John Brown Takes 2nd Annual “Pops” Thorbin Memorial
By Rick Anges
Bradenton, Fl. Tropical Storm Barry dropped several inches of the wet stuff all over Florida but the rain cleared in time to start racing at the “south’s Fastest Short Track”.
The second annual Richie “Pops” Thorbin Memorial fifty-lap Pure Stock race was the headline race on the nights racing card. Thorbin a former figure 8 champion and driver in the DeSoto Pure Stock class was a well-loved racer at the track. He passed away last year at the track after suffering a heart attack after his last race. Jimmy Best was the winner of last year’s event.
Attrition and weather was the name of the game in the fifty lapper as points leader Duane Best lost an engine early in the feature.
John Brown had a car that would never give up as he would pull away to a full straight away lead over the rest of the field but then just after the half way point the sky opened up and the race was stopped due to rain. After over an hour rain delay the race was resumed and Brown went right back to where he left off as he cruised to the win. “This is an honor winning this race, Pops was a great competitor and a friend” said Brown in the winners circle.
Second across the stripe went to James “Will” Wilbert, owner of Will’s Honky Tonk in Sarasota, third was Tommy Kelly, fourth went to Tyler Lau and rounding out the top five.
Pos Driver Car # 1 JOHN BROWN 6 2 JAMES "WILL" WILBERT 62 3 TOMMY KELLY 88 4 TYLER LAU 1 5 KEITH THORBIN 30 6 BLAIR PONTIOUS 39 7 GEORGE BARTIMAC 21X 8 KEVIN SHEPHERD JR 0 9 RICHARD SHEPHERD 30X 10 JAMES CRAWFORD JR 34 11 WILLIAM SLACK 44X 12 DARRIN ELLIS 71 13 JIMMIE BEST 67 14 CRAIG ROBINSON 1X 15 KEN SMITH 11 16 JOHN EAGENS 57 17 CHAD CUSHING 36 18 DUANE BEST 3 19 DAVID DAVIS 6X
Magic4’s Chelsea LaJoie again showed she knew her way around the track as she added another notch to her steering wheel taking the win in the twenty lap Magic 4 feature. Albert “the Hammer” Nail skillfully ran a solid second place. Third went to a “Hard Charging” Jessica Ostrovkis. Fourth was Andrew Pratt and fifth went to Bill Leake.
Pos Driver Car # 1 CHELSEA LAJOIE 3 2 ALBERT NAIL 00 3 JESSICA OSTROVSKIS 91 4 ANDREW PRATT 31 5 BILL LEAKE 03 6 ALEX PATTEN 13 7 TYLER ANDRIES 26 8 AUSTIN CAVEY 20 9 BRITTANY BARR 81 10 AUSTIN CRAIG 10
Manatee Lumber Bombers Pos Driver Car # 1 CLIFF MITCHELL 17 2 RICK GERMONY 8 3 JOHN STEWART 02 4 SCOTT DAWLEY 74 5 MICHAEL CROOKS 33 6 JEFF TAYLOR 70 7 DAVID KIMPTON 1 8 KEN SMITH 11 9 MARK BOXELL 88 10 MASON LOVE 0 11 LOU RUSSELL 3 12 STEVE ELDER 42
Q Auto and Injury Attorneys Pos Driver Car # 1 JOHN SARPPRAICONE JR 88 2 RALPH BOWMAN 2 3 JOHN SHIELDS 37 4 RICHARD SHEPHERD 30 5 MARK NELSON 11 6 DOUG MILLER 53 7 BRUCE RIGGIO 75 8 BOBBY BALDWIN 4 9 MICKEY "MARY" WRIGHT 9D
International Contractors Street Stocks Pos Driver Car # 1 JIMMIE BEST 67 2 JOEY BARNES 19 3 GREGORY KROM 35 4 WAYNE DOVE 18 5 JAMES NANNEY 6 6 ALEX ABBOTT 17 7 CHARLES "CHUCKY" RAMSEY 99 8 SHAWN MULLET 29 9 WILL ELLIOTT 4 10 DENNIS WILSON 42
