IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 10, 2008 Rocket Man Blasts Off Again at Charlotte By CLAUDE LEWIS They call Wayne Jefferson the Rocket Man, and with just cause. Nearly every time the St. Petersburg Open Wheel Modified driver takes to a short track in Florida, the checkered flag is dancing in front of him. Jefferson picked up another in a seemingly countless string of career victories Saturday night at Charlotte County Motorsports Park, as he buzzed his No. 1 car from the eighth starting position to the front in the 35-lap feature. Jefferson took the lead from Tony Carreno from Lutz on lap 13 and built a big lead over second-place runner Scott Kleiberfrom Naples in the No. 2 car. Toward the end, Jeffersons motor sounded off as Kleiber made up some ground. Its a new motor, said Jefferson, who had a rough trip the last time he raced CCMP back in November. Something broke in the valve train. Well get it worked out. Kleiber took second ahead of teammate Eric Rudd out of Naples. L.B. Watch This Skaggs from Fort Myers while Troy Robinson of Tampa was fifth in the Bat Car. Sean McLaughlin, the January winner, couldnt make the race. The Open Wheels will go 50 laps on March 1. There were three other feature races Saturday night at the Punta Gorda paved oval. The Road Warriors put on a show for the fans, as several cars were in the hunt in the early going. The 19 of Greg Spiderman Anderson(Port Charlotte) and the 97 of Chris Scott raced side-by side on laps 10 to 14 before the ever-sneaky Jeff Firestine(Venice) took over the lead with a great move through lapped traffic. Firestine made it look easy from there in the 93 car. Anderson got second ahead of Scott. Brian Teeters from Palmetto captured the 25-lap Sportsman race. The race ha d two eye-opening wrecks. One was early when a Thunder Truck had the throttle stick and hit the front stretch wall hard. The second came on lap 21 when Chris Huntoons 17 car flipped over and landed upside down. Chad Jefferies was second in the 22 car and Bob Waltz (Cape Coral) third in the 5 car. The Modified Minis made their 2008 points debut with Brian Dorer - the brother of Limited Late hotshoe Steve - taking the checkered flag ahead of Arcadia jack-of-all-trades master Ricky Bullard Jr. Todd Freed (Bradenton) was third. The DeSoto Champ Karts brought out 30 of the high-flying tiny buzzers for its 25-lap feature. There was a big early wreck on lap 1 with a karter getting injured. It settled into a three-kart race. Chase Fitzgerald sat in second behind Ricky Bohatka until the final lap, making his move for the victory. Bohatka did get hard-charger for moving up to second from the 12th starting position. Johnny Co mbs was third. 2-9-08 Results for CCMP Road Warriors 1) 93- Jeff Firestine 2) 19-Greg Anderson 3) 97- Chris Scott 4) 24-Jeff Pacheco 5) 32-Rob Vigilo 6) 89-Derrick Gray 7) 1-Jessie Gargus 8) 33-Ann Maire Ricardi 9) 23-Jeff Rumbold 10) 77-James Dellea 11) 88-Mark Boxell 12) 16-James Buckmaster 13) 15-Clint Snyder 14) 7-Blain Baer 15) 88-Michael Gonzales Sportsmans 1) 44-Brian Teeters 2) 22-Chad Jefferies 3) 5-Bob Waltz 4) 4-Don Justice 5) 17-Chris Huntoon 6) 69-Ryan Pancoast 7) 1-Andy Allen 8) 2-Randy Sober 9) 3-Steve Jefferies 10) 14-Jerry Adkins Mod Minis 1) 97- Brian Dorer-Winter Haven 2) 54- Ricky Bullard-Arcardia 3) 97F- Todd Freed Jr.-Bradenton 4) 07- Phillip Cruse-Myaka 5) 45- Mike Kerrivan-Bradenton 6) 45X- Chris Zimmerman - Largo 7) 30- Robert Carter-Wauchla Open Wheels 1) 1-Wayne Jefferson 2) 2-Scott Kleiber 3) 12-Eric Rudd 4) 71-L.B Skaggs 5) 0-Troy Robinson 6) 19-Scott McDaniels 7) 03-Kyle Bookmiller 8) 09-Don Skaggs 9) 6-Jay Winkley 10) 63-Phil Morrison 11) 2r-John Rodgers 12) 61-Tony Carreno Champ Carts 1) 22-Chase Fitzgerald 2) 51-Ricky Bohatka 3) 12-Johnny Combs 4) 99-JD Cordon 5) 33-Michael Nicosia 6) 121-Andy Leserra 7) 7-John Cannone 8) 57-Mike Portman 9) 5-Ed Criswell 10) 77-Phil Harp 11) 37-Alan Mckinney 12) 123-John Combs 13) 118-Joanne Bowe 14) 38-Buzz Swingle 15) 23-Dave Schwendeman 16) 21-Jeff Leserra 17) 08-Rance Williams 18) 192-Carl Whitehouse 19) 59-Bill McKinny 20) 9-Antonio Gonzalez 21) 98-LB Skaggs 22) 07-Ryan Williams 23) 92-Jessica Bohatka 24) 75-Scott Hailey 25) 2-Tim Hughes 26) 69-Danny Scopano 27) 13-Romay Venta 28) 73-Bruce Casner 29) 3-Andy Whah 30) 18-Greg Edwards Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!