| Rogers wins on WILD night at New Smyrna | 
David Rogers
Samsula, Fla. (August 13, 2005) Twenty two of Florida's finest Super Late Model drivers were on hand Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway for the eighth race of the Sunbelt Super Late Model Series. With only a handfull of drivers left to qualify, a rain shower went passed thru causing some delay in qualifying. The shower moved quickly and the track was dried.
Up until the rain shower, it was Jason Boyd setting fast time but when Jeff Choquette went out after the rain delay, he ran a 18.002 compared to Boyd's 18.003. Choquette pulled a seven for the inversion which put James Powell III on the pole for the 125 lap event.
The drivers were lined up on the frontstrech for driver introduction to the roar of the crowd. It was time to belt the drivers in and it was the fans who gave the command "Gentlemen, start your engines."
As the race went green, it was Justin Drawdy who took the lead over James Powell but it was a short lead as before a lap was completed there was a file-up coming off turn 4 as Jacob Warren got loose and a number of cars had no place to go but on each other. Involved were Warren, Tom McCann, running his first race with the Sunbelt Series, Ryan Foster, Chad Pierce who was on top of Patrick Conrad, Daniel Webster, Dalton Zehr, and Matthew Sichmann.
The race was red flagged to clean up the track and to remove Chad Pierce's car off Patrick Conrad. Pierce's tire had gone into the driver's window of Conrad's car and the tire finally had to be removed to safely get Conrad out. Luckily no one was hurt and Conrad was able to repair his car and come back out. Only McCann, Warren, Pierce and Foster were done.
The second restart saw once again Justin Drawdy take the lead over Wayne Anderson, Brian Finney, Jeff Choquette, and James Powell, James Boyd, Fain Skinner, David Rogers, Jay Middleton and Daryl Shelnut. The caution came out for track conditiions and Boyd pitted real quick for some crew attention.
Drawdy held the point for the restart with Anderson, Finney, Choquette and Powell in the top five. Boyd goes in again for crew attention as Drawdy has his hands full of Wayne Anderson knocking on the door. Choquette passes Finney for third with Finney sliding back to fourth as Fain Skinner takes over the fifth place position from Powell. Anderson works on Drawdy and finally takes over the lead. But Drawdy still had his hands full with Choquette in third and wanting second. Choquette makes his move and takes over second as Drawdy goes to third followed by Finney and Skinner.
The race has Anderson, Choquette and Drawdy in one bunch followed by Finney, Skinner and David Rogers in the second bunch all fighting for each other's positions. Conrad, who is racing a doorless machine, pits real quick for some crew attention. David Rogers, who is "king" of New Smyrna Speedway, passes Finney for fourth as Finney settles into fifth. Skinner begins to slow as he has a brake fire and must go in to have it extinguished. Then Anderson, who is leading, suffers a tire going down and hits the turn 4 wall ending his run for the night.
This turns the lead over to Choquette on the restart followed by Drawdy, Rogers, Finney, Powell, Middleton, Shelnut, Scofield, Webster, Mac Johnson and Dalton Zehr. Just as everything is very heated, Powell suffers a tire going down and hits the turn 3 wall ending his night.
Choquette holds the lead on the restart followed by Rogers, Drawdy, Shelnut, and Middleton. The caution comes out as Middleton and Drawdy make contact sending them both to the rear for the restart on lap 98. Choquette leads the way followed by Rogers, Shelnut, Scofield and Zehr.
Rogers, who knows New Smyrna well, has never really raced against Choquette due to his absence at the Governor's Cup from a wreck at SpeedWorld, finds that Choquette does not give up easily. As they race each other hard, Rogers shows why he is the master of New Smyrna and gets around Choquette for the lead. Shortly after Rogers takes the lead, it is Choquette who has a tire go down and visits the turn 4 wall ending his night. With only five laps to go, this is a big disappointment for Choquette.
Rogers holds the point on the final restart followed by Shelnut, Scofield, Middleton, and Zehr. Zehr does a little wiggle allowing Finney to take over sixth as Zehr slides back just alittle. David Rogers takes the checkered for his first win of the 2005 Sunbelt Super Late Model season followed by Daryl Shelnut, Jeff Scofield, Jay Middleton and Justin Drawdy.
But this was not to be the finishing order for the Sunbelt. As Choquette was towed into the pits after his flat, Warren throws a water bottle at the driver causing a massive fight to break out. Then Shelnut and Scofield, who already had a rough history together from the Columbia Motorsports Park Sunbelt race, get into it after the race on the backstretch.
Needless to say, Sheriffs had to be called with fighting going on everywhere. A few were arrested taken to jail with Jacob Warren, Jeff Choquette and Daryl Shelnut being disqualified. Although Choquette never really did anything, a driver is responsible for his crew and he was disqualified because of his crew's actions.
As Rogers celebrated in Victory Circle with his family, fans were entertained by the crazy antics of angry racecar drivers. Official results for the top five were David Rogers, Jeff Scofield, Jay Middleton, Justin Drawdy and Brian Finney.
SUNBELT SUPER LATE MODEL 125
1. #11 David Rogers, Orlando
2. #07 Jeff Scofield, Plant City
3. #74 Jay Middleton, Lake City
4. #12 Justin Drawdy, Ft. Pierce
5. #80 Brian Finney, Merritt Island
6. #1x Daniel Webster, Brooksville
7. #05 Dalton Zehr, Daytona Beach
8. #6 Mac Johnson, Gainesville
9. #1 Fain Skinner, Live Oak
10. #57x James Powell III, Ocala
11. #92 Jason Boyd, Orlando
12. #84 Wayne Anderson, Wildwood
13. #2 Patrick Conrad, Clermont
14. #20 Ron Dicandio, Canaveral Groves
15. #74x Jody Turner, Jacksonville
16. #10 Ryan Foster, Lowell, Arkansas
17. #75 Matthew Skichmann, St. Cloud
18. #57 Chad Pierce, Orlando
19. #16 Tom McCann, Ocala
20. #51 Jacob Warren, Orlando DQ'D
21. #70 Jeff Choquette, West Palm Beach DQ'D
22. #7 Daryl Shelnut, Ft. Lauderdale DQ'D
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