Robbie Cooper tops Extreme Modified at Orlando SpeedWorld
by Dave Westerman
Great weather greeted fans Friday night at Orlando Speedworld and although the featured attraction, the FASCAR Extreme Modifieds, were "extremely" short on cars, they weren't short on action.
In qualifying, Clermont's Alan McCafferty in his Central Florida Machine and Speed "Silver Bullet" topped the small field of six cars with a lap of fourteen seconds, flat. Jerry "The Hammer" Symons was second quick at 14.195 and Robbie Cooper tripped the clocks at 14.262 for third quick time.
The field started straight up from time trials but it didn't take long for trouble to rear its ugly head as outside pole sitter Symons went for the lead right at the drop of the green. Coming off turn two, Symons and McCafferty got together. Symons tried to save his car but ended up going head on into the back stretch wall. Symons was not hurt but his machine was a mess while McCafferty also had to go pit side for repairs. McCafferty's trip to the pits saw him have to start the race from the back of the now five car field and his racer was now nowhere near up to full speed.
Robbie Cooper took off on the restart and by mid-race he had already lapped the fifth place car of Woodley. Two laps later he put McCafferty a lap down. From that point, Cooper cruised to the win finishing a full straightaway ahead of second place Lee Collins. Jason Garver was third followed by McCafferty, Woodley and Symons.
Quick Kids qualifying saw first time driver T.J. Duke set the quick lap of 15.419 seconds but it was Randy Anderson on the pole for the 25 lap feature but he was sent to the back of the starting line-up after two false starts. That moved Tyler Laing up to the pole for the third attempt at starting the race.
Laing grabbed the early lead only to see caution displayed on lap three as Anderson slowed on the back stretch. As Anderson took his truck to the infield, the left front wheel and tire separated from his racer.
Duke kept putting the pressure on Laing, finally getting by on lap eleven. Almost as soon as he'd been passed, Laing's truck shut off on him and he went to the pits. On the restart, Harley Zimmerman spun to keep the yellow flag out.
That would be the last slow down and the last time anyone would get close to Duke as the young man who just celebrated his 14th birthday, took the win in his very first Speedworld race. Austin Stamper crossed the line second trailed by Tim Sozio (also in his first race), Zimmerman, Laing, Anderson and Donnie Gray, Jr.
Bob Kelchner led the first two laps of the Mini Stock feature until his car lost power in turn one. That caused some major confusion with R.J. Arnone and David Russell tangling off turn two with Russell hard in the wall. Russell was done for the night while Arnone pitted for repair and returned.
That put Pedie Allison out front and he never looked back as he took yet another 2007 win. Richie Laszlo was second with Bob Miller being awarded third after being spun on the final turn. John Cook, Rex Christiensen, Emily Cottrell, Arnone, Kelchner and Russell rounded out the finishers. Allison also won the heat race.
A good field of Super Stocks saw wild action on the opening lap as several cars got together going into turn three with Denny Johns taking a hard shot into the concrete - hard enough to break the rear axle on his car.
Ray Mullis grabbed the point from his outside front row spot and started setting a blistering pace before Jeff Parrish looped his mount on the backstretch during lap four. Mullis continued to lead following the restart but James Frisbie was a man on a mission as he took the top spot on lap six bringing Lee Wagner with him. They ran one-two until Bob Starr spun in turn four on lap 13 to set up a green-white-checker finish.
Frisbie held on for the win over Wagner, whose car was trailing smoke much of the race. Roger Benton made a late race pass to claim third over Darren Gould and Nathan Haystead. Rounding out the top ten were Bobby Simcox, Mullis, Dennis Snyder, Vince Keeler, Jr. and Parrish. Frisbie and Starr won the heats.
Sportsman action saw Derrick Wood the early leader before Dale Clouser spun to bring out the yellow on lap four. One lap after the green was back out, Timmy Todd, Jr. swept into the lead only to see caution out again on lap nine four a tangle involving Clouser, Barbara Pierce, Whitney Poole and Pete Starr.
On the next restart, Brett Woodley attempted a pass on Wood and the two tangled going into turn one with Wood earning a rear of the field restart. Todd continued to set the pace but not for long as the yellow flag was back out as Clouser spun again going into turn one. The final four laps were run under green as Todd swept to yet another win while Reynolds had yet another second place finish. A late charge netted Andy Nicholls a third place finish over Woodley and Henry Shepherd. Barbara Pierce, Wood, Poole, Clouser and Starr completed the top ten. Sportsman heats went to Todd and Reynolds.
Rob Reynolds stormed out to a big lead in the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stock feature but saw has lead cut to nothing by a caution on lap nine for a spin by Billy Rouse. Reynolds managed to stay out front the remainder of the distance to claim his first win in his new Ford Probe. It was actually a "Probe parade" as the similar machines of Todd McCreary and David Leeper II were second and third. Neil Kirby was fourth and Brent Bruner fifth with the remainder of the top ten Shane Sutorus, Rouse, Michael Smith, Daniel Steele and Salley Lloyd. Heat wins were taken by Reynolds and Rouse.
The Palm Tree Computer Systems/BCS Welding/Orlando Graphix Junior Stocks had enough cars to split the age groups into two separate feature races. Jeff Cuddy drove his new Billy Cuddy Painting Mustang to the win in the 8-11 year old division taking the measure of Wes Railing, Jr. and Carl Kwasny, Jr.
In the 12-15 year old feature it was Dylan Curtis leading all the way to claim the win over Thomas Warnick, Joseph Daniel, Derek Binda, Jason Rosarius and Zachary Curtis.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD SEPTEMBER 28, 2007
EXTREME MODIFIED
1. #98 Robbie Cooper 2. #89 Lee Collins 3. #27 Jason Garver 4. #32 Alan McClelland 5. #98 Bobby Joe Woodley 6. #66 Jerry Symons
QUICK KIDS
1. #28 T.J. Duke 2. #26 Austin Stamper 3. #16 Tim Sozio 4. #21 Harley Zimmerman 5. #39 Tyler Laing 6. #84 Randy Anderson 7. #14 Donnie Gray, Jr.
Jr. Stocks 8-11
1 - 64 Jeff Cuddy 2 - 88 Carl Kwasny 3 - 51 Wes Railing
Jr. Stocks 12-15
1 - 6 Dylan Curtis 2 - 9 Thomas Warnick 3 - 24 Joseph Daniel 4 - 27 Derek Binda 5 - 18 Jason Rosarius 6 - 63 Zachary Curtis
Strictly Stock
1 - A1 Rob Reynolds 2 - 77 Todd McCreary 3 - 8N Neal Kirby 4 - 20 Brent Bruner 5 - D2 David Leeper II 6 - 3-15 Shane Sutorus 7 - 18 Billy Rouse 8 - 86M Michael Smith 9 - 20XX Daniel Steele 10 - 5 Dally Lloyd 11 - 7 Enrique Romero 12 - 76 Gary Thomas DNS 13 - 89 William Hindman DNS More Results
Mini Stock
1 - 92 Pedie Allison 2 - 07 Dick Laszlo 3 - 02 Bob Miller 4 - 24 John Cook 5 - V3 Rex Christensen 6 - 19 Emily Cottrell 7 - 30 R.J. Arnone 8 - 09 Bob Kelchner 9 - 31 David Russell
Super Stock
1 - 3X James Frisbie 2 - 74 Lee Wagner 3 - 14 Roger Benton 4 - 16 Darren Gould 5 - 72 Nathan Haystead 6 - 92 Bobby Simcox 7 - 316 Ray Mullis 8 - 11S Dennis Snyder 9 - 32 Vince Keeler, Jr. 10 - 05 Jeff Parrish 11 - 40 Bob Starr 12 - 32X Paul Margolio 13 - 7I Scott Edwards 14 - 00 John Hodge 15 - 29 Alaine Grogan 16 - 55 Denny Johns 17 - 4 John Guinn
Sportsman
1 - 25 Timmy Todd Jr. 2 - 20 Justin Reynolds 3 - 66 Andy Nicholls 4 - 99 Brett Woodley 5 - 11 Henry Shepherd 6 - 57 Barbara Pierce 7 - 33 Derrick Wood 8 - 00 Whitney Poole 9 - 30 Dale Clouser 10 - 95 Pete Starr 11 - 31 John Tenney 13 - 49 Jason Foster DNS 14 - 2 Derrick Heath DNS
