by Dave Westerman
Auburndale Speedway’s “Family Fun Night” played to a full house with plenty of great racing on a warm, muggy evening. There was plenty of lightning off in the distance, but the rains stayed away once again.
Matt McCrary came into the evening with a small point lead in the Street Stock class and looked like he was going to increase his advantage by quite a bit as he won the heat race and had the pole for the feature looking for his first main event win since moving up from the Scramblers.
McCrary wasted little time in taking the lead as Dave Colpritt settled into second spot. Meanwhile the second place driver in points, Jeff Waterman, was having a tough evening battling a very sour engine. After some early race problems and a couple of yellow flags, McCrary asserted himself out front with Colpritt a few car lengths back. With just three laps to go, Colpritt began to close in.
Then, on lap 18, McCrary slammed into the back stretch wall ending his evening with victory in sight. Colpritt, who celebrated a birthday on Friday, got a late present as he sped to his fifth win of the year and picked up valuable points on the two drivers ahead of him as it now seems the 2010 point battle will come down to the wire between McCrary, Waterman and Colpritt.
Larry Braswell returned after a few weeks off to claim the runner-up position while Austin Jenkins drove a steady race for third. Bobby Mobley and Kyle Peters came from deep in the field to take fourth and fifth while Jerrell Cook, Waterman, Jamie Castleberry, Ken Lawrence and McCrary rounded out the top ten.
For the second straight week, the 25 lap Legend Car feature ran green to checker without a caution flag and saw Gerald White, Jr. again lead every lap to claim yet another win and add to his ever-increasing point lead. Jake Perkins finished a distant second trailed by Tyler Smith, Devin McLeod and Zach Napoleon. Completing the top ten were Donovan Ponder, Justin Brown, Mason Ketterman, Seth Adams and Lynn Wiles. White and Smith were the heat race winners.
Jeff Lacey won the V-8 Bomber heat and then took off like a rocket in the feature before something broke on his car and he hit the turn three wall on lap four. Larry Chumney II took over at that point but once again it would be Preston Davis putting on a show for the fans as he used the outside lane once again to pass Chumney on lap 17 before scoring his third win of the year. Chumney held on for second followed by James Wright, Jr., Justin Meyer and Michael Smith.
Kimberly Gullett’s run for the Scrambler point championship took a big hit Saturday night. After winning the feature race by a wide margin, Gullett’s car was set down in tech for an unapproved shock absorber spacer. That meant what would have been her second win was taken away and she was awarded no points on the evening.
Scotty Sharpe, the Modified Mini Stock point leader who was driving for Ted Tidwell, crossed the stripe in second but was ultimately awarded his first Scrambler feature race win of the year. Jerry Pruitt took a career best second while Richie Acres came back from an early incident to claim third over Bryan Tyre and Jeremy Watts. Acres won the heat.
Robbie Powell led from start to finish in the Figure 8 race but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Wayne Calkins passed Powell on several occasions but never could make a full pass and eventually settled for second after several very close calls with backmarkers during the latter stages of the event. Third place went to Terry Zimmerman ahead of J.R. Meyer and Wayne Whitehead.
Teddy Lively continued his mastery of the Bandoleros taking the lead from Cameron White and zipping to another easy victory. Andy Metz was second followed by White, Daniel Conlin, Jr. and Jake Hunter.
Dakota Hunt won her first career race in the Kids Club topping Heather Guy and Brandon Guy. Eugene Malverty topped the Demolition Derby. Malverty and Billy Dennis’ cars locked bumpers and track officials decided to separate the two cars and let them go at it for the win. However Dennis’ car would not re-fire giving Malverty the victory.
Several cars showed for the Enduro race however, after pre-race tech, only two were found to comply with the “stock” rules. Management decided to cancel the race and allow some of the other cars to compete in the other divisions. The drivers with the two legal cars, Michael Teschner and Kyle Alford were each given $250 for their efforts.
This week, August 7th, the Open Wheel Modifieds are back in action along with the Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Modified Mini Stocks, V-8 bombers and Scramblers. Racing starts at 7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com.
OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 7/31/10:
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STREET STOCKS:
1-#4 Dave Colpritt
2-#80 Larry Braswell
3-#89 Austin Jenkins
4-#29 Bobby Mobley
5-#53 Kyle Peters
6-#46 Jerrell Cook
7-#42 Jeff Waterman
8-#86 Jamie Castleberry
9-#65 Ken Lawrence
10-#5 Matt McCrary
11-#0 Paul Bookmiller
N/S #8 Brian Harbin
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LEGEND CARS:
1-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
2-#59 Jake Perkins
3-#4 Tyler Smith
4-#21 Devin McLeod
5-#4R Zach Napoleon
6-#81 Donovan Ponder
7-#8 Justin Brown
8-#71 Mason Ketterman
9-#5 Seth Adams
10-#31 Lynn Wiles
11-#67 Matt Larmore
12-#51 Roger Englund
13-#99 Leroy Moore
14-#07 Dave Gleason
15-#83 Danielle Stratton
16-#159 Dakota Baggette
DNS #65 Coty Bibeau
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SCRAMBLERS:
1-#7 Scotty Sharp
2-#17 Jerry Pruitt
3-#8 Richie Acres
4-#66 Brian Tyre
5-#77 Jeremy Watts
6-#62 Richard Brown
7-#67 T. J. Tanner
8-#88 Jason Sopczak
9-#7x Ray Hindman
DQ #28 Kimberly Gullett
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V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#89 Preston Davis
2-#96 Larry Chumney II
3-#56 James Wright II
4-#A6 Justin Meyer
5-#29 Michael Smith
6-#18 Kevin Barton
7-#88 Gene Harrison
8-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
9-#7 Eugene Malverty
10-#105 Jeff Lacey
11-#06 Shane Williams
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FIGURE 8:
1-#18 Robbie Powell
2-#14 Wayne Caulkins
3-#4 Terry Zimmerman
4-#A6 J.R. Meyer
5-#31 Wayne Whitehead
6-#0 Paul Bookmiller
7-#21 Brandon Duchscherer
8-#05 Buddy Phillips, Sr.
9-#89 Rodney Davis
10-#27 John Baranuskas
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KIDS CLUB:
1-#99 Dakota Hunt
2-#30 Heather Guy
3-#32 Brandon Guy
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BANDOLEROS:
1-#96 Teddy Lively – Outlaw
2-#48 Andy Metz – Outlaw
3-#38 Cameron White – Bandit
4-#11 Daniel Conlin, Jr. – Outlaw
5-#03 Jacob Hunter _ Outlaw
DNS # 1Jr – Dustin Turnage
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DEMO DERBY:
1-#16 Eugene Malverty
2-#89 Billy Dennis
3-#XX Roger Nicholas
4-#00 Jeremy Graves
5-#99 Leonard Fussell, Jr.
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