| Charlotte County Opens 2003 Season to Full House | By Jack Smith
Standing room only was the situation at Charlotte County Speedway Saturday night as the 3/8 mile track opened its regular season of points racing.
The speedway has a whole new look with the pits moved out of the infield and a newly paved surface, making for a much more fan friendly race track.
The fans were treated to a full slate of racing plus the much anticipated Motorcycle Demo Derby and stunt show by the Bad Boy Riding Crew (www.bbrc.com).
The big race of the night was the 35 lap Late Model show which was dominated by fast qualifier Steve Arnold, whose fastest lap time was 14.860.
The race started with two no-starts, with turn three being a little tricky for the racers. Randy Fox and Glenn Morris got caught up in turn three on the second attempt to start the race and though both cars were heavily damaged, they both stayed in the race and moved toward the front.
Pole sitter Frank Welch nearly lost it coming off four in the early going but managed to stay off the wall and continued up front. Not for long though, as Steve Arnold roared through the pack in his black number 19 and grabbed the lead with Fox and Morris following.
The race was interupted by a few more cautions, one of which provided a very scary moment with Buzz Martin's machine flipped upside down in turn two and a small fire under the hood. He got out and and was apparently not injured, though later a Charlotte County Ambulance transported him for further observation.
Arnold, a former Fastruck racer and Cape Coral resident, picked up the #19 from Mike Greenwell last season. He looked very strong on this Saturday and after the half way mark he breezed home with the victory, with Joe Sumansky in second and Welch in third.
Chris Oncken drove his number 61 to victory in the Road Warrior 25 lap race. Oncken had quite a battle for about 10 laps with #30 Chris Huntoon and #19 Brandon Anderson. But by the halfway mark the 61 had checked out, leaving Huntoon and Anderson to battle for second.
At the intermission the Bad Boys Riding Crew performed 15 minutes of awesome stunt driving after the freakshow called a Motorcycle Demo Derby was held on the front straight.
The fans went wild, particularly the hundreds of kids lining the fence to watch this spectacle brought to town by promoter LeRoy Davidson.
Bobby Anderson was deemed the winner of the derby, but truthfully this reporter has no clue how they arrived at that decision.
The BBRC boys really awed the fans with their stunts, riding at speed down the front straight sitting backwards, standing up with no hands, on the front wheel only and burnouts that had the Charlotte staff cringing at the thought of damage to new pavement.
The longtime fans of Cahrlotte County racing were thrilled with the huge turnout, "I was in tears to see all the cars in the parking lot" one oldtimer said, "I haven't seen this many cars in the lot since LeRoy had the track before, he has shown everybody".
Another regular of the speedway said "it's awesome, in the five years I've been coming here there's never been a crowd like this". She continued "and you can see the whole track".
 One true oldtimer was leaving the track at the end of the evening and Davidson spotted the cap the older fellow was wearing.
He identified it as a hat from the original opening night in 1990 when Davidson first built the track.
The fellow said he had been to the track every Saturday during the first five years, but this was the first time in several years.
The man's name was Marvin Davis, a youngster at 92 years of age.
He said he had to get home to get up early to go visit his older brother in Miami. Seems his brother is 101.
Next Saturday the Charlotte fans will get treated to a 100 lap Late Model race with an $11,000 purse.
The remainder of the finishing orders are as follows:
Late Model
1. 19 Steve Arnold
2. 12 Joe Sumansky
3. 96 Frank Welch
4. 29 Mike Hovis
5. 00 Ronnie Heard
6. 94 Scott Kleiber
7. 36 Al Fradette
8. 07 Troy McNabb
9. 107 Glenn Morris
10. 88 Randy Fox
11. 62 Buzz Martin
12 44 Craig Seewald
13. 82 Vince Fermosa
14. 2 Kevin Murphy
15. 23 Cory Collum
Outlaw Modified
1. 41 Raymond Jones
2. 55 Lance Hoversen
3. 7 Phillip Brigham
4. 90 Bobby Dayton
5. 11 Billy Campbell
6. 1 Steve Quick
7. 15 Doug Hopper
8. 69 Bruno Millet
9. 71 Patrick Brigham
10. 4 Bill Mattress
11. 25 Kelly Curl
12. 2 Carlos Puig
13. 60 Dan Curl
14. 78 Neal Horner
15. 16 Mark Boalch
16. 5 Ted Hoversen
17. 22 Alison Kircher
18. 8 Randy Sands
19. 18 Fred Matson
20. 24 Don Peacock
21. 94 (DNS) Christy Boyett
Super Stock
1. 7 Danny Caylor
2. 31 Elbert Butts
3. 23 Brian Richardson
4. 11 Doug Spitzer
5. 10 Eric Smith
6. 13 Randy Miller
7. 83 John Hanuschik
8. 91x John Plakiotis
9. 91 Ander Jackson
10. 56 Walt Korkiner
11. 19 Greg Anderson
12. 4 Wayne Wilson
13. 5 Bob Waltz
14. 112 Billy VanDevender
15. 8 George Tanner
16. 97 Kevin Mehl
17. 04 Chuck Stevens
Road Warrior
1. 61 Chris Oncken
2. 30 Chris Huntoon
3. 19 Brandon Anderson
4. 1 Jesse Gargus
5. 31 Willard Hedden
6. 18 Shane Leonard
7. 40 Don Justice
8. 11 Robert Hendry
9. 88 Larry Rudd
10. 29 Rob Popkin
11. 54 Ken Heckert
12. 17 Fred Wilson
13. 09 Doug Raastad
Thunder Truck
1. 37 Cheryl Weaver
2. 22 John Garrett
3. 8 Mike Bialecki
4. 24 Justin Bryant
5. 44 Raymond Tucker
6. 13 Jay Bryant
7. 56 Bob Charette
8. 14 Randy Layman
9. 93 Shawn Wade
10. 16 James Wright
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