by Rick Warren

June 16, 2007

The Southern Sportsman Series rolled into Desoto Super Speedway Saturday night for the first race of the year, slightly delayed. The race was a reschedule of the series opener that was rained out. A good field of racecars turned out for the race, and with the unofficial clockings in practice, it looked to be a very fast field as well.

Wayne Morris served notice that even though he has been off pursuing other racing ventures, He still knows how to hustle a Sportsman car. Morris was the fast qualifier with a blistering time of 16.219 seconds. Steve Gainey was just a tic behind at 16.317 seconds, followed by Arthur Conquest at 16.395 seconds.

Morris pulled a 0 for the inversion, starting the field heads up by qualifying times.

The field lined up to start the 50 lap feature with Morris and Gainey on the front row, followed by Conquest and Richard Elkins Jr in the second row. The third row was filled by Travis Roland and Joey Catarelli, while row 4 held Ron Heard Jr. and Mark Peterson. Craig Cuzzone and Jeff Padilla rounded out the top ten starting positons. On the start of the race, Gainey won the race into turn 1, claiming the lead, followed by Morris and Conquest. Gainey looked as if he was running on rails, and was setting a blistering pace.

By lap 10 the top five had started to separate from the rest of the pack, with Gainey followed by Morris, Conquest, Elkins, and Catarelli in the top 5 spots. The first caution occurred on lap 14 when the 00 car of Ronnie Heard Jr broke a motor. After the track was cleaned , the field was reset for the restart with Gainey on the point, followed by Morris, Conquest, Elkins, Catarelli, Roland, Peterson, Padilla, Cuzzone, and Roger Welch in the top ten.

The Double file restart was short lived as the 21c of Chris Peludat got turned around off turn 4. The field was lined up once more, and the green flag waved. Gainey again blasted out front, but the restart was once again for naught, as several cars tangled in turn 4, and made contact with the wall. Several cars entered the pits for repairs, Cuzzone and Daniel McClain receiving the most damage.

As the race was restarted, Gainey was trying his best to move the 79X into a different time zone. The race was slowed for a few more cautions for fairly minor incidents, but in the green flag runs, the racing was intense. One of the big selling points of the Southern Sportsman Series is the competitive racing, and this race showed that. Their were battles for position through out the pack for the entire 50 laps. When all was said and done, Gainey showed why he was the 2006 series champion, with a convincing win. Morris ran a strong second, followed by Richard Elkin Jr, Joey Catarelli, and Roger Welch in the top 5 spots.

Gainey also claimed the $100 halfway leader award, Posted by J&S Palms, the Sponsors of the 00 car of Ronnie Heard.



Final Results Southern Sportsman Desoto Super Speedway






1
#79x Steve Gainey Jr.

2
#56 Wayne Morris

3
#55 Richard Elkins Jr.

4
#15 Joey Catarelli

5
#98 Roger Welch

6
#12R Rikk McMehan

7
#73 Mark Peterson

8
#2 Derrick Heath

9
#36 Chad Chushing

10
#78 Arthur Conquest

11
#21c Chris Peludat

12
#62 Buddy Brown

13
#7 Tom Riser

14
#51 Kyle Alford

15
#97 Craig Cuzzone

16
#21 Daniel McClain

17
#00 Ron Heard

18
#211 Jeff Padilla

19
#22 Travis Roland