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BOBBY BLAKE ZIPS TO MODIFIED WIN ON OPENING NIGHT AT AUBURNDALE
SPEEDWAY
There was a bit of a chill in the air but plenty of red-hot racing to keep a
great crowd of race fans on the edge of their seats as Auburndale Speedway
kicked off the 2010 racing season Saturday night.
Fifteen Open-Wheel Modifieds signed in to do battle with heat winners Keith
Lilley and Von Pope leading the field to green for their first 40 lap contest
of the year.
Lilley grabbed the early advantage with Big Wayne Morris in tow. Pope had
slipped to fifth spot behind Bobby Blake and Harold "Boom-Boom" Cannon when he
got into Cannon sending the latter into a spin. That brought out the first
caution on lap ten with Pope indicating that the incident was his fault
allowing Cannon to have his spot back in the running order.
Lilley continued to set the pace and was motoring away from the field until
Pope and Billy Bechtelheimer tangled on lap 25 to slow the pace of the race.
On the restart, Lilley's car seemed reluctant to get up to full speed and he
was turned around by second-running Morris. Track officials decided to put
both cars to the rear for the restart. At that point, Lilley opted to pull
off the track and call it a night.
The incident allowed third-running Bobby Blake to inherit the lead. A wild
scramble on the front stretch with just a few laps left saw James Wright III
take a wild slide to the infield, but no cars were seriously damaged.
Blake was up to the task and held off a hard-charging Cannon for the win
while David Grogan drove a steady race to third. Kevin Macy was fourth and
Harold Crooms fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Morris, Pope,
Bectelheimer, Wright III, and Ron Armillei.
Defending Street Stock champion James Wright III picked up where he left off
in 2009 by scoring a decisive win despite an early race altercation with Andy
Harvard on lap three.
Heat winner Levi Parsons led the first pair of laps but Wright was on a rail
and took over never to be headed. Contact between Parsons and Bobby Mobley on
lap six saw Mobley have to pit to change a flat tire, but he came back to
finish fifth behind Wright III, Parsons, Jeff Waterman and Matt McCrary.
Although Chris Narramore, Sr. led all the way in the Mini Stock feature, his
victory wasn't an easy one as he held off defending champion Fred Harrison,
Jr. and Donnie Guy in a wild three-wide photo finish. James Pate and Chris
Spring were equally close in fourth and fifth in what easily was the best race
of the night. Narramore and Harrison won the heat races.
Brandon McSwain led the first fifteen laps of the Modified Mini Stock
feature race but could not hold off the advances of Jason Rendell who grabbed
the top spot and led the final ten laps to the checker. Just after giving up
the lead, McSwain pulled off the track giving Burt Morse a shot a leader
Rendell but there was not enough time left as Rendell took the win over Morse,
Chris Allen, Scotty Sharp and Mike Birk, Jr. Heat wins went to McSwain and
Allen.
Josh Borem made his first start in the V-8 Bombers a winning one as he
dominated the action after heat winner James Wright II tangled with Brian
Harbin on lap two sending both the the tail of the field. Wright eventually
dropped out but Harbin came back to finish a distant second to Borem. Larry
Chumney crossed the stripe in third but was set down in tech for a camber
infraction allowing Paul Bookmiller to claim the third spot while fourth and
fifth fell to Preston Davis and Buddy Phillips, Jr.
Gary Brown, Jr. made a run-away of the Scrambler feature as heat winner
George Gorham fell out of the main event early. Brown took an easy win over
Chad Cutting, Matt Johns, Bryan Tyre and Kimberly Gullett.
AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY OFFICIAL RESULTS (2/20/10):
OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED:
1-#75 Bobby Blake
2-#3 Harold Cannon
3-#101 David Grogan
4-#19 Kevin Macy
5-#07 Harold Crooms
6-#98 Wayne Morris
7-#102 Von Pope
8-#6 Billy Bechtelheimer
9-#71 James Wright III
10-#87 Keith Lilley
11-#9 Ron Armillei
12-#29 Kyle Bookmiller
13-#35 Ron Abney
DNS#76 James Wilkins
MODIFIED MINI STOCKS:
1-#15 Jason Rendell
2-#38 Burt Morse
3-#33 Chris Allen
4-#89 Scott Sharpe
5-#10 Mike Birk, Jr.
6-#44 Mike Lawhorn
7-#37 Brandon McSwain
8-#26 Jimmy Pugh
9-#45 Dennis Jones
MINI STOCKS:
1-#3 Chris Narramore, Sr.
2-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
3-#33 Donnie Guy
4-#155 James Pate
5-#42 Chris Spring
6-#46 Randy King
7-#88 Kevin Steadman
8-#55 Steve Routt, Jr.
9-#53 Sonny Miles
10-#2 Dwight Ryals
11-#17 Mark Nagle
12-#5 Tony Davidson
13-#25 Robert Gullett
14-#8 Scott Russ
V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#111 Josh Borem
2-#29 Brian Harbin
3-#0 Paul Bookmiller
4-#89 Preston Davis
5-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
6-#14 Donnie King
7-#56 James Wright II
DNS#12 Dustin Strott
DNS#5 Sonny Miles
DQ#96 Larry Chumney
STREET STOCKS:
1-#56 James Wright III
2-#396 Levi Parsons
3-#42 Jeff Waterman
4-#5 Matt McCrary
5-#29 Bobby Mobley
6-#65 Ken Lawrence
7-#16 Andy Harvard
8-#26 Dave Colpritt
9-#89 Austin Jenkins
10-#3 Kevin O'Quinn
11-#17 Kyle Hall
SCRAMBLERS:
1-#52 Gary Brown
2-#00 Chad Cutting
3-#51 Matt Johns
4-#66 Brian Tyre
5-#28 Kimberly Gullett
6-#48 Chase Pointer
7-#10 George Gorham
DNS#8 Richie Acres
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