Hot humid weather couldn't stop fans and competitors from enjoying an equally hot night of racing at Orlando Speedworld Saturday night as eleven feature races were contested.
Heat races for the RE/MAX Legends went to Jimmy Norman and Chelsea Schillig.
Schillig had the pole for the 25 lap feature and grabbed the early advantage as Kory Abbott quickly moved to second and was pressing for the lead when the caution flew on lap four as Leonard Hearndon and Dalton Bergman tangled in turn one. On the restart, Rick Wetmore and Shaughn McCormick crashed coming off turn four to keep the yellow out. Abbott wasted little time getting by Schillig after the restart as the race looked like it would run the rest of the way under green. But with two laps to go, Jimmy Rodriguez spun in turn four while running fourth to bring out the caution.
Abbott got a great restart and sped away to the win ahead of Schillig and Norman. after having problems in his heat race, Andy Logan came from the last row on the starting grid to finish fourth just in front of fellow Masters Division driver Mike Verhaagh. Alex Kempf was sixth while Bryan Beland, David Tart, Rodriguez and Bergman rounded out the top ten.
It was a North Carolina invasion in the Hearndon Construction Bandeleros as the Bassett brothers came to town and took home a pair of first place trophies.
Dillon Bassett led all the way to claim the Bandit win finishing well in front of second place Critter Saile. Shawn Hooven came in third just in front of Zoey Guignardi. Zach Harris was fifth trailed by Justin Bechtold and Coty Bibeau. Bassett also won the heat.
Dillon's older brother, Ronnie "The Rock" Bassett, Jr. also led every lap to win the Young Guns feature but he was pressed all the way by fellow NC driver Brandon Lynn who was making his first ever start at Speedworld. Mark Hooven claimed third spot ahead of Donovan Ponder, Gerald Campbell and Kaleb Hearndon. Bassett was also the heat race winner.
J.L. Snowden snared the lead from heat winner Rowdy Gordon on lap ten and raced off with the Pro Challenge victory in an all green flag race. Gordon came home second ahead of David Hall, Jarrett Snowden and Bruce Gibson.
Brady Marshall jumped out front at the start of the Florida Mini Cup Racing Association headliner and set the pace until caution slowed things on lap 16 for Michael Franklin's spin in turn two.
The rest of the race ran under green flag conditions as Marshall was able to hold off Justin Holt for the win. Phil Beede made a late charge to third ahead of Ty Larsen, Corey White, Brenton Franklin, Michael Franklin, Vinnie Page and Devin McLeod. Heat races were won by Marshall and Larsen.
Classic Car action saw Simeon Spagnuolo grab the early lead from heat winner David Nunes and he was pulling away when several incidents took place on lap nine. First, Ryan Hutto spun coming off turn two then Wayne Skinner also spun going into turn two as his car caught fire. Then Nunes' car broke something and he came to a grinding halt on the front stretch. All three were done for the night.
Spagnuolo led the remaining laps, but had to hold off his teammate Derrick Wood over the final two circuits. Greg Helton came home third ahead of Andrew Gustafson. Skinner was credited with fifth in front of Nunes, Hutto and Danny Dixon.
A big opening lap crash in the ABC Towing Hurricane feature saw Brian Cosier and Tom Stewart in the pits with damaged cars before things could really get going.
First heat winner Jim Erb came from the back of the starting field to the lead in just two laps and appeared on his way to the win. But another car had been dropping water on the track and Erb got sideways in turn four coming to the checkered flag allowing Bruce Gayton to slide by and take his second win of the year by a foot over Erb. Bomber Bill Loomis was third over Gary Thomas and Brian Townson while second heat winner Rob Reynolds, Miguel Barrenchea, David Leeper II, Roger Alexander and William Hindman completed the top ten.
Anthony Robinson grabbed the lead from Bobby Jones on lap three and he raced to his first win in the Outlaw Strictly Stocks. Jones crossed the stripe in second while Rudy Arnold took third on the final lap fromn Brian Sayne. Gilbert Steele was fifth ahead of Rick Poffenberger while both Matt Covington and April McGowan could not make the start of the feature.
The Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association was also in action. In the Stock Cars, Gene Vitiello dominated the action in his powerful former NASCAR Tour-Type Modified. Scotty Williams driving a V-8 powered "Skeeter" Modified was second ahead of Cory Lane's Dodge Dart Late Model. Keith Grant was fourth and Eddie Grant fifth trailed by Larry Larabee, Rhoda Blackie, Jim Caserman, Sumner DeWolf and Richie Iversen.
Vance Cunningham also put on a dominating performance in the Midgets as he won the feature by half a lap while Jerry Paquin just nipped Bill Wendt at the stripe for second.
In the Sprint Cars, Jack Sapp held off the charges of both Roy Campbell and Jay Yahnke to take the win. Campbell was second with heat winner Jay Yahnke third ahead of his wife Sue Yahnke.
1 5 Kory Abbott 2 75 Chelsea Schillig 3 2 Jimmy Norman 4 1FL Andy Logan 5 7 Mike Verhaagh 6 99 Alex Kempf 7 6A Bryan Beland 8 3 David Tart 9 19 James Rodrigues 10 37 Dalton Bergman 11 56 Tony Sansom 12 47 Eric Eichelberger 13 06 Rick Wetmore 14 34 Shaughn McCormick 15 53 Leonard Herndon
CLASSIC
1 21 Simon Spagnuolo 2 21x Derrick Wood 3 3 Greg Helton 4 9 Andrew Gustafson 5 03 Wayne Skinner 6 20 David Nunes 7 1 Ryan Hutto 8 74 Danny Dixon
PRO CHALLENGE
1 40 1/2 JL Snowden 2 24 Rowdy Gordon 3 22 David Hall 4 4 Jarrett Snowden 5 33 Bruce Gibson
MINI CUP
1 20 Brady Marshall 2 04 Justin Holt 3 40 Phil Beede 4 07 Ty Larsen 5 19 Corey White 6 11 Brenton Franklin 7 17 Michael Franklin 8 65 Vinny Page 9 00 Devin McLeod
DAARA STOCK
1 99 Gene Vitullo 2 5 Scott Williams 3 78 Cory Lowe 4 73 Keith Grant 5 8 Eddy Grant 6 7-11 Lacey ? 7 134 Rhoda Blackie 8 21 James Casserman 9 23 Sumner DeWolf DNS
DAARA MIDGET
1 9 Vance Cunningham 2 10 Jerry Paquin 3 71 Bill Wendt
DAARA SPRINT
1 77 Jack Sapp 2 10 Roy Cambell 3 7b Jay Yahnke 4 7w Sue Yahnke
HURRICANE
1 71 Bruce Gayton 2 01 Jim Erb 3 13 Bill Loomis 4 76 Gary Thomas 5 22 Brian Townsend 6 A1 Rob Reynolds 7 22 Miguel Barrenchea 8 D2 David Leeper 9 21 Roger Alexander 10 89 William Hindman 11 7 Thomas Mosher 12 27 Brian Cosier 13 66 Tom Stewart
OUTLAW STRICTLY STOCK
1 38 Anthony Robinson 2 8 Bobby Jones 3 3 Rudy Arnold 4 9 Brian Sayne 5 24 Gilbert Steel 6 43 Rick Poffenferger 7 7 Matt Covington DNS 8 39 April McGrowan DNS
