Two First Time Winners Highlight Ocala Speedway Friday Action
by Dave Westerman
It was an interesting night at Ocala Speedway Friday as a veteran Super Late Model driver picked up a win for a new car owner while two other drivers picked up their first wins in their respective classes and for one it was his first feature win ever. Archer's Patrick Williams somehow managed to avoid a big wreck as the green flag flew, then held off a persistent Mike Bresnehan to gain the Steven A. Bagen Super Late Model Victory. It was Williams' fourth win of the year, but the first for his new car owner Randall Lewis.
As the field came down to the green flag, a wild melee took place with cars spinning everywhere. Only Keith Zavrel was unable to continue, but the cars of E.J. Wise, Rich Pratt, Brock Oglesby and Chuck Hiers had significant body damage. Oglesby, Wise and Pratt stayed on track while Hiers pitted briefly and restarted the race from the tail of the field.
The second try to start the race got things going, but polesitter Dave Schwendeman spun going into turn one and slid into the infield out of harms way. Williams snapped up the lead with Bresnehan already on his tail, but the caution was out on lap two as Tim Shull looped his car in turn four. Schwendeman took his car to the pits during the caution period.
Bresnehan seemed to have the faster car, but Williams was able to fend off every challenge over the 30-lap distance which was interrupted by cautions three more times including a pair for Paul Combast, who was not having a very good 41st birthday celebration. Combast slid backwards into the wall on lap 17 but was able to keep going despite a somewhat "shortened" race car.
On lap 26, Combast got hooked up with another car and tapped the turn one wall with the right front corner of his machine. Despite all this, Combast still wound up tenth.
Williams and Breshnehan took the checker nose to tail while Rich Pratt, E.J. Wise and Brock Oglesby completed the top five, each car still running well despite front end bodywork damage from the opening lap wreck. Jared Allison, Chuck Hiers, Gig Smith, Tim Shull and Combast rounded out the top ten.
Super Late Model heats were won by Wise and Bresnehan.
After five wins in the first half point season in Street Stocks, young Ocala driver Kyle Maynard is now focusing all his efforts on his new Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman car and it paid off with a wire to wire win Friday night, his first in the class.
Starting from the pole with his Southside Builders teammate Frank Buchanan alongside, Maynard quickly shot out to the lead only to see the caution fly at the end of lap one for a Dusty Bouchard spin in turn three.
Maynard again sprinted away from the field and had a good-sized advantage when the second caution flew for an altercation between Patrick Mennenga and Larry Goolsby that sent Mennenga to the pits with a flat tire. Mennenga, the first half point champ, would lose three laps in the pits.
Caution number three flew just two laps later as Goolsby and Ray Wheeler got together but both continued with no damage.
As the green came out again, William Edwards and Tom Posavec took up the charge on the rookie, but just as things were getting interesting with Edwards all over Maynard for the lead, Big John Smith uncorked his engine going into turn one.
Dusty Bouchard and Ray Wheeler got into the oil with both hitting the turn one wall almost head-on. Wheeler, whose crew had repaired his car from an earlier heat race crash, climbed out quickly while Bouchard was a bit groggy but otherwise unhurt. Both cars were badly damaged.
For the likeable Smith, it was his fifth blown engine of the year, three during Friday races and two in Tuesday practice. "The monkey on my back feels more like a gorilla right now, but we'll be back," said Smith.
Track crews did their best to clean up the oil, but it made the track tough to drive in turns one and two. That worked to Maynard's favor as he easily led the final ten laps and was greeted in victory lane by a huge throng of well-wishers.
William Edwards settled for second spot with Tom Posavec third. Travis Nichols finally seems to be getting his car dialed in to the Ocala oval and he took a solid fourth while Doc Batson rounded out the top five.
Edwards and Nichols were Sportsman heat race winners.
At age 46, Bobby Taylor of Crystal River decided to give stock car racing at try. Just halfway into his first full season, Taylor scored his first feature win with a last lap pass of Doug Webster to take the measure of the K-Country Street Stocks.
This race also had a big crash at the start as Paul Fletcher got turned sideways with cars going all over the place taking evasive action. When the smoke cleared, the entire three car Roberts Cleaning team of Tommy Roberts, Michael Jordan, and A.J. Schreier was headed to the pits for repairs. Roberts and Schreier returned to the track while Jordan and the car of Shirley Johnson were done for the night.
Doug Webster had the pole for the restart and had his "Big Bird" Monte Carlo out front of a pack of hard-charging Camaros, with Taylor quickly moving to second and hounding Webster's every move.
As the race continued to run under green, lapped cars became an issue. On the final lap, Webster was forced high by a lapped machine and Taylor took advantage, sneaking past and going on to claim his first career win. Webster would hang on for second while David Chastain came from 13th on the starting grid to finish third. Pete Close, Jr. and Fletcher completed the top five.
The three Street Stock heats were won by Webster, Fletcher and Roberts.
Lapped cars would also play a major factor in the Four Cylinder Stock feature.
First half point champion Rick Kuhn had absolutely dominated his heat race, and looked like he might do the same in the 20-lap feature, but Steve Gallagher and his "Flying Tomato" Volkswagen, who won his heat from last on the grid, had other ideas.
As Kuhn entered lapped traffic, Gallagher and Ford Mustang mounted Joel Byall began to close on Kuhn's Toyota. With two laps to go, Kuhn got hung up behind the lapped car of Donnie Pitts allowing Gallagher to sprint past and on to his second win of the year.
Kuhn recovered to get second with Byall a close third. Terry Dunbar had his best run of the season coming home fourth with Weird Harold Barup fifth.
Next week the Winged Outlaw Sprint Cars of the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association will take to the track for the first time this year. The WIND-FM Modifieds will also be back in action along with the Diamond H Air & Heat Sportsman, K-Country Street Stocks, and Four Cylinder Stocks.
RESULTS - OCALA SPEEDWAY - 7/11/03:
STEVEN A. BAGEN SUPER LATE MODELS (30 Laps):
1) Patrick Williams #58 2) Mike Bresnehan #3 3) Rich Pratt #0 4) E.J. Wise #7 5) Brock Oglesby #88 6) Jared Allison #18 7) Chuck Hiers #21 8) Gig Smith #23 9) Tim Shull #8 10) Paul Combast #90 11) Gale Grayer #87 12) John Buzinec #08 13) Dave Schwendeman #23Y 14) Keith Zavrel #47
DIAMOND H AIR & HEAT SPORTSMAN (20 Laps):
1) Kyle Maynard #0 2) William Edwards #08 3) Tom Posavec #01 4) Travis Nichols #2 5) Doc Batson #B4 6) Frank Buchanan #07 7) Tommy Brakeman #20 8) Pete Close, Jr. #08 9) Larry Goolsby #19 10) Patrick Mennenga #16 11) Dusty Bouchard #47 12) Ray Wheeler #74 13) Big John Smith #31 14) Jim Higginbotham #76 DNS Kathy Ray #63
K-COUNTRY STREET STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Bobby Taylor #66 2) Doug Webster #72 3) David Chastain #17 4) Pete Close, Jr. #08 5) Paul Fletcher #94 6) Krystal Batson #4B 7) Mark Mitchell #71 8) Mike Rosa #76 9) Doc Batson #X 10) Pete Reynolds #91 11) Bobby Carter #99 12) Rick Hart #13 13) Sid Mosbrucker #62 14) Tommy Roberts #44 15) Mark Rider #61 16) A.J. Schreier #98 17) Mike Fiddia #41 18) Michael Jordan #4T 19) Shirley Johnson #79
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (20 Laps):
1) Steve Gallagher #39 2) Rick Kuhn #47 3) Joel Byall #40 4) Terry Dunbar #72 5) Harold Barup #3 6) Tom Ellis #31 7) Chris Noce #X 8) Steve Moulton #41 9) Kurtis Mitchell #00 10) Donnie Pitts #88 11) James Turgeon #18 12) Heather Stalker #78 13) Michael Stalnaker #8 14) Chris Antis #0 15) Justin Durbin #33 16) Harry Drier #61
