by Dave Westerman
It was another great night of racing action at Auburndale Speedway as Kevin Macy topped the Open Wheel Modified field to become the third different winner in three races run so far this year.
Fifteen Modifieds were at the track, but Richie Smith pounded the wall in hot laps after losing a wheel. Smith was OK but his car was on the trailer early. Mechanical ills also kept James Wilkins from competing.
Macy and Keith Lilley won the heat races and lined up on the front row for the feature. Lilley tried hard to make the outside groove work, but Macy held firm and grabbed the lead while James Wright III slipped under Lilley and into second spot.
The race would be a safe one as only one caution for a quick back stretch spin by Jimmy Wilkins slowed the action. Macy, Wright and Lilley ran as if they were glued together the entire 40 lap distance with no one able to make a move on the leader as Macy grabbed the win.
“We didn’t have the fastest car but it was handling great,” said Macy in victory lane. “I really want to thank James and Keith for running me clean, they are great guys to race with,” he continued.
Fourth spot went to Harold Cannon while point leader Wayne Morris was fifth.
Rounding out the top ten were Kyle Bookmiller, Bobby Blake, Shawn Harper, Jimmy Wilkins and Von Pope.
The best race of the night was in the Modified Mini Stocks. Heat winner Scotty Sharpe was looking to bring home a big victory for his grandmother Hazel who was in attendance and celebrating her birthday. Sharpe nearly got the job done, but “close but no cigar” would be the final note here.
Sharpe grabbed the early lead and was looking good holding off the advances of Jason Rendell and Burt Morse until Morse got into Rendell bringing out the caution. Rendell got his spot back while Morse went to the rear of the restart line-up.
Morse began to work his way toward the front as Sharpe continued to hold off Rendell. With five laps to go, Morse caught the lead pair and began running side by side with Rendell for second. With two to go, Rendell slipped high off turn four, bumped with Morse and spun into the infield grass. Now it was Rendell’s turn to restart from the rear while Morse settled in behind Sharpe.
On the final lap, Morse took to the outside lane once more then passed Sharpe for the lead and the win coming off turn four to the checker. A disappointed Sharpe was second with Mike Sweet third. Rendell rebounded for fourth while Mike Allen took fifth.
The Pro Challenge cars made their first appearance of the year and the entire night belonged to Jarrett Snowden of Salt Springs who won both the heat and feature. The heat race was a wild one that saw two drivers, Carlie Lewis and Harvey Johnson, bend their machines up too badly to run the main event. Snowden dominated the 25 laps taking the victory over Paul White, Gene Capps, Randy Glick and Mark Landis.
Fred Harrison, Jr. won his second Mini-Stock feature of the year in wire to wire fashion. Harrison pretty much had things going his way from start to finish after winning his heat race. Chris Narramore, Sr. could only keep the leader in sight as he raced to a runner-up finish while point leader Chris Spring had to do some late-race passing to net third position at the checker. Donnie Guy was fourth trailed by Kevin Steadman.
Jake Perkins continues to have the hot hand in Legend Car competition. Perkins passed heat winner Gerald White, Jr. with two laps to go in their feature race and now has won all three Legend Car features so far this year.
White was second while Dave Gleason drove son Mike’s car to third ahead of Justin Brown and Mason Ketterman.
The Scramblers had their largest field of the year and it was young Ashston Hunt picking up her first win, doing a great job of holding off Gary Brown, Jr. Chad Cutting, Brian Tyre and Richard Brown completed the top five spots. Kim Gullett won the heat race over Hunt giving the girls a 1-2 finish over the guys, but an early race incident forced Gullett to retire from the feature prematurely.
Brandon Duscherer returned to action in the V-8 Bombers and raced off to the win in their 15 lap feature. Larry Chumney held on for second over point leader Josh Borem, Greg Valdez and Andy Harvard.
The Bandolero feature was taken by Cameron White over newcomers Teddy Lively and Andy Metz.
Next Saturday there will be a 25 lap Truck Series race along with Sportsman, Street Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Mini Stocks, Legends, Bandeleros, Dwarf Cars and Kids Club. Also Easter Candy will be given out by the drivers to all of the fans. Racing starts at 7PM. For more information call
863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.
OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 3/27/10:
PRO CHALLENGE:
1-#4 Jarrett Snowden
2-#25 Paul White
3-#8 Gene Capps
4-328 Randy Glick
5-#56 Mark Landis
6-#55 Jordan Martin
7-#1 Jacob Calloway
DNS-#99 Carlie Lewis
DNS-#2 Harvey Johnson
MINI STOCKS:
1-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
2-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
3-#42 Chris Spring
4-#33 Donnie Guy
5-#88 Kevin Steadman
6-#83 Shane Yoder
7-#1 Bill Bell
8-#46 Randy King
9-#4 Marilyn McCrary
10-#2 Dwight Ryals
11-#90 Danny Pearson
12-#89 Shawn Jenkins
13-#53 Everett Wisby
BANDOLEROS:
1-#38 Cameron White
2-#96 Teddy Lively
3-#48 Andy Metz
LEGENDS:
1-#59 Jake Perkins
2-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
3-#17 Dave Gleason
4-#8 Justin Brown
5-#22 Mason Ketterman
6-#59x John Inman
7-#7 Dakota Baggett
8-#83 Danielle Stratton
9-#99 Leroy Moore
DNS-#4R Zach Napoleon
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#9 Ashton Hunt
2-#52 Gary Brown, Jr.
3-#00 Chad Cutting
4-#66 Brian Tyre
5-#62 Richard Brown
6-#71 Dave Canfield
7-#48 Chase Pointer
8-#42 Mike Bauer
9-#28 Kimberly Gullett
DNS-#4 Scott Russ
DNS-#7 Tony Tidwell
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS:
1-#19 Kevin Macy
2-#56 James Wright III
3-#87 Keith Lilley
4-#3 Harold Cannon
5-#98 Wayne Morris
6-#03 Kyle Bookmiller
7-#75 Bobby Blake
8-#00 Shawn Harper
9-#11 Jimmy Wilkins
10-#01 Von Pope
11-#9 Ron Armillei
12-#35 Ron Abney
13-#6 Billy Bechtelheimer
DNS-#76 James Wilkins
DNS-#42 Richie Smith
MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#38 Burt Morse
2-#89 Scott Sharpe
3-#55 Mike Sweet
4-#15 Jason Rendell
5-#33 Mike Allen
6-#07 Bruce Anderson
7-#45 Dennis Jones
8-#09 Jessica Robbins
9-#26 Jimmy Pugh
N/S#44 Mike Lawhorn
N/S#18 Jason Bertsch
V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#42 Brandon Duscherer
2-#96 Larry Chumney II
3-#111 Josh Borem
4-#60 Greg Valdez
5-#17 Andy Harvard
6-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
7-#89 Preston Davis
8-#56 James Wright, Sr.
9-#0 Paul Bookmiller
10-#14 Donnie King
11-#5 Sonny Miles