Brian Hansford picks up the Hobby feature win
By ROB LEE
LAKE CITY, Fla. (March 11) – Watching the temperature gauge.
Adam Bedenbaugh had one eye on the water temperature and the
other on the North Florida Speedway clay Saturday evening. Despite a bevy of
caution flags, the temperature stayed in range while he drove the Increte Systems/Bratcher
Construction/Capital Metal Supply/Top Flight Construction/Afco Shocks/O'Neal Roofing/Swift
Lube Snow Brothers chassis out of the range of the rest of the Late Model
Competitors. The 20-lap win flying the top groove was worth $2,000.
“I made a commitment on the initial fire and somebody got
underneath me,” Bedenbaugh said in Sunoco Race Fuels Victory Lane. “I was kind
of committed to the top side, we rode it out, got the dust blown off and was
able to ride right back around them.”
The hometown driver used Wildcat Performance power and took
off from the outside front row with Megan Rae Meyer alongside. Valdosta, Ga. superstar
Travis Carter steered low of both of them to take the point on the very first
lap. Carter actually did that twice as the first start was waved off.
That lead was short lived as Carter’s ride developed issues
early and Bedenbaugh sped back to the top for good on lap 5.
“We’ve got a lot of fans and being right here in Lake City
it’s always a great experience to win here,” Bedenbaugh added. “I was keeping
my eye on the temperature gauge because we’ve been battling overheating issues.
But it made it the whole race.”
Carter brought out a yellow early and eventually retired
from the event.
Nevin Gainey also used the top shelf, but could not chase
down Bedenbaugh. Gainey fell to third on a lap 7 restart when Blake Spencer
outgunned him utilizing the bottom groove.
Spencer, Gainey, Kyle Bridges and Brandon Catto rounded out
the top five. Tom Smith took seventh and was the Deep Dixie Racing Hard Charger
Award winner after taking the green from 12th.
Late Models
Jacksonville’s Brandon Wells started P2, but was P1 the entire
15-lap Florida Outlaw EMod Series feature distance.
“It’s been awhile,” Wells said. “We tore it up last week and
(tonight) it cornered right and here we are.”
EMODS
Wells drove his dad Kenny’s car to the win and was able to
outdistance defending FOES champ Jason Garver on the restarts. Garver, Chase
Collins, Devin Walker and Dale Graham were next.
Brian Hansford made his first NFS visit in a long time and
walked away with the Hobby Stock 15-lap checkers.
Garver also was second in that one ahead of Devin Walker,
Jerry Fortner and Eddie Gainey.
Dakota Hunt made his first ever start on dirt a memorable
one. The Old Town, Fla. ace switched from pavement and swept the Thunder Stock
show. He wheeled the Camaro to the heat and 15-lap feature victories. Nelda
King, Garrett Durden, Ralph Smith and Rance Damron followed at the end of a
wild race.
Hobby
Thunder Stock
Robbie White won a duel with Walker Windham for the 12-lap
Box Stock finale. Wesley Hoag, Patrick Alvino and Steven Quick followed and
were the only drivers on the lead lap.
The regular season opener drew more than 70 cars to the
3/8-mile clay oval.
Racing continues at NFS Saturday March 25. The Open Wheel
Modifieds debut under the sanctioning banner of UMP. They will be joined by
Limited/C-Class Late Models, EMods, Florida Outlaw Micro Sprints Series and
Thunder Stocks.
Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing at 7.
For more information log on to northfloridaspeedway.com, the
NFS Facebook page or call 386-754-8800.
Following are results from stock car racing Saturday evening
at North Florida Speedway, Lake City, Fla.
Hobby Stock
Feature (15 laps) – 1. 2 Brian Hansford 2. 74 Jason Garver
3. NINE Devin Walker 4. F16 Jerry Fortner 5. 8 Eddie Gainey 6. 55 Heath Walker
7. 31 Jonathan Crain 8. 12 Sammy Hatcher 9. 39 Tim Aldredge 10. 58 Danny Norton
11. 07 Shawn Creech 12. 00 Chris Doane 13. 61C Doran Cheney (Did Not Start – 02
Sean Babcock, 6 Justin McGauley, 19 David Arivett).
1st Heat (6 laps) – 1. Gainey 2. Hansford 3. Cheney 4. Crain
2nd Heat (6 laps) – 1. Garver 2. Norton 3. Babcock 4. McGauley
3rd Heat (6 laps) – 1. D. Walker 2. Fortner 3. Doane 4.
Creech
EMods
Feature (15 laps) – 1. 4 Brandon Wells 2. 27 Jason Garver 3.
2x4 Chase Collins 4. 55JR Devin Walker 5. 14 Dale Graham 6. 82 Shane Taylor 7.
007 Kevin Dugger 8. 91 Jamie Green 9. 12 Clayton Anglin 10. 98 Eric Baker 11.
80 Chad Dishman 12. 23 Jerol Stepp 13. 52 Ben Hoden 14. 50 David Markham 15. 24
Joey Parks 16. 132 Hunter Peacock 17. 5 Dalton Rathel (Did Not Start – 85
Michael Potter, 30 Jason Sherwood).
1st Heat (6 laps) – 1. Graham 2. Green 3. Stepp 4. Baker
2nd Heat (6 laps) – 1. Walker 2. Garver 3. Wells 4. Anglin
3rd Heat (6 laps) – 1. Dugger 2. Peacock 3. Collins 4.
Markham
Thunder Stocks
Feature (15 laps) – 1. 6 Dakota Hunt 2. 22 Nelda King 3. 56G
Garrett Durden 4. 8 Ralph Smith 5. 14 Rance Damron 6. B27 Ethan Butts 7. 2
Dennis Peterson 8. J4 Jacob Moore 9. TEN4 Tony Campbell 10. 00Z Bryar Zimmerman
11. 58 Justin Wilson 12. 21 Willard Driggers 13. 27 Jeff Barnes.
1st Heat (6 laps) – 1. Zimmerman 2. Butts 3. Driggers 4.
Moore
2nd Heat (6 laps) -1. Hunt 2. Peterson 3. Wilson 4. Damron
Late Models
Feature (20 laps) – 1. 26 Adam Bedenbaugh 2. 6 Blake Spencer
3. 17 Nevin Gainey 4. 6 Kyle Bridges 5. 59 Brandon Catto 6. 11M Megan Rae Meyer
7. 0 Tom Smith 8. 55K Billy Kervin 9. 10X Dave Ponton 10. 66 Kyle Chappell 11.
27 Garrett Lloyd 12. 99 Travis Carter 13. 03 Brandon Cameron
1st Heat (8 laps) – 1. Meyer 2. Carter 3. Catto 4. Ponton
2nd Heat (8 laps) -1. Bedenbaugh 2. Spencer 3. Gainey 4.
Bridges
Box Stocks
Feature (10 laps) – 1. 19 Robbie White 2. 72 Walker Windham
3. 46 Wesley Hoag 4. 85 Patrick Alvino 5. 80 Steven Quick 6. 14 Michael
Podbersek 7. 48 Shannon Lang 8. 12 Michael Chapman 9. 5 Wayne Risner 10. 32JR
Dustin Baxter 11. 8 Jonathan Wilks (Did Not Start – 11 Charles Teale, 03 Joe
Blackwell).
1st Heat (4 laps) – 1. White 2. Risner 3. Hoag 4. Podbersek
2nd
Heat (4 laps) – 1. Quick 2. Windham 3. Alvino
