September 17, 2005 JUSTIN DRAWDY TAKES ORLANDO DODGE SUNBELT 125 AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD Packed house and edge of your seat racing at Speedworld with return of FASCAR Sunbelt Series By Dave Westerman Justin Drawdy in Winners Circle with Speedworld Promoter Rusty Marcus Twenty-four top Super Late Model racers converged on Orlando Speedworld Friday night for the Orlando Dodge sponsored Sunbelt Super Series 125 with a local veteran making a great comeback to racing at the three-eighth's mile oval while another fan favorite from Florida's east coast finally found victory lane in a big race here. Justin Drawdy was third quick with rookie driver Patrick Conrad a pleasantly surprising fourth quick. Lowell, AR driver Ryan Foster rounded out the top five in time trials. Orlando's David Rogers, making his first start at Orlando since a terrible crash here last October put him in the hospital with serious injuries, returned with a vengeance. Like the proverbial cowboy who gets bucked off his horse only to get right back in the saddle again, Rogers zipped around the track with a lap of 13.557 seconds to set fast time. Plant City's Jeff Scofield was not far behind at 15.581. The field started straight up on time with Rogers and Scofield on the front row for the start. However, as the green flew to start the 125 lap event, Conrad's car failed to come up to speed setting up a wild scramble that resulted in the cars of Chris Fontaine and Jimmy Cope done for the night and in the pits without ever making it through turn one on the opening lap. Michael Williams, Rich Pratt, and Dalton Zehr pitted to repair damages and returned to the track while Fain Skinner, Travis Wilson and Scott Millar also suffered minor damage but stayed on the track. Once the race finally got going, Rogers set the pace with the top five qualifiers lining up and racing in order, just feeling each other out. Lap ten saw the first caution as Daniel Webster and Wilson got together going into turn one with both spinning although able to continue. Rogers continued to set the pace as caution flew briefly again for Matthew Stichman's spin. Rogers continued to lead a high-speed freight train only to see the caution out at lap 25. Michael Williams, who had been working his way back through the field, got together with Mac Johnson in turn three with both going to the rear of the field for the restart. From that point things settled down for a good bit of green flag follow-the-leader racing. Some yawns were being seen in the grandstands, but the crowd woke up quickly on lap 60 as Drawdy lit the afterburner on his car and drove around Scofield in the outside groove like Scofield was tied to a post. Drawdy moved in on Rogers, but cooled his heels until lap 71 when he again ignited the rockets under the hood of his Drawdy Brothers Construction Chevy and passed Rogers' TM Ranch Dodge with ease bringing Scofield with him into second. At that point it looked like it would be a Drawdy benefit as the best race was the one going on for fourth between Patrick Conrad and Ryan Foster. That battle came to an abrupt halt when the two collided going into turn one on lap 76 with Foster's car ending up on top of the front of Conrad's. Foster drove off like nothing happened and restarted from the tail but Conrad's night was over after a great effort by the young driver. Foster also pulled off shortly after the restart. Following the restart, the fans were treated to a great battle for the lead. The caution period seemed to give Scofield a new lease on life as he began to put big pressure on Drawdy, finally passing him for the top spot only to see Drawdy go right back into number one a lap later. Drawdy again began to pull away as Rogers closed in on Scofield to challenge for second. Rogers made a bold move to pass Scofield on lap 109 but the two cars touched and spun going into turn one. Despite some protests by both drivers and their crews, Scofield and Rogers were sent to the rear of the field. Drawdy had the point for the waning laps with Sunbelt Series points leader Jason Boyd in his Dick Anderson owned machine now in second ahead of Fain Skinner, and the Bob Steele Chevrolet sponsored cars of Brian Finney and Travis Kittleson. The remaining laps were uneventful as Drawdy was easily able to stay ahead of Boyd and claim a popular win after much bad luck over the years at Speedworld. Boyd took second and solidified his hold on the Sunbelt points lead since second place Wayne Anderson was in Loudon, NH qualifying for his first-ever Nextel Cup race start. Skinner, racing with a damaged front end from the opening lap altercation, drove a smooth, steady race and claimed third spot with Finney in fourth and Chad Pierce coming on late to round out the top five. Despite two incidents, Michael Williams rallied back to finish sixth with Scofield charging back to seventh. Youngster David Pollen, Jr. was eighth with Rogers ending his night a disappointing ninth. Kittleson suffered some late troubles and faded to tenth at the end. Rounding out the field were Rapid Ron DiCandio, Ryan Foster, Patrick Conrad, Travis Wilson, Rich Pratt, Dalton Zehr, Matthew Stichmann, Mac Johnson, Scott Millar, Steve Weaver, Daniel Webster, Chris Fontaine and Jimmy Cope. B.J. McLeod qualified in the top ten but and engine problem was discovered and he was unable to start the race. More Speedworld Racing The Sportsman feature got off to a rocky start as outside pole sitter Gary Bierline hit the back stretch wall then clipped the water barrel at the pit entrance before clobbering the turn three wall. Bierline was OK, but his car was a mess along with the track as the water barrel emptied its contents onto the track entering turn three. After the track was cleaned up, John Castro took the early lead but only one lap could be completed before Rich Hight and Doug Samion tangled while battling for second. The same two drivers collided again just after the restart and spent the rest of the night in the pits. Castro continued to set the pace but could not hold off Andy Nichols who sped by on lap five and checked out to take his fifth win of the season in his Orlando Special Effects Monte Carlo. Jeff Wright made a late run up to second while Castro held on for third over John Hodge and Timmy Todd, Jr. Joe Adams, Clint Barker, Hight, Samion and Bierline completed the top ten. The Super Stock feature was a typical barn-burner as Sean Bass held the top spot through three caution periods and 19 laps before being passed by Ron Whaley on the final lap. Whaley made a triumphant return, coming from 12th on the starting grid to take the last-second win with Shane Nichols coming back from a mid-race penalty to finish a close second while Bass slipped to third with fourth and fifth going to Kelly Jarrett and Tom Vento. Rounding out the top ten were Roger Benton, Todd Ansel, Johnny Brown, Bobby Riley, and Brandon Evans. Bass came back to take the Mini Stock feature passing Kenny Padgett for the lead on lap 11 to post his 13th win of the year. Padgett held on for second ahead of Michael Seay, Clay Joseph, John Cook, Bob DelMastro and Mike Cook. William Hindman drove his Mustang to a wild final lap win in the always unpredictable Strictly Stock feature holding off Jim Erb at the line while Daniel Laszlo and Alan McClelland slid off the track coming off turn four while battling for the lead but still ended up third and fourth. Adam Soukup was fifth with Carl Peters, Ray Brown, Enrique Romero, Dave Thompson, Heath Phillips and Bill Spence rounding out the finishers. SUNBELT SUPER LATE MODEL 125 - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD SEPTEMBER 16 1. #12 Justin Drawdy, Ft. Pierce 2. #92 Jason Boyd, Orlando 3. #1 Fain Skinner, Live Oak 4. #80 Brian Finney, Merritt Island 5. #57 Chad Pierce, Orlando 6. #32 Michael Williams, Mims 7. #07 Jeff Scofield, Plant City 8. #88 David Pollen, Jr., Tampa 9. #11 David Rogers, Orlando 10. #88 Travis Kittleson, Merritt Island 11. #20 Ron Dicandio, Canaveral Groves 12. #10 Ryan Foster, Lowell, Arkansas 13. #2 Patrick Conrad, Clermont 14. #62 Travis Wilson, Bartow 15. #0 Rich Pratt, Anthony 16. #05 Dalton Zehr, Daytona Beach 17. #52 Matthew Stechmann, St. Cloud 18. #6 Mac Johnson, Gainesville 19. #20x Scott Millar, Ocala 20. #12x Steve Weaver, Ft. Lauderdale 21. #1x Daniel Webster, Brooksville 22. #47 Chris Fontaine, Lakeland 23. #61 Jimmy Cope, St. Petersburg 24. #78 B.J. McLeod, Watchula DNS Fast Qualifer #11 David Rogers #92 Jason Boyd Top Rookie SPORTSMAN 1. #66 Andy Nicholls 2. #50 Jeff Wright 3. #5 John Castro 4. #00 John Hodge 5. #25 Timmy Todd Jr. 6. #62 Joe Adams 7. #30 Clint Barker 8. #23 Richard Hight 9. #04 Doug Samion 10. #20 Gary Bierlien SUPER STOCK 1. #2 Ron Whaley 2. #65 Shane Nichols 3. #17 Sean Bass 4. #97 Kelly Jarrett 5. #55 Tom Vento 6. #14 Roger Benton 7. #22 Todd Ansel 8. #86 Johnny Brown 9. #46 Bobby Riley 10. #27 Brandon Evans 11. #40 Bob Starr 12. #00 Mike Gennett 13. #3 James Fresbie 14. #31 Paul Cornelius 15. #316 Ray Mullis MINI STOCK 1. #28 Sean Bass 2. #16 Kenny Padgett 3. #10 Michael Seay 4. #22 Clay Joseph 5. #24 John Cook 6. #33 Bob Delmastro 7. #25 Mike Cook STRICTLY STOCK 1. #89 William Hindman 2. #32 Jim Erb 3. #07 Daniel Laszlo 4. #22 Alan McClelland 5. #14 Adam Soukup 6. #18 Carl Peters 7. #4 Ray Brow 8. #7 Enrique Ramero 9. #27 Dave Thompson 10. #98 Heath Phillips 11. #52 Bill Spence Have an opinion on this story? 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