Whitener Cleans House at North Florida Speedway

by John Berti

Lake City, FL – A good field of 23 United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series competitors invaded the 3/8 mile North Florida Speedway oval for the first leg of the Sunoco Chase for the Cup, Saturday night.

In attendance were the North points leader Ivedent Lloyd and Mark Whitener, the South points leader. Overall point leader Tyler Ivey was, surprisingly, not in attendance. Nonetheless many of the top UDLMS drivers participated in the event including such prominent names as Keith Nosbisch, Darrell Padgett, Mike Nasworthy, John Kellum and Johnny Collins.

Qualifying was determined through qualifying heats which were made up from time trials held earlier in the evening. Heat winners were Nosbisch, Patrick Williams, and Jason Davis. Misfortune struck Collins in the first qualifying heat as his car broke while leading forcing him to the sidelines for the remainder of the night.

The stage was set for the running of the scheduled 50 lap feature event with Nosbisch and Davis leading the field around for the initial green. Nosbisch bolted into the early lead followed by Whitener, Davis, Patrick Williams and Jordy Nipper.

By lap 5, Lloyd had worked his way into the top five passing a fading Davis and just a lap later got by Patrick Williams, and Nipper to run third.

The running order with 10 laps in the record books had Nosbisch leading followed by Whitener, Lloyd, Patrick Williams, Doug Watson, Nipper, Davis, Phillip Cobb, Kyle Van Sickle, and Travis Carter.

The frontrunners were quickly closing in on the tail end of the field by lap 13 and that proved to be the turning point of the race for Nosbisch as one of the trailers didn’t heed the flagman’s passing flag to move over. Whitener dropped to the bottom of the track as did Lloyd and both got by Nosbisch and the offender to take over the top two running positions. Nosbisch was able to regain second from Lloyd on a lap 15 restart.

With 20 laps down Whitener continued to lead with Nosbisch in second, Patrick Williams up to third, Lloyd, fourth and Cobb, fifth.

Three laps and a couple of yellow flags later, one which saw Lloyd drop out with a mechanical failure, the race was red flagged. Numerous drivers had complained to officials, under those caution periods, that they were running out of goggle tearoffs the result of dustier than usual track conditions. Pit crew members were allowed to bring out additional tearoffs for their respective drivers.

When racing resumed Whitener was still showing as the leader of the parade with Nosbisch second; Patrick Williams, third; Nipper, fourth; and Nasworthy, fifth.

Patrick Williams’ strong run came to an end when the driveshaft broke on his car on lap 26.

At the 30 lap point Whitener reigned supreme at the front of the pack with Nosbisch trying to hang in there with Whitener in second, followed by Nipper, Kellum and Davis.

The top five continued to run in that order with Whitener stretching out his lead over Nosbisch until lap 40 when the checkered flag was waved for the completion of the race.

A pre-race agreement between North Florida Speedway management and the UDLMS, due to a county imposed curfew, stipulated that the race would be 50 laps or one hour, whichever came first: one hour came first. A stumped crowd was not aware of this as the public address system was inoperable throughout the evening.

Whitener collected $3,000 for his win and the early points lead in the UDLMS Sunoco Chase for the Cup. Nosbisch the second place race finisher runs second to Whitener in points with Kellum, third; and Padgett, fourth. Fourteen year old Christian Augspurger was the top finishing rookie and consequently takes the early lead for the Chase rookie honors.

For all the information you’d like to know about the UDLMS Sunoco Chase for the Cup and upcoming races on the schedule go to the official UDLM Series website which is www.uniteddirtlatemodels.com.

Here is the official race finish:

1. Mark Whitener #58
2. Keith Nosbisch #101
3. Jordy Nipper #1N
4. John Kellum #41K
5. Jason Davis #145
6. Phillip Cobb #32
7. Doug Watson #07
8. Darrell Padgett #46
9. Kyle Van Sickle #3K
10. Christian Augspurger #35
11. Seth Caudill #C1
12. David Shugard #1
13. Mike Nasworthy #0
14. Dave Barber, Jr. #56
15. Justin Tilton #49
16. Chuck Chitty #66C
17. Dennis Williams #24
18. Patrick Williams #5K
19. Ivedent Lloyd #21
20. Travis Carter #00
21. Brian Barse #47
22. Josh Peacock #21P
23. Johnny Collins #5C DNS