Bradenton Fl. - The first hot steamy night of the season greeted the fans and participants of the “South’s Fastest Short Track” as a full card of racing action was on the card.
Three classes were on the grid for qualifying; The Hoosier Cup All American Challenge Series Super Late Models, The Gulf Coast Modifieds, and the Modified Minis for their 50 lap shoot out.
With track temperatures over 100 degrees the racers and crews were having a hard time figuring out what it would take to make their cars stick the slippery surface.
In the All American Challenge Series twenty one cars took time and it was “Big Daddy” Dave Pletcher nabbing his second fast time of the season with Robert “ShowTime” Yoho putting the pony’s to the track with second fast time. Third was Scot Walters in the David Wilson ride. The “Rocketman” Wayne Jefferson leading the points coming into the nights racing action was fourth fast and fifth Billy Bigley Jr.
In Gulf Coast Action it was John Sarppraicone Jr. beating out the clock for the fast qualifier award, second was Jefferson, third Ralph Bowman, fourth Sean McLaughlin and fifth Danny Partelo.
Dustin Perez was fast for the Mod Mini shootout followed by Chris Thornton, Chris Zimmerman, Rick Partridge and Matt Watts over the twenty-car field.
All American Challenge Series
Four was the roll of the die putting Walters and Jefferson on the front row for the 125-lap feature race. Walters slid up into the top spot with Yoho eventually getting by Jefferson for second.
Walters had a fast car but picked up a push just past the twenty lap mark but held on to the lead with Yoho playing bumper tag with the former Slim Jim and Craftsman truck racer. Pletcher was also able to get by Jefferson and was running a solid third place until the car just got to much to handle and he took it into the pits ending up with a twelfth place finish.
Back farther in pack the Jeff Scofield who was looking for his third win in a row at DeSoto had his problems early getting damage on the front of his car on the initial start of the race.
The damage didn’t seem to hinder the two-time AACS champion as he and Steve Dorer went door handle to door handle swapping paint for almost sixty laps before he was able to get by and make his charge to the front.
Yoho would eventually take it in a little to hot getting into Walters. He would be sent to the rear of the field for bringing out the yellow.
Walters would continue to lead until an apparent suspension problem would end his evening. Walters would end up with a seventeenth place finish on attrition filled evening.
On his way back up through the field Yoho would get under Dorer late in the race, they would touch in turn two sending Dorer around. Being determined that it was a racing incident both drivers would get their spots back but Dorer pulled off the speedway finishing fourteenth.
Scofield eventually finished his trek to the front taking over the top spot and cruising to his third win in a row and moving up to second in the points. Billy Bigley Jr. would run second again for the second time to Scofield. Yoho came back to finish third, fourth went to David Pollen Jr. who not only came out of the race in one piece but also took over the points lead by a mere five points over Scofield. Rounding out the top five was Richie Anderson.
Pos Driver Car # 1 JEFF SCOFIELD 07 2 BILLY BIGLEY, JR 28 3 ROBERT YOHO 00 4 DAVID POLLEN, JR 88 5 RICHIE ANDERSON 51 6 RONNIE SKIPPER 32 7 KURT JETT 9 8 JOHN SPADAVECCHIA JR 8X 9 CHRIS STAGGS 56 10 JAMES GLOVER 70 11 JACK ARNOLD III 11 12 DAVE PLETCHER 74 13 ROB ELTING 27 14 STEVE DORER 10 15 STEVE TREGEAR 18X 16 WAYNE JEFFERSON 94 17 SCOT WALTERS 83X 18 JIMMY COPE 61 19 SEAN LeMASTER 8 20 DWAYNE DEMPSEY 12X 21 TROY MEREDITH 00X
Gulf Coast Modifieds The “Rocketman” Wayne Jefferson showed his dominance in the Modified at DeSoto as he roared to the win in the 50 lap Gulf Coast Modified event. Second went to Fast qualifier John Sarppraicone Jr.; third was Sean McLaughlin, fourth Ralph Bowman and fifth point’s leader Robbie Cooper.
Mod-Minis Pos Driver Car # 1 CHRIS THORNTON 24 2 MASON LOVE 70X 3 THOMAS ZIMMERMAN 29X 4 RICK PARTRIDGE 0 5 CHRIS ZIMMERMAN 29 6 CORBIN GIBBS 2 7 MATTHEW PERKINS 99 8 ANDY WHITTED 9 9 MATT WATTS 3 10 DUSTIN PEREZ 62 11 ROB STODGELL 7 12 MIKE BIRK JR 68 13 JOE GAGEN 1 14 JON BAILEY 14 15 MIKE KERRIVAN 45 16 RICK SIRMANS 05 17 BRYAN WAGNER 4 18 MITCHELL WEBB 6 19 WILLIAM CARLBERT JR 65X 20 ALAN POLLARD 55
Manatee Lumber Pure Stocks Pos Driver Car # 1 DUANE BEST 3 2 TYLER LAU 1 3 JAMES CRAWFORD JR 34 4 DAVID DAVIS 6X 5 JIMMIE BEST 67 6 GEORGE BARTIMAC 21X 7 RANDY JOHNSON 73 8 DARRIN ELLIS 71 9 BLAIR PONTIOUS 39 10 JOHN BROWN 6 11 KEITH THORBIN 30 12 JAMES "WILL" WILBERT 62 13 RON DAVIS 75X 14 ANTHONY EASTON 90 15 KEVIN SHEPHERD JR 0 16 ALLEN BRAGG 89 17 LEONARD McCUE 70
Manatee Lumber Bombers Pos Driver Car # 1 MICHAEL CROOKS 33 2 CLIFF MITCHELL 17 3 RICK GERMONY 8 4 SCOTT DAWLEY 74 5 JOHN STEWART 02 6 JEROME WATLAND 31 7 KEN SMITH 11 8 STEVE ELDER 42 9 JEFF TAYLOR 70
