IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

May 9, 2004 FSCR Hinegarden Tops SLM While Woodley Gets First Sportsman Win at SpeedWorld Dave Westerman Mike Hinegardner made the trip from Largo on Florida's West Coast worthwhile Friday night as he took advantage of Ronnie Roach's bad luck and went on to win the 25 lap Super Late Model feature Friday night at Orlando Speedworld. Roach had the pole for the main event with SLM rookie Matt Mercer outside him. Mercer had trouble getting up to speed on the start and Roach blasted out front with Hinegardner right on his tail. Roach led through a couple of early cautions for minor incidents. On lap twelve, Frank Alberson spun directly in front of the leaders and they had to get on the binders heavy to miss him. As the field approached turn three for the restart, Roach suddenly pulled down to the track apron and into the infield as the green flag was unfurled by "guest" flagman Dick Westfall. A broken rear shock mount was the culprit that continued a streak of bad luck for Roach. Despite a couple of late caution flags, Hinegardner was clearly the class of the field as his Pontiac Grand Prix took the checker several car lengths in from of Jared Allison and Ricky Wood. Eric Deffendall had his usual steady race to come home fourth while Patrick Conrad survived a myriad of problems all night and came home fifth. Rich Bates, Bobby Fleckinger, Hoot Flynn, Rick Lyons and Greg Brooks rounded out the top ten. Super Late Model heats were won by Allison and Wood. The Modified feature was marked by three multi-car tangles after lap ten that whittled the field down considerably. Lynn DiCandio was looking good leading the first ten laps before he ran into problems and eventually finished eighth. Ricky Wood survived all the bumping and banging to snare the lead on lap eleven and race to his third win of the year in his Mike Samples Motorsports machine. Canadian Jerry Artuso came from seventh at the start to finish second trailed by Wayne Heckle, Chad Pierce and Mark Emberson. Alan Bruns and Pierce won the Modified heats. Palm Bay's Bobby Joe Woodley got a huge monkey off his back in winning his first career Sportsman feature. After being close a few times but hounded by mechanical problems and wrecks, Woodley was on his game this night leading every lap to score the victory in his Monte Carlo sponsored by Woody's Barber Shop, Brevard Concrete, Beef O'Brady's, Platt's Air & Heat, Tom Stephenson Marine Service, Callagy Tire, Harbor Towing and Capritta Appliance. Justin Hall also had a good run after a bit of tough luck as well in taking second spot while Dennis "Mr. Clean" Gilliam made his first start since early in the year and came home third. Bruce Gayton and Bob Hart rounded out the top five. Woodley also won the heat. Robbie Storer of Zephyrhills made his first start of the year a winning one leading all the way to capture the Mini Stock 15 lap headliner. Chad Ashley made a late charge but came up just short at the checkered flag while Sean Bass came from the last row on the grid to take third spot. R.J. Arnone held on for fourth while Stephen Simpson was fifth. Arnone and Bass won the heats. Super Stock action was wild and wooly as usual but only two caution flags were needed during the 15 lap feature and both were for minor incidents. Ted Head took advantage of some early beatin' and bangin' by other drivers to move out to an early lead and he held it all the way to the finish for his third win of the season. Bob Beiler made things close in the late laps but settled for second spot. However it was third place finisher Doug Gould who may have had the most impressive run of the night. Gould, who nearly died when he crashed his street car into a tree, was making his first start in two years and was extremely happy with the results while being congratulated by all of his fellow drivers. "It feels so good to be back," said Gould. "I didn't know how things would work out by I haven't lost a thing, I felt really good out there," he said. John Castro and Ron Whaley both came from deep in the field to finish fourth and fifth. Head and Corey Freed won the heats. In a battle of David vs. Goliath, Bobby Crites in his VW Rabbit led for awhile but was finally overtaken by the Ford Fairmont of Richie Laszlo who went on to take yet another Strictly Stock win. Crites came home second with the Chevy of Casey Riley third. All the racers have next weekend off as it's Crash-A-Rama next Friday featuring School Bus Figure Eight racing, Demo Derbies, a Chain Race, Backwards Race, Boat on Trailer and Pop-Up Camper Figure Eight race, Flag Pole Race, Roll Over Derby, and the Green Mamba Jet Car. All the craziness anyone could want. OFFICIAL RESULTS MAY 7, 2004 - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD SUPER LATE MODEL 1. #15 Mike Hinegarden 2. #18 Jared Allison 3. #33 Ricky Wood 4. #26 Eric Deffendall 5. #2 Patrick Conrad 6. #4 Rick Bates 7. #34 Bobby Fleckinger 8. #57 Jim "Hoot" Flynn 9. #5 Rick Lyons 10. #44 Greg Brooke 11. #20 Ron Dicandio 12. #96 Dick Ruckh 13. #14 Ronnie Roach 14. #69 Frank Albersen 15. #65 Bobby Lyons 16. #98 Matt Mercer OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED 1. #81 Ricky Wood 2. #5 Jerry Artuso 3. #9 Wayne Heckle 4. #51 Chad Pierce 5. #34 Mark Emberson 6. #96 Matt Wheeler 7. #4b Alan Bruns 8. #20 Lynn Dicandio 9. #5x Jon Compagnone 10. #88 Walt Loggins 11. #20x Chris Gillespie SPORTSMAN 1. #98 Bobby Joe Woodley 2. #50 Justin Hall 3. #40 Dennis Gillam 4. #93 Bruce Gayton 5. #2 Bob Hart 6. #77 Danny Shearer 7. #23 Richard Hight 8. #8 Rich Clouser 9. #41 Michael Carr SUPER STOCK 1. #92 Ted Head 2. #44 Bob Beiler 3. #71 Doug Gould 4. #5 John Castro 5. #2 Ron Whaley 6. #12 Cory Freed 7. #65 Dave Wright 8. #28 Ron Edwards 9. #64 Charles Fry 10. #24 Bill Loomis 11. #721 John Bennett 12. #14 Roger Benton 13. #X Robert Ward 14. #46 Bobby Riley 15. #90 Brett Woodley 16. #16 Robert Remus 17. #118 Donald Sprnger 18. #24q Todd McCreary MINI STOCK 1. #9 Robbie Storer 2. #87 Chad Ashley 3. #28 Sean Bass 4. #30 R.J. Arnone 5. #007 Steven Simpson 6. #10 Michael Seay 7. #22 Alli Owens 8. #77 Randy Blakeslee 9. #18 Amanda Tonchuk 10. #33 Bob Delmastro 11. #24 John Cook 12. #61 Rick Gamache 13. #07 Dick Laszlo 14. #72 Brandon Thompson STRICTLY STOCK 1. #07 Richie Lazslo 2. #B1 Bobby Crites 3. #56 Casey Riley Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!