Bill Vandevender wins Sportsman feature event at Punta Gorda Speedway

Drivers and fans will be talking about Saturday night for a while as it was an action packed night from start to finish. After a long hot day of practice, it was time to go racing, and like the clam before the storm. All heat races went off calmly and quickly, then it was time for the features, that had tempers flaring, along with racing action that had everyone looking around for a full moon. If you missed Saturday’s action packed night of racing, you might want to make sure you don’t miss the next race.

The night started out with the Fab 4 class that saw young Paul Richards Jr of Naples run start to finish in the lead. The battle was for second and third and it was Skyler Null who brought it home in the second spot and Jessica Ostrovskis third.

T.Q. Midgets were up next were the 6 of Jay Stutz flipped in turn three before the first lap was in the books. Mike Belusar of Punta Gorda brought the 30 home in the first place position, Steven Maier from Port St. Lucie was second and Jamie Barnum was third.

The always entertaining Cowboy Cadillacs had nine drivers show up to do battle and see who would make it to the end and claim the victory. James Dellea of Port Charlotte seams to be the man of the hour now with what appeared to be by far the fastest truck on the track as he lead all twenty five laps. Jeff Deeble of Port Charlotte was sporting some flashing lights in the front of his truck, as he was sent to the rear on lap eighteen, managed to make his way back up to finish second. After a strong run for Ken Badali in his blue number thirty, he would slip up the track with two to go and have to settle for third.

Richard Nelson made his way back to the winners circle in the Road Warrior feature but not with out a hard fought battle from Randy Kile. Nelson took over the lead from Chris Scott at the half way mark and brought Randy Kile of Lehigh with him and the two battle for position to the end. Kile just couldn’t’t make the pass and would have to settle for second while Chris Scott hung on for third.

It was Randy Sober of Punta Gorda that held off the 18 of Shane Leonard from Cape Coral for all twenty five laps. Leonard did everything he could do to take away that first place spot but Sober had others plans and after they beat and banged each other around the track it was Sober that brought it to the winners circle in the first place position. Leonard would settle for second while Bobby Fisher of Naples came in third. Usually the winners circle is for celebration and track side interviews but there seemed to be some controversy from crews and drivers as to the real meaning of “rubbin is racin” and after the “spray” settled, both Leonard’s were DQed. Jimmy Mieser of Cape Coral would move up to the third spot with Leonards DQ and Fischer moved up to second.

Sixteen sportsman took to the track and when the green flagged dropped coming down the front stretch drivers were three wide, bumper to bumper and could not all fit into the turn at the same time and six cars piled up and brought out the caution. With all the cars stopped on the track in turn one there was a power serge that left everyone in the dark. Race track lights when turned off take a while to cool down then come back up and while everyone sat in the dark waiting, the cars were taken off the track and when the lights came back up the cars that were left on the track were ready to start over. Bill Vandevender of N. Ft. Myers would get out to a big lead while Timmy Lowe chased him down for all thirty five laps. After the big one happened before the first lap, it was caution free till the five to go sign was shown. Two cautions would come out before the checkers flew and Vandevender maintain the lead to come home in first and Timmy Lowe second while Roger Welch was third.

The last race of the night was the Pro 4 class and Cody Allen from Lehigh dominated the class start to finish in a caution free twenty five lap feature with Dylan Bigley of Naples chasing him to come in second and the o4 of Ryan Collver was third.

Next week Aug 6^th the speedway will be closed but will resume Aug 13^th so check the web site for all updates, schedules and photos at www.puntagordaspeedway.com

Results from 7-30-2011

Sportsman

1.   84 Bill Vandevender

2.   57 Timmy Lowe

3.   98 Roger Welch

4.   35 Greg Krom

5.   67 James Dubose

6. 12   Aaron Williamson

7.   68 Gary McFall

8.   7   Danny Caylor

9.   33 Andy Allen

10. 38 Jeremy Goddard

11. 98X Danny Brown

12. 09 Donnie Ollie Jr.

13.   16 Josh Gorniak

14.   39   Phillip Johnson

15.   56 Brian Richardson DQ

16.   36 Stuart Vandevender   DQ

Super Stock

1.   2S Randy Sober

2.   2 Bobby Fischer

3.   88 Jimmy Mieser

4.   1   Lance Sober

5.   18 Shane Leonard   DQ

6.   57 Logan Leonard   DQ

Road Warrior

1.   80 Richard Nelson

2.   14 Randy Kile

3.   97 Chris Scott

4.   1 Rick Reed

5.   20 Billy Benoit

6.   10 Jason Miller

7.   27 Derrick Horton

8.   8   Shane Leonard

9.   5   Jeremy Daring

10. 2 Pete Youngblood

11.   33 Chris Loney DQ

Cowboy Cadillac

1.   77 James Dellea

2. 8 Jeff Deeble

3.   30 Ken Badali

4.   33 Les Couch

5.   18 Robert Willms

6.    39 Tee Jay Hoholik

7.    88 Brad Wegert

8.    4 Andy Vanscyoc

9.   91/2   A.B. Butler

Pro 4

1.    98 Cody Allen

2.   28 Dylan Bigley

3.   04 Ryan Collver

4.   00 Dan Collver

5.   29 Phil Ellis

6.   61 Paul Richards Sr.

7.   32 Corey Bigley

8. 91 Jarrett Cornell

9. 78 Charles Null

10. 22 Jeremy Perkins

Fab 4

1.   61   Paul Richards Jr.

2.   98 Skyler Null

3.   91 Jessica Ostrovskis

4.   32 John Lucrezi

5.   3 Zac Campilonga

6.   30 Stephen Babcock

7.   67 Mike Simmons

8.   22 Crystal Love

9.   78 Brent Null

T.Q. Midgets

1.   30   Mike Belusar

2. 23 Steven Maier

3. 7 Jamie Barnum

4. 1 Jack Duffy

5. 2 Geoff Styner

6. 14 John Ciolino

7.   5 David Patterson

8.   6 Jay Stutz