Yogi Berra’s famous words “It ain’t over ’til it’s over” rang true Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway after 50 hard laps of Pro Truck racing.
The evening began a bit on the wet side as it took quite awhile to dry the race track following rain showers that drenched the facility from late morning until around 4 pm. However, with clearing skies looming to the east, promoter Rex Guy waited out the long left-over drizzle and the show went on, although just a bit late getting started.
Qualifying for the two headlining classes was scrapped and starting positions for both the 50-lap Pro Truck race and the 40-lapper for the V-8 Bombers were determined by a pill draw. For the trucks it was local driver Cody McDuffie using his front row starting spot to zip out to a comfortable lead at the drop of the green while Michael Goddard, Cody Martell, Becca Monopoli and Danny Anderson settled into some nose-to-tail racing behind him. Monopoli became the first driver to make a move as she passed Martell for third on lap ten. From there it was green flag racing as the trucks became spread out all over the speedway with McDuffie putting laps on a number of drivers before the first caution flag came out on lap 35 as it appeared second-running Goddard got into one of the lapped machines with the result a whole bunch of torn off sheet metal on the right side of his racer. Goddard headed to the pits for repairs and lost a couple of laps but returned just after the restart. McDuffie continued to lead easily trailed by Monopoli, Martell and Anderson. The quartet ran that way until a lap 45 yellow for debris in turn four. Two laps after the restart, Goddard, wo was charging through the field trying to make up lost ground, tangled with the truck of Derek Pugh going down the front stretch sending both hard into the wall with Goddard’s machine getting airborne but fortunately staying on all fours.
Goddard was done for the night but Pugh, despite a lot of damage, managed to return to action. McDuffie led the field back for the final three lap dash to the checker, but as he took the white flag from starter Julian Mullis, his truck suddenly lost power. McDuffie drove to the outside while both Monopoli and Martell had to check up finding themselves in a three-wide predicament. Martell took advantage and dove to the low groove and his and Monoploi’s trucks bumped hard going through turns three and four with Martell gaining the advantage and racing under the checkered flag to the win. It was the first win at Auburndale for the young man from Arcadia but it was his second consecutive Pro Truck victory as Martell won the week previous at Desoto Speedway near Bradenton. Monopoli was a bit upset with Martell’s bump and run but took her second place finish in stride while Anderson parlayed a steady run to a podium finish. Despite his truck looking like a rolling junkyard, Pugh battled back to take fourth just ahead of Dakota Hunt. Rounding out the finishers were Eddie Hartin, Kristin Clements, McDuffie and Goddard.
The 40-lap contest for the V-8 Bombers was pretty much a run-away for James Wright III as he started from the pole and led every lap. Wright’s only problem came from the large number of restarts following caution flags that
dotted the event. The biggest problems took place in turn two where several cars had solo spins during the race. The earlier rains had left the grass soaked just inside the racing surface going into turn one and cars were getting low and kicking water and mud up on the track causing the “loose” conditions for everybody heading into the second corner.
Wright held point after each and every restart and took the checker well in front of Chris Narramore, Jr. who had made a steady run through the field. David Purvis was involved in an early incident and was sent to the rear of the
field but he blasted his way back up to third at the finish trailed by Carl Thompson, Jr. and Aaron Holmes. Completing the finishing order were Danny Burchfield, Eric Burchill, Jody Gill, Bobby Diestler, Glen Swanson and Buddy Phillips, Jr.
Seth Adams and Devin McLeod traded the lead early in the going before Adams took control on lap eight and raced to his second Legend Car win in a row. Adams pulled away to win by several car lengths over McLeod while Dave “Too Tall” Gleason had a fine third place effort. Alan Hiefnar took fourth with Mark Bibeau fifth. Sixth went to Mitch Verhaagh followed by his brother Mike Verhaagh, Dave Fusco, Wild Willie Wilson, Cale Nolen, Joey Langis and Michael Goddard. Langis and Adams won Legend Car heat races. The Mod Mini feature ran green to checker with point leader Chris Spring leading every circuit to score yet another victory. Second heat winner Keith Roggen was running second but spun in turn four on the last lap. Still, Roggen was far enough ahead of most of the field that he recovered to finish fourth behind first heat winner Chuck Frazier and Kristin Clements. Fifth place went to Tyler Simpson ahead of Kenny Uhl, Jr., Rachelle Rudolph, Donnie Ezell, Anthony Lapoint and Scott Bumgardner. Ashton Hunt’s car suffered mechanical ills during warm-ups and she was unable to race during the evening.
Bruce Cozad led the first four laps of the Mini Stock feature but he could not hold back point leader Chris Narramore, Sr. who snared the top spot then raced unchallenged to win number 11 on the year. Cozad claimed the runner-up prize ahead of Fred Martin, heat winner Donald Gatlin and Boogs Fellows. Rounding out the finishers were John Cummins, Jr., Danny Leet and Bud Bronson.
Sporting a new engine under the hood, Kyle Little had a perfect night in the Scramblers leading every lap of both the heat and feature. This race also went green to checker with Little finishing well ahead of a big late-race battle that saw Matt Miller just edge Dustin Wilson for second but both were later disqualified for showing unsportsmanlike conduct. That moved Nicole Green to second followed by Andy Travis, Anthony Carroll, Josh Clouse, William
Kerns, Miller and Wilson.
Jerrell Cook came out on top of a wild red-flag-filled Pro Figure Eight feature leading all the way with constant pressure from veteran Wayne Calkins but Cook was DQ’d in tech handing the win to Calkins. There were several
close calls in the “X” but no major incidents. Preston Davis had a steady run and ended up second in front of Seth Nistok and Jared Meyer. Completing the finishers were Sam Cressman, Tim Burr, Charles Herne, Matt Owen and Cook. Point leader Russell Bush led all the way to win the Mini-Cup feature over heat winner Brey Holmes, However Holmes was set down in tech giving second to Clayton Samuels over third finisher Douglas Herrin, Jr.