IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 17, 2005 FSCR Night 2 Results Orlando SpeedWorld INEX Legends Winternationals by Dave Westerman Action was again the attraction as Orlando Speedworld hosted night number two of the INEX 600 Racing 2005 Winternationals Wednesday night. After the first night's racing ended at 2:30 AM, track GM Rusty Marcus went to work and hired four more wreckers to help out along with making a few minor procedural changes to the program. Race Director Dick Westfall and INEX Officials also moved the start time up to 7:30PM due to the big fields of cars and the time needed to run a large number of heat races. "These are the kind of problems you actually like," said Marcus. "Most tracks are looking for race cars and we've got more than enough. We just want to do our best to run a quick and efficient show and keep everyone happy. It's not easy, but I think we're getting the job done," he said. The Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends Pro Division continues to amaze the fans with the quality of competition. Josh Waring, Derek Shumaker, Craig Goess, and James Robertson copped the heats on Wednesday night while Keeton Hanks led five other cars into the main event by winning the B-Main. The 25 lap feature would see plenty of wild action, a bit of controversy, and five different leaders. Derek Shumaker led the early rounds which were slowed by two cautions for minor spins. On lap nine, Josh Waring dove under Shumaker going into turn three, but ran out of room. Waring's car hit Shumaker's with the Texas driver doing a full spin before heading to the infield as the race remained under green. While all that was happening, Craig Goess slipped into the lead only to have Waring get into him going into turn one with Goess spinning into the wall. Nick Pistone, the winner on night one, inherited the lead under caution while Warning re-aligned in second despite the very vocal displeasure from many of the fans. Pistone set the pace for two laps before Waring made a clean pass to take the lead on lap 12. Pistone jumped back out front again to lead laps 17 and 18, then Jason Reisman led a lap following a restart before Waring forged ahead for a final time on lap 20. Waring, who hails from Concord, NC, led the remaining distance to take the win over fellow North Carolinians Reisman, Pistone, Ben Stancill and Michael VanWingerden as the NC drivers swept the top five. Kentucky's Keeton Hanks came from 21st on the grid to finish sixth trailed by C.E. Falk, Danny Jackson, A.J. Fulgenzi, and Jeremy Colangelo. In Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends Masters division action, the three heats were won by North Carolina's Clay Hair, Canada's Cy Harvey and Florida driver James Rodriguez. For Rodriguez, it was his first win ever. Unfortunately, in his jubilation, Rodriguez forgot to take his car to the tech shed for post-race inspection and was disqualified although he was allowed to start the feature from the back. Bob Merino of Plano, TX was awarded that heat race win. Clay Hair would have a pretty easy time of it in the 25 lap main event which was tame in comparison to the one one opening night. The big story in this race though would be opening night winner Cotton Spry. Spry discovered a problem with his car as the field was lining up for his heat race and Spry pulled into the pits. That relegated the Salisbury, NC driver to 25th on the grid for the start. The wily veteran went to work, using the three short caution periods to his advantage and moved into second with about five laps to go. However, catching Clay Hair is one thing and passing him is another. Hair claimed the win with Spry second. Texan Bob Merino was third for the second straight night while Georgia's Brian Weimer was fourth and NC driver Tom VanWingerden was fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Cy Harvey, Larry Friddle, James Rodriguez, Mike Verhaagh and his brother Mitch Verhaagh. The Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends Semi-Pro feature was another wild one spiced by several cautions for multi-car accidents. This race would belong to a young driver from Hickory, NC that has been turning heads all week, Matt DiBenedetto. DiBenedetto grabbed the lead at the start and held off all challengers despite a rash of slowdowns. There were four separate caution periods just trying to get lap 12 in the record books. The worst crash of the race involved night one winner Brandon Thomson. Thomson, who had spun earlier and was working his way back up through the field, was making an outside move on Michigan driver Ryan Meldrum when something broke on Meldrum's car sending both machines hard into the turn four wall. Both drivers were OK but the cars weren't in too good a shape. DiBenedetto paced the field to a popular win with Mobile. AL driver D.J. Vandeley second. Florida driver Kory Abbott, missing all the front bodywork on his car from an earlier incident, stormed back to finish third ahead of fellow Floridian Stuart Dutton and Chris Buescher of Prosper, TX. Michael Bilderback was sixth with Darin Coker, Travis Pennington, Alec Carll and Mark Bakaj completing the top ten. Jake Crum was eleventh and the only other car out of 27 starters to finish in the attrition-filled 25 lapper. Semi-Pro heats were won by DiBenedetto, Vanderley, Penninton, and Thomson while the B-main was won by Meldrum. In other action, Ryan Rust and Kara Clarke won for the second straight night in Bandelero action. Rust claimed the Young Gun win over Joey Bales and Tony Calabrese while Clarke led Dwight Dunlap, Jack Effertz, Marcus Limehouse, Tony Micke, and Marcel Rust to the line in the Outlaw feature. There was a new face in victory lane in the Bandelero Bandit feature as Concord, NC driver Darrell Wallace, Jr. led most of the way to capture the win. Lakeland FL's Gerald White, Jr. settled for second on Wednesday after winning on opening night with Sawyer Effertz of Appleton, WI taking third. Donovan Ponder was fourth ahead of Roger Benton, Jr. and Tyler Neubaum. Kyle Beattie took the win in the make-up Thunder Roadster feature from night one while Michael VanWingerden won the scheduled Wednesday night feature over Beattie and Tom VanWingerden. NOTES: North Carolina drivers won all three Legends car features and had the entire top five in the Pro main... Pro driver G.E. Chapman's day ended early with a practice crash... Scott Knox couldn't get his car repaired in time after Tuesday night's roll-over so he borrowed Nick Pistone's back-up car. Knox spun early but came back to finish eleventh in the feature... Baby Grands and MMRA Mini Cup cars join the mix on Thursday night with racing beginning at 7PM. RACECEIVER RE/MAX LEGENDS CAR RESULTS - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - 2/16/04 PRO DIVISION (25 Laps): 1) Josh Waring #13 2) Jason Reisman #25 3) Nick Pistone #99 4) Ben Stancill #24 5) Michael VanWingerden #23 6) Keeton Hanks #90 7) C.E, Falk III #40 8) Danny Jackson #5J 9) A.J. Fulgenzi #33 10) Jeremy Colangelo #05 11) Scott Knox #89 12) Doug Stevens #01 13) Chris Haack #8Ball 14) Jason Rochelle #17R 15) Chris Cable #34 16) Jason Miller #94 17) Hoyt Richter #F5 18) Ricky Losh #24L 19) Beau Slocumb #18 20) James Robertson #42 21) Chris Bakaj #32 22) Kyle Hendershott #51 23) Craig Goess #81 24) Derek Shumaker #8 25) Chris Rogers #66 26) Ronnie Dunstan #7R Did Not Qualify: Randy Brunelle, Adam McCraw, Ricky Gonzales, Tom Sherman, G.E. Chapman, Frank Polimeda, Daniel Sossorman, Jeffery Rush, Kenny Forth. MASTERS DIVISION (25 Laps): 1) Clay Hair #29 2) Cotton Spry #16NC 3) Bob Merino #42 4) Brian Weimer #40 5) Tom VanWingerden #1 6) Cy Harvey, #37NS 7) Larry Friddle #8 8) James Rodriguez #19 9) Mike Verhaagh #7 10) Mitch Verhaagh #9F 11) Tom Hutson #54 12) Bob Wilson #27W 13) Allen Rogers #37 14) Ronald Poland, Sr. #39 15) Carlos Moore #9 16) Guy Austin #1X 17) Gene Conley #27 18) Richard Losh #00 19) Jim Mayrand, Jr. #15 20) Tommy Jordan #1SC 21) Jesse Carter #20C 22) Frank Johnston #20 DNS Ray Paprota #01 DNS Tom Clarke #21 DNS Mark Sullivan #22 DNS Gary Bursey #49 DNS C.D. Candler #51 DNS Van Sykes #82 SEMI-PRO DIVISION (25 Laps): 1) Matt DiBenedetto #44 2) D.J. Vanderley #2 3) Kory Abbott #5 4) Stuart Dutton #32 5) Chris Buescher #67 6) Michael Bilderback #2X 7) Darin Coker #00 8) Travis Pennington #01 9) Alec Carll #31 10) Mark Bakaj #52 11) Jake Crum #1C 12) Ryan Meldrum #17M 13) Brandon Thomson #54 14) Beau Browning #89 15) Paddy Rodenbeck #29 16) Kyle Hall #69 17) Chris Wilson #10 18) Steven Meador #5M 19) Scott MacLean #61 20) Zane Hedrick #4Z 21) Keith Breasbois #41 22) Brennan Poole #17P 23) Jordan Anderson #19 24) Todd Campbell #C91 25) Tyler Slayden #104 26) Jay Cloud #26 27) John Memmer #24 Did Not Qualify: Trey Collins, Malcolm Campbell, Jr., Addison Rogers, Wesley McLeod, Mark Webb, Jr., Brian Murphy, Patrick McVay, Neal McCarty, Collier Jones, Brandon Temple, Matt Bowers. Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!