Chamber of Commerce weather was a beautiful sight at USA Speedway Saturday, after a week of thunderstorms in the area. The racers of the FASCAR Extreme Modified Series were on hand for a 75 lap feature race, in support of the Florida State Late Model Championship. 19 cars were signed in to compete on the big ¾ mile track, and all of them brought their best game with them.
By the time the racers were set to take their qualifying runs, the field had been shortened by one, as the car of Curtis Neumann had to withdraw due to engine problems. After all the Modifieds had taken a run at the timing clocks, Robbie Cooper, in the Bronson Lube / Flagship RV entry, had set fast time with a lap of 21.900 seconds, at an average speed of 123.29 MPH.
Second fastest was Lee Collins in the Lin-Lee entry, with a time of 21.980 seconds. Following just a tic behind were Jerry Symons, Jason Garver, and Kevyn Terry in the top 5 qualifying spots. After tech was cleared, Cooper drew a pill for the inversion, and pulled a zero, starting the field heads up by qualifying times.
The field rolled onto the speedway for their 75 lap feature with Cooper and Collins on the front row, followed by Symons and Garver in row 2. Row 3 was held by Kevyn Terry and Dan Partelo, with with Chris Escott, Kevin Durden, Greg Edwards and Alan Bruns rounding out the top ten starting spots.
As the field took the green flag to start the race, Collins powered to the front, followed by Cooper, Garver, and Symons. The first caution came out on lap 5 for an incident in turn 3, involving several cars. The cars of Gary Fountain Sr., Shain Held, Dustin Beckelheimer were all unable to continue.
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The race restarted with Collins out front, followed by Cooper and Garver. As the race started, Cooper’s car was slow to come to speed, and fell to 4th position, behind Garver and Symons. The caution again was displayed on lap 20, as the car of Jason Garver lost a motor in spectacular fashion.
The race restarted with Collins still out front, followed by Symons and Cooper. Lap 29 saw the caution come out again, as the car of Kevin Durden exploded an engine entering turn 1. Durden spun, hitting the wall, and collected the cars of Dwayne Dempsey and Alan Bruns. All 3 cars were damaged too badly to continue.
The running order for the restart had Collins continuing to hold the lead, followed by Symons, Cooper, McCafferty and Terry. Lap 33 saw McCafferty’s ride starting to show smoke, and on lap 39 it had gotten bad enough that officials showed the Black Flag to McCafferty for safety reasons.
Symons was able to drive under Collins and Grab the lead on lap 38, with Cooper following thru the hole Symons had opened. Collins continued to drop back in the field with handling issues.
Jerry Symons familiar number 66
Lap 46 saw Cooper start putting heavy pressure on Symons, looking for a way to pass for the lead. Symons and Copper continued battling for the lead until lap 48, when Cooper was able to drive under Symons on the back straight and take the lead.
Cooper continued to lead, and opened a lead of several car lengths. The Checkered flag fell for Cooper, taking another win.
Second went to Jerry Symons, with a strong run, followed by Kevyn Terry, Dan Partelo, and Chris Escott. After the top finishers cleared tech, the race was declared official.
The next race for the FASCAR Modified tour is August 11, at Citrus County Speedway and then August 24 at Ocala Speedway.
Cooper continued to lead, and opened a lead of several car lengths. The Checkered flag fell for Cooper, taking another win. 