IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

November 16, 2009 DUNKIN TAKES AUBURNDALE SPORTSMAN WIN - MORRIS HOLDS ON FOR CHAMPIONSHIP by Dave Westerman Saturday night was the final race of the year for the Sportsman cars at Auburndale Speedway and ageless veteran Dave Dunkin did everything he could but it was young Brandon Morris hanging on to win the 2009 Sportsman track championship. Dunkin won the heat race and earned the pole for the feature while Morris' crew found an oil leak that was not deemed fixable before feature time. Morris started scratch on the field and ran two laps with a smoking car before pulling off track. Dunkin, who has so many laps around the Auburndale quarter-mile he could run a race blindfolded, led all 25 laps to score the win although Richard Elkins, Jr. made him work for it before settling for the runner-up spot. Jason Stifle ran third ahead of Sam Cressman and Chuck Harrison. Morris was credited with ninth spot giving him the 2009 Sportsman title by just eight points over Dunkin. Fred Harrison, Jr. extended his point lead in the Mini Stocks while the second place driver in points, Chris Spring, struggled all night with what was determined to be a problem with water in his fuel. After Eugene Davidson led the opening two laps, Harrison took over and set the pace the remaining 18 laps to take the win and extend his point lead over Spring who sputtered to an eighth place finish. Davidson was second with Donnie Guy, Dwight Ryals and Josh Borem rounding out the top five. At the end of the night, all Mini Stock competitors who had not won a feature so far this year got a chance to race among themselves for a nice trophy and some bragging rights. Dwight Ryals came out on top of a rather wild race that saw all kinds of craziness on the final lap before Jordan Spring snuck by for second ahead of John Gula, Josh Borem and Bill Bell. Street Stock action saw Bobby Mobley back in victory lane. After winning the heat, Mobley went wire to wire for the feature checker finishing well ahead of a great battle for second that eventually went to Dave Colpritt over James Wright III. Kyle Hall was fourth and Josh Todd fifth. The Legends Car feature was a real barn-burner after a very hectic heat race. Despite an early race tangle that left him a bit shaken, Justin Brown came back to win the heat while two of the top shoes, Gerald White, Jr. and Jake Perkins did not finish and had to start the night cap from the back row. Brown led the first nine laps from the pole but gave way to Tyler Smith who led until lap 20 when Brown again grabbed the lead. But White was on the move and snatched the top spot from Brown on lap 22 leading the rest of the way to take the win over Smith, Brown, Perkins and Dave Gleason. Brian Harbin won his second straight V-8 Bomber feature in dominating fashion over Alan Seay, Greg Valdez and Paul Bookmiller while the Scrambler win went to George Gorham, Jr. in front of Matt McCrary, Matt Johns, Chad Cutting and Richard Brown. Cutting had his grandfather, legendary racer Will Cagle, on hand to watch him race. After heat winner Danielle Stratton and Coty Bibeau tangled while battling for the lead, Jonnie Varga took advantage and zipped to the Bandolero feature win. Cameron White was second ahead of Bibeau and Stratton. OFFICIAL RESULTS - AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY - 11/14/09: SPOERSMAN: 1-#71 Dave Dunkin 2-#55 Richard Elkins, Jr. 3-#38 Jason Stifle 4-#97 Sam Cressman 5-#22 Chuck Harrison 6-#60 Richard Fiore 7-#13 Mark Medeiros 8-#92 Paul Colgan 9-#56 Brandon Morris DNS#2 Austin Carr BANDOLEROS: 1-#2 Jonnie Varga 2-#38 Cameron White 3-#65 Coty Bibeau 4-#83 Danielle Stratton DNS#1 Mark Bibeau LEGEND CARS: 1-#38 Gerald White, Jr. 2-#4 Tyler Smith 3-#8 Justin Brown 4-#59 Jake Perkins 5-#17 Dave Gleason 6-#06 Rick Wetmore 7-#55 Doug Hall 8-#51 Roger Englund 9-#90 Cody Johnson V-8 BOMBERS: 1-#29 Brian Harbin 2-#2 Alan Seay 3-#60 Greg Valdez 4-#0 Paul Bookmiller STREET STOCKS: 1-#29 Bobby Mobley 2-#4 Dave Colpritt 3-#56 James Wright III 4-#55 Kyle Hall 5-#891 Josh Todd 6-#6 Ken Abney 7-#88 Larry Braswell 8-#3 Kevin O'Quinn DNS#42 Jeff Waterman MINI STOCKS: 1-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr. 2-#5 Eugene Davidson 3-#33 Donnie Guy 4-#2 Dwight Ryals 5-#11 Josh Borem 6-#1 Bill Bell 7-#53 Sonny Miles 8-#42 Chris Spring 9-#9 John Gula 10-#8 Jordan Spring 11-#20 Ben Uhl MINI STOCK NON-WINNERS RACE: 1-#2 Dwight Ryals 2-#8 Jordan Spring 3-#9 John Gula 4-#11 Josh Borem 5-#1 Bill Bell 6-#53 Sonny Miles 7-#20 Ben Uhl SCRAMBLERS: 1-#10 George Gorham, Jr. 2-#5 Matt McCrary 3-#51 Matt Johns 4-#00 Chad Cutting 5-#62 Richard Brown Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or Email KARNACto send a letter to the editor!