SKIP HONAKER ALL THE WAY IN JOSLIN MEMORIAL AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD
By Dave Westerman
After being rained out the previous week, 15 Open Wheel Modifieds and a nice crowd showed up under sunny late-day blues skies for the 50 lap Joslin Memorial Friday evening at Orlando Speedworld.
Fourteen cars took time after Gary Fountain, Sr.'s car broke a suspension part in practice. Qualifying and the race would be two clearly different events on this night though.
Time trials were held under sunny, hot conditions with St. Petersburg's Rob Partelo setting quick time at 14.227 seconds, just ahead of the 14.265 of Alan McCafferty and the 14.385 of Dave Debelius.
Partelo pulled a "7" inverting the top seven qualifiers placing Skip Honaker of Titusville on the pole and current Speedworld point leader Alan Bruns on the outside of row one. With the race starting after dark under much cooler conditions, set-ups obviously had changed as the seventh-quick qualifier Honaker took off like a rocket as Bruns slipped back with Hoot Flynn moving into second but losing ground rapidly to Honaker.
The pace was slowed twice during the first 26 laps for harmless spins by Randy Froelich. Honaker pulled away from the field on each restart while fast qualifier Partelo was struggling mid-pack. Meanwhile, Bruns had got a better handle on his car and began to challenge Flynn for second while McCafferty moved into fourth spot.
Things got a bit too close for second on lap 35 as Flynn and Bruns got together with Flynn spinning. Flynn headed into the pits while Bruns restarted from the rear of the field.
McCafferty kept Honaker honest the rest of the way even getting one more chance to close in when Bruns' now ill-handling car spun on the front stretch, but was never able to get a solid run going as Honaker took the checker for a wire to wire victory.
Jimmy Joslin, youngest son of the late racer/promoter Dick Joslin for whom the race is named along with his late stepbrother Jerry (who started this Memorial race several years ago) was Grand Marshall for the event, waving the green flag to start the race and then joining Honaker and his crew for a happy victory lane celebration.
McCafferty came home second with Mark Emberson third. Partelo grabbed fourth spot just ahead of Corey Freed. Sixth through tenth were Teddy Nelson, Shain Held, Dave Debelius, Alan Bruns and Wayne Schram. Dusty Cornelius snared the lead from Rick Bates on lap three and sped to his fourth Super Late Model win of the year.
The race was red-flagged on lap 13 when Chris Staggs and newcomer Robert Douglas tangled in turn three with Staggs' car backing hard into the wall. Staggs was OK as both cars dropped from the event.
Cornelius to the win rather easily over Jared Allison, John Spadeveccia, Bates, and Russ Shaw. Gary Bierlein, Chad Pierce, Douglas, Staggs and Stuart Lycett rounded out the field.
In what was one of the wildest Mini Stock races in some time, Kelly Jarrett came home with his second straight win although he was sent to the rear of the field for being part of the second caution flag of the night when he tangled with Tim "Missileman" McPhail while fighting for second on lap 12.
Dick Laszlo was the leader from the drop of the green and was content just to watch the goings-on behind him. Another two car tangle on lap 17 eliminated the cars of Bob Kelchner and Michael Seay, but following the restart, in almost a carbon copy of the previous week, leader Laszlo was spun by the second place car... this week being Josh Hermann.
John Cook tried to avoid things but slammed into the two stalled cars with both Cook and Hermann done for the night. Laszlo took his damaged car to the pits for repairs moving Jarrett to the front spot. Laszlo re-joined the field as only four of the 13 starters were left.
Jarrett easily led the final three laps to take the win over Randy Blakeslee, Heather Suggs and Laszlo with Herman, Seay, Kelchner, Scott Jarrett, Cook and Emily Cottrell rounding out the top ten despite being DNF's.
James Frisbie may have put on the best show of the night using the outside groove after starting deep in the field as he took a popular win in the Super Stock feature. Bill Loomis appeared to have things well in hand at one point but started having engine problems and slipped back in the running order. Frisbie cruised the final few laps to claim the win over Lee Wagner, Jim Winterstein, Johnny Brown and Jeremy Shelton with Loomis, Jason Foster, Bobby Byars, Matt Jarrett and Tobi Smith completing the top ten.
After winning several features at sister FASCAR track New Smyrna Speedway, young Travis Towel scored his first career win here leading green to checker in the Sportsman feature. Towell then did a Tony Stewart-style fence climb to salute the fans.
Charlie Vest drove his car this week in the absence of regular shoe Bryan Silas (who is off trying to qualify for an ARCA race at Berlin, MI) and took the runner-up spot ahead of Andy Nicholls, Richard Hight and John Hodge.
Bob "Honda" Heina ran off with the Strictly Stock feature in his Prelude taking the win over Neil Kirby, David Leeper II, Robert Remus and Bob Snyder. In Junior Stock action, Trey Edenfield won his third 8-11 year old main event of the year over Luke Gaier, Jeff Cuddy, Luke Burke, Jessica Railing and Wes Railing, Jr.
Kody Kasper drove his Mitchell's Automotive Ford Escort to the 12-15 year old win over Jessie Cuddy, Alex Fortune, Justin Curtis, Shane Sutorus and Daniel Steele.
