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| Bruce Everett to be Honored during SpeedWorld Racing this Weekend | By Dave Westerman
Orlando Speedworld begins the second week of the 2006 season by honoring an old friend and competitor Friday night as the first annual Bruce Everett Memorial will be run for the Super Late Models.
The race was originally set to be "A Tribute To Bruce Everett" when it was initially planned late last year, but Everett passed away following a long bout with cancer before his special race could be run.
Everett was a fixture both at Speedworld and sister track New Smyrna Speedway for many seasons, making the long tow from Odessa (near Tampa) using nothing but an old Chevy Monte Carlo towing an open trailer.
He refurbished his "world's oldest Late Model" in the late 90's and painted it a Hershey Bar brown color, earning the car the nickname "Chocolate Thunder." There is a strong possibility that this car may actually be at Speedworld Friday night if arrangements can be made.
The event will be the first for the Super Late Model class for 2006 and will go 50 laps. Everett used to love Clyde Hart's 50 lap "End of the Month" Late Model races as he'd run a steady race, stay out of trouble while others crashed and burned, then usually end up with a top five finish.
Former Super Late Model racer Bobby Lyons, who himself is fighting health problems, will be the Grand Marshall for the event that will pay tribute to a guy he himself raced against many times.
Also on tap Friday night will be the Open Wheel Modifieds, Mini Stocks, Sportsman, Super Stocks, Strictly Stocks and Junior Stocks. plus there will be a drifting exhibition put on by Shiftlock.com who are sponsoring a big drifter competition at the track on Sunday.
After a wild first Saturday night, the Legends Cars return to action along with the Bandeleros, Hurricanes and Junior Stocks. The Florida Mini Cup Racing Association will take to the track for the first time for the 2006 regular season Saturday night as well.
SPEEDWORLD NOTES:
Not All the news this week has been good. Ron Cottrell, who operated his roll-back wrecker at the track and was jokingly referred to as "Rapid Ron," passed away late last week due to complications from diabetes. Ron's son-in-law, Scott Ponder, drives the track rail buggy each week. Ponder will not be at the speedway this weekend as Cottrell's funeral will be held out of state. Butch Carr, Jr. will fill in during Ponder's absence. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.
Don Crites, a fixture at Speedworld for many years and a multi-time champion and race winner, is also having a tough time health-wise. Crites has had one of his lungs removed and got home last week after a 45 day stay in the hospital. Crites' family has insurance, but it doesn't come close to covering everything. A fund has been established at the track to help the family with expenses and the 50/50 raffle will be used to help the family as well during the next month.
One of the big surprises at Wednesday night's practice was the return of veteran driver Pete Starr with a new Sportsman machine. Starr has been toying with karts for awhile but has decided to return to the stock car wars. Starr's return only adds to an extremely competitive group of Sportsman drivers.
Young Brian Silas certainly had a weekend to remember. In his very first heat race in his Volusia County Racecars Sportsman, he came home in first place. Silas got shuffled back early in the feature, but recovered for a strong third place finish. Then Saturday night, he won his Legends Car heat in a photo finish before having a rather eventful feature race. Silas got spun sideways by another car on the opening lap and became part of a huge mess that knocked out several cars. Undaunted, Silas hopped in a back-up car he wasn't expecting to race, managed to avoid all the other wrecks and came home sixth.
Silas actually got "one-upped" a bit by Darin Coker. Coker was involved in the first two big wrecks, made two pit stops, stayed on the lead lap and raced back to fourth despite missing most of his fenders.
The new Junior Stock divisions got off to a decent start Friday night and the class is already growing by leaps and bounds with several new drivers practicing and getting registered on Wednesday night.
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