By Rick Anges Bradenton, Fl. Twenty-seven of the top names in super late model racing lined up for qualifying under a bright sun lit sky. Joe Boyd, the current points leader, came out on top of the field taking the fast time by one hundredth of a second over Wayne Anderson with a 14.92 sec. Run over Anderson's 14.93.
Anderson, former NASCAR Slim Jim Late Model champion and son of the "King of Florida Short Tracks" Dicky Anderson has not raced at DeSoto in several years and was looking forward to the nights 125 lap feature. Along with Anderson "Mr. Excitement" Jimmy Cope also made his way back to the High Banks for the first time this year. Cope finished second in the championship run last year in the AACS.
When the die was rolled the max of six rows was inverted. This put the fast cars at mid pack as the 27 cars lined up on the grid. When the green flag came out Richard Till jumped out to the lead and looked really good as he lead the field.
While Till was out front the cars who qualified fastest were making their way through the field. It wasn’t long before the pack caught up with lapped traffic. Dave Pletcher and Joe Boyd were steadily making their way towards the front when the two were caught up in a wreck taking both cars up to the turn three wall. Pletcher was able to pull away but point's leader Boyd suffered a broken suspension and was forced to the pits for repairs. Boyd ended up 23rd on the field.
It was the crafty Anderson who made his to the front of the pack and once he took the top spot he never looked back and cruised to his first win in the AACS. Jimmy Cope showed he hadn't lost a step and came across the stripe in second, third was Darryl Shelnut, fourth went to Johnny Jackson and rounding out the top five was Richard Till.
In the winners circle Anderson said " Although we haven't raced here in a few years we have tested with some of the limited cars down here, it's great to be back I've always liked racing here." Next year Anderson has a deal to run several Busch races.
Hard Charger of the race went to Scot Walters who advanced 12 places to finish in the sixth position.
Open Wheel Modifieds
1.Wayne Jefferson 2.John Shields 3.Andy Dyndal 4.Johnny Allen 5.Mark Chapman
Sportsman
1.Mark Peterson 2.James Brenner 3.Buddy Brown 4.Jimmy Carter 5.James Casady
