IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

October 24, 2007 Robbie Cooper Turns Roll Of Die Into Big Payday At Auburndale Story And Photos By Rick Warren A balmy October day. 23 Open Wheel Modifieds signed in to compete. $5000 to win a 100 lap feature on Auburndale Speedway’s tight bullring, with the added incentive of another 5K in lap money and bonuses. Sounds like a recipe for a great day of competition, when you add in all of the regular events at AMS. After all the drivers in the Open Wheel Mods qualified, Wayne “Rocketman” Jefferson turned the fastest lap, with Curtis Neumann right behind. When feature time arrived, the modifieds were rolled onto the speedway for an autograph session with the large number of fans in attendance. The fans really enjoyed talking with the drivers, getting autographs, hero cards, candy, and other forms of memorabilia. After the meet and greet finished, a die was rolled on the front straight for the inversion, and came up with the # 9, putting Robbie Cooper on the pole position, with Sean McLaughlin on the outside of the front row. After the field took the track and got a few warm-up laps behind the pace truck, it was time for the racers to do their thing. Time to see who had done their homework, to see who had more nerve on the tight bullring, and to see who had lady luck on their side. The field took the green flag, and Cooper powered into the lead, with Richie Smith and McLaughlin right behind. The field was just Starting to get settled in for some serious racing, when mother nature stepped in and brought the rains on lap 4, bringing out the red flag. It is Sunday afternoon at Auburndale Speedway, and Mother Nature has relented for the present time. At 2:00 in the afternoon, 21 modifieds rolled onto the speedway to take care of some unfinished business. After several laps behind the pace truck, and several more warm-up laps, the field headed for the green flag with Cooper in the lead, followed by Smith, McLaughlin, Nelson, Pierce, Lowers, Bowman, Neumann, Jefferson, and Cherry in the top ten positions. As the green waved to restart the race, Cooper fired off of turn 4 with the field of mods tight on his bumper. The racers took a couple of laps to settle in, and then the competition started to heat up. Lap 7 sees McCafferty start to make moves to the front as he passes Cherry to move into the top ten. Jefferson, after setting fast time, was anxious to get to the front, and went to the outside. At that point, the “rocketman” was the only one willing to give the outside a chance. Although it didn’t work right away, persistence paid off, as more cars were trying the second groove. At one point, the racing for position in the top ten was 2 wide and 3 rows deep, and very exciting. About 25 laps into the race, the caution came out for the first incident, a spin in turn 1 involving Bowman, Lowers, and Jefferson. The official call was that Jefferson caused the incident, and would restart from the rear. Jefferson disagreed with the call, and after conferring with track officials, decided to leave the race. --Advertisement-- The race restarted with Cooper still out front followed by Smith, McLaughlin, Pierce and Nelson in the top 5. Shortly after the restart Tate Pierce’s strong run came to an end with a flat right front tire, bringing out the caution once again. The running order for the restart had Cooper, Smith, McLaughlin, Bowman, and Nuemann in the top 5 spots. At this point attrition started taking it’s toll on the racecars, with Nelson, Pierce and others leaving the race with mechanical issues. Just as the field was coming to the halfway break, the cars of Cenzi and Hite made contact with the 92 hitting the front wall. The caution came out, and the field was pulled into the infield for fueling purposes. After the racecars were refueled and religned for the start, the racers all seemed to turn up the heat, and started to really get aggressive in their passing attempts. A little bumping, a little rubbing, some really tight and exciting short track racing. Neumann was able to move by Bowman and grab the fourth position, and was making moves to catch McLaughlin for the third position. Meanwhile, Cooper was holding a three to four car lead on Smith, and Cooper’s car seemed to be getting better with each lap. As the lead pack came up on lapped traffic, the 2R of John Rogers got together with the 99 of McLaughlin, and the 99 drove over the top of Rogers car, and got airborne, twisting and turning, but fortunately landed on it’s wheels. Both drivers were un-injured, but the racecars were not so lucky. Neither was able to continue the race. After the track was cleared the field was reset for the restart. Cooper and Smith still held the top 2 spots, followed by Neumann, Bowman and McCafferty. Soon after the restart, McCafferty also had mechanical issues and was forced to retire from the race. On the restart, Neumann put a big charge on Smith to try and take second position,and while the race for second heated up, Cooper was steadily pulling away from the field. As Smith and Neumann raced into turn 3, with on 2 laps remaining, Smith moved up the track, letting Nuemann drive by, and Smith pulled into the infield with a broken differential. It was a real heartbreaker for Smith, running on a shoestring budget, to have such a strong run ended so close to the finish. Cooper went on to take the win, followed by a hard charging Neumann, with Bowman closing out a great effort in third position. After the top finishers cleared post race tech inspection, the race was declared official. Cooper, with the win, and lap money and bonuses, collected an amazing $10,400 for his efforts. FINAL RESULTS 1. #98 Robbie Cooper 2. #01 Cutis Neumann 3. # 2 Ralph Bowman 4. #12 Eric Rudd 5. #27 Jason Garver 6. #13 Aaron Williamson 7. #35 Michael Cherry 8. #53 Doug Miller 9. #18 Greg Edwards 10. #42 Richie Smith 11. #02 John Lowers Jr. 12. #72 Kevin Macy 13. #54 David Hite 14. #32M Alan McCafferty 15. #99 Sean McLaughlin 16. #81 Tate Pierce 17. #2R John Rogers 18. #34 Teddy Nelson 19. #92 Michael Cenzi 20. #94 Steve Perez 21. #24 David Riel 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!