Reisman, Grief, Hermann, Akins and Thomson Take Saturday Orlando Wins.
by Dave Westerman
A great field of cars made the journey to Orlando Speedworld Saturday night, and for once the rains stayed away so the Saturday Spectacular II could finally be run after three months of trying.
The kids took to the track first as the Bandelero Bandits were ready to do battle. Chad Akins took the heat race win and led all the way in the feature although Derrick Wood was on his tail the entire distance.
There were no major altercations in this race as Akins took the win followed by Wood, Matthew Jarrett, Gerald White, Jr. and Spencer Taylor.
Brandon Thomson must like racing on Saturdays. Thomson won the Bandelero Young Guns feature at the first Saturday Spectacular held in May and was back in victory lane again this week.
The race got off to a rough start with a pretty hard tangle between Kevin Henry and Nick Wesenick. Henry had to take his car to the pits while Wesenick continued.
Thomson took the lead at the drop of the green and led all the way. Scott Jarrett won the heat, but had to settle for runner-up in the feature. Wesenick was third with Henry credited with fourth.
A good field of Legends Cars was next up on the program and this 35-lap run would be dominated by a pair of rising young stars. Jason Reisman and Sam Watts, who is only 12 years old, dominated their respective heat races and it didn't take them long to show they would be the dominant force in the feature as well.
The two immediately raced to the front only to see the caution come out on lap two as Kory Abbott looped his car in turn three. from there it was 17 laps of fast green flag racing as Reisman and Watts were streaking away from the field and already putting cars laps down.
Caution flew for the second time on lap 19 as Jarrad Cawley went for a spin in turn three. On the restart, Doug Hall and Karl Stairs locked horns on the backstretch with Hall's machine taking a hard shot into the wall tearing the right from wheel and tire off his machine. Hall wasn't hurt, but he was done for the night while Stairs was able to continue.
Reisman and Watts continued to show the way with Kevin Abbott within shouting distance. On lap 32, Abbott spun to avoid a lapped car in turn two, bringing out the third and final caution. Abbott was placed back in third spot while the driver of the lapped car was black-flagged for failing to heed the move-over flag.
Reisman held off Watts to the checker with Kevin Abbott holding on for third spot. Jeremy Colangelo drove his RE/MAX sponsored car to fourth just ahead of James Rodriguez. Wesley McCleod, Kelly Jarrett, Jarrad Cawley, Kory Abbott and Bob Wilson rounded out the top ten.
Deland's Daryl Grief led all the way to claim his third Classic Auto Racing Series win of the year although it was his first ever win on an asphalt track.
Grief and Patrick "Bam Bam" Sanders took the CARS heat wins and made up row one for the 25-lap feature. Grief immediately took control as Bill Posey moved into second with Sanders and Joey Strehle in a real dogfight for third spot. Sanders and Strehle were going at it tooth and nail and their battle ultimately ended up in a tangle on lap eight that saw Strehle eventually disqualified for a yellow flag incident.
As the race resumed, Grief and Posey were in a great battle for the top spot as Al "Hot Rod" Hagan moved up to third spot. Jim Rahman was up to fifth from his 11th starting spot when a broken header forced him to the infield on lap 13.
Posey was working the low side to perfection and was poised to make a run on Grief when his car suddenly began to sputter on lap 22 and he fell off the pace and eventually out of competition.
Grief breezed to the checkered flag with Hagan getting his best finish of a rather "hard luck" year with second. CARS point leader Ben Booth came from 12th on the starting grid to get third place and also earn the Door Operating Systems Rookie of the Race Award. Sanders held on for fourth with Keith Baiga fifth. George Hall, Jr., Ricky Wood, Tim Ousley, George Hall III, and Posey rounded out the top ten.
The win was even sweeter for Grief as he had all of his kids and stepkids at the track with him for the first time.
The Florida Mini Cup Racing Association brought a great field of cars to the track and put on their usual ultra-competitive and somewhat "wild" show.
Valrico drivers Mark Ross and Doug Smith took their respective heat race wins and it was Smith who took control of the 20-lap feature and looked like he would be unbeatable.
However, Orlando's Josh Hermann had other ideas as he made an incredible late race charge in his Dodge bodied machine to pass Smith for the lead on lap 17 and then streak to a straightaway victory.
Although this race ran green to checker, it also produced the worst wreck of the night. Just as Hermann crossed the line to take the win, Dan Suggs got loose in turn three, overcorrected, and then rolled his Kevin Harvick look-a-like car twice before it came to rest on all fours.
Suggs wasn't hurt but his car had to be put on the ABC Towing Service flatbed for it's ride back to the pit area.
Following Hermann to the checker were Smith, Terry Tullis, Wendy Kash, and Don Saxon. George Auriemma, Rick Auriemma, Mark Ross, David Taylor and Sonny Saxon completed the top ten.
Only one of the new stock four cylinder Hurricane class cars was in the pits, but Steve Pegram from Auburndale still got to take home the first place trophy. Pegram says he knows of several more cars being built for the new class and the hope is to have the field up to close to 10 cars, possibly more, for Saturday Spectacular III which will be held on October 4th.
A major announcement will be forthcoming this week concerning Speedweek 2004 and Saturday racing for 2004 at Orlando Speedworld.
RESULTS - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD SATURDAY SPECTACULAR II - 9/13/03:
BANDELERO BANDITS (15 Laps):
1) Chad Akins #60 2) Derrick Wood #33 3) Matthew Jarrett #9 4) Gerald White, Jr. #38 5) Spencer Taylor #15 6) Eric Salvesen #17 7) Donovan Ponder #8 8) Blake Eden #17
BANDELERO YOUNG GUNS (15 Laps):
1) Brandon Thomson #54 2) Scott Jarrett #97 3) Nick Wesenick #7 4) Kevin Henry #9
LEGENDS CARS ( 35 Laps):
1) Jason Reisman #25 2) Sam Watts #73 3) Kevin Abbott #98 4) Jeremy Colangelo #05 5) James Rodriguez #19 6) Wesley McLeod #22 7) Kelly Jarrett #97 8) Jarrad Cawley #31 9) Kory Abbott #15 10) Bob Wilson #27W 11) Karl Stairs #4 12) Mike Fazio #38 13) Richard Taylor #32 14) Doug Hall #55
CLASSIC AUTO RACING SERIES (25 Laps):
1) Daryl Grief #1 2) Al Hagan #6 3) Ben Booth #12 4) Patrick Sanders #8 5) Keith Baiga #42 6) George Hall, Jr. #32 7) Ricky Wood #21 8) Tim Ousley #88 9) George Hall III #9 10) Bill Posey #00 11) Wayne Ashton #78 12) Joel Ashton #45 13) Jim Rahman #5 DQ Joey Strehle #X11 DNS Bud Spencer #7
FLORIDA MINI CUP RACING ASSOCIATION (20 Laps):
1) Josh Hermann #98 2) Doug Smith #17 3) Terry Tullis #8 4) Wendy Kash #05 5) Don Saxon #44 6) George Auriemma #42 7) Rick Auriemma #21 8) Mark Ross #12 9) David Taylor #15 10) Sonny Saxon #55 11) Mike Holt #36 12) Heather Suggs #48 13) Larry Folino #43 14) Summer Saxon #4 15) Dan Suggs #29 16) Matt Oravets #2
