by Dave Westerman
It was yet another outstanding night at Auburndale Speedway Saturday although many of the division point leaders probably would not agree with that statement.
It was actually a full day of activity as Auburndale Speedway partnered with the Red Knights Motorcycle Club for the “World’s Largest Poker Run” which ended as riders arrived during the afternoon at the speedway, most of them hot, tired and sunburned, but happy as their efforts raised over $4,000 for the Fallen Firefighters Survivors Foundation. Activities included a car show and live music in the parking lot before the races and an appearance at intermission by “Wheelie Magic,” a specialized one-of-a-kind wheel-standing fire truck handled by former driver Dennis Coyle of Miami.
Firefighters went through the grandstands at intermission with their helmets and the track also donated their portion of the 50/50 raffle to the FFSF, bringing total donations to around $5,000.
The race evening was also dedicated in the memory of Auburndale resident Sgt. Keith “Coe Daddy” Coe, who died in Khalis, Iraq earlier in the week from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an explosive device. The young man who grew up in New York and nearby Winter Haven, FL leaves a wife and four children.
The Open Wheel Modifieds were out in force for their second of back-to-back race weeks with 19 cars in the pits. Keith Lilley and Big Wayne Morris split the heat wins and made up row one of the 40 lap feature race.
Morris sped off at the drop of the green while Lilley fell back trying to maintain the tough outside groove. Contact with another car saw Lilley off the pace and taking his car to the infield as the caution flew on lap two.
Morris had things under control on the restart as Colin Cabre was doing all he could to hold off a snarling pack of cars for second.
Caution number two flew on lap 14 as James Wright III and Bobby Blake made contact sending Wright spinning down the front stretch. Wright, already nursing damage from a heat race crash that also eliminated Phil Morrison from further racing on the evening, restarted while Blake zipped into the pits to change a flat tire.
Two laps after the restart, Jimmy Wilkins looped his mount off turn two for yellow flag number three. On each restart, Morris was able to motor away from the field with relative ease. Lap 19 saw Rick Coffin’s engine blow up in a cloud of smoke however no caution was needed.
The final slow down of the race took place on lap 31 as Sammy Coghill went around in turn one.
No one had anything for Morris as he easily led the remaining nine laps to score his first win of the year. Morris also took over the division point lead as previous point leader Kevin Macy had a rough evening, eventually settling for a 12th place finish.
Cabre held off all advances from last weeks winner Kyle Bookmiller to grab a hard-fought second with Bookmiller third ahead of James Wilkins and Travis Roland. Von Pope, Coghill, Wright III, Shawn Harper and Jimmy Wilkins completed the top ten.
Dave Dunkin came in with a nice 30 point edge in the Sportsman standings but saw much of it erased in a grinding back stretch crash during the feature.
Sixteen year old Austin Carr, driving for Chuck Harrison, Sr., won the heat race and zipped out to the early lead in the feature with veteran Bart Weatherford right on his back bumper. As the two were lapping Austin’s uncle, Butch Carr, Jr., Weatherford made contact with the lapped machine and saw all the left-side sheet metal stripped from his racer.
The damage was only cosmetic and gave Weatherford a little extra “air conditioning” on a very warm night. He continued after the caution to remove the body work in second behind Carr.
Dave Dunkin had been trying to work his way up through the field but Kyle Alford got sideways off turn two during lap 16. Dunkin dove low to avoid Alford but the two cars touched sending Dunkin head-on into the back stretch wall. Despite the severity of the crash and a virtually destroyed race car, Dunkin emerged unhurt from the incident.
Carr managed to hang on all the way to score his first career Sportsman win.
Weatherford tried everthing he could to get by, then spun off turn four on the final lap handing the runner-up spot to Mark Medeiros. Chris Lewellen was third while Josh Todd (driving in a substitute role for Brandon Duchscherer -for a reason we’ll get to later) took fourth and Ted Head fifth. Weatherford recovered for sixth.
The Mini Stock feature was yet another close contest as Chris Spring and point leader Fred Harrison, Jr. duked it out all 20 laps before Spring prevailed for his third win of the year. Marilyn McCrary served notice she is about to return to form as she posted a close third place finish just in front of Donnie Guy and young rookie contender Jason Swilley. Spring also won the heat race.
The Outlaw Modifieds were scheduled to run at another track in Southwest Florida Saturday night. When that track unexpectedly closed at mid-week, Auburndale Speedway offered them a chance to run their points race here and they did not dissapoint.
Zach Rudd led the early laps but former class champion Doug Hopper of New Port Richey, sporting a new engine in his car, was not to be denied as he took over and sped to a convincing victory.
Rudd held off Tom Meyer for second with Ric Mills and John Gula fourth and fifth. Heat wins went to Rudd and Hopper.
Although his run in the Open Wheel Modifieds was laden with problems, James Wright III had no trouble in winning his second Street Stock feature of the year. The 2009 class champion led all the way to defeat a large field of cars.
Eddie Hartin came home second with Matt McCrary third. Chris Narramore, Jr. and Kyle Hall tangled with two laps to go while battling for fourth place. That allowed Chris Spring to notch a fourth place finish in just his second week out with his new car. Dave Colpritt had to claw his way forward all night but ended up fifth in the final tally.
Action in the V-8 Bombers started in their heat race as Brandon Duchscherer ended up pounding the front stretch wall after contact with Paul Bookmiller. Duchscherer was none to happy about the incident and threw his steering wheel into the cockpit of Bookmiller’s car. Duschsherer was then disqualified from all track activity which is why Josh Todd took over the Sportsman car that had been assigned to him. Bookmiller did give the steering wheel back though.
The feature was more anti-climactic although still not without a little “rouch driving.” It didn’t matter to Chris McGivern though as he easily drove off to the win and let everybody else duke it out behind him. Bookmiller wound up second in the feature ahead of Jeff Lacy, Kevin Barton and heat winner Buddy Phillips, Jr. Point leader Josh Borem had another off night taking sixth while still battling transmission issues.
The Scrambler feature got off to a rough start for point leader Kim Gullett as she tangled with Brian Tyre (who is second in points) and hit the front stretch wall. Gullett just made it out in time for the restart well behind the field.
Ron Norman and Scott Sharpe finished one-two in the feature run but both were set down in tech for not making minimum weight moving Gene Harrison into victory lane. Chad Cutting was second followed by Richard Brown and Tyre while Gullett charged back up to finish fifth. Harrison won the heat.
Heather Guy out ran Brandon Guy to win the Kids Club feature.
Next week on May 8, the Auburndale Trucks will race for 25 Laps. Also on the card are the Street Stocks, Modified Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Mini Stocks, Legends and Bandeleros. Races start at 7PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS:
1-#98 Wayne Morris
2-#51 Colin Cabre
3-#03 Kyle Bookmiller
4-#76 James Wilkins
5-#10 Travis Roland
6-#01 Von Pope
7-#22 Sammy Coghill
8-#56 James Wright III
9-#00 Shawn Harper
10-#11 Jimmy Wilkins
11-#35 Ron Abney
12-#19 Kevin Macy
13-#21 Jimmy Alvis
14-#89 Josh Todd
15-#65 Ken Lawrence
16-#75 Bobby Blake
17-#29 Rick Coffin
18-#87 Keith Lilley
DNS-#63 Phil Morrison
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SPORTSMAN:
1-#22 Austin Carr
2-#13 Mark Medeiros
3-#19 Chris Lewellen
4-#8 Josh Todd
5-#92 Ted Head
6-#1 Bart Weatherford
7-#22x Butch Carr, Jr.
8-#21 Chuck Harrison, Jr.
9-#51 Kyle Alford
10-#71 Dave Dunkin
DQ-#8 Brandon Duchscherer (car taken over by Josh Todd)
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MINI STOCKS:
1-#42 Chris Spring
2-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
3-#4 Marilyn McCrary
4-#33 Donnie Guy
5-#40 Jason Swilley
6-#88 Kevin Steadman
7-#46 Mike Bruno
8-#11 Josh Borem
9-#551 Mark Wells
10-#90 Danny Pearson
11-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
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STREET STOCKS:
1-#56 James Wright III
2-#48 Eddie Hartin
3-#5 Matt McCrary
4-#142 Chris Spring
5-#4 Dave Colpritt
6-#65 Ken Lawrence
7-#10 Kenny May
8-#17 Kyle Hall
9-#21 Chris Narramore, Jr.
10-#81 Joe Young
11-#42 Jeff Waterman
12-#52 Mike Rowland
13-#26 Mike Bruno
14-#45 Joe Dowdy
DNS-#44 Mark Waterman
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SCRAMBLERS:
1-#88 Gene Harrison
2-#00 Chad Cutting
3-#62 Richard Brown
4-#66 Brian Tyre
5-#28 Kimberly Gullett
6-#48 Chase Pointer
7-#4 Scott Russ
8-#42 Mike Bauer
9-#71 Dave Canfield
DNS-#51 Matt Johns
DQ-#98 Ron Norman
DQ-#7 Scott Sharpe
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V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#87 Chris McGivern
2-#0 Paul Bookmiller
3-#105 Jeff Lacey
4-#18 Kevin Barton
5-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
6-#111 Josh Borem
DQ-#42 Brandon Duchscherer
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OUTLAW MODIFIEDS:
1-#15 Doug Hopper
2-#29 Zach Rudd
3-#04 Tom Meyer
4-#22 Ric Mills
5-#6 John Gula
6-#63 Ricky Gervasi
7-#7 Mel Mel Braden
8-#26 Mike Endee
9-#5 Craig Sherar
10-#3 Garrett Green
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KIDS CLUB:
1-#30 Heather Guy
2-#32 Brandon Guy
Next week on May 8, the Auburndale Trucks will race for 25 Laps. Also on the card are the Street Stocks, Modified Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Mini Stocks, Legends and Bandeleros. Races start at 7PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.
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