IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

September 21, 2004 FSCR Mark Nelson on Top of Corteco/GulfCoast Modifieds at Sunshine Speedway Rick Warren Mark Nelson and Frank Hill in the Winners Circle. What a great night of racing at Sunshine Speedway ! Mother Nature finally smiled on the racers and gave us nice weather for a race. 29 Racers took advantage of the day and showed up looking to take the GulfCoast Modified Top prize. After all the preliminaries were over, Robby McAulliffe won the cash from Southern Style Racing Engines for Fastest Qualifying Time. Herman Brame took top Honors in the B Main qualifying race. The inversion draw was done. The Field was set with 27 of the best Open Wheel Modifieds in the State ready to do battle on the tight confines of Historic Sunshine Speedway. The field lined up with Mark Nelson and Billy the Kid Mowery on the front row. Row Two was filled by Dwayne Dempsey and Mike Hinegardner. Wayne Jefferson, James Glover, Robby McAulliffe, John Anderson, Teddy Nelson, and Butch Bassett rounded out the top ten. As the field completed the warm up laps, the fans were as anxious as the drivers to get the race underway. The green flag waved, and Mark Nelson and Mowery raced into turn 1 side by side, Nelson holding his line, and Mowery trying hard to make the outside groove work. Nelson set a blistering pace, and Mowery started dropping back, trying to get to the bottom of the track. Lap 3 saw Mowery and James Glover make contact, with Mowery spinning off turn 4. Caution was displayed for track clean up.he race restarted with Glover on the rear of the field. Nelson fired, with Dempsey, Jefferson, McAulliffe, Teddy Nelson, Hinegardner, Robert Crisp and John Anderson in heated pursuit. Lap 4 had Bassett Spinning in turn 4, and Brame clipping the spinning car and loosing a tire. Brame dashed to the pit area and was able to rejoin the field. At the Restart, Mowery broke something in the car and spun in turn 4, pulling into the infield, done for the evening. One more restart, and the race stayed green until lap 19, when the lead pack encountered lapped traffic while running side by side, exiting turn 4. The laws of physics took over at that point, specifically the one that states two similar objects can not occupy the same space. The resulting melee had Dempsey, Teddy Nelson, Hinegardner and Jefferson all involved, with Dempsey and Nelson both done for the night. Mark Nelson continued to keep a strangle hold on the lead, and was running a perfect race. His Car seemed to get better as the race wore on. It looked like his crew had done their homework, and hit the chassis setup just right, as Nelson was consistently quicker off the corner than all who were chasing him. Lap 26 action saw McAulliffe and Jefferson get together as Jefferson had a tire going down and was getting looser every lap. Jefferson went to the pit area, his crew did a quick tire change, and Jefferson returned to the race without losing any laps. The Caution flag waved again on lap 39 as several cars got together in turn 4, with 4 cars spinning. The race restarted with Nelson still leading the way, with McAulliffe, Hinegardner, and John Anderson all chasing. Nelson went on to the win, with a strong dash to the finish, followed by McAulliffe and Hinegardner. Lee Collins, who finished sixth in the race, now has a 20 point lead over Mike Hinegardner in the run for the money in the Corteco / GulfCoast Modified point fund. Hinegardner, in second place, holds a 75 point lead over Chris Escott in the Rookie of the Year standings. Final Results. Corteco Gaskets / GulfCoast Modifieds Race #5 Sunshine Action Speedway 09-18-04 1. #11 Mark Nelson 2. #56 Robby McAulliffe 3. # 1h Mike Hinegardner 4. # 1x John Anderson 5. #51 Tommy Bower 6. #89 Lee Collins 7. #23 Butch Bassett 8. # 5x Roy Hosmer 9. # 1j Wayne Jefferson 10. # 8 Chris Escott 11. #09 Steve Harbuck 12. #82 Ralph Bowman 13. #12 Dennis Cantara 14. #55 Herman Brame 15. # 9 Danny Partelo 16. #17 Jimmy Wagner 17 # 4 Bobby Baldwin 18 #29 J.R. Wade 19 #20 Robert Crisp 20. #22 John Godwin 21. # 2b Kevin Brickley 22. #88 Chris Robbins 23. # 6 Dwayne Dempsey 24. #34 Teddy Nelson 25. # 0 Mason Love 26. #55m Billy Mowery 27. # 5 James Glover Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!