by Dave Westerman
Auburndale, FL (February 23, 2010) There was a bit of a chill in the air but plenty of red-hot racing to keep a great crowd of race fans on the edge of their seats as Auburndale Speedway kicked off the 2010 racing season Saturday night.
Fifteen Open-Wheel Modifieds signed in to do battle with heat winners Keith Lilley and Von Pope leading the field to green for their first 40 lap contest of the year.
Lilley grabbed the early advantage with Big Wayne Morris in tow. Pope had slipped to fifth spot behind Bobby Blake and Harold “Boom-Boom” Cannon when he got into Cannon sending the latter into a spin. That brought out the first caution on lap ten with Pope indicating that the incident was his fault allowing Cannon to have his spot back in the running order.
Lilley continued to set the pace and was motoring away from the field until Pope and Billy Bechtelheimer tangled on lap 25 to slow the pace of the race. On the restart, Lilley’s car seemed reluctant to get up to full speed and he was turned around by second-running Morris. Track officials decided to put both cars to the rear for the restart. At that point, Lilley opted to pull off the track and call it a night.
The incident allowed third-running Bobby Blake to inherit the lead. A wild scramble on the front stretch with just a few laps left saw James Wright III take a wild slide to the infield, but no cars were seriously damaged.
Blake was up to the task and held off a hard-charging Cannon for the win while David Grogan drove a steady race to third. Kevin Macy was fourth and Harold Crooms fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Morris, Pope, Bectelheimer, Wright III, and Ron Armillei.
Defending Street Stock champion James Wright III picked up where he left off in 2009 by scoring a decisive win despite an early race altercation with Andy Harvard on lap three.
Heat winner Levi Parsons led the first pair of laps but Wright was on a rail and took over never to be headed. Contact between Parsons and Bobby Mobley on lap six saw Mobley have to pit to change a flat tire, but he came back to finish fifth behind Wright III, Parsons, Jeff Waterman and Matt McCrary.
Although Chris Narramore, Sr. led all the way in the Mini Stock feature, his victory wasn’t an easy one as he held off defending champion Fred Harrison, Jr. and Donnie Guy in a wild three-wide photo finish. James Pate and Chris Spring were equally close in fourth and fifth in what easily was the best race of the night. Narramore and Harrison won the heat races.
Brandon McSwain led the first fifteen laps of the Modified Mini Stock feature race but could not hold off the advances of Jason Rendell who grabbed the top spot and led the final ten laps to the checker. Just after giving up the lead, McSwain pulled off the track giving Burt Morse a shot a leader Rendell but there was not enough time left as Rendell took the win over Morse, Chris Allen, Scotty Sharp and Mike Birk, Jr. Heat wins went to McSwain and Allen.
Josh Borem made his first start in the V-8 Bombers a winning one as he dominated the action after heat winner James Wright II tangled with Brian Harbin on lap two sending both the the tail of the field. Wright eventually dropped out but Harbin came back to finish a distant second to Borem. Larry Chumney crossed the stripe in third but was set down in tech for a camber infraction allowing Paul Bookmiller to claim the third spot while fourth and fifth fell to Preston Davis and Buddy Phillips, Jr.
Gary Brown, Jr. made a run-away of the Scrambler feature as heat winner George Gorham fell out of the main event early. Brown took an easy win over Chad Cutting, Matt Johns, Bryan Tyre and Kimberly Gullett.
AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY OFFICIAL RESULTS (2/20/10):
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED:
1-#75 Bobby Blake
2-#3 Harold Cannon
3-#101 David Grogan
4-#19 Kevin Macy
5-#07 Harold Crooms
6-#98 Wayne Morris
7-#102 Von Pope
8-#6 Billy Bechtelheimer
9-#71 James Wright III
10-#87 Keith Lilley
11-#9 Ron Armillei
12-#29 Kyle Bookmiller
13-#35 Ron Abney DNS#76 James Wilkins
MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#15 Jason Rendell
2-#38 Burt Morse
3-#33 Chris Allen
4-#89 Scott Sharpe
5-#10 Mike Birk, Jr.
6-#44 Mike Lawhorn
7-#37 Brandon McSwain
8-#26 Jimmy Pugh
9-#45 Dennis Jones
MINI STOCKS:
1-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
2-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
3-#33 Donnie Guy
4-#155 James Pate
5-#42 Chris Spring
6-#46 Randy King
7-#88 Kevin Steadman
8-#55 Steve Routt, Jr.
9-#53 Sonny Miles
10-#2 Dwight Ryals
11-#17 Mark Nagle
12-#5 Tony Davidson
13-#25 Robert Gullett
14-#8 Scott Russ
V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#111 Josh Borem
2-#29 Brian Harbin
3-#0 Paul Bookmiller
4-#89 Preston Davis
5-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
6-#14 Donnie King
7-#56 James Wright II DNS
#12 Dustin Strott DNS
#5 Sonny Miles DQ
#96 Larry Chumney
STREET STOCKS:
1-#56 James Wright III
2-#396 Levi Parsons
3-#42 Jeff Waterman
4-#5 Matt McCrary
5-#29 Bobby Mobley
6-#65 Ken Lawrence
7-#16 Andy Harvard
8-#26 Dave Colpritt
9-#89 Austin Jenkins
10-#3 Kevin O’Quinn
11-#17 Kyle Hall
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#52 Gary Brown
2-#00 Chad Cutting
3-#51 Matt Johns
4-#66 Brian Tyre
5-#28 Kimberly Gullett
6-#48 Chase Pointer
7-#10 George Gorham
DNS#8 Richie Acres