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| Gainey Dominates Lake City Late Models | by Jon Harney
Lake City, FL - Inclement weather forced the shutdown of
several area tracks, but Lake City Speedway was spared
from the worse of the rain and was able to carry on their
weekly racing show. While the storms did put a damper on
attendance and car counts, the show did go on and was
well received by those who braved the elements.
Eddie Gainey made his mark in the combined Late Model/
Limited Late Model feature by grabbing the lead on the
first lap and running to victory in dominant fashion.
Gainey won by nearly a half lap over runner-up J. O.
Nobles. Nobles was followed by Limited Late Model winner
Wilson Griffis, Randy Townsend, and Ricky Boyd.
The visiting Florida Mini Sprint Association brought a
strong field of cars to the 3/8-mile speedway and put
on a highly exciting event. Ryan Thomas assumed the
early lead from the pole position, but broke only a
couple laps later which promoted Steve Crabtree to the
point. Crabtree ran unchallenged until the halfway
point when Mike Schroeder made his presence known.
Jesse Teed jetted from the rear of the field and ran
down lead duo as traffic began to play a factor. T. J.
Knowles rolled his car on lap 14 to bring out the red
flag. T.J. was unhurt and miraculously, so was his car
and both re-entered the race! When green flag racing
resumed Teed overhauled Schroeder and gave Crabtree all
he could handle before coming up short at the line. The
final top five was Crabtree, Teed, Schroeder, Doug Craig,
and Russ Heider.
Open Wheel Modifieds saw some new competitors at the track.
J. O. Nobles rebounded from his defeat in Late Models to
take a convincing win. Nobles, who makes infrequent
visits to Lake City, adapted well to the oil-based dirt
surface and was largely unchallenged. James Blackmer was
the best of the rest and beat Kyle Owen, Mark Waters, and
Morgan Bass to the line. The Modifieds are a welcome
class to the track and is a division that is looking to
continue to grow.
Shane Taylor converted his pole position to a win in
Street Stocks. Taylor didn't receive a gift victory,
though, as he tangled bumpers with a lapped car with
just a handful of circuits remaining. Wayno Risner
took advantage of the opportunity to blow by Taylor
for the lead. Risner's bid for glory was all too brief
as Taylor recovered to reassume the lead two laps later.
Risner continued to pressure Taylor to the checkers but
had to settle for second. Dean Sands was third followed
by Duane Techenbrock and Debbie Shepard.
In the Pure Stock finale Joey Rolling survived an early
race altercation to come out on top. Attrition played
a major role as less than half the starting field
finished the race. Trisha Taylor beat Chuck Strickland
to the stripe with Buddy Spradley and Larry Davis
coming home fourth and fifth.
This Saturday Night the scheduled main event is the
inaugural race of the GA/FL Late Model Sportsman
Challenge Series. The main event will be a 40 lap
race that pays $1500 to win. All regular Lake City
Speedway classes will also run. For more information
contact Jimmy Parker at 229-891-2886 or 229-873-0812.
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