{"id":5528,"date":"2011-03-13T11:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=5528"},"modified":"2011-03-13T11:04:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T11:04:45","slug":"open-wheel-madness-heats-up-pgs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/open-wheel-madness-heats-up-pgs\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Wheel Madness Heats Up PGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By D. Cope<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fans in attendance to the Punta Gorda Speedway were treated to hot, door to door action on a cool Southwest Florida evening.\u00a0 The \u201cOpen Wheel Madness\u201d event is a fan favorite as the race drivers compete with the risk of dangerous consequences when wheels tangle with competitor\u2019s wheels on the tight turns of the oval. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The racing card opened with the Pro 4 where the top four cars put on a clinic in competitive racing.\u00a0 While John Balzarano led the entire race he was constantly pressed by second place Ryan Collver.\u00a0 The third place position was hard fought with Dylan Bigley and Cody Allen exchanging positions four times before Bigley finally secured third place.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The SE Champ Karts are perennial favorites as the super charged Go-Karts race on the large track.\u00a0 Driver in this feature race use strategies similar to what NASCAR drivers use at the super speedways as they usually need drafting partners to get to the front.\u00a0 This race saw several lead changes but Rusty Chancey held off a hard charging Tim Simmons for the win.\u00a0 Third place went to Dennis Mace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Cowboy Cadillac class the race was won with little challenge by Robert Williams who finished second in the series last year.\u00a0 Second place went to James Dellea with third to Andy Vanscyoc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Super Stock class was a battle between winner Shane Leonard and second place Bobby Fischer who stretched their lead over the rest of the pack.\u00a0 They raced the entire race nose to tail with Larry Braswell and Jamie Castleberry fighting hard for the third spot.\u00a0 Castleberry had mechanical trouble near the end of the race and Braswell went on to take third spot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dwarf Car series was the first of three open wheel events.\u00a0 It started out with Larry Hubbard, Jr. jumping out to the lead.\u00a0 He was challenged throughout the race by Andy Prior.\u00a0 Hubbard pulled away near the end of the race but Andy Prior was seriously challenged by his Dad, Tom Prior.\u00a0\u00a0 Second place went to the son and the father third.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main feature of the evening was the Open Wheel Modified \u201cOpen Wheel Madness\u201d event. The 50 lap race was one of the more exciting of the evening.\u00a0 While Sean McLaughlin led the race wire to wire, he was never without hard and serious challenge.\u00a0 The first 24 laps McLaughin was pushed hard by Steve Arnold.\u00a0 On the twenty fifth lap Arnold tried to pass McLaughin but spun out in the process.\u00a0 He was put to the back of the pack and Tony Carreno took over in pressing McLaughlin for the rest of the race.\u00a0 Arnold never gave up and passed most of the pack to retake third place by the end of the race.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the Open Wheel Modified event was the second open wheel feature with the Independent Pavement Sprint Car Alliance running a 25 lap event.\u00a0 The feature was a thrilling event for the crowd with Mickey Kempgens leading 23 of the 25 lap race.\u00a0 Brian Gingras who finished second pressured Kempgens throughout the race and nearly passed him on lap 24 before falling into line on the final lap.\u00a0 Jim Alvis finished third.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Concluding the program following the feature event was the Fab 4 class.\u00a0 The quick 20 lap event was a runaway win by Karl Garrard with Zac Campilonga coming in second. \u00a0Campilonga\u2019s car was later disqualified during technical review resulting in David Patterson being awarded second place and\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Linda Badali third.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The family- oriented racing card was also a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society honoring their \u201cRelay for Life\u201d.\u00a0 Proceeds from the 50\/50 raffle as well as donations from the \u201cRelay for Life\u201d table went to the ACS relay team from Florida Community Bank of North Port.\u00a0 Kimberly Funk, an employee of the bank expressed her appreciation on behalf of the American Cancer Society for Punta Gorda Speedway\u2019s support.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Punta Gorda Speedway has exciting racing action every Saturday night.\u00a0 On March 19th<\/sup>, the Sportsman, Trucks, Legends, and TQ Midgets return to the speedway for an exciting evening of racing.\u00a0 Gates open at 5:00pm with racing action beginning at 6:30pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Punta Gorda Speedway Results 3\/12\/2011<\/p>\n

Sprints<\/p>\n

1. 70 Mickey Kempgens, Darby<\/p>\n

2. 1 Brian Gingras, Lakeland<\/p>\n

3. 21 Jim Alvis Sefner<\/p>\n

4. 78 Shane Miller, Tampa<\/p>\n

5. 41 Ray Bragg, Tampa<\/p>\n

6. 55 Tommy Nichols, Tampa<\/p>\n

7. 75 Darrin Miller, Tampa<\/p>\n

8. 10n Shawn Namor, Deerfield Beach<\/p>\n

9. J1 Mike Tharp, Ft. Myers<\/p>\n

10. 69 Rick Voisey, Wesley Chapel<\/p>\n

11. 89 Trent Bos, Wesley Chapel<\/p>\n

12. 30 Wendy Mathis, Valrico<\/p>\n

13. 01 Mathew Hall, Apollo Beach<\/p>\n

14. 21x Bobby Gorden, Spring Hill<\/p>\n

15. 47 Jason Bradford, Englewood<\/p>\n

16. 57x Mike Koss, Port Charlotte<\/p>\n

17. 9 Little Jimmy Alvis, D.N.S.<\/p>\n

18. 4 Johnny Allen, D.N.S.<\/p>\n

19. 12 Colin Cabre, D.N.S.<\/p>\n

20. 52 Joey Aguliar D.N.S.<\/p>\n

Open Wheel Modified<\/p>\n

1. 99 Sean McLaughlin, Port Charlotte<\/p>\n

2. 61 Tony Correno, Lutz<\/p>\n

3. 19 Steve Arnold Cape Coral<\/p>\n

4. 46 Doug Moff, Ft. Myers<\/p>\n

5. 00 Shawn Harper, Lake Wales<\/p>\n

6. 8 Kent McLean, Alva<\/p>\n

7. 09 Don Skaggs, Ft. Myers<\/p>\n

8. 0 Troy Robinson, Wesley Chapel<\/p>\n

9. 14 John Garrett, Port Charlotte<\/p>\n

Super Stock<\/p>\n

1. 18 Shane Leonard<\/p>\n

2. 2 Bobby Fischer<\/p>\n

3. 80 Larry Braswell<\/p>\n

4. 88 Jim Mieser<\/p>\n

5. 8L Logan Leonard<\/p>\n

6. 8 Jimmy Castleberry<\/p>\n

7. 86 Jamie Castleberry<\/p>\n

8. 68 Mike Wilson<\/p>\n

9. 33 Chris Loney D.N.S.<\/p>\n

10 2S Randy Sober D.N.S.<\/p>\n

Pro 4<\/p>\n

1. 31 John Balzarano<\/p>\n

2. 04 Ryan Collver<\/p>\n

3. 28 Dylan Bigley<\/p>\n

4. 98 Cody Allen<\/p>\n

5. 00 Dan Collver<\/p>\n

6. 61 Paul Richards Sr.<\/p>\n

7. 32 Cory Bigley<\/p>\n

8. 05R Ronald Robinson<\/p>\n

9. 22 Jeremy Perkins<\/p>\n

10. 21 Jason Perkins<\/p>\n

11. 29 Phillip Ellis Jr.<\/p>\n

12. 05 David Doty<\/p>\n

13. 63 Matt Fewox<\/p>\n

14. 87 Charles Null<\/p>\n

15. 38 Stuart Vandevender<\/p>\n

Fab 4<\/p>\n

1. 31 Karl Garrard<\/p>\n

2. 4 David Paterson<\/p>\n

3. 30 Linda Badali<\/p>\n

4. 98 Aaron Hardgrove<\/p>\n

5. 81 Brittany Barr<\/p>\n

6. 63 Zach Fewox<\/p>\n

7. 87 Skyler Null<\/p>\n

8. 67 Mike Simmons<\/p>\n

9. 38 Duane Vandevender<\/p>\n

10. 9 Allie Espenosa D.N.S.<\/p>\n

11. 3 Zac Campilonga D.Q.<\/p>\n

Cowboy Cadillacs<\/p>\n

1. 18 Robert Wilms<\/p>\n

2. 77 James Dellea<\/p>\n

3. 4 Andy Vanscyoc<\/p>\n

4. 33 Les Couch<\/p>\n

5. 30 Ken Badali<\/p>\n

6. 15 Chuck Sweet<\/p>\n

7. 24 Shane Moore<\/p>\n

Dwarf<\/p>\n

1. 56 Larry Hubbard 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

2. 4 Andy Pryor<\/p>\n

3. 69 Tom Pryor<\/p>\n

4. 17 John Bailey<\/p>\n

5. 33 Roger Richmond<\/p>\n

6. 12 Darrell Fischer<\/p>\n

7. 2 Paul Coraham<\/p>\n

8. 08 Rebecca George<\/p>\n

9 . 82 Rob Kohler<\/p>\n

10 77 Don Wilcox<\/p>\n

Champ Karts<\/p>\n

1. 31 Rusty Chancey<\/p>\n

2. 14 Tim Simmons<\/p>\n

3. 32 Dennis Mace<\/p>\n

4. 13 Romay Venta<\/p>\n

5. 33 Mitchell Stevens<\/p>\n

6. 77 Phil Harp<\/p>\n

7. 66 David Harp<\/p>\n

8. 98 Scott Hailey<\/p>\n

9. 0 Darin Coker<\/p>\n

10. 16 Paul Letourneau<\/p>\n

11. 25 Erick McElroy<\/p>\n

12. 61 P.J. Letourneall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By D. Cope Fans in attendance to the Punta Gorda Speedway were treated to hot, door to door action on a cool Southwest Florida evening.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"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-5528","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\/5528","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5528"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5530,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528\/revisions\/5530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}