Timmy Lowe cruises to the winners circle in Sportsman feature at Punta Gorda

From Linda Jericka

Timmy Lowe, Punta Gorda Sportman winner

It’s Saturday night and that means short track racing action at it’s best at the 3/8 mile asphalt track in Punta Gorda. All week the track and area was pounded with rain storms and with clouds all around would the drivers and fans get their weekly fix of great racing action. It was decided that the clouds were moving on and it was time to go racing.

First up for the night was the Pro 4 class with thirteen drivers taking the green and ran twenty five laps with no cautions. Dylan Bigley out of Naples started on the pole after winning the heat race and led the entire race. Cody Allen from Lehigh tried everything he could for the entire race to make a pass on Bigley but would have to settle for the second spot and Ryan Collver came in third.

Dwarf cars were back and father Tom and son Andy Pryor both from Bonita Springs racing each other hard. Tom Pryor was in the lead while Andy was right on his back bumper and at the half way mark Andy was pushing Tom across the line when the motor let go in Tom’s car dropping engine parts all down the front straight away. Andy Pryor went on to win the feature while dad looked on from pit side and PGS track announcer Rob Kohler took the night off to come in second and John Bailey third.

Road Warriors had a light field of car for the night but the racing action was fierce with the top five drivers running 3 wide bumper to bumper. Chris Scott started on the pole and had his hands full of Kile, Nelson, Miller and Reed who had the fans on the edge of their seat, who was going to slip up and cause the big one. Twenty five laps with no caution just hard racing where Randy Kile made a move on lap sixteen to take over the lead bring Nelson and Reed with him and shuffling Scott back to fifth. It was still anyone’s race who was going to make it to the end, side by side who would cross ahead of who and could they continue that close with no wreck or caution. Randy Kile crossed the line first with Richard Nelson second and Jason Miller beat Rick Reed to the line for third.

Who would make the feature for the Super Stock race, while racing for their feature starting position in the heat race three cars squeezed into the same spot and the outcome was not good. The outcome was Jimmie Mieser bouncing off the 42 of Jeff Waterman, Mieser was able to make the feature and Waterman would have a long ride back to Indian Lake not able to race. Randy Sober of Punta Gorda started on the pole with Bobby Fischer of Naples outside, Fischer jumped to the lead with Sober running second. Shane Leonard from Cape Coral has only lost one feature to his son Logan and was on a mission to the front. The only caution came out on lap fourteen for Sober who got a flat tire from Leonard trying to take over the second spot. Bobby Fischer went on to finally cross the line in front of Leonard for his first win of the season and Logan Leonard third while Sober could only make it back up to the fourth spot.

Just like Saturday night’s weather, the dry spell is over for Timmy Lowe who led all thirty five laps to win the feature and dedicated the win to the the Kelly family. Bill Vandevender followed Lowe the entire race but just could not make the pass and settled for second while James Dubose who running third until five to go pulled to the infield. Dubose thought his luck had turned around after winning the heat and holding strong in third place till the car shut down with five laps to go and Dubose found himself watching another finish from the infield. Lowe took one victory lap around the track in the opposite direction holding the checker flag till pulling into the winners circle for track side interviews. With another race that had no cautions points leader Greg Krom had to settle for third Stuart Vandevender fourth and birthday boy Gary McFall rounded out the top five.

Fab 4 was the last class to race and with an easy night for the track broom crew who didn’t get much track time with a mostly caution free night of racing in from all classes, it would also be an early end to a great night of side by side bumper to bumper racing action. Skyler Null of N. Fort Myers cruised his way to the winners circle while Zac Campilonga and Jessica Ostrovskis battle this week again for the second spot. Jessica took the outside to try to make a clean pass on the 3 of Zac but found her pink number 91 with no room to make the pass. Zac Campilonga would come in second and a hard fighting Jessica bought it home in third.

July 16^th racing action: