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| BOYD BAGS BOTH ENDS OF JOSLIN MEMORIAL AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD | by Dave Westerman
It really didn't matter where Jason Boyd started Friday night at Orlando Speedworld. The young man was on a mission as he claimed both the Super Late Model and Modified Joslin Memorial 50-lap races, winning over $3,000 in prize money for his efforts. Boyd set fast time of 13.652 sec. for the Super Late Models driving his Racecar College Chevy Monte Carlo wrenched by Barry Haefle but drew the nine pill and thus had to grid ninth for the start. Eddie King raced from the outside pole to the lead in his Ford Thunderbird but caution was out on lap six when Mack Hanbury was tapped and spun by Mike Good. Both cars were sent to the rear of the field. On the restart, Hanbury returned the favor bringing out the caution again and drawing a stern warning from starter Tony Boswell. Mark Emberson spun to bring out the caution again on lap 11, as Boyd had worked his way already into the top five. At this point, some great green-flag racing took place. Boyd methodically worked his way up to second and pulled even with King. For ten laps they raced side by side with Boyd finally getting a nose in front on lap 29. It would still take five more laps for Boyd to clearly secure the lead but when he did it was no contest from that point. Mike Good spun again on lap 39 for the fourth caution period. Once racing resumed, Rusty Ebersole put the pressure on King, finally passing him for second on lap 35. Eric Black tagged the backstretch wall with two laps to go after running in the top five the entire race to bring out the final caution flag. Ebersole tried all he could, but Boyd took the win, his first ever here in Super Late Model competition. Ebersole was second in the Garrett Fastning Systems Ford Taurus with King holding on for third. Michael Williams drove his South 40 Motorsports "Frankie" Monte Carlo to fourth while Mike Good came back from his three spins to nab fifth spot in the Briar Corp. Ford T-Bird. B.J. McCleod, Morgan Hoover, Russ Thomson, Mark Emberson, and Robert Hight rounded out the top ten. Boyd won the CRE Machine Fast Time Award as well as the Hard Charger award posted by Sara & Harry Leckie and Jimmy & Serena Joslin. King won the Halfway Leader Award and Black took the Hard Luck Award. Both of those awards were posted by Action Performance of Orlando and Daytona Beach.
Mike Fitch set fast time for the Modifieds at 14. 258 sec. to earn the Fast Qualifier award put up by Jason Boyd's dad Dennis of Boyd Racing Engines. Fitch drew the three pill putting third-quick timer Boyd on the pole for the Modified 50-lapper. Boyd raced to the early lead but Fitch was on the charge moving in quickly as the two raced away from the rest of the field in nose to tail fashion. This one looked like it would go green all the way until Gary English spun on lap 33 to put the field under caution. At this point, Fitch's car bagan to overheat and he was sent to the pits for leaking water on the track. With his main competition out of the event, Boyd raced to an easy win driving the famed Bob Judkins 2X. Andy Safiotti had a great run taking second spot with Darren Gould grabbing third. Veteran Wayne Reutimann, Sr. took fourth while Jerry Symons rounded out the top five and took the Hard Charger Award. Jim "Hoot" Flynn was sixth with Frank Polly, Shain Held, Ted Head, and Eddie Hartin completing the top ten. Boyd cleaned up in this one taking the Garrett Fastening Systems Halfway Leader money as well as all $295 in posted lap-leader awards. Mike Fitch took the Action Performance Hard Luck Award.
Tim "Missleman" McPhail shook off some recent bad luck to race to his third Mini Stock win of the year. McPhail had just passed Steve Wagner for the lead when Wagner's engine exploded in a ball of fire. The fire quickly extinguished itself and Wagner was not hurt. Jeff Davis took second place behind McPhail followed by Tim Clark, Rae Williams and Wayne Clark.
When apparent winner Bill Loomis was disqualified for illegal valve springs, Doug Samion claimed the honors in the Sportsman class for his third win of the year in the Rinaldi's AC Repair Chevy. Bobby Mara had another good run coming home second ahead of Rich Hight, Kelly Jarrett and Scott Tyler.
John Smith dusted off another one of his old Chevelles and took the win in the Super Stock feature. Carl Peters took the runner-up spot in front of Bill Loomis, Doug Gould, and Big Bob Wines.
Chris Sodoski took his first win of the season in the Strictly Stock 10-lapper topping Darryl Morris, steve Hoerner, Ron Quarno, Jr., and John Wells.
It was also old timers night at the speedway. Among those spotted at the track were Leroy Porter, Bill Enters, Dumont & Lance Smith, Dolly & Otto Luhrs, Phil Orr, Marty & Janet Little, Bob "The Wrench" Patten, Ernie Bass and several others.
Next week, it's round number two of the Florida Mini Stock Challenge sponsored by South 40 Motorsports.
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