IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

August 9, 2004 FSCR Weatherford tops SSS, Rain Wins Saturday at SpeedWorld by Dave Westerman Lakeland area driver Bart Weatherford survived a tangle with then leader Patrick Thomas and a lapped machine and went on to take the victory Friday night as The Southern Sportsman Series raced for the first time at Orlando Speedworld. Saturday's program was lost to rain which began falling just after hot laps ended. Mulberry's Aaron Williamson set quick time over the 21 Southern Sportsman entries but it was local driver Patrick Thomas sitting on the pole for the 50 lap main event. Thomas, driving his new Brad May wrenched machine grabbed the early lead as the battle for second on back was intense. With many of the drivers new to the track, there was plenty of action including several wall-bangers and spins. The scariest moment came early in the race when the engine let go in Edward Allen's car going into turn three erupting in a ball of flame. The fire was quickly put out and Allen was unharmed. Bart Weatherford worked his way into second and was dogging leader Thomas when the two tangled while making an evasive maneuver to avoid a lapped car. Both continued and were placed back in front, however Thomas' car began to overheat and he pulled off the track just after the restart with Weatherford assuming the lead. All eyes however had been on Steve O'Lone who had now worked his way up to second after starting the race on the last row just ahead of the father/son combo of David and Aaron Williamson. With just a few laps remaining, O'lone's car began to smoke and he was black flagged during a late race caution, the victim of a leaking transmission seal. Weatherford held on the remaining laps to take the win followed by David Williamson, Aaron Williamson and Travis Roland. Ray Cuzzone came back from several problems, including going to the pits to change a flat tire, to checker fifth. Scott Holly, Dustin Breeden, Ron Whaley (doing a great job in a Speedworld legal Super Stock), John Bennett, and Rick McMehan rounded out the top ten. Point leader Chad Ashley out-ran a great field of Mini Stocks to score his sixth feature race triumph of the year. Ashley held off a late challenge from last week's winner Burt Morse with R.J. Arnone coming home third followed by David Castello. Randy Blakeslee had a great run for fifth. Mini Stock heats were won by Arnone and Josh Hermann. John Castro grabbed the lead early then held off all challenges from point leader Ted Head to grab his third Super Stock feature win of the year in his Ron Norris Pontiac-Buick-GMC/Mims Auto Salvage Pontiac Grand Prix. Head claimed second spot and also won the heat race. Jason Foster came home third ahead of Dave "White Fire" Wright and Bob Beiler. Mark Emberson won the heat then had an impressive run to notch his third win of the year over a short field of Modifieds. With many competitors readying for the Penske Pro Shocks Modified Tour race the following night in Lakeland, only six cars took the green and Emberson was the class of the field out-running point leader Ricky Wood and George Murphy to the stripe. Chris Gillespie, Justin Reynolds and Hoot Flynn completed the field. The cars that showed up at Speedworld were the smart ones as the Lakeland event was rained out for the second time. Richie Laszlo continued his domination of the Strictly Stock class by winning his 14th consecutive feature event. William Hindman gave a good fight but had to settle for second over Bob Cherry, Weebis Steinberg, and Adam Soukup. With a great field of cars in the pit area, including 23 Mod Lite cars set to compete in the Wayne DeClerck Memorial, rain set in after hot laps postponing Saturday racing activities. The DeClerck race will be rescheduled for a later date. RESULTS - ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - 8/6/04: SOUTHERN SPORTSMAN SERIES (50 Laps): 1) Bart Weatherford #1 2) David Williamson #12 3) Aaron Williamson #13 4) Travis Roland #07 5) Ray Cuzzone #61 6) Scott Holly #1X 7) Dustin Breeden #7 8) Ron Whaley #2X 9) John Bennett #721 10) Rick McMehan #12X 11) Jamie Kennedy #99 12) Scott Ring #14 13) Steve O'Lone #20 14) Patrick Thomas #25 15) Ed Kidd #6 16) Bob Hart #2H 17) Westley Bass #63 18) Edward Allen #23 19) R.J. Williams, Jr. #16 20) Big John Cannon #C88 DNS Ted Head #17 MODIFIEDS (15 Laps): 1) Mark Emberson #30 2) Ricky Wood #81 3) George Murphy #40 4) Chris Gillespie #20 5) Justin Reynolds #7 6) Hoot Flynn #57 MINI STOCKS (15 Laps): 1) Chad Ashley #87 2) Burt Morse #38 3) R.J. Arnone #30 4) David Castello #2 5) Randy Blakeslee #77 6) Dick Laszlo #07 7) John Cook #24 8) Amanda Tonchuk #18 9) Rick Gamache #61 10) Steven Simpson #007 11) Josh Hermann #98 12) Dick Owens #4 DNS Sean Bass #28 SUPER STOCKS (15 Laps): 1) John Castro #5 2) Ted Head #92 3) Jason Foster #49 4) Dave Wright #65 5) Bob Beiler #44 6) Bob Starr #05 7) Corey Freed #28 8) Brandon Evans #7 9) Robert Ward #25 10) Bill Loomis #22 11) Roger Benton #14 DNS Donald Springer #118 STRICTLY STOCKS (12 Laps): 1) Richie Laszlo #07 2) William Hindman #89 3) Bob Cherry #97 4) Weebis Steinberg #54 5) Adam Soukup #14 Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!