LAKE CITY, FL (3/24) - The Florida Sprint Car Series returned to North Florida Speedway. Seventeen cars came through the pit gate and Bruce Durden wasted no time blasting past polesitter Don Sesco to take a lead he would never lose.
Lee Scrape battled Durden in the early going, but spun coming out of turn four and found himself making an uphill climb throughout the rest of the event.
Otto Scrape tried to keep things close, but his car gave out on the last lap and Durden went on uncontested to the checkers. Bryn Gohn finished second and Lee Scrape salvaged a third place finish.
Chris Vogel led a tough Street Stock field for the first half of the race until yielding that spot to an unrelenting Dean Sands. Sands made several unsuccessful attempts to pass Vogel on the inside before switching his attack on the eleventh lap. He found the outside groove more amenable and blasted past Vogel's #4 with little incident to ride on to victory ahead of Kevin Mills. A last lap crash shuffled the top five standings and the remaining positions were not available at press time.
Ronnie Chance won his first A-Modified main and his third race in four points-season attempts with a wire-to-wire run. Carlton Allen was the best of the rest finishing second over Buzzie Reutimann, who got his first look at the track in its new configuration and finished a strong third.
David Miller Jr. outdragged polesitter Dave Dowling Sr. for the early Hobby Stock lead. Kevin Durden quickly rose through the ranks and overcame Miller for the point on the fourth lap. Scotty Nolan was gunning for his third consecutive win and raced from eighth to second by halfway. Nolan reeled in Durden and gave everything he had but fell short at the checkers. Following Durden and Nolan at the stripe was Dowling, Heath Walker, and Miller.
Polesitter Gerald Lewis couldn't hold off Shane Taylor on the opening green flag in the Pure Stock main. Taylor was the class of the class tonight as an epic battle raged behind for second between Shawn Creech, Rick Reed, Billy Smith, and Lewis. Taylor was putting the finishing touches on his dominant performance when transmission troubles snached defeat from the jaws of victory for the #82. Billy Smith, last week's feature winner, inherited the lead and was able to run error-free the final two laps to take his second straight win. Smith was trailed by Lewis, Reed, Creech, and Chris Rowe.
The 2007 Brown Motorsports Summer Spectacular for Hobby Stock cars kicks off next week. The eight-race series will have its own points series with payouts for first and second in the cumulative points standings. Saturday's race will pay $750 to win, taper to $100 for tenth, and continue tapering down through the entire field. For event and purse specifics, log on to www.northfloridaspeedway.com and press the button marked "special" or contact the track at 386-754-8800.
