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Physical Racing Aplenty at Auburndale
SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Florida Short Track Report
AUBURNDALE - If bumping, beating, and banging is your thing, then Auburndale
Speedway was definitely the place to be last Saturday night.
The strictly stock class got things underway with their feature event. Driving one of
the classes’ smaller 4-cylender cars, Bobby Kelly jumped out to an early lead.
Coming from the middle of the pack, the teammates of James Wright III and Larry
Chumney II made their way to the front. About halfway through, Wright got along
the outside of Kelly, with Kelly being able to hang with the bigger car of Wright
thanks to its cornering ability.
While Wright would eventually pull away, Chumney was having a battle of his own
with the smaller car of Roger Harrison for third. With a handful of laps left,
Chumney and Harrison got together coming out of turn four, sending both cars
spinning into the infield. The incident eliminated Harrison and took Chumney out of
contention. Wright took home the trophy, with Kelly finishing second and Junior
Collins coming in third.
Next up were the Mini Cup junior division, with four cars answering the green flag.
Nicholas Hernandez led the first few laps, but 11 year-old Daniel Miller took the
lead and would stay up front for the duration of the race. It was Miller’s 13th
feature win of the season in the class - tops in the state of Florida in all divisions of
racing.
The Scramblers then took to the speedway, with Bobby Kelly Jr. taking the lead
about halfway through the race and holding on for the win. Derek Gray finished
second and Mike Kehoe took third.
In the Mini Cup Pro division race, Joel Ashton came out on top in a race that
featured several lead changes between the top three cars. Zach Hoyt was second
and James Irish third.
It looked like Donnie Guy had the Mini Stock feature in hand until a caution brought
the field together just past halfway. Eugene Davidson was able to take advantage,
taking the lead from Guy as cruising to an easy victory. Kenny Uhl Jr. was third.
The Street Stock division brought out the true energy of the crowd. Dustin
Breeden got out to an early lead, with Chris Narramore Jr., Robert Bryant and
Bubba Edwards hot in pursuit. A few laps in, Edwards got into trouble on the front
stretch with a spin and had to go to the rear of the field. On the restart, Breeden
and Narramore got into a physical battle for the lead. After a couple of laps and
plenty of swapped paint, Narramore got by Breeden and took the lead for good.
As the race wound down, Joe Dowdy blew an engine going into turn three and
spun, collecting the cars of Kevin O’Quinn and David Holland in the incident. With
the amount of oil on the racetrack and despite the hard work of the Auburndale
safety crew, officials called the race, giving the win to Narramore. As Narriamore
exited his car, the crowd voiced its displeasure with how the night’s best race
ended. Bryant came in second, and Edwards fought his way back up to third after
the early trouble.
In other action, Jamie Kennedy gave himself a nice birthday present, celebrating
his 23rd with a feature win in the Modified Minis. Ronnie Heard Jr. came out on top
in the sportsman, and Steve Teasedale won the Race Cars of Yesterday feature.
The FastTrucks completed the night with a crash marred feature of their own, with
David Hartman escaping the carnage with a win.
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