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| King Tops Wild FASTRUCK Race - McCafferty Mod Mover at Ocala | By Dave Westerman
Bartow's Tommy King was perfect in FASTRUCK competition Friday night at Ocala Speedway although his Ford Truck looked less than perfect as it sat in victory lane following one of the wildest finishes ever seen here.
King, who came into the evening as the FASTRUCK point leader even though he was winless on the tour, added five more to his total by setting quick time over the 20 truck field at 16.277 seconds. However, per Series rules, King and James Wright III were relegated to the back of the starting grid as they were the top two finishers in the last FASTRUCK event held at Bronson Motor Speedway. Wright was clearly the favorite having won the Bronson race and the event here at Ocala back in May.
Billy Barstow had the pole for the start, but the initial attempt was aborted as Paul Grynewicz III lost a wheel in turn four as the field took the green.
Third starting Wendell Bristol made a quick charge to the lead as the race finally got under way with Tim Shaffner moving into second spot. Fourth-starting Paul Grynewicz began having problems and started dropping back just as Big Al Neumann spun his truck in turn three to bring out the caution on lap three. Grynewicz took his truck to the pits, but returned for the restart.
Shaffner was able to make an inside move on Bristol coming out of turn four to take the lead on lap six, but Bristol wasn't going to go away easy as he kept the pressure on Shaffner.
Paul Grynewicz had more trouble on lap 13 to bring out the caution as a right front tire went down. Grynewicz pitted and lost three laps before he could get back on the track.
Tommy King had been steadily working his way up from the back of the field, but would find himself back at the rear of the pack on lap 17 as he turned Tommy Carter around in turn one as they battled for sixth spot. The right front fender was torn off King's truck in the process, but the damage was only cosmetic.
On the restart, Bristol was pulling out all the stops to get back by Shaffner, but the Ft. Lauderdale driver was holding his ground as Marty Wolf was now on the prowl in third spot.
Jeff Firestine got a bit high and tapped the turn four wall on lap 22 to bring out the caution. Firestine continued only to drop out later with a transmission problem. Following the restart, George Gorham ran into the back of Wolf's truck, just hard enough to knock both front fenders and the grille off Gorham's truck as the debris on the track brought out yet another caution flag. Then Eddie Moran spun on the restart to keep the yellow out awhile longer.
As the field took the half-way signal, Shaffner was holding off a persistent Bristol with Wolf in third still being hounded by Gorham. Jimmy Gill had moved from his tenth starting spot to fifth followed by Carter, Wright, Gary Foxworth, King, Moran, and Bobby Owens.
On lap 28, Owens spun in turn four. as the caution was being displayed, the lapped truck of Donald Davis slowed abruptly in front of the leaders causing Shaffner and Bristol to get together. Shaffner was hit from behind by Bristol damaging both the front and back of his Chevy, while Bristol got hit by Wolf, causing considerable damage to the rear of his truck.
Since the caution was already out, the top three all retained their positions, but Shaffner, Bristol, and Wolf all restarted with considerable cosmetic damage done to their trucks.
Despite the damage, Shaffner was able to hold on to the top spot, but now had a freight train of trucks right behind him. Caution slowed the pace on lap 34 as Gorham spun, then again on lap 37 as Owens spun again in turn four.
Following the restart, Tommy King had enough of the freight train and went to the outside and began passing trucks as the fans were going crazy. Shaffner was doing all he could to keep his ill-handling machine in front as King pulled alongside Jimmy Gill and took over third.
As the field took the two-to-go signal, Bristol apparently got into Shaffner and the two tangled with Marty Wolf sliding into the infield to avoid the incident. No caution was thrown as King took over the lead and Wright charged by Gill, who had to slow to avoid the other crashing cars, but Gill attempted to re-pass Wright in turn one on the white flag lap and the two trucks crashed hard into the turn one wall.
The checkered flag was already out as King crossed the stripe for his first career victory in the FASTRUCK Series after many second and third place finishes. Meanwhile, Wright was doing his best impersonation of and Olympic runner as the visibly upset driver was looking to take out his frustrations on Gill. Track officials were able to subdue Wright and "cooler heads" eventually prevailed.
King and his P&H Mining Crew were high-fiving in victory lane with King choking back words as he dedicated the win to a friend and crew member who lost his life in a trucking accident earlier in the week.
A surprised Gary Foxworth, who made two pit stops early in the race to repair damage to his truck, came home second in his Dodge followed by local favorite Tommy Carter, George Gorham and Billy Barstow. Eddie Moran, Tim Shaffner, James Wright III, Jimmy Gill, and Marty Wolf rounded out the top ten once the scoring was finally sorted out.
Clermont's Alan McCafferty drove his Central Florida Machine and Speed "Silver Bullet" to a wire-to-wire victory in the WIND-FM Classic Rock Modifieds.
Three big crashes saw several cars eliminated, but McCafferty was able to hold off a very determined Jeremy Gerstner to score his second win of 2003. Gerstner added to his point lead with his second place finish while John Foerg came back from a crash with a lapped car to claim third.
John Gerstner held off Bob Masciarelli for fourth with Larry Goolsby, Bobby Valeo, Rick Hall, Kevyn Terry, and Danny Hill completing the top ten.
Modified heats were won by Johnnie Newsome, David Baxley and Jeremy Gerstner.
Doc Batson of Inverness got around Frank Buchanan on lap eight then went on to score his third Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman win of the year.
Batson started fifth but was on the charge early. Buchanan stayed with Batson after he lost the lead, but a late race caution allowed Roger Damron to close in and put the pressure on the leaders.
Batson was up to the task as he held off Buchanan and Damron, who started last after missing his heat race. William Edwards and Patrick Mennenga crossed the line in fourth and fifth.
Sportsman heats went to Batson and Edwards.
A.J. Schreier has really turned things around in the K-Country 93.7 FM Street Stocks.
Schreier used his pole position to his advantage as he streaked away from the field only to see his lead wiped out with one lap to go when Doug Webster rode up the frontstretch wall and eventually smacked the pit entrance wall.
Webster was OK but his car was done for the evening.
Schreier was able to hold off a furious last lap charge by point leader Paul "Tweety" Fletcher to grab his second win in a row. David Chastain took the checker third followed by Tommy Roberts and Estle Morrow.
Fletcher and Mike Fiddia took the Street Stock heat wins.
Ric Fort slipped by Justin Durbin on lap ten and drove his Toyota to his seventh win of the year in the Four Cylinder Stocks.
Durbin held on for second over Rick Kuhn, Harold Barup and Festus Barup.
Heats for Four Cylinder Stocks were won by Durbin and Tom Ellis.
Laura Fletcher picked up her fourth win of the year in the V-8 stocks passing Emmitt Bottoms with two laps to go. Bottoms was second trailed by Dan Tremblay, Shelby Mather, and Hall Robertson.
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