Bishop tops Florida Lift Systems, Inc. FASCAR Pro Truck 50 at Orlando SpeedWorld
FASCAR Pro Trucks made their first visit of 2006 to Orlando Speedworld Friday night for 50 laps of racing action sponsored by Florida Lift Systems, Inc., the Central Florida dealer for Toyota material and handling equipment.
Twenty-three trucks signed in, but before the race could begin, the machines of Bill Stacy, Jason Vail, and Jim Alterizio were on the trailer with various mechanical ills after practice and qualifying. It would be a night that would belong to the young and upcoming stars of the Series as 14 year old Chad Akins of Daytona Beach got things started by driving his Team ASE special to quick time honors at 15.230 seconds, just ahead of the 15.265 of George Morales. Scott Reeves, George Gorham, Jr. and Kyle Eastham rounded out the top five in time trials.
Akins drew a "9" for the inversion putting veteran Tommy King on the pole for the 50 lapper with Kevin Henry on the outside pole. King jumped out to the lead as Henry had trouble coming up to speed and dropped back several positions.
Caution flew early on lap three for Matt Towell's spin and again shortly thereafter as Kyle Eastham clipped the wall on the front stretch sending debris flying. Eastham pulled out of the race during the caution.
King didn't have the fastest truck, but he had it handling well in the low groove setting up a tight battle among the first eight racers. After a caution on lap 37, King and second running Scott Bishop made contact with Bishop grabbing the lead while third running Scott Reeves bounced off King's truck and lost several spots. King then got into a great side-by-side duel with George Gorham, Jr. until Gorham spun trying to hold the low line coming off turn two. During the caution, both King and Gorham dropped out of the event Several more cautions and incidents following restarts left many of the trucks with considerable sheet metal damage, but Bishop was easily the class of the field as the highly-touted 14 year old from Spartanburg, SC led the rest of the way to take the win.
Reeves made a great comeback to finish second with Dennis Gardner doing a great job in coming home third. Despite heavy front-end damage, George Morales drove his machine to fourth place with Caesar Bacarella steadily driving his way from 14th on the starting grid to fifth at the finish.
Kevin henry held off fast qualifier Akins for sixth with Jarred Cawley, Kelly Caudill and Jessica Murphy rounding out the top ten. Completing the finishers were T.J. Chambers, Jay Seykora, Rick Bristol, Matt Towell, Ricky Moxley, George Gorham, Jr., Tommy King, Billy Bishop, Kyle Eastham, and Brad Stevens.
After a mini "Crash-A-Rama" between leaders Andy Nicholls and Travis Towell which saw both disqualified for the remainder of the evening, Lake Worth's Bryan Silas took over the lead and led the rest of the way to win his second Sportsman feature of the year. It was just the second week out for Silas in his new Volusia County Racecars/Vest Racing/PBG machine and he claimed an easy win over Timmy Todd, Jr., Paul Hudson and Glen Castro as they were the only four cars to finish. Richard Hight, who took a hard crash into the turn four wall earlier in the race, was credited with fifth spot.
The Super Stock feature got off to a rough start as Ron McCreary smacked the turn one wall hard just after completing lap one. McCreary was OK, but his #24Pack was short a few cans.
Jason Pick led the opening pair of laps before Ray Mullis took over with James Frisbie moving up to challenge. The two ran side by side with Frisbie finally able to nab the top spot on lap 17. Interestingly, Mullis, whose number honors the Bible verse John 3:16, led laps 3-16!!
Frisbie sped away over the finial three laps for his second straight win with Mullis second and Pick third (his best career finish). Jason Foster started deep in the field and made it up to fourth at the finish just ahead of Vince Keeler. Robert Ward, Lee Wagner, Bobby Byars, Daniel Laszlo and Bobby Riley rounded out the top ten. Tim "Missileman" McPhail topped the Mini Stock field again, leading every lap. R.J. Arnone came home in the runner-up spot with show money going to Dick Laszlo ahead of Bob Kelchner and Michael Seay. Completing the top ten were Randy Blakeslee, Rex "Boneman" Hollinger, John Cook, Roger Blevins and Heather Suggs.
Teammates William Hindman and Jim Erb ran off with the Strictly Stock feature finishing 1-2 well ahead of the field. Neil Kirby was a distant third over Bob Snyder and Richard Barrenchea. Rounding out the top ten were Steven Streight, George Brown, Todd Preston, Joey Willis and Robert Remus.
Luke Gaier took the Junior Stock 8-11 year old win in a photo finish over Zachary Curtis who was then DQ'd for rough driving. Wes Railing, Jr. wound up second over Trey Edenfield, Jessica Railing, Luke Burke, Jeff Cuddy and Curtis.
Jessie Cuddy was back in victory lane in the 12-15 year old Junior Stocks taking the win over Alex Fortune, Cody Kasper, and Justin Curtis.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - JUNE 16, 2006
PRO TRUCK 50
1. #0 Scott Bishop 2. #21 Scott Reeves 3. #11K Dennis Gardner 4. #96 George Morales 5. #24 Caesar Bacarella 6. #99 Kevin Henry 7. #60 Chad Akins 8. #31 Jared Cawley 9. #33 Kelly Caudill 10. #7 T.J. Chambers 11. #96b Jay Seykora 12. #30 Rick Bristol 13. #07 Matt Towell 14. #38 Ricky Moxley 15. #10 George Gorham, Jr. 16. #16 Tommy King 17. #0 Billy Bishop 18. #20 Kyle Eastham 19. #79 Brad Stevens
QUICK KID 1. #62 Jessica Murphy 2. #1 Jason Vail
SPORTSMAN
1. #57 Bryan Silas 2. #25 Timmy Todd Jr. 3. #08 Paul Hudson 4. #8 Glen Castro 5. #23 Richard Hight 6. #4x Travis Towell DQ'D 7. #66 Andy Nicholls DQ'D 8. #99 Brett Woodley DNS
SUPER STOCK
1. #3 James Frisbie 2. #316 Ray Mullis 3. #44 Jason Pick 4. #49 Jason Foster 5. #7 Vince Keeler 6. #25 Robert Ward 7. #74 Lee Wagner 8. #12 Bobby Byars 9. #07 Daniel Laszlo 10. #52 Bobby Riley 11. #11 Travis Rowland 12. #24 Ron McCreary 13. #86 Johnny Brown
MINI STOCK
1. #1 Tim "Missileman" McPhail 2. #30 R.J. Arnone 3. #07 Dick Laszlo 4. #09 Bob Kelchner 5. #10 Michael Seay 6. #77 Randy Blakeslee 7. #85 Rex "Boneman" Hollinger 8. #24 John Cook 9. #1x Roger Blevins 10. #06 Heather Suggs 11. #17 Scott Jarrett 12. #43 Tom Rose
JR. STOCK (8-11)
1. #51 Wes Railing 2. #31 Trey Edenfield 3. #17 Jessica Railing 4. #68 Luke Burke 5. #64 Jeff Cuddy 6. #63 Zachary Curtis 7. #78 Luke Gaier
1. #2 William Hindman 2. #212x Jim Erb 3. #8 Neal Kirby 4. #16x Bob Snyder 5. #20 Richard Barrenechea 6. #80 Steven Streight 7. #41 George Brown 8. #3 Todd Preston 9. #6 Joey Wills 10. #16 Robert Remus 11. #22 Miguel Barrenechea
