IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

May 10, 2004 FSCR Robby Survives Em-Barris-ing Moment To Win At Putnam By Jon Harney SATSUMA, FL (5/08) - Robby Barris continued his mercurial 2004 campaign at Putnam County Speedway by besting polesitter Joey Meyers on the initial start and running off with the early advantage in Modifieds. The hot run quickly cooled on the eighth circuit when Barris misstepped during his exit from turn four and handed the lead back to Myers while relegating himself to third. As the race wore on and other competitors faltered, Barris was a man on a mission and methodically picked his way back to the front and reassumed control on lap fifteen. When Meyers wrecked on the front straight a few laps later, Barris’ main rival this evening was eliminated which enabled him to win his third feature of the year by a sizable margin over runner-up Kenny Blair. Third was Jason Lowe, fourth was Tiny Greene, and fifth was Mark Wortman. Pure Stocks submitted another fan-pleasing, action-packed performance as nineteen Type-A personalities started the event. Jason Pipkins and Mike Tripp made a two car breakaway from a brawling pack of challengers. Pipkins held his own through the first half of the race, then Tripp found an opening and took command as the duo survived several close calls in traffic. Pipkins’ car wore down in the final laps and challenges from Rick Ferraro and L. J. Klemons forced him to stop concentrating on the lead, which allowed Tripp to march relatively uncontested towards victory. Pipkins outlasted Ferraro for second with Klemons and Joe Watson following in that order. Super Late Models brought a good field to Putnam this evening, but a few rounds of cannibalism quickly thinned their ranks. Spins, hard hits, and parting shots allowed for less than one third of the starting lineup to finish the event. Shan Smith was doing a fine job staying out of trouble all night as he grabbed the initial lead and led 19 laps of the feature. Unfortunately, the race was 20 laps and Smith broke on the final turn of the final lap, which caused him to spin and hand the win to Bo Allen. Polesitter Frank Erskine, Jr. took away second, Billy Costello finished third in his brand new Limited Late Model, Smith was fourth, and Al Larson was fifth. Richard Adams held the Street Stock pole, but couldn’t hold off Mark Kinley for the lead when the first green flew. Kinley proved to be more than the equal of multiple feature winner Kenny Hall for the first six laps and was even able to open a growing margin until the seventh lap when a caution brought the two together on a restart. Kinley held off Hall on the restart, but when Hall managed to pull alongside of Kinley coming off the fourth corner in a challenge for the lead, Kinley couldn’t hang on and looped unassisted down the front stretch. From that moment on Hall was never seriously challenged again and captured his fifth win in six tries. The battle for second was highly eventful, however, as Mitch Wise, Glenn Henry, Richard Adams, and Bobby Gigon all had a go at each other. When the dust settled the finishing order was Hall, Gigon, Wise, Adams, and Henry. Troy Kruse won another Mini Late Model feature for the Dodge fans. He battled James McCague from the start of the race and got the better of the exchange on lap eight. McCague never let Kruse get far yet never mustered a serious threat. Following Kruse and McCague was Jon Cook, Robert Cook, and Jim Bethel. Winged Sprint cars race this Saturday night at Putnam County Speedway. The Limited Late Models, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, Mini Late Models, and Modifieds will support them. Racing 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!