It was the V-8 Bomber class headlining the action Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway and the drivers would not disappoint as they put on a great show for a nice crowd on a cool, clear, yet comfortable evening.

It would be Kyle Peters topping the 14 car field in time trials with a lap of
16.377 seconds. Peters, making his first start of 2017 in his ultra-fast Camaro, was just a bit faster than James Wright III who turned in a lap of
16.503 and Carl Thompson, Jr. who tripped the clocks at 16.651. The top six would be inverted, though, meaning that Aaron Holmes would start his key lime green mount from the pole.

Holmes wasted little time getting to the lead while Peters quickly made his way up to fourth by lap nine. On lap 12, Peters slid under Wright and took over third just as the only caution of the event flew for Danny Burchfield who had stopped at the top of turn four. The restart proved to be an interesting one as Carl Thompson, Jr., the first driver to elect to start on the outside lane, grabbed the lead from Holmes and brought David Purvis with him.

Action continued under green flag conditions as Holmes got back by Purvis for second spot on lap 23 with Peters following suit two laps later. Holmes had his car hooked up to perfection and he drove around Thompson on lap 29 and began to pull away. Peters quickly worked his way by Thompson and set sail after Holmes. (more…)

Week number two of Auburndale Speedway’s Winter Sunday racing series saw much warmer weather than on the opening Sunday last week and plenty of great racing action as it was “DARN Day at the Races” with fans getting the opportunity to support DARN that helps raise awareness of farming and agriculture to the youth in Central Florida through various programs along with supporting local school’s FFA and 4-H programs. It was such a warm day that several fans came up with a new month for Florida – “Januly.”

The headlining event of the day was the season opener for the Sunshine State Challenge Series Mod Minis. Defending Auburndale Speedway champion Chris Spring of Auburndale set quick time at 15.16 seconds followed by the 15.22 lap of New Smyrna’s Tyler Simpson.

It would be Jimmy Frazier leading the opening pair of laps before Simpson breezed by bringing a very fast Jeff Firestine along with him. Simpson took off and hid from the field as a great battle ensued between Firestine, Frazier and Spring. A caution for debris on the back stretch slowed the action and allowed the field to close on Simpson. On the restart, both Firestine and Frazier got by the leader while Spring got extremely loose trying to grab the second spot and fell again back to fourth in the running. (more…)

Photo Courtesy of Mike Horne Photo

It was an absolutely gorgeous day Sunday at Auburndale Speedway as the track hosted the season finale for the Sunoco Super Late Model Series and the fans were treated to a great race featuring former ‘legendary” drivers along with features in six other classes.

Qualifying for the Sunoco 100 presented by Speedway Auto Sales was held on Saturday with Jesse Dutilly of Bradenton setting the quick time with a lap of 13.404 seconds, nearly a tenth of a second faster than second qualifier Nick Neri’s lap of 14.499. George Gorham, Jr., Joe Boyd and Jon Guy rounded out the top five in time trials.  The top eight from qualifying had eight youngsters from the grandstands pick Jeg’s hats that had the top eight starting positions on them and it was Patrick Staropoli getting “hat number one” to place himself on the pole flanked by Gorham with Dutilly’s hat coming up with the number three for third starting spot. (more…)

Photo Courtesy of SpeedRacer Photo

The weather was cool but the action was hot Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway as the DeSoto-Auburndale Sportsman Series hit the track for their season finale, a 75-lap contest with double points on the line. A nice field of 22 cars signed in and was set by qualifying times set three weeks previous when their event fell victim to rain that fell just after intermission began.

Seventeen cars were at the track on 9/24 and two of those failed to show for this race. That meant there were seven cars that did not qualify for the rained out show and they had to start from the rear of the grid.
Junior Beckner and Jason Vail led the field to green with Vail leading the opening circuit before Beckner took control for four laps only to see George Gorham, Jr. blast by him on lap six for the point. Caution flew for the first time on lap nine for Tim Sozio’s spin in turn three with Dora Thorne also spinning and Jamie Kennedy coming to a quick halt to avoid everything. Kennedy’s quick stop damaged something in the driveline and he was pushed to the pits becoming the first car to retire from the fray. (more…)

After a ‘forced” week off to dry out from Hurricane Matthew, Auburndale Speedway was back to business Saturday night with the Desoto-Auburndale Race Truck Series (DARTS) heading up a great night of racing action.

Michael Goddard of Naples took his “Gray Ghost” National Roofing Special around the track in 14.670 seconds to just edge Lakeland’s Cody McDuffie for fast time.  McDuffie circulated the “bullring” at 14.676 seconds with third quick time going to Cody Martell with a lap of 14.842 seconds.  Rounding out the top five in qualifying were Derek Pugh and point leader Becca Monopoli.

McDuffie drew a five for the inversion placing Monopoli on the pole for the 50-lap feature and she wasted little time building up a nice advantage over Pugh as Martell could not find the handle on his truck, backsliding from third to tenth in the first ten laps.  Fast qualifiers McDuffie and Goddard were on the charge moving around Pugh for second and third on the 11th circuit.

This race would not go all 50 laps under green like the last one as Mike Kohut spun off turn two just as the 14th lap was completed.  On the restart, it took McDuffie just one lap to slip by Monopoli for the top spot while Goddard would fall victim to a multi-truck mess in turn three on lap 17 that damaged his truck along with those of Tommy Kelly, Jason Lester and others.  McDuffie continued to set a blistering pace as the third yellow flag of the night was displayed for Martell who spun in turn four. (more…)

After racing was canceled last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, the Desoto-Auburndale Race Truck series (DARTS) will be in action for their sixth points race of the season this Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway.  The Truck racers will go for 50 laps and be joined by the Legend Cars, Mini Stocks, Scramblers and Mini-Cup cars.  The V-8 Bombers and Mod Minis will have the night off here so that drivers who are also racing for points in those classes at DeSoto Speedway in Bradenton can compete there Saturday night.

Among the drivers expected to take part in the DARTS race are point leader Becca Monopoli of Lakeland, Derek Pugh of Crystal River.

Arcadia’s Cody Martell, Jason Lester of Palmetto, Big Donnie Burkhalter of Ocoee, Bradenton’s Danny Anderson, Cody McDuffie of Lakeland, Lehigh’s Michael Kohut, Billy Carlbert, Jr. of Palmetto, Naples driver Michael Goddard, Cody Carlbert of Zephyrhills, Tommy Kelley of Myakka City, Kristin Clements of Lakeland, Racin’ Mason Love of Pinellas Park, Lakeland’s Dakota Hunt, Travis Roland of Auburndale, Tyler Davis of Lakeland, Mike Gamache of Tarpon Springs and Lakeland driver Chase Lovelady.

Pit gates open Saturday afternoon at 2 pm with practice starting at 3:45 pm. (more…)

The DeSoto-Auburndale Sportsman Series is back in action for the first time since early July as the popular class will go for 50 laps Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway.  Along with the Sportsman cars, seven other classes will be in action including the Legend Cars, Mod Minis, Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Mini Cups and the Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association will be making a special guest appearance.

It will be “The Results Companies Night” at the speedway as the company has teamed up with Auburndale Speedway as the track will be helping them gain new full time employees.  The Results Companies support Sirius XM and Healthmark with customer support and are looking for persons to fill available positions.

They will have a booth on the midway where fans can register to win a home Sirius XM radio unit (subscription service not included).

Saturday night will also feature the latest edition of Youth Nation Takeover.

Each child that enters the gate, ages 5-12, will either receive a pink or blue ticket accordingly.  To start, three tickets will be drawn and one child will get to ride in the pace car while another child will get to carry the flag in the safety truck with one other lucky child getting to drop the green flag for a race assisting flagman Julian Mullis. (more…)

Yogi Berra’s famous words “It ain’t over ’til it’s over” rang true Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway after 50 hard laps of Pro Truck racing.

The evening began a bit on the wet side as it took quite awhile to dry the race track following rain showers that drenched the facility from late morning until around 4 pm.  However, with clearing skies looming to the east, promoter Rex Guy waited out the long left-over drizzle and the show went on, although just a bit late getting started.

Qualifying for the two headlining classes was scrapped and starting positions for both the 50-lap Pro Truck race and the 40-lapper for the V-8 Bombers were determined by a pill draw.  For the trucks it was local driver Cody McDuffie using his front row starting spot to zip out to a comfortable lead at the drop of the green while Michael Goddard, Cody Martell, Becca Monopoli and Danny Anderson settled into some nose-to-tail racing behind him.  Monopoli became the first driver to make a move as she passed Martell for third on lap ten.  From there it was green flag racing as the trucks became spread out all over the speedway with McDuffie putting laps on a number of drivers before the first caution flag came out on lap 35 as it appeared second-running Goddard got into one of the lapped machines with the result a whole bunch of torn off sheet metal on the right side of his racer. (more…)