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| Auburndale Kicks Off 2002 Season | Welcome to the 2002 Racing Season for Auburndale Speedway. We had a good show for the first night of points, and had some "Good Looking" cars for the fans to judge for the Best Appearing Car Contest. All classes were running except for Open wheel Modifieds, not enough cars this week to run the class, but everything else was jam packed with action. Plus an exciting Demo-Derby.
The Demoltion Derby was an exciting event, just when you thought we would be down to just 2 cars, the 3rd car would get fired back up and battle it out again. This went on for quite awhile with 3 cars still running. Until 2 dropped out at the same time and left the # 911 of Robert Kissam running declaring him the winner. We look forward to having many more of these Demo's during our 2002 Season.
In all the classes being judged for "The Best Appearing Car" we brought all the classes to a stop on the front stretch before their feature race. With the applause and cheers from the crowd thats how the judging was done. 4CYL-Bombers #31 Donnie Guy Limited Late Models #10 Steve Dorer V-8 Street Stocks #00 Rodney Peterson Super Stocks TIE #34 Jeff McCaw # 31 Donnie Harp Mini-Stocks #89 Shaggin' Wagon Scott Sharpe
With all that aside the racing began. The 4 Cyl-Bombers had 10 cars in the field to start the night off. Even before the race started we had 2 cars drop out, one popped a tire going down the back stretch, and the other couldn't get running. On the front row was # 3 of Terri Jones (our only female racer) and # 27 Dewayne Guy beside her. From the start Terri Jones took the lead, and # 7 Ronnie Hyatt in second,and # 27 Dewayne Guy and # 06 George Gorham Jr. battle for third. The #5 Ivan Davis lost his tire in turn four, no major damage to his car.On the restart Terri Jones still leading with Ronnie Hyatt second until he was passed by # 27 Dewayne Guy with 2 laps to go, then # 7 of Ronnie Hyatt started slowing and pulled into the infield with mechanical problems after running up front. So that moved # 43 Kevin Lumley into the top three.
V-8 Street Stocks were ready to Rock & Roll for their first feature event of the season, with 20 cars in the field. On the pole was # 29 Rodney Richardson, and outside of him was # 68 Mike Wilson.On the first lap going for the lead 3 cars tangled, Mike Wilson # 17 Alex Abbott and Rodney Richardson, with Richardson getting the bad end of the deal and ending up high in turn two still running Alex Abbott got together with Mike Wilson and spun him around, putting the leader in the back of the field for the restart, but ended up pulling in with problems. Alex Abbott lead on the restart, with # 81 Roy Wilshire second, and # 00 Rodney Peterson up to third. Rodney Peterson went to the inside of Roy Wilshire for second, bringing # 32 David Holland with him up to the top three.A lapped car caused a chain reaction and David Holland lost a couple positions, moving # 99 Jason Deaton to third. Rodney Peterson was really hooked up and started putting pressure on for the lead. Caution for # 25 Jeff Davis who spun on the front stretch, bunching the field up for the restart. Lap 13 Roy Wilshire # 81 battled for fifth with # 63 Donald Gatlin, meanwhile Rodney Peterson got to the inside of Alex Abbott for the lead, the yellow came out for Donald Gatlin who lost control of his car going down the front stretch and spun, # 43 Burnie Russell tried to avoid Gatlin and ended up hitting him, taking Gatlin out, but Russell was able to continue.On the restart, with Rodney Peterson leading David Holland went to the outside of Roy Wilshire for 4th, with 2 laps to go # 66 Wesley Harbin spun and comes around the outside of turn 1 & 2 the opposite way, but the race continued and the top three were # 00 Rodney Peterson, # 99 Jason Deaton and # 17 Alex Abbott.
Limited Late Models had a low car count but still put on a good show, other drivers still working on their cars to come out and race. Steve Dorer # 10 was on the pole and ran away with the lead on the start, # 20 Greg Kielma second and # 65 Ollie Harbin running third. Single file racing until a heated battle between Kielma and Harbin started up, last lap Ollie Harbin went to the inside of Keilma for 2nd spot on the back stretch, Harbin to his door, Keilma still tried to block and came down on Harbin, both spinning going into turn three, # 1 Bart Weatherford was goning go around both of them but got collected when one of the cars came back up the track clipping the rear of Weatherford sending him in a spin. The # 45 of Sam Cressman took advantage of it all and came to the checkered flag in second, with # 65 Ollie Harbin limping across the finish line with a tore up car for third, after # 10 Steve Dorer took the win. After post race inspections, # 10 of Steve Dorer was DQed for being to l! ight on the scales, along with # 65 Ollie Harbin, and # 25 Billy Norris Jr. That gave the win to # 45 Sam Cressman his first ever race in the LLM, Good Start!
Super Stocks had a pretty big field of cars, with more to come in a couple weeks. Paul Gibbs # 2 took to the front with # 08 Jim Orisich and # 12 David Williamson top three. Jeff McCaw # 34 was the car to watch in this race, passing quite a few cars to put him up front towards the end of the race, all the way up to 2nd and his car started smoking and he got black flagged and had to pull in. Battling for spots up front, David Williamson got together with Jim Orisich tapping him, causing Orisich to get alittle sideways and # 80 Dustin Breeden passed both of them, Orisich ending up spinning and Dustin Breeden was involved but kept going. Meanwhile the leader Paul Gibbs blows his motor and catches fire, he was alright, that handed the lead and the win to David Williamson, with Dustin Breeden second and third went to # 01 Chris Lewellen.
Mini-Stocks were ready to rumble onto the track with 17 cars in this one. On the start # 01 Donnie Howell and # 97 Richie Acres battle for the lead, side-by-side, this went on for several laps. Bryan Storer # 0 made contact with # 42 Billy Barstow sent him spinning, no caution. The battle up front still side-by-side and on lap 7 Robbie Storer # 9 came up to battle briefly, and on the back stretch there was just enough room between Howell and Acres to squeeze through to make it three wide and take the lead coming out of turn four. Caution for # 12 Terry Westcott spinning, bunching the cars together for the restart. Bryan Storer got to the inside of Acres for the third spot, and then to the outside of Howell for second. Richie Acres still trying the outside to challenge for third, fourth through eighth were side-by-side in that bunch # 51 Wade Leithead stepped to the outside to try to make a pass going into turn one and conact was made between Leithead and Acres with both spin! ning, both to the rear, Leithead dropped out. Restart # 15 Bob Storer went to the outside of Howell for the third spot, and # 89 Scott Sharpe put the "Shaggin' Wagon" up to third after passing both Storer and Howell. Caution contact with # 87 Bobby Judah spinning Howell out on the back stretch, Judah to the rear. Restart Scott Sharpe went back to the 5th spot because of the last completed lap, but wasn't long and he was around them again to take the third spot behind the "Storer Brothers" Robbie finishing first, and Bryan second.
We are looking forward to this 2002 Racing Season at Auburndale. The racing was good Saturday night and we expect more cars every week. Auburndale has a couple different events scheduled this year. I have talked to JT the Promoter about having a Trailer Race, where you pull a travel trailer behind a car and race, parts, sinks, toilets all over the track, its a BLAST! Probably to be scheduled in May. Next weeks schedule is all regular classes except the Open Wheel Modifieds will run a 50 lapper.
4-CYL Bombers V-8 Street Stock 1-3 Terri Jones 1-00 Rodney Peterson 2-27 Dwayne Guy 2-99 Jason Deaton 3-43 Kevin Lumley 3-17 Alex Abbott 4-31 Donnie Guy 4-32 David Holland 5-1 David Dukes 5-81 Roy Wilshire 6-56 Wayne Hough 6-43 Burnie Russell 7-7 Ronnie Hyatt 7-28 James Calhoun 8-06 George Gorham Jr. 8-4x R. Lewis 9-5 Ivan Davis 9-66 Wesley Harbin 10-29 Joe Spears 10-63 Donald Gatlin
Super Stocks Mini-Stocks 1-12 David Williamson 1-9 Robbie Storer 2-80 Dustin Breeden 2-0 Bryan Storer 3-01 Chris Lewellen 3-89 Scott Sharpe 4-13 Aaron Williamson 4-8 Tim Harman 5-31 Donnie Harp 5-01 Donnie Howell 6-51 Randy Shearer 6-5 Chris Palmer 7-3 Chuck Steele 7-97 Richie Acres 8-2 Paul Gibbs 8-87 Bobby Judah 9-08 Jim Orisich 9-33 David Fair 10-00 Shawn Harper 10-15 Bob Storer
Limited Late Model 1-45 Sammy Cressman 2-1 Bart Weatherford 3-20 Greg Keilma 4-00 Ronnie Heard
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