| Bass tops Trucks and Minis, Fleckinger and Freed First Time Feature Winners at SpeedWorld | by Dave Westerman
There was action aplenty Friday night at Orlando Speedworld, a night which featured two first-time feature winners and a pair of wild opening-lap crashes.
The Super Late Model feature would barely make it past the green flag before outside pole sitter Dalton Zehr got loose and slid into third starting Ron DiCandio. Before all was said and done, Michael Williams, Jared Allison, Chad Pierce, Mike Hinegardner, and Eric Deffendall would also be involved. However, Williams was the only driver unable to restart.
Bobby Fleckinger would be the man on this night as the Cocoa driver had his new Diamondback Airboats special working to perfection. North Florida driver Doyle Boatwright in the Henry Hodges Construction Chevy was able to put on some pressure, but just as he would get a run on Fleckinger, another caution flag would come out.
Lap six saw Jared Allison and Chad Pierce get together with Allison's car suffering heavy front end damage. Ronnie Roach looped his car on lap nine and was tagged by Pierce. Pierce finally had had enough and took his car to the pits. Boatwright was putting some pressure on Fleckinger again when DiCandio and Zehr got together for a second time in turn four on lap 21. Dicandio retired his car but Zehr continued.
As the white flag was displayed to the field, something broke on Boatwright's car and he slowed as the field was again put under the yellow flag to clean up fluid from Boatwright's machine.
Mike Hinegardner moved to second for the two lap dash to the checker, but Fleckinger was up to the task and took his initial Super Late Model win after some two years of trying.
Hinegardner was second followed by Ronnie Roach, who made a great late charge to nab third spot. Zehr managed to come back for fourth while Deffendall was fifth.
George Gorham, Jr. made his first start at Speedworld in a Super Late Model, and despite several pit stops to cool his overheating engine, came home sixth, the last car running. Boatwright, Dicandio, Pierce, Allison and Williams completed the field.
The Modified feature would get off to a bad start as well as eight cars tangled up going into turn one at the end of the opening lap. When all was said and done, the cars of Mark Emberson, Jared Allison, Bob Beiler, Shain Held and Terri Bryant were done for the night.
On the restart, young Orlando driver Corey Freed sped from his pole position and led all the way to take his first Modified feature win. Jason Boyd held off Hoot Flynn for second with Chuck Burkhalter, Matt Wheeler and Chris Gillispie the remaining finishers.
FASCAR TRucks were the featured event of the night and the Quick Kids race would have a direct bearing on the Pro Truck event.
After T.J. Calabrese's truck broke in qualifying, only three trucks were left to compete in the Quick Kids 20 lapper. Fast qualifier Chad Aikens grabbed the early lead and looked to have the race in hand until a spin by first-time driver Kyle Eastham slowed the field.
On the restart, the engine in Aikens' truck went sour and Scott Bishop took over the lead just before Eastham hit the wall hard coming out of turn four. The 14 year old driver was OK, but with two trucks already out and another with a bad engine, officials declared the race complete after 12 laps with Bishop getting his first career win over Aikens and Eastham.
With Aikens' truck suffering problems, that put Pro Truck driver Jamie Skinner in a bind as he drives the same vehicle in the Pro division. However, Quick Kid winner Bishop and his crew offered their machine to Skinner and he tagged the rear of the starting grid.
Brandon Johnson led the opening lap but the remaining 49 of the Pro Truck feature would belong to fast qualifier Sean Bass as the Auburndale young gun led all the way to claim the win in his Pleasant Acres Home and Garden Dodge.
Johnson held on for a great second place finish while Big Wayne Morris came home a close third. Dalton Zehr took the checker fourth while George Gorham, Jr. clawed his way to fifth. Jay Seykora was sixth, Dwayne Barrus seventh, and Skinner survived a late race tangle to take eighth. Eddie Moran was ninth and the last truck running. Ron Gill, Ricky Moxley and Marty Wolf rounded out the non-finishers.
After the victory lane celebration, Bass ran to his Mini Stock which was parked in the infield.
Bass would make it two for two on the night as he took the top spot from Pedie Allison on lap seven and went on to win his second straight Mini Stock feature. Allison was second ahead of Josh Hermann, Michael Seay, Bob Delmastro, John Cook and Keith Lilley, who borrowed Dick Owens' Orlando Predators car after his own machine broke in warm-ups.
Twenty-four Super Stocks were slated to start their 15 lap feature but three were eliminated in heat race action leaving 21 to start the feature. Half of those wouldn't be around at the finish either as this was a wild one from green to checker.
Ron Whaley was the class of the field though, as he led every lap and did a superb job threading his way through a multitude of lapped traffic to take the win. John Castro came home second in his Crab Shuttle Restaurant Chevrolet followed by Dave Wright, Brett Woodley and Bob Starr. Rounding out the top ten were Donald Springer, Ray Mullis, William Wingate, Tom Vento and Dennis Lynch.
Charlie Vest led all the way to take the Sportsman feature win outdistancing Jeff Wright, Richard Hight, Doug Samion and John Hodge.
Bobby K. Crites drove a Toyota to the Strictly Stock win over the Mustang of Randy Strehle and the Thunderbird of Paul Wilson. Larry Cuddy and Kyle Peters rounded out the top five.
PRO TRUCK/FASTRUCK
1. #20 Sean Bass (Fast Qualifier and top finishing FASTRUCK
2. #41 Brandon Johnson
3. #56m Wayne Morris
4. #5 Dalton Zehr (Top Pro Truck Finisher)
5. #10 George Gorham Jr.
6. #96 Jay Seykora
7. #3 DeWayne Barrus
8. #0 Jamie Skinner
9. #18 Eddie Moran
10. #05 Ron Gill
11. #38x Ricky Moxley
12. #9 Marty Wolf
13. #56 James Wright III DNS
14. #20x Nolan Wilson DNS
15. #6 Mike Gamache DNS
SUPER LATE MODEL
1. #34 Bobby Fleckinger (First feature win)
2. #15 Mike Hinegardner
3. #14 Ronnie Roach
4. #5 Dalton Zehr
5. #26 Eric Deffendall
6. #08 George Gorham Jr.
7. #57x Doyle Boatwright
8. #20 Ron Dicandio
9. #57 Chad Pierce
10. #18 Jared Allison
11. #32 Michael Williams
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
1. #12 Corey Freed (First feature win)
2. #2x Jason Boyd
3. #57 Jim "Hoot" Flynn
4. #51 Chuck Burkhalter
5. #97 Matt Wheeler
6. #20 Chris Gillispie
7. #44 Bob Beiler
8. #30 Mark Emberson
9. #18 Jared Allison
10. #55 Shain Held
11. #08 Terri Bryant
SPORTSMAN
1. #44 Charlie Vest
2. #50 Jeff Wright
3. #23 Richard Hight
4. #04 Doug Samion
5. #00 John Hodge
6. #66 Andy Nichols
7. #25 Timmy Todd Jr.
8. #62 Joe Adams
9. #3 Earl Beckner
10. #71 Tony Wilson
11. #79 Rip Dyal
SUPER STOCK
1. #2 Ron Whaley
2. #5 John Castro
3. #65 Dave Wright
4. #99 Brett Woodley
5. #40 Bob Starr
6. #118 Donald Springer
7. #316 Ray Mullis
8. #320 William Wingate
9. #55 Tom Vento
10. #50 Dennis Lynch
11. #11 Robert Ward
12. #46 Bobby Riley
13. #49 Jason Foster
14. #3 James Frisbie
15. #67 Darren Gould
16. #31 Paul Cornelius
17. #32 Bob Cherry
18. #77 Justin Reynolds
19. #34 Robert Richards
20. #27 Brandon Evans
21. #07 Buck Atherton
22. ?
23. ?
24. #64 Billy Cuddy
MINI STOCK
1. #28 Sean Bass
2. #92 Pedie Allison
3. #98 Josh Hermann
4. #10 Michael Seay
5. #33 Bob Delmastro
6. #24 John Cook
7. #4 Keith Lilley
STRICTLY STOCK
1. #1 Bobby Crites
2. #24 Randy Strehle
3. #41 Paul Wilson
4. #84 Larry Cuddy
5. #18 Kyle Peters
6. #28 Edward Michalak
7. #4 Ray Brown
8. #38 Michael
9. #12
10. #55 Jordan Jordan
11. #16
12. #68 Alvin Morris
13. #10
14. #b1 Bobby Crites Sr.
15. 37 Joe Bowen
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