Darryl Shelnut out of Lake City wins Goodyear Six Pack series #3

From Linda Jericka

It was another great night of racing at Punta Gorda Speedway were the fans packed the speedway to see some of the best racing action in the state. When the Super Late Models run, the weekend starts on Friday nights with practice, and a big old homemade BBQ pit party. Word spread quickly through the racing community that there were twenty four “Super” drivers that were on hand at the speedway to go for 100 laps and the fans came out in full force to show their support.

Nine classes were on the schedule for the night with 285 laps of racing action to get in before the 11:30 curfew so it was straight into features that were filled with non stop excitement.

First up were the Bandoleros that saw the 7 of Trevor Taylor out of Zellwood bring home the win with John Holmes of Port Charlotte second and Tyler Audie third.

Outlaw Modifieds were on hand to run twin 25 lap features in their annual Dan Curl memorial race as the cars pulled out for the first 25 laps, frisbees were throw into the crowd with each drivers car number. The first race was won by the 10 of Robert Campbell second went to Kevin Campbell and Doug Hopper settled for third after leading the first ten laps.

Dwarf cars came out for twenty five laps that saw a great battle going on between father and son team Tom and Andy Pryor both from Bonita Springs. Tom in the 69 car lead all twenty five laps with pressure from his son in the 4 wanting to take the lead from dad. Rob Kohler, who usually can be heard announcing at the speedway on Saturday nights, took the night off to give to try to bring the 82 machine to victory lane but had to settle for a hard fought third place finish.

Pro4 class is one of the backbone classes at the speedway that run almost every week took to the track to run a caution free twenty five lap feature. Dylan Bigley out of Naples won the feature with Cody Allen of Lehigh who had just finished running the dwarf race second and Ryan Collver third.

The  Road Warriors showed up to do battle and that they did from the drop of the green to the end, it was anyone’s races. Jeremy Daring lead the first half of the race while the top six cars were sometimes four wide fighting for position. On the restart of the first of five cautions Chris Scott was able to jump to the lead while the cars continued to beat and bang their way to the front and coming out on top would be the 14 of Randy Kile crossing the line first. Richard Nelson would battle his was back to second after being sent to the rear and Chris Scott hung on for third.

Legend cars put on one heck of a show with fast qualifier and last race winner Austin Blankenship from Fort Lauderdale starting in the fifth position. Matt Blankenship would run in the first spot for the first half of the race while Josh Williams from Port Charlotte and Austin would battle back and four till ten laps to go when Austin Blankenship took over the lead to go onto win the race with Josh Williams second and brother Matt would bring it home in third.

The big race was on for 100 laps were some of the most talented driver showed up to bring home the trophy and be the winner of the Goodyear six pack number three race. When you put twenty four, fast, competitive drivers on the 3/8^th mile oval to run for on hundred laps you never know what the outcome will be. Daryl Shelnut out of Lake City in his patriotic number 7 set fast time and pulled the pole starting position and led all one hundred laps to go on to win the feature. The race had ten cautions which tightened up the field while the 07 of Jeff Schofield running in second just could not capitalize on with the “jumps” Shelnut got on the single file restarts. L.B. Skaggs had a fast car and looked to be trying to get to the front until he was sent to the rear for spinning out Steve Gill at the half way mark. Travis Hanson in the 141 car battled on the outside of Wayne Anderson for almost the entire race crossing the line first by a fender for lap after lap until twenty to go. On a restart of the race with twenty to go, cars coming out of turn four all racing for position, it still wasn’t clear what actually happened but Hanson bounced up in the air, Richie Anderson takes off to the infield cars scatted and the only one that seemed to not be able to continue was Hanson after a great fought battle. Shelnut went on to win with Jeff Schofield second Steve Gill third Wayne Anderson fourth and Richie Anderson rounded out the top five.

Outlaw Modifieds ran their second twenty five lap feature were they inverted the entire field from the first race finishing order. Wining the race was the 26 of Mike Endee second was Doug Hooper and third went to Tom Myers

The last race of the night was the Fab 4 who also ran a caution free twenty lap feature that had the 98 driven by Karl Garrard dominate and win the race with Skyler Null second and Zac Campilonga third.

Next week June 18^th Punta Gorda Speedway has another big race weekend planned with twin 35 lap features for the Q Auto injury Open Wheel Modifieds, Road Warriors, T.Q, Midgets, fan favorite Cowboy Cadillacs, Mini Stock and the Super Stock have been added to the schedule.

Visit the track website for all updates and racing info at http://puntagordaspeedway.com/