FIVE NEW WINNERS AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD WINTERNATIONALS ON THURSDAY There was plenty of action during day three of the INEX/600 Series Winternationals at Orlando Speedworld Thursday afternoon with five new faces gracing victory lane.
In Legends Car Pro Division action, Paddy Rodenbeck, Nick Pistone and Roger Austin, Jr. topped the trio of heats with Rodenbeck grabbing the lead at the drop of the green in the 25 lap feature from his pole starting position.
Three laps into the event Craig Goess, Jr., who had won the first two Winternationals races in the class, tangled with Rette Causey and hit the wall a ton in turn four. Goess was OK but his car was badly damaged. Causey also dropped out as did Paul Schrein, Jr.
Rodenbeck continued to set the pace with Brandon Thomson and Pistone in tow until the second and final yellow flag of the race flew on lap nine when Kyle Beattie and Thomas Hartensveld tangled in turn two. Rodenbeck drove off with the win while Pistone was able to pass Thomson late in the going to take second place plus take over the Winternationals Pro division points lead. For Rodenbeck, it was his first win ever at Speedworld despite many starts and a whole lot of bad luck here over the last two years.
Thomson came home third, just happy to finally finish a race, while Cameron Patrick put on quite a show coming from 14th on the starting grid to fourth at the finish. Scott Knox was fifth while Thomas Van Wingerden, Kory Abbott, Jason Dunn, Kyle LaPier, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top ten.
In the Legends Car Masters Division, trouble started early for Clay Hair, who had won the first two main events on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hair was part of a three-way tangle in his heat that saw his car balanced between the front stretch wall and the car of Mike Verhaagh, who had finished second to Hair on Wednesday afternoon. Verhaagh was done for the day while Hair switched to a back-up car and started scratch in the feature.
After winning his heat race, Cotton Spry had the outside front row slot for the 25 lap Masters contest and he wasted little time asserting himself out front.
Spry was holding off a charging Tim Brockhouse when the caution flew for a turn two tangle involving George Whitney and Larry Friddle after the rear-end of Whitney's car locked up. Friddle was able to repair the damage to his car and continue.
On the restart, Hair, who had worked his way up to fourth position, got tapped by Cy Harvey and spun. Both drivers were sent to the rear of the field for the ensuing restart.
Spry looked to have things under control, but his car failed him once again, dropping a cylinder with just two laps to go allowing Brockhouse to zip past and claim the win. Floridians Andy Logan and Jimmy Rodriguez came home second and third with Roger Austin, Sr. fourth as Spry slipped to fifth at the checker. Brockhouse, who hails from Minneapolis, MN where it was 16 degrees at the time he left for Florida, cleared tech easily after a problem the night before saw his second place finish disallowed due to improper ball joints which he stated was "simply a mistake on our part." Sixth at the finish went to Bruce Little while Hair rallied for seventh ahead of Harvey, Scotty Edwards and Friddle.
Along with Spry's heat race win, other Masters Division heat races fell to Austin, Sr. and Logan.
Legends Semi Pro Point leader John Stancill had it all his way on Thursday as he handily won the feature race in green to checker fashion.
The Semi Pro drivers had their cleanest run of the week with no incidents at all in the feature as Stancill sped away to an easy win over Ty Dillon, Zach Stroupe, Chelsea Schillig and Josh Williams. Completing the top ten were J.R.Allen, Zach Zimmerly, Jimmy Norman, Chad Hackenbracht and Corey Smith. Heats for the Semi Pros went to Stancill, Allen and Williams.
Teammates R.S. Senter and Curt Britt swapped the lead several times before Senter picked up the win in the Legends Car Charger class, ending the two race win streak of Matthew Stover whose car suffered mechanical problems and dropped out near mid race.
However, Senter's car was disqualified in tech and his teammate Britt picked up the win over George Cushman, Jamie Smith, Dean Moslow, Stover and Dalton Bergman.
Not to out-done by older brother Zach, who has a Legends Car Semi Pro win here and two Pro Challenge wins at New Smyrna Speedway over the past week, Nicholas Stroupe led wire to wire to win the Bandelero Bandits feature topping Cody Blackburn, Dillon Bassett, Bodie Bellinger and Critter Saile.
In the Bandelero Young Guns, Ronnie "The Rock" Bassett Jr. picked up his second win of the week taking the checker in front of Ryan Glenski, Chad Finchum, Bryce Walker and Donovan Ponder.
Thomas Van Wingerden and Jesse Bunnell put on their usual show in the Thunder Roadsters before Van Wingerden came home with the win over Bunnell, Steve Carter and Tom Clarke.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - FEB. 15
BANDOLERO BANDITS
1. #45 Nicholas Stroupe 2. #71 Body Blackburn 3. #44 Dillon Bassett 4. #48 Bodie Bellinger 5. #99 Zoey Guignardi 6. #12 Critter Saile 7. #5 Jesse Kirila 8. #23 Layne Clifton 9. #80 Blake Jones 10. #97 Evan Bell
BANDOLERO YOUNG GUNS
1. #04 Ronnie Bassett 2. #28 Ryan Glenski 3. #19 Chad Finchum 4. #680 Bryce Walker 5. #8 Donovan Ponder 6. #51 Meghan Dillner
BANDOLERO OUTLAW
1. #13 Christopher McKinney
THUNDER ROADSTERS
1. #12 Thomas Van Wingarden 2. #96 Jesse Bunnell 3. #9 Steve Carter 4. #66 Tom Clarke
LEGENDS CHARGERS
1. #101 Curt Britt 2. #20 George Cushman 3. #76 Jamie Smith 4. #3 Dean Moslow, Jr. 5. #26 Matthew Stover 6. #37b Dalton Bergman 7. #01x R. S. Senter DQ'D
LEGENDS SEMI-PRO
1. #20X John Stancill 2. #21x Ty Dillon 3. #51 Zach Stroupe 4. #75 Chelesea Schillig 5. #6 Josh Williams 6. #01 J.R. Allen 7. #94 Zach Zimmerly 8. #2 Jimmy Norman 9. #7 chad Haqckenbracht 10. #12 Corey Smith 11. #5 Gene Kirila 12. #55 Tony Sansom 13. #211 Kara Clarke 14. #34 Shaughn McCormick 15. #24 Parker Hammons 16. #113 Luke Fleming 17. #66 Travis Baer 18. #87 Darrel Vance 19. #121 Greg Frye 20. #38 Ryan Moore
LEGENDS PRO
1. #129 Paddy Rodenbeck 2. #99 Nick Pistone 3. #54 Brandon Thomson 4. #20P Cameron Patrick 5. #86 Scott Knox 6. #12 Thomas Van Wingerden 7. #5 Kory Abbott 8. #20 Jason Dunn 9. #12x Kyle LaPier 10. #3 Austin Dillon 11. #11 Chris Lemonds 12. #8 Roger Austin 13. #96B Kyle Beattie 14. #15 Cole Miktuk 15. #53 Jeremy Lundy 16. #36 Thomas Hartensveld Jr. 17. #33 Rette Causey 18. #81 Craig Goess 19. #74 Paul Schrein 20. #96 Jesse Bunnell
LEGENDS MASTERS
1. #13 Tim Brockhouse 2. #1FL Andy Logan 3. #19x James Rodriquez 4. #83s Roger Austin 5. #16 Cotton Spry 6. #19 Bruce Little 7. #29 Clay Hair 8. #37ns Cy Harvey 9. #8e Scotty Edwards 10. #8 Larry Friddle 11. #66 Tom Clarke 12. #23 Bob Wilson 13. #9 George Whitney 14. #06 Rick Whitmore 15. #09 Mike Beebe 16. #7 Mike Verhaagh 17. #78 Hermann Greinig 18. #96 Steve Carter
