Patrick Thomas Takes Southern Sportsman Win At Orlando
Rick Warren
Friday night at Orlando Speedworld. Southern Sportsman Series on hand. 50 lap feature. A sure recipe for a great night of racing, and the fans were not disappointed. With 19 cars signed in to compete for the win, everyone knew that the race would be worth the wait.
In Qualifying, Patrick Thomas drove the Specialty Construction entry to a lap of 15.250 seconds to grab the fast time award. Right behind was Wayne Morris in the E-Medical ID entry, with a lap of 15.270 seconds. After tech inspection, Thomas pulled a 0 for the inversion, starting the field heads up.
The cars rolled onto the track for the 50 lap feature with Thomas and Morris on the front row, while Steve Gainey and Aaron Williamson filled the second row. Following was Richard Elkins Jr, Joey Catarelli, Mark Peterson, Ron Heard Jr, Mike Soukup, and Chad Pierce holding the top ten positions.
As the field came to green Flagman Derek Molloy waved off the start as some of the drivers were just a little too anxious to get started. The next attempt at a start was a good one, with Thomas and Morris racing into turn 1 side by side with Thomas coming out of the turn with the lead followed by Morris and Gainey. The first Caution came on lap 2 for the car of Aaron Williamson with a flat tire. The rest of the field behind Williamson got stacked up trying to avoid the 13 car resulting in several cars receiving damage. The race was lined up for the double file restart with Thomas out front followed by Morris, Gainey, Elkins and Peterson in the top 5.
The race restarted with Thomas out front while Gainey and Morris were having a heated battle for 2nd position. As the battle for second heated up the two cars got together entering turn 1 resulting in Gainey slamming the wall very hard with both ends of the racecar. Gainey was fortunately uninjured in the incident. Gainey showed his displeasure with Morris and left the track. The decision was made by Series officials to not allow Morris to continue in the race.
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The field was once again set for the restart with Thomas out front followed by Peterson, Elkins, Catarelli, and Soukup in the top 5 spots. Thomas once again powered to the lead and began to open a gap between first and second place. The battle for second continued to be intense, but with different players. On the restart Elkins had problems with his transmission losing high gear and dropping back in the field. While Thomas continued to cruise out front, Catarelli was working hard to take over the second spot from Peterson. Catarelli finally got a run on Peterson and the two cars raced side by side for the position with Bart Weatherford joining the fray and looking for either driver to make a mistake.
Catarelli finally made the pass and Weatherford followed thru the opening to grab third. Mike Soukup was having a great run staying in the top 5 and looking to gain positions while Aaron Williamson was coming thru the field on a big charge toward the front. Chad Pierce, making his first start with the series, was having a good run gaining positions and putting on a good show. Pierce managed to slip by Soukup for 5th spot when Soukup appeared to punt the car of Pierce exiting turn 4 bringing out the caution.In a great show of Sportsmanship Pierce stopped on the track and told track officials that the spin was not Soukup’s fault. Pierce explained that his transmission jumped out of gear and suddenly slowed leaving no place for Soukup to go. Pierce was relegated to the end of the lead lap for the restart, while Soukup retained his position.
Thomas Continued to hold the lead and remained unchallenged for the rest of the race. The battle for the rest of the field continued to be highly competitive and entertaining. Thomas went on to claim the victory while Catarelli finished a strong second with Weatherford having his best run of the year, taking third.
