THOMSON TAKES WILD LEGENDS MAIN SATURDAY AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD
By Dave Westerman
Brandon Thomson grabbed the Legends Car win Saturday night at Orlando Speedworld.
Whether it was first night jitters, inexperienced new drivers or over-zealous veterans, the first Legends Car feature of 2006 was more like a version of Orlando Speedworld's popular Crash-A-Ramas as the track hosted its first Saturday night program of 2006 with a bumper crop of race cars.
Twenty-seven Legends showed up for opening night with the three heat races going to Brandon Thomson, Andy Logan and Bryan Silas. Thomson had the pole for the feature and jumped out to a quick advantage that would last only half a lap before the first of two "big ones" took place.
Bryan Silas got sideways coming off turn two starting a huge melee involving at least ten cars with Doug Hall flipping completely over in the process. When all was said and done, the cars of Hall, Jimmy Norman, James Rodriguez and Jeff Deggeller were already done for the night while Darin Coker, Chelsea Schillig, Shaughn McCormick and Doc Richardson pitted for repairs. Since no laps were completed, Silas was allowed to move into a back up car for the restart.
Try number two prompted big wreck number two in the exact same location as the first one. No one could really tell what caused it, but this time it was among cars starting at the back of the pack. This time, Dean Moslow, Robby Gentry, and Josh Antley had their cars towed to the pits while Coker made repairs for a second time. Steve Turbeville was also involved and made a quick fix in the pits while McCormick's car couldn't survive this crash. However, a lap had still not been completed, so he also brought out a back up machine.
Officials decided to just start the race single-file and it worked fine for three laps with Thomson holding off a determined Andy Logan for the top spot until Evan Russell and Mark Bibeau collided in turn one sending both pit side.
Finally the race settled down to some great green flag racing with Logan putting incredible pressure on leader Thomson until getting trapped behind a lapped car just past the half-way mark.
Caution flew again on lap 18 as Mike Verhaagh got tangled up with another car in turn four and most of the bodywork came off his car.
On the restart, Logan spun going into turn one and collected both Jeremy Colangelo and Doc Richardson with all three going to the pit area for the night.
At this point the race was cut from 25 to 20 laps with Thomson easily holding off 2005 Legends champion Kory Abbott for the win. Matt bowers came home a solid third ahead of a resurgent Darin Coker and rookie Semi-Pro driver Josh Williams. Silas also came back strong to finish sixth with Chelsea Schillig, Spike Sabo, Kara Clarke, and Wild Willie Wilson rounding out the top ten. Eric Eichelberger was 11th and the only other car still running as 15 cars fell out of the event. Mitch Verhaagh did not start the feature after a hard heat race crash.
Jacksonville Beach driver Ron Towles added to his Speedworld win total with a wire to wire run in the Florida Open Wheel Lite feature.
Towles got some pressure from Mike Belusar, but had things pretty much in hand. Belusar got second spot with Rick Lundeen third, Phil Krauthoff fourth and Dennis Diehl fifth. Completing the top ten were Alain Paradis, Roger Richmond, Jeff Ripley, Sonny O'Sullivan and Bill See.
Heats for the 17 FOWL machines were won by Towles and Mad Max Howe.
Veteran Ben Booth of Deland topped a healthy field of 18 Florida Cracker Classics leading all the way despite early pressure from Norm Agostinho. Agostinho faded after a late caution with an overheating engine that eventually led to a spin allowing Jim Rahman to slip into second at the finish. John Smith, Rodney Eary and Eddie Thornton rounded out the top five. Booth and Rahman won the heat races.
Mark Hooven grabbed the Bandelero Bandits win as 11 of the 8-11 year olds started the feature. Hooven won the first heat and out-ran first heat winner Donovan Ponder to the stripe in the 12 lap finale. Maxx Bennett was third ahead of Nicholas Baluch and Tyler Rahman. Cody Bibeau, Shawn Hooven, Carl Kwasny, Critter Saile, Zach Harris and Steven Maier completed the finishers.
Gerald White, Jr. made his first start as a Bandelero Young Gun a winning one, dominating the feature much the same as he did in the Bandits class last year. White finished well ahead of heat race winner Kristina Baluch, impressive newcomer Eric Filgueiras, Kaleb Hearndon, Kyndall Antley, and Dillon Richardson.
Kara Clarke beat up on the guys in the Bandelero Outlaws taking both the heat and feature ahead of Brandon Duncan and Zack Colangelo.
Dan Webb drove his Ford Probe to the Hurricane win topping Friday night Strictly Stock winner Adam Soukup, Naomi Walters, Blaze (The One Man Wrecking Machine), Robert Reynolds and Greg Bruce.
Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association main events went to Bill Wendt's Midget and Bud Johnson's Modified stocker.
