James Wright III Handles 23 FASTRUCK Field at Citrus
by Larry MacMillan
(Inverness, Fla. 7/26/03) Despite an early electrical storm that took out the P.A. system and a 1 hour rain, Tim Christman launched his second week of operation at Citrus County Speedway having to make the decision to wait out the rain or call the races for another week. He opted to wait out the storm and reset the format to an all feature night, knowing it would be tough to reschedule the FAST Trucks for a make up race. Many drivers came from south Florida to make the race at one of their favorite tracks.
Twenty three trucks drew pills for starting positions in as much as they lost the time trials due to the rain storm. When the green flew, Marty Wolf out of Edgewater Florida took the point for the 50 lap all green race and held on for two laps before Nokomis Florida’s Jeff Firestine decided he was going for his second win in a row at Citrus 3/8ths mile. Auburndale’s James Wright III locked on to Firestine's rear bumper and wouldn’t let go for 43 laps before making a move to take over the lead on turn one and two. Firestine slipped to the top side of the turn and Wright put his truck on the low side hugging the rumble strips before Firestine came down and got turned around sending him to the rear of the lead lap trucks for the restart.
On the restart, Wright took the green flag with 19th starter Paul Grynewicz out of Hudson right up his tail pipe and the battle of the Chevys commenced for the final five laps but Paul couldn’t make the pass. When the checkers flew, Wright took the win with Grynewicz settling for second followed by Bartow’s Tommy King in the nose to tail, three truck finish. Rounding out the top ten were Gary Foxworth, Jimmy Gills, Firestine, Al Neumann, Marty Wolf and Brandon Andersen, the only trucks in the lead lap.
Sportsman, Street stocks, Mini Stocks, Hobby Stocks and Thunder Stocks went for 25 lap features to round out the action packed schedule. Stephen Anderson took on a short field of Sportsman in their main and blitzed the field for his second win of the season. Kyle Bookmiller pulled up in second at the flag with Bill Oesterreicher, Mike Veltman and J.D. Goff in hot pursuit.
James Green Jr. held off the charge of Travis Nichols who came from the back of the 16 car field to put the heat on Green for the final 5 laps of the Street Stock feature. Mickey Burns held off Daniel Webster and Robbie Yoakam in the race for third.
Twelve Mini Stocks fought off the weather conditions to go for 25 laps and Phillip Joyner Jr. left the entire field in their tracks in a non stop 25 lap event. The rest of the field couldn’t even see him take the checkers for his second win of the year. George Neumann worked his way from fifth to second at the finish followed by Chris Thornton, who moved back into the point lead after losing it to Chris Hooker last week. Hooker held out for fourth and trails Thornton by three points in this tight run for the crown. Dan Smith salvaged fifth.
Twenty four Hobby Stocks took the green in their main and Dean Lawyer worked his way from eleventh to Victory Lane followed by two time defending champion Richie Smith coming from 17th to put on a four lap battle with Lawyer. Curtis Neumann started 11th and outran Todd Downs and 24th starter Sport Wilson in the race for third. Wilson was trying for his 8th win of the season and fifth in a row but ran into problems trying to make his way through traffic with a flat left front early in the race and some blocking from other drivers in the field as he tried to work his way back up through the pack .
Rounding out the night of action Thunder Stock point leader Pat Quick worked her way from 14th to the winner’s circle for her 8th win of the season. She has scored more wins than any other driver at the speedway thus far this year. Lee Keller gave it all he had but had to settle for another second place finish over Victor Shahid, Elmer Crowfoot Jr. and Rick Badessa. Crowfoot was penalized one spot for jumping on the final restart.
TBARA Sprints make their third appearance next Saturday night with the Sportsman, Street Stocks, Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks and Thunder Stocks, all in heat and feature action.
