Thomson conquers RE/MAX Legends Action again at Orlando SpeedWorld
by Dave Westerman
Sixteen-year-old Brandon Thomson of St. Cloud continued his early season streak with another win in the RE/MAX Legends car feature Saturday night at Orlando Speedworld. In four races here this year, Thomson has three wins and a second place finish.
Twenty-five Legends signed in, but that was reduced by two in practice when rookie Robby Gentry spun and was hit by the car of Chelsea Schillig. Gentry was unable to make repairs and the car was loaded in the trailer. Schillig, coming off a strong third place finish last week, had a car that was not raceable either, but she moved to Sean McCormick's back-up car for the evening's activities so she could earn points for the night. Had she and her race teams been able to foretell the future, they would have packed up and gone home too.
Darin Coker, Andy Logan and Kory Abbott took the three heat races which were run off without a hitch, but just has been the case all year, the start of the 25 lap feature would once again see a major crash.
James Rodriguez and last weeks winner Abbott had the front row for the initial start with Rodriguez taking the initial lead only to see things go crazy heading into turn one. It was hard to tell just what happened, but several cars got together going into the turn. Kara Clarke, Shaughn McCormick and Schillig (again, driving McCormick's other car) all slammed the wall with Schillig's car tipping over on its side. Also involved were Mike Verhaagh, Evan Russell and Dean Moslow.
Schillig was not hurt but was trapped in the car for a few minutes because it was wedged between two other cars with the driver door facing the race track. Once the car was righted, Chelsea hopped out and was all smiles as usual saying "I've had worse wrecks in Quarter Midgets.."
All the cars involved were done for the night although Clarke was able to restart in her back-up car.
The second try didn't go much better as Matt Bowers and Bryan Silas touched with Silas doing a dandy job gathering his car in after a full 360 degree spin. The caution was displayed however and the drivers were told over their Raceceiver Radios that if they couldn't get it right the third time, the fourth start would be single file. But the third attempt was the charm as Abbott sped out to an early lead with Thomson and Logan in tow.
Lap four saw caution for a spinning Rodriguez in turn four and only two more laps could be completed before Bowers and Doc Richardson tangled in turn two.
The rest of the race would go the distance under green. Thomson dogged Abbott for several laps before the leader slipped high allowing Thomson and Logan to take over first and second. Abbott continued to slip back, all the way to six spot at one point before he was able to re-pass Darin Coker late in the event.
Logan put plenty of pressure on Thomson for several laps before Thomson pulled away for a comfortable win. Meanwhile, Paddy Rodenbeck closed in on Logan with Logan just holding Rodenbeck off at the line for second. Jeremy Colangelo came home fourth ahead of Abbott with Coker, Bowers, Jimmy Norman, Rodriguez and Silas completing the top ten. Kara Clarke drove her back-up machine to an 11th place finish with Eric Eichelberger, Richardson, Mitch Verhaagh, Mark Bibeau, Steve Hart, Wild Willie Wilson, Steve Turbeville, Dalton Bergman, Schillig, Mike Verhaagh, Evan Russell, Dean Moslow, and Shaughn McCormick rounding out the field.
The payoff and points were frozen after a competitor protested a part on Rodenbeck's car that will have to be shipped to Charlotte, NC to be checked.
Brad Sanders won both the heat and feature race for the Pro Challenge machines. Brad's brother Rod Sanders got by Mark Landis late in the going to nab second with Landis third, Johnny Leonard fourth and Lanny McCorckle fifth.
Driving a new Ford Taurus, Robert Reynolds won his first Hurricane feature taking the measure of Dan Webb, Bobby Crites, Brent Bruner, Blaze Fisher, Jerry Crane and David Tate.
Make it two in a row for Maxx Bennett in the Bandelero Bandits. Heat race winner Donovan Ponder and Shawn Hooven crashed on the opening lap and were out before the race started. Bennett set the pace all 12 laps to take the win over Nicholas Baluch, Zachary Harris (his first top three trophy), Mark Hooven, Steven Maier, Koty Bibeau, T.J. Kirk, Ponder and S. Hooven.
Gerald White, Jr. remained undefeated in the Bandelero Young Guns easily winning both the heat and feature. Kristina Baluch crossed the stripe in second ahead of Gerald Campbell and Dylan Richardson. Kara Clarke out-ran the boys again in the Bandelero Outlaws taking her second win of the year over Brandon Duncan, Zack Colangelo, Sam Gearhart and Ed MacKenzie.
Joe Farnsworth drove his ex-Richie Evans Modified to the win in the Stock Car portion of the Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association races. the Sprint Car main went to Jay Yahnke while Bill Wendt was to top Midget competitor.
Junior Stock wins went to Adam Owens and Kaisee Crites.
The regular Saturday night program will take the rest of the month off as the Legends have two PBG Tour events: next Saturday at Bronson Motor Speedway and April 29th at Citrus County Speedway. FAST Media has rented Speedworld for an event on April 22nd.
