IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

March 14, 2004 FSCR Conrad repeats in RE/MAX Legends, Booth Tops Classics at SpeedWorld by Dave Westereman Clermont's Patrick Conrad picked up where he left off last week and Deland's Ben Booth picked up where he left off last year as more great racing took place Saturday night at Orlando Speedworld. For the second week in a row, Conrad out-paced Sam Watts to the checkered flag to take the RE/MAX Legends win. Conrad and Watts took heat race wins and started from the front row. The only other driver who could really keep pace with the lead duo was Kevin Abbott, but the elder of the Abbott brothers would have to settle for third spot with Kory Abbott some distance back in fourth. Jeremy Colangelo drove his RE/MAX sponsored car to fifth spot. Unlike last week, this week's 25 lap Legends feature was pretty tame, slowed only by one caution for a three car tangle at the flag stand on lap ten involving Bobby Byars, Darin "T-Bone" Coker and Jeff Deggeller. There was no serious damage and all three drivers were able to continue. 2003 Dan Webster for U.S. Senate Classic Auto Racing Series Champion Ben Booth got his 2004 campaign off to a big start by pacing all 25 laps of the feature for the V-8 powered "oldies but goodies." Booth won the opening heat and earned the pole for the feature with Ed Yates starting from the outside pole after winning heat two. Booth grabbed the lead early and although Yates gave him a couple of good shots after caution flags, Booth was able to pull away after a couple of green flag laps and he was able to hold on following a green-white-checker finish set up by a caution caused by fluid from new driver Tim Powers' car. Yates held on for second despite late race pressure from Jim Rahman. Young Corey Freed nabbed the fourth spot and was the top finishing Rookie of the year candidate. Joey Strehle checkered fifth. There was one hard crash involving hard luck Bill Posey and Beaver Daughtrey. Both drivers were OK but Daughtrey was complaining of a sore foot. Bandelero racing on this night couldn't have been scripted any better by a Hollywood screenwriter. Early in practice, there was a rather strange and ugly looking crash involving Young Gun Scott Jarrett and Bandit driver Gerald White, Jr. Several teams went to work on Jarrett's car, replacing almost everything but the driver while White's crew was also forced to make major repairs. After finishing fourth in the Young Gun heat, Scott Jarrett was on a mission, taking the lead early from Derrick Wood and holding off Brandon Thomson for a well-deserved win. Chelsea Schillig had a great run for third just ahead of Wood as the top four ran nose to tail the entire 15 lap distance. Scott's brother Matthew Jarrett rounded out the top five while his grandfather, Dave Jarrett topped Evan Russell for the Outlaw win as they ran along with the Young Guns. Meanwhile, repairing the damage on Gerald White, Jr.'s car apparently made it faster as he went on to win the Bandits feature ending the big win streak of Chad Akins. Akins' team changed engines after the heat, but he was still unable to match the pace being set by White and Akins settled for second on this night. Ryan Rust, Blake Eden and Donovan Ponder rounded out the top five. Greg Bruce drove his Ford Escort to both the heat and feature win in the new Hurricane class toping Bobby Crites and "Raybo." RESULTS - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - 3/13/04: RE/MAX LEGENDS (25 Laps): 1) Patrick Conrad #2 2) Sam Watts #73 3) Kevin Abbott #98 4) Kory Abbott #5 5) Jeremy Colangelo #05 6) Wesley McLeod #22 7) Jeff Deggeller #91 8) Derrick Wood #33 9) Darin Coker #00 10) Jarred Cawley #31 11) Bobby Byars #22A 12) Bob Wilson #27W 13) Kyle Dombek #20 CLASSIC CARS (25 Laps): 1) Ben Booth #12 2) Ed Yates #74 3) Jim Rahman #5 4) Corey Freed #44 5) Joey Strehle #X11 6) Norm Agostinho #0 7) Wayne Ashton #78 8) Daryl Grief #1 9) Bud Spencer #7 10) Eddie Ward #45 11) Steven Cole Smith #2 12) Tim Ousley #88 13) Randy Grief #87 14) Tim Powers #59 15) Bill Posey #00 16) Beaver Daughtrey #17 17) George Hall III #9 18) George Hall, Jr. #32 BANDELERO BANDITS (15 Laps): 1) Gerald White, Jr. #38 2) Chad Akins #60 3) Ryan Rust #18 4) Blake Eden #17 5) Donovan Ponder #8 BANDELERO YOUNG GUNS (15 Laps): 1) Scott Jarrett #97 2) Brandon Thomson #54 3) Chelsea Schillig #75 4) Derrick Wood #33 5) Matthew Jarrett #9 OUTLAW BANDOLERO 1) Dave Jarrett #9 2) Evan Russell #37 HURRICANES (12 Laps): 1) Greg Bruce #4U 2) Bobby Crites #B1 3) Raybo #1 Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!