LAKE CITY, FL (9/2) - North Florida Speedway played host to five divisions of racing last Saturday Night. Scott Anderson took the early lead in the Sprint feature but soon had the duo of Matt Kurtz and Dakotah Stephens biting at his heels. Anderson led until the 13th round when his luck ran out as he drifted high in the second turn and allowed Stephens to charge past for the lead. Kurtz quickly followed suit and continued to battle Stephens until mechanical difficulties ended his night on lap 16. Otto Scrape inherited second but could not keep pace with the leader and had to settle for being the first driver to see the 14-year-old whiz kid take his third win of 2006. Anderson finished third behind Scrape and was trailed by T.W. Parkinson and polesitter Larry Pickett.
Hobby Stocks raced for $1000 to win this evening and Lee Brinkley rocketed from the pole to the lead with all eyes on the prize. Scotty Nolan and John Ward were not going to let Brinkley take the money so easily and after five laps of hard racing Nolan made his move around Brinkley to earn the top spot. Ward passed Brinkley two laps later to claim second. Heath Walker was also a live player in this race and outduelled Ward for second on lap 12. A late race caution set up a shootout between Nolan and Walker, but Walker ran out of bullets and Scotty Nolan strode off with the win. Walker held back Tim Nolan for second with Brinkley finishing fourth ahead of Ward.
Pete Timbie converted from the pole to the lead in the Modified main event. Second was not the position to be as several would-be contenders spun out of contention during the event. Kyle Owen and Mark Padgett put on a side-by-side duel through the middle laps that worked to Timbie's advantage. Owen was able to best Padgett and break the jinx on second place by dropping Timbie to second with two laps remaining to claim the victory. Timbie trailed Owen by a few car lengths to claim second over Johnny Mullner, Padgett, and Jerry Campbell.
Dean Sands put away the competition early this evening as he picked up the lead on the opening lap and never looked back to take his thirteenth feature win of the year in Street Stocks. Dewey Hall was the best of the rest and finished second ahead of Scott Spears, Greg Vandergriff, and Kevin Mills in a race that ran without a caution flag.
Michael Havard also has a double digit count of feature wins at NFS in 2006. Rick Reed had the early lead until he and the second place car made contact resulting in both cars spinning. Gerald Lewis became the new leader and seemed to be the equal of second place Havard. Havard tried for several laps to pass on the inside of Lewis, but came up short on each attempt. Havard then tried the outside groove and was able to slingshot past Lewis on the ninth lap for the lead. Lewis stayed within striking distance, but the damage was done and Havard finished ahead of Lewis by a few car lengths to earn win number eleven on the year. Chris Rowe held off Reed for several laps in a good fight for third but Reed took the measure of Rowe with two laps to go to claim third. Shawn Taylor rounded out the top five.
North Florida Speedway returns to racing action this Saturday night. The Pure Stocks, Hobby Stocks, and Street Stocks will return and will be joined by the Limited Sportsman and Mini Stock divisions. For more information log on to www.northfloridaspeedway.com.
