Schroeder wins back to back in the Florida Winged Sprints
Schroeder wins back to back in the Florida Winged Sprints
Tom Sherrill
Florida Short Track Report.com
10-31-09
With a five-point lead on second place and only 13 points on the third place car in the 2009 points for the Florida Winged Sprints, points leader Paulie Milum had his work cut out for himself on this Saturday night. Second place Tim George knew what he had to do as he has already won an asphalt sprint car championship to go with his six dirt championships. Mike Schroeder,was sitting third in points and having a stellar year.
The night started with two heat races of eight laps each to set the feature line-up. The two racers at the top of the points, George and Milum, each won their heats. With the pill draw inversion the pole was all for Schroeder with Travis Bliemeister, who is fourth in points on the outside of the front row, the racers were set in their positions for the start of the feature.
The green flag saw Schroeder and Bliemeister side-by-side into turn one with Bliemeister sliding up the track a grove coming out of turn two. George and Milum filled the opening fast with Darrin Miller following from the outside of the third row. The completion of the first lap had Schroeder on the point followed by George, Milum, Miller and Bliemeister as the top five on the track. Charlie Lee and Frankie Hurst were hard at work with Jeanett Burnet showing that go-kart championship was paying off as she was on the move from the back passing cars like she had been here before. The other rookies of Rebecca George and Tyler Eaton were right with her.
Lap after lap, Milum was all over the back of George as sprint car racing became a contact sport while Schroeder, who won the previous FWS race at Auburndale, was hitting every mark perfectly. Lapped cars were coming into play and as they went into turn three, Schroeder was clear but George and Milum had to deal with the traffic. This time Milum got into the back of George hard, getting both cars sideways and ripping the nose wing from Milum’s car. The wing fell in front of Miller, leaving him no place to go and no choice but to hit the fallen wing. The yellow flag came out and all other drivers evaded the debris on the track.
The cars lined up for the restart and as they came back to the line the next lap, Miller’s engine exploded right at the flag stand into a big ball of fire. He went all the way to the top of turns one and two, were he made a fast exit from his car unharmed. The track safety crew did a fantastic job getting to him and the track crew did as well at cleaning up the oil on the track. The restart saw Schroeder on the point followed by George, Milum, Bliemeister and Lee.
Milum had Bliemeister on his tail, and it was all or nothing over the final few laps of the race. Milum and George were back at it, but they could only watch Schroeder driver perfect at every turn. Meanwhile Hurst and Lee had a show of their own, and Hurst made the clean pass for fifth as Schroeder went to the checkered flag. George was second, followed by Milum Bliemeister, and Hurst. The rookies drove hard and gave the respect to the leaders for a great race.
Hurst won the Racecar Engineering Hard Charger Award, while the Steele Performance Parts Steele Sweep went unclaimed on this night. Tim George won the Florida Short Track Report $100 drawing to end the night.
You can look for more great racing from the Florida Winged Sprints and can keep up on all the action at www.floridawingedsprints.com
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