The Man of "Steele" does it Again, Chelsea LaJoie takes Second Magic 4 Win
By Rick Anges
Bradenton, Fl. - Two action packed nights rocked “the South’s Fastest Short Track”. Friday night saw the insanity that is Crash-A-Rama roll in for a metal crunching; tire smoking night that the 4,000 plus fans will not forget for sometime.
Track owner John Sarppraicone offered the Friday night smash ‘em up fans a real deal giving them $5.00 off for the Saturday night show which included the TBARA Wing Sprints.
The 700 or so fans who returned and joined the regular Saturday night crowd to take advantage of the deal from the night before were not disappointed as an action packed evening of REAL stock race was on tap.
Another good field of the Methanol Burning TBARA Winged Sprints were on hand to wow the crowd for a second night. Twenty-three cars were separated into three heats races to start the evening off.
Dave Steele returned from taking time off to compete in the USAC series to return to the wheel of the Lenny Puglio owned number 91. Steele took the win in Heat number one. The last time this car was at DeSoto it was piloted by Dude Teate and ended up the winner of the thirty-lap feature.
Heat number two saw Wendy Mathis lead the majority of the 8 lap race and had the fans on their feet as she battled the closing laps side by side with Troy DeCaire with DeCaire able to get by as Mathis spun on the last lap. Charles Ladner held off Danny “the Hammer” Martin to take heat three.
The fans on hand were on their feet nearly the entire thirty lap feature as “the Man of Steele” put on clinic as he battled his way from his mid pack starting spot on his march towards the front. Mark Gimmlar was the early leader in the 100 plus mile an hour feature.
But all eyes were on Steele as he wheeled his way past cars to eventually catch third place runner Martin.
The duo went at it for several laps while maneuvering through lapped traffic. Martin slid high in turn four and Steele never missed a beat making the pass and closing ground on the leader.
The final laps saw the Sprint Car Ace make the pass for the lead and cruise home for a standing ovation win. “Danny (Martin) really raced me hard there, he is a good driver but this car is awesome” said Steele.
Mark Gimmler finished second on the track but was Dqed when he failed to go to tech after the race. Bo Hartley moved up to the second spot thanks to Gimmlers mistake, third was “the Hammer” Danny Martin, fourth was Stan Butler and fifth went to Randy Woodall.
Magic 4’s The 12-17 year olds in the Magic 4 class also evoked wild cheers from the fans during their 15-lap feature.
Andrew “Three Wheels” Pratt looked like he was on his way to his second win in a row as he earned his nickname putting his little Dodge Omni up on three wheels going into the turns. Pratt had drawn out to a good lead while the rest of the field was going at it behind. Swapping paint and going three wide made these youngsters look like seasoned veterans.
Twelve-year-old Chelsea Lajoie who has one win under her belt took the rest of the racers top task as she challenged using every inch of the racetrack. As LaJoie moved into second it looked like an impossible task to catch Pratt until two of the competitors behind them got together to bring out the yellow. In the closing laps LaJoie was able to make the move on Pratt to take her second win of the 06 season. In the winners circle Chelsea said, “I want to thank my Dad (Jeff Dufresene) for changing the tires and stuff”. Pratt took a hard fought second, third went to the new ride of David Kimpton, fourth was Clay Joseph Jr. and fifth was points leader Shane “the Iceman” Yoder.
DeSoto Pro Trucks Danny Anderson held off point’s leader Jeff Firestine to take his first win in the trucks at DeSoto Super Speedway. An emotional Anderson in the winner’s circle said “ I had a set of wings racing with me tonight, I want to dedicate this to my crew chief Todd Blevins who lost his son recently”.
Following Anderson across the stripe was Firestine, Bill VanDevender took third, fourth was Clint Snyder and rounding out the top five Jason Deaton.
Clear Channel Bombers With cars coming from Charlotte County Speedway to join the DeSoto class a nice field of twenty-five cars rolled out for the feature. From the drop of the green flag there was action all through the field.
The race went right down to the wire with James Crawford Jr. taking the win, Cliff Mitchell raced to a solid second spot, Rick Germony was third, fourth went to Pete Barr and fifth Michael “the Punisher” Crooks.
Pyramid Employers Pure Stock The battle for the points in the Pure Stock division is heating up and so is the racing in the class. Drivers were all out in the race and when the checkers flew it was Darrin “Icewater” Ellis taking the hard fought win over points leader Jimmie Best. Best took the second spot, third was Tyler Lau, fourth went to Duane Best and in fifth was Richie Shepard.
Golden Corral Mod – Minis Dustin Perez found the hook up passed Rick Sirmans and cruised to mod-mini win, Sirmans was second, third went to Chris Thorton, fourth was Steve Booth and fifth and ill running Marty Niekens.
MAGIC 4S - MAGIC FOURS Pos Driver Car # 1 CHELSEA LAJOIE 3 2 ANDREW PRATT 31 3 DAVID KIMPTON 11JR 4 CLAY JOSEPH JR 44 5 SHANE YODER 8 6 ALBERT NAIL 00 7 BILL LEAKE 03 8 TOM BRADY 14 9 CHRISTINA CRAWFORD 59 10 TYLER ANDRIES 26 11 AUSTIN CRAIG 10
BOMBERS - BOMB 20L Pos Driver Car # 1 JAMES CRAWFORD JR 34 2 CLIFF MITCHELL 17 3 RICK GERMONY 8 4 PETE BARR 81 5 MICHAEL CROOKS 33 6 LARRY BRANNON 18 7 KENNY GIBSON 23 8 SCOTT DAWLEY 74X 9 CHARLES STEVENS 74 10 DON SLACK 57 11 TODD JACOBS 44 12 CORY SCOTT 48 13 LOU RUSSELL 3 14 MARK BOXELL 88 15 DERRICK HORTON 27 16 STEVE COLO 1 17 JAMES WALKER 55 18 DONNIE BATHJE 36 19 MATTHEW BROWN 15 20 JAMES CASADY JR 47 21 TYLER JOHNSON 9 22 JOHN STEWART 02 23 RANDY JOHNSON 73 24 SHANE LEONARD 78 25 BOBBY FISCHER 2
DS TRUCKS - DS TRUCKS 25L Pos Driver Car # 1 DANNY ANDERSON 50 2 JEFF FIRESTINE 93 3 BILL VanDEVENDER 84 4 CLINT SNYDER 95 5 JASON DEATON 99 6 JIM REPPI 57 7 TYLER LAU 52 8 GARY DEEMER 18 9 TATE LINDSAY 1 10 JIM REPPI JR 37
MODIFIED MINIS - MM 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 DUSTIN PEREZ 0 2 RICK SIRMANS 05 3 CHRIS THORNTON 24 4 STEVE BOOTH 15 5 MARTY NEIKENS 70 6 BILLY CARLBERT JR 11 7 MATTHEW PERKINS 99 8 ARLIN POPE 77 9 MIKE KERRIVAN 45 10 SHALAKO RITENOU 75 11 CAMERON CRUSE 22 12 PHILIP CRUSE 07
OUTLAW MODIFIED - FEATURE Pos Driver Car # 1 ROBERT CAMPBELL 10 2 CLIFF STEINMANN 23 3 RAYMOND JONES 41 4 MICHAEL ENDEE 29 5 MIKE BEAN 12 6 WILLIAM CAMPBELL 11 7 PHILLIP BRIGHAM 7 8 CHARLES LEE 33 9 TOM MEYER 4 10 THOMAS GIDDINGS 83 11 ZACHARY RUDD 2 12 MATTHEW DELANEY 8 13 RICHARD VOISEY 69 14 ROBBIE BEAN 28 15 CRAIG SHERAR 78 16 BOBBY DAYTON 90 17 RIC MILLS 22
PURE STOCKS - PS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 DARRIN ELLIS 71 2 JIMMIE BEST-R-ollm 35 3 TYLER LAU 1 4 DUANE BEST-R-ollm 67 5 RICHIE THORBIN 30 6 BOBBY ERVIEN-R 21 7 JOHN BROWN 6 8 KEVIN SHEPHERD JR 92 9 BLAIR PONTIOUS 39 10 GEORGE BARTIMAC 5 11 KEN SMITH 11 12 MARK ZSOLZAI 8 13 DAVE CLEARY 24 14 ROBERT COON 73
STREET STOCKS - SS 20L 19 OR LESS Pos Driver Car # 1 DENNIS WILSON 42 2 GREGORY KROM-Mllm 35 3 JOEY BARNES 19 4 CLAY JOSEPH 44 5 MIKE AMO 10 6 CASEY HALL 11 7 WILLIAM SLACK 57 8 JIMMIE BEST-R-ollm 67 9 JAMIE CASSIDY 72 10 ALEX ABBOTT 17 11 RYAN PANCOAST 47 12 IAN ROBB 23 13 DUANE BEST-R-ollm 3
TBARA SPRINTS 1) 91 David Steele; 2) 3X Bo Hartley; 3) 00M Danny Martin Jr.; 4) 18 Stan Butler; 5) 5W Randy Woodall; 6) 68 Troy DeCaire; 7) 41 Shane Butler; 8) 1B Brian Maddox; 9) 9X Michael Smith; 10) 1X John Anderson; 11) 66 Mickey Kempgens; 12) 80 Wendy Mathis; 13) 3Y Sonny Hartley; 14) 11X Erik MacMillan; 15) 19 Steve Heisler; 16) 4X Brian Gingras; 17) 6F Frank Hurst (DNF); 18) 6 Skeeter Faulconer (DNF); 19) 66B Traci DeCaire (DNF); 20) 6X Bill Pettijohn (DNF)
The 51 driven by Mark Gimmler finished in second place but was disqualified from the race for failing to go to the tech area after the race.
The 8 of Nick Manikis, 29T of Lance Taylor, 52 of Joey Aguilar, 39 of Charles Ladner, 55 of Tommy Nichols and the 44 of Bill Pettijohn did not start the feature race.
HEAT 1 1) 91 David Steele
2) 18 Stan Butler
3) 3X Bo Hartley
4) 41 Shane Butler
5) 44 Bill Pettijohn
6) 55 Tommy Nichols
The 29T driven by Lance Taylor, 6X owned by Skeeter Faulconer and the 66B driven by Traci DeCaire did not start the heat race.
HEAT 2 1) 68 Troy DeCaire
2) 1X John Anderson
3) 51 Mark Gimmler
4) 9X Michael Smith
5) 11X Erik MacMillan
6) 80 Wendy Mathis
7) 19 Steve Heisler
8) 6 Skeeter Faulconer The 8 of Nick Manikis did not start the heat race
Another good field of the Methanol Burning TBARA Winged Sprints were on hand to wow the crowd for a second night. Twenty-three cars were separated into three heats races to start the evening off. 
