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Cody Blair tops Taylor Racing Products Pro Truck 50 at SpeedWorld
by Dave Westerman
It was the Taylor Racing Products Pro Trucks getting the spotlight Friday night at Orlando Speedworld and they didn't disappoint the fans on "Law Enforcement Night."
A nice field of 16 trucks saw Daytona Beach youngster Ben Kennedy the fastest in qualifying as he blistered the track with a lap of 14.832 seconds. Cody Blair was just a tick slower at 14.848 while Zack Jarrell, Tim Sozio and Doug Samion rounded out the top five in time trials. Kennedy's draw for the inversion wasn't as good as his on-track prowess as he drew a ten. Kennedy would actually begin the race ninth as Wayne Schram elected to start from the tail of the field.
Bruce Bennett had the pole for the start of the race and led lap one but veteran Tommy King was looking good and took over on the second go-round. Caution would be displayed for the first time on lap three as Kenneth Lilley went for a spin in turn two.
King continued to hold the point and was doing a fantastic job as the fast qualifiers began to work their way to the front. Scott Reeves managed to wrest the lead away from king on lap 14 and opened up the flood gates as King lost several spots before being able to get back in line.
Green flag racing was suspended on lap 20 as John Hodge and Anthony Sergi made contact and only one more lap could be run before Bennett looped his mount in turn three.
The racing from this point was some of the best witnessed here in a long time. Reeves was using every trick in the book to hold the top spot but Jarrell was finally able to slip by on lap 26 with Blair and Kennedy following him into the top three. Caution flew for a final time on lap 36 as King spun his truck and had to restart from the back.
Kennedy moved up to apply pressure to Jarrell but everyone had forgotten about Blair. Blair's truck was now really dialed in and he zipped to the front on lap 42. Kennedy also worked his way past Jarrell but Blair made no mistakes in claiming a big win. Kennedy took the runner-up spot while Reeves got by Jarrell with two to go to grab the show spot. Samion rounded out the top five after a nice, steady run. Rounding out the top ten were Sergi, Sozio, Andy Leserra, King and Schram. Completing the finishers were Jason Rosarius, Zachary Curtis, Bennett, Hodge, Lilley and Louis Potter.
Ray Mullis sat on the pole for the Super Stock 25 lap feature and led the first four laps before Billy and Bobby Cuddy went flying by in their pair of orange Monte Carlos. The two brothers would duke it out the rest of the way with Billy prevailing for his fourth win of the year. The entire race was run without a yellow flag.
Bobby Cuddy was a close second with ever-improving Denny Johns taking third and John Bennett fourth. Mullis crossed the line fifth but was disqualified because he had not informed officials that he was taking over the driving chores from Joe Bandur. Bandur was slated to start on the pole, but after Mullis took over the car, he was supposed to start scratch on the field instead of up front.
That moved Brent Tyler up to fifth in the final running order while sixth went to Danny Frye. Cody Keeler took seventh trailed by Joey White, Jim Erb, Billy Belflower and Mullis.
The 25 lap Mini Stock feature also ran from green to checker and though Pedie Allison led all the way for his second win of the year, the race was a barn-burner from start to finish as a three car freight train lined up behind Allison and pressured him the entire distance.
Jim Erb had several chances to boot Allison's ill-handling car out of the way but Erb drove a very clean race and settled for second with David Russell and Matt Perkins close behind. Rex "Boneman" Hollinger was fifth trailed by Rob Reynolds and Mark Avery.
The Legends Car feature was also a good one as Zach Harris grabbed the point at the drop of the green and led the first seven laps before Shaughn McCormick went spinning out of his second position to bring out the caution. Atlanta, GA visitor Mason Massey moved to the top spot on the restart as Harris went spinning in turn two. The spin was ruled to have been caused by a light coating of fluid on the track and after the track was cleaned up, Harris was given his spot back.
Massey again jumped out front as the field completed lap eight while Alex Kempf began to make his move. Kempf went out front on lap 11 and led the rest of the distance slowed only by a late spin and yellow flag courtesy of Ted Ruffo.
For Kempf it was his sixth consecutive win and only added to his ever-increasing points lead. Massey crossed the stripe in second but was set down in tech due to a wheelbase infraction moving Harris up to second in the final rundown. Tony Sansom was third ahead of Rick Wetmore and Critter Saile while Ruffo, Roger Englund, McCormick, Donovan Ponder and Massey completed the top ten.
The Strictly Stock feature became the third of the night to go all the way under green and no one could touch the Ford Probe of Neal Kirby as he won his second consecutive feature by a large margin. Trailing Kirby to the checker were Jessie Cuddy, Glen Rhodes, Ricky Solomon, Jr., Tom Rose and Dan Binda.
Mark "The Ice Man" Hooven topped the Bandolero feature taking the victory over Tanner Cornwell, Matthew Green, Noah Cornman and Michael Held.
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD MAY 15, 2009
Taylor Racing Products Pro-Trucks - Features
Finish Start Car Driver 1 16 15 Cody Blair 2 10 96 Ben Kennedy 3 13 21 Scott Reeves 4 6 18 Zack Jarrell 5 2 04 Doug Samion 6 3 20 Anthony Sergi 7 9 16 Tim Sozio 8 15 121 Andy Leserra 9 5 1 Tommy King 10 7 2S Wayne Schram 11 4 57 Jason Rosarius 12 11 63 Zachary Curtis 13 8 24 Bruce Bennett 14 14 OOH John Hodge 15 12 17 Kenneth Lilley 16 1 49X Louis Potter
Mini Stock - Features
Finish Start Car Driver 1 2 92 Pedie Allison 2 1 51 Jim Erb 3 6 31 David Russell 4 7 99 Matt Perkins 5 4 85 Rex Hollinger 6 5 A1 Rob Reynolds 7 3 78 Mark Avery
Super Stock - Features
Finish Start Car Driver 1 8 64 Billy Cuddy 2 9 52 Bobby Cuddy 3 2 55 Denny Johns 4 6 721 John Bennett 5 4 99 Brent Tyler 6 3 13 Danny Frye 7 11 2 Cody Keeler 8 10 27 Joey White 9 7 32 Jim Erb 10 5 14 Billy Bellflower 11 1 316 Ray Mullis
