| Jason Boyd Wire To Wire For Sunbelt 125 Win | By Jack Smith - KARNAC.com
A nearly full house at Columbia Motorsports Park saw plenty of racing excitement in the fifth FASCAR Sunbelt Series race of 2005. Seventeen entries qualified for the event with Jeff Choquette of West Palm driving the fastest lap at 17.012 seconds around the half mile near Lake City, Florida.
Five positions were inverted for the start which put another Sunbelt rookie Jason Boyd (Orlando) on the pole in the black number 92, made famous in Florida racing circles by Dick Anderson. Anderson was crew chief for the Boyd team car owned by Jesse Stavola. The outside pole position was held by Fain Skinner from Live Oak, Florida.
Veteran racer Daryl Shelnut of Ft. Lauderdale along with Rich Pratt in the #0 car from Anthony, Fl. made up the second row. Last weeks All American Challenge Series winner Jeff Scofield shared the third row with Choquette, while the fourth row had Sunbelt points leader and 2004 champion Wayne Anderson along with Chris Fontaine, fresh off his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck series start.
Boyd jumped out quickly to set the pace for the 125 laps with Skinner following and challenging hard for the lead in the early going. The front runners in the field stayed pretty much in the order they started in with a couple of early cautions caused by cars back in the field. On lap 40 Brooksville's Daniel Webster and Jacksonville's Eric Powell got together in turn 3 and it appeared that contact with Shelnut as the cars checked up sent Rich Pratt's 0 car heading hard in the pile up, ending his hopes for a good finish.
Things got real interesting for the fans and tempers flared for some drivers shortly after the restart on lap 50. With Scofield shadowing Shelnut off turn two, Shelnut missed a shift down the back straight, causing Scofield to get under him, sending the number seven car spinning around and hard into the turn three wall.
Shelnut's new car destroyed in bad wreck at CMP
This was the first test this evening of the new wall FASCAR built earlier this year from turn one to turn three. If the same wreck had happened last year the damage may have been less, but they may still be looking for Shelnut's car in the field beyond the track.
While under caution Shelnut went looking for Scofield with a borrowed FASCAR fire extinguisher, who Shelnut apparently felt was a little too aggressive during the wreck. A FASCAR official suffered a minor injury in the scuffling and after a brief red flag to sort things out the race resumed with 75 laps remaining.
Boyd, Skinner, Choquette Scofield and Anderson ran in that order for the next 25 laps and then Skinner's car car went south and he lost five spots in one lap. Choquette, winner of the 2004 Florida Governor's Cup 200 immediately began to challenge Boyd for the lead, and as the cars moved through lapped traffic, the #70 several times poked the nose of his race car under the #92, this bit of hard racing ending with a caution on lap 90 when Eric Powell lost control of his #82 machine.
Boyd was never seriously challenged again, with the real racing turning into a battle for second and third spots between Choquette, Scofield and Anderson. Scofield drove the wheels off his car to hold off Anderson for the 3rd spot in the closing laps, even making contact with the back straight wall at one point.
All in all a pretty "on the edge of your seat" race from start to finish for the Sunbelt racers, and the fans showed their involvement even with Winner's Circle festivities as they showed their displeasure with Scofield.
Wayne Anderson now holds a 26 point lead over Choquette and a 35 point lead over Boyd in FASCAR Sunbelt Series Championship race. The series has two big races in July, the Clyde Hart Memorial at New Smyrna Speedway on the third of July and the Florida Late Model Championship at the 3/4 mile USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida on July 23.
Choquette said after the race, "we gambled on the set up and late in the race the car was real tight". He added "when you are eight in three and four, it is magnified in one and two".
Many of these same drivers have said they will be at the Powell Memorial on July 7 at Ocala Speedway, and James Powell was seen at Columbia promoting the race on Saturday.
Fans packed the house at Columbia
Columbia Motorsports Park, under FASCAR ownership this year, is in the process of rebuilding the racing program as well as upgrading the facility. Additional lighting has been added and as mentioned before the track now has a wall all the way around the backed half mile. The track has wide turns which allow for a lot of speed to be carried through them.
Full Field Rundown:
Fast Qualifier: #70 Jeff Choquette 17.012 (field inverted five positions for race start)
1. #92 Jason Boyd, Orlando
2. #70 Jeff Choquette, West Palm Beach
3. #07 Jeff Scofield, Plant City
4. #84 Wayne Anderson, Wildwood
5. #47 Chris Fontaine, Lakeland
6. #2 Patrick Conrad, Clermont
7. #47x Keith Zavrel, Brooksville
8. #01 Robbie Smith, Ocala
9. #82 Eric Powell, Jacksonville
10. #29x Matthew Harrell, Gainesville
11. #1 Fain Skinner, Like Oak
12. #57 Doyle Boatwright, Starke
13. #10 Ryan Foster, Lowell, Arkansas
14. #0 Rich Pratt, Anthony
15. #1x Daniel Webster, Brooksville
16. #29 Don Hale Jr., Live Oak
17. #7 Daryl Shelnut, Ft. Lauderdale
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