Doughboy all the way in SLM, Foerg Gets First Modified Win at Ocala
by Dave Westerman
Beautiful late Spring weather and another big field of cars greeted fans Friday night at Ocala Speedway.
Archer's Patrick "Doughboy" Williams topped the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Models for the second time this year. After setting fast time, Williams darted from the outside pole and led every lap of the half-century grind, but it wasn't as easy as it looks on paper.
Polesitter Rusty Dixon slipped into second place at the drop of the green and it was obvious his car needed a few green flag laps for his set-up to "come in." Dixon had caught Williams and was hounding him through lapped traffic when the red flag came out on lap 21.
Defending track champ Robbie Smith, running fifth at the time, apparently ran through some dirt kicked up on the track by some lapped cars, lost control and slammed hard into the turn four wall. Smith hopped out in OK shape but his car suffered major frame damage among other things.
As the race resumed, Williams quickly pulled away but after a few laps, Dixon was back on him again with the two even making some rather hard contact in turn four while again trying to negotiate lapped cars.
By mid race, only five cars were left on the lead lap and fifth running Paul Combast was going a lap down just as the caution flew on lap 44 for debris in turn one.
That caution gave Williams the edge he needed as he again pulled away once the green flag came out with Dixon unable to mount a challenge over the final five laps.
Williams steered his Armstrong Homes/Petty Quarterhorses Monte Carlo to his second win of the season with Dixon right behind in his unsponsored machine and point leader E.J. Wise in the Wise Auto Sales/Sunshine Paint & Body chevy third.
Herb Neumann, Jr. and Paul Combast rounded out the top five, on the lead lap, with Dave Schwendeman, Gig Smith, Brad Atkins, James Findlay and Tim Shull completing the top ten.
Clermont's John Foerg won the 2002 Modified championship at Orlando Speedworld but looked to be without a ride for this season as car owner Don Emberson had planned to reunite with Chuck Burkhalter to go for the Ocala championship, just like they did a few years ago. However, when Burkhalter was hired by the Richard Petty Driving Experience, Foerg got his ride back in the Don's Paint & Body/Ken Golby Custom Construction special and he made the most of it taking his first career WIND FM Modified feature win at Ocala in flag to flag style.
This one wasn't easy either as Foerg had to fend off incredible pressure from fellow Clermont driver Alan McCafferty in the Central Florida Machine and Speed "Silver Bullet." Foerg was up to the task and took his first win here followed by McCafferty, Chris Fadling, Jeremy Gerstner and Jamie Tinkham.
Fast qualifier and point leader David Baxley never got on track in this one, getting together with Tom Bailey on the backstretch to bring out the only caution flag of the race on lap three, eventually finishing in eighth.
Bronson's Robbie Cooper led flag to flag in his Bronson Lube Camaro to win the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman feature, but like Williams and Foerg, had plenty of company up front all the way.
Michael Jordan, Jr. was putting the pressure on Cooper when he spun in turn four to bring out the first of just two cautions in the race. Frank Buchanan, Roger Damron and Patrick Mennenga took up the chase, swapping spots behind Cooper, eventually finishing in that order. Charles Hornbeak just nosed out Big John Smith for the fifth spot at the line.
Sportsman heats were won by Cooper, Damron, and Kathy Ray. K-Country Street Stock action was wild and crazy as usual with four caution flags and one red flag needed through lap nine of the 20-lapper.
The worst incident came on lap seven as Krystal Batson, Gordon Cade and Rick Bass got tangled up on the frontstretch with Batson taking a hard lick into the wall and a rear wheel being ripped off Bass' car. Krystal was a bit groggy after the incident but was able to walk back to the pits, apparently OK.
Estle Morrow, who finished second the week before only to be DQ'd in tech, used his outside pole slot to grab the lead and hold it through all the cautions early on. After the final caution on lap nine, Morrow began to pull away from the field until David Chastain broke free of traffic and began to chase him down. However a distributor problem forced Chastain to the infield and left Morrow clear sailing to his first Ocala win followed by a clean pass through the tech area. Kyle Maynard crossed the line in second and took over the Street Stock point lead as Doug Webster, who came in leading the points, suffered a flat tire then overheating problems and finished dead-last in the 24 car field.
Mark Mitchell, "Ocala" Paul Fletcher, and Tom Fralish rounded out the top five.
The three Street Stock heats were won by Doc Batson, Bobby Taylor and Fralish.
The field may have been small, but there was plenty of action in the Mini Stocks as a big crash set the tone for things on lap two as Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. got into Larry Goolsby, spinning Goolsby up the track where he was drilled in the passenger side by Marlon Durbin.
As bad as it looked, all the cars were able to continue and Goolsby was placed back in the lead. However his car was not as fast as it was before the crash and Rick Sirmans took advantage breezing by and taking his second win in a row in the Fascats Cattery Ford.
Stalnaker, Sr. made a late charge after going to the rear of the field to grab second over Durbin, Goolsby and Joe Irwin. Sirmans also won the Mini stock heat race.
Michael Stalnaker passed leader Justin Durbin on the final lap to win the always entertaining Four Cylinder Stock feature over the biggest field of the year.
Jeff Oglesby passed Durbin at the stripe for second place with Joel Byall coming home fourth and Rick Kuhn in fifth. Thanks to Tom Ellis' ninth place finish, Kuhn has now taken over the Four Cylinder Stock points lead. Heat races for Four Cylinder Stocks were won by Oglesby, Byall, and Steve Gallagher.
All divisions but the WIND-FM Modifieds are in action next week along with the Classic Auto Racing Series and Figure Eights.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 5/9/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODEL (50 Laps):
1) Patrick Williams #57 2) Rusty Dixon #97 3) E.J. Wise #7 4) Herb Neumann, Jr. #98 5) Paul Combast #90 6) Dave Schwendeman #23Y 7) Gig Smith #23R 8) Brad Atkins #25 9) James Findlay #89 10) Tim Shull #8 11) Robbie Smith #01 12) Mark Emberson #30 13) Troy Robinson #0 14) John Buzinec #08 15) Bob Hughes #13
WIND FM MODIFIEDS (20 Laps):
1) John Foerg #1 2) Alan McCafferty #32 3) Chris Fadling #29 4) Jeremy Gerstner #70 5) Jamie Tinkham #98 6) Scott Grossenbacher #33 7) Scott Millar #20 8) David Baxley #64 9) Johnnie Newsome #31 10) Dan Hammerbeck #30 11) Glen Erwin #0 12) Bobby Valeo #8 13) Tom Bailey #24 14) Wayne Kissam #7
MINI STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Rick Sirmans #05 2) Jeff Stalnaker, Sr. #10B 3) Marlon Durbin #72 4) Larry Goolsby #27 5) Joe Irwin #45 6) A.J. Schreier #98 7) Jake Garver #10R
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (15 Laps):
1) Robbie Cooper #98 2) Frank Buchanan #07 3) Roger Damron #76D 4) Patrick Mennenga #16 5) Charles Hornbeak #67 6) Big John Smith #31 7) Tom Posavec #01 8) Wally Schneider #57 9) Kathy Ray #63 10) Michael Jordan, Jr. #7 11) Dusty Bouchard #47 12) Tommy Carter #86 13) Doug Levesque #27 14) Bryson Ryker #48 15) Jim Higginbotham #76 16) Fireball Maguire #M19 DNS William Edwards #08 DNS Steve Seymour #88
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Estle Morrow #02 2) Kyle Maynard #07 3) Mark Mitchell #71 4) Paul Fletcher #94 5) Tom Fralish #1 6) Tommy Roberts #44 7) Rick Hart #13 8) Bobby Taylor #66 9) Mike Fiddia #41 10) Jamie Dunn #24 11) Dave Danielson #70 12) Sid Mosbrucker #62 13) Don Teague #2X 14) Harold Edwards #65 15) Shirley Johnson #79 16) David Chastain #17 17) Paul Fletcher #28 18) Bobby Carter #99 19) Doc Batson #X 20) Rick Bass #21 21) Gordon Cade #21X 22) Krystal Batson #B4 23) William O'Quinn #09 24) Doug Webster #72 DNS Dot Kelly #38
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (15 Laps):
1) Michael Stalnaker #8 2) Jeff Oglesby #88 3) Justin Durbin #34 4) Joel Byall #40 5) Rick Kuhn #47 6) Steve Gallagher #39 7) Dan Sanderson #7 8) Ric Fort #2 9) Tom Ellis #31 10) Harry Drier #61 11) Kurtis Mitchell #00 12) Harold Barup #3 13) Jeff Pittsley #20 14) Charles Mishow #57 15) Anthony Goodyear #24 16) Clark Pittsley #64 17) Heather Stalker #78 18) Chris Noce #99 19) Brooke Driggers #25 20) Steve Moulton #41 21) Mike Muroski #M61 22) Mark Marcotte #196 DNS Richard Antis #19
