TRAVIS TOWELL ALL THE WAY IN HOMER GORDON MEMORIAL AT SPEEDWORLD
By Dave Westerman
Purple was the color of choice Friday night as competitors, track officials and race fans honored the memory of the late Homer Gordon, who always had his race cars painted purple. The highlight of the evening was the 50 lap Homer Gordon Memorial for the Sportsman Cars.
The evening would totally belong to young Travis Towell. Towell set quick time of 14.607 and drew a "0" for the inversion setting the field "straight up" from time trials.
Towell thus had the pole for the 50 lap run and came close to making the race a total run-away. The race was slowed on lap 12 when Timmy Todd, Jr. and Henry Shepherd got together in turn three with Jeff Wright tagging Shepherd's car and then hitting the wall. Only Wright was unable to return.
On the restart, Richard Hight's car blew a hose coating the back side of the track with water. Another try to restart the race was for naught as some pieces fell off Todd's car and a debris caution was needed.
Towell led Andy Nichols around the race track until the final caution waved on lap 41 to check the track for fluid as both Todd and Clayton Williams exited the track with overheating engines.
Towell raced unchallenged the final nine circuits to take the win ahead of Nicholls and Port Charlotte visitor Joey Barbera who had a strong run for never having seen the track before. Dale Clouser was fourth and the last car on the lead lap while Shepherd took fifth as the only other car running at the end. Completing the run-down were Todd, Williams, Billy Belflower, Hight, Wright and Mike Santana.
Jared Allison took advantage of his pole starting spot to lead all the way in the Super Late Model feature, although there was plenty of slam-bang action behind him.
Things got testy on lap 11 as Chad Pierce tapped Dusty Cornelius into a spin going into turn one earning both drivers a trip to the back of the field. Chuck Burkhalter spun backwards into the wall damaging his machine, but he continued. Cornelius brought out the second caution on lap 20 when he tapped the back stretch wall and then spun in turn three.
One lap after the restart, Pierce was forced into the wall by the car of Barry Willoughby. Pierce tried to gather the car in but bounced off another car before slamming into the turn one wall ending his night.
Allison was never challenged as he won his third race of the season over South Florida driver Joe Piazza who had his best run ever here. Gary Bierlein had another steady run to third with Cornelius coming back to fourth ahead of Chuck Burkhalter. Rounding out the finishers were A.J. Fulgenzi, Shawn Gourley, Mark Miller, Willoughby, Pierce, Don'l Burkhalter, Jr. and Scott McKinley.
Michael Williams led the opening 11 laps of the Modified feature but tangled with point leader Alan Bruns while battling for the top spot. Mark Emberson had nowhere to go and hit Williams' car with both going to the sidelines. Bruns continued from the rear of the restart line-up.
Shain Held inherited the lead at that point and went on to score his third win of 2006 over Skip Honaker, Hoot Flynn, Gary Fountain, Sr., and Bruns. Completing the top ten were Jon Compagnone, Sr., Randy Froelich, Terri Bryant, Williams and Emberson.
Kelly Jarrett zipped by early leader Rex "Boneman" Hollinger on lap four and sped to his sixth Mini Stock win of the year. The only slowdown of the race came on lap 17 when Hollinger and Pedie Allison got together while battling for second.
Michael Seay took advantage to earn second place and solidify his new-found points lead. Dick Laszlo, Randy Blakeslee and Allison finished the top five spots while John Cook, Hollinger, Mike Muroski and Bill Calder completed the finishers.
Although Jeff Wright ran into problems the the Sportsman race, he had the field covered in the visiting Florida Cracker Classics. Wright passed early leader Tommy Kirk on the third lap and went on to win his second Classic Car feature of the year.
John Smith trailed Wright in second ahead of Bill Posey (making his first start of the year), David Nunes and Kirk. Andrew Gustafson, Doug Johnson, Ron Gustafson and Brad Newburg rounded out the field.
The Super Stock feature got off to a bang when pole sitter Matt Jarrett spun coming off turn two collecting several cars. Of those involved, Vince Keeler and Tobi Smith were done for the night.
Lee Wagner took over the lead on lap two but had his hands full with Bomber Bill Loomis who was looking for his second straight win. Loomis led laps 15-18 before a fuel feed problem saw him fall off the pace. From that point it was a big win for Wagner, his first at Speedworld in several years.
Johnny Brown crossed the line in second trailed by Robert Ward, Jason Foster and James Frisbie. The remaining finishers were Bruce Gayton, Roger Benton, Dennis Snyder, and Scott Keena.
Steve Anderson topped the Strictly Stock field in a race that saw three lead changes. Robert Remus came home second over Raybo Rowland, Rob Reynolds and Tom Stewart. Rounding out the top ten were Dave Czerwinski, Miguel Barrenchea, Matt Sprenkel, Luis Guillen and Richard Barrenchea.
Junior Stock winners were Luke Gaier and Logan Bourdeau.
