Tom Sherrill

Florida Short Track Report.com

The Florida Mini Sprint Association rolled in to East Bay Raceway
Thursday for the 2009 Winter Nationals. With rain coming down in
bucket on Thursday racing was cancelled for the night. The sky’s
cleared and Friday was a new day for the racers.

The A-Main feature line-up had six time FMSA Champion Jesse
Teed on the pole with Harold Mathews on the outside of the front
row. The first lap saw Mathews spun in turn three taking Teed with
him to the wall. Teed drove away with a thumbs-up  to the crowd.
Mathews was on the hook and done for the night.

The new line-up for the complete restart  moved  Travis Senter Jr. to
the outside front row with Teed and Ron Bishop to the fourth starting
spot.

From there Senter took the point coming out of turn two. By lap two
Senter was in control with Todd Carmichael moving into 2nd and Tim
Buckmalter running 3rd Eddie Moss Jr had the 4th spot and Michael
Dransfield was 5th.

Carmichael was trying the low line as Senter was running the high
grove  the battle was on.  At lap five the leader had found lap traffic
which gave Luke Thomas the opportunity to pass Moss. And by the
eleventh lap Smith passed Dransfield at the flag stand. At lap 13 lap
traffic left no room for Carmichael and Buckmalter ending
Carmichael’s night and moving Buckmalter to the  2nd spot .

It was on lap 15 were Buckmalter went to work on Senter and by the
yellow flag on lap 19 Buckmalter had taken the point from Senter.
The restart saw Tim O’Donnell pass Moss and then Dransfield. But
the fight at the front was wild as Buckmalter and Senter were battling
hard. Buckmalter was running low and Senter high it came down to
turn 3 on the last lap were Senter shot to the bottom putting the job
on Buckmalter for the pass of the night. And made it look easy.
Senter went to the line for the win followed by Buckmalter, Thomas,
O’Donnell and Dransfield.

The B-Main was won by David Pleaugh and the heat winners were
Moss Jr., Senter, Lex Burritt and Carmichael.