Bradenton, Fl. The “Rocketman” Wayne Jefferson opened the night’s racing action by taking fast time for the 75-lap “Q-Auto and Injury” Open Wheel Modified Feature. Right on his heels was the REHAB Racing machine of John Sarppraicone Jr. Rounding out the top five was Sean McLaughlin, Timmy Moore and point’s leader Mark Nelson.
The field rolled out onto the speedway and as track announcer Tony Modica was getting to roll the die for the inversion of the field there was a meeting of the minds. Jefferson, Junior and John Sarppraicone the track owner were huddled together and when they separated John grabbed the mic and asked the crowd “Should we invert the whole field?” The crowd resounded with a loud cheer and thus the pack was inverted from front to rear!
Jefferson and Sarppraicone were told that if either driver could win the race an extra $500 would be waiting at the payoff window making it a $2,000 payoff for the duo.
As the field was getting lined up for the feature Jefferson had to dive into the pits with a flat right front tire. The “Rocketman” made it back onto the speedway but not with four new tires like everyone else but a well used tire.
Chris Escott was on hand with his “Big Motor” and he jumped out to the lead and began to pull away from the rest of the field. Jefferson and Sarppraicone had their handsful battling hard from the back trying make their way to the front.
It was Jefferson who made it who broke out from the pack and started tracking down Escott who had built up a full straightaway lead. Lap after lap he cut into the lead until he finally was able to take over the top spot.
Then it was Sarppraicone’s turn as he made his way around Escott and has his sights set on Jefferson. On the last lap he caught the leader coming out turn four but Jefferson was barely able to hold him off for the win and the $2,000 prize money.
“We really had a strong car but if Johnny had a couple more laps he probably would have gotten me” said a wore out Jefferson in the winners circle. Sarppraicone had to settle for second, third went to Chris Escott with the Big Motor. Timmy Moore came back to take fourth and fifth was Sean McLaughlin.
BOMBERS - BOMB 20L Pos Driver Car # 1 SCOTT DAWLEY 74 2 JEROME WATLAND 31 3 MICHAEL CROOKS 33 4 JOHN STEWART 02 5 STEVE ELDER 42 6 LOU RUSSELL 3 7 PETE BARR 81 8 RICK GERMONY 8 9 JEFF TAYLOR 70 10 SHANE YODER 1Y 11 MARK FIELDS 77 12 SAMMY COGHILL 22 13 MARK BOXELL 88 14 DONNIE BATHJE 36
MAGIC 4S - MAGIC FOURS Pos Driver Car # 1 CHELSEA LAJOIE 3 2 DYLAN BIGLEY 28 3 TYLER ANDRIES 26 4 JESSICA OSTROVSKIS 91 5 ALEX PATTEN 13 6 ALBERT NAIL 00 7 AUSTIN CRAIG 10 8 AUSTIN CAVEY 20 9 COREY BIGLEY 25 10 BILL LEAKE 03 11 BRITTANY BARR 81 12 ANDREW PRATT 31
MODIFIED MINIS - MM 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 GLENN KELLEY 16 2 MASON LOVE 70X 3 MATTHEW PERKINS 99 4 MITCHELL WEBB 6 5 JOE GAGEN 1 6 CHRIS ZIMMERMAN 29 7 ANDY WHITTED 9 8 RICK PARTRIDGE 0 9 MIKE BIRK JR 10 10 MIKE KERRIVAN 45
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED - OWM 75L Pos Driver Car # 1 WAYNE JEFFERSON-Maacs 61 2 JOHN SARPPRAICONE JR 88 3 CHRIS ESCOTT 8 4 TIMMY MOORE 57 5 SEAN MCLAUGHLIN 99 6 MARK NELSON 11 7 BRUCE RIGGIO 75 8 BRYAN ROGERS 77 9 JOHN SHIELDS 37 10 TATE PIERCE 81 11 RALPH BOWMAN 2 12 BILLY MOWERY 55 13 RICHARD SHEPHERD 30
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED - QUALIFYING Pos Driver Car # 1 WAYNE JEFFERSON-Maacs 61 2 JOHN SARPPRAICONE JR 88 3 SEAN MCLAUGHLIN 99 4 TIMMY MOORE 57 5 MARK NELSON 11 6 TATE PIERCE 81 7 BILLY MOWERY 55 8 JOHN SHIELDS 37 9 CHRIS ESCOTT 8 10 RALPH BOWMAN 2 11 BRUCE RIGGIO 75 12 BRYAN ROGERS 77 13 RICHARD SHEPHERD 30
PURE STOCKS - PS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 ROBERT CRISP 38 2 RANDY JOHNSON 73 3 GEORGE BARTIMAC 21X 4 DARRIN ELLIS 71 5 ALLEN BRAGG 89 6 JOHN BROWN 6 7 TROY THIEM 18 8 DAVID DAVIS 6X 9 BLAIR PONTIOUS 39 10 TROY MEREDITH 75 11 ANTHONY EASTON 90 12 JAMES CRAWFORD JR 34
SCHOOL BUS FIGURE 8 - SB FIGURE 8 Pos Driver Car # 1 ERNEST HELFRICK 4 2 JAMES VOLK 76 3 BRIAN CONRAD 4Q 4 MARK JACKSON 25 5 GREGORY ROBERTS 1UP 6 BRIAN HAYN 00 7 ROBERT COON 8UP 8 WILLIAM SLACK 57 9 WAYNE CALKINS 14 10 MICHAEL GAMACHE 05 11 RAYMOND HOLTORF 01 12 TIMOTHY GILBERT 33 13 WILLIAM CARLBERT JR 7
