IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

June 20, 2009 Cooper wins Joslin Memorial at Orlando SpeedWorld by Dave Westerman It was one of those nights at Orlando Speedworld Friday evening as most everybody was looking to the sky for a full moon as the action was wild and crazy culminating with Robbie Cooper "surviving" to win the 50 lap Joslin Memorial for the Modifieds. The race was sponsored by Manheim Auto Auctions of Central Florida. A nice field of 20 open-wheelers made the journey to the track with 17 taking time. Skip Honaker had problems in hot laps but had repairs made to start the race. L.B. Skaggs and Phil Morrison had to fight late-day traffic coming from Florida's West Coast and missed qualifying. They tagged the rear of the field for the 50 lap run. Kurt Jett was the quickest in time trials at 14.335 seconds, just a tick of the watch faster than the 13.336 of Robbie Cooper. Doug Moff, Alan Bruns and Shain Held rounded out the top five in qualifying. The race could have been broadcast as an episode of "Survivor Bithlo" as there were 10 caution flags thrown during the 50 go-rounds plus three more crashes on restarts from those yellow flags. Held jumped out to the early lead only to see Joe Gerard tag the front stretch wall at the end of lap one for the first slow-down. Held led one more lap after the restart before Alan Bruns took charge. Lap five saw caution a second time for a spinning Mike Trocki in turn four. Bruns continued to set a blistering pace as the field actually got in a few green flag laps before David Hite spun on the back stretch during lap sixteen. One lap later, Mark Emberson and Gary Southard locked horns in turn one and Phil Morrison tagged the wall trying to miss them. Southard and Morrison would not return while Emberson made it back out later, but several laps down. Only another lap could be put in the books before a three car tangle in turn one eliminated Matt Jarrett for the rest of the night. Bruns continued to run strong at the head of the field as a ten lap stretch of green flag racing took place before Gerard spun in turn three on lap 29. Robbie Cooper had worked his way to second by this point while a heated battle was going on behind him among no less than six drivers. As Bruns continued to hold off Cooper, Doug Moff and Jason Garver began to really begin a heated battle culminating in the two getting together in turn three. Skip Honaker and Michael Williams were also caught up in the incident. Garver and Williams were done for the evening. The restart was no better as Moff, Gerard and Skaggs crashed coming off turn four with all three too damaged to continue. Cooper put the pedal to the metal on the restart and passed Bruns for the top spot as Bruns began to slip back. Caution flew for debris on lap 41, then Honaker and Held got tangled up on the restart to keep the yellow out. That gave Jerry Symons a good shot at Cooper but he spun going in to turn one on the restart which caused Matt Wheeler and Kurt Jett to hit the wall sending both of them to the pits. Just one lap later, Honaker and Bruns got together to bring out the final caution flag. Honaker's very eventful day was now over while Bruns pitted for some quick repairs and returned to the track although he was nowhere near as fast as he was earlier. Cooper, who absolutely loves racing at Speedworld, easily led the final eight laps to claim the win while Symons blasted back to take second. Chad Pierce had a steady run to pick up the show position with Held and Bruns taking fourth and fifth. David Hite was sixth, a lap down while Mark Emberson was the only other car still running, taking seventh spot. Trocki, Honaker and Jett were credited with eighth through tenth finishing positions. The remaining order of finish saw Wheeler in eleventh followed by Skaggs, Moff, Garver, Williams, Gerard, Jarrett, Southard, Morrison and Ted Head. The Bass Champion Series Pro Challenge cars made their first appearance of the season and had a competitive 35 lap feature that saw only two caution flags for minor spins. Paul White led the first four laps before Jarrett Snowden took over. Despite pressure from Georgia driver Brandon Williamson and the two late caution flags, Snowden led the rest of the way to snag the victory. Williamson took second in front of White, heat winner Daniel Miller, and Howard Brennan. Rounding out the top ten were Michael Smith, Harvey Johnson, David Hall, J.L. Snowden and Gene Capps. You would think with just five cars in the field, the Late Model feature would be a green to checker affair - wrong! Scheduled for fifteen laps, three circuits were actually completed before race officials decided to end the race, mainly because there was only one un-damaged car on the track. Todd Allen grabbed the lead and stayed there for the three laps that were run. At that point the race was being restarted after Alan Bruns and Bobby Good had tangled. Allen then spun out going into turn one collecting everybody but newcomer Chase Fitzgerald. Of the cars in the wreck, only Bruns was able to continue but his car looked like a refugee from a junkyard. At that point, the race was called giving Fitzgerald the win with Bruns second while Chris Gillespie, Good and Allen were credited with third through fifth. Fitzgerald, who hails from Lutz near Tampa was the 2008 Desoto Champ Kart Series champion. He was making his first start at Speedworld and just his second start in a full-bodied stock car. For the second week in a row there was a first-time winner in the Super Stock class. This was another wild affair early on as four cars stacked up in turn three on the opening lap. Last week's winner Brent Tyler was eliminated along with Denny Johns and Cody Keeler. Billy Cuddy, who did a balancing act on Tyler's car, was able to stay in the race. Bobby Cuddy and Butch Herdegen were fighting for the lead when they got together in turn four. Just before the incident, Joe Bandur had left the track trailing water and after the track was checked, both leaders were placed back in front due to track conditions. Cuddy and Herdegen continued their spirited battle before the latter took over to lead the final pair of laps. It was Herdegen's first win at Speedworld in his Manheim's Central Florida Auto Auction Chevrolet. Bobby Cuddy was second while his brother Billy battled back from the earlier crash to take third. Justin Reynolds was fourth and John Bennett fifth. Early leader David Gould slipped to sixth at the finish followed by Jaret Korpi, Bandur, Billy Belflower, Keeler, Johns and Tyler. Zach Harris led the first ten laps of the Legend Car feature and had a good lead on the field when Brandon Thomson's engine blew up in a spectacular fireball on lap seven. That allowed Alex Kempf to move in and he wasted little time taking the top spot on lap eleven. Kempf then sped to what appeared to be his eighth consecutive win. The victory would not hold up in tech though as Kempf was disqualified. That handed the win to young Harris, who just turned fourteen years of age last week. Tony Sansom would finish second trailed by Mason Ketterman, Dave Gleason and Rick Wetmore. Completing the top ten were Ted Ruffo, Critter Saile, Roger Englund, Thomson and Mark Hooven. Jake Perkins had problems in hot laps for the second week in a row and was unable to start the feature. William Hindman took advantage of a tangle between race leaders Tim Walters, Jr. and Jessie Cuddy to claim his second straight Strictly Stock win. Walters battled an ill-handling car to second ahead of Scott Brumfield, Dan Binda, Art Hendren, Cuddy and Michael Dyer. The Bandoleros ran a pair of Regional Qualifying races and both were dominated by youngsters from the Carolinas. Ray Beebe from Fort Mill, SC backed up his heat race win with a wire to wire victory in the Bandit feature. Jonnie Varga was a reasonably close second followed by Tanner Cornwell, Matthew Green, Michael Held, Daniel Conlin, Jr. and Noah Cornman. Mount Pleasant, NC driver Matt Linker also scored a sweep in the Young Guns class as he led all the way to take the checker ahead of Coty Bobeau, Shawn Hooven, Mark Hooven and Danielle Stratton. ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD OFFICIAL RESULTS - 06.19.09 JOSLIN MEMORIAL MODIFIED 50: 1. #98 Robbie Cooper 2. #66 Jerry Symons 3. #38 Chad Pierce 4. #55 Shain Held 5. #4B Alan Bruns 6. #54 David Hite 7. #30 Mark Emberson 8. #86B Mike Trocki 9. #2 Skip Honaker 10. #9 Kurt Jett 11. #96 Matthew Wheeler 12. #71 L.B. Skaggs 13. #46 Doug Moff 14. #27 Jason Garver 15. #40 Michael Williams 16. #330 Joe Gerard, Sr. 17. #72 Matthew Jarrett 18. #39 Gary Southard 19. #63 Phil Morrison 20. #92 Ted Head LATE MODELS: 1. #96 Chase Fitzgerald 2. #4B Alan Bruns 3. #1 Chris Gillespie 4. #19 Bobby Good 5. #55 Todd Allen LEGENDS: 1. #54 Zach Harris 2. #56 Tony Sansom 3. #71 Mason Ketterman 4. #07 Dave Gleason 5. #06 Rick Wetmore 6. #51x Ted Ruffo 7. #12 Critter Saille 8. #51 Roger Englund 9. #4 Brandon Thomson 10. #54x Mark Hooven DNS #05 Daniel Conlin, Sr. DNS #59 Jake Perkins DQ #99 Alex Kempf SUPER STOCK: 1. #51 Butch Herdegen 2. #52 Bobby Cuddy 3. #64 Billy Cuddy 4. #77 Justin Reynolds 5. #721 John Bennett 6. #16 David Gould 7. #4 Jared Korpi 8. #316 Joe Bandur 9. #14 Billy Bellflower 10. #2 Cody Keeler 11. #55 Denny Johns 12. #99 Brent Tyler STRICTLY STOCKS: 1. #89x William Hindman 2. #29 Tim Walters, Jr. 3. #11 Scott Brumfield 4. #27 Dan Binda 5. #37 Art Hendren 6. #05 Jessie Cuddy 7. #32 Michael Dyer BANDOLERO BANDITS: 1. #89 Ray Beebe 2. #2 Jonnie Varga 3. #54 Tanner Cornwell 4. #22 Matthew Green 5. #55 Michael Held 6. #48 Daniel Conlin DQ 30 Noah Cornman BANDOLERO YOUNG GUNS: 1. #06 Matt Linker 2. #65 Coty Bibeau 3. #27 Shawn Hooven 4. #17 Mark Hooven DQ #83 Danielle Stratton Have an opinion on this story? 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