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| KING LEADS FORD SWEEP AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD | by Dave Westerman
Taking advantage of what was given to him, former track champion Eddie King of Alturas claimed victory in Friday night's 25-lap Super Late Model feature at Orlando Speedworld.
King won the second heat, but slipped back to third at the start of the main event behind first heat winner Jacob Warren and B.J. McLeod. On lap three McLeod tapped Warren coming out of turn two sending Warren into a spin down the backstretch. With both cars going to the rear, King found himself in the lead and he would never be headed from that point despite cautions on lap 16 for a multi-car tangle and for a spin by Kevin Ingram on lap 19.
Following King's Ford Thunderbird to the line was Rusty Ebersole in the Garrett Fastner Systems Ford Taurus. McCleod rocketed back through the field to claim third place money followed by Eric Black and Warren. Russ Thomson, David King, Brian Bellaw, Ricky Wood and Jim Erb rounded out the top ten. 2000 Modified champion Jason Boyd finally put his 2X machine into victory lane making it five winners in five Modified races this year.
The race got off to a rough start when polesitter Darren Gould got tangled up on the initial start putting himself, Bruce Thompson, Larry Chalmers, and Joey Pletka in the pits for the evening. From that point it was Boyd's race as he easily claimed the win over Frank Polly, Ted Head, Shain Held and Gary English. Clermont's Dan Hammerbeck made a daring three-wide pass to take the 20-lap South 40 Motorsports Classic Auto Racing Series feature.
Frank Conrad held the initial lead as Eddie Thornton began working the outside lane with the two racing side by side for several laps. But when both drivers slid a bit high in turn two, Hammerbeck saw his opportunity and dove under both of them to secure the top spot. A late race caution for Simeon Spagnuolo's spin was the only thing to slow Hammerbeck's pace as he easily sped to his second career win. Conrad held on for second in front of Thornton, Jim Rahman and Ed Yates. Bud Spencer, Rodney Eary, David Nunes, George Hall, Jr. and Spagnuolo rounded out the top ten. It took several tries to get the Mini Stock feature going as two multi-car wrecks damaged a number of machines and put newcomer Corbin Gibbs' car hard enough into the wall that it took two wreckers to get it back to the pits. Once the race got under way, it was no contest as Dade City's Matt Watts dominated in his Dodge for his first win here in several years. Tim Clark held off Tim "Missleman" McPhail for second with lady drivers Rae Williams and Trisha Gray rounding out the top five. Bill Loomis finally put it all together to win his first Sportsman feature of the year. Driving the Ron-John's Automotive/Pennzoil special, Loomis was able to hold off Doug Samion for the win. Bob Mara, making his first Speedworld start, claimed third spot in front of Scott Tyler and Russ Shaw. The man from Bull Creek, Big Bob Wines, scored his first career Super Stock feature win in dominating fashion driving the Jerry's Auto Machine Chevy Monte Carlo.
Wines watched in his rear-view mirror as Duane Freed came out on top of a dandy second place battle with Carl Peters. Bill Loomis capped off another good night by getting fourth in this race ahead of Rich Clouser. Wild action spiced the run watcha brung Strictly Stocks. William Hindman had his bell rung pretty bad when his car smashed head-on into the turn three wall, but he emerged none the worse for wear and was last seen posing for pictures in the pits next to his demolished Oldsmobile.
Don Smith drove his Quarno's Auto salvage Monte Carlo to his third win of the year but had to hold off the pesky Honda Prelude of Darryl Erb to do it. Chester Sutorus spun early while battling for the lead and came back to get the third place trophy trailed by Dave Czerwinski and Tim Walters, Jr. The evening's races were dedicated to long-time Orlando Speedworld employee Naomi Parks who passed away on Thursday. She will be missed by everyone involved with racing at both Orlando Speedworld and New Smyrna Speedway.
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