IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 18, 2005 FSCR Results from the INEX Legends Winternationals at SpeedWorld by Dave Westerman It was yet another awesome night of racing as Orlando Speedworld hosted night number three of the 2005 INEX 600 Racing Winternationals Thursday. Again the Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends Pro Division was spectacular producing the best finish of the week. Pro division heats were taken by Michael VanWingerden, Craig Goess, Craig Haack, and Jason Reisman. Haack removed the engine from his Thunder Roadster and put it in his Legends Car after his original powerplant blew up during the last lap of Wednesday night's feature and the car seemed faster. C.E. Falk took the B-Main win. The 25 lap feature would again be a real barn burner and it got off to a rough start for third heat winner Haack. Wednesday night feature winner Josh Warning zoomed to the early lead but lap two found Haack and Doug Stevens getting together in turn one with Haack hitting the wall a ton. A.J. Fulgenzi then ran into the mess. All three drivers were just fine but the cars kept the wreckers busy for a few minutes. Waring led on the restart but was passed for the top spot on lap seven by Jason Reisman. One lap later, Derek Shumaker and Patrick Conrad tangled in turn one with Conrad taking a solid shot into the concrete. Conrad was OK but showed his displeasure with Shumaker who he said "Harvick'd" him. Conrad, the 2004 Florida State Legends Champion, was driving Tommy Jordan's back-up car in the race. Reisman continued to set the pace on the restart but Greenville, NC driver Craig Goess was on the charge and took the top spot on lap 14. Reisman kept the pressure on and the two North Carolinians tangled while fighting for the top spot on lap 18. Both were sent to the rear of the field as Waring inherited the lead. It looked like Waring, who hails from Concord, NC, was going to win his second straight Pro main event but Huntersville NC's Michael VanWingerden had other ideas. VanWingerden dove under warning going into turn three on the final lap. The two rubbed on each other and crossed the line in a virtual dead heat. However, the scorers (who are situated right on the start/finish line) and flagman Butch Carr, Jr. were in agreement that VanWingerden was ahead by scant inches. VanWingerden took the win but never made it to victory lane as his car suffered a collapsed suspension from the banging with Warning and came to a halt at the pit entrance. Warning was second and his car also suffered some minor damage from the race to the checker. Keeton Hanks had another strong run as the Kentucky driver came home third ahead of Loveland, OH driver Danny Jackson and Texas driver Shumaker. Jason Miller, Brent Seeley, Ben Stacill (up from dead last at the start) C.E. Falk and Nick Pistone rounded out the top ten. It was again the Cotton Spry/Clay Hair show in the Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends Masters feature event which was run off with only four cautions for minor incidents. Hair started from the pole and the Mt. Pleasant, NC driver led the first five rounds before Spry took over for two laps. Following a lap seven caution, Hair forged back out front but Spry had the stronger car on this night and the veteran from Salisbury, NC took a lead he wouldn't relinquish on lap 12. Hair would settle for second over a fast-closing Brian Weimer from Cumming, GA. Fourth went to Texas native Gene Conley (who came from 12th on the starting grid) while fifth was Hartsville, SC's Tommy Jordan. Completing the top ten were Tom VanWingerden, Cy Harvey, Bob Merino, Jesse Carter, and Larry Friddle. Heats for the Masters division were won by Spry, Carter and Weimer. It looked like the entire race program for the evening would be completed by around 11:30PM... that was until the Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends Semi-Pro division took to the track for what would end up looking like a race from one of Speedworld's notorious "Crash-A-Ramas." Semi-Pro heat races would be won by Chris Buescher, Jordan Anderson, Travis Pennington, and Brandon Thomson who was driving one of Nick Pistone's cars after his own car was badly damaged in a Wednesday night crash. Ryan Meldrum of Livonia, MI captured the Semi-Pro B-Main. The 25 lap feature would be crazy and downright scary at times as Jake Crum set the early pace only to see caution on lap two for a tangle involving Meldrum, Darin Coker and James Fowlkes. On the restart, Kyle Hall tagged the turn one wall and once again the wall won with Hall's car badly torn up but the Maryland driver none the worse for wear. Travis Pennington stormed to the lead on the restart but it was Jordan Anderson taking over on lap five just before Matt Bowers spun to bring out the caution. From this point things would get ugly as their were three separate tangles on the restart to keep the caution out. On the ensuing restart, the engine in Brandon Thomson's car exploded in flames, oiling the track down in the process. In the ensuing melee, D.J. Vanderley and Chris Buescher crashed hard right in front of the flagstand. Buesacher had the wind knocked out of him but he recovered quickly while Vanderley was disappointed but otherwise in A-OK shape. Both cars were a mess though. Once the track was cleaned up, drivers continued to report oil on the track which was eventually traced to the car of Wednesday night winner Matt DiBenedetto who headed to the pits while running fifth. Once the race was restarted, Pennington was on a mission as he zipped past Anderson for the lead. Anderson then spun on lap eleven while running second to bring out the final caution flag of the race. Georgia driver Pennington was a rocket from that point and took the win in front of Statesville SC's Crum and Florida local Kory Abbott, who scored his third straight top five finish. Brennan Poole from The Woodlands, TX was fourth while fifth went to Crossville TN's Chris Wilson. Rounding out the top ten were Stuart Dutton, Alec Carll, Bowers, Coker and Wesley McLeod. For the second straight night, Concord, NC youngster Darrell Wallace, Jr. topped the Bandelero Bandits over Gerald White, Jr. Sawyer Effertz, Roger Benton, Jr., Donovan Ponder and Tyler Neubaum. Mitchell Coble from Mt. Airy, NC made his first appearance a winning one as he took his day-glow Orange car to a win in the Bandelero Young Gun feature over Ryan Rust and Joey Bales. Kara Clarke of Palm Beach Gardens, FL captured her third straight Bandelero Outlaw win over Dwight Dunlap, Jack Effertz, Marcus Limehouse and Marcel Rust. In other action, Kyle Beattie got past Michael VanWingerden late in the going to take the Thunder Roadster feature win while MMRA qualifying races were taken by Chris Wilson (Baby Grand), Chad Willis (Open Mini-Cup) and Jacob France (Future Stars Mini-Cup). Action continues Friday night at 7:30PM with the Raceceiver RE/MAX Legends, Bandeleros, Thunder Roasters, Baby Grands and MMRA Mini-Cup cars. Adult admission to the grandstands is just $10. RACECEIVER RE/MAX LEGENDS CAR RESULTS FOR 2-17-05: PRO DIVISION (25 Laps): 1) Michael VanWingerden #23 2) Josh Warning #13 3) Keeton Hanks #90 4) Danny Jackson #5J 5) Derek Shumaker #8 6) Jason Miller #94 7) Brent Seeley #5 8) Ben Stancill #24 9) C.E. Falk #40 10) Nick Pistone #99 11) Daniel Sossorman #41 12) Chris Bakaj #32 13) Chris Cable #34 14) James Robertson #42 15) Kayne Hickman #H3 16) Ronnie Dunstan #7R 17) Craig Goess #81 18) Jason Reisman #25 19) Beau Slocumb #18 20) Scott Knox #86 21) Jeremy Colangelo #05 22) Patrick Conrad #1SC 23) Doug Stevens #1 24) A.J. Fulgenzi #33 25) Craig Haack #8Ball DNS Chris Rogers #66 Did Not Qualify: Jason Tibwell, Kyle Hendershott, Hoyt Richter, Jeffery Paul, Frank Polimeda, Ricky Losh, Adam McCraw, Kenny Forth, Jason Rochelle, Ricky Gonzales. MASTERS DIVISION (25 Laps): 1) Cotton Spry #16NC 2) Clay Hair #29 3) Brian Weimer #40 4) Gene Conley #27 5) Tommy Jordan #1SC 6) Tom VanWingerden #1 7) Cy Harvey #37NS 8) Bob Merino #42 9) Jesse Carter #20C 10) Larry Friddle #8 11) James Rodriguez #19 12) Mitch Verhaagh #9F 13) Van Sykes #82 14) Ronnie Poland, Sr. #39 15) Jim Myrand, Jr. #15 16) Richard Losh #00 17) Mike Verhaagh #7 18) Frank Johnston #20 19) Carlos Moore #9 20) Guy Austin #01 21) Allen Rogers #37 22) Bob Wilson #27W 23) C.D. Candler #51 DNS Tom Clarke #21 DNS Mark Sullivan #22 SEMI-PRO DIVISION (25 Laps): 1) Travis Pennington #01 2) Jake Crum #1C 3) Kory Abbott #5 4) Brennan Poole #17P 5) Chris Wilson #10 6) Stuart Dutton #32 7) Alec Carll #31 8) Matt Bowers #84 9) Darin Coker #00 10) Wesley McLeod #22 11) Keith Breasbois #41 12) Scott McLean #61 13) Paddy Rodenbeck #29 14) Jordan Anderson #19 15) Michael Bilderback #2X 16) Beau Browning #89 17) Ryan Meldrum #17M 18) Chris Buescher #67 19) Brandon Thomson #99 20) Matt DiBenedetto #44 21) Steven Meador #5M 22) D.J. Vanderley #2 23) Jay Cloud #26 24) Kyle Hall #69 25) James Fowlkes #86 26) John Memmer #24 Did Not Qualify: Zane Hedrick, Patrick McVay, Mark Bakaj, Brian Murphy, Trey Collins, Brandon Temple, Mark Webb, Jr., Todd Campbell, Malcolm Campbell, Jr. Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!