IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

April 11, 2008 Patrick Thomas Best in Southern Sportsman Field By Dave Waesterman Great weather greeted racers and fans Friday evening at Orlando Speedworld as two FASCAR traveling Series, The Florida Mini Stock Challenge and the Southern Sportsman, made their first appearance of the year here and provided some fantastic racing. Sixteen Mini Stocks signed in to do battle with Winter Park's Cody Blair snatching quick time over an extremely quick field of cars with a lap of 15.262 seconds. Johnathan Camp and Brian Dorer were right behind Blair, but Blair would be required to start the 50 lap feature from eleventh spot by virtue of him winning the last FMSC race. The top nine in qualifying were inverted for the start placing Inverness driver Steve Griffin on the pole and he grabbed the lead immediately. There was a big shuffle of cars during lap two which saw Camp and Brandon Strevels get together dropping both well behind the field as no caution was thrown. Griffin was looking strong in the lead, but a problem he had been experiencing all day reared itself again on lap eight as his car momentarily jumped out of gear allowing Chris Hooker to blow by into the lead. Nine laps later, the same thing happened again but this time the results were disastrous as it caused several cars to get together trying to avoid Griffin's slowing machine. Ninth starter Jared Allison had to choose either t-boning another car or hitting the wall. Allison chose the latter and damaged his racer just enough to send him to the pits. Griffin and Dorer were also eliminated in the wreck. Once the field went green Hooker continued to set the pace but Marty Neikens and a host of others were on the charge. With the race continuing under green, Hooker's car began to get loose and Neikens sped by into the lead. Meanwhile, Camp had been furiously working his way through the field and passed Hooker for second bringing Cody Blair with him. Camp began to pressure Neikens but Neikens wasn't giving him any room. With seven laps left, Blair spun out of third in turn one and went to the rear of the field for the restart. Again Camp began to put a ton of pressure on Neikens but his charge was slowed again on lap 45 for a spin by James Ellis. As the two leaders came out of turn four on the final lap, Camp gave Neikens a good shove, nearly spinning him out, but the veteran from Pinellas Park held on to take the win although he let Camp know his feelings about the incident on the cool-off lap. Neikens would take the win followed by Camp and Hooker. Mason Love had a steady run for fourth while local driver David Russell of Melbourne grabbed fifth. Blair drove back to sixth with Strevels, Ellis, Mitchell Webb and Mike Birk, Jr. completing the top ten. The remaining finishers were Randy Blakeslee, Mark owers, Jason Bertsch, Griffin, Dorer and Allison. A total of fourteen Southern Sportsman series cars were on hand but no one had anything for Patrick Thomas in qualifying as his lap of 14.893 seconds was well ahead of second quick Bart Weatherford's 15.262 effort. Just as Cody Blair had to do in the FMSC race, Thomas would be forced to start eleventh as well since he was the most recent winner in the Series and it would prove to be make this race very exciting. After two aborted tries, the field finally took the green with pole sitter Mark Peterson the early pace setter. Bart Weatherford was on the charge and he grabbed the lead and set sail from the rest of the field. Meanwhile, as the race ran under green, Thomas was methodically picking off cars one by one, headed to the front. He eventually caught and passed Weatherford for the top spot all without benefit of a caution flag. In fact, it looked like the race may run the entire 50 lap distance without a yellow until Jeff Padilla looped his mount in turn four with six laps to go. Thomas was never headed in his run to the checker giving the Oviedo driver back to back SSS wins in his Specialty Construction sponsored Chevrolet. Weatherford snared the runner-up spot with early leader Peterson having one of his best ever runs coming home third. Fourth went to Mike Soukup, the last car on the lead lap as fifth place finisher Tom Raider was a lap down at the finish. Rounding out the finishers were Andy Nicholls, Richard Elkins, Jr., Ron McCreary, Duane Best, Johnathan Soukup, Padilla, Earl Beckner, Jimmie Best and Roger Welch. Young Brandon Thomson made his debut in the Modified class driving Donnie Lewis' "Moonshine Runner" and was very impressive. Thomson won the heat race and had the pole for the feature, which was the place to be as two wrecks claimed a pair of cars before the field could even get a lap completed. Both Jeff Colburn and Mark Emberson went off on the hook. Thomson broke out front in a hurry once the race finally got under way while Kurt Jett was working his way through the field after starting scratch. Jett was coming on strong but running out of laps until Ken McCracken spun in turn one to bring out the caution. Jett began trying everything to get by Thomson and with three laps to go Jett got into the leader in turn two with Thomson spinning out. Both drivers went to the back of the field as Shain Held took over the point and drove to his second win of the year. Art Kunzeman held off a furious last lap charge by Thomson to take second while Chris Smyth and McCracken completed the top five. Jett dropped out on the final circuit and was credited with sixth ahead of Emberson and Colburn. Randy Froelich was involved in a heat race crash and did not start the feature. Surprisingly, Thomson was not upset after the incident with Jett. "I was giving him plenty of room on the high side," said Thomson. "He clearly had the faster car and I guess just got a little impatient, but that's racing. I was out here just to have some fun and it was a blast getting to drive Donnie's (Lewis) car." he said. As usual, the Super Stock main event featured plenty of competition and the usual post-race fun in the tech shed. Jason Pick looked to finally have his car dialed in as he led the all-green flag feature for 14 of 15 laps before David Gould sneaked by on the final go-round for an apparent win. Gould's engine couldn't pass tech and he was disqualified giving the win to Pick, his first since the middle of last season. Matt Jarrett inherited the second spot with John Hodge, Bobby Riley and Ray Mullis filling out the top five. Rounding out the finishers were Vince Keeler, Jr., Dennis Snyder, Brent Tyler, Austin Carr, Brian Frank, Jim Erb and William Hindman. Pick and Hodge won the heats. Driving a Volkswagen, Mano Ezequias won his first-ever feature in the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stocks as he led most of the way. Glen Rhodes came home second trailed by Gary Thomas, Neal Kirby and James Newton. Completing the top ten were Tim Walters, Jr., Delmar Newton, David Murphy, Skip Land and Randy Pence. Heat race wins went to Ezequias and Kirby. OFFICIAL RESULTS SOUTHERN SPORTSMAN 50 ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - APRIL 11, 2008 1. #25 Patrick Thomas 2. #1 Bart Weatherford 3. #73 Mark Peterson 4. #45 Mike Soukup 5. #7 Tom Raiser 6. #66 Andy Nicholls 7. #55 Richard Elkins, Jr. 8. #00 Ron McCreary 9. #3 Duane Best 10. #45A Adam Soukup 11. #21 Jeff Padilla 12. #31 Earl Beckner 13. #67 Jimmie Best 14. #98 Roger Welch OFFICIAL RESULTS FLORIDA MINI STOCK CHALLENGE 50 ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - APRIL 11, 2008 1. #70 Marty Neikens 2. #13 Jonathan Camp 3. #6x Chris Hooker 4. #71 Mason Love 5. #31 David Russell 6. #81 Cody Blair 7. #14 Brandon Strevels 8. #98 James Ellis 9. #6 Mitchell Webb 10. #10 Mike Birk, Jr. 11. #77 Randy Blakeslee 12. #9 Mark Powers 13. #18 Jason Bertsch 14. #3 Steve Griffin 15. #97 Brian Dorer 16. #92 Jared Allison B>SUPER STOCK 1. #44 Jason Pick 2. #98 Matt Jarrett 3. #00 John Hodge 4. #52 Bobby Riley 5. #316 Ray Mullis 6. #7 Vince Keeler, Jr. 7. #11 Dennis Snyder 8. #99 Brent Tyler 9. #8 Austin Carr 10. #46 Brian Frank 11. #37 Jim Erb 12. #89 William Hindman 13. #16 David Gould DQ'D MODIFIED 1. #55 Shain Held 2. #9 Art Kunzeman 3. #07 Christopher Smyth 4. #51 Brandon Thomson 5. #56 Ken McCracken 6. #9X Kurt Jett 7. #30 Mark Emberson 8.. #3 Jeff Colburn 9. #8 Randy Froehlich DNS STRICTLY STOCK 1. #48 Mano Ezequias 2. #63 Glenn Rhodesw 3. #76 Gary Thomas 4. #8N Neil Kirby 5. #35 James Newton 6. #29 Tim Walters, Jr. 7. #35x Delmar Newton 8. #23 David Murphy 9. #0 Skip Lande 10. #07 Randy Pence 11. #54 Michel Dresch 12. #27 Danny Binda 13. #0x Mike Rood 14. #4 Devon Cuddy DNS 15. #66 Tom Stewart DNS Have an opinion on this story? 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