When the eighteen super late models entered in the All American Challenge Series rolled out onto the asphalt at DeSoto Super Speedway Saturday night, maybe the most surprised person at the track was Wayne Jefferson. Jefferson had qualified fifth on Friday night, but when the youngsters rolled the die to set the inversion, it gave the Pinellas County racer the pole position.
That was all he needed as he kept the number 94 out front for 125 laps and captured a huge wire to wire win for his race team. One of DeSoto Speedway's most popular drivers Jesse Dutilly had the outside pole position. Behind him in the second row two very tough racers from Naples, Fl, Billy Bigley, Jr. and Scot Walters, both with extensive major league racing experience.
Dutilly quickly found himself hung out on the outside and watched as Bigley and Walters drove into the second and third positions. Billy held the second spot the rest of the way. Walters held onto third until lap 82 when the familiar number 70 of Jeff Choquette (Palm Beach County, Fl) drove on the outside of Walters down the back straight to grab third.
The 125 laps was marred by 11 cautions, most of them fairly minor spins. The fast qualifier David Wilson of Sarasota, Fl started in the fifth spot, had a very rough night and never really got going. Jeff Scofield was out of the race early and never a factor. Justin Drawdy, another big name and former AACS Champion pitted early and remained in the back most of the night finishing 11th. Tim Russell, another rising star from the East Coast of Florida hung in the sixth spot most of the race where he finished.
The (Limited) Late Models also put on a 125 lap show for the fans in East Manatee County Saturday, and it too appeared for all the world to be a wire to wire win for Doug Moff. It would have been had the race been 100 laps, but in the final 25 laps the complexion of the race changed dramatically.
Steve Dorer, points leader in the local series, had been running a second and a half behind Moff the entire race until the restart after the fourth caution on lap 92. This time Dorer did not let Moff get away and by lap 111 he was all over the rear bumper of Moff's number 46 machine. As the cars came through turn two, Moff slipped up the track, giving Dorer room to get beside him and then drive away as the race wound down.
Mike Franklin, Jr. along with Tate Pierce and Justin Larson battled for the next three spots, adding some drama to the closing laps. Pierce took the third spot with Franklin and Larson following.
Bubba Thompson was involved in what was described by one official as "a kidney jarring wreck" in turn two at lap eighty-seven, bringing out the red flag. No injuries were reported in the incident.
In other action Rick Germony celebrated his 47th birthday with his first ever win in the popular bomber division.
One of the most memorable moments of the night came in the very first race of the 94 car seven-feature Seafest event.
Billy Bigley, Jr. watched his young sons Dylan and Corey compete together in the Magic 4 class. This is a division for youngsters which races on an abbreviated version of DeSoto Super Speedway, cutting the distance to perhaps a 1/4 mile.
Dylan jumped out front and won rather handily for his first feature win while grandfather Billy Bigley, Sr and Billy Jr. wife Kim looked on. This is what it looked like: CLICK TO SEE VIDEO.
Race Results for Saturday Oct 7, 2006
AACS SUPER LATE MODELS 125 Laps Pos Driver Car # 1 WAYNE JEFFERSON-Maacs 94 2 BILLY BIGLEY, JR 28 3 JEFF CHOQUETTE-Maacs 70X 4 SCOT WALTERS-Maacs 55 5 JESSE DUTILLY 74 6 TIM RUSSELL-Maacs 36 7 CHRIS FONTAINE-Maacs 47 8 RICHIE ANDERSON-Maacs 51 9 JEFF SLOAN-Maacs 31 10 TROY MCNABB-Maacs 07X 11 JUSTIN DRAWDY 12X 12 CHRIS STAGGS-Maacs 56 13 MIKE FINN 63 14 WAYNE MORRIS 98 15 ROBERT YOHO-Maacs 00 16 DAVID WILSON-Maacs 83 17 JEFF SCOFIELD-Maacs 07S 18 SEAN LeMASTER 8 19 JIMMY COPE-Maacs 61
BOMBERS Pos Driver Car # 1 RICK GERMONY 8 2 JEROME WATLAND 31 3 PETE BARR 81 4 MICHAEL CROOKS 33 5 DON SLACK 57 6 DAVID DAVIS 6 7 JOHN STEWART 02 8 KENNY GIBSON 23 9 JEFF TAYLOR 70 10 RANDY JOHNSON 73 11 JAMES CRAWFORD JR 34 12 SCOTT DAWLEY 74X 13 TODD JACOBS 44 14 LOU RUSSELL 3 15 MARK BOXELL 88 16 MILENA FIRESTINE 93
LIMITED LATE MODEL 125 Laps Pos Driver Car # 1 STEVE DORER-Maacs,llm 10 2 DOUG MOFF-Mllm 46 3 TATE PIERCE -Mllm 81 4 MIKE FRANKLIN JR. 12 5 JUSTIN LARSON-R-Mllm 88X 6 KEVIN INGRAM 54 7 LONNY MILLER-Mllm 98 8 JASON BOWSER-Mllm 52 9 KENNETH VAUGHN-Mllm 127 10 DEWAYNE BARRUS 33 11 JEFF FIRESTINE 93 12 BOBBY BEAUCHEMIN 08 13 BUBBA THOMPSON 8X 14 TIM GARROD 16 15 STEVE GILL-Mllm 5 16 BOBBY SHELTON 34
MAGIC 4S Pos Driver Car # 1 DYLAN BIGLEY 28 2 SHANE YODER 8 3 ANDREW PRATT 31 4 BILL LEAKE 03 5 CHELSEA LAJOIE 3 6 CHRISTINA CRAWFORD 59 7 COREY BIGLEY 25 8 TYLER ANDRIES 26 9 TOM BRADY 14 10 DAVE BOWSER JR 1 11 AUSTIN CRAIG 10 12 ALBERT NAIL 00
MINI STOCKS Pos Driver Car # 1 MATT WATTS 5 2 DEAN BUTRUM 32 3 MICHAEL PEACE 25 4 WAYNE BELLAMY 9X 5 TODD SCHNEIDER 77 6 JIMMY HOPEWELL 1 7 KEVIN WOOD 17 8 ROBERT CARTER 30 9 MIKE KERRIVAN 45
MODIFIED MINIS Pos Driver Car # 1 DUSTIN PEREZ 0 2 MARTY NEIKENS 70 3 BRYAN WAGNER 4 4 CAMERON CRUSE 22 5 BILLY CARLBERT JR 11 6 GLENN KELLEY 16 7 MATTHEW PERKINS 99 8 JOEY BARNES 1 9 SCOTT RANNEY 02X 10 RICHARD KELLY 61 11 CHRIS THORNTON 24 12 DEAN BUTRUM 32 13 STEVE BOOTH 15
PURE STOCKS Pos Driver Car # 1 TYLER LAU 1 2 JIMMIE BEST-R-ollm 35 3 DUANE BEST-R-ollm 67 4 DARRIN ELLIS 71 5 JOHN BROWN 6 6 RICHIE THORBIN 30 7 DAVID YAHRAUS 49 8 TROY MEREDITH 75 9 KEVIN SHEPHERD JR 92 10 BLAIR PONTIOUS-R 39 11 JAMES WILBERT 62