It seemed like forever since Orlando Speedworld put on a racing show, but after three weeks of rain outs, Saturday, Mother Nature relented and allowed the race program to be completed.
The evening got off to a wild start in the Classic Car heat race. Rookie Andrew Gustafson was running second, but cooked it a little hard going into turn four. Gustafson kept his car off the wall, but over corrected and came back down the track into the path of Jeff Wright. Wright ran over the left front of Gustafson's machine and his car rolled onto its roof. The car skidded all the way into turn one and caught fire. Wright scampered out unhurt as track crews put out the flames, but his night was over early. Unbelievably, Gustafson's crew was able to repair his car enough to get him out for the feature.
Heat winner Jim Rahman led the opening lap of the 20 lap Classic Car feature, but was passed on the second lap by a high-flying Ron Gustafson. On lap three Gustafson's car began to slow just as Ron Hutto's car exploded an engine coming down the front stretch dropping oil on the race track. At the same time, David Nunes' car began spewing water adding more wetness to track conditions in turn one.
As track crews cleaned up the mess, Ron Gustafson pulled off the track. The reason was later determined as a broken ball joint.
Rahman was back up front for the restart but Derrick Wood was on the charge and he blew by Rahman into a lead he would not relinquish the rest of the way.
Rahman and John Smith got together on lap eight causing the second caution flag, but the two used a pair of late-race yellows to move back to the front with Smith coming home second while Rahman trailed in third. Neither had anything for Wood who took his second Classic Car win of the year.
Wayne Skinner picked up the fourth spot in front of Brad Norburg while Andrew Gustafson soldiered on throughout the feature with his damaged car to place sixth. Danny Dixon, Nunes, Ron Gustafson and Hutto were credited with seventh through tenth.
Behind the wheel of a new ride, Rick Blair thoroughly dominated the Florida Mini Cup Racing Association 25 lap main event. Heat winner Brady Marshall was a distant second trailed by Devin McLeod, Ty Larsen and Corey White. Chris Rodriguez and Don Mays both escaped unharmed in a lap three turn one crash that saw Rodriguez back hard into the wall.
Another good field of ABC Towing Hurricane cars made the trip to Speedworld, but it was late entry Jim Erb taking the measure of the field with his hard-charging style of driving. Following Erb's Nissan to the checker were the Mazda 626 of Rob Reynolds, Mark "Hello" Walls in a Mustang, the Dodge Neon of William Hindman (who won the heat) and Brian Cosier's Ford Taurus.
Brian Townson, Tom Stewart, Richard Barrenchea, Blaize Fischer, and Miguel Barrenchea rounded out the top ten. The Hurricane field continues to grow thanks to the cash being put up by sponsor ABC Towing.
Matt Covington's hard work put him in victory lane in the Outlaw Strictly Stock feature. After a hard crash several weeks ago, Covington re-clipped the front of his Monte Carlo, bought some new tires and clearly was the driver to be Saturday night. Covington finished well ahead of Bobby Trombley, Anthony Robinson, Scott Mickens, Gilbert Steele and Bobby Jones. Covinton also won the heat race.
The Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association made their monthly appearance which saw the debut of local driver Dave Jarrett in his restored Sprint Car that has ties to the Ohio-Indiana racing circuits. Jarrett, by the way, is 71 years old and is back in action after a two year hiatus when he raced Bandoleros along with his grandsons, Scott and Matt.
Jarrett's car was a bit balky under the hood and he wasn't able to finish the DAARA Sprint Car feature though. Veteran Roy Campbell held off Jack Sapp for the checker while Jay Yahnke battled a sputtering power plant to take third over his better half Sue Yahnke and Jarrett.
Dale Miller took the Midget portion of the DAARA program in his roadster over Vance Cunningham and Bill Wendt.
In the Stock Cars it was Scotty Williams winning by over half a lap in his "Skeeter" Modified over Eddie Grant Keith Grant, Larry Laribee, Jim Yoder (in a beautiful Richie Evans Pinto), Richie Iversen and Jim Kaserman.
