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| Mike Cawood Wins Mini Stock Special at Volusia Speedway Park | Barberville, Fla - As usual in the summer there is always
rain in the area, but it stayed away Saturday night at
Volusia Speedway Park and the drivers all put on a great
show for the fans. The Mini Stock had their first big
race of the season and #k9 Mike Cawood was the big winner
of the night. Other winners include: Late Model #ll Roho
Sims, Street Stock #007 Todd Ponce, Hobby Stock A-Main #88
Dennis North, Hobby Stock B-Main #31 Donnie Birdwell and
Pure Stock #8 John Blood.
Mini Stock Special - It was a long race for the Mini Stocks
and extra money was on the line so a post race protest and
teardown was expected but the result of the teardown was
not, #k9 Mike Cawood was the winner of the 30 lap feature
race. Following the post race teardown third place finisher
#k9 Mike Cawood was in fact the winner. First and second
place finishers #22 Mark Eldridge and #6 Matt Cawood were
both found illegal and disqualified giving the win to third
place #k9 Mike Cawood.
When #22 Mark Eldridge comes to race he comes to win too.
Eldridge put his car out front and no one could catch him.
#6 Matt Cawood came close a few times but just could not
get around Eldridge. The race was plagued with several
cautions, a red flag and penalities for jumping the start.
#9b Mike Quick was penalized for jumping the start twice
and #00 Mark Paterniti brought out the red flag on lap
23 as he slammed the wall just feet from the flagstand.
Paterniti didn't climb out of the car immediately and
the safety crew were on hand to help him.
On lap 17 the finish was actually locked in, Eldridge
was leading, Matt Cawood was second and #k9 Mike Cawood
was third, #66 Donnie Ashford made it up to 4th and
that's the way they finished.
Mini Stocks (l)k9 Mike Cawood (2)66 Donnie Ashford (3)
7 Mike Ponce (4)29 Drew Smith (5)97 Jackie Rhames (6)
888 James McCague (7)27 Joey Haslauer (8)99 Charlie
MacNichols (9)2 Al Sawyer (10)48 Deric Smith DQ-22 Mark
Eldridge & 6 Matt Cawood.
DeLand Truck Center Late Models - It was all Roho! #11
Roho Sims was hooked up Saturday night at Volusia
Speedway Park in his #ll Late Model as heled the race
start to finish.
The competition was fierce as #9 Rod Burton and #17 Joe
Kump never eased up on Sims for the entire 30 laps. On
lap 3 #44 Ronnie Grubb got loose and checked up coming
out of turn 4, #38 Scott Thompson was all up the rear
end of #23 Patrick Sheltra. Grubb, Thompson, and Sheltra
all three spun, Grubb ended up in the pits.
There was alot of bumping and banging, an unusual sight
in the Late Models. #4 Rick Singler had trouble on
lap 10 as he seemed to lose power and slowed enough to
bring out the caution. Singler was able to refire his
race car and continue only to retire to the pits a couple
of laps later.
All eyes were on #23 Lawton Minchew as he started in the
6th spot, he seemed to have trouble and lost 3 spots but
by lap 7 he was back up to 5th. On lap 20 Minchew tried
to pass #6 Scott Singler, he missed his shot and checked
up a little, #33 Bill Kopka was all over the back of Minchew
but by the next lap Minchew got around Scott Singler and
took a strong 4th place finish.
Deland Truck Center Late Models (l)ll Roho Sims (2)9 Rod
Burton (3)17 Joe Kump (4)23 Lawton Minchew (5)6 Scott
Singler (6)99 Brent Chilson (7)57 Chuck Julien (8)33 Bill
Kopka (9)23 Patrick Sheltra (10)33 Ken Mihalik
OB's Restaurant and Lounge Hobby Stocks A-Main - 2002 Points
leader #88 Dennis North took the lead on lap l0, put his
car way out front and kept it that way for the final 10
laps.
The beginning of the race was scary to say the least as #13
Philip Brown and #44 Jason Rosenfeld got together under
the flagstand and Brown went airborn flipping down the
front straightaway coming to rest only feet from the
start finish line. A red flag was thrown for safety rea-
sons as Brown climbed from his car and the wrecker crew
put the car between both wreckers for it's fateful trip
to the pits.
The leader for the first half of the race #12 Rick Friend
lost several positions and had to settle for 18th in the
end.
On lap 5 the battle heated up for third place between #88
Dennis North, #51 Steve Oldaker who was out in his new
car and #58 Dave Burttram Jr. North went to the low side
of the track and takes the spot, Oldaker holds on but
Burttram went to high and got loose and ended up 6th behind
#02 Jimmy Heffner.
Friend couldn't ease up with #46 Travis Gamble breathing
down his neck, the caution flag came out as Burttram
breaks and comes to rest in turn 3. On the restart on
lap 10 North saw the opportunity and took it as he shot
past Friend taking Gamble with him. Friend had trouble
and had to put his car in the pits.
North was way out front ahead of brothers, #46 Travis
Gamble and #64 Trevor Gamble. On lap 16 #21 Chris
Manucy was in 4th, Manucy got loose and lost 4 spots in
less than one lap. The caution was thrown on lap 17 as
#26 Tim Hogan, #9l Kirk Bush and #4 Johnny Westfall Jr.
got together in turn 4. On the restart Hogan suffered
serious engine trouble and Westfall blew a tire and they
both ended up in the pits for the remainder of the race.
As the clock ran down it was Green...White and Checker
for #88 Dennis North as he led #46 Travis Gamble, #64
Trevor Gamble, #02 Jimmy Heffner and #50 Pat Taulbee.
OB's Restaurant and Lounge Hobby Stocks-A-Main (l)88
Dennis North (2)46 Trevor Gamble (3)64 Travis Gamble
(4)02 Jimmy Heffner (5)50 Pat Taulbee (6)19 Joe Belkey
(7)19 Kory Bush (8)3 Kenny Waters (9)21 Chris Manucy
(10)18 Richard Price
B-Main - The fans were cheering as #31 Donnie Birdwell
won the Hobby Stock B-Main race.
The first caution flag flew as #13 Paul Hughart spun
coming out of turn 4 just avoiding the pit wall
entrance on lap 2.
On the restart #31 Donnie Birdwell took the lead with
#33 Grady Christian on his bumper for a strong second
Previous leader #24 Brenda Little lost three spots on
the restart but was able to hold on to third for the
rest of the race.
Soon after the restart another caution was thrown as #57
Heinz Haas, #38 Doug Fisher and #30 Nick Salerno got
together. Salerno had to retire his race car for the
night but Haas and Fisher were able to resume racing.
Haas finished the race in 5th place while Fisher settled
for an llth place finish.
As the checkers flew Christian gave it all he had but
was unable to take the lead from Birdwell. The 5th place
finisher, #5 Shannon McConnell, literally gave it all
as his car was smoking to finish, he never let up finish-
ing ahead of #57 Heinz Haas.
OB's Restaurant and Lounge Hobby Stocks B-Main: (l)31
Donnie Birdwell (2)33 Grady Christian (3)24 Brenda
Little (4)5 Shannon McConell (5)57 Heinz Haas (6)10
Tommy Dove (7)80 Paul Cutcher (8)30 Phillip Connor (9)
13 Paul Hughart (10)55 Al Sanville
Action Performance Street Stocks - It was two weeks in a
row for #007 Todd Ponce has he wheeled his car into
victory lane ahead of 200l Point Champ #22 Joe Baker.
On lap 3 Ponce took the lead and on lap 5 #8 washed up
the track losing his 2nd place spot, #57 Wally Schneider
got loose and #00 John Ripley took the opportunity to
take second. On lap 7 #66 Frank Sharp spun in turn 4
and was unable to restart ending his night.
By lap 10 #22 Joe Baker took third from Schneider. With
5 laps to go the leaders Ponce and Ripley were way out
front, almost a quarter of a track ahead of third place
Baker. With only 2 laps to go something gave way in
Ripley's car and he took the "E" ticket ride, climbing
the back wall and coming to rest on top of the wall.
Ripley climbed out of the car and examined the damage
as the wrecker had to sling his car between them to get
it off the wall and into the pits. The restart had the
field closing in on the leader but on the white flag lap
Ponce had a several car lead over second place finisher
#22 Joe Baker and third place #57 Wall Schneider, #4p
James Peters and #8 David Whitt rounded out the top five
spots.
Action Performance Street Stocks (l)007 Todd Ponce (2)22
Joe Baker (3)57 Wally Schneider (4)4p James Peters (5)
8 David Whitt (6)5 Kevin Zahnen (7)26 George Lane (8)74
Mike Lanich (9)2 Scott Lagasse Jr. (10)17 Kathy Gainey.
Pure Stocks - After leading all but the first two laps,
#8 John Blood took the feature win despite a hard
charging Rick Picard. It was a good thing the Pure Stocks
ran before the Mini Stock for a change. Pure Stock's
were given the opportunity to race the Mini Stock if there
were spots availabe. Blood was able to compete in both
races, he won the Pure Stock but he has work ahead of him
before he will race next week as he was involved in a
crash in the Mini Stocks.
Caution #3 occured on lap 12 as #3 Eric Waters spun in
turn l. Debris on the track prolonged the restart with
only 3 laps to go. On the white flag lap Froelich made
a last ditch effort to take second from Picard but had
to settle for third. #48 Deric Smith was up in the top
5 but suffered a flat tire on the last lap and had to
settle for a 7th place finish.
Pure Stocks (1)8 John Blood (2)9 Rick Picard (3)43 Joey
Froehlich (4)18 Chris Shead (5)23 Mark Reiter (6)75
Shawn Pawlak (7)48 Deric Smith (8)27 James Strehle (9)
5 Chris Mark (10)8 Chris Heaney
Saturday - June 22, Stock Car Racing 5 Divisions - Late
Models, Hobby Stocks, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks and
Pure Stocks PLUS...Bicycle Races for the Kids! Grand
stands open at 5 pm, racing starts at 7:30 pm. General
admission $8.00, Children 12 and Under FREE plus Senior
and Student discounts. Information (386) 985-4402 or
www.volusiaspeedwaypark.com.
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