Charlotte County Motorsports Park Welcomes The New Year In Style
By Bill Green
The much-anticipated debut of Charlotte County Motorsports Park’s (CCMP) 2007 season was a huge success. “The stands were packed, the pits were full and the place looks cleaner than I’ve ever seen it before,” stated long time race fan Bill Rivers.
While fans watched 5 classes of racing and some 325 laps of competition, Bobby Diehl set about the task of doing everything he could to insure the racers, fans and sponsors enjoyed every minute of the weekend’s action. He was even spotted several times out on the track during the racing cautions, helping move debris or insure the racer and crowd safety.
The Brian Davidson Memorial 150 was the hit of the day. As 32 Limited Late Models crowed the infield for qualifying. Fast Time was posted by young Miami stand out, Spencer Taylor as he bested the field at 15.114. Steve Dorer was second quick and Mike Franklin, Jr. rounded out the fast three.
Several crashes made for an entertaining consi race to make the field for the Brian Davidson Memorial 150.
The start of the race was delayed by two false starts from Dorer and Franklin, as they played a mental chess game of who can get the jump and ended with the track officials pulling both drivers aside and giving them warnings. The third start was the charm, as both drivers rocketed side-by-side toward turn one.
Franklin asserted his inside position, rubbing is racing style, and that’s all it took, as he would lead wire-to-wire for the victory.
Not that it was all that easy. Lap traffic proved to be a necessary evil as Mike Franklin, Jr. picked his way through several packs of cars at various stages of the race.
Steve Dorer proved to be the best of the rest as he held off several challenges from drivers like Fast qualifier Spencer Taylor, Mulberry’s Mad Man Wayne Morris, an incredible youngster Dustin Dunn and the hard charging Last Chance Race winner Randy Fox. Dorer tried to pressure Franklin on several of the restarts and looked to be gaining ground about lap 100, but tire wear became the issue in the end and Dorer had to settle for second.
Third place finisher Dustin Dunn gave the crowd some excitement as he came from near the back of the 30 car starting field and appeared to need only 20 to 25 more laps to challenge the leader for the win. Fourth went to a very patient Chris Turner, as he had to all but follow Dunn through the field and avoided several of the big crashes that shaped this event. Eventual fifth place finisher Jeremey Goddard managed to miss most of the caution causing spins and crashes, also.
The biggest and scariest crash of the day happen out of turn two, but started in turn four as the #5 of Robert Regula and the #127 Karo Vaughn battled for the same piece of real-estate. Neither driver lifted as they exited turn two with Regula on the inside. And, neither man lifted as the cars hook together and turned straight into the outside retaining wall. Vaughn luckily escaped without injury, but destroyed the popular #127 car. Regula returned to the track, but ended his night soon after.
All in all, the crowd loved it, the racers enjoyed it and the track officials showed they could make good decisions and make this new resurgence of Charlotte County Motorsports Park a reality.
Congratulations to Bobby Diehl, as so far, it’s looking GREAT!!! Visit WWW.CharlotteCountyRacing.com for more info on CCMP and listen to the LIVE Call of the Brian Davidson Memorial 150 by clicking on ShortTrackAMERICA1.com
BRIAN DAVIDSON 150 1. 12 Mike Franklin, Jr. 2. 10 Steve Dorer 3. 59 Dustin Dunn 4. 98 Chris Turner 5. 40 Jeremey Goddard 6. 46 Spencer Taylor 7. 48 Johnny Kay 8. 27 Kyle Maynard 9. 93 Jeff Firestine 10. 11 David Weaver 11. 100 Dean Ferri 12. 82 Danny Maddox 13. 21 Chris Grubb 14. 5 Robert Regula 15. 127 Karo Vaughn 16. 100F Adam Ferri 17. 4 Randy Fox 18. 16 Eddie King 19. 29 Mike Hovis 20. 54 Kevin Ingram 21. 98 Wayne Morris 22. 19 Steve Arnold 23. 19M Kevin Macy 24. 27 Phil Morrison 25. 43 Travis McCoy 26. 46 Doug Moff 27. 36 Gary Padula 28. 62 Buzz Martin 29. 86 Ross Padula 30. 8 Bobby Shelton 31. 39 Phillip Johnson 32. 9 Levi Hobbs (DNS)
THUNDER TRUCKS 1. 5 Bill Adkins 2. 253 Larry Ballard 3. 35 Bay Jayne 4. 21 Randy Kyle 5. 6 James Wright 6. 68 Chester Lusk 7. 56 Bob Charette 8. 18 Robert Weilm 9. 3 Robert St. John 10. 33 Don VanAcker 11. 69 Tom Pryor 12. 30 Tom Carlough
FAST TRUCKS PROS 1. 7 John Kidwell 2. 33 Todd Blevis 3. 97 Patrick Staropoli 4. 93 Michael Cenzi 5. 84 Pat Mahoney 6. 37 Jason Carr 7. 51 Stewart Robertson 8. 1 Maxx Bennett 9. 4 Patrick Fox 10. 97M Curtis Haywood 11. 69 Stephen Nasse 12. 36 Ross Chastain DQ
ROAD WARRIORS 1. 09 Donny Ollie, Jr. 2. 18 Shane Leonard 3. 3 Terry Price 4. 9 Rick Shelnut 5. 48 Cory Scott 6. 27 Derrick Horton 7. 2 Bobby Fischer 8. 38 Dar Houghtaling 9. 5 Bob Waltz 10. 7 Jonathon Abraham 11. 13 Daniel Swiller 12. 46 John Lucrezi 13. 77 Craig Berntsen 14. 1 Jesse Gargus
JUNKYARD DOGS 1. 00 Priest Lucas 2. 14 Ryan Meiser 3. 24 Shane Moore 4. 51 Kyle Smith 5. 27 Scott Adkins 6. 45 Jeff Malmberg 7. 9 Travis Gossard 8. 38 Kevin Anderson 9. 05 The Unknown Driver 10. 46 Dave Malmberg 11. 19 Heather Janik
(CCMP staff apologizes in advance for any incorrect car numbers, incorrectly identified drivers or misspelled names in our first weekend of racing. We will strive to correct it and get it right in future news.)
Not that it was all that easy. Lap traffic proved to be a necessary evil as Mike Franklin, Jr. picked his way through several packs of cars at various stages of the race.