by Dave Westerman

It was the biggest night of the year Saturday evening at Auburndale Speedway. The weather was great, the stands were packed and the pit area was jammed with 116 cars set to do battle.

Twenty-four Late Model teams signed in for the first-ever Florida All Stars Tour race at Auburndale and Plant City’s Jeff Scofield quickly made everyone take notice as he blistered the track with a lap of 13.37 seconds in qualifying. Young Jason Vail of Clermont was second quick at 13.46 with FAST Tour point leader Wayne Anderson third quick at 13.50 followed by Kevin Ingram at 13.53. Ron Lofquist and Tyler Laing tied for fifth quick time at 13.60.

Time Trials were red flagged near the mid point for a violent crash involving local favorite David King. King had just taken the green flag for his qualifying attempt when the throttle apparently hung wide open and he smashed into the turn one wall. The top-notch construction of his racer was evident as King quickly scampered out unscathed although the front end of his machine was shoved in a couple of feet.

The top six drivers from qualifying re-drew for starting spots and Scofield’s night continued to be perfect as he drew the pole with Anderson drawing the outside slot followed by Lofquist and Vail in row two and Ingram and Laing making up row three for the start.

The initial start would see several drivers’ nights end early. Somehow Laing got in trouble coming out of turn four to take the green. Before it was all over, the cars of Laing, Alan Bruns, Andrew Carbonell, Steve Avinger and Perry Lovelady would be scattered in various pieces along the front stretch. Only Lovelady would be able to continue.

With the starting grid now down to 19 cars, the second start was much better as Scofield took the point while Anderson was working to get down in the low groove. Lap three saw the first of many cautions as Anderson went around in turn two after contact with Ingram who was quickly living up to his nickname, “The Bulldozer.” With both cars going to the rear of the restart line-up, fans now had even more of a “show” to witness.

Scofield began to check out once the race restarted and several green flag laps ensued with Lofquist and Vail nose-to-tail in second and third. Ingram worked his way back up to tenth by lap 17 with Anderson not far behind.

Daryl Shelnut was back in the Sytsma “Silver Bullet” and looking strong as he grabbed fourth spot from Randy Anderson on lap 24 bringing Raymond Lovelady with him. One lap later, the younger Anderson tangled with Joe Winchell sending several cars scattering in the process. Winchell made a quick pit stop while Anderson went to the back for the restart.

Scofield contiued his relatively easy run up front but it was interrupted again on lap 32 as Shelnut and Raymond Lovelady tangled while battling for the fourth spot. Lovelady took his car pit side and out of the event.

Lap 40 saw Ingram back up to fourth while Wayne Anderson rejoined the top five on lap 46. Jonathan Guy spun in turn four to bring out the caution on lap 57. Shelnut dropped out at this point and now it was the battle everyone was waiting to see… Ingram vs. Anderson part II. The pair would move up to third and fourth in the running order on lap 63, but their battle would come to a head just a few laps later with a wild tangle going into turn one that saw both cars into the wall.

A very upset Anderson drove his car back through the infield and up to the side of Ingram’s car. Although calmer heads eventually prevailed, Anderson was disqualified for his actions, a move which cost him the FAST Tour points lead. After a few minutes of “self-adjustments” to the front end of his car, Ingram returned to the tail of the field.

Scofield contiued to have a very easy run up front as the field settled down for some green flag racing. Vail, who had opted out of the Anderson/Ingram battle and dropped back a few car lengths behind them before their wreck, reclaimed the fourth spot on lap 77.

The feud between Randy Anderson and Winchell came to a head on the back stretch durning lap 81 as the two tangled with both getting a piece of the concrete. Anderson was out while Winchell again continued. On the restart, Vail was turned around by Jeremy Gerstner. Gerstner went to the back for the restart while Vail got his spot back.

Scofield was doing nothing more that watching the show in his rear view mirror as he simply had things well under control. Even a late race caution for a spinning Ryan Lisak with two laps to go didn’t faze Scofield as he capped a perfect day with his wire to wire win. Lofquist was extremely happy with his second place run with his low-buck family operation while young Austin Kirkpatrick made his first-ever Auburndale start a good one with a solid third place.

Vail held on for fourth while Kyle Maynard scored a strong fifth place finish. Rounding out the top ten were Perry Lovelady (doing an awesome job after the opening lap incident), Ingram, Winchell, Jeremy Gerstner and John Gerstner.
The Mini Cup cars were in action for the first time in 2010 and if this week was any indication, it looks like this class is ready to make a huge comeback as 21 cars were in the pits.

Brady Marshall and Sam Scott won the heats and battled mightily throughout the feature with Marshall eventually off-track on lap 15 missing the front body work of his Home Depot machine. Scott ran off with the feature win from that point trailed by Tyler Scofield, Harold Crooms, John Beach and Rick Reagan. Carlos Pinto, Dale Pulst, Rick Cline, Sr., Brandon Beach and Skip Baird completed the top ten.

The Mini Stocks now have four winners in five weeks as Aaron Williamson made his first start of the year a winning one over the biggest field of the year. Williamson grabbed the lead early but had constant pressure from Chris Narramore, Sr. and Chris Spring who finished in close order. Fred Harrison, Jr. was fourth and Donnie Guy fifth. Heat wins were taken by Narramore, Sr.
and James Pate. Pate was looking good after blowing an engine in warm-ups the week before, but mechanical ills forced him out of the feature early.

The Legend Cars were out in force but the young man to beat so far this year is Jake Perkins. Zach Napoleon led the first two laps before he spun out. Justin Brown took over at that point and led to lap six before “No Brake Jake”
took over to score his second consecutive win.

Brown held on for second trailed by Tyler Smith, Gerald White, Jr. and Mason Ketterman. Ketterman and Napoleon picked up the heat race wins.
The Street Stocks had their biggest field of the year but that made no difference to defending class champion James Wright III. Kyle Hall won his heat race and was looking to get a huge monkey off his back having had nothing but mechanical issues with his Camaro all year. Hall led the first 14 laps of the caution-filled feature but could not hold off Wright who claimed his third feature win of the year.

Bobby Mobley made a late race pass of Hall to claim the runner-up spot. Hall was third ahead of Matt McCrary and Kevin O’Quinn. The second heat was won by Jeff Waterman.

For once, the V-8 Bomber winner actually passed tech inspection as Roger Blevins took his first win of the year in great style. Point leader Josh Borem was second followed by James Wright, Sr., Larry Chumney and Dustin Strott. Paul Bookmiller won the heat race but had trouble early in the feature, made a pit stop and returned to finish seventh.

There were several new faces with some well-known names in the Kids Club field. The heat and feature were both pretty well dominated by Matt Anderson.
Megan Gosselin took second in the feature trailed by Heather Guy and Brandon Guy.

Ryan Shattuck took the Bandolero feature race over heat winner Cameron White, Coty Bibeau and Mark Bibeau.

Next week the Auburndale Speedway schedule will include the Pro Challenge Cars along with the Open Wheel Modifieds, Modified Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Mini Stocks, Legends and Bandeleros. Racing starts at 7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.

OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 3/20/10:

F.A.S.T. LATE MODELS:
1-#07 Jeff Scofield
2-#49 Ron Lofquist
3-#85 Austin Kirkpatrick
4-#407 Jason Vail
5-#127 Kyle Maynard
6-#50 Perry Lovelady
7-#21 Kevin Ingram
8-#57 Joe Winchell
9-#70 Jeremy Gerstner
10-#62 John Gerstner
11-#82 Danny Maddox
12-#54 Ryan Lisak
13-#86 Randy Anderson
14-#42 Jonathan Guy
15-#77 Daryl Shelnut
16-#7 Raymond Lovelady
17-#04 Gayle Haines
18-#27 Cody Lane
19-#39 Tyler Lang
20-#4B Alan Bruns
21-#8 Andrew Carbonell
22-#69 Steve Avinger
DNS #22 David King
DQ #84 Wayne Anderson

STREET STOCKS:
1-#56 James Wright III
2-#29 Bobby Mobley
3-#17 Kyle Hall
4-35 Matt McCrary
5-#3 Kevin O’Quinn
6-#396 Levi Parsons
7-#16 Andy Harvard
8-352 Mike Rowland
9-#10 Kenny May
10-#22 Chuck Harrison, Jr.
11-#42 Jeff Waterman
12-#4 Dave Colpritt
13-#25 Cody McDuffie
14-#1 Zack Zellner
DNS #7 Jody Robbins

V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#29 Roger Blevins
2-#111 Josh Borem
3-#96 Larry Chumney
4-#56 James Wright, Sr.
5-#12 Dustin Strott
6-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
7-#0 Paul Bookmiller
8-#14 Donnie King
9-#17 T. J. McLean
10-#87 Chris McGivern
DNS #5 Eugene Davidson

KIDS CLUB:
1-#22 Matt Anderson
2-#10 Megan Gosselin
3-#30 Heather Guy
4-#32 Brandon Guy
DNS #84 Ricky Anderson

MINI CUPS:
1-#14 Sam Scott
2-#08 Tyler Scofield
3-#07 Harold Crooms
4-#74 John Beach
5-#21 Rick Reagan
6-#48 Carlos Pinto
7-#27x Dale Pulst
8-#22 Rick Cline, Sr.
9-#47 Brandon Beach
10-#2 Skip Baird
11-#99 Carley Lewis
12-#24 Mike Holt
13-#57 Britney Huntington
14-#20 Brady Marshall
15-#66 Shawn Edge
16-#00 Chuck Tegethoff
17-#14x Jim Irish
18-#3 Danny Suggs
19-#67 Zach Hoyt
20-#9 Cole Partelo
DNS #27 Dale Pole
NS #37 Rick Cline, Jr.

MINI STOCKS:
1-#84 Aaron Williamson
2-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
3-#42 Chris Spring
4-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
5-#33 Donnie Guy
6-#46 Randy King
7-#88 Kevin Steadman
8-#1 Bill Bell
9-#40 Jason Swilley
10-#26 Nate Florian
11-#17 Mark Nagle
12-#2 Dwight Ryals
13-#551 Mark Wells
14-#155 James Pate
15-#5 Tony Davidson
16-#53 Sonny Miles
17-#4 Marilyn McCrary

LEGENDS:
1-#59 Jake Perkins
2-#8 Justin Brown
3-#4 Tyler Smith
4-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
5-#22 Mason Ketterman
6-#44 Gary Verdier
7-#17 Mike Gleason
8-#01 Amber Colvin
9-#31 Lynn Wiles
10-#4R Zach Napoleon
11-#51 Roger Englund
12-#5 Seth Adams
13-#83 Danielle Stratton
14-#4x Brandon Love
15-#56x David Tullis
16-#07 Dave Gleason
17-#7 Dakota Baggett

BANDOLEROS:
1-#13 Ryan Shattuck
2-#38 Cameron White
3-#11 Coty Bibeau
4-#1 Mark Bibeau