It was a gorgeous late June night for racing at Orlando Speedworld Friday night as both the Friday FASCAR and Saturday INEX 600 Racing shows were mixed together to get the July 4th Holiday weekend off to a rousing start.
The Super Late Models were the only regular weekly class getting the night off in preparation for Sunday's Clyde Hart Memorial 200 at sister track New Smyrna Speedway which gave the RE/MAX Legends Cars top billing on the night.
The Legends drivers would show 'em how to get it done as the 25 lap race ran green to checker with St. Cloud's Brandon Thomson using his pole position pill draw to grab the early lead and the eventual wire to wire win although Chelsea Schillig kept things close for awhile before fading back into a three way battle for second between herself, Bryan Silas and Andy Logan.
Schillig would hold on to the second position at the checker followed by Silas, Logan, and Matt Bowers. Kory Abbott, Paul Schrein, Jr., Mike Verhaagh, James Rodriguez and Jimmy Norman rounded out the top ten with Eric Eichelberger, Mitch Verhaagh, Shaughn McCormick, Tony Sansom, Wild Willie Wilson and Kara Clarke completing the finishers. When leaders Dick Laszlo and R.J. Arnone got tangled up with two laps to go, Orlando's Kelly Jarrett took over the lead and sped to his first Mini Stock win in several years here.
Jarrett, a former Speedworld Mini Stock champion, has been guiding sons Scott and Matt's racing careers of late, but built a new Toyota for the 2006 season and got a long-overdue win. Randy Blakeslee came home with a nice second place finish with Josh Hermann returning after a short lay-off to get the show spot. Michael Seay came home fourth while Rex "Boneman" Hollinger was fifth. Arnone rebounded for sixth with John Cook, Heather Suggs, "Mad" Mike Muroski and Scott Jarrett completing the top ten. Laszlo dropped from the race on the final lap while Tim "Missileman" McPhail's bid for four straight wins went south early because of a sick engine.
James Frisbie held off a wild bunch behind him to claim yet another Super Stock win. Cars were swapping spots behind him nearly every lap and Frisbie was even spun out of the lead on one occasion before all was said and done. Once the smoke cleared it was Vince Keeler coming home second while Jim Winterstein made a bold comeback after several years away from the track taking third, coming from a "rear of the pack" penalty to do so. Matt Jarrett nabbed the fourth spot with Lee Wagner fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Travis Rowland, Ray Mullis, Jason Foster, Bobby Riley and Bob Trombley.
Two-time track champion Richard Hight passed early leader John Hodge on a mid-race restart and went on to claim his second Sportsman win of the year. Hodge held off Andy Nicholls for second but Nicholls lost his third place finish when he failed to report to tech after his top-three finish. Nicholls blamed it on his hurry to get packed up and leave as the Orlando pyrotechnician was leaving for Cuba right after the races to put on a 4th of July fireworks show for the troops stationed at Guantanamo Bay.
Bryan Silas moved up to third in the finishing order to go along with his third place run in the Legends feature, with Timmy Todd, Jr., Paul Hudson and Leonard Hearndon trailing.
Mark Emberson grabbed the early lead in the Modified feature, but the race was slowed on lap two when Michael Williams rode over the back end of Randy Froelich's car coming off turn four. Williams, making his first start of the year, had too much damage to his car to continue.
Alan Bruns was again the man to beat though as he sped by Emberson on lap four and won by a huge margin. It was the third consecutive win for Bruns as Emberson held on for second over Shain Held, Randy Froelich and Mike Murphy.
Newcomer Kyle Alford drove his Dodge to the win in the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stocks after a great battle with Robert Remus who came home second. Bob Snyder, Rob Reynolds and Steven Streight completed the top five.
Eleven year old Shawn Hooven led all the way to take his very first Speedworld feature win in the Bandelero Bandits. Shawn held off older brother Mark to take the win and was "happy" his brother drove him "clean." Mark Hooven took the second spot ahead of Donovan Ponder, Zach Harris and Nicholas Baluch.
Kristina Baluch won her second Bandelero Young Guns feature over Kaleb Hearndon while Trey Edenfield also won his second feature of the year in the Junior Stock 8-11 year old division finishing in front of Zachary Curtis, Wes Railing, Jr., Jessica Railing, Luke Gaier, Jeff Cuddy and Luke Burke.
After her own car would not start, Jessie Cuddy hopped in her younger brother's new car and took the Junior Stock 12-15 year old feature win after a great battle with Cody Kasper who finished in the runner-up spot. Justin Curtis, Alex Fortune and Daniel Steele completed the top five.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - JUNE 30
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
1. #4B Alan Bruns 2. #30 Mark Emberson 3. #55 Shain Held 4. #8 Randy Froehlich 5. #05 Mike Murphy 6. #14 Michael Williams
SPORTSMAN
1. #23 Richard Hight 2. #00 John Hodge 3. #66 Andy Nicholls 4. #57 Bryan Silas 5. #25 Timmy Todd Jr. 6. #08 Paul Hudson 7. #95 Leonard Hearndon
SUPER STOCK
1. #3 James Frisbie 2. #7 Vince Keeler 3. #13 Jim Winterstein 4. #9 Matt Jarrett 5. #74 Lee Wagner 6. #11 Jeremy Shelton 7. #316 Ray Mullis 8. #49 Jason Foster 9. #52 Bobby Riley 10. #31 Bob Trombley 11. #71 Geno Smith
MINI STOCK
1. #97 Kelly Jarrett 2. #77 Randy Blakeslee 3. #98 Josh Hermann 4. #10 Michael Seay 5. #85 Rex "Boneman" Hollinger 6. #30 R.J. Arnone 7. #24 John Cook 8. #06 Heather Suggs 9. #61 Mike Muroski 10. #17 Scott Jarrett 11. #09 Bob Kelchner 12. #07 Dick Laszlo 13. #19 Emily Cottrell 14. #1 Tim "Missileman" McPhail
JR. STOCK (8-11)
1. #31 Trey Edenfield 2. #63 Zachary Curtis 3. #51 Wes Railing 4. #17 Jessica Railing 5. #78 Luke Gaier 6. #64 Jeff Cuddy 7. #68 Luke Burke
JR. STOCK (12-15)
1. #64 Jessie Cuddy 2. #00 Cody Kasper 3. #42 Justin Curtis 4. #01 Alex Fortune 5. #3 Daniel Steele
STRICTLY STOCK
1. #51 Kyle Alford 2. #16 Robert Remus 3. #16x Bob Snyder 4. #A1 Rob Reynolds 5. #80 Steven Streight 6. #6 Joey Willis 7. #20x Richard Barrenchea 8. #41 George Brown 9. #213 10. #B1 Bobby Crites 11. #8 Luis Guillen 12. #44 David Czerwinski
BANDOLERO BANDITS
1. #27 Shawn Hooven 2. #17 Mark Hooven 3. #8 Donovan Ponder 4. #54 Zack Harris 5. #16 Nicholas Baluch
BANDOLERO YOUNG GUNS
1. Kristina Baluch 2. Kaleb Hearndon
RE/MAX LEGENDS
1. #54 Brandon Thomson 2. #75 Chelsea Schillig 3. #57 Bryan Silas 4. #1 Andy Logan 5. #84 Matt Bowers 6. #5 Kory Abbott 7. #74 Paul Schrein 8. #7 Mike Verhaagh 9. #19 James Rodriques 10. #2 Jimmy Norman 11. #47 Eric Eickleberger 12. #9 Mitch Verhaagh 13. #34 Shaughn McCormick 14. #55 Tony Sansom 15. #23 Bob Wilson 16. #21 Kara Clarke
