March 22, 2004 A Wild Night at Bronson Motor Speedway By Rick Warren Wow! What a great night of racing! 37 Modifieds signed in to try and make the field for the first event of the Corteco/GulfCoast Modified Series for 2004. Dewayne Dempsey took the first event of the Gulfcoast Mod season. Taking a stroll thru the pit area one was able to observe the best Modified racers in the state working hard, trying to tweak that last tenth of a second from their hot rods. All the drivers knew they had their work cut out for them, to lock in a starting position. The fastest 16 qualifiers would have their spot in the field locked up, and the rest would have to race their way into the field. When practice was over, everyone had been thru pre race tech inspection, it was time for the drivers meeting. In this meeting, drivers met series officials, questions were asked and answered, and series Director Mike Cope had a major announcement. Along with the points fund for the series, and cash awards for Fast Qualifier, Hard Charger and Rookie of the year, Cope announced the details for the Point Champion Bonus Award. This award will be for the Corteco / Gulfcoast Modified Series Point Champion. This award is designed to encourage all the participants in the series to support their local (or home) race track on a weekly basis. If the winner of the series points championship is also winner of the points championship at their home track, they will be awarded a $5000 bonus, provided by Jimmy Cope Race Cars. Could be a big payday for someone! When Qualifying was over, 37 of the best Modifieds in the state had taken a shot at the fast qualifier award. A time of 13.591 was posted by Dan Partelo to claim the Southern Style Racing Engines Fast Qualifier Cash. Local business Wally’s Smoking Gator had also added another $100 to the pole award, and Partelo collected that cash as well. Kevin Durden was second fast with a time of 13.599. With the top 16 qualifiers locked in, it was time for the qualifying race to determine who the rest of the starters would be. The race lined up with Ralph Bowman and Chip Owen on the front row of the 21 car field. After 2 attempts at starting the race, pole sitter Bowman was sent to the rear of the field for starting too soon. When the race finally got underway, it was some hard racing, with every driver trying to make sure they made it to a top 8 finish, to make the big show. The race ran a very fast 15 laps, with cautions for only a few incidents. Caution was out on lap 4 when Kevyn Terry popped a motor on the front straight, and the front of the car was in flames from the oil on the exhaust. Fortunately, Terry was able to walk away uninjured. When the Checkered flag fell, Chip Owen had won the race and the field was almost set. With 3 provisionals, the field was up to 27 starters. The non qualifiers race was next up, and it was announced that the winner of the race would have the option of entering the big race on the rear, or taking $300 for winning the race. Ralph Bowman started the race like a man on a mission, and won the 10 lap race, and opted to enter the big show. The $300 prize went to second place runner J.R. Wade. After Dan Partelo drew a #9 pill for the inversion, the top 9 Qualifiers drew numbers for starting positions for the 50 lap feature. When the drawing was done, Dwayne Dempsey had drawn the #1 spot, flanked by Kevin Durden. The first attempt at a start was waved off when the 61 of Senokossoff and the 89 of Collins made contact with Collins sliding thru the infield. After the field was reset, the next start saw Dempsey jump to the lead, followed by James Glover and Kevin Durden. Caution was out on lap 5 for the #9 car of Dan Partelo spinning in turn 4. The race restarted with Dempsey, Glover, Durden, Moore, Senokossoff, Rob Partelo, Steve Perez, Gary Southard, Gene Owen and John Anderson holding the top 10 spots. Caution again was out on lap 15 as th 2x of Chip Owen and the 112 of Corky Craver tied up and slid thru the infield locked together. Another Caution on lap 17 was out for the spinning car of Butch Bassett in turn 4. Lap 19 saw the caution once again as the cars of Kyle Owen and Buddy Hughes got together in turn 4, and resulted in a group of cars spinning to avoid the crash. The car of Gene Owen was taken to the pit with a broken trailing arm, and the car of Sport Allen also was forced to pit for repairs. Several cars also received some damage, but attempted to continue. Steve Perez in the 92 had to pit 2 laps after the restart with a nerf bar rubbing the left rear tire, and the car of Wayne Jefferson also had to pit due to suspension problems from the incident. The 19 of Rick Maguire also retired due to contact in the incident. Lap 21 had the Caution out again as the cars of John Anderson and Gary Southard got together in turn 2, with Southard ending up in the infield. Southard was sent to the rear for the restart, but elected to go to the pit instead. A caution flag was displayed on lap 25 for the spinning car of Bassett in turn 4. On the restart, Durdens’ racer lost power in turn 2, and was out for the night. The running order of the top 10 at the mid point was Dempsey, Glover, Senokossoff, Moore, Rob Partelo, Collins, Anderson, Hinegardner, Skaggs, and Morrison. Lap 33 saw a big crash on the front straight, involving a number of cars. The cars of Buddy Hughes, Butch Bassett, Corky Craver, Sport Allen and Ralph Bowman were all heavily damaged and unable to continue. Several cars also received minor damage but were able to continue. Caution was out again on lap 38 whe the Car of James Glover spun in turn 4. Glover was sent to the rear of the lead lap for the restart, but didn’t agree with the decision. After showing his displeasure with the decision, Glover went to the pit. It was coming down to crunch time, and all the drivers were doing all they could to better their position. Timmy Moore was forced to pit late in the race with a nerf bar rubbing his left rear tire, spoiling a good finish for the 57 car. The 61 of Senokossoff tried several times to get around or under the leading Dempsey, but Dempsey had enough to hold back the charge. The race ende with Dempsey taking a hard fought win, followed by Senokossoff, Collins, Rob Partelo and John Anderson. The Hard Charger Cash Award went to the #8 Car of Chris Escott. The next race will be April 24, at Sunshine Speedway in St. Pete. Join us for all the action. The Bronson Regulars were in action as well, with Rob Cooper showing a lot of power holding off a hard charging Arthur Conquest in Sportsman Action. The 15 cars that started the Sportsman feature put on quite a show with lots of action. The cars of Scott Wilkerson and Eddie Sapp put the catch fence on the Back Straight to the test as the cars got together and tried to leave the park. Both drivers were uninjured, but the cars didn’t fare as well. Doug Anderson raced to a strong third place, followed by Dwight Pinner and Brody Giddens. The Pure Stock Division had an exciting race as well. Mike Baker took the early lead and looked to have things going his way until a run in with a lapped car affected the handling of his racer. Baker tried his best to hold the lead, but with 2 laps to go, Joey Hunt proved to be too strong and passed Baker for the win. Third went to a fast closing Arnold Hughes, followed by Jeff Tillman, and A.J. Northup. Clint Foley continued his winning streak in the mini-stock division, while Bobby Taylor picked up his first win of the season in the V8 Bombers. Joey Durbin picked up the win in the 4 Cyl Bombers. Final Results. March 20, 2004 Corteco / GulfCoast Modifieds 1. #6 Dwayne Dempsey 2. #61 Chet Senokossoff 3. #89 Lee Collins 4. #93 Rob Partelo 5. #1x John Anderson 6. #71 L.B. Skaggs 7. #1H Mike Hinegardner 8. #63 Phil Morrison 9. #8 Chris Escott 10. #06 Greg Nordstrom 11. #9 Dan Partelo 12. #2x Chip Owen 13. #51 Tommy Bower 14. #1 Kyle Owen 15. #57 Timmy Moore 16. #5 James Glover 17. #112 Corky Craver 18. #56x Sport Allen 19. #2 Ralph Bowman 20. #14 Buddy Hughes 21. #23 Butch Bassett 22. #92 Steve Perez 23. #56 Kevin Durden 24. #39 Gary Southard 25. #11 Gene Owen 26. #1J Wayne Jefferson 27. #19 Rick Maguire 28. #16 Larry Goolsby Sportsman 1. #98 Rob Cooper 2. #78 Arthur Conquest 3. #30 Doug Anderson 4. #40 Dwight Pinner 5. #46 Brody Giddens Pure Stock 1. #5 Joey Hunt 2. #02 Mike Baker 3. #55 Arnold Hughes 4. #95 Jeff Tillman 5. #25 A.J. Northup Mini-Stock 1. #7 Clint Foley 2. #60 Tom Jones Jr. 3. #00 Billy Smith 4. #8 Ronnie Hicks 5. #2 Don Faunce V8 Bomber 1. #27x Bobby Taylor 2. #34 Charlie Kennedy 3. #22 Randy O’Neal 4. #37 Kevin Hodge 5. #4 Mitchell Bell 4Cyl Bomber 1. #55 Joey Durbin 2. #33 Justin Durbin 3. #20 Jeff Pittsley 4. #64 Clark Pittsley 5. #23 John Hagans Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! <news@karnac.org>or send a letter to the editor!