After two weeks of down time due to weather conditions Citrus County Speedway racers and fans were ready to turn up the wick and make up for lost time.
Twenty TBARA Winged Sprinters made the trip to get back into action after their rained out race last Saturday night and again proved that there are no limits to the excitement and speed they can turn on at Citrus.
Only 19 of the 20 Sprint cars registered were able to make the field for the 30 lap main event with Jim Alvis on the pole and Shane Butler on the outside lane after winning the first two heats.
It took three attempts to get the race going as Jim Alvis was a little too anxious to take the point. On the third attempt they got a good start and Alvis launched his 800 horsepower rocket to the point and continued to set the pace for the first 16 laps.
The rest of the field tried to find their way through some very heavy traffic and three extremely slow cars that were definitely outclassed by the regulars on the series trail and caused some passing problems. The race only saw four caution flags and saw Keith Butler, point leader Troy DeCaire and 5 time winner David Steele getting disqualified by officials with TBARA.
Dude Teate moved from 5th to the point in lap 17 and led the field to the checkered flag for his first win of 2007. Jim Alvis held out for a distant second with Shane Butler chasing him to the line for a third place finish.
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Bo Hartley moved from his 10th starting spot to outrun rookie of the year competitor Brian Gingras in the race for fourth. Rounding out the top ten were Gary Gimmler, Mark Gimmler, Larry Brazil Jr., all finishing 30 laps with the final two, one lap down, Stan Butler and Tommy Nichols.
Dude Teate also added the third heat to his resume for the evening. Ben Fritz did not start his heat or the feature.
TBARA Citrus County Speedway, September 9, 2007
FEATURE FINISH: 1) 0 Dude Teate; 2) 21 Jim Alvis; 3) 14 Shane Butler; 4) 3X Bo Hartley; 5) 99 Brian Gingras; 6) 29 Gary Gimmler; 7) 51 Mark Gimmler; 8) 21B Larry J Brazil Jr; 9) 18 Stan Butler; 10) 55 Tommy Nichols; 11) 9X Michael Smith; 12) 41 Steve Heisler; 13) 8 Nick Manikis (DNF) ; 14) 44 Bill Pettijohn (DNF); 15) 66 Kipp Beard (DNF); 16) 5s Stephen Sinwald (DNF)
The 16 of Ben Fritz was not able to start the feature race. The 19 of Keith Butler, the 68 driven by Troy DeCaire and the 91 driven by David Steele were disqualified.
The next TBARA race is the Frank Riddle Memorial with a 50 lap feature race on Saturday, September 29, at Desoto Super Speedway.
16 Ben Fritz - DNS
HEAT 1 1) 14 Shane Butler 2) 91 David Steele 3) 21B Larry Brazil Jr. 4) 66 Kipp Beard 5) 51 Mark Gimmler 6) 9X Michael Smith 7) 5s Stephen Sinwald
HEAT 2 1) 21 Jim Alvis 2) 19 Keith Butler 3) 99 Brian Gingras 4) 18 Stan Butler 5) 55 Tommy Nichols 6) 8 Nick Manikis 7) 41 Steve Heisler
HEAT 3 1) 0 Dude Teate 2) 68 Troy DeCaire 3) 29 Gary Gimmler 4) 3X Bo Hartley 5) 44 Bill Pettijohn
