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Kory Abbott tops PBG Legend 50 at Orlando SpeedWorld
by Dave Westermam
The 2008 PBG Florida Legend Car Tour highlighted the action Saturday night at Orlando Speedworld and a great crowd was on hand to witness the action.
After taking a few weeks off from racing at his home track, two-time PBG Champion Kory Abbott of Apopka was back with a vengeance as he blistered the 25 car field in time trials with a lap of 15.778 seconds while second year Legend driver Gerald White, Jr. of Lakeland continued to impress timing in at 15.842 seconds for second quick time.
White would end up on the pole for the 35 lap feature race with Abbott on the outside pole slot with White grabbing the early advantage but for only two laps before Abbott streaked by. Shaughn McCormick followed Abbott around White and the two would race one-two the remainder of the event slowed only by one caution flag when Dalleas Ingram spun in turn two trying to avoid some debris on the track.
From that point, all the leaders had to worry about was a flurry of lapped traffic, but the cars being lapped did a stellar job of letting the lead pack by and the race ran the remaining distance yellow flag free.
Abbott claimed the win with McCormick a close second. Driving one of Bryan Silas' cars, St. Cloud's Brandon Thomson took third spot ahead of White and Jimmy Norman. Chelsea Schillig, Tony Sansom, Alex Kempf, Gerald Campbell and Mark Bibeau rounded out the top ten.
After flying in from Michigan where he had raced his ARCA car in the morning, Bryan Silas guided an ill-handling car to an 11th place finish after getting virtually no practice time.
The race was also special for seventh place finisher Sansom as he was running in front of his first cousin, Tiffany Adkins, who had just gotten out of rehab following a horrible car crash that left her in a coma for considerable time.
A nice field of Hearndon Construction Bandolero Bandits saw the field spilt into a pair of heats for the first time this year with victories going to Coty "Candy Man" Bibeau and Critter Saile.
Critter wired the field in the feature leading flag to flag trailed by Shawn Hooven, Daniel Conlin, Jr., Bibeau, Cameron White, Jeffery White, Noah Cornman and Justin Bechtold.
Donovan Ponder took advantage of some wild early race action to nab yet another Hearndon Construction Bandolero Young Gun feature win. Carl Haag came home with a nice second place finish trailed by heat winner Zach Harris, Danielle Stratton and Mark Hooven.
The ABC Towing Hurricane feature saw heat winner Mark Walls come from the rear of the feature starting grid to claim his fourth win of the year followed by Brian Cosier, Tim Walters, Jr., Miguel Barrenechea, Ralph Cammarasana, Blaize Fisher and Brenda Taylor.
1. #8 Donovan Ponder 2. #48 Carl Haag 3. #54 Zach Harris 4. #83 Danielle Stratton 5. #17 Mark Hooven
PBG LEGEND 35
1. #5 Kory Abbott 2. #34 Shaughn McCormick 3. #1 Brandon Thomson 4. #38 Gerald White, Jr. 5. #2 Jimmy Norman 6. #75 Chelsea Schillig 7. #56 Tony Sansom 8. #99 Alex Kempf 9. #39 Gerald Campbell 10. #65 Mark Beebo 11. #11X Bryan Silas 12. #22 Mason Ketterman 13. #06 Rick Wetmore 14. #07 Dave Gleason 15. #4 Tyler Smith 16. #47 Eric Eichelberger 17. #33 Dallas Ingram 18. #55 Doug Hall 19. #17 Mike Gleason 20. #48 Charlie O'Meila 21. #54 Zach Harris 22. #51 Roger Englund 23. #50 Ted Ruffo 24. #11 Daniel Conlin, Sr. 25. #44 Gary Verdier
SEMI-PRO TRUCK
1. #407 Jason Vail
CLASSIC
1. #03 Wayne Skinner
HURRICANES
1. #6 Mark Walls 2. #27 Brian Cosier 3. #29 Tim Walters, Jr. 4. #22M Miguel Barrenechea 5. #53 Ralph Cannarasana 6. #24 Brenda Taylor 7. #7 Blaize Fisher 8. #24D George Berry DNS
