Steele dominates sprint feature at Desoto

9/10/2016

Freedom Factory

Steele dominates sprint feature at Desoto

Steele dominates sprint feature at Desoto
By SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Desoto Speedway

Every time Dave Steele straps into a sprint car at Desoto Speedway, he tries to put on a good show for what he calls “the home fans.”
The Tampa driver, who is a two-time Little 500 winner and has several national championships to his name, needed just under seven minutes to put on a clinic in crushing the rest of the field in the TrueFuel Southern Sprint Car Series 30-lap main event Saturday night at Desoto Speedway.
Steele started sixth in the feature and quickly moved into third in just half a lap. Three laps later Steele passed Johnny Gilbertson from the top spot and began rocketing away from the rest of the field.
As Steele built up a lead of about seven seconds halfway through the race Gilbertson, Sport Allen, Troy DeCaire and Dude Teate were locked in a battle for second spot. Gilbertson got trapped behind a slower car which allowed Allen and DeCaire to slip by with less than 10 laps to go.
Lapped traffic allowed Steele to drive up to the back of the battle for fourth place. Teate got by Gilbertson in the final five laps and would be the final car on the lead lap as Steele drove on to the win in the caution-free race.
“These non-stop, green-to-checkers races will wear on an old man,” Steele said. “The car was great and I've got no complaints about it. I've been coming here since I was knee high, so this is one of my home tracks.”
Allen, who finished second, said Steele “was in a league of his own.” DeCaire, Teate and Gilbertson rounded out the top five.

Hurricane Hermine allowed Kenny Gibson to have a couple of extra weeks to work on his race car, which had a little bit of a different look going into Saturday night's 25-lap Take Aim Gun Range Street Stock feature.
Gibson fought off some early challengers on a pair of restarts and had built a comfortable lead over the second-place battle between Bobby Huffstutler, Duane Best, Donnie Powers and Jeff Firestine when the caution flew for an accident on lap 15.
Powers got into the back of Huffstutler on the restart, causing a spin that also collected Best in turn 3. Powers tapped out, and was sent to the rear of the field as a result of claiming responsibility for the incident. Huffstutler and Best were allowed to keep their spots in second and third place.
Jeff Firestine elected to take the high line on the restart and moved up to second place. Gibson held off a challenge for the lead on the restart and the duo began pulling away from the rest of the pack when a caution flew for debris on lap 18.
Gibson got the wholeshot on Firestine on the final restart. Firestine got to Gibson's rear bumper in the final two laps, but it was Gibson – driving a car owned by Firestine – who drove on to his second Street Stock feature win of the season.
“This is awesome,” Gibson said. “I have to help fix that car (Firestine's race car), so I didn't care if I turned down on him. You have to do what you have to do to win and I've been wanting to beat him really bad fair and square. We did it tonight.”
Huffstutler finished third, followed by Best and Powers.

In other action Saturday night, Blaine Baer took the lead from early leader Jimmie Best and drove away from the rest of the field to win the 25-lap LKQ Pick-Your-Part Pure Stock feature; and Jimmy Wilkins passed Mike Nelson with two laps to go to take the 15-lap TQ Midget feature.

Next Saturday Desoto Speedway will host the Billy Bigley Sr. Memorial 128 for the Sunoco Challenge Super Series Late Models. Fast qualifier for the event will pocket $1,280. Pure Stocks, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Modified Mini Stocks and Bombers will also be in action.

09-10-2016

DESOTO SPEEDWAY RACE RESULTS

Sprints