IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

April 11, 2004 FSCR Conrad Streak Ends with Blown Engine as Watts Tops SpeedWorld Legends by Dave Westerman As they say, all good things must come to an end and Patrick Conrad's six race win streak went up in smoke along with his engine Saturday night while rival Sam Watts thrilled the crowd with a come from behind win in RE/MAX Legends Car action Saturday night at Orlando Speedworld. This would end up being a wild 25 lap affair although for the first nine laps it looked like it would be all green flag racing. Kory Abbott led the opening lap but was passed by his older brother Kevin who led laps two and three. Jeremy Colangelo took over at that point and led through lap six until Conrad came streaking by. Colangelo wasn't giving up without a fight as he remained on Conrad's bumper until the first caution flew on lap nine due to Spike Sabo's spin. The caution was extended as track crews had to clean up some fluid that was coming out of Mitch Verhaagh's car as he headed for the infield. Only one lap could be completed before Brandon Thomson looped his machine in turn four with caution coming out a third time on lap eleven as Sam Watts and Kory Abbott tangled up in turn two with both cars going to the rear of the restart line-up. Going into turn three on the restart lap, Conrad's engine exploded dumping oil and water all over the racing surface. Colangelo, who was right on Conrad's bumper, hit the slick and slid hard into the turn three wall but despite a severely damaged car, Jeremy was OK. Somehow, the rest of the field managed to avoid a much worse situation than it could have been. Following the clean up, Kevin Abbott had the lead and was running strong, looking for his first ever win here. However two late cautions would hurt Abbott in the long run and play into the hands of Sam Watts. Kevin Howard spun on lap 20, then Darin "T-Bone" Coker spun while running in second spot a lap later allowing Watts to move back into second place on the leader's bumper with Kory Abbott back up to third spot. The younger Abbott spun out of contention with two laps to go as 13 year old Watts moved in on Kevin Abbott, passing him on the final lap to claim the first win for any driver other than Patrick Conrad this year. Watts took the win driving for the first time this year a car that he practically destroyed at another track late last year. "This car still isn't as fast as the other one yet, but it was fast enough tonight, plus a little luck always helps," said a happy Watts in victory lane. Kevin Abbott was disappointed with his second place finish. "The car just wouldn't go through the corners right the last few laps but Sam drove a great race and he deserves the win," said Abbott. Fourteen year old Wesley McLeod scored his best career finish coming home third while hard luck Mike Verhaagh, one of the nicest guys in the Legends Series, also had his best ever Speedworld finish in fourth. Bobby Byars, using a borrowed car, came home with a nice fifth place finish. Spike Sabo came back from his early spin to grab sixth spot followed by Derrick Wood, Kory Abbott, Brandon Thomson and Bob "Wild Willie" Wilson. Conrad and Colangelo won the heats. Ben Booth, the defending Dan Webster for U.S. Senate Classic Auto Racing Series Champion, made it two wins on the season in two races using the outside groove to do all his passing. Bill Posey won the trophy dash and had the pole for the 25 lap Classic Car feature. Posey quickly assumed the lead with heat race winner Jim Rahman tucking in behind him. Booth got shuffled back from his sixth starting spot early in the race, but the veteran driver began picking his foes off one by one until he zipped past Posey on lap 13 never to be headed again. Posey held off Rahman for second and turned around a spate of bad luck that had seen him have hard crashes in his last two outings, one of which left him with a lower back fracture. Daryl Grief "dirt tracked" his way to fourth with Joey Strehle rounding out the top five. Gerald White, Jr. led the entire distance to win the Bandelero Bandits feature for the fifth week in a row but he had to hold off a late charge from North Carolina visitor Cole Miktuk. After finishing second in a race at Kenley, NC on Friday night, Cole and his dad drove all the way to Florida with two hours sleep to compete at Speedworld on Saturday. Blake Eden, Ryan Rust and Donovan Ponder were third through fifth. white also won the heat. Scott Jarrett won the heat then led all the way to take the Bandelero Young Guns feature as second and third running Brandon Thomson and Chelsea Schillig closed in late but ran out of laps. Derrick Wood took fourth with Matthew Jarrett fifth. Scott and Matthew Jarrett's grandfather, Dave Jarrett led all the way to capture the Bandelero Outlaw feature, the first out-right win for the 68 year old driver from Taft. Evan Russell and Sam Gearhart trailed Jarrett, who also won the heat. Greg Bruce drove his Ford Escort to another easy win in the Hurricane class, his fifth of the year. Bruce won by more than half a lap over Eric Smithers. Following some wild action over the last three laps, Sly Cawley ended up third followed by Ralph Aldrich and Rusty "Blinky" Marcus. RESULTS - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - 4/10/04: RE/MAX LEGEND CARS (25 Laps): 1) Sam Watts #73 2) Kevin Abbott #98 3) Wesley McLeod #22 4) Mike Verhaagh #7 5) Bobby Byars #12 6) Johnny "Spike" Sabo #5X 7) Derrick Wood #33 8) Kory Abbott #5 9) Brandon Thomson #29 10) Bob Wilson #27W 11) Darin Coker #00 12) Kevin Howard #129 13) Jared Cawley #31 14) Kyle Dombek #20 15) James Rodriguez #19 16) Patrick Conrad #2 17) Jeremy Colangelo #05 18) Mitch Verhaagh #9 19) Dion Hinskey #4 CLASSIC AUTO RACING SERIES (25 Laps): 1) Ben Booth #12 2) Bill Posey #00 3) Jim Rahman #5 4) Daryl Grief #1 5) Joey Strehle #X11 6) Norm Agostinho #0 7) Tim Ousley #88 8) Randy Grief #87 9) George Hall, Jr. #32 10) Bud Spencer #7 11) Steven Cole Smith #2 12) George Hall III #9 DNS Corey Freed #44 BANDELERO BANDITS (15 Laps): 1) Gerald White, Jr. #38 2) Cole Miktuk #6 3) Blake Eden #17 4) Ryan Rust #18 5) Donovan Ponder #8 BANDELERO YOUNG GUNS (15 Laps): 1) Scott Jarrett #97 2) Brandon Thomson #54 3) Chelsea Schillig #75 4) Derrick Wood #33 5) Matthew Jarrett #9 6) Kara Clarke #21 BANDELERO OUTLAWS (12 Laps): 1) Dave Jarrett #9 2) Evan Russell #37 3) Sam Gearhart #26 HURRICANES (15 Laps): 1) Greg Bruce #4U 2) Eric Smithers #1 3) Sly Cawley #231 4) Ralph Aldrich #24 5) Rusty Marcus #6 6) Raybo #6X 7) William Hindman #89 Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!