By Dave Westerman
While other tracks were having issues with Mother Nature Saturday, Auburndale Speedway saw clear, cool, windy weather for week number two of the 2011 racing season that produced three new winners. The Legend Cars made their first appearance of the regular season and showed up 19 strong even with a number of "regulars" not in attendance as they "recuperate" from the February Winternationals. Young sophomore drivers Dakota Baggette and Austin Blankenship split the pair of heat races and made up row one of the 25 lap feature race. Of the starters, only two drivers had ever won a regular season feature at Auburndale Speedway - Devin McLeod and Justin Brown, but this night would belong to Lakeland driver Baggette who simply had the field covered from start to finish. Baggette got the jump at the start and began to pull away from Blankenship, McLeod and Lynn Wiles before Danielle Stratton's spin slowed the action on lap seven. Zach Napoleon looped his new mount before another green flag lap could be completed to keep the yellow flag flying. Following the restart, Blankenship got "freight trained" and fell back to fifth as McLeaod and Wiles set their sights on the fleet Baggette only to see caution again on lap nine for a tangle between rookie Andy Metz and Brazilian visitor Marcello Henriques that sent Henriques to the sidelines for the rest of the night. Once the green flew it was Blankenship back on the move as he worked his way back up to second by lap 15. One lap later things got a bit rough for the two ladies in the race as Stratton and rookie Becca Monopoli tangled in turn three. Both cars received damage but were able to continue. The race ran the final nine laps under green and Baggette drove away to claim his first regular season points-paying feature win at Auburndale. Baggette, a 15 year old student at McKeel Academy in Lakeland, did score a pair of wins during the January Saturday Legend Car Fun Runs, but those weren't "official" race wins like this one was. Baggette is in his second season of Legend Car racing after having take three National and four State Karting championships. Blankenship was impressive with his run back to finish second while McLeod nabbed third spot ahead of Wiles and Brown. Rounding out the top ten were Mason Ketterman, Anthony Cataldi, Seth Adams, Joey Collins and Gary Verdier. The 2011 season for the Sportsman class looks to be a banner one with a slew of competitive cars on track for the year. For the first time in quite awhile, two heats were needed to set the starting line-up for the feature with Richard Elkins, Jr. and OWM Modified veteran Tommy Schnader taking the preliminary victories. Elkins raced out to a quick advantage at the start of the 25 lapper as the cars behind him were really going at it. One driver tried to cut turn four a little too close on lap four and sent the orange cone placed there all the way to the middle of the front stretch to bring out the first caution. Lap six saw George Gorham, Jr. go for a spin in turn four. During the caution period, third-running Kevin Ingram retired his new machine to the pits. Elkins continued to set the pace and left the others to fight amongst themselves for what they could get. Lap 20 saw opening week winner Lance Daubach tangle with Brandon Duchscherer in turn two as they battled for third spot. Scotty Sharpe could not avoid Daubach's car and the altercation put Daubach out of the event. Elkins went on to score a wire-to-wire victory, his first in quite some time here. Mark Medeiros had a great run to finish second in the Blue Goose team car trailed by Schnader, Gorham and James Wright III, again subbing for regular driver Dave Dunkin in the other Blue Goose machine. Sixth through tenth were Duchscherer, Sharp, Daubach, Jordan Harris and Ingram. The Open Wheel Modifieds were in action for the first time this year and defending track champion James Wright III was unstoppable all night winning both the heat and the 35 lap feature. Wright was never seriously challenged as he took the checker ahead of Josh Todd and Mike Sweet who was very impressive in his first OWM race after moving up from the Modified Mini Stock ranks. Ronnie Heard took fourth while Keith Lilley battled an ill-handling car all night but still managed a top five. Another big field of Scrambler cars was in attendance with Bill Bennett and Jeramiah Frere splitting heat race wins. The feature belonged to Brian Tyre however as he led from green to checker to take the victory over Bill Bennett, Ronnie Sorensen, George Gorham, Jr. and Jeff Porter. Dave Canfield, Shane Bennett, Bruce Cozad, Eric Wallace and Frere completed the top ten. Matt McCrary took home the Street Stock point championship in 2010 by being consistent even though he never tasted victory. That all changed this week as McCrary took the lead at the drop of the green and never looked back as he took a popular win. Jeff Waterman crossed the stripe in second followed by heat winner Brian Harbin, Sammy Cressman and Kyle Peters. The Mini Stock feature was a crazy one both on and off the track. Heat race winner Marilyn McCrary spun on lap two and was hit by Sonny Miles eliminating both from the race. From that point Eugene Davidson ran off to an apparent win. However, Davidson, along with second place Jason Swilley and third place Mark Wells were all disqualified in tech for unapproved strut tops that did not match. Chris Nichols, driving his first-ever race, crossed the line fourth but was awarded the victory. The only other car still running on the track was 2010 Scrambler champion Kimberly Gullett who moved up to the class and ended up with a second place effort. McCrary and Miles were scored third and fourth. Alan Seay became the only driver to repeat his opening night win as he passed Mark Roadarmel, Jr. on lap seven then went on to claim the V-8 Bomber win. Heat winner Matt Bozeman came on late to finish second ahead of Roadarmel, Buddy Phillips, Jr. and Byron Curry. Daniel Conlin, Jr. finally got his first Bandolero win this week after two years of trying. His dad, Daniel, Sr. was running second but dropped out during the white flag lap allowing Noah Cornman and Trey Lively to claim the second and third spots. This coming Saturday night the Auburndale Trucks make their first appearance of 2011. Also on the card are the Modified Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, Legend Cars, Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Bandoleros, and Kids Club. Racing starts at 7 PM. Kart racing will also be held on the dirt track on the east end of the parking lot during the day on Saturday. Gates open for Karting action at 7AM, practice starts at 10AM and racing at 12 Noon. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com OFFICIAL RESULTS - AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY - 3/5/11: LEGEND CARS: 1-#7 Dakota Baggette 2-#87 Austin Blankenship 3-#21 Devin McLeod 4-#31 Lynn Wiles 5-#8 Justin Brown 6-#71 Mason Ketterman7-#00 Anthony Cataldi 8-#5 Seth Adams 9-#28 Joey Collins 10-#44 Gary Verdier 11-#9 Camron Ray 12-#52 Torstein Larsen 13-#99 Leroy Moore 14-#6 Zach Napoleon 15-#48 Andy Metz 16-#83 Danielle Stratton 17-#59x Becca Monopoli SPORTSMAN:1-#55 Richard Elkins, Jr. 2-#171 Mark Medeiros 3-#121 Tommy Schnader 4-#10 George Gorham, Jr. 5-#71 James Wright III 6-#42 Brandon Duchscherer 7-#89 Scotty Sharp 8-#77 Lance Daubach 9-#15 Jordan Harris 10-#4 Kevin Ingram 11-#8 Joe Dowdy 12-#22 Chuck Harrison, Jr. OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS: 1-#56 James Wright III 2-#0 Josh Todd 3-#55 Mike Sweet 4-#81 Ronnie Heard 5-#87 Keith Lilley 6-#75 Bobby Blake 7-#65 Ken Lawrence 8-#29 Bobby Mobley DNS #31 Johnnie Newsome SCRAMBLERS: 1-#56 Brian Tyre 2-#20 Bill Bennett 3-#84 Ronnie Sorensen 4-#7 George Gorham, Jr. 5-#71 Dave Canfield 6-#1 Jeff Porter 7-#25 Shane Bennett 8-#93 Bruce Cozad 9-#21 Eric Wallace 10-#68 Jeremiah Frere 11-#77 Jeremy Watts DNR #67 T. J. Tanner DNR #96 John Robson III STREET STOCKS: 1-#5 Matt McCrary 2-#42 Jeff Waterman 3-#29 Brian Harbin 4-#97 Sam Cressman 5-#53 Kyle Peters 6-#25 Cody McDuffie MINI STOCKS: 1-#97 Chris Nichols 2-#28 Kimberly Gullett 3-#4 Marilyn McCrary 4-#53 Sonny Miles DQ #5 Eugene Davidson DQ #40 Jason Swilley DQ #55 Mark Wells V-8 BOMBERS: 1-#2 Alan Seay 2-#58 Matt Bozeman 3-#81 Mark Roadarmel, Jr. 4-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr. 5-#63 Byron Curry DNR: #96 Larry Cumney, Sr. BANDOLEROS: 1-#11 Daniel Conlin, Jr. 2-#30 Noah Cornman 3-#24 Trey Lively 4-#1 Daniel Conlin, Sr.