A near record crowd filled the stands Friday night at Orlando Speedworld for "Driver Wanna Be A Promoter Night" that featured extra distance-extra cash races for the Super Late Models and Mini stocks plus a Friday night appearance by the Legend Cars and Bandoleros.
Over the past two weeks, drivers had been given tickets to give away to try and get new fans to come out and see the show. The promotion worked as the crowd was nearly SRO and almost as big as the crowds for recent Crash-A-Ramas and the PRI Mopar Sprint and Midget Classic. Track General Manager Rusty Marcus was last seen hauling off a huge box of the freebie ticket stubs and it will now be his job to go through all the tickets to see which driver brought in the most fans. That driver will receive a nice cash prize.
Trademark Metal Recyclers steeped up to the pump and put up some extra cash for a 35 lap Super Late Model race and a good field was on hand to try and take their money.
Patrick Conrad let everyone know early-on that he would be the guy to beat.
After struggling with the set-up on his machine in practice during a blistering-hot afternoon, Conrad made the right choice for qualifying as he toured the three-eighths mile in 13.627 or just a shade above a 99 mph average. North Florida driver Kurt Jett was second quick at 13.708 followed by the 13.723 of Jared Allison.
Conrad jumped out to a quick lead at the drop of the green flag as things began to get very dicey behind him culminating with Jett and Allison tangling in turn four on the opening circuit. David Pollen Jr., Blake Lehr and Ricky Carmichael also got tangled up trying to get slowed down. Lehr and Pollen, Jr. continued but Carmichael was forced to go to the pits and his night was over before it got started.
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The second start was much better as Conrad again set sail while Allison slid into second ahead of Jett and Ronnie Roach. On lap five, the entire rear body work of David Pollen, Jr.'s car blew off in turn three after being damaged in the opening lap incident.
Pollen, with no down-force on the car, drove into turn one and spun out with his dad David Pollen, Sr. sliding off the track trying avoid his son. Both continued but the younger Pollen's car would be a handful for the remainder of the race although he would make it all the way to the checkered flag.
On the restart, Ronnie Roach blasted to the inside and got by both Allison and Jett after several laps of great side-by-side racing. Allison got trapped on the high side and lost third spot to Jett on lap nine. However no one was going to catch Conrad as he simply drove away to an easy victory in front of a big "cheering section" that came to watch him run. It was Conrad's fourth win in five starts this year.
Roach had to be pleased with his runner-up finish. After struggling considerably so far this year, Roach finally had his machine dialed in and he coasted to a nice finish ahead of Jett, Allison and Brock Burns. Lehr, Joe Piazza, Pollen, Sr., Gary Terry and Gary Bierlein rounded out the top ten with Pollen, Jr., Russ Shaw and Carmichael the remaining finishers.
The Mini Stocks were also going for extra cash in a special 25 lap event. $310 more was added to the purse by fans who donated cash for items given away by Belmont Abbey College near Charlotte, NC, Trademark Metal Recyclers and Curtis Racing. Among the sponsors helping to boost the Mini Stock purse were Sutter Irrigation, Own My Travel, Lighthouse Baptist Church of Winter Park, Palm Bay Baptist Church, J & C Landscapes of Casselberry, CV Transport, Firken & Keggler Family Entertainment Center, John Blair Painting of Casselberry, and Betchan Motorsports.
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After point leader Pedie Allison took ill after the warm-up sessions, son Jared Allison took over his car and thoroughly dominated the event winning by a straightaway over fast qualifier Cody Blair. R.J. Arnone came home third trailed by Bob Kelchner, John Cook, Justin Curtis, Heather Suggs and Emily Cottrell. Suggs, who worked hard all day to promote Belmont Abbey College where she attends school in their Motorsports Management Program, unfortunately saw the engine in her car explode in a cloud of smoke on the last lap.
A great field of Legend Cars turned out for the first of a two day show but quite a few were left to burn a little "midnight oil" after a wild feature race.
Gerald Campbell started off the night by winning the Legend Chargers race over Mason Ketterman and Dallas Ingram to earn a starting spot in the 25 lap main event. Legend heat races went to Brandon Thomson and Clay Hair and it would be these two who would fight it out for the feature victory.
Tony Sansom led the opening lap before a huge crash took place on the front stretch as Chelsea Schillig and Zach Zimmerly got together putting Zimmerly in the wall with Schillig nearly tipping her car over as she slid wildly into the infield. The incident also collected Alex Kempf and Gerald White, Jr. After making quick repairs, Zimmerly returned, but the other three cars were done for the night.
On the restart, Hair sped past into the top spot. but 17 year old Thomson was on a roll this night as he did something very few drivers can say they have done... pass the veteran Legend Car "legend" Hair. Thomson did just that on lap five and was pulling away before the second big crash of the night happened in turn four on lap twelve. This one eliminated the cars of Gary Verdier, Bryan Beland and Campbell.
Hair was able to put a bit of late pressure on Thomson, but the young driver from St. Cloud, FL held on for the win over the North Carolinian. Eighth starter Josh Williams drove a steady race to take third with Zimmerly driving back up to fourth after the first lap crash which simply amazed his crew chief. "The thing was towed out about three inches," he said. "I have no idea how he drove the thing that fast."
Shaughn McCormick had a great run for fifth with Sansom, Jimmy Norman (the new Speedworld season points leader), Mitch Verhaagh (making his first start of the year following rotator cuff surgery last winter), Rick Wetmore and Doug Hall completing the top ten.
The tech shed was again a busy place after the Super Stock feature as track officials continue to try and get the class back "in line." For the second week in a row, three of the top four finishers were disqualified after what was a very good race. Ultimately it would be bitter disappointment for nice guy Ray Mullis who looked like he had finally shaken the monkey off his back with his first win of the year.
Mullis grabbed the lead on lap four from Austin Carr and survived three caution slow-downs to take the apparent victory. However his car was set down in tech handing the win over to second place finisher Bobby Simcox who took his first win since returning to action this year. Matt Jarrett lost a possible second place finish when his car also did not pass inspection while James Frisbie refused to tear down and was also disqualified.
Lee Wagner, who crossed the line fifth, eventually ended up second ahead of Dennis Snyder, Vince Keeler, Jr., and Roger Wright. Mike Mattarazo, Nathan Haystead, Alaine Grogan, Carr and Jeff Parrish rounded out the top ten.
The Modified feature was yet another notch in Shain Held's win total for 2007 as he dominated the race to add to an already big point lead. Held sped by early leader Randy Froelich on lap four and had no problems taking the win as the race ran all the way under green. Gary Fountain, Sr. came home second in front of Mark Emberson, Art Kunzeman, John Hodge, Bobby Joe Woodley and Froelich.
The Sportsman feature also ran green to checker with Timmy Todd, Jr. padding his point lead with his third straight win. Brett Woodley and Justin Reynolds stayed close but had to settle for the place and show spots ahead of Richard Hight and Ted Head. Completing the top ten were Derek Slade, Whitney Poole, Jessie Cuddy, John Tenney and Barbara Pierce.
In Hearndon Construction Bandolero action, local driver Critter Saile was ecstatic after passing arch-rival Dillon Bassett for the win in the Bandits.
Bassett, who has won races all over the Southeast this Summer including three at Speedworld, would have to settle for second behind "The Critter" on this night. Shawn Hooven took the third spot ahead of Justin Bechtold, Zach Harris, Zoey Guignardi and Daniel Conlin. Saile also won the heat race.
The Bassett family out of North Carolina didn't go home empty-handed though as Dillon's older brother Ronnie "The Rock" Bassett, Jr. topped the Young Gun field in both their heat and feature. Donovan Ponder claimed the second spot over Brandon Lynn, Mark Hooven, Gerald Campbell and Dani Collins.
Without a doubt, the best race of the night was the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stock feature which saw a crazy twist involving teammates that ultimately cost one of them the win.
Richard Barrenechea jumped out to the lead but had to contend with constant pressure from the E&H Car Crushing team cars of Jim Erb and William Hindman.
Erb finally got by Barrenechea for the front spot on lap 16 but Hindman drove to hard into turn three and spun Barrenechea out of second. The yellow flag was thrown and Hindman was penalized to the rear of the restart line-up. Since the lap had not been completed, Barrenechea was placed back in the lead and he was able to hold on over a wild final four laps to take his first win of the year in his Pontiac Firebird. Erb drove his Acura to second over the quick-closing Mazda 626 of Rob Reynolds while Alan McClelland and Miguel Barenechea rounded out the top five. The remainder of the top ten were Denny Johns, "Speedo," Jimmy Scripter, Tom Stewart and David Leeper II.
Jason Rosarius' win in the Junior Stocks was made even sweeter when he was joined in victory lane by his grandmother Frida who had just arrived at the track following a flight into Orlando International Airport from Germany. It was the third win in a row for the young driver out of Oviedo as he topped Dylan Curtis, Derek Binda, Brandon Henault (who took the 8-11 year old trophy), Colton Kunzeman and Thomas Warnick.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD AUGUST 10, 2007
1 - 20X Richard Barraechea 2 - 1 Jim Erb - 36 3 - A1 Rob Reynolds 4 - 22X Allen Mcclelland 5 - 22 Miguel Barrenechea 6 - 55 Denny Johns 7 - 069 Ed "speedo" Jager 8 - 7 Jimmy Scripter 9 - 66 Tom Stewart 10 - D2 David Leeper II 11 - 20 Brent Bruner 12 - 15.3 Shane Sutorus 13 - 89 William Hindman 14 - 41 George Brown 15 - 16 Scotty Williams 16 - 00 Billy Grimes 17 - 76 Gary Thomas 18 - 7XX John Davis 19 - 24 Brenda Taylor 20 - 80 Steven Streight
