James Gilmore (47) and Tim Anderson (99) fought to the finish for the same piece of real estate. They duked it out in the late model class at the 3/8-mile Southern Raceway in Milton, Florida.
“We both wanted to be in the black [part of the racing surface],” Gilmore, Milton, Florida, said. “As [the track] rubbers up, you may get one-and-a-half car widths of black, so it has a groove and a half. If you get out of the black, you are going backwards. The car wont handle — you’ll slide and slip.”
To make matters worse for the drivers — and more exciting for the fans —a few marbles were thrown in.
“Guys were mowing down the berm and throwing loose stuff all across the track,” said Gilmore.”
With six laps to go, the two collided in the photo presented with this story.
“My right-hand door bar climbed his wheel,” Anderson, of Pensacola, Florida, said. “We were hung up for a second or two, and then we kept racing.”
The two entered the night competing for the track championship, with Anderson up 18 markers over Gilmore. Gilmore’s sixth-place finish gained him two points on Anderson, who finished seventh.
Hurricane Sally threw a monkey wrench into the championship battle. It drenched Southern Raceway with 20 inches of rain, per the track, filling the oval with water to the point of it almost reaching the bottom of the track’s walls. While it forced Southern Raceway to adjust its schedule, they’ll host the season finale for championship points on October 10. Both James Gilmore and Tim Anderson eagerly await another rematch.
“Even though I am 16 points ahead, I still want one more race at Southern Raceway,” said Anderson. “Me and Gilmore talk once in a while. On the track, we’re just two old guys going at it and having fun.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
