| Wayne Anderson Wins With Patience and Persistence | Comes from 18th to Win 125 Lap Sunbelt Series Race
By Jack Smith
Anticipation, along with an unusual haze, settled over the beautiful USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fl. as darkness fell Saturday evening. All up and down the front straight children of all ages mingled with their favorite drivers as part of the pre-race festivities.
After the drivers were all properly introduced and fans were treated to a stellar performance of the Star Spangled Banner by a very young child of three or four, central Florida came alive with the roar of 29 Super Late Models.
Young Aric Amirola of Tampa sat on the pole after setting the fast qualifying time of 20.782 (129.92 mph) around the 3/4 mile high banked monster of a short track. Jimmy Cope, fresh from skirmishing with Daryl Shelnut at DeSoto, was on the outside pole and grabbed the lead going down the front straight on the start.
Considerable talent and experience followed close behind Cope and Amirola in the form of James Powell III, David Rogers, B.J. McLeod, Dick Anderson, Justin Drawdy, Jacob Warren and Dwayne Dempsey. Back in the 18th starting spot was Wayne Anderson, winner of several big Florida races this year and a recent 18th place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
Dick Anderson, (Wayne's father) had spanked the fields earlier this month in two 125 lap All American Challenge Series races and was looking like he was in position to dominate this race as well; on lap 14 he passed McLeod and then on lap 16 Anderson's night ended. It also ended for James Powell as both cars were damaged in wrecks in turn one and two.
The race was restarted at lap 19, Cope checked out again and many fans were watching the fierce battle back in the field as Wayne Anderson tried to get under or around the 47 of Lakeland's Chris Fontaine. By lap 50 the front positions had not changed much as it was mostly single file racing, but now Cope and the leaders began to encounter the back of the field, and no one seemed eager to go a lap down.
When the field restarted on lap 65, after another brief caution, Cope led with David Rogers in second and Jeff Scofield in third; Anderson meanwhile had made it into the 7th spot.
Cope's first serious challenge was now on his rear bumper in the form of the familiar white TM Mustang Ranch machine of David Rogers. Rogers was side by side with Cope as the two cars went through turns three and four and as they came off the corner Rogers was pulling by Cope's #61 when the two cars became entangled the resulting wreck ended both driver's night.
Jeff Scofield (Plant City, Fl), who had started in the 12th spot inherited the lead on the lap 73 restart, with Justin Drawdy and McLeod and Amirola following, Anderson having crept up to fifth.
The race was restarted on lap 97 following the fourth caution of the night for a minor incident back in the field. Scofield had a mirror full of Drawdy as the cars fired off turn four, and even with the hard brake-checking the cars were all nose to tail down the front straight, Scofield appeared to miss a shift and chaos broke loose behind him, destroying several cars and leaving Drawdy watching the remainder of the race from the pits.
The remaining laps presented a sloppy race for the fans with several cautions and bad starts, one of which resulting in another scary front straight crash, which thankfully David Froelich (#22) walked away from.
Two more red flag stops and a few more cautions and now there were only five laps left with Anderson behind Scofield, and McLeod in third with no brakes and no radio.
With just a couple of laps left Anderson bumped Scofield coming off four, the 07 got loose, Anderson sped by and went on to take the checkered flag, Scofield in second in a race which in many respects more resembled a high powered demolition derby than a professional stock car race.
One fan from Tampa summed it up "we watched a pretty good 100 lap race and a 25 lap wreck fest".
Next on the Super Late Model circuit is the Florida Triple Crown, beginning at Bronson Motor Speedway on November 1st, followed by the second leg at Citrus County Speedway on the 8th of November and wrapping up at the half-mile New Smyrna Speedway with the Governor's Cup on November 22.
Sunbelt Super Late Models:
1. #84 Wayne Anderson
2. #07 Jeff Scofield
3. #78 B.J. McLeod
4. #7 Dwayne Dempsey
5. #47 Chris Fontaine
6. #3 Wayne Parker
7. #74J Jay Middleton
8. #7x Jamie Skinner
9. #56 Kevin Durden
10. #74 Barry Willoughby
11. #98 Matt Mercer
12. #10 Eric Black
13. #48 Jonny Kay
14. #22 David Froelich
15. #14 Aric Almirola
16. #51 Jacob Warren
17. #28 Scotty Crockett
18. #12 Justin Drawdy
19. #86 Chet Morrison
20. #l Fain Skinner
21. #61 Jimmy Cope
22. #11 David Rogers
23. #22x Larry Osteen
24. #5 Joe Boyd
25. #94 Chris Turner
26. #71 Ken Gerena
27. #37 James Powell
28. #92 Dick Anderson
Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board!
<news@karnac.org>or send a letter to the editor!
|
