LILLEY TOPS AUBURNDALE TRUCKS BUT SOZIO TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP

By Dave Westerman

Several classes crowned their point champions Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway under perfect racing conditions including a pair of youngsters who don’t even have a drivers liscense yet and a driver with so many track titles, he’s lost count.

Tim Sozio and Jim Cowhey, Jr. came into the evening’s Auburndale Truck races separated by just four points and Cowhey trimmed that to just two with a victory in the Truck heat race.

Cowhey immediately began to set the pace in the 25 lap feature but Sozio and Keith Lilley were not far behind right on his tail gate. Brent Tyler, who came into the night’s event third in points suffered engine problems in the heat race and started the feature just to earn last place points before he disappointedly pulled off after a lap was in the books.

Cowhey was determined to stay out front looking for his first win of the year, but Sozio, the DeBary youngster who just turned 15 years old, had other ideas and snared the lead on lap 17 while Cowhey drove a bit too hard into turn one trying to get in line in front of Lilley and looped his mount to bring out the caution.

Sozio was now in control of the point championship race but had the veteran Lilley to contend with. The pair touched coming off turn two and Lilley assumed command on lap 21, zipping to his fourth win of the year behind the wheel of Wally Warrick’s HobbyCrap.Com Chevrolet.

Sozio crossed the stripe in second to earn the 2010 point championship. Nick Hernandez ran a steady race to take third in front of J.R. Garcia and David Hartin. Cowhey was sixth in the final rundown with Josh Borem seventh after a very eventful first-ever run in a race truck normally steered by Jessica Green who is out of state attending college. Zac Curtis was scored eighth and Tyler ninth.

Sozio’s race team, which is sponsored by Thomas’ English Muffins, brought several trays of their sponsor’s product which was handed out to the fans as they were leaving the race track.

The season-long point battle for the Legend Cars came down to a final night tussle between Jake Perkins of Ocala and Lakeland’s Gerald White, Jr. With just a 20 point edge on White and 22 cars in the pits, Perkins knew he had to put together a good finish to take home the top prize in what is fast becoming the most competitive class at the speedway.

Perkins got off to a fast start by winning his heat with Lynn Wiles of Plant City taking heat race two. Wiles sat on the pole for the feature race and blasted off into the lead while outside polesitter Perkins began to drop like a rock back through the field eventually managing to get back into the fast groove by lap four, but already back in tenth place.

Danielle Stratton spun her mount on lap nine to bring out the first caution.

On the restart it was Devin McLeod on the move and beginning to put pressure on the leader Wiles. McLeod grabbed the top spot on lap 14 only to see the yellow out again a lap later as Seth Adams went around in turn two.

McLeod continued to set the pace as Justin Brown and Kory Abbott took over second and third as Wiles’ car began to fade. A late caution for a Zach Napoleon spin with two laps to go closed the field but McLeod was up to the task and he took the checker ahead of Brown, Abbott, White and Austin Blankenship.

For Mcleod, formerly a big winner in the Mini Cup cars, it was his first ever win at Auburndale in a Legend Car. The young driver from Zephyrhills is not only outstanding behind the wheel, but is also the starting point guard on the Zephyrhills High School varsity basketball team this year.

Perkins drove to a safe sixth place to earn the 2010 point crown for the Legends. At the young age of 13, Perkins already has his sights on racing a Late Model in the near future.

Wiles managed a seventh place finish with Mason Ketterman, Dave Gleason and Tyler Schule rounding out the top ten.

Matt McCrary took another step toward becoming the 2010 Street Stock champion as a rookie by running yet another steady race which his only challenger Jeff Waterman suffered another tough evening.

Once again the feature race belonged to the hottest driver in the class, Kyle Peters of Ferndale, who basically ran uncontested all night despite a quality field of cars and an extra look-see in tech after the feature. After winning his eight-lap heat by a full straight, only a late set of caution flags kept Peters from lapping most of the field. It was Peters’ fourth win in the last six races.

For Waterman it was another bad night as he was put into the turn four wall late in the race by Bobby Mobley who would eventually be DQ’d on the evening for his part in the incident. Waterman attempted to finish the race but had to take his car pit side and wound up tenth while point leader McCrary came home in fourth place behind Peters, first heat winner Dave Colpritt, and James Wright III. Cody McDuffie was fifth as Chris Spring, Jammie Dunnahoe, Kevin O’Quinn, Ken Lawrence and Waterman completed the top ten. Next week the Street Stocks wrap up their season with a $500 to win 40 lap finale.

When Brian Harbin lost a wheel on the next to last lap of the feature while leading, Preston Davis, who turns 16 years of age this week, zipped to the lead and grabbed yet another V-8 Bomber win. Matt Johns took second while Harbin took third in a shower of sparks ahead of Buddy Phillips, Jr. and Alan Seay. Davis also won the heat.

The Mini Stock feature had barely gotten under way when the engine in Eugene Davidson’s car came unglued and he spun into the infield trailing a massive amount of fluid. Once the race got started, heat winner Donnie Guy led the opening six circuits before Marilyn McCrary stormed past and went on to win her third straight feature. Jason Swilley drove to a second place finish ahead of Guy, Kevin Steadman and Scott Russ.

The Bandolero feature was a wild and crazy one. Heat winner Cameron White led the first five laps before Teddy Lively took charge for a lap. White came back to take the lead and the two continued to battle it out eventually tangling in turn two on the tenth lap sending Lively’s machine up and over onto its roof.

Both Lively and White were OK and amazingly both were able to continue.
Daniel Conlin, Jr. took over the lead at that point and drove to his first-ever win here while Lively, undaunted by his upside-down escapade, came back to finish a close second ahead of White, Mark Bibeau and Jake Hunter.

Only three Sportsman cars showed up at the track and their race was canceled although the drivers were given the opportunity to race with the Trucks. Only Richard Fiore, Jr. took up the offer since he had made the long tow from Vero Beach and wanted to get in a few laps.

The other two drivers who showed, Dave Dunkin and Mark Medeiros, came into the night first and second in points, but with only three cars it was mathematically impossible for Medeiros to catch Dunkin. Therefore both drivers opted to sit out the night thus giving Dunkin the point title. When asked how many track championships he had earned at Auburndale Speedway, Dunkin said he “had no idea.” Dunkin and his “Blue Goose” race cars have been competing at Auburndale Speedway since 1969, longer than Truck champ Tim Sozio and Legend Car champ Jake Perkins have been alive if you add their ages together.

This coming Saturday night is the final night of the regular season at Auburndale Speedway. Racing will feature a 40 Lap Street Stock season finale along with the Legend Cars, Bandoleros, Scramblers, Mini Stocks and a ladies Powder Puff race. Action starts at 7 PM. The final event of 2010 will be the Crash N’ Bash on December 11th. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com powered by Palm Tree Computers.

OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 11/13/10:

AUBURNDALE TRUCKS:
1-#72 Keith Lilley
2-#16 Tim Sozio
3-#37 Nick Hernandez
4-#13 J.R. Garcia
5-#25 David Hartin
6-#2 Jim Cowhey, Jr.
7-#40 Josh Borem
8-#63 Zac Curtis
9-#99 Brent Tyler
10-#60 Richard Fiore, Jr. (Sportsman)

STREET STOCKS:
1-#53 Kyle Peters
2-#4 Dave Colpritt
3-#56 James Wright III
4-#5 Matt McCrary
5-#25 Cody McDuffie
6-#142 Chris Spring
7-#62 Jammie Dunnahoe
8-#3 Kevin O’Quinn
9-#65 Ken Lawrence
10-#42 Jeff Waterman
11-#18 David Williams
DQ #29 Bobby Mobley

LEGEND CARS:
1-#21 Devin McLeod
2-#8 Justin Brown
3-#5R Kory Abbott
4-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
5-#87 Austin Blankenship
6-#59 Jake Perkins
7-#31 Lynn Wiles
8-#71 Mason Ketterman
9-#17 Dave Gleason
10-#88 Tyler Schule
11-#44 Gary Verdier
12-#7 Dakota Baggette
13-#5 Seth Adams
14-#99 Leroy Moore
15-#65x Gary Bursey
16-#65 Coty Bibeau
17-#67 Zach Napoleon
18-#83 Danielle Stratton
19-#51 Roger Englund
20-#52 Torstein Larsen
21-#6 Jim Rix
DNS #11 Daniel Conlin, Sr.

MINI STOCKS:
1-#4 Marilyn McCrary
2-#40 Jason Swilley
3-#3 Donnie Guy
4-#88 Kevin Steadman
5-#31 Scott Russ
6-#53 Sonny Miles
7-#5 Eugene Davidson
DNS #12 Scott Mishler

V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#89 Preston Davis
2-#51 Matt Johns
3-#24 Brian Harbin
4-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
5-#2 Alan Seay
6-#18 Kevin Barton
7-#4 Brandon Duchscherer
8-#96 Reggie Ware II
9-#111 Josh Borem
DQ #81 Mark Roadarmel. Jr.

BANDOLEROS:
1-#11 Daniel Conlin, Jr.
2-#96 Teddy Lively
3-#38 Cameron White
4-#65 Mark Bibeau
5-#03 Jacob Hunter