Wild Night at Ocala - Williams Tops SLM...Kuhn Gets First 4 Cyl Win
by Dave Westerman
There was action aplenty Friday night at Ocala Speedway helping warm up a good crowd of chilled fans as all six regular divisions were in competition.
Mike Bresnehan led the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Model field in qualifying with a lap of 15.534 seconds and drew the pole for the feature.
After a false start caused by debris on the track, Bresnehan quickly assumed the top spot only to see the caution fly at the end of the first lap as Robbie Smith got tangled up with a couple of other cars in turn four, losing the rear bodywork on his new car in the process. Following the restart, Bresnehan set sail with Patrick Williams right on his bumper. They ran that way until lap seven when the red flag came out for a hard crash in turn four. Mark Emberson was able to drive his mangled car to the pits while Troy Fowler took a hard shot into the wall. Fowler was OK but his car was off on the Midway Transmission wrecker's hook.
Just after the restart, Williams dove under Bresnehan in turn three and the two made contact with Bresnehan sliding through the infield. No caution was displayed as Bresnehan lost several positions before he could get back on the racing surface.
On lap 16, Kevin Bryant spun while battling for second place, relegating himself to the back of the field for the restart and giving Bresnehan a new lease on life.
Williams continued to hold a rather healthy lead as Rusty Dixon and E.J. Wise fought for second with Bresnehan flying back through traffic.
Bryant and Troy Robinson got together coming out of turn four on lap 21 causing considerable damage to both cars but no caution flag. Robinson retired his mount to the infield while Bryant soldiered on. Bresnehan finally got the caution flag he needed on lap 27 as Mac McCullough looped his car. This gave Bresnehan an opportunity to line up right behind the leaders on the restart and he began to pick them off one by one eventually moving to second spot, yet well behind a flying Williams.
Pete Close, Jr., making an impressive first Super Late Model start, got turned around on lap 44 while running sixth to bring out the final caution and set up an apparent confrontation for the lead between Williams and Bresnehan.
However, Williams had his car dialed in to perfection as he pulled away from Bresnehan over the final five laps to secure the victory for his Armstrong Homes/Petty Quarter Horses race team, their first of the season.
"I sure hate to win one like that," said Williams, referring to the incident with Bresnehan. "I've lost a few like that recently and as tough as the competition is right now, I'll take 'em any way I can get 'em and I'm sure Mike knows there was nothing intentional on my part," he said.
Following Williams and Bresnehan in third was Rusty Dixon while Kevin Bryant did a superb job over the final laps in a battered car to come back for fourth. E.J. Wise struggled with a sick engine but held on for fifth. Mac McCullough, Close, Tim Shull, Robbie Smith, and James Findley rounded out the top ten.
Ocala driver Rick Kuhn had been close on several occasions, but had never won a race until Friday night and he did it by dominating the Four Cylinder Stock feature.
Kuhn took the lead from Randy Futch on lap three and never looked back despite a late race caution that allowed point leader Tom Ellis and Ric Fort a chance to close in for one last shot.
Kuhn was well up to the task on this night as he stormed to a very popular victory in his RCB Signs sponsored Toyota. Ellis crossed the line in second just ahead of Fort while Futch held on for fourth with Jeff Oglesby fifth.
Weird Harold Barup was unhurt when his car climbed on top of the turn two wall after locking horns with Dan Sanderson.
Four Cylinder Stock heats were won by Kuhn, Ellis, and Justin Durbin. For the first time in recent memory, three heat races were needed to set the feature field in the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman class with several new cars making their debut.
Bob Masciarelli, Roger Damron, and Big John Smith topped the heats with Patrick Mennenga and Smith making up row one for the start of the 15 lap feature.
This one would turn ugly in a hurry as Smith was forced high into the wall out of turn four. After hitting the wall, Smith's car slid back down the track where he collected Robbie Cooper's machine sending both cars into the turn one wall with Smith taking a very hard hit. Cooper drove his machine back to the pits while Smith was assisted from his battered Camaro. Smith was checked out later by Marion County EMT's but appeared to be just shaken up.
On the restart, Mennenga assumed the point with a full-scale war going on behind him for second. On lap five, Cooper, who had returned to the track, had the front bumper come off his car and he ran over it, causing him to spin wildly on the frontstretch. Mennenga slipped high on the restart allowing Frank Buchanan and Bob Masciarelli to motor by for first and second.
Action had the fans on their feet but things got calmed down when Tommy Carter spun on lap twelve, setting up a three lap dash to the checker. Going into turn three following the restart, Buchanan and Masciarelli got together, bringing out the final yellow flag of the race and sending both to the tail of the pack.
Mennenga now found himself back out front and he made no mistakes over the final three laps despite tremendous pressure from second place finisher Roger Damron. Michael Jordan, Jr. had a strong run for third just ahead of Doc Batson and the new car of Travis Nichols. Another huge field of K-Country 93.7 FM Street Stocks greeted fans and produced the wild action they are noted for.
Polesitter Donnie Pitts got sideways coming out of turn four, came down the track, and slammed into Paul Fletcher's new car on lap two. Pitts was done for the night, while the top-notch construction of Fletcher's car was evident as he replaced two tires and came back out to eventually finish 12th.
Another big wreck claimed the cars of Mike Rosa and "B" Main winner Bobby Taylor on lap four before things settled down a bit. Kenny Abney dogged early leader Kyle Maynard and took the lead near mid race with only a lap 13 caution for Krystal Batson's turn four spin slowing the action.
Abney crossed the stripe for the apparent win but was later disqualified in tech. Abney's car, a former Sportsman machine was described by head tech inspector Rennie Wilbanks as still being a "little to much Sportsman."
Kyle Maynard thus inherited the win, his second in a row and quite a feat considering the number of quality cars in the class. Tommy Roberts moved up to second in the rundown with Doug Webster finishing in third spot for the fourth time this year in six races. Tom Fralish and Mike Wilson rounded out the top five with heat race wins being taken by Abney, Webster, and Wilson.
The WIND-FM Open Wheel Modified field may have been a bit short on cars but it certainly wasn't short on action. Jeremy Gerstner started on the pole and won the 20-lap race, but it was no cakewalk. Fast qualifier David Baxley was challenging for the lead on lap five when he and Gerstner got together in turn three with Baxley spinning and going to the rear of the field.
Jamie Tinkham got the jump on Gerstner following the restart but held the point for only one lap before Gerstner motored back by. Gerstner got another scare on lap 11 when Bobby Valeo spun in front of him while being lapped. This caution allowed David Baxley to move up on Tinkham's rear bumper and he promptly worked his way back to second and began to put the pressure once again on Gerstner.
Gerstner slipped sideways coming out of turn four on lap 15. Baxley had to get hard on the brakes to avoid running over Gerstner and spun again to bring out the final caution. Gerstner held on for the win on what he described as "a very slick track" with Tinkham posting his best finish of the year in second just in front of Johnnie "The Rat" Newsome. Baxley, who was celebrating his birthday, recovered for fourth with John Foerg completing the top five.
Rick Sirmans made it back to back wins in the Mini Stocks in a wild race which included a multi-car crash that knocked out the cars of Marlon Durbin, Don Stroshal and Jake Garver.
This one would be a race-long battle for the lead. Jeff Stalnkaker, Jr. led the opening four rounds until Sirmans took over for the first time.
Sirmans' car wasn't very good on restarts and following the big crash on lap nine, Clint Foley powered by Sirmans for the lead on the restart.
Sirmans was not to be denied as he re-passed Foley for the top spot on lap 13 and survived a restart with one lap to go to take the victory for the second time in as many weeks. Foley held on to the second spot taking the checker just ahead of point leader Larry Goolsby, Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. and Jeff Stalnaker, Jr. Sirmans and Stalnaker, Jr. won the heats.
The K-Country Street Stocks run for 50 laps next Friday night while fans will also be treated to racing action from the Classic Auto Racing Series.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 4/11/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (%0 Laps):
1) Patrick Williams #57 2) Mike Bresnehan #3 3) Rusty Dixon #97 4) Kevin Bryant #54 5) E.J. Wise #7 6) Mac McCullough #86 7) Pete Close, Jr. #64 8) Tim Shull #8 9) Robbie Smith #01 10) James Findley #89 11) Bob Hughes #13 12) Troy Robinson #0 13) Troy Fowler #1 14) Mark Emberson #30 15) Gig Smith #23 16) Lee McCullough #H20 17) Louis Beldock #05
WIND-FM MODIFIEDS (20 Laps):
1) Jeremy Gerstner #70 2) Jamie Tinkham #98 3) Johnnie Newsome #31 4) David Baxley #64 5) John Foerg #1 6) Glen Ervin #0 7) Paul Combast #90 8) Bobby Valeo #8 9) Patrick Mennenga #7
MINI-STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Rick Sirmans #5 2) Clint Foley #7 3) Larry Goolsby #27 4) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #10B 5) Jeff Stalnaker, Jr. #8R 6) Rocky Bowden #1 7) Wayne Wells #23 8) Tim Grubaugh #8B 9) Jake Garver #10R 10) Don Stroshal #15 11) Marlon Durbin #72 12) A,J. Schreier #98
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (15 Laps):
1) Patrick Mennenga #16 2) Roger Damron #76D 3) Michael Jordan, Jr. #7 4) Doc Batson #B4 5) Travis Nichols #2 6) Tom Posavec #01 7) Charles Hornbeak #67 8) Waly Schneider #57 9) Bob Masciarelli #72 10) Frank Buchanan #07 11) Kathy Ray #63 12) Bryson Ryker #48 13) Tommy Carter #86 14) Robbie Cooper #98 15) Ray Reavis #40 16) Jim Higginbotham #76 17) Big John Smith #31 18) Larry Crews #L39 DNS Steve Seymour #88 DNS Mickey Burns #22
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Kyle Maynard #07 2) Tommy Roberts #44 3) Doug Webster #72 4) Tom Fralish #1 5) Mike Wilson #28 6) David Chastain #17 7) Mark Mitchell #71 8) Don Maynard #15 9) Mike Fiddia #41 10) Jamie Dunn #24 11) Rick Bass #21 12) Paul Fletcher #94 13) Krystal Batson #4 14) Bobby Carter #99 15) Sid Mosbrucker #62 16) Rick Hart #13 17) Estle Morrow #02 18) Steve West #78 19) Mike Rosa #76 20) Harold Edwards #65 21) Bobby Taylor #66 22) Gordon Cade #21X 23) Donnie Pitts #57 24) William O'Quinn #09 DQ: Kenny Abney #6X DNQ: Shirley Johnson #79, Travis Wofford #11, Dot Kelly #38
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Rick Kuhn #47 2) Tom Ellis #31 3) Ric Fort #2 4) Randy Futch #9-11 5) Jeff Oglesby #88 6) Michael Stalnaker #8 7) Harry Drier #61 8) Justin Durbin #34 9) Kurtis Mitchell #00 10) Steve Moulton #41 11) Robert Antis #5 12) Jeff Pittsley #20 13) Chris Noce #99 14) Joel Byall #40 15) Charles Mishow #57 16) Brooke Driggers #25 17) Jacob Antis #A19 18) Dan Sanderson #7 19) Harold Barup #3 20) Clark Pittsley #64
