Bradenton, Fl. Cool weather brought fast times at the “The South’s fastest Short Track”. Some of the top names in Florida Super Late Model racing were signed in for the night’s 125 lap “Hoosier Cup” All American Challenge Series feature event. Only 13 points separated first and second place drivers Chris Fontaine and Jeff Choquette.
Choquette had an awesome early season clicking of wins but just before the half waypoint he wrecked his primary car and had struggled with several back up machines.
“Losing that car was like losing an old friend,” Choquette said.
Meanwhile Chris Fontaine had a solid mid season run vaulting him into the top spot on the run for the $10,000 points championship. Both drivers have hand their handsful towards the end of the season with Choquette having the better runs bringing him back to within striking distance of the top spot.
The cool conditions made for a fast track with almost the entire field knotted up in the mid 14 second range until “the Rocketman” Wayne Jefferson blistered the speedway with a near record run of 14.411 seconds. “We tried something for qualifying and it worked really y well.” Jefferson said in his post-qualifying interview. Second fast was Choquette, third was B.J.Mcleod, fourth fast was Scot Walters and in fifth was the winner of the first leg of the Triple Crown Jeff Sloan.
The die was rolled and the top four drivers were inverted for the feature race. B.J.McLeod and Scot Walters lead the field to the drop of the green flag.
The action started early as Robert Yoho got crossed up coming out of turn two, the car was side ways as “Mr. Excitement” Jimmy Cope came out of two full throttle and slammed into Yoho. Both cars ended up in turn three. Cope’s ride went off on the hook, Yoho was able to continue.
B.J. Mcleod held on to the top spot until just past the 30th lap when Choquette powered by and into the lead. Following Choquette was fast qualifier Jefferson into the second spot. Choquette was a man on mission as his car looked like it did early in the season.
Choquette lapped the sixth place car and began working on fifth place Fontaine just after lap 112. This is where the drama began. Fontaine was doing everything he could to protect his slim points lead, every time Choquette would go high or low Fontaine would slam the door on him. After refusing to adhere to the move over flag Fontaine was Black Flagged off the speedway relegating him to an 11th place finish.
Choquette took the win and moved into the points lead with only one race to go. Second across the stripe was Jefferson. A solid run put B.J. Mcleod in third spot, fourth went David Wilson and in fifth Scot Walters.
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