April 3, 2004 ROLLOVER, SUSPENSIONS AND PROTEST HIGHLIGHT WILD SPEEDWORLD NIGHT By Dave Westerman Chad Pierce drove to his first career Modified win Friday night Where do you start to describe all the wild and crazy action that took place in front of a small, chilly, yet enthusiastic crowd Friday night at Orlando Speedworld? Super Stocks is a good place to start with much of the action taking place in the warm-up laps well before the crowd got to the race track. Before even the drivers meeting could take place, the cars of John Bennett and Brett Woodley were already on the trailer from practice incidents while Bobby Riley was thrashing on his car after a wheel broke and he too hit the wall during hot laps. The heat races were fairly mundane and were won by Ron Whaley and Andy Nichols. Dave Wright had the pole for the 15 lap feature and grabbed a quick lead as all heck broke loose behind him as the field was on the second lap. Ron Whaley made a low side move using part of the track apron and tried to move into a hole that wasn't there when he got there. Depending on which story you listened too, the outcome was still the same. Corey Freed got into the right rear corner of Whaley's car turning him sideways with the driver's side of the car headed for the wall. The only thing that saved Whaley from a hard lick into the concrete was Tommy Huffstutler whose car was hit by Whaley's machine and sent into a hard impact into the turn three wall. To make matters worse, Huffstutler, who races in Bradenton, was driving a Camaro... a car which is not legal for the Super Stock class at Speedworld. Since he made the long tow, Huffstutler was allowed to race but was going to get last place money no matter where he finished. After the incident, track officials decided to suspend both Whaley and Freed for two weeks for unsportsmanlike driving. Huffstutler was also awarded the money that would have been earned by both Whaley and Freed since he was an innocent victim of someone else's mistake. No sooner than the race was restarted the yellow flag was back out for a tangle between Andy Nichols and Harley Gibbens. Several more yellow flags would be needed before this one would end, one of which would be very helpful to eventual winner Ted Head who was set back two spots for jumping one of the restarts. Wright was actually looking pretty good out front until he spun out in turn two on lap nine. Head took over at that point and led the rest of the way for the win thanking his lucky stars the race had not run all green from the third caution which meant he would have been set back two spots on the final rundown rather than during the fourth set of caution laps. Head also attempted to do a "burnout" but blew a transmission seal and drove into victory lane with a badly smoking "Billy Cuddy Painting/Central Florida Machine and Speed Monte Carlo. "It looks worse than it really is," he said. Bob Beiler, racing in memory of his father in law, who passed away this week, had a good run for second followed by Nuchols, Gibbens and Donald Springer. Sean "Weasel" Bass had a strong run in the Mini Stocks, leading all the way, but his win was somewhat overshadowed by the wild and wacky race of Dick Laszlo. On lap three, Josh Hermann and Stephen Simpson got together in turn four. Laszlo, trying to avoid the tangle, rode over one of the cars and did a full rollover in his Ford pick-up truck landing on his side in the middle of the race track. Laszlo hopped out and his truck in fine shape and his machine was pushed onto the apron. After a quick inspection and a little "fender tugging," Laszlo jumped back in, fired it back up and continued in the race! Bass went on to the win closely followed by fellow Auburndale resident Chad Ashley. Simpson finished third while amazingly Laszlo drove back to a fourth place finish. Randy Blakeslee, making his first start of the year, came home fifth. Josh Hermann won the Mini Stock heat. Donnie Lewis has been a fixture in Central Florida racing since dinosaurs roamed the earth, first as a driver, then as a mechanic and car owner as well as being a track official. However it had been eight years since a Donnie Lewis owned car had been in victory lane. Lewis' teaming with young Chad Pierce brought that victory drought to an end Friday night as Pierce led all 15 laps en route to his first ever Modified win. Pierce, who drives race cars for a "living" at the Richard Petty Driving Experience, thanked Lewis for the opportunity to drive his car and to all the people that had been helping them get better and better every week. Jim "Hoot" Flynn made his first start of the year a good one as he took second place on the second circuit but could never get a good run at Pierce and settled for the runner-up spot. Veteran Wayne Heckle made a late run pay off with a third place finish while newlywed Matt Wheeler took a break from his "honeymoon" to go back racing and he came home fourth just ahead of the ailing car of Ricky Wood who won the heat race in fine fashion, but suffered late race engine problems in the feature. Sportsman action was more of a "survival of the fittest" as Dale Clouser led all the way to end the three race win streak of Earl Beckner. A big tangle in turn one at the drop of the green saw the cars of Bobby Joe Woodley, Bruce Gayton and Cory Kaiser all receive damage. Kaiser managed to take the green flag before pulling into the infield while Woodley also made a couple of laps before calling it quits. Clouser took the win followed by Richard Hight and Justin Hall. Gayton returned to the track two laps down to the leaders but still took fourth as the only other car running at the finish while Woodley was awarded fifth spot. Hight then protested Clouser's car, but after a complete check, Clouser's car was declared legal and the win stood. Clouser also won the heat. Richie Laszlo out ran Derek Slade to win the Strictly Stock feature. Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! <news@karnac.org>or send a letter to the editor!