IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 23, 2004 FSCR Fontaine Holds off Anderson to Take Icebreaker By Rick Anges The "High Banks" of DeSoto Super Speedway kicked off the '04 season on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. With the sun high in the sky 24 Super Late Models rolled onto the track to qualify for the "Hoosier Cup All American Challenge Series" Icebreaker 125. Track temps rose as the qualifying got under way. Most of the cars were running upper 14 second times averaging over 90 mph laps. But it was Wayne Anderson last years Sunbelt champion and now a member of the AACS who came out on top with a 14.46 sec. time. In his interview after his run Anderson said how pleased he was with the new Hoosier tires. "These tires really grip the track and I really like running here at DeSoto" Anderson said. The field was inverted five rows after the roll of the die putting DeWayne "the Iron Man" Dempsey on the point . Dempsey took the green and lead through a good portion of the first half of the race. On Dempseys tail was young gun Jay Middelton, last years Florida Pro Champion. Middelton began testing the outside groove and the new Hoosier compounds appeared to being their job as his car stock and he began pulling up on the outside of Dempsey. As Middelton began to make his charge for the lead several lapped cars tangled in front of the leaders, Dempsey was able to miss the frey but Middleton wasn't as lucky and was collected in the crash. Middleton was able to pull into the pits and make repairs. After starting at the rear of the field on the restart the Fla Pro Champ was able to cross the stripe in tenth place. Chris Fontaine began his charge from mid pack using the outside groove, passing cars at will and finally over taking Dempsey just passed the half way point for the lead. Fontaine began to pull away after clearing lapped traffic building an almost full half lap lead. Behind the leader the racing was really heating up. TQ Wayne Anderson had may his way to the third spot behind Billy Bigley Jr. The duo battled their way through thick lapped traffic, Anderson's hood was buckled in from all the intense racing and he was finally able to get by Bigly and set his sights on Fontaine. Lap after lap Anderson cut into the space between himself and the leader. Anderson cut Fontaines from a full straight-away to several car lengths but the laps ran out for the '03 Sunbelt champ and Fontaine cruised to the checkers, Anderson took second, third was Bigley, fourth went to last years AACS champ "Big Daddy" Dave Pletcher and rounding out the top five was Jeff Scofield. Open Wheels "The Rocketman" Wayne Jefferson began the 04 campaign the way he ended it, on a rail! Jefferson came out and blistered the track with a 15.11 sec. time. When the die rolled was a 0 it gave Jefferson the poll. Jefferson was never challenged after the drop of the green in the caution filled event cruising to the win in the 50 lap feature. Second went to Timmy Moore, with a great run in the third position Johnny Sarppraicone, fourth went to Phil Morrison and fifth across the line was John Shields. Sportsman Wallace Ramsey jumped out to the lead and was the car to beat until a power steering pulley broke and dropped him to a seventh place finish. After the race Ramsey said he was excited about the change to the Hosier Tires and was looking forward to the rest of the season on them. With Ramsey out Bubba Thompson in his new ride took over control and held on for the checkers, Buddy Brown in the "Green Peanut" machine took second, Joe Shaver was third, fourth was Steve Black and fifth went to Mark Peterson. DeSoto Trucks It was a three way battle to the finish of the truck race and Shane Russ came out on top. Behind him B.J. Gill and David Pollen Jr. ran side by side for several laps with Gill pulling out a last lap pass to take second, Pollen took third, fourth went to Jim Alterzio and fifth was last years Mod-Mini champ Steve Gill. Street Stocks After a lay off of a few years Brian Teeters showed he hadnt lost his touch, returning to the winners circle in the Street Stock feature, second went to to Robert Haygood, third was Duane Best, fourth was Walter Korkiner and fifth was Tommy Huffstutler. Mini-Stock Todd Freed Jr. was the class of the mini-stock field as he cruised to take the first victory of the season in the class. Second was Joe Gagen, third was Dean Butrum, fourth was Jon Bailey and fifth Ed Jasper. Outlaw Modifieds Randy Sands was able to by Raymond "Super Frog" Jones to take the trophy in the Outlaw class. Hoosier Cup AACS Results. 02/22/2004 AACS SUPER LATE MODELS - AACS 125L Pos Driver (Car) 1 CHRIS FONTAINE-M (47) 2 WAYNE ANDERSON-M (84) 3 BILLY BIGLEY, JR.-M (28) 4 DAVE PLETCHER-M (75) 5 JEFF SCOFIELD-M (07) 6 DWAYNE DEMPSEY-M (70) 7 SCOT WALTERS-M (2) 8 JEFF DUFRESNE- M (34) 9 JOE BOYD-M (5) 10 JAY MIDDLETON (74) 11 CHRIS TURNER-M (94) 12 BRYAN MANSFIELD-M (18) 13 RITCHIE ANDERSON-M (24) 14 CLINT SLAGGY-M (79) 15 ROBERT YOHO-M (08) 16 TIM GARROD-M (53) 17 SEAN LeMASTER-M (8) 18 JIM SMITH-M (175) 19 DARRYL SHELNUT-M (7) 20 MIKE GARVEY (17) 21 JEFF SLOAN-M (31) 22 ANDREW DYNDUL (59) 23 TOMMY YOUNKMAN (36) 24 SEAN MURPHY-M (32) 25 RICHARD TILL-M (02) 26 JIMMY COPE-M (61) AACS SUPER LATE MODELS - QUALIFYING Pos Driver (Car) 1 WAYNE ANDERSON-M (84) 2 DAVE PLETCHER-M (75) 3 MIKE GARVEY (17) 4 BILLY BIGLEY, JR.-M (28) 5 CHRIS TURNER-M (94) 6 CHRIS FONTAINE-M (47) 7 JAY MIDDLETON (74) 8 JEFF SCOFIELD-M (07) 9 DWAYNE DEMPSEY-M (70) 10 SEAN MURPHY-M (32) 11 CLINT SLAGGY-M (79) 12 DARRYL SHELNUT-M (7) 13 JIM SMITH-M (175) 14 JEFF DUFRESNE- M (34) 15 BRYAN MANSFIELD-M (18) 16 JEFF SLOAN-M (31) 17 ANDREW DYNDUL (59) 18 SEAN LeMASTER-M (8) 19 TOMMY YOUNKMAN (36) 20 RICHARD TILL-M (02) 21 SCOT WALTERS-M (2) 22 ROBERT YOHO-M (08) 23 TIM GARROD-M (53) 24 JOE BOYD-M (5) 25 RITCHIE ANDERSON-M (24) 26 JIMMY COPE-M (61) DS TRUCK SERIES - DS TRUCKS 25L Pos Driver (Car) 1 SHANE RUSS (94) 2 BJ GILL (24) 3 DAVID POLLEN, JR. (88) 4 JIM ALTERIZIO (3) 5 STEVE GILL (5) 6 DANNY ANDERSON (50) 7 NICK KING (41) MINI STOCKS - MS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver (Car) 1 TODD FREED, JR. (97) 2 JOE GAGEN (1) 3 DEAN BUTRUM (2) 4 JON BAILEY (14) 5 ED JASPER (6) 6 TIMMY TROYER (20) 7 CAMERON CRUSE (22) 8 WENDY SHURTLEFF (55) 9 STEVE BOOTH (5) 10 DAN HARDMAN (02) OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED - OWM 50L Pos Driver (Car) 1 WAYNE JEFFERSON-M (1) 2 TIMMY MOORE (57) 3 JOHN SARPPRAICONE-M (88) 4 PHIL MORRISON (63) 5 JOHN SHIELDS-M (72) 6 CHRIS ESCOTT (8) 7 CALEB RESCHAR (22) 8 JOHNNY ALLEN-M (98) 9 DALE SHELTON-M (51) 10 CHRIS DEAN (80) 11 ERIC RUDD (12) 12 BILL ATKINS (15) 13 BILL MANFULL (48) 14 BRUCE RIGGIO (75) 15 LEE COLLINS (89) 16 PAT NANNEY (60) 17 BRUCE CORLIETO (19) 18 MARK CHAPMAN-M (40) 19 LB SKAGGS-M (71) 20 ROBBY McAULIFFE (56) OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED - QUALIFYING Pos Driver (Car) 1 WAYNE JEFFERSON-M (1) 2 LEE COLLINS (89) 3 TIMMY MOORE (57) 4 JOHN SARPPRAICONE-M (88) 5 JOHN SHIELDS-M (72) 6 PAT NANNEY (60) 7 BRUCE RIGGIO (75) 8 BRUCE CORLIETO (19) 9 PHIL MORRISON (63) 10 LB SKAGGS-M (71) 11 ROBBY McAULIFFE (56) 12 CHRIS DEAN (80) 13 CHRIS ESCOTT (8) 14 BILL MANFULL (48) 15 JOHNNY ALLEN-M (98) 16 CALEB RESCHAR (22) 17 BILL ATKINS (15) 18 ERIC RUDD (12) 19 MARK CHAPMAN-M (40) 20 DALE SHELTON-M (51) OUTLAW MODIFIED - OUTLAW MODS25 Pos Driver (Car) 1 . OUTLAW MODIFIED RACING SERIES (0) SPORTSMAN - SP 20L 11 OR LESS Pos Driver (Car) 1 BUBBA THOMPSON (75) 2 BUDDY BROWN (62) 3 JOE SHAVER (18) 4 STEVE BLACK (8) 5 MARK PETERSON (73) 6 JAMES BRENNER (57) 7 WALLACE RAMSEY (38) 8 KEITH NEFF (69) 9 FRANK BUCHANAN (81) 10 LB SKAGGS-M (71) 11 ROGER DUFRENSNE (26) STREET STOCKS - SS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver (Car) 1 BRIAN TEETERS (44) 2 ROBERT HAYGOOD (84) 3 DUANE BEST (3) 4 WALTER KORKINER (56) 5 TOMMY HUFFSTUTLER (4) 6 JIMMIE BEST (67) 7 TIM MILLER, JR. (56) Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!