A bad crash near the end of the 50-lap Super Late Model feature Friday night forced Ocala Speedway track officials to cancel the remainder of the program after three feature events had been run.
Ocala-area driver Mac McCullough was the driver involved. McCullough was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville after firefighters and track personnel worked for over 45 minutes to remove him from his machine. A spokeswoman at Shands would say only that McCullough was listed in "critical" condition as of late Saturday morning. No other information was available.
The incident was the last in a series of five that occurred after the completion of lap 46 that decimated the field and created a scoring nightmare.
McCullough had been involved in a previous incident on the backstretch that had knocked out the car of Troy Robinson. On the final attempt to restart the race, McCullough came together with the car of Gig Smith coming out of turn four with McCullough's machine riding high in the air, shearing off all of the front bodywork.
McCullough's car landed hard and careened through the infield grass with the throttle wide open then slammed the wall with such force that parts of the car, including the right front suspension, were imbedded in the wall itself.
Many spectators in the turn one area felt McCullough may have been rendered unconscious from the initial impact and had no control over his machine as it ran through the infield grass.
The car hit with such an impact that flagman Larry Bowden actually felt the flagstand sway back and forth following the crash. One driver from the Classic Auto Racing Series who was working on his car in the back of the pit area said it sounded like a bomb went off, shaking the ground beneath him.
Firefighter/paramedic Randy Futch, who had just completed his race in the Four Cylinder Stocks and was about to head home, was called to the track to assist track EMT's in determining McCullough's condition. McCullough did regain consciousness after several minutes, but it was determined that he needed immediate medical attention. Marion County firefighters called for a helicopter after arriving at the scene. Track officials ruled the Super Late Model Race complete as of lap 46 however many drivers were left to ponder their finishing positions, with some thinking they had finished higher up than they did and others surprised with their finish. Despite all the incidents that occurred trying to get lap 47 in the books, that lap was never completed, and the official finish reverted back to the actual completion of lap 46.
Mike Bresnehan was awarded the win, his first of the year, but indicated there was no reason to celebrate as the remaining drivers slowly headed back to the pit area.
Rusty Dixon made several attempts to pass Bresnehan on the late restarts but settled for second followed by early race leader E.J. Wise. Dave Schwendeman did an outstanding job just staying out of everybody else's trouble and took a well deserved fourth place finish with Cocoa's Jared Allison taking fifth in his first visit to the track this year.
Patrick Williams set fast time, but the expected battle between he and Bresnehan never had a chance to develop as Williams was black flagged for an oil leak under one of the many caution flags just after moving into second spot.
Two other feature races were completed with one, the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman 15-lapper, actually running green to checker. Ocala's Eddie Kilbury had his new car on a rail and dominated the race taking the win over point leader Patrick Mennenga and a hard-charging Roger Damron. Early leader Tom Posavec held on for fourth spot just in from of Frank Buchanan.
Kilbury also won his heat after starting dead last while Posavec and Damron won the other Sportsman heats.
The Four Cylinder Stock feature saw plenty of yellow flags, but Dade City's Dan Sanderson kept his Toyota pick-up truck in the lead all the way, narrowly beating the Mustang of Joel Byall who is easily the most improved driver in the class this year. It was Byall's best career finish as Michael Stalnaker and Steve Gallagher were third and fourth with Rick Kuhn coming back from a penalty to the rear of the field to claim fifth. Heats for the Four Cylinder Stocks went to Ric Fort, Randy Futch and Kuhn.
The scheduled 50-lap event for the K-Country Street Stocks and the Mini Stock 15-lap feature were postponed until next week. The Mini Stocks will run double features next week.
Frank Buchanan set fast time for the Street Stocks at 17.746 seconds followed closely by Tommy Roberts and Tom Fralish. Buchanan picked up $100 for setting fast time from Bronson Lube. Jimmy Wagner won the B-Main qualifier.
Mini Stock Heats were taken by Clint Foley and Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. Two wild heat races for the visiting Classic Auto Racing Series machines were won by Steven Cole Smith and Eddie Thornton. The CARS drivers will make up their race later in the season if their schedule allows.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 4/18/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (Called complete at 46 laps):
1) Mike Bresnehan #3 2) Rusty Dixon #97 3) E.J. Wise #7 4) Dave Schwendenman #23Y 5) Jared Allison #18 6) Paul Combast #90 7) Troy Robinson #0 8) Kevin Bryant #54 9) Pete Close, Jr. #64 10) Gig Smith #23B 11) Mac McCullough #86 12) Tim Shull #8 13) James Findley #89 14) Mark Emberson #30 15) Patrick Williams #57 16) Robbie Smith #01 DNS Scott Grossenbacher #09
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (15 Laps):
1) Eddie Kilbury #71 2) Patrick Mennenga #16 3) Roger Damron #76D 4) Tom Posavec #01 5) Frank Buchanan #07 6) Michael Jordan, Jr. #7 7) Tommy Carter #86 8) Charles Hornbeak #67 9) Doug Levesque #27 10) Doc Batson #B4 11) Big John Smith #31 12) William Edwards #X 13) Kathy Ray #63 14) Mickey Burns, Jr. #22 15) Jim Higginbotham #76 16) Wally Schneider #57 DNS Leroy Donaldson #82 DNS Robbie Cooper #98
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Dan Sanderson #7 2) Joel Byall #40 3) Michael Stalnaker #8 4) Steve Gallagher #39 5) Rick Kuhn #47 6) Harold Barup #3 7) Chris Noce #99 8) Harry Drier #61 9) Tom Ellis #31 10) Kurtis Mitchell #00 11) Jeff Pittsley #20 12) Clark Pittsley #64 13) Randy Futch #9-11 14) Jacob Antis #19 15) Heather Stalker #78 16) Ric Fort #2 17) Robert Antis #5 18) Charles Mishow #57 19) Steve Moulton #41 20) Justin Durbin #34 DNS Brooke Driggers #25
