| Alan McCafferty wins FASCAR Pro Modified 50 Lapper at SpeedWorld May 16 | by Jane Smith
Bithlo, Fla (May 16, 2003) Nineteen of Florida's best Open Wheel Modified drivers journeyed to Orlando SpeedWorld for the second race of the Team FASCAR Pro Modified series.
Once again D.J. Hoelzle of Dunedin, Florida set fast time with a 13.906 second lap.
But after drawing the 9 pill, it was Shane Held on the pole with Raymond Vann on the outside.
On the wave of the green, Held jumped to the lead followed by Raymond Vann, Dwayne Dempsey, Jason Boyd, and Red Vann. On lap 5, Boyd and Dempsey are doing some side-by-side dancing for the third spot. Lap 7, Dempsey spins coming into turn 2 and the first caution is seen. On the restart, it is Held, Boyd, Vann, Bryan Campbell, and Raymond Vann.
Lap 10 Boyd finds his rear view mirror full of Red Vann but Boyd does not rattle and holds on to the second spot. One lap later, Raymond Vann has a hard charging Alan McCafferty on his bumper looking for the fifth place spot. Vann and McCafferty touch slightly and Vann goes sideways but McCafferty backs off and lets Vann regather his machine.
During these laps, Boyd has managed to pass Held for the lead and is sailing away. McCafferty finally passed Raymond Vann and comes into the top five. On lap 19, Matt Wheeler brings out the caution for a spin on the backstretch.
On the restart, it is Boyd, Held, Vann, Campbell, and McCafferty. On lap 21, Frank Polly and Dwayne Dempsey get alittle too close with Polly spun in the bottom of turn 4. Boyd holds the lead on the restart but it was a short green as the caution comes out again on lap 25 when Bryan Campbell and Jim "Hoot" Flynn spin in turns 3 and 4.
Campbell was running fourth at the time.
On the restart, it is Boyd, Held, Red Vann, McCafferty and D.J. Hoelzle in the top five. Lap 25, caution is out again for Raymond Vann, Dwayne Dempsey, and Bryan Campbell. Only Campbell is able to continue racing, the old dreaded tow hook takes Dempsey and Vann into the pits, done for the night.
Once again a short lived green as on lap 27, Matt Wheeler and Frank Polly tangle coming down the frontstretch. Wheeler goes atop Polly and flies off down the inside pits and comes to rest at the edge of the Bandolero track. Polly is dead still on the Bandolero track grandstand side. Both drivers are fine but the cars were damaged. Both drivers ended their night on the hook, not where they intended to be.
On the restart, it is still Boyd leading the pack. But the top five changes when Shane Held and Red Vann get alittle friendly with Held taking a spin around the track. Both drivers are sent to the rear of the field. The new top five are Boyd, Alan McCafferty, David Rogers, D.J. Hoelzle, and Skip Honaker.
On the restart, Held gives Vann alittle love nodge just as Held was given with Vann spinning on the frontstretch. Since the guys are already in the rear, they stay in the rear. Bpyd leads the way for McCafferty, Rogers, Hoelzle and Honaker. Alan Bruins brings out the caution when he spins coming off turn 4.
On the restart, Boyd is black flagged and sent to the rear for alittle too much brake on the start. This gives Alan McCafferty the lead followed by Rogers, Hoelzle, Flynn and Honaker. Only one more caution was thrown when Shane Held spun at the bottom of turns 3 and 4.
Alan McCafferty held the point for the restart and took his first checkered in 2003 for the Team FASCAR Pro Modified Series. Following McCafferty to the checkered was D.J. Hoelzle, David Rogers, Jim "Hoot" Flynn, and Jason Boyd. The top three were teched and all found legal.
Derrick Wood maintained his winning ways by taking the checkered once again in the Bandolero Bandits division. Wood is the points leader in this division. Following Wood to the checkered was Gerald White, Jr., Matthew Jarrett, Bl;ake Eden and Ryan Rust. Chad Atkins took the heat win.
Kevin Henery had the pole and lead from green to checkered in the Bandolero Young Guns division. Following Henery to the checkered was Scott Jarrett, Troy Atkins, Brandon Thompson, and Blake Dirks. Henery also took the heat win.
With next week's Florida Mini Stock Challenge race at SpeedWorld, a number of minis came for practice. On the pole for their 15 lap feature was Dick Laszlo, the only Mini truck at present. Laszlo was able to take the lead on the green with Robbie Yoakum, Mike Williams, Robbie Storer, and Sean Bass in the top five. Amanda K. brought out the caution when her #18 Mini Stock stopped on the Bandolero track.
On the restart, Yoakum shows why he was the Mini Stock Champion at Citrus County Speedway, as he sails to the lead over Laszlo, Storer, McPhail and Williams. Storer moved to second putting Laszlo third. McPhail finds his machine running hot and backs off to cool down the motor with Williams now in the fourth spot and Bass in fifth.
Yoakum sails to the checkered followed by Robbie Storer, Dick Laszlo, Mike Williams, and Sean Bass. Stay tuned for next week's 50 lap battle, it should be a good one.
The Sportsman division proved that they can make a crowd stand up as it was a crazy race. Michael Albert sat on the pole but it was Robert Hight who spun before a lap was down with several cars spinning to avoid Hight. The race was a total restart. On the green for the second start, it was Robert Hight who jumped to the lead followed by Albert, Rob Kasey, Richard Hight, and Danny Shearer. With no more cautions, this proved to be a very exciting race and one that would go down to the last lap at the finish line to get the winner. In the end, it was Rob Kasey who had a narrow lead over Robert Hight at the finish line. This was Kasey's first win and really hard fought at the end.
Following Kasey to the checkered (and very closely I might add) was Robert Hight, Richard Hight, Michael Albert and Kevin Reese. Also in tonight's Sportsman event were three Super Stocks that did not know the Super Stocks had the night off. Bobby Owens finished first out of the Super Stocks with Brent Brown and Glen Castro in second and third.
Russ Shaw had the pole for the 25 lap Super Late Model feature but it was B.J. McLeod who took the point and lead from green to checkered. Following McLeod on the start was Ricky Wood, Chris Fontaine, Rusty Ebersole and Robert Jenkins. With no cautions, no one could catch McLeod.
There was one moment in the twenty five lap feature that was a true sportsmanship moment. Wood got loose as Ebersole was trying to pass for the second place position. Instead of spinning Wood, Ebersole backed off allowing Wood to regather his machine. Once Wood had done that, Ebersole continue to race Wood for the second spot and was able to make the pass and make it stick without any dirty play. This was the right way to race, race clean.
McLeod took the checkered followed by Rusty Ebersole, Ricky Wood, Chris Fontaine and Robert Jenkins.
Robert Ward had the pole for the Strictly Stocks and lead from green to checkered. Bobby Woodley did a great job of holding second but found that when you are made an Oreo Cookie, something gives and that was his second place spot. The 4 cylinder of Greg Bruce took over second with the 4 cylinder of Bobby Crites going into third with Woodley in fourth. Russ Noyes sat in fifth. We had a new Strictly Stock in the field which was Eric Hodge, son of John Hodge, who did good for a first race.
Crossing the checkered and taking the win was Robert Ward followed by Greg Bruce, Bobby Crites, Bobby Woodley, and Russ Noyes.
Next weekend at Orlando SpeedWorld, May 23, a 50 lap Florida Mini Stock Challenge race, Mod Lites and Pro Challenge Cup cars, Super Lates, Sportsman, Super Stock, Mini Stock and Strictly Stock. Modifieds will have the night off. PLUS a kids bike race with two new bikes being given to the boy/girl winners. Grandstands open at 6 p.m. with racing action at 8 p.m. Orlando SpeedWorld is located between SR50 and SR520 in Bithlo, Florida.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
PRO MODIFIED - 50 Laps
1. #32x Alan McCafferty, Clermont, Fl
2. #8 D.J. Hoelzle, Dunedin, Fl.
3. #66 David Rogers, Orlando, Fl
4. #57 Jim "Hoot" Flynn, Orlando, Fl
5. #2x Jason Boyd, Orlando, Fl
6. #2 Skip Honaker, Titusville, Fl
7. #5 Bryan Campbell, Mt. Verde, Fl
8. #17 William Sullivan, Orlando, Fl
9. #55 Shane Held, Orlando, Fl
10. #4b Alan Bruns, Clermont, Fl
11. #32 Red Van, Lutz, Fl
12. #26 Joe Federico, Lakeland, Fl
13. #34 Frank Polly, Clermont, Fl
14. #96 Matt Wheeler, New Smyrna, Fl
15. #6 Dewayne Dempsey, St. Pete, Fl
16. #99 Raymond Vann, Westley Chapel, Fl
17. #51 Chad Pierce, Orlando, Fl
18. #5x Greg Beggs, Gainesville, Fl.
19. #Wayne Southard, Edgewater, Fl
FAST QUALIFIER; D. J. HOELZLE 13.906
HARD CHARGER; DAVID ROGERS (Started in the rear of the field)
BANDOLERO BANDITS
1. #33 Derrick Wood
2. #38 Gerald White, Jr.
3. #9 Matthew Jarrett
4. #17 Blake Eden
5. #18 Ryan Rust
6. #01 Matt Bowers
7. #6 Josh Williams
8. #60 Chad Atkins
BANDOLERO YOUNG GUNS
1. #9 Kevin Henery
2. #97 Scott Jarrett
3. #14 Troy Atkins
4. #54 Brandon Thompson
5. #26 Blake Dirks
SUPER LATE MODEL
1. #78 B.J. McLeod
2. #47 Rusty Ebersole
3. #33 Ricky Wood
4. #47x Chris Fontaine
5. #17 Robert Jenkins
6. #7 Bobby Lyons
7. #71 Russ Shaw
SPORTSMAN
1. #75 Rob Kasey
2. #13 Robert Hight
3. #23 Richard Hight
4. #28 Michael Albert
5. #1 Kevin Reese
6. #77 Danny Shearer
7. #56 Bill Hall
8. #22 Bobby Owens
9. #57 Brent Brown
10. #83 Glen Castro
MINI STOCK
1. #8 Robbie Yoakum
2. #9 Robbie Storer
3. #07 Dick Laszlo
4. #32 Mike Williams
5. #28 Sean Bass
6. #29 Kevin Macy
7. #07 Tim "Missileman" McPhail
8. #77 Randy Blakeslee
9. #18 Amanda K.
STRICTLY STOCKS
1. #27 Robert Ward
2. #4u Greg Bruce
3. #6 Bobby Crites
4. #98 Bobby Woodley
5. #4x Russ Noyes
6. #00 Eric Hodge
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