Bronson's Robbie Cooper says Orlando Speedworld is his favorite race track and why not as he handily won the Special 50 lap race for the Modifieds Friday night. In three starts here, Cooper has won two of them.
Just eleven cars entered for the chance at the top prize of $1200 to win, but it was a quality field. Using his always potent power from Central Florida Machine and Speed, Clermont's Alan McCafferty set quick time at 14.069 with Cooper second fastest at 14.125 and young Kurt Jett third quick at 14.207.
The initial start of the 50 lapper was aborted when John Compagnone and Dave Debelius tangled going into turn three with both getting a taste of the concrete. Debelius continued with just minor cosmetic damage but Compagnone was forced to take his machine to the pits. Jett had the pole for the start but Cooper was on the outside pole and took off like a rocket at the drop of the green while no less than six cars locked up in a good battle for second on back. Cooper had moved into a different time zone by the time the first caution of the race flew for Gary Fountain, Sr.'s spin in turn two.
Cooper continued to leave the field behind as Jerry Symons and McCafferty also broke free of the pack to make it a three car breakaway.
Despite four more cautions for minor spins, Cooper was not to be caught as he streaked to the win over Symons, McCafferty, Jett and point leader Alan Bruns. Mark Emberson was sixth ahead of Shain Held, Randy Froelich and Compagnone. A post race altercation between Debelius and Fountain saw both drivers disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct.
A disqualification also set the stage for one of Speedworld's most likeable drivers to claim his first ever win in the Super Stock class. The Super Stock race was easily the best one of the night. Gary Cameron put his big Ford out front for the first pair of laps only to be passed by the high-flying car of James Frisbie. Frisbie was hoping to tack on yet another win, but Bobby Riley was charging from the back of the starting grid along with Robert Ward and visiting New Smyrna Speedway regular Bobby Holley.
Things came to a grinding halt with three laps to go when Vince Keeler made hard contact with the front stretch wall. Keeler's car then came across the track and collected the machine of Johnny Brown who in turn was hit hard by point leader Jason Foster. All three drivers were OK, but their cars were in need of major reconstructive surgery.
Frisbie seemed to lose the handle on the restart as Riley, Ward and Holley all sped by him with Riley taking the apparent win. However, Riley's car was set down in tech for a tire violation giving the win to Ward, the first of his career at Speedworld. Holley was impressive in finishing second while Frisbie held on for third over Lee Wagner and Dennis Snyder, who also recorded his best career finish. Completing the top ten were Roger Benton, Matt Jarrett, Jason Vick, Cameron and Mike Poole.
Chad Pierce led wire to wire to snare his second consecutive Super Late Model feature win. Only one caution slowed the pace in the 25 lap event, but Pierce was the class of the field on this night as he took an easy win over Jared Allison, point leader Dusty Cornelius, Gary Bierline, J.R. McMickle, Joe Piazza, Donnie Williams and Brandon Evans.
Timmy Todd, Jr. also made it two wins in a row in the Sportsman division. Jeff Wright led the opening ten laps but could not hold back the charge of both Todd and Andy Nicholls as they got by and raced to a 1-2 finish. Wright held on for third over Donnie Williams and Bryan Silas.
The Florida Cracker Classics were an added attraction and,as usual, put on a great race. Tommy Kirk grabbed the early lead but was passed on lap four by Norm Agostinho just after the only caution came out when Brad Norburg slam the wall at the flag stand. Norburg was not hurt, but his car was a mess.
Agostinho held on for his third win of the year but not without pressure from Jeff Wright throughout the closing laps. John Smith came home third trailed by Kirk and Ron Gustafson. Bill Posey, Jim Rahman, David Nunes, Andrew Gustafson, and Doug Johnson rounded out the top ten.
The Mini Stock feature was as competitive as ever and ran green to checker with Pedie Allison passing early leader Rex "Boneman" Hollinger on lap eleven and going on to take the win. Kelly Jarrett passed Hollinger with two laps to go and claimed the runner-up spot ahead of Hollinger, Dick Laszlo and Randy Blakeslee.
With 34 Action Gator Tire Strictly Stocks in the pits officials decided to split the field and the fans were treated to a pair of 17 car feature races.
The fans also came up big with some sponsorship money in support of the great field of cars that normally only run for trophies. Among the sponsors of the event were Southern Concrete of Vero Beach, Initial Image out of Orange City, Gardner Performance Enterpises of Bangor, ME, James Gregg Metal Building Erectors & Repair, DeWitt Excavating, The Amazon Mall Haunted House, and Lloyd Davis & Boss. William Hindman jumped in the Saturn normally driven by Junior Stocker Justin Curtis and took the opening feature over Gomez Alvarez, Steve Anderson, Sebastian Pulido and David Czerwinski. Robert Remus then drove to his sixth win of 2006 in the second feature holding off David Leeper II, Gary Thomas, Bob Snyder and Bill Spence.
When leaders Zachary Curtis and Wes Railing, Jr. tangled while battling for the top spot, Luke Gaier took over and snared the Junior Stock 8-11 year old win, but that wasn't the whole story. Jeff Cuddy had a great run going and was looking for his first win. However he tangled with the lapped car of Jessica Railing which sent his car tumbling into the infield. After one and a half rolls, the car came to rest on its roof but Jeff climbed out in OK shape.
The final order of finish was Gaier, Curtis, Wes Railing, Cuddy and Jessica Railing.
In the Junior Stock 12-15 year old feature, Jake Cameron took his second win of the year over Justin Curtis and Jessie Cuddy.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD, OCTOBER 20
SUPER LATE MODEL
1. #57 Chad Pierce 2. #18 Jared Allison 3. #22 Dusty Cornelius 4. #11 Gary Bierlein 5. #119 J.R. McMickle 6. #15 Joe Piazza 7. #111 Donny Williams 8. #27 Brandon Evans
MODIFIED 50
1. #98 Robbie Cooper 2. #66 Jerry Symons 3. #32m Alan McCafferty 4. #9 Kurt Jett %. #4b Alan Bruns 6. #30 Mark Emberson 7. 55 Shain Held 8. #8 Randy Froehlich 9. #5 Jon Compagnone 10. #33 Gary Fountain Sr. DQ'D 11. #38 Dave Debelius DQ'D
SPORTSMAN
1. #25 Timmy Todd, Jr. 2. #66 Andy Nicholls 3. #50 Jeff Wright 4. #111 Donny Williams 5 #57 Bryan Silas 6. #74 Charles Jett 7. #5 Glenn Castro 8. #151 Mike Santana 9. #15 Billy Bellflower 10. #54 Brandon Thomson
MINI STOCK
1. #92 Pedie Allison 2. #97 Kelly Jarrett 3. #85 Rex "Boneman" Hollinger 4. #07 Dick Laszlo 5. #77 Randy Blakeslee 6. #10 Michael Seay 7. #24 John Cook 8. #02 Bob Miller 9. #99 Matthew Perkins DNS
SUPER STOCK
1. #25 Robert Ward 2. #56 Bobby Holley 3. #3 James Frisbie 4. #74 Lee Wagner 5. #11 Dennis Snyder 6. #28 Roger Benton 7. #9 Matt Jarrett 8. #44 Jason Pick 9. #69 Gary Cameron 10. #114 Michael Poole 11. #7 Vince Keeler 12. #86 Johnny Brown 13. #49 Jason Foster 14. #8 Tobi Smith 15. #97 Scott Keena 16. #1.3 Ron McCreary 17. #52 Bobby Riley DQ'D
CLASSICS
1. #0 Norm Agostinho 2. #44 Jeff Wright 3. #34 John Smith 4. #88 Tommy Kirk 5. #38 Ron Gustafson 6. #00 Bill Posey 7. #5 Jim Rathman 8. #21w David Nunes 9. #9 Andrew Gustafson 10. #32 Derick Wood 11. #21 Brad Norburg
JR. STOCK 8-11
1. #78 Luke Gaier 2. #63 Zach Curtis 3. #51 Wes Railing 4. #64 Jeff Cuddy 5. #17 Jessica Railing
1. #42 William Hindman 2. #12 Gomez Alvarez 3. #27 Steve Anderson 4. #10 Sebastian Pulido 5. #44 David Czerwinski 6. #A1 Rob Reynolds 7. #693 Justin Gourley 8. #20 Brent Bruner 9. #55 Denny Johns 10. #1R Raybo 11. #64 Jessie Cuddy 12. #11 Brenda Taylor 13. #80 Steven Streight 14. #51 Randy Cox 15. #104 Tuttle 16. #69x Nathon Haystead 17. #7x Scott Edwards 18. #37 Art Hendren
STRICTLY STOCK RACE 2
1. #16 Robert Remus 2. #D2 David Leeper II 3. #76 Gary Thomas 4. #16x Bob Snyder 5. #52 Bill Spence 6. #66 Tom Stewart 7. #45 Dave Czerwinski Jr. 8. #20x Richard Barrenechea 9. #120 Bobby Crites 10. #6 Bob Heina 11. #3D Shane Justin 12. #4x Roger Mullins 13. #2 Scott Moyder 14. #24 Don Taylor 15. #8x Neal Kirby 16. #8 Luis Guillen 17. #22 Miguel Barrenechea DNS
