by Dave Westerman
Late Model race fans finally get their chance to see the high-speed machines in action one again as they headline an eight division racing program Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway. The race will be the final event drivers can run to qualify for the extra prize money being put up for the final Late Model race of the season on October 16th. Posted awards for that race now top $22,000.
Jeff Scofield has got a decent hold on the Late Model point lead, currently 101 points ahead of second place Kevin Ingram. The point race behind Scofield is tight though as Ingram, Perry Lovelady, Ryan Lisak and Jason Vail all are within 43 points of each other. Expect a big group of Late Model machines, many which haven’t run at Auburndale so far this year, to be on hand getting qualified for the big October race.
Along with the Late Models, the Legend Cars return to action as do the Mini Cup cars. The Sportsman, Street Stocks, Scramblers, Bandoleros and Kids Club round out Saturday’s huge race card.
The Legend Car class has been off for two weeks and the drivers will be chomping at the bit since their Regional Qualifier was rained out last week in South Florida. The Legends also have a new point leader in “No Brake” Jake Perkins of Ocala who snatched the top spot from Gerald White, Jr. three weeks ago. Perkins’ lead over White is a slim eight points as the two young drivers will be the ones to battle it out for the 2010 crown. 2009 champion Justin Brown is in third but 88 markers behind the leader. New Legend Car teams continue to be formed and Russ Thomson of Legend Cars of Florida expects fields for the remainder of the year to top out over 20 cars per week.
The Mini Cup racers always put on a wild show and after nearly two months since their last Auburndale race, they will definitely be ready to put the “pedal to the metal.” Georgia driver John Beach currently holds the point lead by eight over Rick Ragan. Ragan is just 14 markers ahead of Harold Crooms (who doesn’t have a ride rght now) while Tyler Scofield is fourth in points, 20 behind Crooms. Look for a big field of the fast little machines with drivers like Brandon Beach, Cole Partelo, Cindarae Irish, Dale Pulst, and both Rick Cline, Senior and Junior all in action along with a host of others.
Despite a rough outing last time, veteran shoe Dave Dunkin still holds on to a 22 point advantage over Mark Medeiros in the Sportsman point chase. The ultimate run for the championship will come down to that pair as third place Brandon Duchscherer is over 200 points behind Medeiros.
Another good run by Jeff Waterman allowed him to gain just a bit of ground on Street Stock point leader Matt McCrary who was among a host of drivers who ended up with a DNF last week in the Street Stock feature. McCrary still leads Waterman by 36 headed into this weeks action. Dave Colpritt is still third, but engine woes in practice last week have pretty much dropped him from contention for the point title. Interestingly enough, point leader Mccrary has yet to score a feature win while James Wright III picked up his eighth victory last week but is only fourth in points because he has sat out virtually half the races this year to enjoy his other love… hunting.
Although rain curtailed the Scrambler feature last week, Kim Gullett opened up her point lead over Brian Tyre who was a no-show to the track last week. Gullett earned points by finishing second in the heat race and now holds a 14 point edge over Tyre. Richard Brown is solidly in third place in points but trails Tyre by 54 points.
Open practice will be Thursday evening from 5-8 PM plus the Late Models will have a special practice on Friday evening from 4-11 PM. For more information, call Rex Guy at 863-287-4344.
Saturday, pit gates open at 2PM and grandstand gates open at 5PM. All classes will qualify this week starting at 7PM, or possibly earlier depending on the number of cars present. Plan to get to the track early as a large crowd is expected. Auburndale Speedway DOES NOT raise ticket prices for special events. Adult admission is the regular $12 and Seniors are admitted for $10. Kids 5-12 get in for $5 and all children age 4 and under are free. A family four-pack (two adults – two kids 5-12) is $25. Wear your new Auburndale Speedway T-shirt and get $2 off your admission!!
For the second consecutive week, “Lindsey’s Little Racers” will be giving away another pair of bicycles thanks to the generosity of our fans and Truck racer Jim Cowhey, Jr. and his wife Lauri of All Compressor & Equipment, Inc. out of Tampa. Two large “prize packs” will also be given out courtesy Martha Nemechek and NEMCO Racing.
Points as of September 11, 2010:
LATE MODELS:
1-#07 Jeff Scofield 483 (2 wins)
2-#21 Kevin Ingram 382
3-#50 Perry Lovelady 369
4-#17 Ryan Lisak 348
5-#407 Jason Vail 339
6-#49 Ron Lofquist 332
7-#36 Tim Russell 303 (2 wins)
8-#33 Daniel Webster 301 (1 win)
9-#47 Chris Fontaine 284
10-#22 David King 277
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS:
1-#56 James Wright III 1134 (2 wins)
2-#75 Bobby Blake 1024 (2 wins)
3-#98 Wayne Morris 1018 (1 win)
4-#87 Keith Lilley 963 (2 wins)
5-#01 Von Pope 740
6-#19 Kevin Macy 598 (1 win)
7-#03 Kyle Bookmiller 596 (2 wins)
8-#10 Travis Roland 585 (1 win)
9-#07 Harold Crooms 572
10-#00 Shawn Harper 526
SPORTSMAN:
1-#71 Dave Dunkin 518 (7 wins)
2-#13 Mark Medeiros 496 (2 wins)
3-#22 Brandon Duchscherer 292 (1 win)
4-#8 Austin Carr 276 (1 win)
5-#1 Bart Weatherford 238
6-#89X Brett Jenkins 216
7-#19 Chris Lewellen 198
8-#60 Richard Fiore 186
#55 Richard Elkins, Jr. 186
10-#21 Chris Harrison, Jr. 158
MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#89 Scotty Sharpe 460 (2 wins)
2-#55 Mike Sweet 440 (2 wins)
3-#15 Jason Rendell 438 (3 wins)
4-#45 Dennis Jones 298
5-#07 Bruce Anderson 218
6-#37 Brandon McSwain 190 (1 win)
7-#26 Jimmy Pugh 186
8-#85 Drew Carter 182
9-#38 Burt Morse 170 (2 wins)
10-#77 Lee Davis 154 (1 win)
TRUCKS:
1-#16 Tim Sozio 216 (1 win)
2-#2 Jim Cowhey, Jr. 210
3-#99 Brent Tyler 186
4-#1 Tommy King 182
5-#87 Keith Lilley 170 (3 wins)
6-#15 Roger Blevins 160
7-#37 Nick Hernandez 154 (1 win)
8-#18 Chayne Hammond 128
9-#23 Mike Smith 124
10-#54 Zach Harris 122
LEGEND CARS:
1-#59 Jake Perkins 758 (6 wins)
2-#38 Gerald White, Jr. 750 (8 wins)
3-#8 Justin Brown 670 (1 win)
#71 Mason Ketterman 654
5-#07 Dave Gleason 606
6-#31 Lynn Wiles 522
7-#4R Zach Napoleon 444
8-#4 Tyler Smith 410 (4 wins)
9-#7 Dakota Baggette 388
10-#21 Devin McLeod 376
STREET STOCKS:
1-#5 Matt McCrary 852
2-#42 Jeff Waterman 816 (4 wins)
3-#4 Dave Colpritt 704 (4 wins)
4-#56 James Wright III 666 (8 wins)
5-#29 Bobby Mobley 530 (3 wins)
6-#53 Kyle Peters 474 (2 wins)
7-#17 Kyle Hall 468
8-#25 Cody McDuffie 390 (1 win)
9-#142 Chris Spring 270
10-#65 Ken Lawrence 250
MINI STOCKS:
1-#42 Chris Spring 1054 (8 wins)
2-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr. 1038 (10 wins)
3-#40 Jason Swilley 658
4-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr. 532 (3 wins)
5-#33 Donnie Guy 470
6-#4 Marilyn McCrary 412
7-#551 Mark Wells 400
8-#88 Kevin Steadman 326
9-#46 Randy King 302
10-#2 Dwight Ryals, Jr. 240
V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#111 Josh Borem 852 (5 wins)
2-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr. 782 (1 win)
3-#89 Preston Davis 594 (3 wins)
4-#56 James Wright, Jr. 512 (2 wins)
5-#88 Gene Harrison 478 (2 wins)
6-#96 Larry Chumney II 424 (3 wins)
7-#0 Paul Bookmiller 352
8-#51 Matt Johns 348
9-#105 Jeff Lacey 308
10-#96 Larry Chumney, Sr. 276 (2 wins)
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#28 Kimberly Gullett 640 (2 wins)
2-#66 Brian Tyre 626 (2 wins)
3-#62 Richard Brown 572
4-#00 Chad Cutting 438 (1 win)
5-#71 Dave Canfield 370 (1 win)
6-#8 Richie Acres 328 (4 wins)
7-#4 Scott Russ 220
8-#51 Matt Johns 216 (1 win)
#77 Jeremy Watts 216
10-#7 George Gorham, Jr. 202
MINI CUPS:
1-#74 John Beach 156
2-#21 Rick Ragan 148
3-#7 Harold Crooms 134 (2 wins)
4-#07 Tyler Scofield 114 (1 win)
5-#14 Sam Scott 112 (1 win)
6-27X Dale Pulst 106
7-#22 Rick Cline, Sr. 102
8-#47 Brandon Beach 94
9-#37 Rick Cline, Jr. 74
10-#57 Brittini Huntington 70
BANDOLEROS:
BANDITS:
1-#38 Cameron White 864 (4 wins)
2-#5 Derek Sobel 148 (2 wins)
3-#55 Michael Held 90
#30 Noah Cornman 90
5-#1Jr Dustin Turnage 44
4-#19 Keith Sinkula 42
OUTLAWS:
1-#96 Teddy Lively 558 (6 wins)
2-#48 Andy Metz 522 (2 wins)
3-#11 Daniel Conlin, Jr. 238
4-#1 Mark Bibeau 208
5-#03 Jake Hunter 198
6-#13 Ryan Shattuck 196 (3 wins)
7-#65 Coty Bibeau 128 (1 win)
8-#16 Nick Baluch 58
9-#83 Joey Padgett 38
10-#65 Daniel Conlin, Sr. 28
FIGURE EIGHTS:
1-#14 Wayne Calkins 76
2-#31 Wayne Whitehead 66
3-#89 Rodney Davis 60
4-#0 Jimmy Thompson 40 (1 win)
#8 Robbie Powell 40 (1 win)
6-#4 Terry Zimmerman 36
7-#A6 J.R. Meyer 34
8-#35 James Crawford 32
9-#89 Ricky Todd 30
#0 Paul Bookmiller 30
?