WACKY LEGENDS CAR FEATURE GOES TO VERDIER AT SPEEDWORLD WINTER HEAT
by Dave Westerman
Had the Winter Heat racing activity Saturday at Orlando Speedworld been held at night, there probably would have been a full moon out. But it was a comfortable partly cloudy afternoon that greeted the fans and they were treated to some rather crazy racing, especially in the RaceCeiver Legend Cars. The unusual twists and turns began in the Legend Car Charger feature. Texan Bryce Walker, winner of the first two Winter Heat Charger races had already won the heat and looked to be making it three wins in a row until his engine went sour with five laps to go and he pulled off the track. Rookie Rusty Chancey, who has plenty of experience racing Champ Karts at Speedworld, looked to have his new car finally dialed in as he was able to stay with Walker, just unable to make a pass for the lead. When Walker dropped out, Chancey took full advantage and sped to his first-ever Legend Car win. Mason Ketterman was running second but spun out in turn four on the final lap allowing Dalton Bergman to take the runner-up spot, his best career finish since moving up from Quarter Midget racing. Dallas Ingram was third with Ketterman recovering for fourth with Roger Englund fifth. Two heats were needed to set the field for the 25 lap RaceCeiver Legend feature with those wins going to Alex Kempf and Shaughn McCormick. Rick Wetmore led the opening lap of the main event before McCormick slipped by into the lead. Lap three saw two cars hard into the turn one wall as something seemed to break on both the cars of Jimmy Rodriguez and Dave Gleason at virtually the same time. Both cars hit the wall a ton in different spots. Gleason emerged from his car almost immediately while Rodriguez climbed out a few minutes later, sore, but otherwise unhurt. Nearly the same thing had happened to Rodriguez in practice laps just before the PRI show in December. As the race resumed, McCormick now had a mirror full of Jimmy Norman. Norman slipped by for the lead on lap eight but McCormick would not go away as he continued to challenge finally using a little "bump n' run" to get by into the lead on the next to last lap only to see the caution fly for Gary Verdier's turn four spin. The caution negated McCormick's pass and would have put Norman back out front. However Norman, taking offense to McCormick's tactics, gave him a solid shot under caution. At that time, Legend Car Officials decided to park both drivers for the remainder of the race. Alex Kempf now found himself in the lead and he drove off to what appeared to be his second Winter Heat victory trailed by Wetmore and Doug Hall. Unbelievably, after the race, all three drivers failed to take their cars through tech as required by INEX/600 Racing rules. All three were disqualified and that awarded the win to Gary Verdier, the driver who had spun out with two laps to go to get everything started!! For Verdier it was the first career win for the Masters Division driver. Despite a heat race wreck and a car that is still not to his liking, veteran Will Cagle wound up second with Charlie O'Melia third. after everything was sorted out, Norman and McCormick still wound up fourth and fift since they were black-flagged but not DQ'd. Rounding out the finishing field then were Rodriguez and Gleason. Mark Bibeau and Gerald Campbell were unable to start the race. The Bandoleros got in plenty of action starting with a make-up feature from the last event where the track was too wet to race safely on. The Bandits and Young Guns were combined for all their races as Young Gun Donovan Ponder raced away with the overall win in the make up race over fellow Young Gun Carl Haag. Zachary Harris finished third but took the first place Bandits trophy. Rounding out the finishers were Bandits James Crow, Coty Bibeau and Kevin Muglach. After Ponder won the heat race, he was unable to hold off Bandit Critter Saile in the regular feature. Saile, the 2007 Speedworld Bandit champion, was making his first start of Winter Heat and he made it a winning one. Ponder crossed the stripe in second overall but claimed his third straight Young Gun win. Bandit Jake Perkins also made his first Winter Heat start and finished third followed by Harris, Crow, Muglach, Bibeau and Haag. Sporting a new paint scheme on her #00, Whitney Poole drove to her second Sportsman win of the Winter Heat series leading all the way and holding off veteran Dale Clouser, rookie Bryan Lynch, Jr. and Ron McCreary at the checker. Poole also won the heat. It was a good day for the #00 race cars as the Super Stock feature win went to the similar-numbered car of John Hodge. Hodge got around heat winner Bobby Riley for the lead near mid race and, although he spun out trying to get the lead back, Riley stormed back to finish a close second over Justin Reynolds, Scott Smith and Paul Margulglio. Larry Waldis, Andy Nicholls, Dale Meade, Lee Wagner and Geno Smith rounded out the top ten. Point leader Wagner was forced to borrow a car for the race after the transmission broke in his primary ride during hot laps. After some bantering about on the racing message boards during the previous week, Jared Allison dusted off his dad's Mini Stock and made a clean sweep of the Mini Stock action taking both the heat and feature race wins over Rex "Boneman" Hollinger, Kevin O'Brien and Michael Seay. The Strictly Stock/Hurricanes ran a pair of features, one on the regular oval track and another "kidney bean" race utilizing half of the infield "X" and the Bandolero track. The oval track race was a run-away for Jim Erb as he dominated over teammate William Hindman, Rob Reynolds, Mano Joao and Devon Cuddy. Completing the top ten were Rudy Arnold (in an Outlaw Strictly Stock), Shane Smith, Brian Cosier, Richard Barrenechea and Greg Bruce, Sr. Mark Walls took the measure of the field in the kidney bean race winning by a half lap over Hindman and Smith. It was Walls' first ever win in two years of trying. Bobby Riley finished fourth with Bruce fifth. The remainder of the top ten were Tim Walters, Jr., Blaize Fisher, Alan McClelland, Erb and Cosier. Heat races went to Erb and Hindman. First place trophies were awarded to three drivers who brought their cars to compete but were the only ones in their class: Ryan Rust (Pro Challenge), Phillip Myburgh, Jr. (Late Model) and Rusty Ebersole (ASA Crate Late Model). The final race of Winter Heat, which is now a four-race series, is slated for this coming Saturday afternoon, January 12th. Pit Gates open at 10AM with racing at 1PM. The race scheduled for January 19th has been canceled to allow drivers to attend the FASCAR Awards Banquet in New Smyrna.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD JANUARY 5, 2008
1. #31 Rusty Chancey 2. #37 Dalton Bergman 3. #133 Dallas Ingramn 4. #22 Mason Ketterman 5. #51 Roger Englund 6. #680 Bryce Walker 7. #33 Dave Dimile DNS 8. #33x Tony Bonavia DNS
LEGEND
1. #69 Gary Verdier 2. #24 Will Cagle 3. #48 Charlie O'Melia 4. #2 Jimmy Norman 5. #34 Shaughn McCormick 6. #19 James Rodriquez 7. #07 Dave Gleason 8. #99 Alex Kempf DQ'D 9. #06 Rick Wetmore DQ'D 10. #55 Doug Hall DQ'D 11. #39 Gerald Campbell DNS 12. #65 Mark Beebo DNS
SUPER STOCK
1. #00 John Hodge 2. #52 Bobby Riley 3. #77 Justin Reynolds 4. #01 Scott Smith 5. #32X Paul Marguglio 6. #54 Todd McCreary 7. #66 Andy Nicholls 8. #07 Dale Meade 9. #11 Lee Wagner 10. #25 Geno Smith
SPORTSMAN
1. #00 Whitney Poole 2. #30 Dale Clouser 3. #00JR Brian Lynch, Jr. 4. #54 Ron McCreary
LATE MODEL
1. #24 Philip Myburgh
MINI STOCK
1. #92 Jared Allison 2. #85 Rex Hollinger 3. #44 Kevin O'Brien 4. #10 Michael Seay
PRO CHALLENGE
1. #18 Ryan Rust
OUTLAW STRICTLY STOCK
1. #7 Rudy Arnold
HURRICANE RACE #1
1. #1 Jim Erb 2. #89 William Hindman 3. #A1 Rob Reynolds 4. #48 Mano Joao 5. #4 Devon Cuddy 6. #86 Shane Smith 7. #35 Brian Cosier 8. #20 Richard Barrenechea 9. #4U Greg Bruce 10. #23 Alan McClelland 11. #6 Mark Walls 12. #29 Tim Walters, Jr. 13. #22 Miguel Barrenechea 14. #86X Ralph Aldrich 15. #7 Blaize Fisher 16. #00 Jimmy Plumlee
HURRICANE #2
1. #6 Mark Walls 2. #89 William Hindman 3. #86 Shane Smith 4. #4 Bobby Riley 5. #4U Greg Bruce 6. #29 Tim Walters, Jr. 7. #7 Blaze Fisher 8. #23 Alan McClelland 9. #32 Jim Erb 10. #35 Brian Cosier 11. #48 Mano Joao
