IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

November 24, 2009 BOOKMILLER WINS THE RACE - POPE TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP IN MODIFIEDS AT AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY It was the final night of racing for several classes for the 2009 season at Auburndale Speedway and the race teams were out in force to do battle on a beautiful night for racing weatherwise for late November. Seventeen Open Wheel Modifieds signed in for their final event of the year with Von Pope assured of the 2009 track title simply by starting the feature event. After Billy Bechtelheimer and Harold Cannon claimed heat race wins, the cars lined up for their 40 lap feature with Kyle Bookmiller on the pole and he wasted little time grabbing a lead he would never relinquish. The race was a safe one with plenty of green flag racing. In fact, the only major incident occuring on the final lap that cost Ted Head a top ten finish. Bookmiller led all the way and was never seriously challenged as the race for second on back was heated throughout before Bobby Blake prevailed for the runner-up spot ahead of Cannon, James Wilkins and Tommy Schnader. "It's all where you start these races at Auburndale because it's so hard to pass here," said Bookmiller in victory lane. "I just got out front and drove my race. I knew it would be tough for anyone to get by me," he added. Bookmiller became just the second driver to win a pair of features in the highly-competitive division. Keith Lilley turned the trick early in the season but had to settle for a sixth place finish on this night. Pope finished seventh and used consistency to cruise to the season-long championship despite not winning a feature race. Pope's teammate David Grogan took eighth followed by Bechtelheimer and Travis Roland. Fred Harrison, Jr. came into the final Mini Stock race of the season with a reasonably comfortable 30 point advantage over Chris Spring. Both won their heat races and started side by side on row one for the feature. Harrison jumped out to an early lead but Spring was determined to do what he needed to do and grabbed the top spot on lap five. Spring's only hope would be that something would happen to Harrison's car but it was not going to be as Harrison settled into second and finished there to nab the 2009 point title. In a great jesture of sportsmanship, after his victory lap, Spring met up with Harrison at the pit entrance and handed him the checkered flag so Harrison could also take a victory turn around the Speedway. It was Springs sixth win of the year. Eugene Davidson crossed the stripe in third but was set down for a rules infraction in tech allowing Donnie Guy to finish in the show position. Bill Bell was fourth and Josh Borem fifth. Completing the top ten were Nathan Florian, Sonny Miles, Kenny Uhl, Jr., Jordan Spring and Tracy Maynard. The Legend Car field was swelled by several drivers who had not been at the track for some time. In fact, ARCA and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer Bryan Silas took his Legend out of mothballs to "have a little fun." It was not just the first time Silas had raced at Auburndale, it was the first time he'd ever seen the place. Despite a number of solid challengers, it was local driver Gerald White, Jr. leading flag to flag for yet another feature win. Two-time PBG tour champion Kory Abbott was racing for the first time since winning the Montana State Championship a few months back. Abbott quickly stormed to second but could never find a way to challenge White. 2009 Legend Car track champion Justin Brown finished a strong third trailed by Devin McLeod and Jake Perkins. Dave Gleason, Rick Wetmore, Silas, Doug Hall and Gary Verdier rounded out the top ten. White and Brown won the heats. As has been the case all year, Johnathan Guy dominated a nice field of Dwarf Cars winning both the heat and feature in convincing fasion and adding to his already insurmountable point lead. Guy finished about a half lap in front of Sonny O'Sullivan who just edged John Godwin for second. Larry Hubbard III and Larry Hubbard, Jr. were fourth and fifth while Roger Richmond, Robert Johnson, Matt McCrary, Johnny Bass and Dan Statter were sixth through tenth. Later in the evening, all the drivers (other than Guy) were invited to participate in a non-winners race with Guy's car owner, known only as "The Ancient Alvin" taking over the reins of the "Silver Bullett" and quickly finding out it's not as easy as it looks. Godwin took the win after a nice battle with O'Sullivan. Richmond was third with "Alvin" coming back for fourth and Johnny Bass fifth. By the way, Bass is the same Johnny Bass who was the flag man for several years at Orlando Speedworld and New Smyrna Speedway. "Guess I'm just getting too old to know any better," he said before the races. James Crawford had a great night in the V-8 Bombers winning both the heat and feature in easy fashion in his Oldsmobile. Steve Osteen to over point champion Johnny Clark's car and raced to second spot in the feature followed by Paul Bookmiller, Eddie Davis and Derrick Trocke. Once again, young Jason Swilley finished first in the Scrambler feature but was not scored as he is still technically a member of the Kids Club class. That gave the win for the night to Matt Johns who did a great job holding off Chad Cutting and Melissa McCrary. Cutting won the heat. Cameron White won the Bandolero heat but Danielle Stratton won the feature race. Stratton will be moving up to the Legend Cars in 2010. OFFICIAL RESULTS - AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY - 11/21/09: MINI STOCKS: 1-#42 Chris Spring 2-#21 Fred Harrison Jr 3-#33 Donnie Guy 4-#1 Bill Bell 5-#11 Josh Borem 6-#26 Nathan Florian 7-#53 Sonny Miles 8-#20 Kenny Uhl 9-#8 Jordan Spring 10-#60 Tracy Maynard 11-#24 Larry Hallam 12-#2 Dwight Ryals DQ#90 Danny Pearson DQ#5 Eugene Davidson V-8 BOMBERS: 1-#30 James Crawford 2-#80 Steven O'Steen 3-#0 Paul Bookmiller 4-#05 Eddie Davis 5-#33 Derrick Trocke 6-#60 Greg Valdez 7-#2 Alan Seay 8-#1 David Fletcher 9-#49 Jared Meyer DNS-#08 James Wolfe OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED: 1-#03 Kyle Bookmiller 2-#75 Bobby Blake 3-#3 Harold Cannon 4-#76 James Wilkins 5-#19 Tommy Schnader 6-#87 Keith Lilley 7-#102 Von Pope 8-#101 David Grogan 9-#6 Billy Bechtelheimer 10-#011 Travis Roland 11-#53 Doug Miller 12-#01x Curtis Newman 13-#74 Ken Helms 14-#92 Ted Head 15-#62 John Markovich 16-#35 Ron Abney DQ#51 Colin Cabre BANDOLEROS: 1-#83 Danielle Stratton DQ#38 Cameron White LEGEND CARS: 1-#38 Gerald White, Jr. 2-#5 Kory Abbott 3-#8 Justin Brown 4-#21 Devin McLeod 5-#59 Jake Perkins 6-#17 Dave Gleason 7-#06 Rick Wetmore 8-#57 Bryan Silas 9-#55 Doug Hall 10-#44 Gary Verdier 11-#47 Eric Eichelberger 12-#51 Roger Englund 13-#4 Zach Napoleon DWARF CARS: 1-#42 Jonathan Guy 2-#0 Sonny O'Sullivan 3-#00 John Godwin 4-#77 Larry Hubbard III 5-#56 Larry Hubbard, Jr. 6-#33 Roger Richmond 7-#72 Robert Johnson 8-#9 Matt McCrary 9-#68 Johnny Bass 10-#0Z Dan Statter 11-#59 Bo Bass SPECIAL FEATURE FOR NON-WINNERS: #00 John Godwin SCRAMBLERS: 1-#51 Matt Johns 2-#00 Chad Cutting 3-#5 Melissa McCrary 4-#62 Richard Brown DQ#28 Kimberly Gullett Have an opinion on this story? 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