David Rogers Wins Sunbelt Super Late Model 125 on WILD night at New Smyrna Speedway
by Jane Smith
David Rogers
Samsula, Fla. (August 13, 2005) Twenty two of Florida's finest Super Late Model drivers were on hand Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway for the eighth race of the Sunbelt Super Late Model Series. With only a handfull of drivers left to qualify, a rain shower went passed thru causing some delay in qualifying. The shower moved quickly and the track was dried.
Up until the rain shower, it was Jason Boyd setting fast time but when Jeff Choquette went out after the rain delay, he ran a 18.002 compared to Boyd's 18.003. Choquette pulled a seven for the inversion which put James Powell III on the pole for the 125 lap event.
The drivers were lined up on the frontstrech for driver introduction to the roar of the crowd. It was time to belt the drivers in and it was the fans who gave the command "Gentlemen, start your engines."
As the race went green, it was Justin Drawdy who took the lead over James Powell but it was a short lead as before a lap was completed there was a file-up coming off turn 4 as Jacob Warren got loose and a number of cars had no place to go but on each other. Involved were Warren, Tom McCann, running his first race with the Sunbelt Series, Ryan Foster, Chad Pierce who was on top of Patrick Conrad, Daniel Webster, Dalton Zehr, and Matthew Sichmann.
The race was red flagged to clean up the track and to remove Chad Pierce's car off Patrick Conrad. Pierce's tire had gone into the driver's window of Conrad's car and the tire finally had to be removed to safely get Conrad out. Luckily no one was hurt and Conrad was able to repair his car and come back out. Only McCann, Warren, Pierce and Foster were done.
The second restart saw once again Justin Drawdy take the lead over Wayne Anderson, Brian Finney, Jeff Choquette, and James Powell, James Boyd, Fain Skinner, David Rogers, Jay Middleton and Daryl Shelnut. The caution came out for track conditiions and Boyd pitted real quick for some crew attention.
Drawdy held the point for the restart with Anderson, Finney, Choquette and Powell in the top five. Boyd goes in again for crew attention as Drawdy has his hands full of Wayne Anderson knocking on the door. Choquette passes Finney for third with Finney sliding back to fourth as Fain Skinner takes over the fifth place position from Powell. Anderson works on Drawdy and finally takes over the lead. But Drawdy still had his hands full with Choquette in third and wanting second. Choquette makes his move and takes over second as Drawdy goes to third followed by Finney and Skinner.
The race has Anderson, Choquette and Drawdy in one bunch followed by Finney, Skinner and David Rogers in the second bunch all fighting for each other's positions. Conrad, who is racing a doorless machine, pits real quick for some crew attention. David Rogers, who is "king" of New Smyrna Speedway, passes Finney for fourth as Finney settles into fifth. Skinner begins to slow as he has a brake fire and must go in to have it extinguished. Then Anderson, who is leading, suffers a tire going down and hits the turn 4 wall ending his run for the night.
This turns the lead over to Choquette on the restart followed by Drawdy, Rogers, Finney, Powell, Middleton, Shelnut, Scofield, Webster, Mac Johnson and Dalton Zehr. Just as everything is very heated, Powell suffers a tire going down and hits the turn 3 wall ending his night.
Choquette holds the lead on the restart followed by Rogers, Drawdy, Shelnut, and Middleton. The caution comes out as Middleton and Drawdy make contact sending them both to the rear for the restart on lap 98. Choquette leads the way followed by Rogers, Shelnut, Scofield and Zehr.
Rogers, who knows New Smyrna well, has never really raced against Choquette due to his absence at the Governor's Cup from a wreck at SpeedWorld, finds that Choquette does not give up easily. As they race each other hard, Rogers shows why he is the master of New Smyrna and gets around Choquette for the lead. Shortly after Rogers takes the lead, it is Choquette who has a tire go down and visits the turn 4 wall ending his night. With only five laps to go, this is a big disappointment for Choquette.
Rogers holds the point on the final restart followed by Shelnut, Scofield, Middleton, and Zehr. Zehr does a little wiggle allowing Finney to take over sixth as Zehr slides back just alittle. David Rogers takes the checkered for his first win of the 2005 Sunbelt Super Late Model season followed by Daryl Shelnut, Jeff Scofield, Jay Middleton and Justin Drawdy.
But this was not to be the finishing order for the Sunbelt. As Choquette was towed into the pits after his flat, Warren throws a water bottle at the driver causing a massive fight to break out. Then Shelnut and Scofield, who already had a rough history together from the Columbia Motorsports Park Sunbelt race, get into it after the race on the backstretch.
Needless to say, Sheriffs had to be called with fighting going on everywhere. A few were arrested taken to jail with Jacob Warren, Jeff Choquette and Daryl Shelnut being disqualified. Although Choquette never really did anything, a driver is responsible for his crew and he was disqualified because of his crew's actions.
As Rogers celebrated in Victory Circle with his family, fans were entertained by the crazy antics of angry racecar drivers. Official results for the top five were David Rogers, Jeff Scofield, Jay Middleton, Justin Drawdy and Brian Finney.
In the Sportsman feature race, it was John Nusbaum on the pole but it was Jim Snyder who took the lead on the green followed by Nusbaum, Donny Williams, Dale Clouser and Ron Lufcy. Clouser, who made a surprise visit to Orlando SpeedWorld Friday night and won the Sportsman feature, slowly began working his way to the front passing Williams and then Nusbaum and finally Snyder for the lead. With no cautions in this 15 lap event, Clouser sailed to the checkered followed by Jim Snyder, Donny Williams, John Nusbaum and Ron Lufcy.
Dennis Gardner had the pole for the Pro Truck feature and quickly took the point over Marty Wolf, Kevin Henry, Scott Reeves, and Chad Akins. Reeves passes Wolf as newcomer Mike Murphy, in Matt Martin's truck, comes into the picture.
Gardner holds strong and makes Reeves work for the lead but Reeves, Gardner and Murphy give the crowd one of those "stand on your feet" finishes and the three are dueling side-by-side for the victory. Three wide at New Smyrna is a neat trick but these three trucks were able to do that with Reeves just winning by an inch over Gardner and Murphy. This finish gave the crowd a real taste of what truck racing action can be. Reeves took the checkered followed by Dennis Gardner, Mike Murphy, Marty Wolf and Kevin Henry.
The Mini Stock feature saw Cody Blair on the pole but it was Ben Cutler Jr. who took the lead on the green followed by Ted Vulpius, Pat Wells, Blair, and Chad Carpenter. With no cautions in this race, it was a run for the lead which Vulpius tried over and over again on Cutler but Cutler held strong. Pat Wells gave Vulpius a good run also taking over second at one point only to have Vulpius come back and retake the position. Cutler, who is a newly wed and has not won a feature race yet, was all smiles as he took the checkered for his first Mini Stock feature win followed by Ted Vulpius, Pat Wells, Chad Carpenter, and Cody Blair. A great night for Cutler.
The Super Stock feature did not go as smoothly as the Sportsman or Truck feature being interrupted to allow Volusia County Sheriff cars to come in. But it was Josh Wronkowski on the pole and taking the lead over Faris Crews, Jason Foster, JT Tippins and James Adams. Ed Barber passes Adams for fifth as Foster passes Crews for second. The caution comes out for Adams, who has broken a rotor and hits the backstretch wall slightly.
Wronkowski holds the point on the restart followed by Crews, Foster, Barber and George Spears. Foster once again passes Crews for second but Crews now has problems as he spins coming off four hitting the inside pit wall. Crews is fine but done for the night.
On the restart, Foster takes the lead as suddenly Wronkowski goes backwards thru the field. Foster takes the checkered followed by George Spears, Ed Barber, Pat Buckley and James Frisbie.
Curtis Smith had the pole for the Strictly Stock feature but these guys were acting like they had never driven before. It takes four restarts to even get the field going for some unknown reason. Once the race did go green, it was Mike Wofford taking the lead over Ray Tanguay, Nick Boley, Alvin Morris and Travis Scott. Wofford is able to hold on and take his first feature win in 2005 followed by Ray Tanguay, Kerry Payne, Jeffrey Shimmel and Travis Scott.
OFFICIAL RESULTS - NEW SMYRNA SPEEDWAY AUGUST 13, 2005
SUNBELT SUPER LATE MODEL 125
1. #11 David Rogers, Orlando 2. #07 Jeff Scofield, Plant City 3. #74 Jay Middleton, Lake City 4. #12 Justin Drawdy, Ft. Pierce 5. #80 Brian Finney, Merritt Island 6. #1x Daniel Webster, Brooksville 7. #05 Dalton Zehr, Daytona Beach 8. #6 Mac Johnson, Gainesville 9. #1 Fain Skinner, Live Oak 10. #57x James Powell III, Ocala 11. #92 Jason Boyd, Orlando 12. #84 Wayne Anderson, Wildwood 13. #2 Patrick Conrad, Clermont 14. #20 Ron Dicandio, Canaveral Groves 15. #74x Jody Turner, Jacksonville 16. #10 Ryan Foster, Lowell, Arkansas 17. #75 Matthew Skichmann, St. Cloud 18. #57 Chad Pierce, Orlando 19. #16 Tom McCann, Ocala 20. #51 Jacob Warren, Orlando DQ'D 21. #70 Jeff Choquette, West Palm Beach DQ'D 22. #7 Daryl Shelnut, Ft. Lauderdale DQ'D
SPORTSMAN
1. #30 Dale Clouser 2. #55 Jim Snyder 3. #5 Donny Williams 4. #70 John Nusbaum 5. #07 Ron Lufcy 6. #330 Joe Gerard 7. #7 Tom Gamache 8. #6 Bruce McGonigal 9. #45 Mike Soukup
SUPER STOCK
1. #49 Jason Foster 2. #18 George Spears 3. #123 Ed Barber 4. #34 Pat Buckley 5. #3 James Frisbie 6. #4 Russ Noyes 7. #31 JT Tippins 8. #3x Josh Wronkowski 9. #22 Bruce McGonigal Jr. 10. #8up Faris Crews 11. #5 David Rowe 12. #7 Barry Parks 13. #33 Bruce Wingate 14. #29 James Adams 15. #311 Rich Lindner
PRO TRUCKS
1. #21 Scott Reeves 2. #11k Dennis Gardner 3. #66 Mike Murphy 4. #9 Marty Wolf 5. #99 Kevin Henry 6. #32 Bill Stacy 7. #11 Ron Dubeau
MINI STOCK
1. #83 Ben Cutler Jr. (First Win) 2. #71 Ted Vulpius 3. #23 Pat Wells 4. #31 Chad Carpenter 5. #81 Cody Blair 6. #6 Mark Broat 7. #69 Anthony King 8. #34 Ron Karto, Jr. 9. #51 Rick Gamache
STRICTLY STOCK
1. #16 Mike Wofford 2. #007 Ray Tanguay 3. #11x Kerry Payne 4. #83 Jeffrey Shimmel 5. #62 Travis Scott 6. #68 Alvin Morris 7. #61 Ken Walker 8. #009 Alan Tanguay 9. #11 Chris Ridley 10. #88 Nick Boley 11. #51 John Cast 12. #20 Mike Wilson 13. #92 Curtis Smith 14. #48 Chuck Barr 15. #21 George Dahm 16. #73 Jose Rivera 17. #3 ToddSexton 18. #29 Scott Cecil
