IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

September 8, 2008 Standing Room Only at Desoto Super Speedway By Tom Blakeley With over 150 Race Cars it was Standing Room Only in the pits. There were no more pit slabs available and no more room. The house was a full, and the house was a rockin!. It will also go down as one great night of racing. The staff of Desoto Super Speedway did an amazing job, and the racing went on as smooth as silk. The Drivers and the Staff really worked together as a team and it made for one enjoyable evening for the fans. The fans got lots of bang for their buck, with 11 different events by 9 different classes. The evening got started with a little nostalgia. There were 2 eight lapHeats of Racecars of Yesterday. This is one class where the cars are the stars. For me, it is like being a kid again and going to the ?Stock Car Races?, only thing missing is my Uncle Jimmy. Cars from the 30?s, 40?s and 50?s with the old flat head motors and early V-8?s. Heat number one was won by Tom McDonald in the #22 car, second was Dennis Mr. D. in the #6 car and third was Randy Henderson in the #8 car. The second heat was won by Gary ?Squeaky? Gates in the #44 car with Wild Bill Sandigo in the #84 car placing second and John ?Big Daddy? Hanson taking third in the #30 car. --Advertisement-- Next up was the fabulous looking Fast Mini Cup Series. It looked like we had an all-star Winston Cup lineup with replica?s of Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon?s cars. The 13 mini cup cars flew around the track for 30 laps and when 12 year old Cindarae ?Smoke? Irish crossed the finish line she went to Victory Circle in the #05 car. ?Pappa? Don Huntington took second in the #83 car and Frank ?Viper? Pfister came in third in the #2 car. This is one fun class to watch and is very pleasing to the eyes. A great place for the young racer to get a start. It?s Rockem Sockem time! Yep those Rockem Sockem Bombers just couldn?t wait to trade paint and they did a terrific job of it. The 7 car field went 25 laps of good, clean, hard racing. Steve ?The Hammer? Elder took the lead at the drop of the green flag and never gave it up. ?The Hammer? went to victory circle in the blue 42 car. Elder drove a superior race and watched a great battle for second and third from his rear view mirror. Michael ?The Punisher? Crooks started in last and drove a great race to finish third in the 33 car. Battling with ?The Punisher? and coming in the second spot was Scotty?too Hotty? Dawley in the 74 car. It sure looks like these Bomber drivers are having way too much fun. A great race it was. The 16 Champ Karts took to the track with a ?Thundering Herd? attitude. It was a fight to the finish with 4 karts battling the whole race, sometimes four across. At the finish line it was a photo finish with Chad Dokken in kart #73 winning, Alan McKinney in kart #37 second, and Rance Williams in kart #08 third. The four karts packing up and battling it out made for a very exciting race. Next to take the track was the ever-exciting Modified Mini?s. There was a 2 car inversion to the12 car line up. They ran a fast and clean fifty lap event. The winner of the fifty lap race was Chris Thornton in the 24 car. Dustin Perez in the 62 car was a close second and brian Dorer in the 97 car came in third. Talk about dedication, 18 year old Matthew Perkins and his dad Tom drive all the way from Jacksonville to race their yellow 99 Modified Mini car at Desoto. The staff and owners want to thank you for choosing Desoto, we are honored that you choose to race with us. After a short 10minute intermission the Racecars of Yesterday came back out for their feature race. The fifteen lap event ended with a bang as the 84 car went from third to first, and the 44 car passed the 22 car all in the last one half lap. The winning car was the 84 car (Randy Henderson) with the 44 car second (Tea Bone Tom Bingham) and the 22 car third (Tom McDonald). The Trucks then took to the raceway, all 31 of them. What a great fifty lap race it was. It was the most trucks to ever start a race at Desoto Super Speedway. The racing was fast, the racing was clean, and the drivers really got after it. There were only 3 yellow flags with the first one not coming until the 17th lap, the second yellow occurred on the 37th lap when Tyler Lau?s #51 truck caught on fire, and the third yellow on the 44th lap as the #07 spun out. The checkered flag belonged to Keith Lilly in the #87 truck. George Gorham in the #10 truck was second and Austin Pickens in the #63 truck was third. It was an amazingly clean race. There was plenty of paint traded, but still a very clean and exciting race. With the large field it was awesome that no one lost or damaged their truck, that always makes for a good night. The Super Late Models entered the track and there was a 6car inversion of the 21car field. The one hundred twenty five lap featured event was run at a blistering pace. Unfortunately there were three cars that wrecked coming out of turn #4 before the first lap was in the books, and did not finish. There were only three yellow flags during this one hundred twenty five lap race, with two of them due to spinouts. With names like Scofield, Anderson, Fontaine, and Larson in the house you know you can depend on action and the house went a rockin when these drivers put the pedal to the metal. When you combine well-built cars with some of the area?s best drivers, it makes for great racing. After one hundred twenty five very fast ones Jeff Scofield in the #07 took the checkered flag and won the race. Wayne Anderson in the #92 car drove a great race and came in second with Justin Larson in the #88X car placing third. Pure Stocks were next on the firing line. The 14car field drove a twenty five lap race that included 2 complete restarts. The revised results of this race were Troy Meredith in the #75 car was declared the winner. Troy Thiem in the #18 car was second and the #71 car of Darrin Ellis was third. The #34 car while actually coming in first could not win the race due to rule violations in regard to transmission and tires. It was a good race and as usual for this class, it makes for a fans favorite. The evening concluded with Street Stocks/Sportsman class. There were 11 cars that ran a brisk twenty five lap race. The #01 car of Travis Roland drove to victory circle while Greg Krom in the white #35 car was second and James Nanney in the #06 took third. What a night of racing action, it was great. Join us next Saturday at 7 PM for another evening of family fun and racing at ?The South?s Fastest Short Track,? Desoto Super Speedway. SS/SP - SS/SP Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 8 01 Travis Roland Lake Alfred, Fl 40 2 6 35 Gregory Krom Sarasota , Fl 38 3 5 6 James Nanney Bradenton , Fl 36 4 11 17 Alex Abbott Bradenton , Fl 34 5 10 11X Joe Shaver Arcadia , Fl 32 6 1 86 Dale Reigle Bradenton , Fl 30 7 3 27X Jonathan Heidenthal Myakka City, Fl 28 8 4 57 James Brenner Sarasota , Fl 26 9 9 00 Brian Lynch Sebastian , Fl 24 10 7 23X James Knight Bradenton , Fl 22 11 2 23 Ian Robb Bradenton , Fl 20 PRO TRUCKS - FEATURE Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 1 0 . Ace Services New Smyrna, Fl 0 GO KARTS - FEATURE Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 1 0 Phil Harp Clearwater , Fl 0 FAST MINI CUP - FEATURE Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 1 O . Fast Mini Zephyrhills , Fl 0 MODIFIED MINIS - MM FIFTY LAP Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 2 24 Chris Thornton Clearwater , Fl 0 2 1 62 Dustin Perez-mmm Tampa , Fl 38 3 3 97 Brian Dorer-m-mm Winter Haven, Fl 36 4 4 29 Chris Zimmerman-mmm Largo , Fl 34 5 10 29X Thomas Zimmerman Clearwater , Fl 0 6 6 99 Matthew Perkins-mmm Grn Cove, Fl 30 7 7 1 Joe Gagen Sarasota , Fl 0 8 8 10 Mike Birk Jr-m Pinellas Park, Fl 26 9 11 80 Richard Nelson Sarasota , Fl 24 10 12 31 Brad Steger-mmm-r Bus Clearwater , Fl 22 11 5 0 Jesse Henley-mmm Homosassa , Fl 20 12 9 68 Ronnie Allen Lehigh Acres, Fl 0 PURE STOCKS - PS 20L 19 OR LESS Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 3 75 Troy Meredith Largo , Fl 40 2 5 18 Troy Thiem Sarasota , Fl 38 3 7 71 Darrin Ellis Sarasota , Fl 36 4 13 2 Robert Crisp Reddington Sho, Fl 34 5 14 73 Randy Johnson Bradenton , Fl 32 6 4 30A Richard Shepherd Pinellas Park, Fl 30 7 10 89 Allen Bragg Bradenton , Fl 28 8 6 07 Mark Picklesimer Palmetto , Fl 26 9 12 21X George Bartimac St Peteersberg, Fl 24 10 2 10 Austin Craig Pinellas Park, Fl 22 11 8 11 Ken Smith Largo , Fl 20 12 1 13 Chelsea Lau Bradenton , Fl 18 13 9 90 Anthony Easton Bradenton , Fl 16 14 11 34 James Crawford Jr Pinellas Park, Fl 14 AACS SUPER LATE MODELS - AACS 125L Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 1 07 Jeff Scofield-maacs Plant City, Fl 175 2 2 92 Wayne Anderson Wildwood , Fl 0 3 4 88X Justin Larson Safety Harbor, Fl 0 4 7 83 David Wilson-maacs Sarasota , Fl 160 5 9 88 David Pollen, Jr-maacs Tampa , Fl 155 6 5 75 Dave Pletcher New Port, Fl 0 7 8 83W Scot Walters Naples , Fl 0 8 11 70 James Glover-maacs Pinellas Park, Fl 140 9 10 00 Robert Yoho-maacs Pinellas Park, Fl 135 10 15 33 Jesse Dutilly Bradenton , Fl 0 11 12 407 Jason Vail Clermont , Fl 0 12 17 84 Randy Anderson Wildwood , Fl 0 13 18 21A Eugene Anderson Jr-maacs Lakeland , Fl 118 14 20 99 Jimmy Frazier, Jr. Sebring , Fl 0 15 6 47 Chris Fontaine Auburndale , Fl 0 16 3 81X Anthony Campi-maacs Sarasota , Fl 106 17 21 6 Mike Finn-maacs Jupiter , Fl 102 18 19 3 Raymond Folwell Pinessas Park, Fl 0 19 13 73 Sam Watts Winter Springs, Fl 0 20 14 38 Cj Calabrese Davie , Fl 0 21 16 44 Richard Sapp Jr Plant City, Fl 0 BOMBERS - BOMB 20L Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 1 42 Steve Elder St Petersberg, Fl 40 2 4 74 Scott Dawley Bradenton , Fl 38 3 7 33 Michael Crooks St Petersberg, Fl 36 4 3 02 John Stewart Pinellas Park, Fl 34 5 5 83 Megan Spicer New Port, Fl 32 6 2 44 Todd Jacobs Palmetto , Fl 30 7 6 11 Ken Smith Largo , Fl 28 DS TRUCKS - DS TRUCKS 50L Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 2 41 Stephen Darvalics-mtks Venice , Fl 40 2 1 12 Charlie Montgomery-mtks Venice , Fl 38 3 7 23 Michael Smith Auburndale , Fl 0 4 6 69 Stephen Nasse-mtks Pinellas Park, Fl 34 5 10 25 Gary Foxworth-mtks Lutz , Fl 32 6 4 64 Brent Huber Venice , Fl 0 7 3 50X Danny Anderson-mtks Bradenton , Fl 0 8 9 57 Jim Reppi Sr Venice , Fl 0 9 12 O7 Kyle Musselman-mtks Lutz , Fl 24 10 11 11X William Carlbert Jr-mtks Bradenton , Fl 22 11 13 4 Al Neumann Bradenton , Fl 0 12 8 39 Blair Pontious-mtks Bradenton , Fl 18 13 5 51 Tyler Lau-mtks Bradenton , Fl 16 Have an opinion on this story? 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