Kevin Henry wins Advance Auto Parts Pro Truck 50 at SpeedWorld
by Dave Westerman
Everyone had to wait out an afternoon rain shower then watched as lightning lit up the skies to the West during most of the racing program, but things stayed dry and all events were completed Friday night including 50 laps of racing for the Advance Auto Parts Pro Trucks at Orlando Speedworld.
Twenty trucks signed in for action, but Dalton Zehr encountered problems with his engine during hot laps and was unable to compete. At the conclusion of time trials, young Austin Howell was the quickest at 15.330 seconds ahead of Travis Hanson, Keith Lilley, Jessica Murphy and Kevin Henry.
Howell's truck was fast but his pill draw wasn't quite as good as the top nine machines were inverted for the start. That number quickly became eight as expected pole sitter Michael Pilla's team found his engine's oil pressure to be too low after qualifying. With no time to make repairs, Pilla borrowed the Quick Kid truck of Stephen Nasse and started scratch on the field.
Barry Bartlett found himself on the pole and the recent Quick Kid graduate made quick work of the field early on as he set the pace before the first caution flew on lap seven for Jennifer Crossman's turn four spin.
Kevin Henry was already on the move as he passed veteran Scott Reeves for second on lap ten and began to close in on Bartlett. Two laps later, Jessica Murphy also got by Reeves to take third spot bringing Keith Lilley with her.
The high-flying trio quickly reeled in Bartlett with Henry making the pass for the lead on lap 17 with Murphy and Lilley following suit dropping Bartlett back to fourth. Things pretty much settled down for awhile as Henry led Murphy by several truck lengths before the second caution flew on lap 28 for Jessica Green's spin on the back stretch.
Just one lap could be completed before Green and T.J. Chambers tangled in turn four to bring out caution number three. Two attempts at restarting the event would prove fruitless as first Logan Bordeau's truck slowed to a stop on the back stretch, then on the ensuing attempt, Crossman spun her truck again in turn two.
The field got back to green flag racing for just two more laps before Murphy's truck blew its engine coming down the front stretch. Murphy then spun in her own oil going into turn one but managed to keep off the wall while the rest of the field got slowed down in time to prevent a major altercation.
Lilley now was poised to take his shot a Henry, but the leader was dialed in to perfection. A late caution for debris on lap 40 gave the field one last shot at him but Henry was easily up to the task and sailed to his first Advance Auto Parts Pro Truck win.
Late charges netted Travis Hanson and Austin Howell second and third spots while Lilley held on for fourth ahead of Reeves. Chad Pierce did a great job of hanging on to sixth as his truck broke a sway bar on the last lap giving him a handful to the checker. Bartlett was seventh with Blake Koch eighth.
Pilla was impressive taking his borrowed truck from 19th to ninth while Bill Hoffman completed the top ten. Rounding out the finishing field were Jared Cawley, Clinton Clark, Chambers, Green, Bordeau, Murphy, Mike Marcellino, Crossman and Brad Stephens.
The Quick Kids event was a wild affair which was cut from 25 laps to just ten after several caution flags and quite a bit of bent machinery despite the fact that only eight trucks started after Randy Anderson suffered problems during practice laps.
A total of four cautions flew during the first five laps causing track officials to trim the number of laps since there was plenty of thunder and lightning (of the weather variety) just west of the speedway. The worst incident came when Thomas Warnick pounded the back stretch wall in his Hooter Dodge. Despite severe damage to his truck, Warnick scrambled out unhurt.
After Chase Hoffman led the opening stanza, it was all Maxx Bennett from there as the young Bandolero grad from Zephyrhills sped off with the win and had no problems in tech this time.
Tyler Laing crossed the line second ahead of Austin Stamper Hoffman, Stephen Nasse, Colby Clements, Warnick and Harley Zimmerman.
The five regular weekly FASCAR divisions did something that hasn't been seen in quite awhile here - all five features were run green to checker without a caution flag!
Brett Woodley made an awesome three-wide pass to take the lead on the second lap, then sped off to his second Sportsman feature victory in three weeks.
Woodley, who is now the point leader in the class, out ran Andy Nicholls to the checker trailed by heat winner Justin Reynolds, Derrick Wood, Timmy Todd, Jr., Pete Starr, Whitney Poole, Dale Clouser and John Tenney.
After breaking a valve spring the week before, Pedie Allison took no prisoners as he celebrated his upcoming birthday with yet another win in the Mini Stocks. Allison's close points battle with good friend R.J. Arnone continued as Arnone finished second trailed by the third member of the "Cocoa Connection," Bob Kelchner. Matthew Perkins was fourth followed by Richie Laszlo, Chase Goodson, John Cook and Emily Cottrell. Allison also won the heat.
The Super Stocks saw a great pair of heat races with Lee Wagner and Ron Mccreary taking wins on the final turn of the final lap of each six lap preliminary. Those two would battle for the feature win as well.
Bob Starr led the first seven circuits before Wagner got the top spot. McCreary quickly reeled him in but could not make the pass as the Palm Bay driver scored his fourth win of the year. McCreary, who was doing a little "R&D" driving for Billy Cuddy's race team, took the runner-up spot ahead of James Frisbie, Roger Benton and John Hodge. Rounding out the top ten were Starr, Jeff Parrish, Nathan Haystead, Alaine Grogan and Dennis Snyder.
Jim Erb turned the trick again driving his Acura to the win in the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stocks. Early leader David Leeper II came home second followed by Gary Thomas, Neal Kirby and Todd McCreary. The remainder of the top ten were Brent Bruner, Rob Reynolds, Glen Rhodes, Shane Sutorus and Richard Barrenechea. Heat race wins went to Barenechea and Thomas.
Jason Rosarius was back in victory lane at the end of the Palm Tree Computer/BCS Welding/Orlando Graphix Junior Stock feature. Rosarius took the win over Joseph Daniel, Derek Binda and Wes Railing, Jr. Rosarius also won the heat race.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD SEPTEMBER 14, 2007
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS PRO TRUCK 50
1. #99 Kevin Henry 2. #141 Travis Hanson 3. #96 Austin Howell 4. #87 Keith Lilly 5. #21 Scott Reeves 6. #30 Chad Pierce 7. #71 Barry Bartlett 8. #33 Blake Koch 9. #69 Michael Pilla 10. #7T Bill Hoffman 11. #31 Jared Cawley 12. #97 Clinton Clark 13. #57 T.J. Chambers 14. #40 Jessica Green 15. #33b Logan Bordeau 16. #62 Jessica Murphy 17. #14 Mike Marcellino 18. #54 Jennifer Crossman 19. #3 Brad Stephens 20. #119 Dalton Zehr DNS
QUICK KIDS 25
1. #1X Maxx Bennett 2. #39 Tyler Laing 3. #36 Austin Stamper 4. #7T Chase Hoffman 5. #69 Stephen Nassee 6. #17 Colby Clements 7. #9 Thomas Warnet 8. #21 Harley Zimmerman 9. #84 Randy Anderson DNS
Jr. Stocks 12-15
1 - 18 Jason Rosarius 2 - 24 Joseph Daniel 3 - 27 Derek Binda
Strictly Stock
1 - 1 Jim Erb 2 - D2 David Leeper II 3 - 76 Gary Thomas 4 - 8 Neal Kirby 5 - 77 Todd Mccreary 6 - 20 Brent Bruner 7 - A1 Rob Reynolds 8 - 3-15 Shane Sutorus 9 - 63 Glenn Rhodes 10 - 20X Richard Barraechea 11 - 12 Gomez Alvarez 12 - 22 Miguel Barrenechea 13 - 36 Ian Rhodes 14 - 26 Michaell Todd 15 - 5 Dally Lloyd 16 - 27 Joey White 17 - 7 Enrique Romero 18 - 24 Brenda Taylor DNS 19 - 66 Tom Stewart DNS
