NICHOLLS COMES BACK TO TAKE JOHN POTTS MEMORIAL AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD
By Dave Westerman
Orlando's Andy Nicholls etched his name in the record book as the latest winner of the John Potts Memorial race for Sportsman cars Friday evening on Circle K/Racing For A Cure For Autism night at Orlando Speedworld.
Qualifying for the John Potts Memorial, named after the only driver to lose his life at this facility since it opened in 1974, proved that Nicholls would be the man to beat. Nicholls toured the track in his Cariera's Italian Restaurant/ Orlando Special Effects Monte Carlo at a time of 14.779 seconds. Timmy Todd, Jr. was the only other driver to break into the 14 second bracket at 14.961 seconds followed by Brian Silas at 15.025.
Nicholls drew the five pill for the inversion putting Dale Clouser on the pole. Clouser quickly sped out to the lead only to see caution out quickly in the 50 lap race for Travis Towell's spin in turn one.
Clouser set the pace for the restart as Nicholls moved up to third by lap three just before Leonard Hearndon brought out the yellow with a spin on lap three.
Following the restart, Nicholls and Silas waged a great door to door fight for second before Nicholls slipped a bit allowing Brett Woodley to pass him for third. However, Nicholls quickly recovered and got around Woodley for third place on lap nine.
Three laps later Nicholls moved by Silas into second and set sail after Clouser who had built up a comfortable lead but looked to be slowing. Nicholls reeled in Clouser in a hurry and the two got together going into turn three on lap 16 as Clouser's car appeared to lose power. Despite some protests, Nicholls was sent to the rear of the lead lap cars for the restart while Clouser's car was pushed to the pits.
Silas had the point for the restart and took off only to see caution again two laps later as the axle broke on Robert Gaier's car and he spun in a shower of sparks in turn two.
Nicholls was back up to second place by the halfway signal, reeled in Silas and made the pass for the lead, never to be headed as the rest of the event was caution free. Silas was second in front of Richard Hight, Travis Towell and Brett Woodley while Robert Glover, Glen Castro, Leonard Hearndon, Tom Vento and Doug Samion rounded out the top ten.
Nicholls was joined by John Potts' wife Lori and son John Potts, Jr. in a very happy victory lane.
Brandon Thomson continued his winning ways in the RE/MAX Legends as he led all but the opening lap to take his third Speedworld points feature of the year to go along with his PBG Tour win.
For once, the Legends made it cleanly through the opening lap only to see a hard crash at the completion of lap four as Josh Antley spun on the front straight and was hit hard by the car of Dalton Bergman. Both drivers were just fine but their mounts were not as fortunate.
Only one other caution would slow the proceedings on lap ten as Eric Eichelberger made contact with the back stretch wall. He was OK as well.
Thomson went on to score the easy win over arch-rival Kory Abbott with Jeremy Colangelo holding off Andy Logan for third. Chelsea Schillig had the drive of the night coming from deep on the starting grid to finish fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Matt Bowers, Darin Coker, Bryan Silas, James Rodriguez and Paul Schrein.
The Super Late Model race got off to a rough start at the end of lap one as Dalton Zehr and Rick Bates got together going into the first turn. Jason Boyd locked up the brakes and spun to avoid the other mishap and was clobbered by the car of Chris Staggs. Both cars were out of the race while David King also got a piece of the action but he was able to continue.
Dusty Cornelius snared the early lead as Barry Willoughby settled into second. The caution flew again for Zehr and Bates on lap nine with both going to the rear of the field for the restart. Once the green flew, Willoughby got around Cornelius and took charge winning by a wide margin in his Pennzoil Chevrolet. Cornelius was running second on the final lap but got loose and was tagged by Zehr who came through to finish second. Bates came home third ahead of Gary Bierlein, King, Cornelius, Boyd and Staggs.
Defending Modified champion Cory Freed took his second win of the season with a great outside pass of early leader Skip Honaker on lap ten then went on to score a popular win. Honaker came home second in the all green flag run ahead of Mark Emberson, Alan Bruns and Brian Vickers. Shane Held, Wayne Sorg, Randy Froelich, Steve Thornbrugh and Matt Wheeler completed the finishers.
The Super Stocks came out 20 cars strong in preparation of their 50 lap special next week. For the first time in his career, Melbourne's James Frisbie made it back to back wins after a highly competitive race.
Ray Mullis took the early lead as Bobby Riley pulled out on lap five while running second. Frisbie zipped by Mullis for the lead on lap 11 just before things went nuts in turn one as Vince Keeler broke an axle on his car taking Dave Wright into the wall. At the same time, Brandon Evans blew his engine going into turn one as well.
After the red flag period, Frisbie held off Jason Foster for the win with Mullis coming back for third ahead of Bobby Byars and Roger Benton. The remainder of the top ten were Johnny Brown, Mike Gennett, Gary Cameron, Keeler and Ray Brown.
After replacing an engine before practice, Tim "Missileman" McPhail came back to score his second consecutive Mini stock win taking the checker ahead of Dick Laszlo, Rex "Boneman" Hollinger, Randy Blakeslee, Michael Seay, John Cook, Heather Suggs, Tom Rose, Mark Gonzalez, Josh Hermann, and Kelly Jarrett.
Hermann was leading the race on lap nine when track officials noticed his car was leaking fuel and he was sent to the pits because the cap was not on the fuel cell.
Jay Mullins won his first career Strictly Stock feature taking the checker just in front of Kyle Peters, Bobby Crites, Richard Barrenchea, and Robert Remus.
Mark Hooven topped the Bandelero Bandits for the third time in 2006 taking a close win over Maxx Bennett and his younger brother Shawn Hooven. Nicholas Baluch, Zachary Harris, Critter Saile, Carl Kwasny and T.J. Kirk rounded out the finishing field.
It was yet another Bandelero Young Guns win for Gerald White, Jr. as he out-ran Kristina Baluch, Kaleb Hearndon, Gerald Campbell and Dylan Richardson.
Brandon Duncan topped Kara Clarke and Zach Colangelo for the Bandelero Outlaw win.
Junior Stock Junior Division honors went to Trey Edenfield for his first win as he raced across the line ahead of Wes Railing, Jr., Jacob Cameron, Luke Burke, Jr. Gaier, Zachary Curtis, Jeff Cuddy and Jessica Railing.
The top two finishers in the Junior Stock Senior Division were disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct both on the track and off of it. Jessie Cuddy crossed the line in third place and would have gotten the win had she not been penalized a spot for jumping a restart. That allowed Kaisee Crites to end up the winner with Cuddy second and Alex Fortune third.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - APRIL 14
SUPER LATE MODEL
1. #74 Barry Willoughby 2. #05 Dalton Zehr 3. #4 Rick Bates 4. #11 Gary Bierlein 5. #2 David King 6. #22 Dusty Cornelius 7. #15 Jason Boyd 8. #56 Christopher Staggs
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
1. #12 Corey Freed 2. #2 Skip Honaker 3. #30 Mark Emberson 4. #4b Alan Bruns 5. #86 Brian Vickers 6. #55 Shain Held 7. #74 Wayne Sorg 8. #8 Randy Froehlich 9. #7t Steve Thornbrugh 10. #97 Matt Wheeler
JOHN POTTS MEMORIAL SPORTSMAN 50
1. #66 Andy Nicholls 2. #44 Bryan Silas 3. #23 Richard Hight 4. #4 Travis Towell 5. #99 Brett Woodley 6. #74 Robert Glover 7. #8 Glenn Castro 8. #95 Leonard Herndon 9. #55 Tom Vento 10. #04 Doug Samion 11. #22 Robert Gaier 12. #30 Dale Clouser 13. #08 Paul Hudson 14. #25 Timmy Todd Jr.
SUPER STOCK
1. #3 James Frisbie 2. #49 Jason Foster 3. #316 Ray Mullis 4. #12 Bobby Byars 5. #14 Roger Benton ' 6. #867 Johnny Brown 7. #00 Mike Gennett 8. #69 Gary Cameran 9. #07 Daniel Laszlo 10. #4 Ray Brown 11. #06 Rob Ayers 12. #7 Vince Keeler 13. #65 Dave Wright 14. #27 Brandon Evans 15. #77 Rick Taylor 16. #1b Joey Thrower 17. #52 Bobby Riley 18. #40 Kenny Kirk
MINI STOCK
1. #7 Tim "Missleman" McPhail 2. #07 Dick Laszlo 3. #85 Rex "Boneman" Hollnger 4. #77 Randy Blakeslee 5. #10 Michael Seay 6. #24 John Cook 7. #06 Heather Suggs 8. #43 Tom Rose 9. #47 Mark Gonzalez 10. #98 Josh Hermann 11. #97 Kelly Jarrett
JR. STOCK (8-11)
1. #31 Trey Edenfield 2. #51 Wes Railing 3. #21 Jacob Cameron 4. #68 Luke Burke 5. #78 Luke Gaier 6. #63 Zachary Curtis 7. #64 Jeff Cuddy 8. #17 Jessica Railing
1. #17X Jay Mullins 2. #4 Kyle Peters 3. #1 Bobby Crites Jr. 4. #20x Richard Barrenechea 5. #16 Robert Remus 6. #22 Miguel Barrenechea 7. #52 Bill Spence 8. #16x Bob Snyder 9. #28 Mario Carfagno 10. #77David Lasky 11. #18 Carl Peters 12. #b2 CoyRiddle 13. #02 Rudy Bronson DNS
BANDOLERO BANDITS
1. #17 Mark Hooven 2. #1 Maxx Bennett 3. #27 Shawn Hooven 4. #16 Nicholas Baluch 5. #54 Zach Harris 6. #12 Critter Sail; 7. #88 Carl Kwasny 8. #6 T.J. Kirk DNS
Brandon Thomson continued his winning ways in the RE/MAX Legends as he led all but the opening lap to take his third Speedworld points feature of the year to go along with his PBG Tour win. 