Orlando Speedworld – May 28th 2010
by Andy Sandall, FASCAR Media
Heavy afternoon showers all over the Orlando area thankfully missed Bithlo and allowed for a full night of racing, but with memories of last season’s rainouts still fresh in many people’s memories the turn-out of both fans and drivers was smaller than usual. As if to reward the hardy souls who braved the weather, the drivers who turned out put on a great show that provided plenty of entertainment, lots of passing, and will have sent everyone home happy.
The first race of the night saw the conclusion of the 12-week mini-season for the Bandolero drivers. Once again the race at the front would be between the Hooven brothers, with #17 Mark Hooven coming home first ahead of #27 Shawn Hooven, who by holding off the late charge of #13 Ryan Shattack claimed the early season Young Gun championship. Behind him the Bandit class would again see #55 Michael Held well ahead of his competitors and mixing it with the older drivers for most of the race. For these younger drivers the championship crown would go to #30 Noah Cornman.
Just 3 E-Modifieds turned out for their truncated feature of 15 laps, although all 3 cars would take a turn at leading the race during that time. Straight away #00 John Hodge leapt away at the front, to be quickly chased down by #12 John Zidek. Hodge would soon drop back to give Zidek his chance as leader, before #93 Bruce Gayton made his decisive move on the 10th lap to slip down the inside and take 1st place. Gayton would not look back and soon take the checkered flag to confirm his win over Zidek in 2nd, with Hodge happily claiming a 3rd place finish – and the points that come with that – to move closer to 3rd place in the 2010 track championship race.
The Legends cars feature saw #50 Ted Ruffo moving out into an early lead and benefiting from the gaggle of cars behind him fighting for position and distracting each other while he raced away with open track ahead of him. By the time the chasing pack had sorted themselves out it was #8 Donovan Ponder who worked his way into 2nd and set off after the leader. It took him a few laps to get on Ruffo’s rear bumper and start to look for a way round, but the laps were ticking down and every look around the side of Ruffo was met with a firm blocking maneuver by the veteran driver ahead of him.
One last attempt to nudge Ruffo high on the way into turn 1 failed and Ponder would have to settle for a close 2nd place behind Ruffo, coming home flag-to-flag to claim his first ever Legends feature win. Way behind the leaders #6 Jim Rix managed to beat off the challenge of #51x Roger Englund for 3rd place, while #13 Ryan Shattack successfully completed his second race of the night, moving up to the senior divisions after his earlier Bandolero race.
The first race of the season at Orlando Speedworld for the Limited Late Models would see the field increased with the addition of the Sportsman cars of #66 Andy Nicholls and #93 Brandon Johnson, both added to this field to help speed the show along with overhead clouds threatening. Away at the front the race soon developed into a three-car shootout between #20 Anthony Sergi, #36 Ross Chastain and #19 Bobby Good. These three would put the first half of the race in the books with relatively little trouble before they were brought under caution thanks to contact between #1 Zach Harris and #7 Dillon Jackson that caused both cars to spin, Jackson losing some of his front bodywork in the process.
The second half of the race would have a lot more action than the first, as Sergi and Chastain fought door to door for the first few laps after the restart, making contact in every turn before Sergi asserted himself on the low line and managed to create a small lead for himself. Chastain instantly fought back, trying a crossover move that lead to a pass on the low side heading into turn 3 to take the lead. Good would see this as his chance to advance too, but his attempt to follow Chastain through was met with a firm, decisive block by Sergi that caused him to stand on his brakes quickly.
The next trip around the track would see Sergi give Chastain a firm tap to his rear-bumper in an attempt to send him up the banks. This had the desired effect, but as Sergi moved through low to complete the maneuver Chastain turned down hard to block the pass, causing Sergi to spin. Both cars would be sent to the rear for the restart, but with these two and Good having already demonstrated they were significantly faster than the field and were embroiled in a spirited fight amongst themselves, the remaining drivers were happy – and probably relieved – to wave them through and allow them to start behind Good and #89 Josh Todd on the front row.
Once the pace truck had peeled off the track Good was away with Chastain in hot pursuit while Sergi unluckily found himself in the wrong place behind Todd, being blocked on the high line and having to watch his rivals pulling away. The young Pro Truck ace was soon back down low on the track and coming through, but his chase was quickly halted as Todd span in turn 2 to bring the yellow flags back out once more. The first attempt to get up to speed was jumped badly by Chastain, but the second was successful and saw the top 3 again pulling away quickly and resuming their race at the front.
The race erupted into life once more with just two laps to go, after Chastain had moved around Good to get out in front once more. Good planted himself firmly on the rear bumper of Chastain’s car where a nudge out of turn 2 was enough to get Chastain loose down the back straight, allowing Good underneath and back into the lead. Sergi would try to capitalize too, trying to get through to 2nd place with an inside move into turn 3, but with his car back under control Chastain again moved down to block Sergi’s run through. This move left Sergi with nowhere to go, inevitably hitting Chastain hard in the side and spinning both cars out once more, seeing both again sent to the 2nd row for the restart.
Another restart would see Good make the best of his good fortune and pull away with clear track ahead of him and no back-markers to worry about. Within two laps the checkered flags were out to give Good a win ahead of Chastain, who managed to hold off Sergi’s attempts to grab 2nd in what had been a thrilling race at the front between three hard-driving racers. Back down the field the ‘race within a race’ saw Nicholls beat out Johnson to take honors in the Sportsman division.
The Super Stock race would see another great three-car battle, but in this case it was for the runners-up spot once #16D David Gould had again put a stranglehold on the race right from the green light and raced away in the lead. Even a mid-race caution and restart gave Gould no problems as he lived up to the new decals on his car declaring himself ‘the fastest chicken in the South’ to take yet another win with no-one in the field having the speed to trouble him.
But behind him the battle between #316 Joe Bandur, #721 John Bennett and #77 Matt Reynolds was an absolute classic that had the fans enthralled for the length of the race. Early on it was Bandur who took advantage of his 2nd row starting position to head the chasing pack, but Reynolds would quickly be looking on the high side for a way round, forcing Bandur to move up the track and block to preserve his position. This tactic would cost Reynolds dear on the 7th lap when he went just too high in turn 4 and gave Bennett the line he needed to come underneath, relegating Reynolds back to 4th.
Navigating their way through lapped traffic bunched the cars back together slightly but still Bandur was holding off Bennett and Reynold’s attempts to get around him on the high line. Nothing they tried seemed to work as Bandur produced his best drive of 2010 to keep his 2nd spot, but his rhythm was broken as the caution lights suddenly came on, needed after a spin way back in the field by #55 Denny Johns, who had just overcooked things coming out of turn 2 and couldn’t get his car restarted in time to pull himself clear before the leaders came around.
The restart put Bandur alongside Gould, who wasted no time in rocketing away to rebuild his cushion at the front, but with Bandur up high there was room for Bennett and then Reynolds to barge their way through and push Bandur back down to 4th. Bennett would seize this opportunity and put some distance between himself and the 3rd place man, but Bandur wasn’t in any mood to see his hard work go to waste and he was quickly all over the rear of the #77 car, giving him a taste of his own medicine from earlier in the race.
With two laps to go the pressure being applied by Bandur told as Reynolds went into turn 3 too hot, his car getting loose and sliding high as they came around into turn 4. Bandur saw his chance and powered underneath as Reynolds grappled with his sliding car. Gould would soon be taking the checkered flag to continue his ‘hero or zero’ season of wins or nothing, with Bennett comfortably clear in 2nd place. Bandur would take home an excellent 3rd place as a reward for his great drive, beating out Reynolds as the top 4 finished well ahead of Johns back in 5th place.
It was a case of quality over quantity in the Mini Stocks feature as the five cars on show contained 4 of the fastest cars in the division, each perfectly capable of winning a feature. Pole position would go to points leader #15 Casey Loeffler, but the young driver still gaining experience in Mini Stock racing would swiftly drop all the way to the back of the field, leaving his much more experience rivals to battle it out in front of him.
Profiting from the outside front row start was #85 Rex ‘Boneman’ Hollinger who had the dual benefits of not only having clear track ahead of him but also missing being involved in the near-carnage behind him as Loeffler dropped back, leading to #78 Mark Avery, #77 Lee Davis and #31 David Russell trying get around the pole sitter in the first corner. This almost put the cars 4-wide mid-corner before Russell realized this just wasn’t going to work and slammed on his brakes. Avery also had to take immediate action as he was squeezed down low onto the Bandolero track, also braking hard to regain control of his car.
All of this was of no consequence to Hollinger who was pulling away and watching it unfold in his rear view mirror. Once around to complete the first lap his lead was already comfortable and being helped by the chasing drivers battling it out amongst each other. The race reached half distance with no real resolution to the melee for 2nd place and it seemed to be in the bag for the Boneman, but as the chasing cars headed into turn 3 Davis would see his car’s engine compartment go up in a spectacular fireball and straight-line into the turn 3 wall. Thankfully the incident looked much more serious than it had actually been, with a minor mechanical issue in the motor of the #77 car momentarily spilling fluid onto the hot engine that quickly burst into flames, but no matter how bad it had looked Davis was still able to return to the pits under his own power.
A lengthy cleanup followed that saw plenty of oil-dry applied to the track before the drivers gave the signal to the flagstand that they were happy to get back up to speed again. Once back underway it was a different fluid spill that would affect the outcome of the race as Hollinger roared away, only to have a scary moment in turn 4 just two laps later as his car skidded on a new oil patch, forcing the driver who act quickly to catch his sliding car and continue. This gave Russell in 2nd a chance to close in on the leader’s bumper, but just one lap later, and with Hollinger tip-toeing his way through the same spot in turn 4, Russell found it for himself. Unlike Hollinger, Russell was unable to control the slide and would spin out to bring about another caution with just 5 laps to go.
This would put Avery alongside Hollinger on the front row, and for the first time in the race Hollinger would not have it all his own way, as Avery kept pace on the outside and even nosed his car in front out of turn 2 before Hollinger used his extra speed to pull back ahead down the back straight and into the corner. The leaders would now be nose to tail around the track, and with the white flag on display Avery would try a hard nudge to the back of Hollinger’s car in turn 2 as he looked for a way underneath to the lead. All this did was spur Hollinger on and unsettle Avery’s car, forcing the #78 to drop back and let Loeffler through to grab a handy 2nd place behind the Boneman, who came through unscathed to claim his first win of the 2010 season. Avery would hold on to 3rd ahead of Russell, who did more than enough to keep hold of his lead in the points table.
The Strictly Stock feature would see former track champion #8 Neil Kirby get away to an early lead that he would never surrender as he came around to add another feature win to his impressive tally. Behind him 2nd place would be taken by the ever-improving #8x Luis Guillen Jr. who produced his best performance of the season so far to hold off a charge by #3 Shane Setorus in 3rd.
ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD
OFFICIAL RESULTS – 5/28/10
LTD LATE MODELS
1. #19 Bobby Good
2. #36 Ross Chastain
3. #20 Anthony Sergi
4. #7 Dillon Jackson
5. #89 Josh Todd
6. #66 Andy Nicholls
7. #93 Brandon Johnson
8. #1 Zach Harris
E-MODIFIEDS
1. #93 Bruce Gayton
2. #12 John Zidek
3. #00 John Hodge
DNS #97 Kelly JarrettMINI-STOCKS1. #85 Rex Hollinger
2. #15 Casey Loeffler
3. #78 Mark Avery
4. #31 David Russell
5. #77 Lee DavisSUPER STOCKS1. #16 David Gould
2. #721 John Bennett
3. #316 Joe Bandur
4. #77 Matt Reynolds
5. #55 Denny Johns
6. #18 Billy Rouse
7. #35 Ray Mullis
8. #23 Shannon KellySTRICTLY STOCKS1. #8 Neil Kirby
2. #8x Luis Guillen Jr
3. #3 Shane Setorus
4. #27 Dan Binda
5. #3x Aaron SicklerLEGENDS1. #50 Ted Ruffo
2. #8 Donovan Ponder
3. #6 Jim Rix
4. #51x Roger Englund
5. #13 Ryan ShattackBANDOLERO YOUNG GUNS1. #17 Mark Hooven
2. #27 Shawn Hooven
3. #13 Ryan ShattackBANDOLERO BANDITS1. #55 Michael Held
2. #30 Noah Cornman
3. #00 Brandon Lynch