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Short Track Roundup (10/23/97)

23 October 1997

Mobile, AL - Another week has gone by and the race schedule keeps getting shorter and shorter, but there was still plenty of action this past week on the short tracks around the country.

The All American 400 was held at Nashville Speedway USA in the Music City and this race provided some of the best action of the year, especially in the last 25 laps. Three wide racing on the last corner following winner Freddy Query to the line produced a second place finish for Jeff Fultz, just a bumper ahead of Hal Goodson. Also bunched right there were fourth place finisher Billy Bigley Jr and Jody Ridley who took fifth. In the Comdata/Overdrive 200 for the Late Models David Littleton dominated the second half of the event to take home the win with Jerry Coble second and Casey Atwood third. *** Joey Clanton picked up his second Southern All Star Asphalt win of the year at Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, GA as he made a dramatic last lap pass of Ronnie Sanders to take the victory. Sanders held on to second with Lee Hansard third. *** The ASA held their season finale at beautiful Southern National Speedway in Kenly, NC and 1997 Champion Kevin Cywinski took the win ahead of Gary St Amant and Rick Beebe. *** Rain was the winner at Martinsville and they will try again next weekend. *** The Southwest Tour was in Sam Bernardino, CA where Steve Portenga led Bryan Germone and Craig Raudman to the finish for the win. *** The Bush North series held their finale at Lime Rock Park, CT and Ted Christopher was the winner. Kim Baker and Dennis Doyle were the next two in line, but the big news was with the ninth place finish of Mike Stefanik who wrapped up the Series Championship, Thus claiming his second NASCAR Touring Series title for 1997. *** Stefanik's first title came with a tenth place finish at Thompson International Raceway, CT in the Featherlite Modified race which sewed that series title up. Mike Ewanitsko took the win with Tony Hirschman second and Tim Connolly third. *** They held the Neal Sceva Memorial at Shady Bowl Speedway in DeGraff, OH and Mike Ward took the win in that one.

The dirt Late Model scene saw the STARS Racing Series visit Pennsboro Speedway, WV where Marshall Green led the way to the checkered flag with Freddy Smith in second and Todd Andrews third. *** The ARCA cars were on dirt this week at the Springfield, IL Mile and it was the same old story as Tim Steele took his 12th win of the season leaving Ken Schrader to garner second and Billy Thomas to take third. *** In Ft Smith, AR Leslie Essary was the winner of the feature race. *** At Kentucky Lake Speedway, visitor Steve Russell dominated the evenings proceedings taking the pole, the dash and the feature win. *** In Baton Rouge, LA the SUPR cars finished up their season with the Louisiana State Championships and Howard Willis was the winner with David Ashley second and Bubba Mullins third. *** In Valdosta, GA at Thunderbowl Speedway, Mark Miner kicked off the three race winter season with a win in the Winnersville 100. Lonnie Roberts was second and Jimmy Sharpe was third. Gene Maine took the Late Model Sportsman race. *** In the Georgia State Championships at Lavonia, GA Chris Madden was the winner with Buck Simmons and Doug English trailing him home.

The World of Outlaws is still going strong with Mark Kinser taking the win at Battleground Speedway in Highland, TX. Steve Kinser was second and Dave Blaney came home third. It was then on to Mesquite, TX for the 24th Annual Dirt Nationals where Sammy Swindell took the Preliminary win with Mark second and Dave again taking a third. In the Finale, Mark and Sammy swapped places, giving Mark Kinser three wins out of four at Devil's Bowl. Stevie Smith was third. *** Another series holding their final race was NARC, who went to San Jose, CA and Randy Hannagan was the winner followed by Brent Kaeding and Steve Kent. *** The USAC Silver Crown Cars were in Las Vegas, NV and it was Tony Stewart who came up the winner with Lee Brewer Jr in second spot and Johnny Parsons third. *** In the final night of action at 16th Street Speedway, Indianapolis, IN Track Champion Steve Knepper took another win ahead of Brian Gerster and Roger McCluskey Jr. *** In Susquehanna, PA the Limited Sprint feature went to Billy Pauch with Lance Dewease second and Mike Lehman third. The Super Sprints saw Dewease get even as he beat Pauch to the line with Fred Rahmer in the third spot.

That about wraps up the look back at the week on the short tracks. With winter fast approaching the action is quickly dying down all across the country, but there are still some really good races left on the schedule. The Hooters Cup finale will be held at Lakeland, FL the end of November, Florida Pro still has races left, The National Late Model Sportsman Series holds its Showdown in Brunswick, GA, the National 100 is just three weeks away, The Southern All Star World Classic will be at Peach State Speedway as the track at Birmingham,. AL is still undergoing renovation and the big end to the racing season is, as always, the Snowball Derby in Pensacola, FL. If you are able to make it to one of these or the other races still left to be run, head on out and enjoy the best racing in the land, you won't be disappointed. Have a Ball, Ya'll!

John Kaiser -- The Auto Channel