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| Skies Cleared at Lake City Speedway | By Shirley Lynch
As one track after another cancelled due to rain, Lake City Speedway watched the downpour and hoped for a break in the weather. As the skies cleared and the track dried, the excitement was felt by all in the pits as cars were unloaded at last. Adding to the normal excitement of a racing night was a surprise announcement by Jimmy Parker that all classes will be racing September 20th & 21st for $1,000 to win for a 24 car field, a considerable increase from the original payout structure. Lake City Speedway will host the 1st Annual Florida State Championship for Late Model Sportsman on that date with a $10,000 to win, 100 lap race and a "B" Main Sportsman race for those not qualifying for the "BIG ONE". Modifieds, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks and Mini Stocks will round out the program with $1,000 to win, 40 lap features. Thursday, September 19th will be a practice night with qualifying and heats running on Friday, September 20th and the feature action in all classes starting at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 21st.
Street Stocks started off the night with two fast, caution free heat races, Dean Sands, Randy Smith and Randy Merwin were the top three in the 1st heat and Jason Garver, Shane Taylor and Debbie Shepard set the feature field as they completed the 2nd heat race.
With Dean Sands and Jason Garver on the front row for the feature start, it was anybody's guess who would make it to turn 1 first. Sands got the jump, with Randy Smith and Randy Merwin motoring past Garver to drop in behind Sands on the backstretch. Garver and Shane Taylor were next in line, with both cars seeming to experience some problems. The #14 of Brian Scott came from 7th to 3rd to finish 3rd. #44 of Dean Sands finished 1st with #41 Randy Smith taking 2nd and Brian Scott having a good night with a 3rd place finish.
Late Models ran a feature only with the #27 of Rance Phillips leading flag to flag to show everyone that racing is not always a young man's game. The #21 of Larry Perry, Jr. gave it his best shot, but didn't have quite enough for Phillips, finishing 2nd with #55 of Wayne Stevens taking 3rd.
The modified feature found the F1 driven by Kyle Owen in victory lane, as the #18 of Derek Crawford followed close behind, but could never make the pass for the first place spot. Jason Garver, driving the #90X finished 3rd.
The ministock theme for the night was "Where's the Stalnakers" as the #77 of Wayne Williams and the #27 of Scott Williams made their debut at Lake City Speedway, looking for some heads-up competition with the Stalnaker clan, who were absent from last night's race. #27 of Scott Williams took home the first place money with the #77 of Wayne Williams finishing 2nd and #1 of Joe Waldron finishing 3rd.
In the Pure Stock heats, Gene O'Steen took the 1st heat win with #0 of Nevin Gainey finishing 2nd and #1 of Jerry Fortner taking 3rd. The 2nd heat saw #97 of Joey Rolling come across the line 1st with the #7X of Wesley Keller following close and the #65 of Coleman Jandle III getting a 3rd place finish.
The Pure Stock Feature, once again, proved to be where all the action was as they finished their 25 lap feature on lap 17, as the 30 minute feature time limit was enforced. For the 2nd week in a row, all the pures made it through the first two corners without a pileup with the #97 of Joey Rolling experiencing problems but exciting the track before causing a caution. As the #97 dropped back in on the tail on lap two, it looked like a freight train up front with Gene O'Steen leading the pack and Nevin Gainey, Wesley Keller and Jerry Fortner moving on out. Coleman Jandle III and Trisha Taylor had their own race going until lap 7 when Taylor was charged with a caution and sent to the tail. By lap #8, Rolling had moved on up behind Coleman Jandle III, bringing the #04 of Jack Mosley with him. Lap #11 was the bad luck lap as Jandle III retired to the pits with what appeared to a broken axle, causing another caution as cars hit the oil from the #65 car and went sliding. On the restart, O'Steen got a good jump to maintain his lead and take the win for the Pure Stock Feature. #7X of Wesley Keller took 2nd, the #1 of Brian Scott held on for 3rd, the #97 of Rolling fought his way back to 4th and #04 of Jack Mosley finished 5th.
Next Saturday night Lake City Speedway will host the winged sprint cars, in addition to our regular classes, with heats starting at 6:30 and feature action cranking up at 7:30 p.m.
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