Auburnale Speedway celebrated its 75th Anniversary Saturday evening in front of an enthusiastic crowd, so enthusiastic that the track ran out of hot dogs (priced at 75 cents for the night) before the races actually got under way!

The big event of the night was the 50-lap contest for the Sunshine State Challenge Series (SSCS) Modified Mini Stocks and it was point leader Chris Spring of Auburndale setting quick time at 15.357 seconds. Lakeland’s Chuck Frazier was second fastest at 15.422 followed by the 15.646 lap of Tampa’s Ken Nurse, Jr. Jeff Firestine and Mike Kerrivan were fourth and fifth quick.

Things got off to a rocky start, though, as the plug came out of the oil cooler of Brandon Yates’ car coating the upper groove of the track with oil yet going unnoticed by the drivers and officials. As the field took the green and headed into turn one, the cars in the outer groove all went for wild rides. Kerrivan got the worst of it taking a hard shot into the concrete with the right rear of his machine. Jimmy Frazier also nosed into the wall but continued after a brief check of his racer.

At this point, it was going to be a lengthy clean-up, so the field was sent back pit side and the intermission was moved up to take place while the track surface was made race-ready. In order to allow drivers involved to make repairs, the Mod Mini race was moved to the end of the night’s race schedule.

Eventually the cars got back on track and it was Nurse who took the early lead only to see Spring zip by him for the top spot on the third lap. Frazier followed suit one lap later as he moved into second ahead of Nurse and Firestine. They continued to run in order until the only caution flag of the event was thrown for a slowing Yates on lap 19. Yates’ car was pushed back to the pits where he joined Jimmy Frazier who had fallen out earlier.

On the restart, Nurse suddenly pulled into the infield while running third and called it a night. From there it was all green flag racing as Spring led the remaining laps easily to score the victory and add to his point lead. Frazier was a comfy second, well ahead of third place Firestine who ran the second half of the contest with no brakes. Fourth went to Kerrivan after his crew did a fantastic job of repairing his car after his earlier fling with the wall. Scott Bumgardner took the checker in fifth and was trailed by Rachelle Rudolph, David Myers, Sr., Nurse, Yates and J. Frazier.

The other big race of the night was the 50-lap run for the V-8 Bombers presented by Allgate Solutions. Making his first start of the season here, Nick Malverty of Spring Hill drove the Mike Hubbard Special to fast time with a lap of 16.492 seconds just a tick of the watch faster than the 16.531 lap turned in by Ferndale’s Kyle Peters. SSCS V-8 Bomber point leader George Gorham, Jr. of Winter Haven opted to leave his own car home since this was not an SSCS point race but got the opportunity to drive Bubba Healey’s new Camaro and he set third quick time at 16.567 just ahead of Danny Burchfield and Auburndale Speedway V-8 Bomber point leader James Wright III.

Burchfield snared the early lead and was looking strong while Wright, who was not very happy with his qualifying effort, trailed closely eventually slipping by Burchfield on the 12th lap. The race went all the way to lap 28 without a caution before Brey Holmes looped his machine in turn two. Three laps after the restart, Gorham and Peters snuck under Burchfield to take over the second and third spots.

On lap 33, Wright suddenly slowed and pulled out of the event as he lost second gear in the transmission. Gorham took over the lead just before the second, and final, caution of the race came out for a turn two tangle between Healey (in his back-up Chevelle) and Adam Briggs. Both were able to continue.

Despite fading brakes, Gorham was able to hold Peters at bay to score the win. “He (Peters) had a chance to just knock me out of the way and he probably should have,” said Gorham. “But he doesn’t drive like that… he races you clean and I can appreciate that,” Gorham continued.

Burchfield came home with a solid third place effort while Jody Gill had the drive of the night. Gill missed practice and qualifying, started last on the grid and drove his way to a nice fourth place finish, just ahead of Makverty who never seemed to get fully on track during the race. Sixth went to Holmes trailed by Briggs, Healey, Ronnie Abney, Wright, Jeff McCaw, Ricky Norman and Brandon Duchscherer.

Chris Narramore, Sr. led all the way to win the Q Mini Stock feature and add to his already insurmountable point lead. Narramore dedicated his victory to his uncle, Roger Guy, who passed away earlier in the week. John Cummins, Jr. had yet another runner-up finish trailed by Bruce Cozad, Matt Cummins and Fred Martin. Donald Gatlin, who was a strong second to Narramore in the heat, did not start the feature after a problem was detected with his carburetor.

Dustin Wilson grabbed the lead from Keith Cantrill on lap eight then went on to score his 10th Scrambler win of the season. Cantrill stayed close but had to settle for second ahead of William Kerns, Chris Falkner and Gene Connell III. Wilson also won the heat race.

The Mini Cup feature had its share of yellow flags but when all was said and done, 13-year-old Douglas Herrin, Jr. had scored his first career feature win after coming close so many times before. Heat winner Russell Bush had to settle for second on this night while Maria Martins impressed everyone by driving hard to third place in her first-ever feature race of any kind.
Easton Bush, also in his first-ever race, was fourth with Clay Samuels fifth.

“I keep waiting for an ark to float by” were the words of Auburndale Speedway owner Rex Guy as, once again, rain canceled one full racing program and interrupted another this weekend.

Saturday night the heat races were just about completed when rain hit the speedway. However, the shower lasted just a few minutes and track crews went to work drying the speedway. The extra heavy humidity caused it to take over an hour to dry the surface, but all of the features except two were run. The scheduled SSCS Modified event was not going to be run as most of the drivers opted not to take the chance to travel to the track because of the bad forecast. The Mini Cup drivers in attendance opted not to run their feature because of unsafe conditions regarding a very wet infield which could have played havoc with the small cars had they gotten into the soaked infield area.
The Legend Cars, Q mini Stocks, Scramblers and Figure-8s were able to race and put on a good show for the dampened crowd.

Taylor Hosford, making her very first start in a Legend Car at Auburndale, topped the heat race for the class but that put her near the rear of the feature starting line-up. Kyle Pitts grabbed the early lead and was soon challenged by teammate Seth Adams. Lap eight saw caution fly as a wheel came off the car of newcomer Booker Cothren.

Just after the restart, Adams surged to the point and would lead the rest of the way slowed only by a lap 12 yellow flag for a spin by Jim Smith in turn two and the stalled car of Travis Guard on the front stretch. Adams would go on to take the victory over Pitts and veteran Mike Verhaagh. Hosford would race her way to a solid fourth place as Smith rebounded from his spin to take fifth. Sixth went to Gavin Sexton trailed by Rusty Mallett, Cale Nolen, Guard and Cothren.

The Q Mini Stock drivers paid tribute to the late Randy King who a top racer at the track for several years. King’s number was 46 and several cars carried flags with the #46 on them. Chris Narramore, Sr. had a photo of King on the hood of his car as well while Donald Gatlin’s car was renumbered 46 in honor of King and carried his orange and black colors.

Gatlin zipped out to an early lead and looked to be well on his way of putting the special paint job in victory lane. However, as Gatlin’s engine began to lose power it was point leader Narramore grabbing the top spot on lap 15.
Narramore streaked off to a very emotional win over Bruce Cozad and heat winner John Cummins, Jr. Colt Cecil was fourth while Gatlin held on to his fading machine for fifth ahead of Fred Martin. Matt Cummins was unable to start the feature.

Just three Scramblers showed up for action but they put on one heck of a great race. William Kerns led the opening 12 circuits before Keith Cantrill slipped by. Cantrill then held off repeated challenges from point leader Dustin Wilson to claim his second win of the season. Kerns would end up third claiming his tires were “tired.” Wilson won the heat race.

The Figure-8 cars rounded out the night of racing and it was local favorite Preston Davis scoring a dominating win by leading every lap. Joey Caterelli claimed the runner-up spot ahead of Wayne Calkins. Rounding out the finishers were Shane Grigsby, Seth Nistok, Sammy Cressman, Thomas Peel and Jared Meyer.

Sunday’s weather looked promising to start but a couple of brief showers set back the start of practice by over an hour. Despite some ominous looking clouds, cars kept streaming into the pits, well after the announced starting time of 4 pm.

Alas, it was not to be as a downpour hit the track just before 5 pm flooding the infield. All racing activity was canceled for the evening but the entire show has been rescheduled for next Sunday, October 15th, with racing starting at 4 pm. The Daytona Antique Automobile Racing Association (DAARA) will try once again to get a show in the books after now being rained out in consecutive weeks here as well as Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway.
For information and updated schedules go to www.auburndalespeedway.net or the Auburndale Speedway Facebook page.

All photos are courtesy My Country Photos unless noted…

It was June 24th when a wheel last turned in competition at Auburndale Speedway and even that night was interrupted by Mother Nature. The planned “Summer break” was extended due to a mean old lady named Irma, but damage from the hurricane has been repaired and the track will return to action this Saturday night for Harvest Meat Markets Faith & Family Night.

Church members who bring a church bulletin, ID or shirt will receive $5 off the regular adult admission. Also, teen groups and their leaders will be admitted free just by contacting track Marketing Manager Rick Bristol (407-497-0448).

It’s also Big Brother and Big Sister Night as well plus the Fellows Trucking Kids Club for ages 5-12 begins at 5:15 pm. Kids can still sign up for the Kids Club before things get under way, so get the youngsters there early to get signed up and have some fun.

As far as the racing goes, the Sunshine State Challenge Series (SSCS) Street-Stocks will compete for 50 laps while the V-8 Bombers will duke it out for 40 circuits of the speedway. The popular antique and classic Stock Cars, Modifieds, Sprint Cars and Midgets of the Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association (DAARA) will be featured along with action for the Q Mini Stocks, Scramblers and Mini Cup cars.

Ander Jackson of Punta Gorda currently holds a 19 point edge on Venice driver Kenny Gibson in the SSCS Street Stock points. Danny Caylor of Lehigh is third in points, some 24 markers behind Gibson. Bradenton’s James Nanney is fourth in points while local Auburndale driver Steven O’steen rounds out the current top five.

James Wright III has all but wrapped up the 2017 V-8 Bomber title even though there are several races left for the class. Wright is now exactly 100 points in front of Danny Burchfield who is 20 points up on third place Bubba Healey.
In the Q Mini Stocks, veteran Chris Narramore, Sr. has a comfy 75 point advantage over Colt Cecil with Jonh Cummins, Jr. nipping at Cecil’s heels, just five points behind him. The Mini Cup class is the closest right now as Russell Bush has seen his big point lead trimmed to just 13 by youngster Douglas Herrin, Jr. In the Scramblers, Dustin Wilson has been the dominant force as he now sits 65 points up on Keith Cantrill while William Kerns is just nine markers behind Cantrill.

Pit gates open Saturday afternoon at 3 pm with practice getting under way at
3:45 pm. Grandstand gates open at 5 pm with qualifying for the SSCS Street Stocks and the V-8 Bombers at 6:15 pm. Racing gets under way at 7 pm with eight lap heat races for the Scramblers, Mini Cups, DAARA cars and the Q Mini Stocks.

The Scramblers will be first up for feature race action followed by the Mini Cups and then the 50-lap contest for the SSCS Street Stocks.

After intermission the DAARA teams will compete in their feature events followed by the Q Mini Stocks. The 40-lap V-8 Bomber headliner will then wrap up the evening’s activity.

Adult admission for the evening of action is just $15 with seniors 55+ $13.
Children ages 5-12 are only $5 and all kids 4 and under get in free. The family 4-pack is just $32 for two adult and two children’s admissions (a $40 value). Pit passes are $30 per person and all parking is free. Again, church members who bring a church bulletin, ID or shirt will receive $5 off the regular adult admission.

Photo Credit: Robert Howell Photo