by Dave Westerman
Another huge crowd of fans enjoyed yet another action-packed night at Auburndale Speedway with the School Bus Figure 8 event the icing on the racing cake.
Veteran driver Eddie Hartin picked up a ride in the Street Stock class a few weeks ago and he finally had his new mount working to perfection Saturday night as he took a very popular win.
Hartin and Brandon Duscherer topped the heats and made up the front row for the 20 lap feature with Duscherer grabbing the early lead. Duscherer was battling a loose racer and Hartin wasted little time asserting himself out front by lap four. From there it was simply a battle for second place as Hartin streaked away to the victory. Duscherer held off Jeff Waterman for second but it was all for naught as Duscherer’s car came up light on the scales and he was disqualified.
Waterman thus moved up to second in the finishing order trailed by Kyle Hall, Dave Colpritt and Kyle Peters, who was making his first start of the year.
Duscherer gained a bit of revenge by dominating the V-8 Bomber feature race as well as making it through the tech shed unscathed.
After winning the heat, Duscherer was pretty much in control of the feature from green to checker despite having to wait out a lengthy red flag period late in the going after Larry Chumney blew the engine in his car dumping fluid all over the track.
James Wright II took runner-up honors ahead of Paul Bookmiller and Josh Borem. So many cars had dropped out before his engine blew that Chumney still finished fifth.
The best race of the night had to be the Mini Stock feature. Heat winner Chris Narramore, Sr. took the early lead but ran side by side for many laps with Fred Harrison, Jr. with Harrison actually leading on a couple of occasions by a mere bumper.
Narramore managed to get the top spot but had to hold off both Harrison and Chris Spring in a crowd-pleasing finish that had the fans applauding vigorously after the checker fell.
It was Narramore’s second win of the year while point leader Harrison settled for second in front of Spring. Young Jason Swilley had his best finish since moving into the class from the Kids Club in fourth while James Pate had a great run for fifth.
Burt Morse ran off and hid from the rest of the field in the Modified Mini Stock 25 lap run. The race ran from green to checker without a caution as Morse was in a different zip code by the finish.
Jason Rendell was a distant second just ahead of Scotty Sharpe while Mike Sweet and Chad Rose claimed fourth and fifth.
Legend Car point leader Jake Perkins had a tough weekend. After destroying his car in a bad crash Friday night in Orlando, Perkins borrowed a car from fellow racer Dakota Baggett for the Saturday races here.
Perkins seemed to be in pretty good shape as he won his heat race and had a front row start for the 25 lap feature outside first heat winner Gerald White, Jr. but after a false start, something broke on Perkins’ car and he was towed to the pits as his “weekend to forget” ended with a last place finish.
For White, it was finally time for the Lakeland Youngster to shine as he led all the way to take the win, his first of the year. Justin Brown gave chase but White pulled away late in the going with Brown taking second trailed by Mason Ketterman, Dave Gleason and Zach Napoleon.
Only two Bandoleros were still around after hot laps with Ryan Shattuck getting his second win of the year with Cameron White second.
The final event of the night was the School Bus Figure 8 race which saw several different leaders before Danny Taylor pulled away for the win.
Although there were a few close call in the “X,” the worst incident of the event came when a fuel line broke on Robert Aaron’s bus with the engine compartment erupting in flames. Several fire exinguishers were needed before the fire was finally put out.
Gary Swing trailed Taylor to the checker with Mark Carraro taking third spot.
Next week the Late Models return to Auburndale Speedway for a 100 lap event paying $3,000 to win. Also racing will be the Mini Cups, Kids Club, Legends, Bandoleros, Mini Stocks, Scramblers, V-8 Bombers, and Sportsman. Qualifying is at 5:30PM and racing starts at 7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.
OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 4/10/10:
SCHOOL BUS FIGURE 8: (Top 4)
1-#19 Danny Taylor
2-#701 Gary Swing
3-#100 Mark Carraro
4-#40 Bobby Gordon
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#88 Gene Harrison
2-#8 Richie Acres
3-#66 Brian Tyre
4-#36 Todd Morey
5-#51 Matt Johns
6-#4 Scott Russ
7-#7 Tony Tidwell
8-#62 Richard Brown
9-#84 Ron Sorensen, Jr.
10-#71 Dave Canfield
11-#42 Mike Bauer
12-#00 Chad Cutting
13-#98 Ronald Norman
14-#28 Kimberly Gullett
15-#52 Gary Brown
DNS #9 Terry Shaver
STREET STOCKS:
1-#48 Eddie Hartin
2-#42 Jeff Waterman
3-#17 Kyle Hall
4-#4 Dave Colpritt
5-#53 Kyle Peters
6-#65 Ken Lawrence
7-#5 Matt McCrary
8-#52 Mike Rowland
9-#44 Mark Waterman
10-#1 Zach Zellner
11-#45 Joe Dowdy
DNS #25 Cody McDuffie
DNS #21 Chris Narramore Jr
DQ #26 Brandon Duscherer
MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#38 Burt Morse
2-#15 Jason Rendell
3-#89 Scott Sharpe
4-#55 Mike Sweet
5-#0 Chad Rose
6-307 Bruce Anderson
7-#26 Jimmy Pugh
8-#8 John Markovich
9-#45 Dennis Jones
10-#09 Jessica Robbins DNS #85 Drew Carter V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#42 Brandon Duscherer
2-#56 James Wright II
3-#0 Paul Bookmiller
4-#111 Josh Borem
5-#96 Larry Chumney, Sr.
6-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
7-#1 David Fletcher
8-#105 Albert Phillips, Sr.
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MINI STOCKS:
1-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
2-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
3-#42 Chris Spring
4-#40 Jason Swilley
5-#155 James Pate
6-#33 Donnie Guy
7-#88 Kevin Steadman
8-#4 Marilyn McCrary
9-#46 Randy King
10-#55 Steve Routt
11-#10 Michael Foster
LEGEND CARS:
1-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
2-#8 Justin Brown
3-#71 Mason Ketterman
4-#07 Dave Gleason
5-#4R Zach Napoleon
6-#31 Lynn Wiles
7-#55 Doug Hall
8-#44 Gary Verdier
9-#7 Dakota Baggett
10-#51 Roger Englund
11-#99 Leroy Moore
12-#83 Danielle Stratton
13-#59 Jake Perkins
BANDOLEROS:
1-#13 Ryan Shattuck
2-#38 Cameron White