Once again the rains stayed away for a second consecutive Friday at Orlando Speedworld as the 2007 PBG Florida Legends Car and Bandolero Tour joined the regular FASCAR classes who were running for double points.
A big field of 28 PBG Legends signed in including drivers from North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Oregon, but it would be local driver Brandon Thomson of St. Cloud setting the pace in time trials with a lap of 15.833 seconds. John Stancil of Ayden, NC was second quick at 15.868 followed by Tour point leader Josh Williams of Port Charlotte and Mooresville, NC's Nick Pistone. Defending PBG Tour champion Kory Abbott of Apopka was fifth quick.
Abbott had a front row starting spot for the start of the 25 lap feature and he made the most of it grabbing the early advantage. Shaughn McCormick looped his car in turn one and was tagged by Eric Eichelberger. The drivers were able to get their machines off the track and the track stayed green until Abbott and Stancil tangled going into turn three while battling for the lead in heavy lapped traffic.
Track officials ruled that the lapped machines were running on the track where they were supposed to be and had nothing to do with the incident. That ruling sent both Abbott and Stancil to the back of the field for the restart and handed the lead over to Pistone.
Caution was out once again for Gerald Campbell's spin on lap eight and once the green flag came out, Thomson looked like he'd been shot out of cannon as he quickly reeled in and passed Pistone for the lead only to see the caution fly once again on lap 12 as rookie driver Don Ketterman hit the turn four wall. Ketterman was OK but his car was done for the night.
Josh Williams was in a tight battle with several other drivers for the third spot when he slowed suddenly on lap 18 going down the front stretch. By the time Williams car reached turn one it had exploded in flames, but Josh was able to exit the car in OK shape and the fire went out by itself before the rescue crews arrived at the scene.
Williams was done for the evening and scored 24th in the final rundown making it a tough night for the young man who came into the race as the point leader.
Two laps were completed after the restart before Randy Garven spun and was hit by Stancil forcing both out of the race. All eyes were beginning to focus on Abbott who had come all the way back up to sixth with 15 laps to still be run.
Following the restart, Thomson's car seemed to loosen up and Pistone passed for the top spot on lap 21 as Abbott continued his charge taking third from his teammate Chelsea Schillig on lap 23. Five laps later, Abbott sped by Thomson for second and tried to close on Pistone but the NC hot shoe, who is known more nowadays for building Legends Cars rather than racing them, held on to take the win by three car lengths. Thomson took third spot with Schillig fourth and Patrick Conrad, driving Josh Williams' team car, came home fifth. Making his first ever start at Speedworld, Jason Richardson of Grapevine, TX was sixth followed by Zach Zimmerly who was down all the way from Portland, OR. Tony Sansom drove a steady race to claim eighth with Darin Coker ninth and Mike Verhaagh the top finishing Masters Division driver taking the tenth spot.
Rounding out the finishing field were Gerald White, Jr., Alex Kempf, James Rodriguez, Bryan Beland, Mike Fazio, Gary Verdier, Rick Wetmore, Garven, Stancil, Campbell, R.S. Senter, Jimmy Norman, Bob Wilson, Josh Williams, Ketterman, McCormick and Eichelberger. Doug Hall was not able to start the feature.
In PBG Tour Bandolero action, the Bandits feature saw a crazy finish. Critter Saile had led all the way but was spun into the infield by a lapped car with two laps to go. Critter was placed back in the lead but his tires were wet and dirty and he couldn't get the handle on his machine as Texas driver Bailey Currey took an apparent win. However Currey was penalized two spots for jumping the restart handing the win to NC driver Dillon Bassett.
Daniel Conlin was scored second, the best finish of his young career, with Currey third, Saile fourth and Shawn Hooven fifth.
Kenzie Ruston was another driver making a long trek to Speedworld, all the way from Oklahoma, and appeared to have won the Bandolero Young Guns feature but her win was disallowed in tech as Texas driver Bryce Walker was credited with the win ahead of Ronnie Bassett, Jr., Mark Hooven, Donovan Ponder and Gerald Campbell.
After a fifth place finish in the PBG Legends race, Patrick Conrad had a much easier time in the Super Late Model feature taking the lead from David Pollen, Jr. on lap seven and speeding away to his third win of the year.
Pollen held on for second over a fast-closing Jared Allison while Joe Piazza and Gary Terry had great runs to round out the top five.
Multi-time Motocross champion Ricky Carmichael made his first-ever start at Speedworld and finished sixth with Blake Lehr, Ronnie Roach, Rusty Ebersole, Donny Williams, Jason Vail and Chris Staggs completed the finishers.
James Frisbie found his way back into victory lane in a wild Super Stock feature. Ray Mullis led the first two laps before Frisbie took over riding the rim to the lead. Roger Benton and Lee Wagner tangled while battling for second on lap eight allowing Jason Pick to close on Frisbie. Pick actually took the lead at one point but spun coming off turn four allowing Frisbie a clear shot at the win. Sean Bass, wheeling the Carr Connection machine for the first time, made a late charge to finish second followed by Barry Parks, Bobby Simcox and Benton.
After battling a fuel leak early on, Bobby Riley drove back to sixth with Wagner, Mullis, John Bennett (subbing for Nathan Haystead) and Dennis Snyder rounding out the top ten. Completing the finishers were Pick, Alane Grogan, Scott Edwards, Billy Belflower, Roger Blevins and Kenny Kelley.
Shain Held and Gary Fountain, Sr. tangled while battling for the lead in the Modified feature on the second lap sending both to the rear for the restart.
That handed the lead over to Bobby Joe Woodley and the young driver made it look easy from there as he dominated the rest of the 20 lap event for his first career win in the Modifieds. David Debelius made his first start of the year a good one as he grabbed the second spot while Mark Emberson was third with Fountain and Held recovering for fourth and fifth ahead of Randy Froelich and Dick Laszlo.
Timmy Todd, Jr. added to his point lead as he drove away to an easy win in the Sportsman feature. Todd grabbed the lead from Matt Towell and never looked back as Justin Reynolds stayed close but could never mount a challenge over the late laps. Reynolds took the second spot ahead of Brett Woodley and Chad Pierce who was doing a guest stint in mom Barbrara's car trying to get the handling figure out. Towell faded to fifth at the finish trailed by Andy Nicholls, Mike Santana, Derrick Wood, Ted Head, Whitney Poole and Jessie Cuddy.
Things stayed the same in the Mini Stock class as Pedie Allison took yet another win, his tenth of the year. Allison's shadow is usually fellow Cocoa resident R.J. Arnone and Arnone did cross the line in second but he was set back two spots for passing on a restart. An upset Arnone said he had to pass the car or run over him instead. When all was said and done, Richie Laszlo was credited with second followed by Bob Kelchner, Arnone, David Russell, Heather Suggs and John Cook.
Jim Erb was also penalized for jumping a restart in the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stocks but a late race caution flag allowed Erb to take the penalty before the next green flag. Erb bounced back to claim the win over E&H Car Crushing teammate William Hindman. Todd McCreary charged from the rear of the starting line-up to claim third over David Leeper II and Jason Kies.
Completing the top ten were Brent Bruner, Rob Reynolds, Steve Anderson, Neal Kirby and Tom Stewart.
Jason Rosarious was the Junior Stock winner over Dylan Curtis and Wes Railing, Jr.
For the second week in a row, Saturday's racing action was rained out.
Jr. Stocks 8-11 -
1 - 51 Wes Railing DQ'D
Jr. Stocks
1 - 18 Jason Rosarius 2 - 6 Dylan Curtis
Strictly Stock
1 - 82 Jim Erb 2 - 2 William Hindman 3 - 77 Todd Mccreary 4 - D2 David Leeper Ii 5 - 28X Jason Kies 6 - 20 Brent Bruner 7 - A1 Rob Reynolds 8 - 27 Steve Anderson 9 - 8N Neal Kirby 10 - 66 Tom Stewart 11 - 55 Denny Johns 12 - 80 Steven Streight 13 - 22 Miguel Barrenechea 14 - 7 Jimmy Scripter 15 - 20X Richard Barraechea 16 - 63 Glenn Rhodes 17 - 24 Brenda Taylor 18 - 76 Gary Thomas 19 - 145 Chad Knoell
Mini Stock
1 - 92 Pedie Allison 2 - 07XX Richie Laszlo Jr. 3 - 09 Bob Kelchner 4 - 30 R.j. Arnone 5 - 31 David Russell 6 - 24 John Cook 7 - 06 Heather Suggs More Results
Super Stock
1 - 3X James Frisbie 2 - 25C Sean Bass 3 - 27 Barry Parks 4 - 92 Bobby Simcox 5 - 14 Roger Benton 6 - 52 Bobby Riley 7 - 74 Lee Wagner 8 - 316 Ray Mullis 9 - 72 John Bennett 10 - 11S Dennis Snyder 11 - 44 Jason Pick 12 - 29 Alaine Grogan 13 - 7I Scot Edwards 14 - 15 Billy Bellflower 15 - 41 Roger Blevins 16 - 23 Kenny Kelley 17 - 845 Michael Matarazzo DNS
Sportsman
1 - 25 Timmy Todd Jr. 2 - 20 Justin Reynolds 3 - 99 Brett Woodley 4 - 57 Chad Pierce 5 - 14 Matt Towell 6 - 66 Andrew Nicholls 7 - 151 Mike Santana 8 - 33 Derrick Wood 9 - 92 Ted Head 10 - 64 Jessie Cuddy 11 - 00 Whitney Poole
Super Late
1 - 2 Patrick Conrad 2 - 88 David Pollen Jr. 3 - 18 Jared Allison 4 - 15 Joe Piazza 5 - 3X Gary Terry 6 - 4C Ricky Carmichael 7 - 4X Blake Lehr 8 - 14 Ronnie Roach 9 - 16 Rusty Ebersole 10 - 111 Donny Williams 11 - 407 Jason Vail 12 - 56 Chris Staggs 13 - 26 Derek Slade DNS
Modified
1 - 98X Bobby Joe Woodley 2 - 38 David Debelius 3 - 30 Mark Emberson 4 - 33 Gary Fountain Sr 5 - 55 Shain Held 6 - 8 Randy Froehlich 7 - 07M Dick Laszlo
1 680 Bryce Walker 2 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr 3 17 Mark Hooven 4 8 Donovan Ponder 5 6 Gerald Campbell 6 8X Kenzie Ruston DQ PGB Legend Tour
1 1 Nick Pistone 2 5 Kory Abbott 3 54 Brandon Thomson 4 75 Chelsea Schillig 5 16 Patrick Conrad 6 158 Jason Richardson 7 94 Zach Zimmerly 8 56 Tony Samsom 9 00 Darin Coker 10 7 Mike Verhaagh 11 38w Gerald White Jr 12 99 Alex Kempf 13 19 James Rodriquez 14 6A Bryan Beland 15 38 Mike Fazio 16 44 Gary Vierder 17 06 Rick Whetmore 18 69 Randy Garvin 19 20 John Stancill 20 39 Gerald Campbell 21 01 RS Senter 22 2 Jimmy Norman 23 27w Bob Wilson 24 6 Josh Williams 25 22 Don Kettermen 26 34 Shaughn McCormick 27 47 Eric Eichelberger 28 55 Doug Hall DNS
