by Dave Westerman

 There was a touch of Fall in the air Saturday evening at Auburndale Speedway but it was Wayne “Rocketman” Jefferson who was on fire as he took the victory in the Open Wheel Modified feature in his first start of the year on the quarter-mile.

Bobby Blake scored the win in heat race number one for the Modifieds while James Wright III drove away with heat two. Jefferson, who had to start in the rear of his heat, made a daring three-wide pass between Josh Todd and Jimmy Wilkins to finish second behind Wright and earn the third starting position for the 40-lap feature.

Jefferson, driving one of the twin Grogan Grove Service cars, made yet another bold move under pole-sitter Wright coming off turn two on the opening lap and quickly asserted himself out front. The caution flag was out quickly though as Josh Todd made contact with Keith Lilley sending the most recent OWM winner for a spin in turn three. Both drivers restarted from the rear of the grid.

Jefferson continued to maintain a slim advantage over Wright and a hard-charging Travis Roland as the second and final yellow flag came out on lap 26. Blake, running fourth, started having issues and was a bit off the pace going into turn one and was hammered by Shawn Harper who wasn’t expecting Blake’s car to be as slow as it was. Harper’s car was done for the night while Blake continued but well off his earlier pace.

Jefferson had Wright on his bumper the remaining 14 laps but held strong to take the win. Wright had to fend off a late charge from Roland but grabbed the runner-up spot and added to his already large point lead. Roland settled for a strong third trailed by Wayne Morris and Sammy Coghill. Rounding out the top ten were Lilley, Jimmy Wilkins, Todd, James Wilkins and Blake.

Jefferson was driving the car normally assigned to Von Pope who took over the other team car normally driven by David Grogan. Pope struggled all day and eventually was credited with a 12th place finish.

Mike Sweet won the Modified Mini Stock heat the proceeded to lead every lap of the 25-lap feature to post his third victory of 2010. Clint Foley made his first appearance of the year here and, after problems in the heat, made a big charge through the field to take second on lap 21 from point leader Scotty Sharpe. Foley was too far behind Sweet to make a challenge for the win and settled for second with Sharpe third, Jason Rendell fourth and Bo Collier fifth.

Ashton Hunt’s new car wasn’t sounding too good by the end of the race, but she finally made it to the checkered flag and took sixth with Drew Carter, Danny Dobbins, Dennis Jones and Mike Bruno completing the top ten.

Kyle Peters dominated the Street Stock action as he led every lap after splitting heat race wins with Austin Jenkins. The night would not end up well for Jenkins as he got involved in an ugly altercation on lap 13 with Larry Braswell that saw them end up in the turn three wall. David Williams then clobbered Jenkin’s car as it was sitting stopped on the track. All three were done for the night.

Peters simply drove away from the rest of the field as his car was running to perfection. Jeff Waterman held off a big pack of cars to finish second with Matt McCrary third ahead of Cody McDuffie and Dave Colpritt. The remainder of the top ten were Bobby Mobley, Chris Spring, Jamie Castleberry, Ken Lawrence and Braswell.

Kimberly Gullett led all the way to score her fourth win of the year and second in a row in the Scrambler class. Gullett also increased her point lead significantly as second place Brian Tyre did not race.

Gullett drove to the victory trailed by Jeremy Watts, Jerry Pruitt, Richard Brown and Dave Canfield. Gullett also won the heat race.

Josh Borem led the first eight laps of the V-8 Bomber feature but his car began smoking and he spun out of the top spot handing the lead and eventual win to Preston Davis. Davis notched his fifth victory of the year, tying him for season wins with point leader Borem. Larry Chumney II came home second followed by Matt Johns, Borem and Roger Harrison. This Saturday night the Auburndale Trucks return along with Sportsman, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers and Southeast Champ Karts.

Racing starts at 7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com powered by Palm Tree Computers.

OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 10/2/10:

OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS:
1-#102 Wayne Jefferson
2-#56 James Wright III
3-#10 Travis Roland
4-#98 Wayne Morris
5-#22 Sammy Coghill
6-#87 Keith Lilley
7-#11 Jimmy Wilkins
8-#89 Josh Todd
9-#76 James Wilkins
10-#75 Bobby Blake
11-#00 Shawn Harper
12-#101 Von Pope

MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#55 Mike Sweet
2-#7 Clint Foley
3-#89 Scott Sharpe
4-#15 Jason Rendell
5-#02 Bo Collier
6-#9 Ashton Hunt
7-#85 Drew Carter
8-#36 Danny Dobbins
9-#45 Dennis Jones
10-#80 Mike Bruno

STREET STOCKS:
1-#53 Kyle Peters
2-#42 Jeff Waterman
3-#5 Matt McCrary
4-#25 Cody McDuffie
5-#4 Dave Colpritt
6-#29 Bobby Mobley
7-#142 Chris Spring
8-#86 Jamie Castleberry
9-#65 Ken Lawrence
10-#80 Larry Braswell
11-#18 David Williams
12-#0 Ricky Lara
DQ #89 Austin Jenkins

V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#89 Preston Davis
2-#96 Larry Chumney II
3-#51 Matt Johns
4-#111 Josh Borem
5-#22 Roger Harrison
6-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.

SCRAMBLERS:
1-#28 Kimberly Gullett
2-#77 Jeremy Watts
3-#17 Jerry Pruitt
4-#62 Richard Brown
5-#71 Dave Canfield
6-#7 Adam Brooks
7-#67 T.J. Tanner
8-#42 Mike Bauer
9-#14 Dale Philibotte
DNS #01 George Gorham, Jr

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