IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

May 8, 2005 FSCR Steele tops TBARA, Reeves takes Mini Stock win at Orlando SpeedWorld by Dave Westerman The winged warriors of the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association made their first visit of the year to Orlando Speedworld Friday night with the results much the same as many other TBARA races this year as the field finished the night well behind red-hot Dave Steele. Eighteen sprints signed in to do battle with Steele, Jimmy Alvis and Keith Butler (the winner the previous week at New Smyrna Speedway) taking the trio of heat wins. Mark Gimmler and J.J. Dutton brought the field down for the start of the 30 lap feature with Gimmler taking a quick early lead and Keith Butler quickly settling into second. Steele worked his way to third in a hurry from his fifth starting spot. Gimmler was looking extremely good as he had his car on rails while Steele zipped by Butler in lapped traffic on lap ten. It took just two laps for Steele to take command with a nifty move off turn four. Right after Steele's pass for the lead, Mark Gimmler's brother Gary Gimmler touched wheels with another car and shot hard into the turn four wall. The race was red flagged to check on the driver, who climbed out unhurt although his racer was a mess. The remainder of the race was a Dave Steele benefit as the only thing that could slow him down was a bevy of lapped traffic. On a clear track, Steele was flying as Speedworld fan Lloyd Davis brought a radar gun to the track and clocked Steele on back to back laps with a top end speed of 129-130 mph going into turn one. Steele cruised to his sixth TBARA win of the year and padded his point lead in the process. The 2004 USAC Silver Crown Champion says he thinks he can compete for the 2005 TBARA crown as well as defend his Silver Crown title this year. Mark Gimmler had an outstanding run to finish second, keeping third finisher Keith Butler at bay over the final laps. Ray Bragg came from ninth on the grid to fourth at the finish while Dude Teate was fifth in his first outing this year in George Rudolph's car, the same one he drove to the 2004 TBARA championship. Rounding out the top ten were J.J. Dutton, Bo Hartley, Todd Schmidt, Skeeter Faulconer and Frank Scimeca. The remaining finishers were David Retzlaff, Bill Pettijohn, Gary Gimmler, 72 year old Curtis Sutton, Johnny Gilbertson, Frank Erskine, Jr. and Jimmy Alvis, who dropped out early after looking good with the earlier heat win. Randy Woodall's car would not fire and he did not start the main event. The Modifieds led a quintet of FASCAR racing divisions running on this night as point leader Corey Freed grabbed the lead from Pat Carter on lap four and never looked back in scoring his third win of the season. Carter spun and brought out the first of just two cautions during the race on lap five with Chuck Burkhalter looping his machine for the other yellow on lap nine. Each time the field was able to close on Freed for the restart, but the young driver had 'em covered again. Freed took the checker but the battle for second was what had the fans on their feet as Michael Williams came from the back row of the starting grid to get second over Jared Allison, Alan Bruns and Terri Bryant. Bob Beiler, Carter, Shaine Held, Burkhalter and Jason Boyd Completed the top ten. Allison won the Modified heat race. The Mini Stock feature got off to a wild start with Michael Seay getting into Pedie Allison going into turn one following the drop of the green. Sean Bass, driving a borrowed car, drove high to avoid them and tagged the wall. All three were able to continue with Bass making a quick pit stop to check for damage. Once the race got started it was an all green flag affair as Josh Hermann led the first ten laps before being passed by a high-flying Scott Reeves. Reeves would go on to lead the rest of the way for his first win of the season in his first race of the year here. Bass' car actually seemed to run faster after he hit the wall and he worked his way back through the field to nab second spot ahead of Seay, Hermann, Allison, John Cook, Keith Lilley and Rex "Boneman" Hollinger. Reeves also took the heat win. The Super Stocks also went green to checker for the first time this year. Bob Starr led the opening eight laps before being overhauled by John Castro. Castro went on to take his second win of the year in his Crab Shuttle Restaurant Chevy just ahead of Jason Foster who came from scratch on the starting line-up. Brett Woodley drove to third spot with Starr hanging onto fourth and Johnny Brown netting fifth spot. Darren Gould, Robert Ward, Robert Richards, Paul Cornelius, Ray Mullis, Donald Springer, Jeff Parrish and Tom Vento rounded out the finishing order. Super Stock heats were won by Foster and Woodley. There was plenty of action in the Sportsman feature as heat winner Andy Nichols got spun out early while leading in the feature and went to the rear of the field for the restart. Charlie Vest took over the lead and looked to be cruising to his second win of the year until his engine blew on lap 12. Nichols had worked his way back up to second and took over at that point and won his second of the year out-gunning Richard Hight, Jeff Wright, Timmy Todd, Jr., Vest and Rip Dyal. Nick Boley topped the All Auto Salvage Strictly Stock feature for the second time this year taking the measure of Andy Richards, Ray Brown, Jamie Lancaster, Kyle Peters and Ed Michalak. OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - MAY 6, 2005 TBARA OUTLAW WINGED SPRINTS 1. #91 David Steele 2. #51 Mark Gimmler 3. #19 Keith Butler 4. #66 Ray Bragg 5. #68 Dude Teate 6. #6F JJ Dutton 7. #3x Bo Hartley 8. #96 Todd Schmidt 9. #6 Skeeter Faulconer 10. #6x Frank Scimeca 11. #90 David Retzlaff 12. #44 Bill Pehhyijohn 13. #29 Gary Gimmler 14. #75 Curtis Sutton 15. #21 Johnny Gilbertson 16. #21T Frank Erskine Jr. 17. #29T Jimm Alvis 18. #20 Randy WoodalL DNS OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED 1. #12 Corey Freed 2. #14 Michael Williams 3. #18 Jared Allison 4. #4b Alan Bruns 5. #08 Terri Bryant 6. #44 Bob Beiler 7. #86 Pat Carter 8. #55 Shane Held 9. #51 Chuck Burkhalter 10. #2x Jason Boyd SPORTSMAN 1. #66 Andy Nicholls 2. #23 Richard Hight 3. #50 Jeff Wright 4. #25 Timmy Todd Jr. 5. #44 Charlie Vest 6. #79 Rip Dyal MINI STOCK 1. #21 Scott Reeves 2. #94 Sean Bass 3. #10 Michael Seay 4. #98 Josh Hermann 5. #92 Pedie Allison 6. #24 John Cook 7. #99 Keith Lilley 8. #7 Rex "Boneman" Hollinger SUPER STOCK 1. #5 John Castro 2. #49 Jason Foster 3. #99 Brett Woodley 4. #40 Bob Starr 5. #46x Johnny Brown 6. #67 Darren Gould 7. #25 Robert Ward 8. #34 Robert Richards 9. #31 Paul Cornelius 10. #316 Ray Mullis 11. #118 Donald Springer 12. #05 Jeff Parrish 13. #55 Tom Vento STRICTLY STOCK 1. #88 Nick Boley 2. #33 Andy Richards 3. #4 Ray Brown 4. #15 Jamie Lancaster 5. #18 Kyle Peters 6. #911 Ed Michalik Have an opinion on this story? 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