Durden Sprints to Victory at North Florida Speedway
by Jon Harney
LAKE CITY, FL (4/14) - The Florida Sprint Car Association made their bi-weekly visit to North Florida Speedway with a sixteen car showing. Bruce Durden overtook early leader Barry McCance on the fourth lap and was the dominant car on a clear track.
Traffic did play a factor as Durden encountered many slower cars and had to contend with Gavin Thomas, who seemed to find a better path around the rolling obstacles. Once clear of traffic, Durden reclaimed the ground he lost and went on to take the checkers by several lengths over Thomas. Matt Kurtz ran steadily for third while McCance just held off Danny Jones for fourth.
Heath Walker took early command of the Hobby Stocks but could not deny Sammy Hatcher for long. Hatcher took over the point on the fifth circuit and held off stiff challenges from Kevin Durden and Walker until Durden's luck ran out a few laps from the finish as he tangled with another car and restarted from the back.
Scotty Nolan had been knocked to the rear of the field after an early race incident but had made his way through most of the pack and was contending when the restart flag dropped. Hatcher hung tough against Walker and Nolan to cross the line first at the checkers. The post-race technical inspection, however, did claim its victims and the finishing order at the pay window was Walker, Nolan, Durden, Jeff Terrell, and Travis Barnes.
The fans were treated to a wild finish in the Street Stocks. Spud Lockwood pretty well had things in command until a late caution flag grouped together the field with a handful of laps remaining. Kevin Mills had been pursuing the leader for several laps and had been caught by Dean Sands, who started last when the race started.
Mills and Sands battled briefly until Sands got the better of the exchange. Sands then tried to get past Lockwood on the last lap, but both tangled on the backstretch and the fireworks continued from there. Lockwood managed to gather his car back up coming into turn three, but John Coffee Sr. sliced through the slowing field, made contact with Lockwood, and the pair plowed hard into the outside wall in turn four. Mills found an opening and slipped past to snatch a victory from what appeared to be defeat. Sands recovered from the backstretch fun to finish second. Coffee was credited with third, Lockwood was scored in fourth, and David Hart led a pack of cars that was one lap down to claim fifth.
Shane Taylor blew away Clay McRae on the second lap and proceeded to lay a beatdown on the other Pure Stocks. There was a very good race from second through sixth which kept those cars slicing and dicing while Taylor disappeared into the distance.
The mechanical problems that had plagued Taylor for the past month were no factor this evening and he raced to his third points-season win at NFS in 2007. McRae withstood an onslaught from Gerald Lewis to finish second, while Shawn Taylor raced from the rear of the field to trail Lewis for fourth. Michael Havard rounded out the top five.
Mark Padgett came back from his rollover accident of a few weeks ago with a new skin on the old Modified. He did his best to keep the new sheetmetal looking new as he jetted to the early lead and won the Modified main going away. Phil Guadagno just barely kept Ronnie Chance at bay to take second. Both were trailed by fourth place finisher Bob Gold.
Jonathan Rutledge picked up the early lead in the Mini Stock feature and withstood a late race challenge from Justin Carney to earn his first victory ever in only his third race. Following Rutledge was Carney, James Conway, Denny Conway, and Freddie Daniels.
The Hobby Stocks are back in the limelight this Saturday as Round Two of the Brown Motorsports Summer Spectacular Series takes place. The rules and payout for the race can be found by visiting www.northfloridaspeedway.com and clicking on the "special" button. The B-Modifieds, Late Models, Pure Stocks, and Street Stocks will also race.
