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| Joe Winchell Sportsman Winner at Hialeah | HIALEAH, Fla. - Looking in mid-season form, veteran Joe Winchell got past Danny Maddox on lap 10 and went to to claim his second win in as many weeks in the 25-lap late model sportsman headliner at Hialeah Speedway Saturday night.
Maddox led from the pole with Winchell tracking him down until the field was slowed on lap nine for the blown engine in Bob Regula's mount. Once back underway, Winchell turned up the wick and took command to lead Maddox to the stripe by a narrow margin. David Weaver, Bobby Shelton and Jim Nall trailed.
Defending street stock king Chalo DeCastro led wire to wire to claim his first win of the young season in the 20-lap run. Mike Kohut gave DeCastro plenty of pressure but settled for second money over Mike Orth, Rick Lutz and Tish Franssen.
The mini stock main was no contest as Buddy Sizemore blasted from the pole in his new look black No. 3 Toyota and won the 20 lapper easily over David Russell. Peter Lloyd turned in a good drive for third money over Bill Miner and Bill Calder.
Mike Powers took the lead in the 25 lap cyclone main on lap nine from Chad Orth, then held off the heavy advances of George Morales for his first win of the season. Roger Pfau, newcomer Brian Cook and Tony Crowder rounded out the top five in the 21 car field.
REUTIMANN TESTS SPRINTER
Veteran wheelman Wayne Reutimann was back in a familiar, comfortable spot Saturday afternoon as he slipped behind the wheel of Don Heckman's potent No. 22 sprint car for an afternoon test session at Hialeah Speedway.
With temperatures in the low 80s Reutimann and the Darth Vader looking winged sprinter blasted around the flat third-mile oval lap after lap as the crew made subtile changes between sessions. "This probably is not one of my favorite places to race," related Reutimann. "I've never done real well here but its Don's home track and we need to have a good showing when we come back to race next month."
If practice makes perfect then the Reutimann-Heckman combo looks like they're on the right track as they got down in the low 14 second bracket before packing their equipment away, satisfied that some changes made over the off season were going to help in their quest for yet another Tampa Bay Area Racing Assn. championship.
The 23-race TBARA 2001 tour begins on Feb. 17 at Ocala Speedway then makes Hialeah its second stop on March 10 before going to Charlotte County Speedway in Punta Gorda on March 24.
by Marty Little
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