Citrus County Speedway wrapped up its 50th Anniversary regular season with some spectacular, no holds barred, run for points supremacy in three regular divisions and two visiting traveling series plus the First Leg of the Triple Crown Super Late Model 125.
It turned out to be a shoot out to end all shoot outs plus Dare To Win races for the Super Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Stocks. The season finale ended in a 28 car amateur Powder Puff race. If you missed this one you missed a barn burner.
Twenty three Super Late Models kicked off the Triple Crown qualifications in time trials with Jeff Choquette taking fast time at 13.622 seconds on the 3/8ths mile in the Ron Arrowood racing machine. Local star Jim Smith used his experience on his home track in his J.D. Smith/Dyna Body Fitness racer turning a 13.741 lap followed by another local that started his career at Citrus with a 13.750.
Choquette pulled the 7 pill putting Wayne Anderson on the pole and Mike Bresnahan on the outside. When the green fell for the 125 Bresnahan won the drag race to turn one and took the early lead after a see saw, side by side, battle with Anderson.
Ten laps later Anderson made the pass to take the point and despite several caution flags held on for most of the first 100 laps of the race with Jeff Scofield lurking in third at a safe distance from the front runners.
Anderson’s tires seem to go away opening the door for Bresnahan to retake the lead in the late going with Scofield moving into second and starting to put the pressure on.
A caution came out at lap 114 and on the restart Bresnahan took off with what look like a win for the final 10 laps when he went wide off turn one loosing power and went directly to the pits putting Scofield on the point.
Coming off turn four in the run for the checkers a five car traffic jam developed that changed the final finish from second on back to tenth.
Scofield took the win followed by 19th starter Danny Johnson in the Johnson’s Pontiac. Fast Qualifier Jeff Choquette moved from fifth on the final lap to third followed by Scott Grossenbacher in the SRD Automotive machine, Daniel Webster in the Glenn Flemming Construction Special to round out the top five. James Powell, Rich Pratt, Jason Boyd and Wayne Anderson wrapped up the top ten.
The second race of the series will be next weekend for the Governor’s Cup at New Smyrna Speedway. The third leg of the Triple Crown is scheduled for DeSoto Speedway.
The Florida Mini Cup Series closed out their season at Citrus with a 13 car Pro field and 9 car Jr. line up. Brett Jameson was the star of the Pros with a 30 lap feature win followed by Rick Auriemma, Terry Tullis, Larry Folino and Mike Nolt. The Jr. stand out was Thomas Warnick in their 20 lap main followed by Daniel Miller, Blake Orr, Devon McLeod and 2005 Series Champion Seth Greco.
On the local scene 38 Hobby Stocks ran in a 30 lap showdown that saw Bobby Taylor take the win in the crash fest that left a lot of cars by the wayside before it was all over. This was the only division that the Championship was still in question and Curtis Flanagan beat Bill Ryan by 20 points just by taking the heat win and the green flag in the feature. Ryan ran second in a brilliant run through traffic from 21st to finish second. John Makula held out for third followed by new comer Michael Stallnaker and John Zuidema. The four heat winners were Larry Triana, Tim Alexander, Makula and Curtis Flanagan. A total of 104 different Hobby Stock drivers earned points in 2005.
Tom Posavec made a last lap pass swapping paint in his Super Stock win Saturday night with Rusty Bremer who led from the green flag to lap 19 over the 12 car field. James Henick, John Mitchell and Dustin Aaron took the balance of the top five spots. Track Champion Bobby Taylor finished sixth. Heat wins went to Aaron and Posavec.
Twenty eight Thunder Stocks closed out their season with Tim Wilson and 2005 Champ Steven Stinedurf taking the checkered flag in that order. Post race inspection D.Q.’d both cars for too much camber in the right front wheel. Fred Henick inherited his first win of the season over Glen Colyer, Victor Shahid, Megan Spicer and Mike Dubbs. Heat wins went to Henick, Colyer and Wayne Heater.
Dare to Win races were run for drivers who had earned points without a heat, feature win or DQ through the season. Sixteen Hobby Stocks qualified with Sheldon Kinser taking the win. Jim Altobelli won over the 5 car Street Stock division and Jessie Mullis took the Thunder Stock Win.
The scheduled 20 lap amateur Powder Puff Derby saw 28 cars take the green flag and it turned into a demolition derby in the oval and was called because of the curfew after 12 laps. The track videotographer and host on the WYKE Full Throttle Show Candi Lawson made herself proud in her first stockcar race ever with the win. The race ended with a caution coming out for one of the many crashes in the wild ladies race.
The regular season may be over but there will be a Grand Finale on Saturday night December 10th with the Winter Spectacular featuring the Open Wheel Modifieds in a 100 lap special plus Mini Stocks and Hobby Stocks in 50 lap main events. Add the ever popular School Bus Figure 8 race and the Boat Trailer Race and it will be a final farewell to the 50th Anniversary celebration at Citrus County Speedway. The annual Awards Banquet is scheduled for Friday night December 16th at the Citrus County Auditorium. Get your tickets early as there will be no tickets sold at the door.
Citrus County Speedway Results 11/12/05
Triple Crown 125 – 125 Laps - 22 Cars
1. #07 Jeff Scofield
2. #96 Danny Johnson
3. #70 Jeff Choquette
4. #09 Scott Grossenbacher
5. #1x Daniel Webster
6. #57 James Powell
7. # 0 Rich Pratt
8. #74 Jason Boyd
9. #84 Wayne Anderson
10.#47 Chris Fontaine
11.#32 Jim Smith
12.#5k Daniel Keene
13.#10 Ryan Foster
14.#70x James Glover
15.#77 Mike Bresnahan
16. # 3 Chris Hooker
17.#20 Scott Millar
18. #98 Wayne Morris
19.#00 Robert Yoho
20.# 1 Fain Skinner
21.#12 Steve Weaver
22.#38 C.J. Calabrese
Florida Mini Cup All Pro Feature – 30 Laps – 13 Cars
