by Marty Little
BRADENTON, Fla. - Current TBARA point leader Troy DeCaire kept his nose clean and had some good luck in the late laps to win Saturday night's 50 lap Frank Riddle Memorial sprint car event at DeSoto Super Speedway.
It was a night of yellow flag fever, but the veteran DeCaire, who started 11th in the 25 car field quickly bobbed and weaved through traffic and motored by Brian Maddox for the lead on lap nine.
Meanwhile David Steele, who had spun on a restart on lap five, was waging his own battle as he worked his way toward the front.
The many yellow flags worked in Steele's favor as it closed up the field and on lap 30 Steele put his number 91 mount in the runner-up spot and set his sights on leader DeCaire.
On lap 41 Dude Teate slowed on the track to bring out the final yellow of the night and it put Steele right on DeCaire's rear bumper for the restart. When the green flag flew Steele failed to fire, his car out of fuel. Joey Aguilar took up the chase of DeCaire for the final laps but to no avail as DeCaire captured his fifth victory of the season. Aguilar, Shane Butler, Kipp Beard and David Retzlaff rounded out the top five finishers.
Heat race victories fell to Aguilar, John Gilbert III and DeCaire. First heat (8 laps) - 1. Joey Aguilar, 2. David Steele, 3. Sonny Hartley, 4. Mark Gimmler, 5. John Anderson, 6. Bo Hartley, 7. Billy Riddle, 8. Ben Fritz, 9. D.J. Hoelzle. Second heat (8 laps) - 1. John Gilbert III, 2. Larry Brazil, 3. Brian Maddox, 4. Shane Butler, 5. Mickey Kempgens, 6. Kipp Beard, 7. Dakotah Stephens, 8. Bill Pettijohn. Third heat (8 laps) - 1. Troy DeCaire, 2. David Retzlaff, 3. Tommy Nichols, 4. Blaze Martin, 5. Dude Teate, 6. Nick Manakis, 7. Tom Pampard, 8. Bobby Rose DNS. Feature finish (50 laps) - 1. Troy DeCaire, 2. Joey Aguilar, 3. Shane Butler, 4. Kipp Beard, 5. David Retzlaff, 6. Sonny Hartley, 7. D.J. Hoelzle, 8. John Anderson, 9. Blaze Martin, 10. David Steele, 11. Dude Teate, 12. Brian Maddox, 13. John Gilbert III, 14. Nick Manakis, 15. Mickey Kempgens, 16. Timmy Nichols, 17. Bill Pettijohn, 18. Mark Gimmler, 19. Larry Brazil, 20. Dakotah Stephens, 21.Tom Pampard, 22. Billy Riddle, 23. Ben Fritz, 24. Bo Hartley, 25. Bobby Rose DNS.
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