Robbie Cooper takes Gulfcoast Win at Ocala Speedway
By Rick Warren
It was a beautiful day with Chamber of Commerce weather as the Gulfcoast Modified series rolled into Ocala Speedway Friday night. 16 racers entered to run in the 50 lap feature, and lap times in practice indicated a very fast race was to come.
Wayne “Rocketman” Jefferson set the fast time in qualifying, just a few thousandths faster than Robbie Cooper. Troy Robinson was right behind with the third quickest time, followed by Alan McCafferty and Lee Collins filling the top 5 spots. After the top qualifiers cleared tech inspection, Jefferson pulled a 5 in the inversion draw.
The field rolled onto the tough 3/8 mile speedway for the feature with Lee Collins on the pole, and Alan McCafferty on the outside. The second row was filled by Troy Robinson and Cooper, followed by Jefferson, John Sarppraicone Jr, Michael Stalnaker, David Baxley, Kevyn Terry and Curtis Neumann completing the top ten.
On the start of the race, McCafferty powered to the lead followed by Cooper and Collins. As lap 2 began, Cooper drove under McCafferty entering turn 1 to take the lead, while Collins, Jefferson and Robinson all were battling for position.
Jefferson was able to drive by Collins for third position, and go to work trying to pass McCafferty for second. Jefferson made the pass for second spot on lap 8, and set his sights on the Leader. The front 2, Cooper and Jefferson, were starting to open a good margin on the battle for third, which was still hotly contested.
McCafferty, fighting to stay in third was using every inch of track available to him, right on the ragged edge for the entire race. McCafferty brushed the wall exiting turn 4, and later in the race, had his transmission jumping out of gear, forcing him to hold the car in gear with one hand , while fighting to hold onto the 3rd spot.
Meanwhile, Cooper and Jefferson were having a great battle for the lead.
Both cars were equally fast, with Cooper trying to make no mistakes, and Jefferson trying to pressure the leader into an error. The race was only slowed for a couple of minor spins, and overall maintained a very fast pace. In the last five laps, Jefferson mounted one more charge at the leader, but Cooper maintained a cool head and didn’t make any slips to allow Jefferson to take the lead. Cooper took the hard fought win, and in victory lane was congradulated by Jefferson.
During the post race interview, Cooper commented that when he saw Jefferson take over second, “ I gave another tug on the seatbelts, because I knew this was gonna be a tough battle. I really like racing with him (Jefferson) , He races you as hard as anyone, but he’ll race you clean. It was great”
The top finishers cleared tech, and the results were declared official.
Final Results – GULFCOAST Modifieds – Ocala Speedway
