| Bresnahan Ends 4 Week Speedway Hiatus with $2,000 Late Model Win | by Larry MacMillan
After three rainouts and a scheduled week off, Citrus County Speedway finally got the second half of the 2003 season back on track. Warm and humid weather greeted a full pit, a great grandstand full of fans and the new General Manager and Operations Director Tim Christman, back to the racing scene at central Florida’s action attraction.
Christman had an extended drivers meeting to introduce his intentions to help make this one of the outstanding short tracks in the nation and the drivers and owners complied with seven action packed feature races. Christman’s first night also proved that he just may have some pull with the weather department with no threat of rain all night long for the first time in four weeks.
Jim Smith locked in the $100 bonus for fast qualifying time of 13.498 seconds for the rain delayed 75 lap Late Model point race with a $2,000 win purse on the line. Smith drew the #8 pill indicating the top 8 qualifiers would pull a pill for their starting positions and then pulled the 6 pill for his spot. Fifteen year old Brock Oglesby pulled the one pill to start on the pole with Scott Grossenbacher taking the outside pole. Billy Bechtelheimer, Mike Bresnahan, Wayne Anderson, Jim Smith, Ricky Carlton and Herb Neumann Jr. rounding out the top eight.
Twenty cars took the green flag and Oglesby set the early pace with Grossenbacher and Bresnahan battling for the second spot in the early going. The first 25 laps ran under green before Cyrus Robinson brought on the first of four cautions with a spin on turn 1 and 2. On the restart Bresnahan had established a solid second place run and paced Oglesby for the next 20 laps before making the pass on young Oglesby. From there on it was Bresnahan’s race despite two more caution flags closing the field before the checkers came out in lap 75. Oglesby held off the rest of the 13 finishers for a $1,000 second place finish followed by Ricky Carlton, Jim Smith, Herb Neumann Jr., Scott Grossenbacher, Danny Johnson, Herb Hoefler, JimmyThompson and Wayne Anderson to round out the top ten. Local Late Models will have the next two weeks off to make room for the FAST Trucks next Saturday and the TBARA Sprint cars on Saturday August 2nd.
In other action, J.D. Goff won the pole in the Sportsman feature, lost the lead to Stephen Anderson in lap 10 of their 30 lap feature only to regain it in lap 20 when Anderson lost it on turn four to bring on the caution flag. Goff went on to win his second feature of the season followed closely by Mike Bell, Mike Veltman, John Chance and Kyle Bookmiller in a nose to tail finish over the 16 car field.
Defending champion Mike Bell nursed an ailing motor in the final laps of the Street Stock feature to hold off a 17 car field for the win in their 30 lap feature run. Travis Nichols came from his 17th starting spot to take second over Ernie Reed who started 7th, 5th starting Daniel Webster and Mickey Burns who started 10th. Ten cars finished the race.
Twelve cars took the green in the Mini Stock 30 lap main. Chris Hooker started 10th and moved through traffic to challenge Phillip Joyner Jr. for the lead going into the final five laps. Joyner lost power in lap 25 and Hooker inherited the lead, the win and the point lead in the division. Twelfth starter Richard Kelly Jr. had his way with the rest of the traffic for a second place finish over early leader and point leader for most of the season, Chris Thornton. George Neumann held out for fourth place over Tom Giddings.
Twenty six Hobby Stockers took the green for their 30 lap main and Sport Wilson won his fourth in a row and 8th of the season from the scratch starting position. Sport used the outside groove all the way to the front in just 15 laps before he checked out on the rest of the field. Brother Wes Wilson tried to reel Sport in but had his hands full with Roy Perkins putting on the heat in the race for second. Point leader Richie Smith also moved from the rear of the field to pull out a fourth place finish over Dean Lawyer.
Robert Aaron was again the dominant force in a wild Figure 8 race with 19 cars charging through the intersection in numerous close calls. The entire field managed to avoid any major crashes but seven starters didn’t finish. Aaron took the flag to flag win with Rodney Davidson locking on to Aaron all the way to the checkers. Dwayne Fults held out for third over Rick Botts and Ronnie Powell.
Thunder Stocks wrapped up the action with Lee Keller marching from 12th to the point and the win over the 23 starters in the 30 lap finale for the action packed night. Rick Badessa seesawed from second to fourth and back to second at the checkers over Michael Long, Louie Cioe, and Chris Brunner. Point leader Pat Quick was coming on strong early in the race when she lost power in lap five going for fifth place. She headed to the pits and did return to salvage a 15th place finish and was the last car to finish the race.
Next Saturday night features the FAST Trucks, Sportsman, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Stocks.
Citrus County Speedway Results 07/19/03
Late Model Feature – 75 Laps – 20 Cars
1. # 3x Mike Bresnahan
2. #88 Brock Oglesby
3. # 3 Ricky Carlton
4. #32 Jim Smith
5. #98 Herb Neumann Jr.
6. #09 Scott Grossenbacher
7. #96 Danny Johnson
8. #22 Herb Hoefler
9. #90 Jimmy Thompson
10.#84 Wayne Anderson
11.# 1 Dale Sanders
12.#42 Richie Smith
13.#18 Jared Allison
14.# 6 Billy Bechtelheimer
15.#15 Mike Hinegardner
16.#54 Kevin Bryant
17.#74 Hubert Simmons
18.#08 John Buzenec
19.#30 Cyrus Robinson
20.#69 Rex Struble
Sportsman Feature – 30 Laps – 16 Cars
1. #14 J.D. Goff
2. #17 Mike Bell
3. #55 Mike Veltman
4. #96 John Chance
5. #03 Kyle Bookmiller
6. #69 Rex Struble
7. # 6 David White
8. #36 Johnny Sanders
9. # 0 Bill Oesterricher
10.#83 Glen Castro
Street Stock Feature – 30 Laps – 17 Cars
1. #17 Mike Bell
2. # 2 Travis Nichols
3. #55 Ernie Reed
4. # 1 Daniel Webster
5. #22 Mickey Burns
6. #01 Danny Cretty
7. #69 Melvin Farmer
8. #53 James Green
9. #33x Art Brueningsen
10.# 7 Michael Jordan Jr.
Mini Stock Feature – 30 Laps – 12 Cars
1. #1x Chris Hooker
2. #61 Richard Kelly Jr.
3. #24 Chris Thornton
4. # 3 George Neumann
5. #83 Tom Giddings
6. #13 Steve Griffin
7. #7c Clint Foley
8. #44 Mike Lawhorn
9. #95 Richard Stroud
10.#62 David Larson
Hobby Stock Feature – 30 Laps – 27 Cars
1. #94 Sports Wilson – 8th Feature win
2. #85 Wes Wilson
3. #07 Ray Perkins
4. #42 Richie Smith
5. #19 Dean Lawyer
6. # 2 Terry Cater
7. #77 Travis Nichols
8. #09 Alvin Williamson
9. #00 Todd Downs
10.#01 Curtis Neumann
Thunder Stock Feature – 30 Laps – 24 Cars
1. #21 Lee Keller
2. #88 Rick Badessa
3. #35 Michael Long
4. #88x Louie Cioe
5. #61 Chris Bruner
6. #28
7. # 8 Jason White
8. #26 John Donahue
9. #03 Mike Dubbs
10.#0x Steve Stinedorf
Figure 8 Feature – 20 Laps – 19 Cars
1. # 6 Robert Aaron
2. #89 Rodney Davidson
3. # 1 Dwayne Fults
4. #70 Rick Botts
5. #69 Ronnie Powell
6. #81 Ken Crews
7. # 9 “Thunder”?
8. #21o Cody Moore
9. #21b Carl McPeak
10.#98 Storman Norman
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