IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

March 24, 2007 Drawdy Makes Practice Pay Off In Sunbelt Win By Dave Westerman Orlando Speedworld played host to round number two of the FASCAR Sunbelt Super Late Model Series Friday night. The weather was perfect and the track lightning-fast for the 19 teams who made the trek to the high-banked three-eighths mile for the City Beverage/Budweiser 100. Time trials saw B.J. McLeod blister the track at 13.389 seconds for quick time but Tim Russell was impressive setting the second fast lap of 14.494 seconds with no practice laps under his belt having been practicing his ARCA car at Lakeland. Russell was flown by helicopter from USA International to Speedworld, arriving just before qualifying. Jeff Choquette tripped the clocks third fastest at 13.655 seconds. Luck of the draw inverted the top seven qualifiers for the 100 lap run with Brian Finney and Justin Drawdy on the front row for the start. Finney snared the early lead while Drawdy settled into second ahead of James Powell III. They circulated the track in that order through lap 20 when the first caution waved for Kevin Durden who spun in turn four. On the restart, Drawdy began to really put the pressure on Finney while fast qualifier McLeod had already worked his way into fourth. Caution again flew on lap 28 as Travis Cope looped his mount in turn two with a little help from Choquette with both going to the rear of the restart line-up. Just after the green flew, Corey Freed, Chad Pierce and Travis Towell got tangled up in turn one with Pierce having to pit to repair body damage. Things settled down for awhile with the lead quartet of Finney, Drawdy, Powell and McLeod running in freight-train fashion but it was Mcleod bringing out the yellow on lap 47 as he got too low going into turn one and spun out of his fourth place spot. The field took the crossed flags for half-way under caution with Finney leading Drawdy, Powell, Russell, Perry Brown, Jeff Scofield, Blake Lehr, David Rogers, J.R Garcia III and Cope. Cope would again bring out the caution on lap 56 as both he and Towell spun in turn two. Shortly after the green came back out, Drawdy made his move opting to use the high grove to race past Finney on lap 66 and he began to pull away until slowed once again by Blake Lehr's spin on lap 82. Powell had begun to fade a bit and his night would then come to an early end on lap 89 as he hit the turn four wall after tangling with Brown. Lap 92 saw Cope spin out of turn two for the third time in the race but that was the last thing to slow Drawdy's pace. Drawdy, who was the only Super Late Model to show up for practice on Wednesday night and who also rented the track on Thursday for even more hot laps, raced away from the field and took the checker well in front of second place Finney. Russell drove steadily to third while Choquette put on a show for the fans, coming back from his earlier miscue to blast his way back up to fourth. Jeff Scofield, who won the Brighthouse 50 on opening night last week, was never much of a factor all night but still managed a good fifth place finish. Rounding out the top ten were David Rogers (up from 17th at the start), Corey Freed, who started dead last, J.R. Garcia, Blake Lehr and Travis Cope. Completing the finishers were Travis Towell, Chad Pierce, James Powell III, Perry Brown, Dusty Cornelius, B.J. McLeod (who dropped out shortly after his spin), Kevin Durden and Jared Allison. Kurt Jett was also at the track but blew the engine in his car during practice. John Castro had his rebuilt Fischer Chevrolet/Victorios Restaurant Chevy on the pole for the Sportsman feature and he wasted little time jumping out front. Caution flew for the one and only time during the race on lap six for debris on the track following a three car altercation on the front stretch involving Brandon Thomson, Dale Clouser and Richard Hight. Following the restart, Earl Beckner lit the candle to his machine and blew by Castro to set the pace the remaining distance for his second win in as many weeks. Castro, who had just completed repairs on his car from last weeks crash before coming to the track, was happy with his runner-up finish while rookie Derrick Wood had another strong run for third. Clouser came back for fourth while veteran Pete Starr returned to action taking fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Gary Maglach, Jason Foster, Michael Carr, Barbara Pierce and Whitney Poole. Beckner and Castro won the heats. James Frisbie also picked up his second consecutive Super Stock victory using other drivers' bad luck to his advantage. Slated to start outside of row five, Frisbie found all four drivers starting in front of him weren't on the track. FASCAR rules state that cars move up into the unoccupied spots, so that moved Frisbie all the way up to the outside pole for the drop of the green and Frisbie took advantage leading all 20 laps to the checker. Ron McCreary stayed close but had to settle for second trailed by Roger Benton, Bobby Simcox and first heat winner Lee Wagner. Bobby Riley grabbed the win in heat race number two but did not start the feature. Pedie Allison dominated the Mini Stock headliner taking the top spot from Bob Kelchner on lap two and went on to claim his second win in as many weeks. R.J. Arnone held off Kelly Jarrett for second while Josh Hermann, Richie Laszlo, Bob Miller, Kelchner, Mickey Wright and Emily Cottrell rounded out the finishing field. Allison also won the heat. Allison was then among several drivers who donated their winnings to the Lee Davis family. Davis' stepdaughter, Skylar Richardson was critically injured in a freak accident on I-75 earlier in the week and has a long road to recovery. Allison, Arnone and Kelchner also passed their helmets through the grandstands during intermission and the fans donated at total of $434.85. Lee Davis and his dad Bo Davis have both raced Mini Stocks at Speedworld in the past and still field a car in the Florida Mini Stock Challenge Series. The Action Gator Tire Strictly Stock feature proved to be worth waiting for as it was the best race of the night. When the dust settled, Steven Streight had claimed his first-ever win in a close battle on the last lap with second finisher Rob Reynolds and third place Todd McCreary. Brent Bruner and Dave Leeper II were fourth and fifth over a tough 22 car field. Heat winners were Reynolds and Steve Anderson. OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLAmNDO SPEEDWORLD - MARCH 23 SUNBELT SUPER LATE MODEL 100 1. #12 Justin Drawdy, Ft. Pierce 2. #80 Brian Finney, Merritt island 3. #36 Tim Russell, Longwood 4. #70 Jeff Choquette, Loxahatchee 5. #07 Jeff Scofield, Plant City 6. #11 David Rogers, Longwood 7. #12 Corey Freed, Orlando 8. #0 J.R. Garcia, Wimauma 9. #4 Blake Lehr, Orlando 10. #26 Travis Cope, Bronson 11. #14 Travis Towell, Sanford 12. #57 Chad Pierce, Orlando 13. #77 James Powell, Astor 14. #22b Perry Brown, Riverview 15. #22 Dusty Cornelius, Cocoa 16. #78 B.J. McLeod, Watchula 17. #56 Kevin Durden, Archer 18. #18 Jared Allison, Cocoa SPORTSMAN 1. #3 Earl Beckner 2. #5 John Castro 3. #33 Derrick Wood 4. #30 Matt Towell 5. #95 Pete Starr 6. #31x Gary Muglach 7. #49 Jason Foster 8. #41 Michael Carr 9. #57 Barbara Pierce 10. #00 Whitney Poole 11. #151 Mike Santana 12. #54 Brandon Thomson 13. #23 Richard Hight 14. #25 Timmy Todd Jr. DNS 15. #66 Andy Nichols DNS SUPER STOCK 1. #3 James Frisbie 2. #24pk Ron McCreary 3. #14 Roger Benton 4. #92 Bobby Simcox 5. #74 Lee Wagner 6. #27 Barry Parks 7. #05 Jeff Parrish 8. #98 Matt Jarrett 9. #79 Jack Kennedy 10. #11 Dennis Snyder 11. #316 Ray Mullis 12. #1 Alaine Grogan 13. #07 Daniel Laszlo 14. #15 Billy Bellflower 15. #40 Bob Starr 16. #72 Nathan Haystead 17. #8 Tobi Smith 18. #41 Michael Poole 19. #52 Bobby Riley DNS 20. #97 Scott Keena DNS MINI STOCK 1. #92 Pedie Allison 2. #30 R.J. Arnone 3. #97 Kelly Jarrett 4. #98 Josh Hermann 5. #07 Richie Laszlo 6. #02 Bob Miller 7. #09 Bob Kelchner 8. #9 Mickey Wright 9. #29 Emily cottell DNS STRICTY STOCK 1. #80 Steven Streight 2. #A1 Rob Reynolds 3. #77 Tdd McCreary 4. #20 Brent Bruner 5. #D2 David Leeper Jr. 6. #104.1 Tuttle 7. #55 Denny Johns 8. #76 Gary Thomas 9. #01 10. #27 Steve Anderson 11. #8 Neal Kirby 12. #45 13. #44 14. #22 Miguel Barrenchea 15. #33 Scott Cooper 16. #41c Amanda Carr 17. #63 18. #24 Brenda Taylor 19. #41 George Brown 20. #64 Jessie Cuddy 21. #15-3 Shane Sutorus 22. #15 Tobi Smith Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on The Real Racin USA Florida Fan Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!