IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

May 3, 2004 FSCR Fitzgerald and Durden Big Winners at Putnam County by Jon Harney SATSUMA, FL (5/01) – Polesitter Robby Barris rocketed to the initial lead over a competitive field of Modifieds at Putnam County Speedway. A series of cautions slowed action down in the early stages of the event including a spin by Jason Fitzgerald which relegated him to the back of a long line of cars. Barris successfully handled the multiple restarts while Fitzgerald picked his way back to contention. With nine laps remaining Barrisand Fitzgerald were running one-two in the standings and were coming off a restart, which was to set the stage for an exciting no-holds-barred duel. Unfortunately this never materialized as Barris lost the handle on his machine while negotiating the second turn and spun, handing the lead to Fitzgerald. After that it was smooth sailing for the #22 as he sailed off with the win. Barris made a valiant run in the remaining laps and managed to fight his way back to second. Jason Lowe was third, Kenny Blair was fourth, and Tiny Greene was fifth. Bruce Durden took the point in the main event for the Sprint cars and led every circuit en route to victory. Red Stauffer challenged Durden until he spun near the halfway point. Terry Witherspoon gathered up steam in the closing laps and gave Durden all he could handle until spinning in the final turn of the final lap. Stauffer recovered from his earlier mishap to place second over Neil Larose, Witherspoon, and Mike Schroeder. The speedway plans to race the Sprint cars every other weekend with their next night scheduled to be May 15. A healthy field of Pure Stocks took the green flag and entertained the fans with 20 laps of paint swapping excitement. After several weeks of driving a friend’s car to keep pace in points, Mike Tripp was back in his familiar #61 and it was like old times. He won his heat, sat on the pole, and led all 20 laps for the win. Kenny Durham outlasted the rest of the field for second over L. J. Klemons, Joe Watson, and Rick Ferraro. Kenny Hall led ‘em all when he blew away polesitter Jared Cooper on the initial green and ran off with his fifth win this season in Street Stocks. Hall and Cooper led Marc Kinley, Mitch Wise, and Glenn Henry to the tape in that order. Keith Briggs took his first feature win in Mini Late Models in a race that was punctuated by a red flag resulting from the car of James McCague barrel-rolling down the front stretch. McCague’s car was battered; fortunately, McCague himself was not so much as bruised. The finishing order was Briggs, Troy Kruse, Justin Tipton, Casey Murphy, and Jon Cook. Limited Late Models saw the #03 of Bo Allen finish first at the stripe, but saw the win at the pay window awarded to the #17 of Richard Ferry as Allen had brought his Super Late Model to the speedway more in the spirit of practice and was ineligible for the win. The final order at the pay window was Ferry, John Reiter, Bug Rose, and Tony Lewis Jr. This Saturday will headline the Super Late Models as they make their second return to the track. All five weekly divisions will also return and racing action begins at 7 PM. Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!