by Dave Westerman
Keith Lilley made the best of a borrowed ride and the tech shed was once again a busy place as Auburndale Speedway celebrated the Easter weekend with loads of action and fun.
The Auburndale Truck Series made its season debut and Keith Lilley made the most of a ride he picked up for the weekend by dominating both the heat and feature races. Lilley, who said his machine was “handling perfectly” jumped to the early lead and never looked back in posting the win.
Lance Daubach did a great job in finishing second trailed by Tim Sozio. Roger Blevins was fourth and J.R. Garcia took fifth.
The Sportsman class saw Dave Dunkin looking for his third straight win. Dunkin took the heat win and was leading the 25 lap main event when the rear end gears broke on his “Blue Goose” and he headed to the pits while the only caution of the race was displayed to check for fluid on the track.
Jason Stifle took over at that point and set the pace the remainder of the distance with Mark Medeiros well behind in second after a race-long battle with Aaron Williamson.
Unfortunately both the cars of apparent winner Stifle and Williamson did not pass tech inspection awarding the win to Medeiros. Austin Carr, whose team replaced the rear gears of his car after they broke in hot laps, came home with a second place finish followed by Bobby Mobley, Kyle Alford and Brandon Duscherer.
Fred Harrison, Jr. jumped out to an early lead and claimed his third Mini Stock feature win of the year taking the point lead in the process. Aaron Williamson took second spot and was able to pass tech in this car. Heat winner Chris Spring, Chris Narramore, Sr. and Donnie Guy rounded out the top five.
Flagman Julian Mullis needed painkillers for a sore arm after waving the caution flag numerous times during a wild Street Stock feature.
Dave Colpritt led the whole way and was certainly in the right place to be as the cars behind him were at it tooth and nail the entire distance. Twelve cars started the race but just five were left as the checkered flag fell.
Point leader Matt McCrary had the hardest hit as something broke on his machine and he pounded the turn two wall before bouncing back across the track and collecting the car of Austin Jenkins. Both drivers walked away unhurt.
Bobby Mobley trailed Colpritt to the checker as “Big Dave” scored his second win of the year. Jeff Waterman came back from an early race incident to get third with Ken Lawrence fourth and Chuck Harrison, Jr. fifth as the only ones still left on the track.
Heat wins were taken by Colpritt and Jeff Waterman.
There was plenty to discuss in the pits after the Legend Car feature. Jake Perkins appeared to be on his way to a fourth consecutive win. But going into turn three, defending champion Justin Brown drove in hard and punted Perkins into the high groove. Brown made the pass and crossed the stripe for the win.
After much “discussion” the win stood with Perkins claiming second in front of Gerald White, Jr., Mason Ketterman and Dave Gleason. Heat race wins were taken by Perkins and White.
After having a pair of victories snatched from him already this year in tech, Chris Narramore, Jr. easily claimed the V-8 Bomber win and finally passed tech under the watchful eye of the inspectors. Brandon Duscherer was a distant second at the finish trailed by heat winner James Wright II, Josh Borem and Andy Harvard.
The Scrambler feature also saw the apparent winner set down in tech. Gene Harrison drove his Volkswagen by early leader Chad Cutting on lap eight and ran off to the apparent win. However, Harrison refused a tear-down and the win ended up going to Cutting.
Cutting, who is the grandson of the legendary “Tampa Terror” Will Cagle, scored his first win of the year over point leader Kim Gullett, Brian Tyre, Richard Brown and Jeremy Watts.
It was yet another Dwarf Car win for Jonathan Guy as he claimed the victory after a hard-fought battle with Sonny O’Sullivan. Donny Bass was third ahead of his dad Johnny Bass and Zane Davis.
After leader Ryan Shattuck spun out of the lead, Ryan Sobel took over the point and led the rest of the way to claim his first-ever Bandolero feature win. Shattuck drove back to get second but ran out of time before he could catch Sobel. Cameron White was third ahead of Andy Metz and Noah “Lil’ Gater”
Cornman. Shattuck won the heat.
The Kids Club feature race was a first-ever win for young Heather Guy as she topped Dakota Hunt and Brandon Guy. Heather also won the heat race.
Next week the School Bus Figure 8s return along with Street Stocks, Modified Mini Stocks, Legends, Bandeleros, Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers and Scramblers.
Racing begins at 7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.
TRUCKS:
1-#72 Keith Lilley
2-#77 Lance Daubach
3-#16 Tim Sozio
4-#8 Roger Blevins
5-#13 J.R. Garcia
6-#1 Tommy King
7-#2 Jim Cowhey, Jr.
8-#49x Louis Potter
LEGENDS:
1-#8 Justin Brown
2-#59 Jake Perkins
3-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
4-#22 Mason Ketterman
5-#07 Dave Gleason
6-#31 Lynn Wiles
7-#44 Gary Verdier
8-#57 Bryan Silas
9-#17 Mike Gleason
10-#4R Zach Napoleon
11-#51 Roger Englund
12-#7 Dakota Baggette
13-#83 Danielle Stratton
BANDOLEROS:
1-#5 Derek Sobel
2-#13 Ryan Shattuck
3-#38 Cameron White
4-#48 Andy Metz
5-#30 Noah Cornman
6-#96 Teddy Lively
MINI STOCKS:
1-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
2-#84 Aaron Williamson
3-#42 Chris Spring
4-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
5-#33 Donnie Guy
6-#4 Marilyn McCrary
7-#46 Randy King
8-#88 Kevin Steadman
9-#55 Steve Routt
10-#89 Shawn Jenkins
11-#551 Mark Wells
12-#40 Jason Swilley
13-#31 Everett Wisby
V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#21 Chris Narramore, Jr.
2-#42 Brandon Duchscherer
3-#56 James Wright II
4-#111 Josh Borem
5-#17 Andy Harvard
6-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
7-#0 Paul Bookmiller
8-#89 Preston Davis
DQ #96 Larry Chumney II
STREET STOCK:
1-#4 Dave Colpritt
2-#29 Bobby Mobley
3-#42 Jeff Waterman
4-#65 Ken Lawrence
5-#22 Chuck Harrison, Jr.
6-#5 Matt McCrary
7-#89 Austin Jenkins
8-#17 Kyle Hall
9-#48 Eddie Hartin
10-#45 Joe Dowdy
11-#3 Kevin O’Quinn
12-#44 Mark Waterman
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#00 Chad Cutting
2-#28 Kimberly Gullett
3-#66 Brian Tyre
4-#62 Richard Brown
5-#77 Jeremy Watts
6-#42 Mike Bauer
7-#4 Scott Russ
DQ #88 Gene Harrison
SPORTSMAN:
1-#13 Mark Medeiros
2-#22 Austin Carr
3-#47 Bobby Mobley
4-#51 Kyle Alford
5-#8 Brandon Duchscherer
6-#60 Rick Fiore
7-#71 Dave Dunkin
8-#92 Ted Head
DQ #38 Jason Stifle
DQ #113 Aaron Williamson
DWARF CARS:
1-#42 Jonathan Guy
2-#0 Sonny O’Sullivan
3-#00 Donny Bass
4-#25 Johnny Bass
5-#9 Zane Davis
6-#0z Dan Statter
KIDS CLUB:
1-#30 Heather Guy
2-#9 Dakota Hunt
3-#32 Brandon Guy
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