Despite being Mother's Day weekend and the NASCAR race being live on TV from Darlington, a good field of cars made their way to Orlando Speedworld for racing action on Saturday night.
The twin heats for the Re/Max Legends Cars were won by Kory Abbott and Bryan Silas but it was Chelsea Schillig and Matt Bowers making up the from row for the start of the 25 lap feature.
Bowers grabbed the lead at the drop of the green with Schillig on his bumper, but Abbott was already on the charge, quickly moving into second, then chasing down Bowers for the top spot two laps later. Schillig powered her way past Bowers as well and was able to stay on Abbott's bumper as the two young drivers, who both hail from Apopka, pulled away from the field.
Abbott was a bit stronger in lapped traffic and was able to open up six car lengths on Schillig before the checker flew as the race ran all the way under green for just the second time this year.
It was Abbott's fourth straight win at Speedworld as he really has things going his way right now. Schillig's second place finish made it one-two for Kendirk Performance powerplants while Bowers finished well back in third.
Brandon Thomson started well back in the field and came up to fourth, but with all green flag racing, he was too far behind to do anything with the leaders. Silas drove a steady race to fifth while Andy Logan started dead last in the field of 17 and took sixth and was also the top finisher in the Masters Division.
Rounding out the top ten were Wesley McLeod, Paul Schrein, Jr., Mike Verhaagh and James Rodriguez. Completing the finishers were Mitch Verhaagh, Shaughn McCormick, Eric Eichelberger, Wild Willie Wilson, Steve Tuberville, Jimmy Norman and Mark Bibeau.
The Florida Mini Cup Racing Association made their first regular season appearance. Many of the cars are painted identical to their much larger Nextel Cup counterparts and apparently Nando Pinto's flag to flag run in the All Pro division rubbed off on Greg Biffle.
Pinto has his car painted to look like one of Biffle's paint schemes, and he took off like a shot at the drop of the green flag and never looked back in scoring his first Speedworld win. Later, Biffle himself would out run Jeff Gordon to the checkered flag at Darlington. Despite a couple of cautions for some wild turn four incidents that brought the field back to him, Pinto was never seriously challenged as he to the win over Francois Pellitier, Terry Tullis, Tom Mellin and Jason Schroeder. Doug Smith was involved in both cautions but came back to finish sixth over Rick Holt, Jerry Parker, Mark Pick, Rick Blair, Jennifer Crossman and Carlos Gonzales. Pinto and Crossman won the heats.
The FMCRA Junior All Star race was dominated by Daniel Miller as he led all the way. This race went green to checker with Miller well out in front of second place Devin McLeod. McLeod won a great race-long battle for the runner-up spot finishing ahead of Blake Orr, Ray Black, Jr., Critter Witte, Zack Hoyt, Thomas Warnick and Brady Marshall. Miller also won the heat race.
Mark Hooven won both the heat and feature in the Bandelero Bandits. Hooven and Maxx Bennett battled throughout the 12 lap feature with Hooven coming back to take the win over Bennett, Nicholas Baluch, Stephen Bergh, Critter Saile, Shawn Hooven, Zachary Harris, Carl Kwasny, T.J. Kirk and Coty Bibeau.
It took a driver from Concord, NC to end Gerald White, Jr.'s season-long win streak in the Bandelero Young Guns. Chris Moore, who picked up several wins during the Winternationals in February, got to the front early and held off White for the win. Sloan Henderson, down from Ohio, took third place with heat winner Ryan Rust fourth ahead of Kristina Baluch, Kaleb Hearndon and Gerald Campbell.
Brandon Duncan grabbed the Bandelero Outlaw feature over NC visitor Trevor Cauble, heat winner Zach Colangelo and Sam Gearhardt.
Bobby Crites, Jr. came out on top of a great battle with Adam Soukup to win the Hurricane feature while Crites' younger sister Kaisee took the Junior Stock Main over Alex Fortune.
Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association winners were Jeremy Smith (Stock Cars) and Jack Sapp (Sprints/Midgets).
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD, MAY 13
RE/MAX LEGENDS
1. #5 Kory Abbott 2. #75 Chelsea Schillig 3. #84 Matt Bowers 4. #54 Brandon Thomson 5. #57 Bryan Silas 6. #1FL Andy Logan 7. #22 Wesley McLeod 8. #74 Paul Schrein 9. #7 Mike Verhaagh 10. #19 James Rodriques 11. #9 Mitch Verhaagh 12. #34 Shaughn McCormick 13. #47 Eric Eichelberger 14. #23 Bob Wilson 15. #77 Steve Turbeville 16. #2 Jimmy Norman 17. #65 Mark Bibauo
BANDOLERO BANDITS
1. #17 Mark Hooven 2. #1 Max Bennett 3. #16 Nicholas Baluch 4. #70 Stephen Berch 5. #12 Critter Sail3e 6. #27 Shawn Hooven 7. #54 Zach Harris 8. #6 T.J. Kirk 9. #88 Carl Kwasny
BANDOLERO YOUNG GUNS
1. #16 Chris Moore 2. #38 Gerald White 3. #07 Sloan Henderson 4. #18 Ryan Rust 5. #21 Kristina Baluch 6. #53 Kaleb Herndon 7. #6 Gerald Campbell
1. #00 Daniel Miller 2. #01 Devin McLeod 3. #20 Blake Orr 4. #04 Ray Black Jr. 5. #11 Critter Witte 6. #67 Zack Hoyt 7. #9 Thomas Warnick 8. #20x Brady Marshall DNS
ALL PRO MINI CUP
1. #16 Nando Pints 2. #08 Francois Pellitier 3. #31 Terry Tullis 4. #03 Tom Mellin 5. #45 Jason Schroeder 6. #20 Doug Smith 7. #24 Mike HoH 8. #6 Jerry Parker 9. #04 Mark Pick 10. #28 Rick Blair 11. #01 Jennifer Crossmen 12. #19 Carlos Gonzales
DAYTONA ANTIQUE STOCK
1. #74 2. #78 3. #73 Keith Grant 4. #134 Rhoda Blackie 5. #67 Richard Bowers 6. #252 Bud Johnson 7. #39 Jim Work 8. #21 9. #11 Tony Layton
DAYTONA ANTIQUE SPRINTS
1. #77 Jack Sapp 2. #7 Jay Yanke 3. #71 Bill Wendt 4. #71 Michael Jukes 5. #X Dale Miller
JR. STOCK (12-15)
1. #1 Kaisee Crites 2. #01 Alex Fortune
HURRICANES
1. #1 Bobby Crites 2. #14 Adam Soukup 3. #89 William Hindman 4. #66 Blaize Fisher 5. #A1 Rob Reynolds 6. #88
