{"id":24072,"date":"2016-09-04T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=24072"},"modified":"2016-09-04T17:45:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-04T17:45:00","slug":"choquette-dominates-show-at-5-flags-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/choquette-dominates-show-at-5-flags-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Choquette Dominates Show at 5 Flags Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Choquette

Photo Courtesy: Speed51<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a different car for driver Jeff Choquette, but the same result as he won both of the Allen Turner Pro Late Model Twin 50s on Friday night at Five Flags Speedway.<\/p>\n

In June, the West Palm Beach driver won both Twin 50s driving a different car.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different car, a different chassis, a different motor,\u201d said Choquette. \u201cIt\u2019s the second time I\u2019ve raced it and we wanted to see how it would do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

It did just fine.<\/p>\n

Choquette, returning this season after more than a year hiatus from racing, was the fastest qualifier for the first race and started eighth on the inverted start.<\/p>\n

He worked his way to the front, going underneath leader Casey Roderick on lap 36 and taking the lead a half-lap later. Points leader Bret Holmes finished third.<\/p>\n

That was the starting order for the second Twin 50s and it turned out to be the same finish.<\/p>\n

Choquette led all 50 laps. The only threat was when he came upon some lapped cars, allowing Roderick to close in.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few of those lap cars, if they would have just stayed in their lane,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Casey kept me really honest. We ran as hard as we could run smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderick, who won one of the Twin 50s in April, said lapped traffic helped him close in on Choquette.<\/p>\n

\u201cI caught him and I felt like we had a chance, but my tires started going away there at the end,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cHe was leaking rear-end fluid real bad and I started getting loose behind him. We\u2019ll just get better next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes extended his points lead, but after winning the first Twin 50 in April, he has now finished third for the last four races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we improved the car and we found out what we need to be doing differently for the next race,\u201d\u00a0 he said. \u201cI hate finishing third for the fourth time in a row. I love racing here. I just wish we could do more, but we\u2019re right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choquette said his team changed cars and motors\u00a0after the two wins in June because of complaints he was using a different motor than the other drivers, even though it is legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said we were cheating. That you\u2019re doing this and you\u2019re doing that, so we changed motors,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd set fast time. It\u2019s not the motor. We used a different car and won.\u201d<\/p>\n

And because of that, Choquette said he enjoyed winning these two races better than the two he won in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that we won this one, the components that we used and the motor that we used, I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bombers<\/b><\/p>\n

BJ Leytham was squeezed, banged and spun, but still pulled out his eighth feature win in the Bomber division.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been in a spirited battle all season with Robert Balkum and it wasn\u2019t any different Friday night.<\/p>\n

But it looked like Balkum might get his second win of the season early on. In a crowded pack, Leytham spun in Turn 2 and was sandwiched between two other drivers. He went into the pits and his crews made repairs before getting him back out before the restart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get a lot of respect tonight but when I get upset, I tend to drive harder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the restart, Balkum took the lead, while Leytham, who restarted 13th<\/sup>, moved up to second after six laps. Twice he pulled alongside Balkum. One time they split around a lapped car.<\/p>\n

The two continued close driving until Lap 16 when Leytham took the lead and pulled away for his fifth consecutive win. Balkum scored his seventh runner-up finish and his only comment on Leytham was, \u201cHe drove through my door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Dority finished third for her best finish.<\/p>\n

Super Stocks<\/b><\/p>\n

Todd Jones was the fastest qualifier, started eighth on the invert and still showed he was fastest, moving through the field to win his third Super Stock feature of the season.<\/p>\n

However, his car was disqualified in post-race inspection, giving the win to Randy Thompson.<\/p>\n

Jones took third on lap 7, then took second just a lap later. He then set his sights on Thompson, closing on him by lap 12 when the caution came out for a spinning car.<\/p>\n

After restart, Jones went low and took the lead on Lap 14 and pulled away to expand his points lead. Thompson held off Lee Carter for second.<\/p>\n

Sportsman<\/b><\/p>\n

Points leader Steve Buttrick was the fastest qualifier and won his seventh Sportsman feature of the season.<\/p>\n

Buttrick started eighth based on the invert and\u00a0 scooted into second behind Shanna Ard, emerging from a three-wide run on the restart following a caution. He pulled low beside Ard for several laps but it took a while to make the pass on Lap 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good racing side by side,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThere was oil on the low side so I had to back off until it went away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ard gave up second place when he had to pit on Lap 26 after colliding with a lapped car in turn 2, then scraping the wall. Jim Pokrant finished second, followed by Dayton Sidner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a different car for driver Jeff Choquette, but the same result as he won both of the Allen Turner Pro Late Model Twin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[56,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-flags-speedway","category-front-page-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24072","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24075,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24072\/revisions\/24075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}