by Dave Westerman
Wild and crazy School Bus Figure Eight racing returns to Auburndale Speedway this Saturday night along with the Modified Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Mini Stocks, Legend Cars, Scamblers and Bandoleros.
The School buses are always popular with the fans and expect yet another wacky run from the drivers as they negotiated the “X” in the infield. Gary Swing will be back to defend his win earlier this year.
The Modified Mini Stocks put on one of the best races of the year a couple of weeks ago and will be back in action again this week. Despite being nipped at the line for the win by Burt Morse, Scotty Sharpe has taken over the point lead by just two markers over Jason Rendell. Both are well ahead of third place Dennis Jones.
Jeff Waterman has re-taken the Street Stock point lead after a hard crash sent Matt McCrary to the sidelines in last weeks feature. Waterman is four points in front of McCrary going into this weeks action. Dave Colpritt took his second win of the year last week and has moved to third in points, some 50 tallies behind McCrary.
Josh Borem continues to turn in stout performances each week in the V-8 Bombers and that has him still comfortably ahead of second place Buddy Phillips, Jr. by 46 points right now.
For the first time this year, defending class champion Fred Harrison, Jr. is on top of the Mini Stock point battle, but just two ahead of Chris Spring. Harrison won his third race of the year last Saturday night. Chris Narramore, Sr. is third, 18 points behind Spring.
Despite seeing his win streak broken last week, “No Brake” Jake Perkins still has an eight point advantage over Gerald White, Jr. Justin Brown, who made a controversial pass on the last lap to win last week is third in points.
Kim Gullett still has a good advantage in the Scrambler class leading by 40 markers over second place Brian Tyre. Chad Cutting’s win on Saturday moved him to fourth in the current run-down but he’s 58 points behind Gullett.
Pit gates open at 2PM, grandstand gates open at 5PM and racing begins at 7PM.
NOTES:
Bandolero points are not shown in this weeks report due to some confusion over the ages of some of the drivers and the class they run in. All Bandolero race cars are the same. They are a spec series race car built by INEX in Charlotte, NC and powered by a sealed Briggs & Stratton engine. The classes are determined by the age of the driver. “Bandits” are age 8-11, “Young Guns” are age 12-15 and “Outlaws are drivers age 16 and above.
Cars are available, both new and used, from Legends Cars of Florida which is headed up by Russ Thomson of Orlando. Russ also has special classes and “test drives” available where kids (and their parents) interested in racing in a Bandolero can test one out at Auburndale Speedway to see if they like it. You can reach Thomson at (407) 873-0546. Test rides for drivers interested in Legend Car racing are also available. For more information, you can visit www.legendscarsofflorida.com.
Good to see Marilyn McCrary back racing after a bit of a hiatus. Her new Mini Stock is very sharp and should be running up front once the “bugs” are worked out. The McCrary’s have a bit more to worry about this week as Matt’s car took a real beating last Saturday.
Another new twist was added last week for the fans. A fish bowl is now located each Saturday night at the peanut stand. Fans can drop their business card from their place of business (or where they work) in the fish bowl each race night. At the end of intermission, one card is drawn and that lucky individual gets six passes to the races. It’s hoped that the winners will give those passes to their customer/clients/friends who have never been to Auburndale Speedway so they can “check us out.”
Thanks to the race fans, Lindsey’s Little Racers have collected enough cash to purchase four more bicycles to give away to the kids as part of their on-going program. Bike give-aways are now scheduled for April 17th and May 1st.
The upcoming Late Model race on April 17th is attracting a lot of attention as it appears there could be over 30 cars looking for the top prize of $3,000.
Former Sunbelt and Brighthouse Series champion Tim Russell says he’ll be there and others indicating they’ll be in action are 2009 Orlando SpeedWorld champion Jared Allison, NASCAR Truck Series racer Chris Fontaine, Tyler Laing, David Rogers, Jason Vail, Ron Lofquist, Joe Winchell, Tuffy Hester, Raymond & Perry Lovelady, Jonathan Guy, Daryl Shelnut, David Weaver and many others.
Of course, Jeff Scofield will be looking for another dominating performance like he had in the FAST Tour race last month following a disappointing trip to Hickory, NC last week. It’s not yet known if Wayne Anderson plans to show up for another round of racing against arch rival Kevin “The Bulldozer” Ingram.
Announcer Dave Westerman is looking for old photos from Winter Haven/Auburndale Speedway for his website www.floridaracinghistory.com. Pictures needed are primarily from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s and can also include photos from other Lakeland-area tracks like Silver Dollar Speedway and the Lakeland Interstate Speedway quarter mile track. Any photos that have already been scanned can be sent to announcerdave@usa.net. Please include the photographers name if it is known.
Speaking of old photos, copies of Eddie Roche’s book “Florida Motorsports Retrospective” are available while they last at Auburndale Speedway. The book, dedicated to the late Florida racing photographer Bobby 5X5 Day, contains over 1,500 photos from tracks all over Florida dating back as early as the 1930s along with Forewards written by racing legends Red Farmer and Don Garlits. Copies are $40.00 each and well worth the price. Just see announcer Dave Westerman or stop by the D&C Diecast souvenir booth.
POINTS – as of April 3, 2010:
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#28 Kimberly Gullett 190
2-#66 Brian Tyre 150
3-#51 Matt Johns 138
4-#00 Chad Cutting 132
5-#71 Dave Canfield 110
6-#9 Ashton Hunt 96
7-#52 Gary Brown 86
8-#77 Jeremy Watts 78
9-#62 Richard Brown 72
10-#4 Scott Russ 68
MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#89 Scott Sharpe 132
2-#15 Jason Rendell 130
3-#45 Dennis Jones 98
4-#55 Mike Sweet 90
5-#26 Jimmy Pugh 80
6-#38 Burt Morse 78
7-#09 Jessica Robbins 58
8-#33 Chris Allen 46
9-#44 Mike Lawhorn 40
10-#37 Brandon McSwain 38
V-8 BOMBERS
1-#111 Josh Borem 282
2-#05 Buddy Phillips 236
3-#56 James Wright, Sr. 234
4-#0 Paul Bookmiller 210
5-#14 Donnie King 124
6-#42 Brandon Duchscherer 92
7-#96 Larry Chumney II 90
8-#96 Larry Chumney, Sr 88 #89 Preston Davis 88
10-#29 Brian Harbin 78
MINI STOCKS:
1-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr. 310
2-#42 Chris Spring 308
3-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr. 290
4-#33 Donnie Guy 280
5-#46 Randy King 222
6-#88 Kevin Steadman 142
7-#55 Steve Routt, Jr. 104
8-#40 Jason Swilley 98
9-#5 Tony Davidson 94 #84 Aaron Williamson 94
STREET STOCKS:
1-#42 Jeff Waterman 242
2-#5 Matt McCrary 238
3-#4 Dave Colpritt 188
4-#56 James Wright III 184
5-#17 Kyle Hall 138
6-#16 Andy Harvard 122 #29 Bobby Mobley 122
8-#3 Kevin O’Quinn 116
9-#65 Ken Lawrence 100
10-#22 Chuck Harrison, Jr. 86
SPORTSMAN:
1-#71 Dave Dunkin 136
2-#8 Austin Carr 114
3-#13 Mark Medeiros 98
4-#51 Kyle Alford 98
5-#60 Richard Fiore 58
6-#92 Ted Head 56
7-#1 Bart Weatherford 44
8-#113 Aaron Williamson 44
9-#8 Brandon Duchscherer 38
10-#47 Bobby Mobley 36
DWARF CARS:
1-#42 Jonathan Guy 98
2-#0 Sonny O’Sullivan 92
3-#25 Johnny Bass 68
4-#00 Bo Bass 44
5-#00 Donny Bass 42
6-#99 Terry Taylor 32 #9 Zane Davis 32
8-#0Z Dan Statter 30
TRUCKS:
1-#72 Keith Lilley 50
2-#77 Lance Daubach 46
3-#16 Tim Sozio 36 #1 Tommy King 36
5-#8 Roger Blevins 34
6-#13 J.R. Garcia 32
7-#2 Jim Cowhey, Jr. 28
8-#49x Louis Potter 26
LEGENDS:
1-#59 Jake Perkins 184
2-#38 Gerald White, Jr. 176
3-#8 Justin Brown 162
4-#22 Mason Ketterman 154
5-#07 Dave Gleason 142
6-#31 Lynn Wiles 94
7-#17 Mike Gleason 74
8-#83 Danielle Stratton 72
9-#4R Zach Napoleon 68
10-#7 Dakota Baggett 62
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS:
1-#19 Kevin Macy 309
2-#98 Wayne Morris 305
3-#3 Harold Cannon 303
4-#87 Keith Lilley 302
5-#56 James Wright III 298
6-#102 Von Pope 286
7-#29 Kyle Bookmiller 285
8-#75 Bobby Blake 279
9-#35 Ron Abney 240
10-#07 Harold Crooms 193