LAKE CITY, Fla. — David Schilling thoroughly singed the competition at All-Tech Raceway on Thursday night, leaving just seven cars on the lead lap during the second night of the Sunshine Swing, presented by the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled by Sunoco sanction.
Now as the 38th winner in STSS history, Schilling earned $5,000 for the 35-lap triumph and his third career modified win, aboard the BDR Speed-sponsored, Wegner Automotive-powered No. 20.
“It’s great to win against these guys,” Schilling said in victory lane. “We’ve been close before, but we really made sure to dot our I’s and cross our T’s this winter. I couldn’t be happier with this car.”
Schilling drew the pole and took off with Mike Gular, Corey Cormier, Darren Smith and Peter Britten in tow. Tyler Siri started on the outside of row four, but shot the middle down the homestretch and gained wholesale positions. By lap two, Siri completed a pass of Cormier for the third spot, with Cormier and Smith rounding out the top five.
Matt Sheppard, Wednesday night’s runner up, dropped from fourth to about eighth in the early going, but jumped back into the top five on lap six.
With Schilling driving away, Siri took second from Gular as Britten and Sheppard moved into fourth and fifth. Those three – Gular, Britten and Sheppard – fought hard for the final podium spot as Schilling entered lapped traffic just shy of a-third-of-the-way through the 35 lapper.
Britten and Sheppard made their way by Gular on lap 13, while Billy Pauch Jr. took seventh from his 15th starting position, inching by cars on the bottom of the speedway.
With plenty of jostling for position across all lanes of the race track, by the halfway point of the race, Schilling had built a lead of more than nine seconds and was battling with drivers running in the top 10.
“It got hairy in lapped traffic a few times,” Schilling said. “I just kept telling myself to be patient, and I didn’t really know where to be in turns one and two until TVD (Tanner Van Doren) showed me the line over there.
“I knew I was passing a lot of cars,” he noted of his massive lead. “But, I didn’t really feel comfortable in the middle in three and four, so I made sure to keep it right around the tires and force someone to drive around me.”
Despite a caution with three laps left, just after Sheppard had passed Siri for second, Schilling was on another level, cruising to his first career STSS victory. Sheppard settled for another runner-up finish, his second in two nights.
“I’m not even close right now,” Sheppard said on the home stretch. “I had a really good race car tonight, and we really got rolling there, but it didn’t really matter.”
Siri rounded out the podium in third.
“The car was really good tonight,” Siri said. “I had a lot of fun racing with Matt; the car works really well, but I’m out of shape.”
Britten and Larry Wight, who fell a lap down while racing in seventh but received a lucky dog on the caution with three laps to go, rounded out the top five.
In the 25-lap Crate 602 Sportsman feature, Brian Calabrese drove through the field and under Joe Toth to take the lead and the win for the $1,500 payday. Toth settled for second, ahead of Michael Ballestero, Yan Bussiere and Aydan Cipriano.
Still two nights remain in the fourth edition of the ‘Sunshine Swing,” including a $6,000-to-win feature on Friday and $8,000 is up for grabs on Saturday night.
The finish:
Feature (35 laps): David Schilling, Matt Sheppard, Tyler Siri, Peter Britten, Larry Wight, Billy Pauch, Jr., Mike Gular, Tanner Van Doren, Danny Bouc, Corey Cormier, Alex Yankowski, Erick Rudolph, Marc Johnson, Darren Smith, Rick Laubach, Stewart Friesen, Danny Creeden, Rusty Smith, Alex Payne, Chris Curtis, Jimmy Zacharias, Bobby Watkins, Francois Bellemare, Danny Johnson, Matt Stangle, Jordan Watson