Faulk tops Super Late Models at Orlando SpeedWorld
It was one of those "crazy" Friday nights this week at Orlando Speedworld that produced some great racing and some surprise winners. Gainesville's Michael Faulk, who is getting set to try and qualify for his first superspeedway race next week when the ARCA series visits Nashville, came to Speedworld Friday night with an offer to get some "seat time" in Ricky Wood's car. That move would prove to be a good one when all was said and done.
Super Late Model heats went to Orlando's Ronnie Roach and last weeks winner Jared Allison of Cocoa. Everyone thought the race would come down to a battle between these two, and it did... for awhile. Rookie SLM driver Gary Bierlein jumped out to the early lead and set the pace for the opening five laps (which also saw two minor caution slowdowns as well) until Roach took over the top spot on the sixth lap with Allison in tow.
A Dusty Cornelius spin slowed the field a third time on lap seven putting Roach and Allison right together for the restart. The two pulled quickly away from the field, but three laps later they tangled in turn three with Roach slamming the wall backwards. Roach was done for the night and definately not a happy camper while Allison restarted from the back of the field with only minor damage.
Unheralded Wes Burton, making his first ever start at Speedworld, inherited the lead at this point and looked poised to pull off a huge upset, but Faulk would have other ideas.
Burton would hang on through three more caution periods, but as the field took the two to go signal from the flagman, Faulk dove inside Burton going into turn one and led the final pair of circuits to score his first win here. Faulk was joined by proud dad, race car builder Lee Faulk, car owner Wood and crew in victory lane and Faulk should certainly be "pumped up" for his attempt at Nashville next week.
Burton was impressive coming home second ahead of Dave Debelius, who was making his first start of the year in his familiar orange #38. Young Chris Staggs also looked good coming home fourth with Rick Bates coming back from an early race spin to claim fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Mario Hernandez, Allison, Eric Deffendall, Cornelius and Dave Riley.
The Modified feature was almost a carbon copy of the Super Late Models only with a few more twists.
The heat race saw a spectacular finish as Cory Freed just nipped Skip Honaker at the line for the win. Honaker had the pole for the feature, but dropped out just before taking the green flag. Another top runner, Mark Emberson, also did not make the start.
With Honaker off the track, Matt Wheeler now had the pole and he took quick advantage to lead a snarling pack of race cars. Several cars locked horns on lap nine while fighting for second spot which left heat winner Freed to take a ride back to the pits on the hook of Tim Cordell's wrecker.
Jon Compagnone had also been involved and restarted from the rear of the field only to tangle with Randy Froelich as the green dropped, sending Compagnone pit side as well.
Wheeler was maintaining the front spot but Shane Held was on the charge. However, just as had happened in the SLM race, the two leaders tangled going into turn one sending both to the rear of the restart line-up on lap 13.
Young Jack Arnold III found himself out front and he made no mistakes the rest of the way in scoring his very first win at Speedworld. Newcomer Wayne Sorg continues to impress everyone and he grabbed the best finish of his first year racing effort by taking the second spot. Kelly Jarrett drove a new car to third place ahead of Wheeler and Held who raced back into the top five.
Johnny Brown led the opening laps of the Super Stock feature, but it would be James Frisbie taking the lead before half-way and setting the pace to the checkered flag. Fellow Melbourne driver Jason Foster slipped into second but could not catch Frisbie who took his first win of the year.
Roger Benton took third spot ahead of Vince Keeler and Bobby Byars with Ron McCreary, Rick Taylor, Brown, Todd Ansel and Mike Gennett completing the top ten. Super Stock heats were won by Keeler and Ray Mullis while last weeks winner Ron Whaley took a hard crash into the turn four wall during heat two, ending his night prematurely.
Tim "Missileman" McPhail claimed his second Mini Stock feature of the year taking the lead from John Cook on lap four and leading the rest of the way. The race saw one big crash on lap three. As R.J. Arnone was slowing to miss a spinning Pedie Allison, Bob Miller had nowhere to go and plowed right into Arnone's machine. Both were OK but Miller's car was towed to the pits while Arnone attempted to continue but pulled to the infield before taking the green.
McPhail pretty much had the field covered as Allison came back to finish second. Dick Laszlo made a last lap pass to take third ahead of Michael Seay and Randy Blakeslee.
Andy Nichols made his first start of 2006 a winning one as he topped the Sportsman field by a good margin over Richard Hight Billy Cuddy, heat winner Timmy Todd, Jr., and Bryan Silas. The Sportsman will run 50 laps next week in the John Potts Memorial.
Driving a car he put together while he had the afternoon off from a local asylum, Raybo Rowland snared the win in the Strictly Stocks to set up his usual wild victory lane antics. Chasing Raybo to the finish were Robert Remus, Bob Snyder, Miguel Barrenchea and Richard Barrenchea. Raybo also won the heat race.
Zachary Curtis picked up his first win in the Junior Stock Junior division driving his Chevette to the checker in both the heat and feature. Jeff Cuddy was second with Luke Burke third. Wes Railing, Jr. saw his two race win streak broken as he settled for fourth in front of Troy Edenfield and Jessica Railing.
Jessie Cuddy took the measure of the Junior Stock Senior Division for the second straight week winning both the heat and feature races. Jessie's brother Devon right behind at the finish ahead of Cody Pierson and Alex Fortune.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - APRIL 7, 2006
SUPER LATE MODEL
1. #33 Michael Faulk 2. #95 Wes Burton 3. #38 Dave Debelius 4. #56 Christopher Staggs 5. #4 Rick Bates 6. #5 Mario Hernandez 7. #18 Jared Allison 8. #26 Eric Deffendall 9. #22 Dusty Cornelius 10. #05 Dave Riley 11. #78 Mark Miller 12. #11 Gary Bierlein 13. #14 Ronnie Roach 14. #52 Matthew Strichmann DNS
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
1. #84 Jack Arnold 2. #64 Wayne Sorg 3. #55x Kelly Jarrett 4. #96 Matt Wheeler 5. #55 Shain Held 6. #33 Gary Fountain Sr. 7. #8 Randy Froehlich 8. #12 Corey Freed 9. #5 Jon Compagnone 10. #2 Skip Honaker
SPORTSMAN
1. #66 Andy Nichols 2. #23 Richard Hight 3. #64 Billy Cuddy 4. #25 Timmy Todd 5. #44 Bryan Silas 6. #55 Tom Vento 7. #99 Brett Woodley
SUPER STOCK
1. #3 James Frisbie 2. #48 Jason Foster 3. #14 Roger Benton 4. #7 Vince Keeler 5. #12 Bobby Byars 6. #24pk Ron McCreary 7. #77 Rick Taylor 8. #86 Johnny Brown 9. #22 Todd Ansel 10. #00 Mike Gennett 11. #316 Ray Mullis 12. #07 Daniel Laszlo 13. #69 Sparky Wilson 14. #16 Bobby Riley 15. #9 Matthew Jarrett
MINI STOCK
1. #7 Tim "Missileman" McPhail 2. #92 Pedie Allison 3. #07 Dick Laszlo 4. #10 Michael Seay 5. #77 Randy Blakeslee 6. #24 John Cook 7. #09 Bob Kelchner 8. #06 Heather Suggs 9. #30 R.J. Arnone 10. #02 Bob Miller 11. #98 Josh Hermann DNS
