{"id":1665,"date":"2010-05-30T20:22:01","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T20:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=1665"},"modified":"2010-05-30T20:22:01","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T20:22:01","slug":"punta-gorda-speedway-still-exciting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/punta-gorda-speedway-still-exciting\/","title":{"rendered":"Punta Gorda Speedway Still Exciting"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bill Green, Announcer<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Punta Gorda, FL – Over 100 cars in the pits and some fifteen hundred plus fans, witnessed the rebirth of Charlotte County\u2019s grand ole track as Punta Gorda Speedway. Saved from extinction by a passionate pair of racers, doubling as businessmen. Kevin Williams and Mike Chase scored a big homerun with their first opening night event. The racers came, the crowd came and even the local media made a respectable showing.<\/p>\n

Billed as \u201cOpening Night\u201d for Kevin and Mike\u2019s first chance to make a good impression, they sure got some attention and it looks like they\u2019ve made a great impression on the opening night crowd. Working through the usual unexpected hitches that opening night brings to a motor sports event, Williams made quick decisions and well thought-out changes to the program as the night progressed. From glitches with the sound system, to unexpected volume at the beer window, the officials all made great moves to make the night a huge success and keep fans entertained and happy.<\/p>\n

Starting off with the Bandolero\u2019s class and right through to the Young Guns Fab-4\u2019s, every race had it\u2019s own excitement.<\/p>\n

The Bandolero winner was 15 year old, Mark Hooven from Orlando, sponsored by Kevin Williams, his car owner. These youngsters really put on a show with 13 year old younger brother Shawn Hooven, trying several times to best his older sibling with some gentle nudges. Both drivers barely bested an even younger Ryan Shatteck, 12, of Islamorada, FL. Rounding out the top-5 were Keith Sinkula, 11, from Palm City in fourth and Reese Chase, of Plantation.<\/p>\n

Pro-4\u2019s rolled out second for feature event action with Dylan Bigley, 15, of Naples taking the win. Followed by Ryan Collver, a late arriver with little information available at press time. Third went to Cody Allen of Lehigh Acres, with Derrick Horton, N. Ft. Myers fourth and Todd Blevins, St. Pete fifth.<\/p>\n

Mini-Cup racers were up next, but only five cars made the call for the feature and it was Cindarae Irish, age 15, of Largo, taking the win. Second went to Sam Scott, also 15 from Naples and he was followed by Plantation\u2019s Reese Chase third. Fourth was 9 year old Cole Partelo of Largo. Fifth place was Blaine Ison, Naples.<\/p>\n

Open Wheel Lites, or Dwarf Cars as most local race fans know them, brought 14 cars to the track and they\u00a0 were all bested by 28 year old Bo Bass of Eustis, Fl, some three and a half hours away from Punta Gorda Speedway. Finishing behind Bo would be Andy Prior from Bonita Springs sec second, Mike Belusar of Ponta Gorda took third, while Larry Hubbard Jr. snagged forth and fifth went to Larry Hubbard III.<\/p>\n

The Open Wheel Modifieds put on an excellent show with Ft. Myers racer Doug Moff taking the win. Followed by L. J. Grimm of Sefner second, Punta Gorda\u2019s Phil Morrison third, Johnny Allen, Lehigh Acres forth and Jimmy Wilkins III of Ft. Pierce fifth. James Wilkins Jr, 68, was OK, after a hard hit into the front stretch wall at the exit of turn-4.<\/p>\n

Legends racing returned to the southern most Florida asphalt on their schedule, with North Port\u2019s Josh Williams besting the class in Victory lane, after a Polish Victory Lap. Darin Coker from Palm Beach Gardens went second, followed closely by Mark Hoover of Orlando making his second appearance of the night on the front stretch. Davie, FL\u2019s Mike Fazio settled for fourth, with Mitch Verhaagh, Bonita Springs fifth.<\/p>\n

Chris Scott of Nokomis won the Road Warriors Feature, beating Rick Reed of Arcadia to the checkered after Reed passed under the white first. Third went to Blaine Baer of Port Charlotte, followed by Chris Loney, Naples and Logan Leonard, Cape Coral, fourth and fifth respectively.<\/p>\n

Finishing out the evening of eight classes were the younger Fab-4\u2019s pilots with Sam Scott from Naples driving Dylan Bigley\u2019s car to victory. He was trailed by 14 year old, Paul Richards Jr., also of Naples\u00a0 second and Brandon Snyder of Naples third. Fourth went to Cape Coral\u2019s Kerrington McFadden, with Linda Badali, 52 of Port Charlotte giving grandmothers everywhere a reason to cheer a little harder at the track.<\/p>\n

Next week it\u2019s Pro Trucks and Sportsman both for 35-laps, with no entry fees. Supported by the Road Warriors, Super Stocks, Mini-Stocks, Pro-4\u2019s and Fab-4\u2019s. Call Ponta Gorda Speedway\u2019s office at 941-575-RACE (7223) for more info on coming weeks or questions about racing at PGS this summer.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll See You At The Races!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Green, Announcer Punta Gorda, FL – Over 100 cars in the pits and some fifteen hundred plus fans, witnessed the rebirth of Charlotte […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-page-news","category-punta-gorda-speedway-charlotte-county-motorsports-park","category-race-results"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1666,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}