Walters Dominates in AACS Win Gill, Best Claim Championships
By Rick Anges
Bradenton, Fl. The weather was perfect for a great Saturday night of racing at the high banks of DeSoto Super Speedway for some great racing action.
Jimmy Cope came out in a brand new racecar built for Open Wheel driver Andy Dyndal. The car looked strong in early practices but in the last scuff session Cope tangled with Jeff Scofield. Scofield was able to continue but Copes damage was to much to repair and he was unable to make the call for the main event.
Point's leader "Big Daddy" Dave Pletcher also brought out a new racecar. A bright red #75 replaced the familiar black ride and the paint scheme seemed to work as Pletcher scorched the speedway with a 14.33 second run to take the top spot.
Four rows were inverted for the start of the race and when the green flag dropped it was Scot Walters jumping out to the lead. Behind him there was plenty of slicing and dicing going on.
The men chasing Pletcher in the point's race didn't fare well. Jeff Sloan second in the points was caught up in a wreck ending his night. "Smokin" Joe Boyd also had his problems, under a caution he had to stop on the backstretch as a fire under hood ended his run. But the race tonight belonged to Scot Walters as he held on to take his second 125 lap AACS race, second went to Jeff Scofield, third was Pletcher, fourth went to Chris Fontaine and rounding out the top five was Steve Dorer.
Mod-Mini Clay Joseph led Steve Gill by just 8 points going into the evenings feature event. Joseph needed to just finish fourth to wake to be crowned champion of the class. But the strong running 44 machine succumbed to his first engine problems of the long season and while running in the fourth position a puff of smoke ended his bid for the crown.
Steve Gill powered his way to the front of the 21-car pack and cruised on to the win and the championship. Robbie Storer took second, third went to Brent Yoder, fourth was Dean Butrum and fifth was Rex Hollinger.
Pure Stocks Jimmy Best has been running DeSoto for many years in several different classes but a championship has always eluded the driver. Tonite would be different.
Dale Shelton power slid the big 51 machine to the feature win but with his second place finish Jimmy Best was crowned the champ of the Pure Stock class for 2003. Third went to Rob Taylor, fourth across the stripe was Bobby Frisch and fifth Duane Campbell.
Mini-Stocks
1.Robbie Storer 2.Dean Butrum 3.John Wilson 4.Jon Bailey 5.Todd Freed Jr.
DeSoto Trucks
1.David Pollen Jr. 2.B.J.Gill 3.Paul E.Grynrwicz 4.Shane Russ 5.Bill Manfull
Street Stocks
1.Casey Hall 2.Greg Krom 3.William Slack 4.Dan Hall 5.Brian Tetters
