Durden Wins Gulf Coast 50 at Bronson Motor Speedway
by Rick Warren
Mother Nature toyed with the fans and racers Saturday Night at Bronson Motor Speedway. In between very light sprinkles, and a spectacular lightening display, the Gulf Coast Classic was run to completion before Lightening struck an electrical transformer away from the track that killed the tracks lights, and put an end to the nights program.
Tim Moore in the 57 car led all qualifiers with a lap time of 13.453 seconds on the banked oval. Wayne Jefferson was second fastest with a time of 13.548 seconds, followed by Gary Southard, Kevin Durden and Alan McCafferty. Moore drew a #5 for starting order, and inverted the top 5 qualifiers.
Race time saw Alan McCafferty in the 32 car on the pole, with Kevin Durden in the 56 on the outside pole. Gary Southard and Wayne Jefferson made up the second row followed by Tim Moore and Jeremy Gerstner.
When the Green flag waved, McCafferty and Durden raced side by side into turn 1, with Durden coming out in the lead as they entered the back straight. As Durden tried to maintain his lead, Southard was giving McCafferty plenty to deal with as Southard was trying to find a way past the 32 car. ]
Early in the battle, McCafferty and Southard made contact with one another, bringing out the caution, and resulting in both cars restarting from the rear. When the race restarted, Durden had his back bumper covered with the cars of Wayne Jefferson and Tim Moore, as both were battling each other for the opportunity to try to overtake Durden for the lead. As the racers battled down the front straight, Moore and Jefferson got together, bring out the caution flag. Jefferson’s’ racer was unable to continue, and retired to the pit area, while Moore restarted from the rear.
The race once again went green, with Durden continuing to lead, and Jeremy Gerstner in the 70 car taking up the pursuit. While the race for the lead was hot and heavy, Southard, McCafferty and Moore were all making a big charge thru the field, trying to enter the battle for the lead again. Caution waved again for the 04 car of Rick McManaway, as the engine in his car started smoking heavily.
The race had several cautions for minor incidents and spins, but since the caution laps didn’t count in the total, the fans were treated to a full 50 laps of racing. The final caution set up a shoot out for the lead, with Southard passing Gerstner for second, and racing Durden hard for the win. At the end of 50 laps, Kevin Durden brought the 56 car, owned by Alan Southard, to the winners circle with the victory.
Gary Southard finished a close second, followed by Gerstner, Rob Partelo, and Alan McCafferty.
Rob Cooper won a hard fought battle for the Sportsman class win, finally managing to get by Arthur conquest late in the race to take the win. They were followed by Kyle Maynard and William Edwards.
When the Pure Stocks hit the track, Arnold Hughes Jr. took the lead, and was preparing for a good battle with Arthur Conquest, who had just taken second. Unfortunately, Mother nature had other plans, and turned out the lights. The race was called, and the win awarded to Hughes, followed by Conquest, Daniel Pinner, and Jeff Tillman.
Be sure to join us next week when the wild and crazy figure 8 racers return to Bronson Motor Speedway. Hope to see you at the track!
