July 17, 1999                                                by Rick Anges

    Dempsey Flies to Musgrave 100 Win
         
Dwayne Dempsey overcame a loose race car and avoided the crashes to take his third Leo Musgrave Memorial 100 trophy Saturday night in an action filled race at Sunshine "ACTION" Speedway. Twenty-seven Late Models started the annual event.
        
On the drop of the green it was Dempsey #55 and the #82 of Denny Neighbor, Jr. running for the top spot and when Dempsey slid coming out of turn 4 it was Neighbor taking the early lead. Then on lap 4, with the field up to full speed, #97 Gary Seymore appeared to have broke something, hit the front stretch wall and stopped near the flag stand.  Meanwhile the rest of the field was coming out of 4 and the #6 of Billy Bechtelhiemer slammed full
bore into the rear of Seymore with an explosive thud in one of the hardest crashes I have ever seen in a short track race. The amazing Sunshine crew was right on the wreck and within minutes. Bechtelhiemer crawled from his destroyed race car unscathed.

The #0 of low qualifier Dave Pletcher tried to avoid the wreck but was caught up in it anyway and was done for the evening. 
The #73 Billy "the kid" Mowery was also involved but came away with only minor body damage. There were a few tense moments as the fuel cell on the #97 was punctured and fuel was leaking on the track but the ever present Sunshine "Action" Broom Crew was right there and averted a major incident.

When the green flag dropped again it was Dempsey and Neighbor going at it again but this time all the way back to 12th was bunched up behind them, all racing for the lead. # 53 Richard Till caught up to the two leaders and the three started pulling away from the pack.

Meanwhile David L. Pletcher in the #51 roared his way up from 16th starting position to run with #19 Tommy Schnader,  #22 Sammy Coghill and #69 Johnny Stanford along with others to battle for the top 5 spots. Moving inside Dempsey finally got by Neighbors and roared into the top spot. Then while racing for the 2nd spot Nieghbors got hooked up with a lapped car and was forced into the infield coming out in turn 2 in front of the rest of the field collecting several of the front runners and sending him
to the back of the pack.

When the field was realigned it was "Slammin" Sammy Coghill all over the tail of the leader. The racing was hot and heavy all
over the track with positions being swapped right and left all race long. The leaders avoided another disaster when 2 lapped cars nearly crashed coming out of the 2nd turn sending them scrambling in all directions but none hitting anything.

#69 Johnny Stanford was making some great strides towards the front but when the #77 of Tony Amico spun in front of him Standford had no where to go but the front stretch wall crunching the front end of his car and ending his charge for the night.

#1 Wayne Jefferson came up and made it a great 3 way war for the lead but Dempsey made the rear end of his Dodge wide enough that neither Jefferson or Coghill could get by. With Coghill and Jefferson in a heated battle for the 2nd spot Dempsey was able to pull away and take the win. Coghill and Jefferson came across nearly side by side with Sammy taking  the spot, #5 Brian Leverock who ran a great race starting in the 18th position came across the line 4th and #53 Richard Till after some earlier bad
luck managed to come back and finish in the 5th spot.

When Mr. Musgrave built the track and opened it in 1960 he could
have never imagined the sheer horse power that would someday roar around his 1/4 mile track. He had to have looked down last night and smiled because his daughter Bonnie and her husband Frank and their great crew provided a great night of entertainment for all in attendance.

With a great car count and lots of action there is plenty of "BANG" for your buck here! Thanks to Bill Green and everyone who made Jack and my trip to Sunshine Speedway a great success......We'll be back!!!........

        From Sunshine "Action"Speedway..........RickAnges
                           Top Finishers From Sunshine   

Don't forget to catch "Short Track USA" with Bill Green every Saturday morning from 10 am to Noon on 620 am WUSA.