IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

November 7, 2004 FSCR Williams Tops Modifieds at SpeedWorld by Dave Westerman With just one week left in the 2004 points season, Orlando's Ricky Wood won Friday night's 25 lap Super Late Model feature at Orlando Speedworld to virtually clinch the 2004 Super Late Model point championship. Earlier in the evening, Wood finished sixth in the Modified main event. But when the second place driver in points Mark Emberson dropped out with a blown engine, that allowed Wood the opportunity to earn enough points to clinch that championship as well for himself and Car owner Mike Samples. In the Super Late Model headliner, Jared Allison jumped out to an early lead with Patrick Conrad and Wood in tow. John Spadeveccia, Scott McKinley and Rich Bates got tangled up on lap eight to bring out the caution. On the restart, Conrad dove low and snatched the lead from Allison but the two got together going into turn three with Conrad's machine slapping the wall on the drivers' side. Conrad emerged from his machine uninjured but highly upset as track officials sent Allison to the rear of the field for the restart. Wood, who had been sitting back apparently expecting something to happen between the two leaders, now had the lead and from this point there would be no looking back as Wood raced to a relatively easy win over teammates Bobby Fleckinger and Rich Clouser. Allison drove back to fourth place while Rusty Ebersole (in a Ricky Wood owned car) was fifth. Scott McKinley, Rich Bates, Conrad, Spadeveccia and Ronnie Roach completed the field. Allison won the heat. Michael Williams jumped in the Modified of John Wills and led every lap of the Modified feature race. Mark Emberson had the pole as the field was having its problems getting the race started. On the fourth try, Emberson's engine blew as the field took the green scattering cars everywhere as they tried to avoid the slowing race car. With Emberson's chance at the point title now gone, all Ricky Wood had to do was score a decent finish which he did. Wills had his car at the race track for the first time this year and opted to have Williams dial it in for him. Williams then ran away from the field as the entire distance (once the race got started) was run under green. Jim "Hoot" Flynn was a distant second with rookie Corey Freed taking third for his best ever finish since joining the class. Canadian Jerry Artuso was fourth while Jared Allison drove Dave Debelius' machine to fifth. Wood was sixth with Lynn DiCandio, Jimmy Wilkens, John Foerg, Brandon Pitts, Terry Bryant, Art Kunzman and Emberson completing the finishing order. Modified heat races were won by Emberson and Williams. The Mini Stock feature was another all green flag affair that saw plenty of competition. David LeBeau led the opening lap before Keith Lilley took over the top spot. Meanwhile, Josh Hermann was working his way through the field and eventually caught Lilley, taking the lead on lap ten and never looking back as the Lakeland driver scored yet another win in his Doright Communications sponsored four-banger. Lilley came home in the second spot followed by a hard-charging Michael Seay, LeBeau and Randy Blakeslee. Rounding out the finishers were Dick Laszlo, John Cook, Mike Fetherston, R.J. Arnone, Terry Lewis and Dick "Putt-Putt" Owens. Arnone won the heat but spun while running third in the feature on lap seven. Point leader Richard Hight was back in victory lane at the end of the Sportsman feature but it was heat winner Earl Beckner who put on the show coming from dead last on the starting grid to finish second. With no cautions to help him, Beckner was too far behind the high-flying Hight to catch him before the checker fell. Spence Lemmerman took fourth ahead of John Hodge, Jeff Wright, Joe Adams, and Dusty Cornelius. Ted Head was again on top of the Super Stock class but had to work hard to get this one. Jason Foster led the open 12 laps as Head reeled him in. The two raced side by side for several laps with Head getting a fender out front on lap 13. Going into turn three on the following lap, the two tangled while trying to lap a slower car to bring out the caution. The ruling went against the lapped car, and since Head had the lead by a fender on the previous lap, he was placed in front and that was all the icing this cake would need as the veteran drove to the win with relative ease as Foster came home a disappointing second. Dave "White Fire" Wright was third with fourth and fifth going to Roger Benton and Ray Mullis. Rounding out the field were Bob Starr, Rick Taylor, Robert Ward, Tom Vento, Bobby Riley and Donald Springer. Foster won the Super Stock heat race. Richie Laszlo was back on top of the Strictly Stocks as he took the feature race win over Tim Smith, Brandon Thomson, Adam Soukup, Bobby Crites, Weebis Steinberg, Bobby Sapp, Bob Snyder and Larry Cuddy. Laszlo also won the heat. OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - NOV. 5, 2004 SUPER LATE MODEL 1. #33 Ricky Wood 2. #34 Bobby Fleckinger 3. #34x Rich Clouser 4. #1 Jared Allison 5. #2 Rusty Ebersole 6. #12 Scott McKinley 7. #4 Rick Bates 8. #9R Patrick Conrad 9. #8 John Spadeveechia 10. #14 Ronnie Roach OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED 1. #14 Michael Williams 2. #57 Jim "Hoot" Flynn 3. #12 Corey Freed 4. #5 Jerry Artuso 5. #38 Jared Allison 6. #81 Ricky Wood 7. #20 Lynn Dicandio 8. #1 Jimmy Wilkins 9. #34 John Foreg 10. #1x Brandon Pitts 11. #08 Terri Bryant 12. #09 Art Kunzeman 13. #30 Mark Emberson SPORTSMAN 1. #23 Richard Hight 2. #3 Earl Beckner 3. #6 Spencer Lemmerman 4. #00 John Hodge 5. #50w Jeff Wright 6. #62 Joe Adams 7. #2 Dusty Cornelius SUPER STOCK 1. #92 Ted Head 2. #49 Jason Foster 3. #65 Dave Wright 4. #14 Roger Benton 5. #316 Ray Mullis 6. #05 Bob Starr 7. #20 Rick Taylor 8. #25 Robert Ward 9. #55 Tom Vento 10. #46 Bobby Riley 11. #118 Donald Springer MINI STOCK 1. #98 Josh Hermann 2. #99 Keith Lilley 3. #10 Michael Seay 4. #2L David Lebeau 5. #77 Randy Blakeslee 6. #07 Dick Laszlo 7. #24 John Cook 8. #14 Mike Fetherson 9. #30 R.J. Arnone 10. #31 Terry Lewis 11. #4 Dick Owens STRICTLY STOCK 1. #07 Richie Laszlo 2. #8 Tim Smith 3. #54 Brandon Thompson 4. #14 Adam Soukup 5. #B1 Bobby Crites 6. #11 Weebis Steinberg 7. #88 Bobby Sapp 8. #16 Bob Snyder 9. #56 Larry Cuddy Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!