FIVE NEW WINNERS AT ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD WINTERNATIONALS ON THURSDAY

There was plenty of action during day three of the INEX/600 Series
Winternationals at Orlando Speedworld Thursday afternoon with five new faces
gracing victory lane.
In Legends Car Pro Division action, Paddy Rodenbeck, Nick Pistone and Roger
Austin, Jr. topped the trio of heats with Rodenbeck grabbing the lead at the
drop of the green in the 25 lap feature from his pole starting position.
Three laps into the event Craig Goess, Jr., who had won the first two
Winternationals races in the class, tangled with Rette Causey and hit the wall
a ton in turn four. Goess was OK but his car was badly damaged. Causey also
dropped out as did Paul Schrein, Jr.
Rodenbeck continued to set the pace with Brandon Thomson and Pistone in tow
until the second and final yellow flag of the race flew on lap nine when Kyle
Beattie and Thomas Hartensveld tangled in turn two.
Rodenbeck drove off with the win while Pistone was able to pass Thomson late
in the going to take second place plus take over the Winternationals Pro
division points lead. For Rodenbeck, it was his first win ever at Speedworld
despite many starts and a whole lot of bad luck here over the last two years.
Thomson came home third, just happy to finally finish a race, while Cameron
Patrick put on quite a show coming from 14th on the starting grid to fourth at
the finish. Scott Knox was fifth while Thomas Van Wingerden, Kory Abbott,
Jason Dunn, Kyle LaPier, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top ten.
In the Legends Car Masters Division, trouble started early for Clay Hair,
who had won the first two main events on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hair was part
of a three-way tangle in his heat that saw his car balanced between the front
stretch wall and the car of Mike Verhaagh, who had finished second to Hair on
Wednesday afternoon.
Verhaagh was done for the day while Hair switched to a back-up car and
started scratch in the feature.
After winning his heat race, Cotton Spry had the outside front row slot for
the 25 lap Masters contest and he wasted little time asserting himself out
front.
Spry was holding off a charging Tim Brockhouse when the caution flew for a
turn two tangle involving George Whitney and Larry Friddle after the rear-end
of Whitney's car locked up. Friddle was able to repair the damage to his car
and continue.
On the restart, Hair, who had worked his way up to fourth position, got
tapped by Cy Harvey and spun. Both drivers were sent to the rear of the field
for the ensuing restart.
Spry looked to have things under control, but his car failed him once again,
dropping a cylinder with just two laps to go allowing Brockhouse to zip past
and claim the win. Floridians Andy Logan and Jimmy Rodriguez came home second
and third with Roger Austin, Sr. fourth as Spry slipped to fifth at the
checker.
Brockhouse, who hails from Minneapolis, MN where it was 16 degrees at the
time he left for Florida, cleared tech easily after a problem the night before
saw his second place finish disallowed due to improper ball joints which he
stated was "simply a mistake on our part."
Sixth at the finish went to Bruce Little while Hair rallied for seventh
ahead of Harvey, Scotty Edwards and Friddle.
Along with Spry's heat race win, other Masters Division heat races fell to
Austin, Sr. and Logan.
Legends Semi Pro Point leader John Stancill had it all his way on Thursday
as he handily won the feature race in green to checker fashion.
The Semi Pro drivers had their cleanest run of the week with no incidents at
all in the feature as Stancill sped away to an easy win over Ty Dillon, Zach
Stroupe, Chelsea Schillig and Josh Williams. Completing the top ten were J.R.
Allen, Zach Zimmerly, Jimmy Norman, Chad Hackenbracht and Corey Smith. Heats
for the Semi Pros went to Stancill, Allen and Williams.
Teammates R.S. Senter and Curt Britt swapped the lead several times before
Senter picked up the win in the Legends Car Charger class, ending the two race
win streak of Matthew Stover whose car suffered mechanical problems and
dropped out near mid race.
However, Senter's car was disqualified in tech and his teammate Britt picked
up the win over George Cushman, Jamie Smith, Dean Moslow, Stover and Dalton
Bergman.
Not to out-done by older brother Zach, who has a Legends Car Semi Pro win
here and two Pro Challenge wins at New Smyrna Speedway over the past week,
Nicholas Stroupe led wire to wire to win the Bandelero Bandits feature topping
Cody Blackburn, Dillon Bassett, Bodie Bellinger and Critter Saile.
In the Bandelero Young Guns, Ronnie "The Rock" Bassett Jr. picked up his
second win of the week taking the checker in front of Ryan Glenski, Chad
Finchum, Bryce Walker and Donovan Ponder.
Thomas Van Wingerden and Jesse Bunnell put on their usual show in the
Thunder Roadsters before Van Wingerden came home with the win over Bunnell,
Steve Carter and Tom Clarke.