Chelsea Schillig takes Bronson PBG Legends Tour Win
by Dave Westerman
Move over Danica Patrick and Erin Crocker. There's a 15 year old young lady from Apopka named Chelsea Schillig and she's hot on your trail after winning the second leg of the PBG 2006 Florida Legends Car Tour Saturday night at Bronson Motor Speedway.
Despite being Easter weekend, 23 PBG Legends made the trip to Mike Cope's beautiful facility on what turned out to be a gorgeous day and evening.
There were no surprises in qualifying as Brandon Thomson set quick time at 15.002 seconds ahead of 2005 PBG Tour Champion Kory Abbott's 15.217 second lap. Schillig made her presence felt though by clocking third quick at 15.269 with Andy Logan and Stuart Dutton, the winner here last year, completing the top five in the time trials.
Thomson's draw inverted the top five from qualifying putting Dutton on the pole with the veteran Logan on the outside for the start of the 35 lap main event.
The first start was aborted when a fender came off James Rodriguez' racer but he was able to continue. As green flag racing began, Dutton zipped out front while Kory Abbott made his way quickly to second with Thomson not far behind.
Caution was out for the first time on lap three as Mitch Verhaagh and Tim Osterlund tangled in turn three. Three laps later, the duo would tangle again with both going off on the hook this time. Dion Hinsky, an Official with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series who gets to race his Legend only sparingly during the year, pulled out during the second caution period with an overheated engine.
Dutton continued to lead but Abbott and Thomson were on his bumper with both going by on lap 12 to move into first and second spots. Logan went around in turn four while running fourth to bring out the third caution on lap 16.
Following the restart, the pair of 16 year olds, Abbott and Thomson, took off and began one of their many "personal wars." The two are good friends off the track but arch-rivals on it and things came to a head on lap 20 as they tangled going into turn three. Bronson track officials dubbed the incident as good hard racing and sent both to the rear of the field for the restart.
Dutton found himself out front again looking to repeat his win of last year, but there was a little lady knocking on his back door. Chelsea Schillig actually passed Dutton coming off turn four and led lap 23 but her car got sideways and Dutton reclaimed the lead by the time Schillig got the car under control.
Moments later, Rodriguez spun in turn four and was hit by both Shaughn McCormick and Thomson. all three were done for the night as the yellow flew for a fifth time.
Dutton continued to set the pace but Schillig was shadowing his every move, getting alongside the Tallahassee driver several times but unable to make the pass stick.
Two more minor caution flag periods for Mike Verhaagh on lap 25 and Austin Aguirre on lap 29 slowed the pace, but following the final caution, Schillig began to pull out all the stops.
Heading for the two laps to go signal, Schillig finally got her car to stick on the bottom groove coming out of turn two and she dove under Dutton in turn three to take the lead as the crowd roared its approval.
Schillig made no mistakes over the final two laps and won by several car lengths. It was the first feature win of her young Legends Car career and came behind the wheel of a car completely rebuilt after a crash at Orlando Speedworld the week before.
Dutton held off his teammate Chris McDonald for the second spot as McDonald had another strong run at his "favorite track." McDonald was equally impressive holding off a late charge by Abbott who raced back up to fourth while Matt Bowers drove a steady heads-up race to claim fifth spot. Andy Logan also had a great run back through the field to get sixth with Wesley McLeod, Bryan Silas, Josh Williams and Doc Richardson rounding out the top ten.
Schillig was so excited, she drove to the pits instead of going to victory lane leaving her dad, track officials, the announcer and photographers to wonder where she'd gone. Finally, Chelsea got calmed down and drove to the victory circle to be greeted first by her father Jeff, and to make things even better, he was getting ready to celebrate his birthday on Easter Sunday.
RESULTS: PBG 2006 FLORIDA LEGENDS CAR TOUR - BRONSON MOTOR SPEEDWAY... 4/15/06:
1) Chelsea Schillig, Apopka #75 2) Stuart Dutton, Tallahassee #32 3) Chris McDonald, Havana #94 4) Kory Abbott, Apopka #5 5) Matt Bowers, Mt. Dora #84 6) Andy Logan, West Palm Beach #1FL 7) Wesley McLeod, Altamonte Springs #22 8) Bryan Silas, Royal Palm Beach #57 9) Josh Williams, Port Charlotte #6 10) Doc Richardson, Clearwater #01 11) Mike Verhaagh, Ft. Myers #7 12) Mike Fazio, Davie #38 13) Austin Aguirre, Tallahassee #59 14) Spike Sabo, Tampa #5X 15) Doug Hall, St. Petersburg Beach #55 16) Wild Willie Wilson, Beverly Hills #23W 17) Jimmy Norman, Lake Mary #2 18) James Rodriguez, West Palm Beach #19 19) Shaughn McCormick, Oviedo #34 20) Brandon Thomson, St. Cloud #54 21) Dion Hinsky, Sebring #4 22) Mitch Verhaagh, Bonita Springs #9 23) Tim Osterlund, Sebring #49
Lap leaders: Stuart Dutton: 1-11 Kory Abbott 12-20 Dutton: 21-22 Chelsea Schillig: 23 Dutton: 24 - 34 Schillig: 34-35
