IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

June 7, 2008 Reutimann, Wood, Allison, Riley and Erb winners at Orlando SpeedWorld by Dave Westerman Orlando Speedworld played host to the TBARA Winged Outlaw Sprint Cars Friday night for the first of two scheduled appearances this season and it was 63 year old Wayne Reutimann, Sr. showing everyone that he still has a "masters touch" when it comes to the fast race cars. Twenty TBARA machines signed in to do battle and were split into three heats in qualifying for their 30 lap feature. Reutimann, Sr. appeared to have a lock on heat race 1 until he found his path blocked by a lapped car on the final lap allowing D.J. Hoetzle and Troy DeCaire to slip past for first and second. Heat two saw Brian Maddox run away from the field while young Dakota Stephens took a big win in heat three. Reutimann, Sr. had the pole for the feature race and quickly asserted himself out front as Hoetzle made a quick early charge from his sixth starting spot into second by lap six. The pair began to speed away from the rest of the field until the race was put under caution on lap ten to remove Mark Gimmler's badly smoking car from the race track. On the restart, Reutimann, Sr. and Hoetzle continued their duel but only for three laps as Tommy Nichols brought the field under caution as his machine slowed to a stop in the bottom of turn two. Once the race resumed, Reutimann, Sr. seemed to now have a car capable of dominating the field as he pulled away from Hoetzle and third-running Steve Heisler. All eyes were on defending TBARA champion Troy Decaire as he was powering his way past cars using the outside groove after starting in 12th. As the caution flew for Dave Retzlaff's stalled mount in turn one with five laps to go, Decaire was up to sixth. Reutimann, Sr. and Hoetzle continued to have their way to the checker but Decaire was on a mission as he passed three more cars over the final five laps to score a well-deserved third place finish. For Reutimann, Sr., it was his first TBARA win in quite some time and came in just his second Sprint Car race he's run in this year. Hoetzle and DeCaire were second and third with Heisler having a great run for fourth and Maddox fifth. Joey "The Ace" Aguilar, Dude Teate, Larry J. Brazil, Jr., Mickey Kempgens and Stephens rounded out the top ten. Completing the finishing order were Wayne Reutimann, Jr., Wendy Mathis, Retzlaff, Shane Butler, Nichols, Gimmler, Bobby Rose, Nick Manikis, Stan Butler and Todd Schmidt. In the Super Stocks, Bobby Riley put on a late charge to get around early race leader Jason Pick and claimed another win in his Billy Cuddy Painting Chevy. Pick made one last-ditch effort to get back around Riley but spun coming to the checker and finished well down in the running order. Matt Jarrett crossed the stripe in second ahead of Lee Wagner, Austin Carr and John Hodge while Dennis Snyder, Ray Mullis, William Hindman, Bob Starr, Billy Belflower, Pick and Ray Brown completed the finishing order. Heat wins were taken by Hodge and Pick. After completely rebuilding his car from a bad crash at New Smyrna Speedway the previous Saturday, Jared Allison slipped by David Russell on lap eight and went on to win his fourth Mini Stock feature of the year. Rex "Boneman" Hollinger charged up to second in the late going but could not track down Allison. Russell would come home third ahead of R.J. Arnone, Randy Blakeslee, John Cook, Bob Kelchner and Rob Reynolds. Allison also won the heat. Derrick Wood scored his second feature win in a row in the Sportsman class over a short field of cars made even shorter when point leader Andy Nicholls' bad luck continued as problems in hot laps put his car in the trailer for the night. After early leader and heat winner Jeff Wright had mechanical troubles send him to the sidelines on lap eight, Wood sped to an easy win over Jessie Cuddy, Mike Santana, Wright and Paul Colgan. Jim Erb took the measure of the Action Gator Tire Strictly Stock field as he led all the way for the win in his Acura. Neal Kirby gave chase but had to settle for second trailed by Ricky Solomon, Jr., Gary Thomas and Tim Walters, Jr. Sixth through tenth were Joey Cason, Joey Woliver, Danny Binda, David Murphy and Shane Smith. Young Alex Fortune took his first career win in heat race number one but had problems in the feature while heat two was taken by Solomon. OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD JUNE 6, 2008 TBARA OUTLAW WINGED SPRINTS 1. #00 Wayne Reutimann 2. #15 DJ Hozcel 3. #68 Troy Decaire 4. #41 Steve Heisier 5 #1B Brian Maddox 6. #52 Joey Aguilar 7. #0 Dude Teate 8. #21 Larry J. Brazil, Jr. 9. #78 Mickey Kempkins 10 #79 Dakota Stephens 11. #00JR Wayne Reutimann, Jr. 12. #80 Wendy Mathis 13. #92 Dave Retzlaff 14. #18 Shane Butler 15. #55 Tommy Nichols 16. #51 Mark Gimler 17. #56 Bobby Rose 18. #8 Nick Minicas 19. #18X Stan Butler SPORTSMAN 1. #33 Derrick Wood 2. #64 Jessie Cuddy 3. #151 Mike Santana 4. #50 Jeff Wright 5. #31 Paul Colgan MINI STOCK 1. #92 Jared Allison 2. #85 Rex "Boneman" Hollinger 3. #31 David Russell 4. #30 R.J. Arnone 5. #77 Randy Blakeslee 6. #24 John Cook 7. #09 Bob Kelchner 8. #A1 Rob Reynolds SUPER STOCK 1. #52 Bobby Riley 2. #98 Matt Jarrett 3. #74 Lee Wagner 4. #8 Austin Carr 5. #00 John Hodge 6. #11 Dennis Snyder 7. #316 Ray Mullis 8. #89 William Hindman 9. #40 Bob Starr 10. #15 Billy Bellflower 11. #44 Jason Pick 12. #4 Ray Brown STRICTLY STOCK 1. #1 Jim Erb 2. #8 Neil Kirby 3. #19 Ricky Solomon, Jr. 4. #76 Gary Thomas 5. #29 Tim Walters, Jr. 6. #07 Joey Cason 7. #88 Joey Woliver 8. #27 Danny Binda 9. #23 David Murphy 10. #86 Shane Smith 11. #53 Ralph Cannarasana 12. #4 Devon Cuddy 13. #17 Alex Fortune Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!