Hartley Winner in Bob Luscomb/ Billy Yuma Memorial Race
By Dave Westerman
Bo Hartley is joined in victory circle by his dad Sonny Hartley after winning the TBARA feature Friday at Speedworld
After waiting out a brief drizzle late in the afternoon that actually was welcomed after a sweltering day, Orlando Speedworld played host to the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association Sprint Cars for the second Annual Bob Luscomb/Billy Yuma Memorial plus a big $750 to win Super Stock event sponsored by World Class Stone and Tile.
Twenty-five Sprint Cars made the trip to Speedworld with a trio of heat races going to veteran Stan Butler, 2006 TBARA Champion Bo Hartley, and 2007 Rookie of the year candidate D.J. Hoetzle. The field would be reduced by one during the heats as Michael Smith's car suffered engine woes during the warm-up session for his heat and he would not make the feature race start.
After the traditional "missing man" formation in honor of Bob Luscomb and Billy Yuma, two of the pioneers of the TBARA, and the four-wide parade lap to salute the fans, the field was set for action.
Richard Waddell had the pole slot with Hartley outside of him. Hartley was making just his second start of the year in the car that he won the TBARA crown with the previous year.
Hartley had run off and left everybody in his heat race and he wasted little time building up a big lead after the drop of the green flag in the feature. Action was slowed on lap four as Hoetzle spun to bring out the first yellow. Hartley immediately took off again only to see the second, and final, caution of the race tossed on lap seven as Jimmy Alvis spun in turn two.
Once the green flag unfurled again, Hartley simply got lost being slowed only by lapped traffic as he built his lead over Kipp Beard to a full straightaway at times. Meanwhile, fans were focusing their sights on several drivers moving forward after starting well back in the field.
Eighth starter Stan Butler managed to work his way to third spot but another veteran, Wayne Reutimann, Sr., making a rare start this year in Don Heckman's car was one of the guys everybody was watching as he used his years of experience to work his way from 13th on the grid to challenge Butler in the late going. Dave Steele, who started 12th but got a horrible start and fell back in the early laps, put on his usual show for the fans as he diced his way up behind Reutimann.
With no cautions to slow his pace, Hartley took the victory well ahead of Beard with Stan Butler, Reutimann and Steele right together at the finish with rookie Brian Gingras coming home a solid fifth. Beard's second place finish was his best since returning to racing action this year.
But it was Hartley and his crew enjoying a jubilant victory lane celebration. Nobody seemed to enjoy things more than Bo's dad, semi-retired Sprint Car veteran Sonny Hartley, who was good friends with both Luscomb and Yuma. The elder Hartley actually raced Bob Luscomb-built cars for many years, winning a track championship at Sunshine Speedway in Pinellas Park in one of them.
Keith Butler didn't have his usual Orlando Speedworld-type race, but ran steady enough to finish sixth while current TBARA point leader Troy Decaire, Shane Butler, Mark Gimmler and Dude Teate rounded out the top ten. The remaining finishers were David Slawiak, Larry J. Brazil, Jr., Tommy Nichols, Waddell, Gary Gimmler, Wendy Mathis, Steve Heisler, Hoetzle, Alvis, Bill Pettijohn, Brad Davis, Blaze Martin and Mickey Kempgens.
A solid field of 23 Super Stocks took to the asphalt for the World Class Stone and Tile 50 which saw three tries needed before the race actually got under way. Then, with just one lap in, Ron McCreary got into the left rear corner of Darren Gould's car causing his axle to break sending Gould spinning in a shower of sparks.
Once the race got going again, it would amazingly run the rest of the distance under green. Bobby Simcox grabbed the early advantage and was looking strong as he was holding off fast qualifier Lee Wagner and McCreary, who had come up from the rear of the starting grid after arriving at the track too late to qualify.
Simcox saw his night end as something broke just past the half way mark and he exited the track while leading. Wagner took over but could not hold off McCreary as the veteran got by him with a handful of laps to go and raced to an apparent victory.
The win was taken from McCreary in tech when his car owner would not allow the engine to be torn down. After a lengthy check of the power plant in Wagner's machine, he was declared the winner just past midnight.
Defending Super stock champion Jason Foster, making his first start of the year in the class, also passed tech and took the runner-up spot with James Frisbie coming home third. Vince Keeler and Jason Pick were fourth and fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Roger Benton, Ray Mullis, Geno Smith, Austin Carr and Ed Michalak. Completing the finishing field were Paul Marguglio, Alaine Grogan, Scotty Edwards, Simcox, Dennis Snyder, Sean Bass, Johnny Brown, Daniel Laszlo, Bob Starr, Gould, Nathan Haystead and Jeff Parrish.
Point leader Shain Held topped a wild Modified main event taking the win over defending track champion Alan Bruns who managed a second place finish even though he spun once, then was involved in a tangle with Randy Froelich on a lap seven restart. Making his first start of the year, David Hite took third spot ahead of Terry Bryant, Mark Emberson, Froelich, Chris Smyth and Gary Fountain, Sr. Bruns won the heat race.
Matt Perkins led all the way in the Mini stock feature, but the finish was pretty spectacular as he and second-running Pedie Allison tangled coming down to the checker. Perkins actually crossed the stripe going backwards, but he was still a bumper ahead of Allison. R.J. Arnone grabbed third spot trailed by Richie Laszlo, John Cook and Emily Cottrell. Allison won the heat.
After heat winner Pete Starr and Timmy Todd, Jr. tangled while racing for the lead, Brett Woodley took over and raced his way to the Sportsman Victory. The Palm Bay youngster held off a hard-charging Justin Reynolds at the line while Andy Nicholls nabbed the show position. Derrick Wood was fourth in front of Ted Head, Whitney Poole, Todd, Starr and John Tenney.
The Action Gator Tire Strictly Stock feature saw the two cars battling for the lead, William Hindman and Todd McCreary, get together on several occasions, enough to see both eventually disqualified. That allowed Richard Barrenechea to take over and race to his second win of the year as he held off a determined Greg Bruce for the victory. Rob Reynolds crossed the line third in front of Jimmy Scripter and Neal Kirby with David Leeper II, George Brown, Miguel Barrenechea, Jason Keis and Brenda Taylor rounding out the top ten.
The Palm Tree Computer/BCS Welding/Orlando Graphix Junior Stock feature was a runaway for Dylan Curtis as he took the trophy for the 12-15 year old drivers, but the fans were treated to a great two car race for the 8-11 year old win as Carl Kwasny, Jr. and Brandon Henault swapped positions and paint nearly every lap before Kwasny slipped by to finish second overall and first in the Junior class. Derek Binda was fourth and Jotseph Daniel finished fifth.
--Advertisement--
OFFICIAL RESULTS ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD AUGUST 31, 2007
1 - 74 Lee Wagner 2 - 17 Jason Foster 3 - 3X James Frisbie 4 - 32 Vince Keeler 5 - 44 Jason Pick 6 - 14 Roger Benton 7 - 316 Ray Mullis 8 - 25 Geno Smith 9 - 25A Austin Carr 10 - 44 Edward Michalak 11 - 32X Paul Margolio 12 - 29 Alaine Grogan 13 - 7I Scott Edwards 14 - 92 Bobby Simcox 15 - 11S Dennis Snyder 16 - 07 Daniel Laszlo 17 - 40 Bob Starr 18 - 16 Darren Gould 19 - 25S Sean Bass 20 - 86 Johnny Brown 21 - 72 Nathan Haystead 22 - 05X Jeff Parrish 23 - 24PK Ron Mccreary DQ'D
Sportsman
1 - 99 Brett Woodley 2 - 20 Justin Reynolds 3 - 66 Andrew Nicholls 4 - 33 Derrick Wood 5 - 92 Ted Head 6 - 00 Whitney Poole 7 - 25 Timmy Todd Jr. 8 - 31 John Tenney DNS 9 - 95X Pete Starr DQ'D
Modified
1 - 55 Shain Held 2 - 4B Alan Bruns 3 - 54 David Hite 4 - 08 Terri Bryant 5 - 8 Randy Froehlich 6 - 30 Mark Emberson 7 - 07 Christopher Smith 8 - 33 Gary Fountain Sr DQ'D
Strictly Stock
1 20x Richard Barrenechea 2 4u Greg Bruce 3 A1 Rob Reynolds 4 7 Jimmy Scripter 5 8 Neal Kirby 6 D2 Dave Leeper 7 41 George Brown 8 22 Miguel Barrenechea 9 28x Jason Kies 10 24 Brenda Taylor 11 18 Billy Rouse 12 66 Tom Stewart 13 80 Steven Streight 14 2 William Hindman DQ'D 15 77 Todd Mcreary DQ'D
