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| Ronnie Sanders Big Winner At Five Flags Speedway | Pensacola, Fla - Veteran late model driver, Ronnie
Sanders of Fayetteville, Georgia, ha to deal with rain,
red flags, and a formidable field, before pulling off
a victory in the Snowball Challenge Series 150 Saturday
night at Five Flags Speedway.
The 1977 Snowball Derby winner, who looked like he was
going to repeat in last year's classic December event
before a late race skirmish took him out of contention,
ran with the lead pack all night and led twice,
passing Donald Long 19 laps from the finish to win by
eight car lengths. Rain that interrupted qualifying,
along with two red flags during the 150-lap late model
race, set the stage for a 12:15 a.m. finish.
A mishap on lap 9 put Dennis Reno, Jr., Nathan Davis
and Jesse Lucio out of the race and forced former track
champion Junior Niedecken to restart with a damaged car
at the rear of the field after a lengthy red flag
period.
Niedecken was able to charge through the 23-car field
to second place before a caution on lap 90 sent the
lead pack of cars to the pits for fresh tires. Long
emerged with the lead over Sanders, Charlie Bradberry,
Niedecken, Scott Carlson and Justin Drawdy.
Sanders got a good run off turn two on the inside of
Long on lap 131 andopned up a ten car length lead before
another red flag was displayed for Jimmy Hartley who
crashed into the wall ten laps later. After the final
restart on lap 146, Niedecken, who had fallen back as
far as sixth place, passed Carlson on the next circuit
and made Bradberry his victim with less than two laps
to go to cross the finish third.
Freddie Query set the fawt time in qualifying with a
16.998 lap and led the first 37 laps before mechanical
problems brought his race to an early end.
SNOWBALL CHALLENGE SERIES 150 (LATE MODELS)
1. Ronnie Sanders
2. Donald Long
3. Junior Niedecken
4. Charlie Bradberry
5. Justin Drawdy
6. Scott Carlson
7. Tim Bryant
8. Keith Thorpe
9. Ricky Brooks
10. Ron McDonald
11. Lorenzo Benton
12. Todd Jones
13. Jimmy Hartley
14. Jerry Bohlman
15. Dale Little
16. Freddie Query
17. Doug Thorpe
18. Wes Loyd
19. Stanley Smith
20. John Thompson
21. Dennis Reno, Jr.
22. Jesse Lucio
23. Nathan David
DNS - Casey Green
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