IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

April 4, 2005 FSCR A Gimmler of Hope in Friedley Memorial By CLAUDE LEWIS The Dick Friedley Memorial is a special race to the winged sprint drivers of the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association. Friedley was a tireless publicist and photographer for the TBARA. He was a friend to all the drivers, dedicating the final years of his life to his second family. Gary Gimmler grabbed his first TBARA win of the season Saturday night at Charlotte County Speedway, but he was even more happy that it came in the 30-lap Friedley Memorial. This was the third annual Friedley Memorial and the first at Charlotte County Speedway, one of Friedleys favorite tracks. I think Dick was riding with me tonight, said Gimmler, a 42-year-old out of Palm Beach Gardens. He was always for the underdog. Gimmler entered the race sixth in TBARA points this season. The race favorite had to be David Steele, who had won five of the seven TBARA events so far this season. Starting near the rear of the 19-car field, it was tough for Steele to get his No. 91 machine to the front. He picked his way through the crowd, but could only get to sixth before the checkered flag fell. Wendy Mathis started point in her No. 80 car. She led the first few laps before coming up on the slow No. 59 car of Don Statter. Mathis got bottled up behind the 59, allowing Gimmler to pass both cars and into first. Gimmler kept his No. 29 car there the rest of the race. Bo Hartley applied pressure in the No. 3X, but had to settle for second. Troy DeCaire was third in the 118 car. Keith and Shane Butler were fourth and fifth. Mathis ended up 11th. Gimmlers brother, Mark, was 12th. Scott Adema, who won the Star Wars Winged vs. Non-Winged Challenge a few weeks back at CCS, was 13th. The TBARA Sprints are back at CCS June 11. In the Action Glass Super Stocks, Danny Caylor returned to action and put an end to Tommy Huffstutlers fun. Caylor, the fastest man in Super Stocks the past few seasons, ran away from the pack in his No. 7 car. Huffstutler was second in the 55 car and Eric Smith was third. The Sportsman 50-lapper was plagued by numerous wrecks and yellows. Eleven cars started. By lap 17, there were only six on the track. By the time the mess was sorted out, Kay Jackson emerged as a runaway winner. Other survivors included second-place Dale Dean III and third-place Dan Atwell. Englewoods Chris Huntoon proved he can win behind the wheel of most any car, as he captured the 25-lap Road Warrior feature driving the No. 40 of Donald Justice. Shane Leonard stayed hot with a second. Jesse Gargus took third. In Thunder Trucks, Mike Bialecki of Fort Ogden made it five feature wins in a row in the No. 8 Chevy. He lapped everyone but second-place Wally Smith. In 4-Cylinder Adults, Randy Kile of Lehigh Acres grabbed his first career win. Points leader Peter Amelotte of Port Charlotte was second. Four-Cylinder Kids was won by Ray Lang. Outlaw Modified brought 17 cars to race at the Punta Gorda paved oval. Bob Campbell out-dueled Cliff Steinman in a battle of the No. 7 and 9 men in points. A distant third was Raymond Jones of Arcadia, who held off Doug Hopper and Mike Endee. This coming Saturday night will see a return of the Fastruck and Fastkids series to Charlotte County Speedway. There will also be the School Bus Figure 8s. The racing results from Charlotte County Speedway for April 2, 2005 are as follows: TBARA 1. 29 Gary Gimmler 2 2. 3 Bo Hartley 4 3. 118 Troy DeCaire 3 4. 19 Keith Butler 8 5. 18 Shane Butler 9 6. 91 Dave Steele 14 7. 29t unknown 2 8. 42x Sport Allen 13 9. 66 David Slawiak 15 10. 42 Paulie Milum 7 11. 80 Wendy Mathis 1 12. 51 Mark Gimmler 11 13. 2 Scott Adema 12 14. 6f JJ Dutton 16 15. 68 Dave Slawiak 6 16. 0 Dude Teate 17. 6x Joe Liguori 17 18. 6 Skeeter Faulconer 18 19. 59 Dan Statter Outlaw Modifieds 1. 10 Robert Campbell 5 2. 23 Cliff Steinmann 3 3. 41 Raymond “Superfrog” Jones 7 4. 15 Doug Hopper 8 5. 29 Michael Endee 1 6. 7 Philip Brigham 7. 90 Bobby Dayton 4 8. 12 Mike Bean 17 9. 11 Billy Campbell 9 10. 57 Myk Lauter 12 11. 27 Scot Findlay 13 12. 22 Ric Mills 2 13. 66 Harry Weiner 10 14. 78 Craig Sherar 14 15. 9 Ric Voisey 11 16. 3 Frank Hurst 15 17. 00 Roy Cambel 16 Sportsman 1. 91 Kay Jackson 11 2. 19 Dale Dean 10 3. 55 Dan Atwell 5 4. 98 Chuck Wolfe 5. 23 Butch Murray 2 6. 40 Joe Barbera 4 7. 51 Roger Smith 7 8. 67 James Dubose 1 9. 16 Guy Sheets 6 10. 83 John Hanuschik 3 11. 71 L.B. Skaggs 9 Super Stock 1. 7 Danny Caylor 1 2. 55 Tommy Huffstutler 5 3. 10 Eric Smith 4 4. 15 Charles Parsons 6 5. 12 Chris Grubb 2 6. 1 Tommy Hill 9 7. 0 Clete Trimmer 7 8. 21 Jeff Padilla 8 9. 29 Jessie Brown 12 10. 55m Conrad Molte 11 11. 711 Bill Sawyer 3 12. 16 John Leazenby 10 Road Warriors 1. 40 Chris Huntoon 1 2. 18 Shane Leonard 2 3. 1 Jesse Gargus 6 4. 8 Bob Waltz Jr. 8 5. 29 Rob Popkin 11 6. 22 Ann Marie Ricardi 3 7. 11 Robert Hendry 7 8. 31 Willard Hedden 9 9. 38 Dar Houghtaling 10 10. 97 Matt Cutler 5 DNS 2x unknown DNS 91 Ander Jackson Disqualified for Unsportsmanlike Conduct - 19 Brandon Anderson 4 cylinder 1. 8 Mike Bialecki 1 2. 6 Wally Smith 4 3. 56 Bob Charette 3 4. 22 Keith Clay 5 5. 99 Robert Benning 6 6. 08 Robert Dupont 2 1. 21 Randy Kile 2. 02 Peter Amelotte 3. 6 Shawn Bates 4. 17 Kyle Eash 5. 151 Steve Schroeder 6. 3 Sean Steen 7. 12 Timmy Hendry 8. 87 Mike Montano 9. 1 Skip Slagle 10. 19 Heather Janik 11. 99 Mark Harper 12. 9 Nate Bixler 1. 8 Ray Lang 2. 12 Imran Sattar 3 12x Tyler Hendry Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!