Ricky Gill
12. 33 Mike Loney
13. 83 John Hanuschik
Pro Challenge
1. 56 Howard Brennan
Rest of field in separate report to follow
Dwarf Cars (Mod Lites)
1. 8 Stan Hope
Rest of field in separate report to follow
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