By Rick Anges

Bradenton,Fl. - While the rains fell all over Manatee county Saturday night Camille Sarppraicone's Angels were looking over the DeSoto Speedway and a full night of some great racing happened under a dry and clear night.

A familiar sight appeared on the speedway as the orange and white 00 of Jimmy Harris rolled out on the grid, but tonight the pilot would be veteran Hooters Pro-Cup driver Mario Gosselin.

Gosslein is a long time Florida racer but it had been a quite a while since he had raced at the "High Banks" but he proved that he is still a top notch racer tying Joe Boyd 5 for the top qualifying spot for the night's 125 lap race number ten in the fifteen race series.

The top four rows were inverted putting the 38 car of Shane Sawyer on the point with the 61 of Jimmy "Mr. Excitement" Cope on the outside. When the green dropped it was Sawyer who jumped out to the early lead but it was not long before Cope was beating on the back door for the to front position but Sawyer slammed the door time and again holding off the hardcharging Cope.

Meanwhile the two top qualifying cars of Boyd and Gosselin were doing their best to get through traffic towards the top spot. Both cars had the handle on the track and were using both the high and low grooves to get up front.

Points leader Justin Drawdy 12 had a tough night with a couple of spins and trip to the pits ended up with a 14th place finish. Other top drivers who had problems were B.J. McLeod 78 finishing 12th, Jimmy Cope who was running up front until apparent tire problems ended 13th, Bill Bigley took 15th. It was a tough hard night of racing for all.

In the closing laps, after Gosselin had taken the lead, the Boyd machine was on the move and looked like the fastest car on the track but late in the race the brakes faded away and after a caution was unable to catch "Super Mario" and had to settle for the second spot.

After the race Boyd said "If it wasnt for the caution I had the rhythm down racing with no brakes but the last caution threw it off and I had to just hold on for the finish". This was a good run for the Boyd crew after having some tough luck of late.

But the man of the night was "Super Mario" Gosselin in the Harris machine taking his first victory at the "South's Fastest Short Track" and celebrating with a nice smoking burn-out to the crowds pleasure. "We needed long greens, the cautions was really hurting us, after a caution the car would really be tight for four or five laps. That last caution there (lap 111) I did a much better job of keeping my tires clean and I think that's what gave me that run there for the last 14 laps".

Gosselin was the winner, Boyd second, Scotty Crockett 28 had a good run with his run in AACS action taking the third spot, fourth was 79 of Clint Slaggy and rounding out the top five was south Florida's Bobby Coyle.

Desoto has also announced that in October the speedway will be running the "SeaFest 250" twin 125 lap AACS Super late model races on the same night. The races will paying $5,000 each to win and should attract some of the top drivers and crews in state.

1. Mario Gosselin
2. Joe Boyd
3. Scotty Crockett
4. Clint Slaggy
5. Bobby Coyle
6. Jeff Sloan
7. Rusty Dixon
8. Mario Maresco
9. Shane Sawyer
10. Mike Abbott

Open Wheel Modifieds

1. James Glover
2. Steve Perez
3. Bill Davis
4. Chris Dean
5. Dennis Wilson jr.

Sportsman

1. Wallace Ramsey
2. James Casaday
3. James Brenner
4. Jimmy Cook
5. Johnny Casaday

Street Stock

1. Jonathan Hiedenthal
2. Matt Scheffler
3. Chet Roberts
4. Casey Hall
5. Travis Wilson

Legends

1. Ray Sasser
2. Jason Reisman
3. Jeff Johnson
4. Jordan Richardson
5. James Rodriguez

Mini-Stock

1. Shane Whitbeck
2. Jessie Dutilly
3. John Dutilly
4. Joe Gagen
5. John Wilson

Pure Stock

1.Joe Wengerd
2. Jody Collins
3. Roy Nelson
4. Mark Lau
5. Ed Street

-Rick Anges

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