IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 27, 2005 FSCR Mike Franklin Jr. Captures Season-Opening Limited Late Race at CCS By Claude Lewis PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (Feb. 26) - Mike Franklin Jr. and SAR Motorsports finally got it right. Fast but unlucky in six previous big Limited Late Model races at Charlotte County Speedway, Franklin got 'er done the seventh time, taking the checkered flag in Saturday night's Pacifier 100. Starting third in a field of 19 cars, Franklin took the lead from polesitter Jeremy Goddard on lap 5. He was able to hold off challenges from Joe Winchell and Randy Fox to get hsi elusive win. "It took me a while to finish the deal for this team, but I finally did it," said Franklin, a 34-year-old who now calls Ocala home. Winchell started scratch in the 57 car and made a charge toward the front. It was short-circuited by a broken axle on lap 40. Fox tried to put pressure on Franklin, but numerous cautions seemed to work in the No. 12's favor. "Mike had a good car," said Fox, a former CCS champion. "I couldn't get to him. It didn't stay green long enough." Fox ended up second in the 4 car. Charlie Coyle was third in the 1 car. Mike Hovis was fourth and Port Charlotte's ever-improving Jason Kuykendall fifth. Franklin Jr., whose car is sponsored by Brooks and Freund General Contractors, Action Glass, Rich's Pest Management, Cottonwood Candle Company and Cape Coral Accounting, once again had fast time, running a 15.211 around the 3/8-mile track. Saturday night was opening points night for five regular divisions at CCS. There was a short rain delay an hour and a half into the program. Considering what forecasters had predicted, they were pretty lucky to get all the races in. In a spirited Road Warrior 25-lapper held late in the night, Punta Gorda's Ander Jackson took the checkered. Chris Huntoon of Englewood was second and Rob Popkin was third. The Action Glass Super Stock 25-lap feature saw the black 55 of Tommy Huffstatler take first ahead of Bill Sawyer and Eric Smith. Stuart Vandevender challenged for the lead in the 36 car but he fell out on lap 19. Four-Cylinder Adults had 20 cars in its feature. Donnie King was the winner followed by Peter Amelotte and Bradley Hansen. In the Kids 4-Cylinder race, little Chris Libak took checkers. The Thunder Trucks points opener was captured by Richard Dupont. John Garrett was second and Bob Charette third. This coming Saturday night at Charlotte County Speedway will see a program highlighted by the winged sprints of the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association. A 50-lapper for Sportsman is also featured. Sunday afternoon's special racing program at Charlotte County Speedway was called off because of the severe weather in the area. Scheduled was a Star Wars Sprint Car Challenge between winged and non-winged sprints. Also, Fastrucks and Fastkids were also slated. Fastsprints promoter Bobby Diehl would like to make it up in about two weeks. Stay tuned. Finishing Order - Car Number - Driver Name - Starting Position - Qualifying Position for LLM Fort Myers Marine Limited Late Model Pacifier 100 1 - 12 Mike Franklin Jr. 3 (15.211) 2 - 4 Randy Fox 2 (15.360) 3 - 1 Charlie Coyle 10 (15.230) 4 - 29 Mike Hovis 8 (15.357) 5 - 99 Jason Kuykendall 12 (15.699) 6 - 88 Kenny Hankins Jr. 11 (15.670) 7 - 21 Kendrick Gomez 7 (15.449) 8 - 07 Troy McNabb 6 (15.590) 9 - 39 Phillip Johnson 13 (15.710) 10 - 2 Johnny Allen 9 (15.560) 11 - 30 Troy Hall 17 (15.878) 12 - 57 Joe Winchell 18 (Did Not Qualify) 13 - 27 Michael Fillmore 15 (15.810) 14 - 40 Jeremy Goddard 1 (15.380) 15 - 62 Buzz Martin 14 (15.779) 16 - 23 Cory Collum 4 (15.520) 17 - 27i Shawn Icely 5 (15.578) 18 - 71 L.B. Skaggs 16 (15.878) TQ Midgets 1 - 25w Jason Willis 1 2 - 3 Brandon Cagle 5 3 - 1 Jack Duffy 2 4 - 25 Allen Eash 7 5 - 4 Teddy Durfee 6 6 - 30 Joey McKinney 10 7 - 26 Paul Huffstutler 4 8 - 33 Rod Anderson 9 9 - 68 Greg Dennis 8 10 - 22 Mark Alvarez 3 Action Glass Super Stock 1 - 55 Tommy Huffstutler 1 2 - 711 Bill Sawyer 4 3 - 10 Eric Smith 3 4 - 12 Chris Grubb 7 5 - 49 Ronnie Allen 9 6 - 1 Tommy Hill 8 7 - 0 Clete Trimmer 5 8 - 15 Charles Parsons 6 9 - 55m Conrad Molter 10 10 - 36 Stuart VanDevender 2 11 - 18 Scott Steffe 11 DNS 8 Dan Scott Road Warrior 1 - 91 Ander Jackson 6 2 - 30 Chris Huntoon 21 3 - 29 Rob Popkin 3 4 - 38 Dar Houghtaling 13 5 - 7 Jonathan Abraham 2 6 - 40 Don Justice 9 7 - 18 Shane Leonard 8 8 - 93 Milena Firestine 12 9 - 22 Ann Marie Ricardi 16 10 - 8 Bob Waltz Jr. 4 11 - 97 Matt Cutler 19 12 - 74 Fred Talano 23 13 - 11 Robert Hendry 18 14 - 2 Bobby Fisher 15 15 - 6 Henry Ferguson 5 16 - 1 Jesse Gargus 11 17 - 15 Clint Snyder 1 18 - 2a Keith Adams 24 19 - 4 Lonnie Retherford 10 20 - 80 Jay King 17 21 - 19 Brandon Anderson 20 22 - 5 Bob Waltz 14 23 - 31 Willard Hedden 7 24 - 5j Jay Justice 22 DNS 37 Jason Carr Thunder Trucks 1 - 08 Richard Dupont 1 2 - 22 John Garrett 3 3 - 56 Bob Charette 4 4 - 6 Wally Smith 5 5 - 8 Mike Bialecki 2 4 Cylinder Adults 1 - 14 Donnie King 2 2 - 02 Peter Amelotte 6 3 - 7 Bradley Hansen 1 4 - 6 Shawn Bates 3 5 - 49 Jon Prescott 5 6 - 15 Walter Forbes 11 7 - 2 Sheena Fischer 15 8 - 12 Timmy Hendry 10 9 - 21 Randy Kile 17 10 - 03 Ed Farell 12 11 - 17 Kyle Eash 7 12 - 1 Skip Slagle 16 13 - 19 Heather Janik 17 14 - 31 Michele Riley 9 15 - 91 Shane Poling 8 16 - 18 Travis Amboyan 14 17 - 3 Sean Steen 13 4 Cylinder Kids 1 - 28 Chris Libak 3 2 - 8 Ray Lang 2 3 - 03 Jacob Farrell 1 Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!