IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

March 16, 2008 Tate Pierce Holds Off Some Tough Competition In DeSoto Modifieds By Phil Schryver Bradenton, FL Saturday night March, 15th Desoto Super Speedway had their first 100 lap Open Wheel Modified event of the 2008 season. On hand for qualifying were some big names including Wayne Jefferson, Bobby Baldwin, Timmy Moore, James Glover, Ralph Bowman, and many more. Timmy Moore was fast time qualifier and started the feature in 6th after the roll of the dice for the inversion. Teddy Nelson had a tough time in qualifying with some mechanical issues on his brand new car. Tate Pierce started on the pole with Brian Rogers on the outside. Wayne Jefferson, the series points leader, started 3rd with Sean McLaughlin on his outside. When the green flag dropped, Tate got a good jump on the rest of the field, but soon had the Rocket Man, Wayne Jefferson challenging for the lead. Behind them the 4 car of Bobby Baldwin and the 57 of Moore were banging door to door for a bunch of laps. About half way through the race, Wayne Jefferson made contact with the front stretch wall sending sparks flying through the air. After that, Wayne’s car would not handle well for him. On lap 58, Timmy Moore was able to get around Jefferson to take over the 2nd spot with Baldwin soon following to take over 3rd position, with the 81 of Tate still holding on to the lead, but Moore inching closer and closer to his back bumper. By Lap 75, Timmy Moore was doing everything he could to try to get by Tate without spinning him out. Lap 85 brought out the 4th caution of the night when Ralph Bowman’s right front wheel goes flying over the fence and his car slams into the turn 2 wall. Ralph was running in 5th place at the time. On the restart, Timmy Moore and Tate Pierce are bumper to bumper and the battle continued. Bobby Baldwin continued to inch his way towards the 2 leaders while Jefferson continued to fall back from Baldwin, but still being able to hold onto the 4th spot. On lap 98 a hard crash into the turn 3 wall by the #8 of Chris Escott brought out the final caution of the night. Even worse than the hit, Chris’ car ignited into flames instantly. Luckily the safety crew was right there to quickly get him out of the car and put out the fire. Having a caution with only 2 laps to go would make for a Green, White, Checkered finish with Tate Pierce holding off Timmy Moore to bring home the win. In post race comments, Tate said he had gained a few more grey hairs from having to deal with such tough competition, but also said it was a lot of fun. Timmy Moore was very happy with 2nd place and thanked the Pletchers for all the help they had given him on setting up the car. DeSoto Speedway Results March 15, 2008 BOMBERS - BOMB 20L Pos Driver Car # 1 MICHAEL CROOKS 33 2 JOHN STEWART 02 3 ANTHONY EASTON 90 4 STEVE ELDER 42 5 ROY TETRICK JR 69 6 MARK FIELDS 77 MODIFIED MINIS - MM FIFTY LAP Pos Driver Car # 1 BRIAN DORER 97 2 CHRIS THORNTON 24 3 MIKE BIRK JR-M mm 10 4 DUSTIN PEREZ-Mmm 62 5 GLENN KELLEY 16 6 CHRIS ZIMMERMAN-Mmm 29 7 JESSE HENLEY 0 8 BRAD STEGER-Mmm-R BUS 65 9 MATTHEW PERKINS-Mmm 99 10 MITCHELL WEBB 6 11 JIMMY GILL 3XX MODIFIED MINIS - QUALIFYING Pos Driver Car # 1 CHRIS THORNTON 24 2 DUSTIN PEREZ-Mmm 62 3 BRIAN DORER 97 4 GLENN KELLEY 16 5 CHRIS ZIMMERMAN-Mmm 29 6 MITCHELL WEBB 6 7 MIKE BIRK JR-M mm 10 8 JOE GAGEN 1 9 MATTHEW PERKINS-Mmm 99 10 JESSE HENLEY 0 11 BRAD STEGER-Mmm-R BUS 65 12 JIMMY GILL 3XX OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED - OWM 100L Pos Driver Car # 1 TATE PIERCE 81 2 TIMMY MOORE 57 3 BOBBY BALDWIN 4 4 WAYNE JEFFERSON 1 5 JAMES GLOVER-Maacs 20 6 SEAN MCLAUGHLIN 99 7 BILL DAVIS 15 8 CHRIS ESCOTT 8 9 KEN VANDERMEIR 29 10 TOM TROYER 15X 11 RALPH BOWMAN 2 12 BRYAN ROGERS 77 13 WAYNE SORG 92 14 TEDDY NELSON 34 15 DOUG MOFF 46 OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED - QUALIFYING Pos Driver Car # 1 TIMMY MOORE 57 2 BOBBY BALDWIN 4 3 SEAN MCLAUGHLIN 99 4 WAYNE JEFFERSON 1 5 BRYAN ROGERS 77 6 TATE PIERCE 81 7 RALPH BOWMAN 2 8 DOUG MOFF 46 9 CHRIS ESCOTT 8 10 BILL DAVIS 15 11 JAMES GLOVER-Maacs 20 12 KEN VANDERMEIR 29 13 TEDDY NELSON 34 14 TOM TROYER 15X 15 WAYNE SORG 92 PURE STOCKS - PS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 DARRIN ELLIS 71 2 ROBERT CRISP 2 3 JOEY BARNES 19 4 TROY MEREDITH 75 5 DAVID DAVIS 6X 6 GEORGE BARTIMAC 21X 7 RANDY JOHNSON 73 8 LEONARD McCUE 70 9 ROBERT VIGILO 33 10 MARK PICKLESIMER 07 11 JOSHUA TODD 89X 12 ALLEN BRAGG 89 13 KEN SMITH 11 STREET STOCKS - SS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 GREGORY KROM 35 2 MAXX BENNETT-Mtks 28X 3 JAMES BRENNER 57 4 WILL ELLIOTT 10 5 ALEX ABBOTT 17 Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!