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Icebreaker's Youngest Winner Ever In Opening AACS Race
By Jack Smith
Many observers probably expected a different outcome in the annual "Icebreaker" at DeSoto Super Speedway in Bradenton, Fl. Saturday night. DeSoto management broke with tradition this year, as the race is usually run on a Sunday afternoon in February.
Seventeen cars was also a bit short of the usual full field of super late models, though car counts around Florida have generally been off in the opening weeks of 2008 points racing. Jeff Choquette, driving the familiar #92 of Dick Anderson, set fast time, but Jeff Scofield got to start on the pole after a four car inversion by the roll of the die.
Choquette has been on winning streak that has turned heads in the last six months, but Saturday night he was not able to get his race car to the front. Scofield looked to be unbeatable, as he often is in 125 lap races starting form the pole. But ironically on lap 83, David Wilson driving the #83 passed Scofield for the lead.
"This is the last thing I need at this moment", was what was Wilson was saying as yellow flags waved on lap 124 of the 125 lap race. A scary time indeed for the eighteen year old Sarasota driver who now had a mirror full of the all too familiar #07 machine of Jeff Scofield. On the ensuing restart Wilson said he got a good jump and kept a few car lengths ahead of Scofield to get his second All American Challenge Series win at the high banked 3/8 mile oval. His last win coming on the final race of 2006, Wilson is coming off an ugly year on the ASA Late Model tour.
He couldn't say enough about his new team, headed by successful veterans Scot Walters and Adam Heckleman. Heckleman is a former Gatorade All Pro Crew Chief of the Year and also worked with "The Rocket" Wayne Jefferson recently.
He couldn't say enough about his new team, headed by successful veterans Scot Walters and Adam Heckleman. Heckleman is a former Gatorade All Pro Crew Chief of the Year and also worked with "The Rocket" Wayne Jefferson recently. Walters' SW Racing and Wilson Racing merged together at the beginning of the year to challenge for the All American Challenege Series title. "Soctt took the season to help me in my try at winning the championship," David Wilson explained.
Walter said afterwards "The win was a really big one and was very satisfying since it was my race as a crew chief and first win as a criew chief for another driver." Walters said. Scot and David have raced against each other at DeSoto in the super late models and are very excited about working together. Walters raced in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 1997 and 1998. Walters made his NASCAR debut in 1997, running the #37 Red Man Chevy at Louisville Motor Speedway.
"We learned so much from Dickie [Anderson] last year and it helped us a lot." Wilson said after the race. "But these guys are awesome, we just hit if off and Scott and Adam had this car so good anyone could have won with it", he added.
Wilson becomes the youngest winner in the long history of the DeSoto Icebreaker. B.J McLeod won the race at 19 years of age in 2003, while Wilson is about a year younger than B.J. when he took the win. The race of course has featured some of the best talent ever to grace a short track in Florida, including Butch Lindley, Dick Trickle, Jimmy Cope and of Dick Anderson.
"I really appreciate what these guys do to help me run good and above all, my dad and Wilson Excavating for making it all happen." David stated.
David Wilson will be a special guest on the Real Racin USA show "Inside Florida Racing" (www.insidefloridaracing.com) Monday night at 7 PM.
AACS SUPER LATE MODELS - AACS 125L Pos Driver Car # 1 DAVID WILSON 83 2 JEFF SCOFIELD 07 3 DAVID POLLEN, JR-Maacs 88 4 ANTHONY CAMPI 81X 5 CHRIS FONTAINE 47 6 JUSTIN LARSON 88X 7 JAMES GLOVER 70 8 JACK LANDIS 10A 9 JOE BOYD 5 10 ROBERT YOHO 00 11 RONNIE SKIPPER 32 12 JEFF CHOQUETTE 92 13 B.J. McLEOD 78 14 EUGENE ANDERSON JR 21A 15 STEVE DORER 10 16 BROCK BARNES 40 17 STEVE TREGEAR-M-aacs 18X
AACS SUPER LATE MODELS - QUALIFYING Pos Driver Car # 1 JEFF CHOQUETTE 92 2 JUSTIN LARSON 88X 3 DAVID WILSON 83 4 JEFF SCOFIELD 07 5 DAVID POLLEN, JR-Maacs 88 6 ANTHONY CAMPI 81X 7 B.J. McLEOD 78 8 CHRIS FONTAINE 47 9 JACK LANDIS 10A 10 RONNIE SKIPPER 32 11 STEVE DORER 10 12 ROBERT YOHO 00 13 JOE BOYD 5 14 JAMES GLOVER 70 15 BROCK BARNES 40 16 STEVE TREGEAR-M-aacs 18X 17 EUGENE ANDERSON JR 21A
Many observers probably expected a different outcome in the annual "Icebreaker" at DeSoto Super Speedway in Bradenton, Fl. Saturday night. DeSoto management broke with tradition this year, as the race is usually run on a Sunday afternoon in February.
"This is the last thing I need at this moment", was what was Wilson was saying as yellow flags waved on lap 124 of the 125 lap race. A scary time indeed for the eighteen year old Sarasota driver who now had a mirror full of the all too familiar #07 machine of Jeff Scofield. On the ensuing restart Wilson said he got a good jump and kept a few car lengths ahead of Scofield to get his second All American Challenge Series win at the high banked 3/8 mile oval. His last win coming on the final race of 2006, Wilson is coming off an ugly year on the ASA Late Model tour.
