by Dave Westerman

 A huge crowd of fans enjoyed very pleasant weather and plenty of great racing Saturday evening at Auburndale Speedway. The Legend Cars ran their Regional Qualifier that had been rained out at another race track, then ran a second feature for the 22 cars that had signed in. Capping off the evening was a great School Bus Figure 8 race and a Demolition Derby.

Only eleven of the 22 Legend Cars that signed in were eligible for the Regional Qualifier as it was open only to drivers who qualified at Punta Gorda Speedway before rain washed out the rest of the program there.

Auburndale Speedway point leader “No Brake” Jake Perkins trailed Lynn Wiles for seven laps before making the winning pass and led the rest of the way to win the Regional and get an automatic spot in the Young Lions division race at the U.S. Legend Car Asphalt Nationals next month at Langley Speedway in Langley, VA. Wiles held on to finish second while Justin Brown was third ahead of Chase Fitzgerald and Dakota Baggette. Gerald White, Jr., Zach Napoleon, Mason Ketterman, Joey Collins and Donovan Ponder rounded out the top ten.

Drivers qualified for starting spots in the second feature race of the night which was for both Auburndale Speedway and National points. Tyler Smith topped time trials with a lap of 15.087 seconds with Perkins second quick at 15.097 and Kory Abbott third quick at 15.243 despite having no practice laps.

The race would not get off to a good start as several cars got tangled up heading into turn one after the drop of the green. Both Chase Fitzgerald and Justin Brown got into the wall. Gary Verdier was also involved but both he and Brown continued while Fitzgerald was done before the actual start of the 25 lapper.

The second try went much better as Smith set sail with the field slicing and dicing behind him. Abbott was on the charge in a hurry and the veteran driver slipped by Smith on lap five for the lead bringing Jake Perkins with him. Caution was out one lap later as Donovan Ponder and Mason Ketterman tangled up in turn two with Ketterman’s car too damaged to continue.

Abbott and Perkins pulled away from the field following the restart and things stayed uneventful until lap 14 when Matt Larmore spun in turn two and was hit by Brown. Both were able to continue and would put on quite a show coming from the back of the restart line-up. Again Abbott and Perkins ran off and hid only to see one more slow-down on lap 23 when Zach Napoleon spun in turn four. Abbott easily withstood the pressure to score his second staight Auburndale points win in his 5R Truck & Trailer sponsored car. Perkins was a close second with Smith holding on for third ahead of Lynn Wiles and Gerald White, Jr. Completing the top ten were Dakota Baggette, Gary Verdier, Donovan Ponder, Dave Gleason and Joey Collins.

Preston Davis has made it a habit of starting near the back of the V-8 Bomber feature field and passing a slew of cars to score his victories. This week though, Davis won the heat race and earned the pole starting spot for the 15 lap headliner. Davis had no trouble scoring his fourth win of the year as he led flag to flag. Larry Chumney II gave chase but could not do anything with Davis. Third spot went to James Wright, Jr. in front of Matt Johns and Jason Howell. The rest of the top ten were Buddy Phillips, Jr., Kevin Barton, William “Huggy Bear” Hindman, Josh Borem and Mark Roadarmel, Jr.

Kim Gullett ended up winning a wild Scrambler class heat race then led all the way to score her third feature win of the year and add to her point lead after second place Brian Tyre could not make the call for the feature start.  Gullett topped Gary Brown, Jerry Pruitt, Reggie Ware and Richard Brown to take the win.

After heat winner Fred Harrison, Jr. dropped out with mechanical ills, point leader Chris Spring breezed to his ninth Mini Stock feature win of the year. James Pate took second trailed by Jason Swilley, Matt McCrary and Mark Wells.

Ryan Shattuck topped a pair of Bandolero feature races. Shattuck out-ran Cameron White and Joey Padgett in the first feature which was open to drivers who were at Punta Gorda for the rained out Legend Car Regional Qualifier.

After leading the way qualifying with a lap of 15.924 seconds, Shattuck again led all the way in the nightcap finishing well in front of point leader Teddy Lively, Coty Bibeau, Michael Held and Cameron White.

John Baranauskas led all the way and held off point leader Wayne Calkins to win the Figure 8 feature race. Paul Bookmiller took third ahead of William Hindman and Wayne Whitehead.

The School Bus Figure 8 race featured quite a bit of close competition, sometimes going three-wide. Doing that eventually cost Danny Taylor as his bus tipped over on its side between turns one and two. Taylor was unhurt and he even re-fired his machine but opted to sit out the rest of the event.

The only place there wasn’t any competition in the Bus run was for the lead as Bobby Gordon simply dominated things and had a big enough lead that he could easily time his driving through the “X.” Dustin Aaron made a late pass to snare second spot ahead of Gary Swing, Andrew Tweety and Doris Thorne.

Michael Malverty outlasted his brother Eugene to win the Demolition Derby.

This Saturday night the Open Wheel Modifieds return along with Modified Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Street Stocks and Kids Club. Racing starts at

7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com powered by Palm Tree Computers.

LEGEND CARS (Regional Qualifier):
1-#59 Jake Perkins
2-#31 Lynn Wiles
3-#8 Justin Brown
4-#96 Chase Fitzgerald
5-#7 Dakota Baggette
6-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
7-#1 Zach Napoleon
8-#71 Mason Ketterman
9-#28 Joey Collins
10-#81 Donovan Ponder
11-#5 Seth Adams

LEGEND CARS (Regular Feature):
1-#5R Korey Abbott
2-#59 Jake Perkins
3-#4 Tyler Smith
4-#31 Lynn Wiles
5-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
6-#7 Dakota Baggette
7-#44 Gary Verdier
8-#81 Donovan Ponder
9-#17 Dave Gleason
10-#28 Joey Collins
11-#5 Seth Adams
12-#57 Bryan Silas
13-#8 Justin Brown
14-#67 Matt Larmore
15-#99 Leroy Moore
16-#2 Corey White
17-#47 Eric Eichelberger
18-#83 Danielle Stratton
19-#51 Roger Englund
20-#1 Zach Napoleon
21-#71 Mason Ketterman
22-#96 Chase Fitzgerald

BANDOLEROS (Feature 1):
1-#13 Ryan Shattuck
2-#38 Cameron White (Bandit)
3-#83 Joey Padgett

BANDOLEROS (Feature 2):
1-#13 Ryan Shattuck
2-#96 Teddy Lively
3-#65 Coty Bibeau
4-#55 Michael Held (Bandit)
5-#38 Cameron White (Bandit)
6-#11 Daniel Conlin, Jr.
7-#48 Andy Metz
8-#1 Mark Bibeau
9-#16 Nicholis Baluch
DNS #83 Joey Padgett

MINI STOCKS:
1-#42 Chris Spring
2-#55 James Pate
3-#40 Jason Swilley
4-#3 Matt McCrary
5-#551 Mark Wells
6-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
DNS #24 Gene Harrison

V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#89 Preston Davis
2-#96 Larry Chumney II
3-#56 James Wright
4-#51 Matt Johns
5-#4 Jason Howell
6-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
7-#18 Kevin Barton
8-#89x William Hindman
9-#111 Josh Borem
10-#81 Mark Roadarmel, Jr.
11-#22 Roger Harrison
DNS #7 Frank Pierce

SCRAMBLERS:
1-#28 Kimberly Gullett
2-#52 Gary Brown
3-#17 Jerry Pruitt
4-#96 Reggie Ware
5-#62 Richard Brown
6-#14 Dale Philibotte
7-#67 T.J. Tanner
DNS #10 Jerrell Cook
DNS #66 Brian Tyre

SCHOOL BUS FIGURE 8’s
1-#4 Bobby Gordon
2-#007 Dustin Aaron
3-#701 Gary Swing
4-#9 Andrew Tweety
5-#10 Doris Thorne
6-#17 Tom Carroll
7-#11 Chick Whitehead
8-#13 Marcus Sumner
9-#1 Robert Aaron
10-#19 Danny Taylor
11-#6 David Ross

FIGURE 8’s:
1-#27 John Baranauskas
2-#14 Wayne Calkins
3-#03 Paul Bookmiller
4-#89x William Hindman
5-#31 Wayne Whitehead
6-#111 Josh Borem
7-#89 Seth Nistok

DEMO DERBY:
1-#17 Michael Malverty
2-#16 Eugene Malverty
3-#238 Todd Cox
4-#99 Leonard Fussell
5-#12 Ralph Murchie

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