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| Sonny Hughes paces 30 car LLM field at DeSoto | Bradenton,Fla. Sonny "Gumby" Hughes showed his experience on DeSoto Speedways high banks Saturday night by driving to a flag to flag win over 30 other cars and drivers in the Limited Late Model 50 lap feature.....
LLM drivers from all over the state converged on the "South's Fastest Short Track" Saturday night for the speedways 50 lap feature event. Also present were some familiar faces from DeSoto including Mike Abbott, Joe Boyd, Clint Slaggy and Sonny Hughes. It was Joe Boyd #5 that showed the way around the track in qualifying blistering the speedway with a 14.95 second lap (91mph) followed by the #01 of Jeff Wogoman who clocked in at 14.97 sec. But Wogoman was found light going through tech after qualifying and was sent to the rear of the field for the start of the race which made for some exciting racing later on in the event.
When the green dropped it was Hughes#45 and Clint Slaggy in the familiar # 79 battling for the lead with the entire field not far behind. A caution involving #77 Tony Amico, #67 Jimmie Best,#51 Richie Anderson, and the #19x of Frank Parsons brought out the first caution. Anderson and Best headed for the pits with flats and were able to return Amico continued but the night was over early for Parsons.
When the green dropped the field was nose to tail all the way back. #61 Richard Kelley was making some impressive moves and battled up into the top 5 along with him was low qualifier Boyd. The second yellow was brought out by the #21 Ken Gomez who got together with #51 Richie Anderson on the back stretch Gomez going head on into the wall and ending his night early. On the restart the top 4 cars pulled away lead by Hughes with the second pack of cars being lead by Joe Boyd, just when the action was heating up again the 3rd caution was brought out by a spinning Amico. On the greenSlaggy was battling hard to stay with a hard charging Hughes and trying to keep off a very fast Scofield when he lost it bringing out the 4th caution of the race Slaggy was sent to the rear for bringing out the Yellow.
The race underway again and this time it was a 3 car breakaway with the #07 of Jeff Scofield right on the back bumper of Sonny Hughes and the #61 of Kelley tagging right along with them the battle continued for several laps until Kelley dove low in turn three on Scofield for the second spot, just touching him enough to send Scofield into a spin and backwards just kissing the turn four wall bringing out caution number five and resulting in a good running Kelley being put to the rear.
With Kelley being to sent to the back Scofield set his sites on front-runner Hughes trying high and low lines to get by him, and then getting under Hughes going into turn one and giving him just enough of a nudge to send the leader into a spin coming out of turn two in front of the entire field making for some anxious moments but everyone getting by bringing out the sixth yellow and sending an unhappy Scofield to the rear.
The green dropped with 5 laps to go and it was all Sonny Hughes to the end collecting his first DeSoto Checkered Flag of the 2000 season following him across in 2nd was low qualifier Joe Boyd, third went to a hard charging #2 Tom Laurent, fourth was #23 Mike Abbott and rounding out the top five #22 Larry Olstien.18 cars finshed the 30 car slugfest with 16 of the 18 on the lead lap....
Some very scary moments during the first lap of the Legends car feature when the #57f of Doug Longwell (one of the fast qualifiers) flipped in turn 3 smacking the wall while flipping landing up right on his wheels but before he could exit his car the ruptured fuel cell exploded trapping him in his car for what seemed like an eternity while other drivers stopped and came to his aid he escaped the inferno. Although he was able to walk to the ambulance under his own power the BayFlite helicopter was called in taking him to Tampa General for further treatment.
When racing resumed #9 Jimmy Walker showed the speed needed to charge from the rear of the field to take the win #65 Johnny Kay roared across in second, third was the #1 of Rod Sanders, 4th #47 Tim Bagnaw and fifth early leader David Tard #68.
The Allison Legacy feature win went to #33 Wayne Teague jr,second was 19 year old Emily Harkins #23,Andy Chisholm #50 took third.
The Mod-Mini feature was one to remember as #00 of Shaun Ruetimann took the early lead but it was a determined #3 of Matt Watts of Dade City who roared his way to the front and hold off the rest of the field to score his first ever feature event win, second place was #73 Shawn Williams, Shane Cook in the #4 came across the line third, fourth went to early leader #00 Shaun Reutimann and fifth the #88 Ron Woodcock.
The hard driving Sportsman feature started out with a wild crash on the first lap when the field tried to come out of turn four 3 wide with the #11 of Joe Shaver losing a rear bumper but being able to continue. #89 Jimmy Cook jumped out to the lead followed by #18 George Shaver who battled each other the entire race.
Meanwhile behind them was #41 Gus Coorssen and #1 Steve Gainey in a heated battle for the 3rd spot with Gainy bump drafting his way past Coorssen to take the spot and causing him to slip several positions. In the closing laps #18 Shaver, front brakes glowing, gave it everything he had to try and pass Cook, but also had his hands full holding off Gainey and #98 a late charging Lonnie Miller .Thats the way it ended with Cook taking the win,Shaver second, Gainey finishing third, Miller fourth and a #11 Shaver coming back for fifth.
"The Rocket" Teddy Nelson blazed into the winners circle from his sixth starting position on his anniversary with wife Cindy,#72 John Grimm who was on Nelsons bumper for a while was second, a very fast Bill Davis #15 came in third, #32 Ronnie Skipper(who also competed in and finished 13th the LLM race) was fourth and #9x of Brent Yoder followed across in fifth.
The Fender crunching Street Stocks were up next and after the smoke had cleared #42Dennis Wilson jr. had banged and powered his way to another feature win, #9 Ben Kelly who had led from the drop of the green before being passed by Wilson finished second, Dale"The Rock" Reigle #5 survived for third, Rich Clouser #8 took fourth and #95 Wallace Ramsey fifth.
Howard "Cowboy" Higgins #7 was the winner in the Pure Stock Division, #56 Gary Flynn second, Troy Davis #57 third, #3 Peggy Hurst followed in fourth and #68 Gary McFall rounded out the top five.
Mini-Stock feature winner was #70 Tony Elrod jr.,#30 Jesse Dutilly hung for second, Arlin Pope #98 charged his way up to take third, #95 Clay Joseph took a solid fourth and Danny Poling #68 was your fifth place car.
Over a 140 cars were in the pits for Saturday nights action and with 30 Limited Late Models it was an exciting night of racing for all........from Bradenton...Rick Anges
Limited Late Models
1. #45 SONNY HUGHES, BRADENTON
2. #5 JOE BOYD, RIVERVIEW
3. #2 TIM LAURENT,
4. #23 MIKE ABBOTT, ARCADIA
5. #22 LARRY OSTEEN, CLERMONT
6. #96 MICHAEL KING,
7. #1 JOHN JACKSON, ELLENTON
8. #37 JOHN SHIELDS, BRADENTON
9. #79 CLINT SLAGGY, BRADENTON
10. #36 TOMMY YOUNKMAN, SARASOTA
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
1. #17 TEDDY NELSON, PINELLAS PARK
2. #72 JOHN GRIMM, SEFFNER
3. #15 BILL DAVIS, WAUCHULA
4. #32 RONNIE SKIPPER,
5. #9X BRENT YODER, SARASOTA
6. #22 CALEB RESCHAR, PALMETTO
7. #67 ROCCO RANNALLO, BRADENTON
8. #52 STEVE HAUSER JR, PARRISH
9. #27 TOM TROYER, BRADENTON
10. #98 MARK WILKINS,
SPORTSMAN
1. #89 JIMMY COOK, SARASOTA
2. #18 GEORGE SHAVER, ARCADIA
3. #1 STEVE GAINEY, BRADENTON
4. #11 JOE SHAVER, ARCADIA
5. #98 LONNY MILLER, BRADENTON
6. #97 BRIAN TEETERS, PALMETTO
7. #21 JAMES CARTER,
8. #41 GUS COORSSEN, SARASOTA
9. #86 JEFF ANDERSON, BRADENTON
10. #03 BARRY CARLSON, LARGO
STREET STOCK
1. #42 DENNIS WILSON JR, BRADENTON
2. #9 BEN KELLY, NORTH PORT
3. #5 DALE REIGLE, SARASOTA
4. #8 RICH CLOUSER, GRANT, FL
5. #95 WALLACE RAMSEY, BRADENTON
6. #19 JOEY BARNES, BRADENTON
7. #21 MARK CHAPMAN, SARASOTA
8. #77 SCOTT WOODLAND, BRADENTON
9. #67 SHAWN BEST, SARASOTA
10. #99 BRENT LOUISO, SARASOTA
PURE STOCK
1. #7 HOWARD HIGGINS, ARCADIA
2. #56 GARY FLYNN, PALMETTO
3. #57 TROY DAVIS, BRADENTON
4. #3 PEGGY HURST, SARASOTA
5. #68 GARY MCFALL, VENICE
6. #4 MARK PICKELSIMER, BRADENTON
7. #20 GREG BANACH, BRADENTON
8. #6 DANNY ANDERSON, BRADENTON
MODIFIED MINI
1. #3 MATT WATTS, DADE CITY
2. #73 SHAWN WILLIAMS, KATHLEEN, FL
3. #4 SHANE COOK, DADE CITY
4. #00 SHAUN REUTIMANN, ZEPHYRHILLS
5. #88 RON WOODCOCK, RIVERVIEW
6. #43 WAYNE MILLER, BRADENTON
7. #1 BILLY CARLBERT JR,
8. #7 STEVE MARTIN, PINELLAS PARK
9. #98 MIKE MITRISIN, BROOKSVILLE
10. #63 ANDY WHITTED, SARASOTA
MINI STOCK
1. #70 TONY ELROD JR, KATHLEEN
2. #30 JESSE DUTILLY, BRADENTON
3. #98 ARLIN POPE, BRADENTON
4. #95 CLAY JOSEPH, BRADENTON
5. #68 DANNY POLING, SARASOTA
6. #4 TOMMY HUFFSTUTLER, BRADENTON
7. #92 JEFF GUILBAULT, PALMETTO
8. #14 JON BAILEY, ST. PETERSBURG
9. #22 SHANE WHITBECK, SARASOTA
10. #11X CURTIS LAM, SARASOTA
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