| Sunbelt 125 Restarts Citrus Season | by Larry MacMillan
After a three-week hiatus for the Citrus County Fair, Citrus County Speedway drivers will be lighting up their racecars and getting ready to restart the 2003-racing season.
Promoters Billy Hooker and Jimmy Wear have put together a season filled with a variety of racecars from the super fast TBARA sprints and the FAST Sprints and the Super Late Models with three series making at least one stop at the 3/8ths mile.
Also included will be the 2nd leg of the Florida Pro Series, the 2nd leg of Powell Memorial, the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown Late Model Series plus the regular Citrus County Speedway Late Models in the point race for the local crown.
The FASTRUCK Series, the Pro Modified Series, both of which made early season appearances and put on a great show. Add the regular weekly appearances of the Sportsman, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Stocks in their race for their individual crowns and you have what appears to be the most versatile racing program in the state.
Saturday night will restart the season with a bang bringing in some of the best in Super Late Model drivers and cars in Florida with the Sunbelt Series 125. Possible drivers to look for are Dick and Wayne Anderson, Travis Kittleson, Dave Pletcher, Jonny Kay, Mike Fritts, Ricky Carlton, James Powell III, locals Danny Johnson, Jim Smith and Mike Bresnahan, Rich Pratt, Jeff Sloan, Daniel Keene Sr. and Jr. plus some of the other locals that want to get in on the action.
Time trials will establish the front 15 with a pill draw. Should more than thirty cars make the show, there will probably be a consi to establish the next 7 with two promoter’s choices making up the 24-car starting field. Tuning and testing is set for Friday night from 5 until 10 p.m. Final practice will open at 2 p.m. Saturday with time trials at 5.
Joining the reopening race card will be the Hobby Stocks, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Sportsman and Thunder Stocks. After three weeks of racing and a rain out, these up and coming hot shoes are ready to put the hammer down and get on with the business at hand.
With three weeks in the books and 31 races on the remaining schedule, Mike Veltman began the season where he left off and is at the top of the Sportsman point ladder and going after his fifth consecutive championship. Bill Oestreicher is just 16 points behind with rookie Mike Bell trailing by 30 points.
Bill Ryan holds out in fourth by one point over Johnny Sanders who won his first feature in the second week of the early season. Thus far only thirteen contenders have taken the green flag.
Twenty-one Street Stock contenders see young rookie Joe Viverito leading the point parade with one feature and two heat wins. Danny Cretty is coming on strong chasing the young gun and trailing by 18. Mickey Burns is turning on the heat in third and is 36 points out of the top spot. Ernie Reed has Owen Leigh chasing him in the race for fourth after three races.
After three races, Rob Wheatley holds the Mini Stock point lead with a four-point edge over Chris Hooker. Chris Thornton is in third just 11 points behind the leader. Dustin DesChamps trails Thornton by three and Phillip Joyner holds out in fifth 19 points behind DesChamps. There have been 21 drivers so far this season with more coming to build the class for the restart.
Richie Smith is playing double duty again this season and has a 41 point lead over the runner up Curtis Neumann in his quest for a third consecutive Hobby Stock crown. He will also see duty in his Late Model. Second year driver Neumann is holding off Dean Lawyer, Roy Perkins, Alvin Williamson and 23 other drivers in the race for second.
Twenty-three Thunder Stocks are chasing Roy Blotz in the early going for the Thunder Stock Crown. Pat Quick trails the leader by 40 points with Louie Cioe 64 points out in third. Lee Keller and Larry Triana are battling for fifth with Keller holding a 12-point advantage.
Citrus County Speedway modified the three and four turn during the off season and has really made it a passing race track and the conversion has resulted in increasing the size of the driving surface from ¼ mile to a 3/8ths mile track which the drivers are feeling very comfortable with. Citrus is now working on the 48th season. The track is located at the Citrus County Fairgrounds, 2 miles south of Inverness on U.S. 41, right next to the Inverness Airport.
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