A great night, great crowd and great racing was the menu at Charlotte County Speedway as the FASTKIDS & FASTRUCK series invaded the flat 3/8th's mile speedway on April 9.
Action was hot and heavy all round the 3/8 mile track Saturday night.
Qualifying was up first as the FASTRUCK officials ran the 35 trucks through in under 30 minutes. The Fast qualifier in FASTKIDS was David Wilson and the Fast time in FASTRUCK went to George Morales.
The FASTRUCKERS would come out after a few of the local features ready to do battle for 50 laps. Tim Shaffner would have the pole after the inversion.
The scheduled outside pole starter Bobby Owens would not be able to make the start after he suffered an allergic reaction in the pits before the feature.
That moved the 96 of Morales to the outside of row one. Morales got a good start and looked to have the spot but brief contact from Shaffner slid him up the track and opened the door for Shaffner to grab the lead.
Later while pressuring for the lead Morales got into the back of Shaffner spinning the leader. FASTRUCK officials would send Morales to the rear for the restart.
The battle was intense as they ran bumper to bumper around the track. Brandon Johnson used his fourth place starting spot to grab the early position.
Meanwhile Todd Bontrager, who started in the twelfth starting spot as he won the last race at Charlotte, was moving up toward the front behind George Gorham Jr. Sean Bass who started eleventh was also on the move.
Several cautions slowed the pace as the race neared the conclusion Shaffner got out of the grove and that allowed Bontrager to pounce and grab the lead, he brought Johnson, Gorham Jr., and Bass with him. Shaffner fell back in line fifth. That would be the way the top five would remain over the final laps.
Rounding out the top ten were Gary Foxworth, George Morales who recovered from going to the rear twice, Kevin Williams, Mike Powers and Tom North.
The 25 lap FASTKIDS feature was run early in the night and it would be Patrick Staropoli starting on the pole after the inversion was pulled. Patrick would use a great start to get away from the field and open up a big lead.
Meanwhile David Wilson began his assault from the rear of the field. He would use some great moves as he worked up to the second position late in the event. Staropoli however had them covered and would hold on for his first career win over Wilson.
Patrick Staropoli Levi Hobbs ran a strong third while Dustin Dunn held on for fourth. Last lap contact between Spencer Taylor and John Kidwell would collect the 31 truck of Brian Blum as well.
FASTKIDS Officials penalized the 7 of Kidwell for the incident and he finished 8th last on the lead lap. Andy Megronigle slid past the accident and was credited with fifth.
The FASTRUCK series moves on to the Citrus County Speedway next on April 23rd for another great nice of racing.
FASTKIDS Official Finish 1. Patrick Staropoli ( First Career Win ) 2. David Wilson 3. Levi Hobbs 4. Dustin Dunn 5. Andy Megronigle 6. Spencer Taylor 7. Brain Blum 8. John Kidwell 9. Micheal Cenzi 10. #33 DNS 11. #08 DNS
FASTRUCK OFFICIAL FINISH
1. Todd Bontrager 2. Brandon Johnson 3. George Gorham Jr. 4. Sean Bass 5. Tim Shaffner 6. Gary Foxworth 7. George Morales 8. Kevin Williams 9. Mike Powers 10. Tom North 11. Stuart Robertson 12. Al Nuemann 13. Tony Barreca 14. Charlie Worth 15. Jason Deaton 16. Billy Barstow 17. Danny Anderson 18. Rich Pellerito 19. Steve Colon 20. Tommy King 21. Alex Petrone 22. Pat Mahoney 23. Curt Haywood 24. Jimmy Gill 25. Bobby Owens DNS
